Christmas 2013

We have had a wonderful few days celebrating the birth of our Savior. Georgia Grace is still too young to get much out of hearing the real Christmas story but you better believe she will get big doses of it in years to come.

We started our Christmas on Christmas Eve at Grandmommas and we all went in together to get her the sewing machine she was wanting so badly! She was so excited. It allows you to take images straight from a computer and it will embroidery them for you. Amazing. She has offered to let Shanna and me use it so I'm excited too. This made for a memorable Christmas for her.

And someone else was pretty excited about her new kitchen!

I was afraid she wouldn't be ready for a kitchen this Christmas but I let my preschool teaching in-laws inform me otherwise and they were so right! She absolutely loved it. She got dishes to go with it and the first thing she did was put the dishes in the sink to wash them. And she pushed the buttons on the microwave just like she has seen all of us do. It was the perfect 2nd Christmas gift for our GGH!

Next we loaded up our goodies and headed to my mom's for our traditional Christmas Eve night celebrations. We have been spending Christmas Eve with my mom since I was just a baby.

My favorite girl ready to open presents with her signature spoon in tow.

Our little Christmas dolly

Watching everyone open presents with Gran Stan and her new baby doll

My adorable siblings and their honeys

My adorable mom opening her new table runner from my sister

Our 2nd Christmas as a family of three. We said all last year just wait until next year and she will be all into it and we were right.

I love comparisons. We are all growing up.

All of us together under one roof for Christmas is what Christmas is all about.

Stan snapped this one of us from the side and I'm dying because it looks like GGH is gagging herself!

After celebrating at my mom's we went to a Christmas Eve service with them and I got to see two of my dearest friends. Juleah lives in Pittsburgh now so we don't get to see her much so it was really great to see her over the holidays. Ash just got back from Disney World and brought GGH some goodies of course. They spoil her so much! Loved seeing these two.

When we got home we put our little Christmas baby to bed and Mr. and Mrs. Santa got everything ready for Christmas morning. This is one of my favorite parts of adulthood. Oh yeah, and I'm trying out my new earwarmer from mom for our trip to Wyoming. It's a keeper!

Christmas morning!

As you can tell we kept it small and simple this year. Georgia Grace got a new table to match her kitchen from Santa, and a dancing tower, snowsuit, and bonnet from us. We knew she would get SO many gifts from everyone else so we didn't overdo it and opted for putting money in her savings account. It's a win-win for everyone!

Santa came!

Poor baby is battling a side effect from her medicine so she wasn't feeling 100% but she still enjoyed opening and seeing all of her gifts.

The holidays make me sappy. Listening to the Taylor Swift song "Never Grow Up" and looking at pictures like this will do that to you. By the way that is my mommy song. Like a couples song or a wedding song, I'm coining a "mommy song" :)

"Oh darling, don't you ever grow up, don't you ever grow up, just stay this little"

Dancin' a jig on her dancing tower while Owen nips at her foot :)

Miss Sassypants

This picture would make you believe that she was excitedly getting ready to go through her stocking. This picture would also be a lie because what she is holding was from Owen's stocking and that was the only stocking she cared anything about. She was not interested in her own whatsoever but the both of them nearly fought over one of his toys. I have never!

On Christmas day we went to visit some of my mamaw's family that we do not get to see very often. Georgia Grace was so tired from Christmas morning.

Georgia Grace with my Aunt Loyce, Mamaw Carolyn, and Uncle Desper. They live in Evansville, Indiana so we don't get to see them as often as we would like. I'm glad they were able to make the trip down.

Our sweet cousin Lynn made Georgia Grace and our baby cousin Marley little aprons for Christmas! She was enjoying the modeling of it.

Sweet cousins Georgia and Marley in their aprons. Marley's nickname "Marley Moo" has stuck so Lynn found the cutest fabric that said "Moo" on it to make her apron with. This was the best of about 10 pictures I took. Busy babies! And sweet Marley gave GGH an animal pillow that is so adorable! So sweet of her to do :)

Christmas night was spent at Ma and Pa Harrison's. They got her matching Santa jams like Ma's :)

Marcus loved his new shirt and everything else he got. They know him so well.

Georgia Grace got a wooden Radio Flyer wagon! I can see us wearing this thing out come spring.

Peek-a-boo in the wagon

Aunt Shann opening her gift from us. Her pandora bracelet is full!

