Friday Photo and Week In Review

Well, this week has been a busy one! Christmas was Sunday (in case you've already forgotten...we almost have!), and we had a wonderful day. On Monday, Boba (Bo's mom), Grandpa Andy, and Bo's sister Alyson came to town to see the baby and visit for a day. It was a quick trip for them, but we were very happy to see them and had a great visit. Bo's been part-time at work this week, and it was great to have him home a little more. We've been busy trying to get the Christmas stuff put away and to get the house in some sort of order. Hampton got to spend the night with his Grandparents while we enjoy some quality time with Harrison today. And don't worry.....we have pictures of all these things to share with you next week! (Well, almost everything. We will NOT be showing you the disaster zone that is our house at the moment!)

Of course, the week isn't over just yet. Tomorrow is a big day.....it's our 12-year wedding anniversary! So, while everyone is celebrating New Year's Eve, we'll also be celebrating the beginning of our journey. With 2 precious boys and 12 wonderful years of marriage under our belt, we've got all we could ask for!

the cutest brothers ever

the perfect Christmas present, all wrapped up

One happy boy!

Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays from our family to yours!

"For unto you is born this day......a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord"
-Luke 2:11

Friday Photo

Christmas Lights

One fun holiday tradition for us is to go look at the Christmas lights. We love seeing the houses decked out...the tackier, the better! So over the weekend, we all got in our pjs and piled in to the car. Hampton was so cute...he really enjoyed seeing the inflatable Santas, snowmen, and especially the Mickey Mouse on our road. Every time we came up to a big light display, he'd say "Christmas!". Harrison didn't seem too excited by it all, but we're holding out hope for next year!

Cookie Time!

We want to make sure that we get lots of fun time with Hampton & Harrison separately, so we decided to bake cookies with Hampton while Harrison was napping. It was the first time we'd attempted something like this, and it went way better than we'd hoped. Hampton loved stirring the eggs and cookie mix, but since he HATES having stuff on his hands, he did not like rolling the dough at all! We made a huge mess of dry ingredients, washed our hands several times (Hampton loves washing his hands!), and laughed bunches. Of course, the hardest part was getting Hampton to wait patiently for his beloved cookies to be ready to eat!

....Hampton beating the eggs......

...Harrison patiently waiting for us to be finished.....

.....mixing the ingredients together.....

Harrison's 1st Bath

Harrison's belly button fell off last week, so you know what that means.....bath time! He doesn't love being stripped down out of his warm clothes, so we weren't sure if he'd like a bath or not. He did great, though, and really seemed to like being in the warm water. He just looked around and took it all in. Hopefully, all future baths will go this smoothly.........yeah, right!

Santa at the Zoo

On Saturday, we took Hampton to see Santa at the zoo, while Grandi came and stayed with Harrison. We knew Hamp would love it because he loves both Santa & the animals, so it was definitely a must-do for him! The weather was great, and the zoo wasn't very crowded, which meant that Hampton got to spend good quality time with Santa. He also enjoyed petting the donkey and goat, and he got up close and personal with the local bunny that roams the park. Next year, the new zoo should be open, and hopefully we'll have 2 that are excited to see Santa!

Friday Photo and Week In Review

Hampton listening to the "SpongeBob SquarePants" theme song intently on iTunes

So, this has been our first full week home with Harrison. It's been a little easier than we thought, but we also forgot how much a baby likes to eat during the middle of the night!

Bo was home most of the week, working afternoons during Hampton's nap time until yesterday when he went back full-time. We've been to the Doctor for a new baby checkup and also to have a rash on Hamp looked at, which our Doctor thinks may be an allergy to our laundry detergent. (Great.) Let's just say that it was very interesting trying to wrangle a toddler and a squirmy baby in one exam room....especially when Harrison peed ALL OVER the exam room walls, table, and floor!

We've had to change our schedules a bit and miss a few things, like church events and a couple of Christmas parties, but we've really enjoyed being at home with our new family of 4!

Big Brother

Hampton has taken to his role of Big Brother quite well. He says "Harrison" and also tells the baby "good night" & "I love you". He's been helping in his own way, too, by holding the diaper cream and bottles for us. He even asked to hold Harrison, so we let him. Of course, once we got Harrison in his lap, he wasn't so sure he wanted to do that after all!

There have been some challenges, too, and we're sure there will be many more, but as a new big brother, we think Hampton couldn't be doing a better job!

More Harrison pics

Harrison's Birthday

We're back! We're home from the hospital now, and everyone is doing great adjusting to being a family of 4. Harrison was born on Wednesday at 1:43pm, and we couldn't have had an easier delivery if we tried! The only rough spot was the nurses had to try 3 times to find a vein for Tanner's IV, since she has about the worst veins ever. And even that wasn't bad, since they numbed the area first!

