Remembering Grammie

My grandmother, Wilma Buck, also known as "Grammie", passed away last night in her sleep. She was a wonderful wife, mother to five, grandmother to seventeen and great-grandmother to five children. I know she is so happy to meet her Savior face to face. We love you Grammie and can't wait to see you again.

Three Christmases...

Whew it has been a CRAZY week! We finally made it back to our house this afternoon after being gone since Tuesday. Its good to be home and I can't wait to sleep in my own bed. We had a wonderful Christmas. We actually had three wonderful Christmases...needless to say, Lucy got enough toys to last her through her entire childhood (or atleast until her birthday). Here are some pictures...there are lots so I'll post more later.

Lucy and Mommy in front of our tree on Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we went to my grandparent's house on my dad's side to celebrate and open presents...

Mimi got an Obama calender. Don't worry, it was a joke.

All the grandkids. This was after present opening...Lucy didn't make it this far. She passed out around 8:30.

After all the traditions and festivities that night, we headed over to my mom's house to spend the night. Even though we have our own house, there's nothing like waking up Christmas morning at mom's house!

Mark waking Lucy up Christmas morning

Lucy with her stocking. She was so excited to look inside!

After breakfast and presents at my mom's, we headed over to my dad's house for another Christmas morning...

She looks like a little elf!

We followed that with a lunch at my aunt's, and then headed over to Mark's parents for the Campbell Family Christmas on Saturday and Sunday. I'll post those pictures separately. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We are so blessed to be able to truly celebrate this holiday for what it is. Thank you Lord for your precious Son. 

It's almost here!

Thought I would get in one last post before all the craziness starts. We've been nonstop with parties and family in town and gatherings since last week, and we had a two day break before it all starts up again tomorrow. Lucy is doing great and is finally starting to pick up on this whole solid food thing. She's growing so fast, I can't believe she's almost 5 months old. I don't know where the time has gone. Mark has been working like crazy to get things ready for the big launch in January, so keep him and the business in your prayers. Next month is gonna be rough.

Merry Christmas everyone and enjoy the pictures!

Our mantle. We added Lucy's stocking to the collection this year

Our Christmas tree! I hope to collect more ornaments for next year

Lucy's favorite place to be these days.

My Giant

Lucy had her 4 month check up the other day, and she is ginormous. She's developing perfectly, and both the nurse and pediatrician commented on what a happy (and talkative) baby she is. Right as the Dr. was asking me if she can squeal and talk, Lucy did one of her 5 second long squeals. Perfect timing. She gave us the okay to start baby food (which is good cuz I've been giving her rice cereal for 4 days already) so I posted some pics and a video at the bottom of Lucy's first solid feeding session. She did better than I expected but still hasn't quite mastered the spoon. Here are her stats from the check up:

Weight - 15lbs 7oz. (90%)

Height - 26 inches (95%)

Head - 42cm (90%)

Its good to know she's huge all over. Its not like she's in the 95% for weight and the 10% for height or something. Poor thing can't help it if she has a big daddy :)

She was more weirded out by the spoon than the rice cereal

My OCD cleanliness has gone out the window. No chance with this messy eater.

We should probably buy a saddle for Heidi

We also went to buy our Christmas tree last weekend with my family. It was FREEZING so Lucy got to try out her big winter coat. Its a little big, but hopefully that means it will last us all winter. 

We found our tree! Guess we'll take the baby too...

Family photo, minus Heidi

Grandma and Lucy

Lucy sitting on one of the reindeer. She looks really fat in this picture. I swear she doesn't look that fat in person....well, maybe she does.

a few firsts...

First time in the exersaucer! She loved it. I think these things are the ultimate cause of ADHD. She couldn't decide what to look at

I've been giving her about 2 oz of formula at night after she nurses, and last night she took the bottle right out of my hands and held it while she drank!

Proof that you should fasten your child in. Whoops.

Falling out, and still happy. That's Lucy in a nutshell.

Thanksgiving and a little update

It has been a LONG and fun-filled couple of weeks. I'm just gonna sum it up for you real quick. 

• We went down to Jackonsvile, FL to see Mark's cousin, Emily, get married. The weekend was so busy and went by so quickly I didn't get a chance to take any pictures. When we got home I was too anxious to wait for Thanksgiving to pass, so I decorated the house for Christmas! We were supposed to go get our tree today, but it rained all day and no one wants a wet tree, especially the cleaning lady (that would be ME). 
  
• For those of you who don't know, Mark has been working at Longhorn waiting tables for the past year as a supplement to his other job so that I can stay home with Lucy (what a hubby I have). Now that he has started the book business, this next week will be his last week/weekend at Longhorn! Hooray! Its been difficult for all of this past month since he's been working from home during the day, then working most nights at Longhorn. It has been a blessing to have this job, but we are so happy to see it come to an end. Praise God for his continuous provision.
• We spent a few days over Thanksgiving with Mark's side of the family over in PTC. Jim, Molly, James, (and Clem) came into town, and it was fun to spend time with the whole family. We even had a date night with all the couples (including Meredith and her BF Tim) and left the kids with the grandparents. James really had fun pointing, kissing, and patting Lucy, and we all look forward to the next few months when James and Lucy can really interact more with each other. Enjoy the pictures!

Mark serenading Lucy already

Naked! I can't help it, its too cute.

James reminiscing about the times when he could actually FIT in a Bumbo seat. Don't worry, his was blue.

Meredith and Molly with Lucy and James. I love my sisters!

Heidi and Clem...best buds.

James loved all the new toys Lucy brought with her.

Marnie playing with Lucy on Thanksgiving Day

Marnie with her grandbabies!

Going for a walk in my new BOB. I love it!

It got cold on the walk so Lucy got to try out her new hat. Too cute.

Nothing New

Just wanted to share a few pictures from this past week. Lucy gets camera-stalked all day. I feel sorry for our second child already.

As always, hands in the mouth

This one's for Emily!

Snuggling with daddy on a Saturday morning

Her 3 month picture with the fake Heidi

 She used to yawn when she got tired, now it's turned to fussiness and thumb sucking. Time for a nap!

So, we had a little scare...

I guess we were due to have a scary accident happen. The whole night is a little blurry to me, so to make a long story short, Saturday night Lucy choked and stopped breathing. After she turned purple, I realized maybe I should help her to start breathing again so I picked her up and gave some back blows. After about 3 or 4 blows she started crying (and breathing!) again. Scared me to death. I called the Pediatrician (after Mark insisted) and they thought it would be best if Lucy got checked out immediately in the Emergency Room just to make sure she was ok and didn't have any fluid in her lungs. We headed to Fayette Hospital, and Mark, every-ready with the iphone, managed to take a few pics:

In the hospital room...they called us back really quick

Getting weighed....that's 13.9 lbs for those of you who can't convert grams to pounds

um...what am I doing here...I'm fine!

Her hospital bracelet; of course I saved it :)

So, turns out, Lucy checked out fine. No fluid in her lungs, and other than being a "gas machine" as the ER doctor put it, she's perfectly healthy. They still don't completely know what caused the incident, but attributed part of it to reflux. We were instructed to watch her very closely that night and to call 911 if it happened again and come by ambulance. Naturally, I got ZERO sleep Saturday night because I was up checking on her every 5 minutes. Strangely, Mark slept great. It's amazing what that boy can sleep through. So far Lucy is great, and has been catching up on her sleep since she only got about 6 hours of sleep Saturday night due to our midnight ER visit. Here are some pictures around the house from the past week:

Lately, when Mark bends down to kiss her she accidently grabs his glasses. This time they landed perfectly

And then she decided to eat them

Propped up watching tv