Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We hope you all had a happy and blessed holiday. We sure did! The holidays are so much fun with Sydney. She loved the presents, playing in the wrapping paper, and we all enjoyed seeing our family and friends.

Sydney did her fair share of crawling around to explore on Christmas Day.


She played for such a long time with cousin Brianna's camera.


One of the best things about having a baby girl-the ruffle-butt tights! I got these for her when she was born, and they finally fit just in time for the holidays!


She was so happy to get a Sleeping Beauty Minnie Mouse doll!


Sydney was SO EXCITED to get a sarong and tube top from Hawaii! They are so cute, we will definetely get pics of her in them this summer.

Picture with Santa

Ok, so notice the title of this post is not "Pictures With Santa," but a single picture! I think every child in America probably has a crying-with-santa picture, and now we have ours! I wasn't going to make the poor sweet santa sit through multiple pictures, so we just got one! Poor Sydney, she didn't know what the heck was going on, but she did not want to sit on Santa's lap! It made for a cute picture.

More of Sydney's Party

Finally, almost 3 weeks later, I have gone through all the pictures from Sydney's first birthday party. The best pictures are posted a few posts below this in a different slide show, but here are a few more pictures of the special day.

Happy Birthday Madison!

Sydney's best friend Madison just had her first birthday party last weekend. It was so much fun! Melissa decorated in an M&M theme, and it was super adorable! She made an M&M themed photo banner, and there were M&M gift bags with party favors for all the kids, and there were multi-colored balloons everywhere that were weighed down with M&M tins filled with, you guessed it, M&M's! It was a very fun party and Sydney had a great time!

Santa Baby

Last year, we put Sydney in a Christmas stocking for an amusing photo-op. She did not think it was very funny, but we thought it was pretty cute. I was looking at those pictures today and I am just amazed at how quickly this first year has flown by! She was so little in those stocking pictures! Here is one from last year along with a picture of Sydney in her Santa dress this year. Madison has the same dress and we couldn't resist taking a few pictures of the girls together.

Sydney and Madison-the first year of friendship!

A few years ago, our good friends Matt and Melissa decided to try to have a baby. A few months went by with no luck, then a year. Everyone prayed and prayed for them as they went through months of infertility, doctor visits, and tests. Still, nothing happened. After watching them go through this, Chris and I decided that we better start trying, just in case something similar happened to us. A month later, Matt and Melissa told us their good news-they were expecting! We were so excited for them! But more than that, when Melissa was telling me she was pregnant, something deep down inside me responded. I thought it was just my joyous feelings for my best friend, until 4 days later, when I found out I was pregnant, too! We only told our parents right away, and we waited a few months before telling our friends, except for Matt and Melissa! We told them right away because we were so excited to be expecting at the same time as them, and they were super excited, too, but bummed to not be able to tell anyone! For 2 months we giggled as people would come up to Melissa and hug her and ask how she was feeling, never knowing I was pregnant, too! Finally, we told everyone and the secret was out! It was such a blessing to go through pregnancy with my best friend. In July, we found out we were both having girls! Of course they will be best friends, just like their mommies! Melissa and I have been best friends now for 13 years. My mother and her parents grew up together in the same church in Springfield, and then they met up many years later in Hillsboro at the same church. Melissa and I initially hated each other, but that soon passed and we were soon the best of friends. We always dreamed of when we would each get married and have babies, but we never knew the special blessing that would come to us at the same time. Our due dates were 2 days apart. Then, on December 12, my little Sydney Grace was born, just before midnight. Then, the next day, on December 13, Madison Kay was born. They missed the same birthday by about 45 minutes! We went to visit them in the hospital on our way home from the hospital, and the girls got to meet for the first time. Now, it is a year later. Yesterday was Sydney's birthday, and today is Madison's birthday. Happy Birthday to our beautiful baby girls, and we pray for your blessed and special friendship to continue.

Sydney's First Birthday

Today, December 12, is our Sydney's first birthday! Our baby girl is not a baby anymore! Chris and I walked into her room this morning singing "Happy Birthday To You" and she just looked at us like we're crazy! Maybe we are, but being a parent makes you do crazy things! But, she soon smiled when she realized we were singing to her! Unfortunately, she's got a cold today. She has a cough and a runny nose and she isn't quite her normal happy self, but she'll bounce back soon. We have spent the day together as a family. Chris took the day off work and we went to have family pictures taken this morning. We're going to have a special dinner tonight, too. All day long I've been looking back to this time last year. I can't believe it's been a year. It seems like two minutes ago the doctor laid her on my chest and I was crying tears of joy! Now that beautiful little baby is crawling and laughing and getting more of her own personality everyday! I am so excited for her to be a little girl so we can bake cookies together and read Laura Ingalls books, but I will miss the baby stage. We are so thankful to God for every precious moment with our baby, we love her so much!

Sydney's First Birthday Party!

This past Sunday we had Sydney's first birthday party! It was so much fun! It took a lot of work, but it was well worth it. Sydney did a great job with the cake! We had sheet cakes for the guests, but Sydney had her own special cake with a white chocolate bow on top! It was just darling. She also got to wear her first real tiara, from Grandma and Grandpa. Lots of our family and friends came to help us celebrate and they all made the day very special!

If you don't want to view the entire slide show, you can click on the view all images selection and view them one by one.