2009 in Review

Here is highlights of 2009 for our little family! Welcome to everyone who got our link recently in our Christmas Cards. I sent that in lieu of writing a Christmas letter. Here's a brief run down of our year

1. January-We celebrated Billy's 34th Birthday with great friends from our church
2. February- We flew to Idaho to visit Shawna, Tony, Eric & Erin as well as celebrate our 4th Anniversary
3. March- On the 5th after 2 years, 9 months of waiting, we found out we were pregnant
4. April- My nephew Kyle came back in to our lives. He was placed for adoption 20 years ago
5. May- Honoring my mom. sister and myself on Mother's Day
6. June- My niece Ashley graduated from High School and spent a week with us.
7. July- My niece Joan spent a week with us and we saw "Legally Blonde"
8. August- Fun with Niece Sydney and nephew Kyle
9. September- Small Groups are one of my favorite things about church. We formed new ones for the fall
10. October- Baby Showers, Setting up nursery and photos, all about the baby!
11. November - On the 4th at 4:11 pm, weighing 7 lbs, 11 oz, 20 ", Matthew made his arrival!!
12. December- Celebrating Christmas with the family

Christmas 2009

This year was so much fun celebrating Matthew's first Christmas.

Thursday, Christmas Eve was a quick turn around trip before it got dark to Fort Worth. We left after Billy got off work early driving in the snow and ice for all the grandparents and one 6'6" cousin to love on Matthew:


Christmas Friday morning was a quiet time with our little family of three before my sister and her girls came over:

Then Christmas night, the Turnbow's all arrived in town from Idaho and New Mexico.

Saturday the cousins opened gifts:

Sunday we all went to church together:

After church we had lunch with the second cousins: Then Matthew and I rested while the other 12 went to the movies.

Monday was lunch at Babe's Chicken House
In the evening we went to the Gaylord Texan to see the ICE exhibit:
Shawna, Eric, Erin & Tony

Papa, Nana & Aunt Jacque
Teresa, Kyle, Mike & Sydney
Our bundled little family
The tree inside the GaylordThe Nativity Exhibit at the end after the Grinch story.

Tuesday was bowling and a Dallas Stars game for the majority of the group. Matthew and I had a quiet day at home enjoying the snow. He rested and mommy played cards with Nana and Aunt Jacque.

Wednesday was a big family lunch of lasagnas that I made. Then Nana and I went shopping. I found great stuff for Matthew. In evening we all played card games.

Everyone left this morning on New Year's Eve, Thursday. Tired mommy and daddy are planning to get a nap in this afternoon so we can make it to midnight and celebrate with some of our favorite neighbors.

The whole week had lots of spoiling Matthew, lots of arms to hold, feed, play and rock him.

Billy and Papa assembling Matthew's high chair we hadn't unpackaged yet.

One of Matthew's new toys

Matthew with cousin Erin
cousin Sydney

Aunt Jacque & Nana
Daddy being silly


Aunt Shawna showing some love

Girls doting on our sweetie

Merry Christmas!

This is what is in our stocking:

Isaiah 40:31 (NASB)

³¹Yet those who wait for the LORD
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.

6 weeks

Yesterday Matthew gave us his first long sustained genuine smile. I haven't gotten a picture of yet, he took us by surprise. My sweet guy has a dimple. Neither Billy, I or anyone on either side of our family has one, so it's all from God just for him :-) I'll post a few of my favorite pictures lately. (This feeds in to Facebook, so they'll seem duplicated to you if you are on there as well as reading this)

It's definitely a new relationship where we're all just in to him. I've taken more pictures than I will own up to.


Getting ready for Candlelight service
Getting some Wilson/ Hasselman love at Wes' grad party

Some Satterfield/ Vendetti love

Thank you to both Mrs H and Mrs S for all the great grandma advice!

Lip blisters..

Billy showing him off at work

Couldn't resist taking the picture below....
It made me think of this picture taken on our honeymoon:

Every once in a while I'm not the one taking the pictures...

This one just makes me smile

Billy's caption for this one was cute..."Dear Santa, we don't have milk and cookies, but would you settle for a cute little face?"

We are outside, the carrier came in so handy, thanks Starla!

:-)
Daddy time


Tummy time, sometimes you feel like some tummy...

and sometimes you don't


Here's hoping for a Silent Night...

Party at my crib: 1 am

Look who's finally sleeping in his own bed?? He's adjusting very well, the quiet dark is comforting. When mommy isn't flashing the camera, that is.




He's the man of the house during the day when daddy is at work :-)

One Month Old

It's so sweet he's already changed quite a bit. His face has thinned out and his skin color has evened out.

Birth


It will be a while until I have a chance to properly scrapbook any of the last month so I'll note a few things I want to remember about Matthew at this age.

He's drinking 100 ml about every 3 hours. I pump about 120 every 4 hours.
He bites despite the advice of 5 lactation consultants, so the pumping is necessary
He has dry peeling skin and develops blisters on his mouth from the bottle and soothie
It's now normal to me to be up for an hour or more every time he needs to be fed so I can feed him, change and then pump to make his next bottle.
I feel the most like a mommy during the night time feedings.
In the last few days, he's been preferring to sleep on his tummy.
He can hold his head up for a few seconds at a time.
He snorts when he's a bit fussy. My sister does it when she laughs, so I laugh when it happens.
I look very forward to weekends when Billy is off because then he feeds and changes, I pump and we are done at the same time and get more sleep in between feedings
He has a birth mark on the back of his head right below his hair line. Found it last week.
We have to work to get the burps out or he's miserable.
He likes being warm and cozy but not swaddled anymore.
He's had a rash just below his belly button for over two weeks, it is looking better though.
He didn't' cry at all when they pricked him for his 2 week blood tests
His 1 month appt is optional and he's fine so I didn't see the need.
Next time to get weighed and measured is his 2 month check up.
He was 1 ounce less of his birth weight on his two week check up and had grown 1/4 of an inch


1 month