2013 Ornaments

I've said it a million times, I love ornaments!  I love getting them out each year and remembering when and where we got each one.  They each hold such special meaning.  I was so happy to get out all the "First Christmas" ornaments we received last year and put them on the tree!  I'm such a sap and love everything sentimental so these are some of my favorite gifts each year.

Ally's ornament this year.

From my parents.  I'll add Barrett's picture when I have some printed.

This one to Patrick and me from my parents.  I love the "new parents" one to remind us of our first year as parents.

My mom made this one for Barrett's first Christmas.  She makes everyone one so I'm so excited to have Barrett's on our tree.

We started this Mickey Mouse series for Barrett last year.  

We attempted a diy ornament.  It's supposed to be his hand print.  It's less than perfect but I love it.

This one was from my aunt and I love it.  

This one was from my cousin.  It was made in Alabama and I just think it's the cutest!

We also a few for our Alabama/Auburn tree in the basement.

These hats were from my parents.  I love the houndstooth and the Saban hats!

I love this one all the way from Alaska!  Amy is so thoughtful and sent us this red moose for the Alabama tree.  I think of her every time I see it!

Happy New Year

We had a great New Year's eve and New Year's day.  We got take out Mexican and enjoyed the night together watching football.  Last year Barrett was just a week old and we were so new at this parenting thing.  This year it was fun to just relax and enjoy the family time.  I can't believe how much Barrett has grown.

Isn't he the cutest in his little hat. 

I love these pictures!

My only resolution this year is to stay on top of photo organization.  I can't decide if I'm going to have them printed and put in albums or just have a book printed at the end of the year.  Either way I don't want it to be November and I'm trying to go through thousands of pictures and organize them for a calendar.

We're settling in to watch the Tide Roll in the Sugar Bowl, wishing we were in New Orleans!

2013...That's a wrap!

This year has been amazing.  Quite honestly I can't believe it's coming to an end.  We've made a lot of great memories...here's a walk down memory lane!

January

We rang in the New Year with our tiny newborn.  Oh my goodness how precious was that itty baby.  We watched Alabama win another National Championship. Roll Tide!  We had a SNOW day and I took by 3 week old baby out in it.  Celebrated surviving Barrett's first month. We wrapped the month up with Barrett's First trip to Church.

February

I fell out of a blogging routine and resorted to random photo dumps to stay on top of things. These continued throughout the year (and will probably continue throughout the rest of my blogging career!)  We celebrated Barrett's first Valentine's Day.  I finally shared Barrett's birth announcement.

Barrett turned two months old.

March

Barrett was baptized.  It was such a special day shared with family and friends.

Barrett turned 3 months old and Patrick and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary.

April

We celebrated Barrett's first Easter. SO much fun!  We watched Ava play softball.  Barrett made his first (and hopefully his last ;)) trip to Auburn.  Barrett turned another month older.

Patrick and I had our first date night since the baby was born.

May
Ally turned 5 years old.  I shared some Deep thoughts on becoming a mother and celebrating my very first Mother's Day.  On Barrett's 5 month birthday we headed to the lake for his first trip.

Finally we ended the month with some real food, Barrett ate carrots. 

June

I felt really old that it was already time for my 10 year reunion but we went and it was fun.

We took Barrett to the zoo.  We celebrated all the dad's on Father's Day.

Barrett turned half a year old.

July

Barrett enjoyed his first 4th of July.  I shared my thoughts on breastfeeding.  We went to the lake for the weekend with John and Hope and took the big dogs.  We finally had family pictures made of the three of us.   I was so excited about the royal baby. It was such a fun moment in history.  Barrett turned 7 months old and I turned 28.  We took Barrett to Tuscaloosa for the first time.

August

My childhood dreams came true when we went to the American Girl store and Bistro for our birthdays.

Barrett turned 8 months old.  Blast from the past when I got to see the Backstreet Boys in concert again.  It was just as thrilling as when I was 14!

September

We got to visit with my cousins from Florida that we don't get to see nearly enough.  I got real and shared my struggle with Mommy guilt.  We went on our first vacation as a family of three.  We had a blast!  Part 2 and Part 3.  Barrett turned 9 months old.  I took Barrett to his first tailgate in Tuscaloosa.

October

We went to Tuscaloosa for homecoming and I got to take Barrett to his first football game.  Barrett turned 10 months old and I started frantically planning his first birthday party.  We had a fun little family date to the pumpkin patch.  I left the baby at home and went to the Alabama/ Tennessee game.  It was a much needed mom day and he had a blast with his grandparents.  We wrapped up the month with a little Halloween get together.

November

I shared my love for Fall and some really cute pictures of Barrett in the leaves.  I took another trip to Tuscaloosa without the boys for the Alabama/ LSU game.  Barrett turned 11 months old and we celebrated his first Thanksgiving.