Of course, all this was thanks to the wonderful staff at Thomas Hospital and our amazing OB doctor, Dr. Shoemaker, and our pediatrician, Dr. Wiggins. They all couldn't have been more awesome. Our morning check-in nurse on Wednesday even came back that night just to see Harrison once he arrived! Plus, they gave us the corner suite, which was great and really roomy. We can't say enough about our hospital experience and our Doctors....no wonder Thomas Hospital is a Top 100 Hospital in the country!

So anyway, here's what you really care about...pictures of Harrison! We think he's pretty awesome, and we're thrilled to have him here!

The Tale of the Reappearing Tree

Shortly after we were married, we picked out the perfect Christmas tree at the Gift Mart in Atlanta. We knew we wanted a really nice one that would hold tons of ornaments and last forever. So, when we moved, it was devastating when we realized that we'd somehow lost it. We looked through all of our boxes, but could never find it. Every year since we've been in Alabama, Tanner has mourned it at Christmastime, and looked in vain for it again.

Until this year, when we decided to pull every last bit of Christmas decor out of the attic. We needed to go through our ornaments and get rid of lots of the breakables, so we took the opportunity to also sort and weed out a few other things that had broken. In the meantime, we also pulled down the multiple trees. We knew there was one tree that we were wanting to get rid of, but as we looked at the trees standing in the garage, there was an extra one. Lo and behold, it was our lost tree! We weren't sure at first, until we saw the tell-tale sign.....the loose bottom branch that our tree had gotten while we still lived in TN.

We know that it is silly to get so attached to an inanimate object....it's just an old fake tree, after all. But finding our lost tree has really just made our hearts smile. Tanner is thrilled to have it back, and Bo is happy to never have to hear about it again!

Tree Lighting at The Wharf

The other night, we headed down to the Wharf for the lighting of their tree. It ended up being WAY colder than we thought, so we didn't stay very long. We still had some fun & were there long enough for Hampton to see Santa, sing some Christmas carols, see the lighting of the tree, and even sit in the Orange Beach firetruck, which he loved!

driving the firetruck

the Wharf's huge tree

Sometimes this is the only way you can catch the speeding bullet before he gets away!

happily singing along to a Christmas carol

The Big Day

It's finally here! Harrison will hopefully be here soon, and we'll get to add another blessing to our family. Today we're praying for a quick & easy labor, a healthy mommy & baby, and an excited new big brother. We have ultimate trust in our Doctor, our hospital, and God for everything to work out perfectly. We've been so blessed to have so many friends & family already call or email to wish us all the best, and we're hoping to report good news to everyone very soon! We don't plan to post on the blog for a few days, but we do already have some things lined up for the rest of the week. So for the last time from our family of 3, we thank each of you for your thoughts, prayers, and support. We love you all!

The Plan

We visited our Doctor one last time yesterday, and now we know what to expect for Harrison's arrival. If everything goes according to plan, we'll check in at the hospital tomorrow morning at 5:30. Dr. Shoemaker is predicting that Harrison will be here by lunchtime, and we sure do hope he's right.....we'd hate to miss a meal! Hahaha!

Hampton is spending tonight with Grandpa & Grannie, and they'll all come visit us at the hospital once baby brother is here. Then, Hamp will go back to our house with Grandi until we come home. We just thought it would be better for him to be at his own house, especially since this will be the longest he's spent away from us. Plus, the weather is supposed to be too cold for him to play outside, and that's exactly what he wants to do when he's at both sets of grandparents' houses!

Big Weekend

This weekend was full of stuff to do! We had our friend Dylan's birthday party, the Angel Breakfast at church, the Gulf Shores Christmas parade, and the Gulf Shores tree lighting celebration. We also had another party and our monthly Supper Club to attend, but unfortunately, we didn't make it to the last two. It's just tough to get everything done with a toddler and a very pregnant lady....both of who need naps! We did manage to get most of our last-minute things done, too, like mailing off holiday gifts, cleaning & doing laundry, picking up a few groceries, and even taking inventory of the freezer. If you can't tell, we want to do as few errands as possible after the baby arrives!

Here's Dylan, the birthday boy, along with his big brother Garrett.
Hampton loves playing with these two!

Hampton was way more into running around and checking out everything than actually eating at the Angel Breakfast. We enjoyed our breakfasts, though, and loved getting to see several friends that we hadn't seen in awhile.

