Lee's birthday aka New Years Eve aka Go Tigers!

Lee's birthday present was a fantastic Clemson win!  

Christmas in Greenville

With my new job, I don't have any vacation time accrued and the office was open on Christmas Eve, so I had to work a half day.  We decided to stay in Greenville with our little family of three.  I must admit, I thought it might be a little depressing to be home alone on Christmas because Caroline doesn't understand it yet, but it turned out to be awesome.  We had a wonderful first Christmas at home with her!

On Christmas Eve, we went to Fresh Market and got all of our favorite foods for a fantastic dinner.  After the Cuttino kids went to sleep, we went over to eat with Ashley and Brad.  Santa had a big surprise for Grayson, Anna Parker and Cooper and it required some assembly on Christmas Eve night.  Caroline and I supervised!

Christmas Day was great.  We had a great brunch at home, went to see what Santa brought the Cuttinos, then opened presents with Caroline.  She obviously doesn't get Santa, but she did love playing with all of her new toys!

Christmas in St. Matthews

Bubbles and Mimi got a swing set!  The kids had a blast. There is a big kid swing, a little kid swing, a slide, a tire and more.  You name it, this swing set has it.  It was Caroline's first time in the swing and she LOVED it!  

We opened some presents....

And had a delicious dinner.  

We didn't get to stay long, but we made the most of the time we were there!  

Christmas in Aiken

Poor Sydney was looking rough, but she still rocked the Santa suit!

We went to visit Mimi

Merry Christmas!!

Caroline is 6 months old!

I can't believe our little peanut is six months old!  People aren't kidding when they tell you it goes by too quickly.  We are amazed at how fast she is growing and changing.

Six month stats-
Height: 27 inches 88%
Weight: 17 lbs 12 oz 80%
Head Circumference:  44.2 cm 90%
The Dr. told me she is the size of an average nine month old :)

At six months, Caroline:
*continues to be a very happy baby.  She smiles constantly and has a great temperament.  She entertains herself very well.
*still babbles a lot.  She will say "da da" a lot, but so far, that is about the only syllable that she repeats that we understand.
*is a little roly poly.  She rolls around anytime she is on the floor or in her crib.  She can really move now and has no problem getting to where she wants to go.
*is taking six bottles a day.  She is getting about six ounces in each bottle, 12-15 ounces each day are formula.  
*has started eating solid food at dinner time. She has had rice cereal, peas, carrots and sweet potatoes so far.  She is a good eater and has loved each new thing we have given her.  Her pediatrician has now recommended two meals a day, so we will be starting breakfast of oatmeal and a fruit and dinner of rice cereal and a vegetable.  
*puts everything in her mouth!
*is starting to get some new hair.  It looks like it may even be blonde!
*plays with her toys.  She moves things from hand to hand and of course to her mouth.
*loves her jumperoo. She is quite the little jumper and will keep herself occupied in the exersaucer for long periods of time.
*is a good sleeper.  She goes down between 8:30 and 9:00 each night and wakes up about 7.  She only sleeps on her belly these days with her little booty up in the air.  She will occasionally wake up once in the night and fuss for a bit, but has learned to put herself back to sleep.
*can sit up by herself for short periods of time.  She is getting better and better, so it won't be long until she can sit unassisted!

We are so lucky to have such a sweet natured baby.  We fall more in love with her every single day!

Happy birthday, Nana!

Happy birthday, Mimi!

Happy birthday, Pops!

Happy birthday, Pops!

I made you a sign...

and then I ate it!  

I love you!  Love, Caroline

O Christmas Tree

 Before I met Lee, I had a great looking artificial tree.  I pulled it out of the attic and set it up each year on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  In about twenty minutes, I had a Christmas tree full of lights.  Lee came along and insisted on a real tree each year.  At first I wasn't sure how I felt about real trees (putting the lights on each year, the pine needles everywhere, etc...) but now I love the look and smell and just the feel of a real tree.  So, today we went out in search of our real Christmas tree.  Because it is Caroline's first tree and first everything where Christmas is concerned, I had this vision of us wandering around at a tree farm while we carefully selected the very best tree.  Instead, after convincing Lee that the Lowe's parking lot was not what I had in mind for this momentous occasion, we wound up at Country Boys, which was a good compromise.  

Of course, by the time we agreed on a location, Caroline had a massive diaper explosion.  Without a spare outfit in the diaper bag, I changed her in the car, and had to put the dirty pants back on her.  She didn't seem to mind, so we even took some time to check out the Christmas decorations in the store. We couldn't stay too long- the poopy pants were starting to smell!!

Having some fun at Country Boys store! 

Seriously guys??  

We may not have been sipping hot chocolate in the back of a wagon searching the woods for the perfect tree to cut down ourselves, but we did end up with a great looking tree for Caroline's first Christmas!