December

I decided I was crazy and would dress Barrett in a Christmas outfit everyday in December thus the 25 days of Christmas outfits was born.  We took Barrett to see Santa.  We watched Uncle John graduate from Alabama and celebrated Barrett's first birthday all in the same weekend.  He loved his cake so much!

Barrett's final monthly post and we all had a Merry Christmas!

Thanks for following along with our little life.  I love writing this blog, I love recording all these little and big moments for our son to read one day.  Hearing that other people enjoy it is just icing on the cake for me. We're wishing you all the best in 2014!

Merry Christmas

I knew there was no way to top Christmas 2012.  But 2013 showed up big time.  I love Christmas.  It's such a beautiful season.  It's even more special now.  I think it's this way for every new parent but I see Barrett in every nativity.  Every baby is him.  I think it's even more so that he is a Christmas baby and I've had the entire Advent season to prepare for Christ's birth.  I've also had the entire Advent season to prepare for Barrett's birthday. I know that the two do not compare.  But I can never think of the Christmas season and not think of 2012.  That day changed my life forever.  

Enough mushy stuff...

Christmas Eve we went to my Grandmother's house for lunch, we had a great time and I took zero pictures...moving on.

Patrick, John, Hope, Barrett and I went to Midnight Mass at 8:00pm.  Barrett did pretty good until he saw the girl in front of us had a snack.  So we gave him some cheerios and he was happy.  After Mass we went to my parents house to get Ally and had some pigs in a blanket.

Ally's Christmas dress.  I thought she looked so pretty! Day 24 outfit

Santa came.  I want to always remember Santa's first trip to our house.  It was so special.

The expression of joy. ha!

I had grand dreams of what our first Christmas morning would look like.  For example, in my dream Patrick and I would go and get Barrett out of bed and he'd be so smiley and happy to see us.  We change him and bring him into the living room where he'd crawl as fast as he could to see what Santa brought.  You can tell my dreams didn't exactly come true.  It was perfect though, he just needed a bottle first!

Ally, on the other hand, was more excited to see what Santa brought! 

Patrick and his babies.

After his bottle he was a happy boy, (well as happy as he could be with the terrible cold he's got)

This is a simple picture but it wins Christmas for me.  I love that of all the things we got him he was the most excited about the yogurt melts.

This hit me like a ton of bricks, you'd think a year later I'd be used to seeing "Mom & Dad" on stuff.  

Our annual picture in front of the tree.  I love it. 

I use the self timer exactly one time each year and I always have to look up in the manual how to set it.

(I need to do a post on all of our pictures in front of the tree!)

Day 25 outfit (they say 1st birthday) (By the time I put him in bed he'd worn 5 outfits today.)

Birthday breakfast.  He ate the entire cinnamon roll and loved every minute of it.

Gracie getting her bone.
Sam with his. They were happy dogs! We went to my mom and dad's house for brunch. This year we just bought for the kids. We had this book growing up and we wore it out.  I can remember fighting over who got to lift the flap on each page looking for Spot.  My sweet little brother got this one for Barrett.

I totally cried. (I might have cried again just thinking about it).  It was bound to happen at some point today anyway.  I was just so caught off guard.  

Then, I catch a sweet moment like this between my sister and Barrett and I teared up again.  I know I've said it a hundred times but seeing people you have loved your whole life loving on your child is one of the most special feelings.  I'm not really sure why, I knew they'd love him but it is still so special.

Luckily the same folks are there to turn right around and make me laugh.  John and Hope got our dogs this giant candy cane bone.  It's the size of a real walking cane.  Ally looks so unhappy it's kinda funny.

The birthday boy getting a nap.

Clay getting a nap.

Dad was sick and stayed in the bed.

John was helping Ava put her lego thing together.

Drew

Ava

S'mores

Porter

Harper

Our sweet little family.

John and Hope with Bentley and Hope's dad's dog that doesn't have a name but sure is cute.

Patrick and Leslie.

After we came home and recharged for a bit, we headed to the Horton's house for dinner.  Barrett was exhausted and sick but he was a trooper.  We opened gifts and then ate dinner.  Dinner was fabulous and I ate way to much it was all so delicious as usual!  It was a fun time but I was spent.  I was beyond exhausted.  The activity and emotion of the day was almost too much for me.  

We were blessed beyond measure this year.

I had the perfect ending to the day when sweet Barrett let me rock him before bed without putting up a fight.  It was like he knew I needed it.  He laid his sweet little head on my chest and just looked and smiled at me.  I never wanted it to end.

I'm sad it's over.  Luckily in the Catholic church we celebrate the Advent season leading up to Christmas and then the Christmas season for the twelve days after Christmas so I'll be soaking in the last few days of our Christmas season because Jesus is the reason for the season.