Thanksgiving in Coeur d'Alene

If you know us, you know we make VERY frequent trips to Coeur d'Alene to see friends and family. Especially myself, especially since we have a daughter now. Mostly so people can "Ooooh" and "Aaaah" over our precious little Hayden Marie. I was super excited to spend the holiday with my family, maybe squeeze in a few extra naps and even more excited to get some alone time with Chris. Grandma was more than happy to hang out with Hayden so we could go out on both Friday and Saturday night. Thanks Mom! On Friday we went to The Festival of the Lights in downtown Cd'a. We sipped spiced cider with our friends Brent & Jessica and watched the fireworks.  On Saturday, The Melting Pot in Spokane. Thanks to Mike &  Kari for the Birthday gift card. It was delicious! The rest of our visit was spent at my Mom & Dad's eating, sleeping, watching the girls (Hayden & her Cousin Holland) play. Pretty typical Thanksgiving festivities.
Here are some of my favorite pictures from our trip.

Hayden & Smokey

Early Christmas presents!!

Pictures in the snow

 

Grandpa & his girls

We learned on this trip that Hayden is a bit possessive and doesn't like it when Holland 1. Invades her "space" or 2. Tries to take something from her. She doesn't cry, but she does growl and it's the FUNNIEST thing ever!

O Christmas Tree

We bought our Christmas Tree before Thanksgiving this year, seeing how we'll be getting rid of it before Christmas since we'll be spending the holiday in Florida with Chris' parents. The tree we chose was still all bundled up at Home Depot which made it easier to transport, but once we got it home and let the branches loose we realized it was a GIANT!

We actually had to put in front of our fire place because that was the only place it would fit!  It's large but I think it's the best looking tree I can ever remember having. Chris has an eye for decorating and the house feels very cozy now and full of holiday spirit. 

 Behold, Hayden's first Christmas Tree:

I think she likes it!

The Weather Outside is Frightful

For those of you that haven't heard Seattle was a total mess November 22nd due to snow. Not and exorbitant amount of snow, mind you, but if you throw down a little snow and combine it with rush hour traffic, inexperienced drivers, sloped highways and no studded tires you're left with a complete NIGHTMARE that looks, at it's best, a little something like this:

 Needless to say, my usual 30-45 minute commute to work took me nearly 2 hours Monday morning and my commute home: 3 WHOLE HOURS! Talk about misery! I did, fortunately enough, make it home in one piece. Chris and I decided I'd call in today to avoid the roads but seeing how they closed the clinic for the day I didn't even have to use any of my sick time. Thank you snow day! I'm even getting paid as I sit here blogging from home. How awesome is that? So today we slept in, cuddled with Hayden and are planning on finally being able to decorate the Christmas tree we bought over the weekend. Pictures to come.

A Work in Progress

I've been wanting to start a blog for quite some time. Ever since Hayden was born I've been wishing I could somehow go back over my past year on Facebook and read my old posts from when I was pregnant, but alas, that is not possible (at least not as far as I know). I started perusing friends blogs and decided that a blogspot was exactly what I needed! Boy, how I wish I would have known about all this blog stuff before I got pregnant! Shoulda, coulda, woulda, right? So here it is, my very own blog. I figure it's a great way to encapsulate my new life as a Momma and to share our life with our friends and family.  Having a platform to write about and share Hayden's firsts and funny stories makes me smile and I know I'll cherish it for years to come.