Christmas has arrived!

After much debate about Christmas trees and if a 13 month old could be controlled around one, we plowed forward with our (my) favorite shopping trip of the year....to Home Depot for our tree. Syd, dressed in an adorable snowman outfit, wandered around and was in awe of the chainsaw the men were using to cut the bottoms off of the tree.

Once home it was lunch time, which what that really means is we lucked out that she was strapped to her chair for 30 minutes while we got the tree up without the interruption of small fingers and grabby hands.

We went with a much smaller tree in hopes the branches would not be hit by passing dogs and babe and so far it is working out perfectly. I love the process of hanging each ornament and remembering the trip, vacation, person and dog that it represents. Each year it is a new surprise and I love it.

I can't wait until Syd is big enough to have the anticipation of Christmas like I do!

Thankful

Thanksgiving 2012

Granny

Just 2 months shy of her 94th birthday, Granny left us.  She was one of a kind- not the bake cookies, snuggle on the couch kind of Grandmother- rather a throw back a glass of wine, hook a fish, shoot a deer kind of Granny. She loved to argue and always thought her way was the right way (wonder where I get it!?!?) But, she also loved her Grandchildren dearly. I know when I needed her most, she stepped up to the plate without blinking an eye. She gave Brian and I a gift when we were at one of the most desperate times in our lives in trying to start a family through medial treatments.

She loved Sydney James so much. She always asked me, "Do you love being a Mom?" and always cried when saying goodbye to SJ. It was always so sweet. 

We will miss you Granny and I promise Sydney will always know what you did for us, and her. 

Ruxin Dew

We have a new addition! On October 15th we adopted Ruxin Dew, from Big Dogs Huge Paws, Inc. He is a 4 yr old Dogue de Bordeaux (French Mastiff). He is as sweet as they come and seriously has the cutest face I've seen in quite some time. 

Someone elses loss was our gain.

Ruxin, no longer will you go hungry. No longer will you be locked outside. No longer will you need to be afraid of humans. You are here to stay. Welcome home, Ruxie!

SJ is 1

Sydney James is 1. We had an amazing weekend celebrating her first year. Meme, Bubba, Auntie Becky, Ella and Chloe flew in to make the weekend even more special.

Syd is so blessed to be loved by so many people!

There are no words for how much this little girl means to me, how much she changed us one year ago.  Until she is a mother herself, she will never know how much I love her.

Rock Creek Pumpkin Farm 2012

Our Pumpkin Patch tradition started this year (yes, Babycakes, this is a new tradition!). We headed up to Rock Creek. Syd was still a little young, but fun none the less. She had fun tripping, falling and eating dirt and leave!

It was a great afternoon off work before we kicked of Syd's birthday weekend.

1 year ago today at....

12:00pm- Doctor's Appt & decision to induce...

12:45pm- Call to Grandma goes something like, "Are you ready to be a Grandma again tomorrow?"...

1:00pm- Back to work and firing off frantic emails that Baby Dew was coming 2 weeks early and I was signing off...

5:30pm- Dinner at Red Robin with Brian...

6:30pm- Hospital Check in...

8:00pm- Meds started....

And so began my induction...it would last almost 48 hours..and than the most perfect, beautiful girl with black hair entered our world and changed it forever.