Hampton & Grandpa checking out the floats during the Christmas parade. Both local sets of grandparents met up with us to enjoy the parade, which was cute! We also picked a great spot to stand and be able to head right to the lighting ceremony.

Friday Photo and Week In Review

Well, this week has been our last as a family of three. That's pretty unbelievable, if you ask us! We've seen the Doctor again, and we see him one last time on Monday before "the big day". He told us that he wouldn't be surprised if Harrison just arrived at any time. However, since Dr. Shoemaker isn't on call this weekend, and we have TONS to do, that just really can't happen! Of course, we all know that babies are on their own timetable, but we're REALLY hoping that Harrison wants to be cooperative!

Wednesday night was our last night of helping out with the kiddos, and they couldn't understand why Tanner couldn't just bring the baby with her next week. Of course, Tanner's co-teacher also only gave her a week off (she was only sort-of kidding), so we may end up back before we know it!

Hampton has had lots of fun this week, getting to spend a day with both Tanner & Bo's parents. He especially loves that Grandi gives him unlimited fresh-baked cookies & that Grandpa always treats him to pizza & a hot dog at Sam's. And yes.....Hampton eats both! Can you tell that the boy gets no attention? Bless his heart!

Other Weekend Fun

It seems as soon as the holidays arrive, it's non-stop hustle & bustle around our house. Especially since we're trying to get as much done as possible before Harrison arrives next week! We had put off the Christmas decorating until after we hosted Thanksgiving, but we kicked it into high gear this weekend and got the whole house finished. We spent a little time shopping, and got all of our gifts wrapped. We've only got just a couple of things left to do before we're finished with all the holiday prep, but some of it we can't do until the baby arrives.

One of the most fun things we did over the weekend, though, was go to Hampton's little friend Lucas's birthday party. He had a cars theme, and his mom even made cute "box cars" for them to race. Hampton had a great time playing, and we had even more fun visiting with the other parents!

Hampton sitting by the Birthday Boy, excitedly waiting for cupcakes.

The car races......apparently our little friend Kai's car was going in reverse!

North Pole Breakfast

For anyone who hasn't heard of it, the Elf on the Shelf has become a big holiday tradition in the last several years. A family adopts an elf, and the elf stays during the Christmas season, watching the children and reporting each night back to Santa on how they acted that day. Since the elf goes back to the North Pole each night, every morning he's in a different place....sometimes even being a little silly on the way. We've only heard good things from our friends about the elf, so we decided to start the tradition this year, even though Hampton is a little young to grasp the whole concept.

We welcomed our elf, who we've named Telly, Sunday morning with a North Pole breakfast. We never miss an opportunity to go a little overboard, and we thought it would be a cute way to kick off the Christmas season. It was simple, but we really had fun showing Hampton his new elf, reading him the story, and letting him try powdered (we mean snow-dusted) doughnuts for the first time.

We're looking forward to our new tradition & seeing what all Telly will be up to this year and for many years to come!

The breakfast table, where Telly was front & center.

Hampton enjoying some snow-dusted doughnuts and his new Dora coloring book that Telly left for him.

Black Friday Fiasco

On Black Friday, we didn't go out shopping, but we did head down to The Hangout to try and score Bo some cheap festival tickets. They were having a raffle starting at 11am, so we decided we'd go down there & have lunch while waiting to see if we'd won. Well, it turned in to the biggest ordeal EVER! There were baby & mommy meltdowns, unhappy would-be concert goers, and more. Luckily, when the dust settled hours later, Bo did end up with his tickets, so all's well that ends well!

Hampton playing in the sand while waiting on our numbers to be called

Thanksgiving

Since we couldn't travel to TN for Thanksgiving this year, we celebrated at our house. Paul, Jan, Bob, and Randi all celebrated with us, and even better....they brought several yummy dishes each! Lunch was absolutely delicious, especially since we made sure to request all our favorite foods. Tanner even attempted her Grandmother's famous macaroni & cheese, which got the ultimate compliment of being "Fayetteville worthy". We had a great time visiting, browsing the Black Friday ads, and just enjoying each others' company. Hampton loved all the attention from his grandparents, and Tanner loved the fact that we got to keep all the leftovers from her favorite meal of the year!

our crafty Thanksgiving banner

posing for a Thanksgiving photo

our holiday table

Hampton making good use of the Thanksgiving craft table, aka the way to keep him out of the kitchen!

Friday Photo

We just came across this photo from the summer and thought it was hysterical, so we wanted to share. Hampton was at Grannie & Grandpa's house, and decided that a bucket would make a great one-man pool. Looks like he was right, huh?

Happy Turkey Day!

We hope everyone has a safe & wonderful Thanksgiving filled with family, friends, and yummy food!