And I got new Bean boots!! I love them so much. I needed a pair of outdoor boots so bad. They know me well too :)

Georgia Grace received a very special gift-her daddy's old Radio Flyer bicycle. My FIL repainted it and bought new parts for it and it is as good as new. Here's daddy acting out the picture on the front of the bike.

They attached this picture to the front of it of Marcus riding when he was about 3-4 years old. This will be Georgia Grace before we know it.

Brother-sister loves

And if a wagon and tricycle wasn't enough, Uncle Jake & Aunt Shanna got her a princess rocking horse! Oh my it is gorgeous.


And if a wagon and tricycle wasn't enough, Uncle Jake & Aunt Shanna got orgeous.

My favorite memory from Christmas with my dad this year was Eric's gift from "Santa". The background on this gift is when he was 9-10 years old his twin sister and Eric received Barbie and Ken dolls for Christmas. He ripped the head off and threw both pieces of Ken into the fireplace!!

His biggest mistake was telling us that story because we will haunt him with it forever. I see another Christmas tradition in the making...

Christmas 2013 is in the books and it was a great one. Thanks to all of our family and friends for making it so special.

And now it's time for Christmas for Marcus and me--our trip to Jackson Hole!! Prayers are appreciated at 7:30 am as this will be Georgia Grace's first flight and I am anxious about how she will handle it. Trusting God on this one! I will try to blog some iphone pictures if I can.

See y'all in 2014!

Salmons' Showers

In the midst of taking care of a sick baby this weekend I helped give TWO showers for my bride sister this weekend. She is getting married next weekend so we had to squeeze in her bachelorette party and church shower Saturday and Sunday. I told you October was going to be FULL!

Saturday night we kicked off the festivities with her bachelorette party at my mom's house at the Hidden Valley Golf Resort :). A lot of the girls were from out-of-town so it was so nice of them to make the trip. Isn't she the most beautiful bride-to-be? She has that natural glow of happiness!

She seriously has the sweetest most devoted friends. One of them took a midnight shift so they could come. One of them drove up from Nashville (and got caught in stand still I-65 traffic). I love how they love her.

One of her best friends Sophie made these bra and pantie cookies for the party and they were so adorable! She is so creative. I love her!

She was well gifted in the lingerie department. She even received a few lessons on what certain pieces were and how they worked ;)

The apron that our cousin Lynn made and I personalized for her. She's excited to do some cooking! I hope she keeps that excitement ha.

YEEAHHH!

And the most beautiful moment of the night. After the toilet paper wedding dress game, eating thong cookies and opening fun bachelorette gifts, her friends asked if they could pray over her. Of course! I remember 3 1/2 years ago when I had my bachelorette party someone made the comment "Will it be a bachelorette party or a bible study?". The best compliment (although it wasn't meant to be one) I could receive :). If people see Jesus in us then we must be doing something right.

Sunday we had a shower for Paige and Eric at our church in Morgantown. Her showers in Bowling Green and Corbin (Eric's hometown) will be after the wedding so I'm glad we were able to have her hometown shower this weekend.

I love them so much. They are the perfect pair no doubt.

The official hashtag for the Salmons wedding is #lovesalmons (hint: "love salmons" instead of "love birds")

The sweet groom and bride

Georgia Grace tried to steal the show by showing off her new walking skills with her squeaker shoes. She also enjoyed the shower food if you can't tell ha! I'm so glad she was feeling good so that we could bring her. A big thanks to Grandma Harrison and Grandmomma for helping with her during the shower!

They were so excited about every gift. When they would open something she would say, "Now we can have one guest over" or "Now I can make cupcakes" Ha!

This quilt was made by our Great-Grandmother McCoy and has been stored in a chest at my Mamaw Carolyn's house just waiting for this special occasion. I received mine at my wedding shower and our brother Cody's is in storage waiting for his special day (which may be in the near future-yay!!). The quilt is gorgeous and so intricately made. We had some talented women in our family.

My Mamaw Novis restored these cast iron skillets that were our great-grandparents for Paige. They had grease about an inch thick in each and mamaw spent many hours getting these to their current condition. Such a wonderful, thoughtful labor of love!

She was more in the playing mood than the picture taking mood ha!

Such a special day for my sis. She received so many gifts ranging from the awesomely practical to the amazingly personalized and creative. She has a great start to filling their new home.

And last but not least a big happy 1st wedding anniversary (Sunday) to Uncle Jake and Aunt Shanna! They are celebrating at Disney World this week. I seriously can't think of a better place to be for your anniversary!! Wishing them safe travels and a wonderful vacation!