The Wonders of HIS Love

Christmas 2012 was wonderful. We spent five glorious days in Conway followed by a long weekend at home doing some seriously fun family stuff. And by seriously fun, I mean hanging around at the house, running a few errands, and enjoying each other's company. That's serious fun to me. Really. I want to do a "Best of 2012" post today, but it will probably wait until tomorrow. I'm not too good at doing two posts in a day.

Instead of giving lots of details, I'm just posting more than the average number of photos in this post. I don't have a ton of time here...Graham is in the jumperoo, and Reese is upstairs playing. This may not last long.

Our Christmas card. I apologize if you didn't get one. I got them in LATE, and if I didn't have your address handy, your card is still sitting in the stack with no address. It may get done, or you can send me you address, and it will be done pronto.

Christmas in Conway. 

Walker Christmas.

Gran reading a new book to her girls.

Uncle Wes Sandwich.

Mema and a few of her girls cuddling on the couch.

Reese ADORED being the "baby" to all of her big cousins. And I loved it, too. So sweet to watch them start playing together.

Watching ELF in the den.

Baby Reese with Molly. Molly is pretty much a superhero to Reese.

The real baby loving all of the beautiful chaos.

Mema (along with everyone else) was amazed by Ty's skills on the iPad.

What Santa and Buddy the Elf? Clifford is way cooler.

Christmas in Conway.

Frost Christmas.

"Adopted" brother Lovemore and Graham.

High school besties and their babies. Doesn't get much better.

Barrett, Wes, and their girls.

Moppy and her favorite grandkids.

Poppy and the Christmas Tree Train. Reese was enamored.

Not sure what this was, but I think it's cute.

Graham and Uncle Allen. 

We made a visit to meet Savannah Gaines on Christmas Eve.

Settlers of catan has replaced Trivial Pursuit.

Clark! Doctor Smith came for a visit, too!

Some sweet, sweet moments on Christmas Eve.

Ready for the candlelight Christmas Eve service.

Just a few of the gifts...

A Disney Viewfinder for Reese.

Altuzarra glasses for the boys. Yeah, we know him.

Paintings from San Francisco.

A guitar.

The moon.

Hey, cuties.

We LOVED our first holiday in the new house. 

Four generations.

Mom said she wouldn't have much of the new house decorated. She made Boiled Custard. If you know what that entails, you know she majorly underestimated what she would get done before we arrived.

"The Kids"

11:30pm on Christmas night. 

Morning of the 26th. Reese staring at the 10 inches of snow.

Let's go play!

We weren't prepared for this weather, so zip loc bags over Toms it was!

We made it home that evening, and Graham was happy to be back on his play mat.

And two nights later, the Paci Fairy visited. This deserves its own post, but it probably won't happen. Basically, this Momma is just extremely proud and impressed. She hardly missed a beat and is sleeping great.

My boys. Love them.

A Slow Return

Slowly but surely, I'm getting back to blogging. We have had a great December, and it's expected to just get more exciting and celebratory as christmas is a week from today. We are preparing our hearts to celebrate the birth of our Savior and friend, Jesus Christ. Reese's favorite toy these days is our nativity set, and she loves putting Baby Jesus, Mary, Joses, and the rest of the crew to bed and making sure they are fed and happy. We sing MULTIPLE Christmas carols a day, have watched a good number of Christmas movies, and read the daily story from the Jesus Storybook Bible every night. Here's a look at the past few weeks around here...

Sweet Reese before heading out to play with friends.

Picking out the perfect Christmas tree. At Home Depot.

Brother/Sister Love. These two have my heart.

Date Night at Ruth's Chris with the Walker siblings.

Playing "I Spy" with the Christmas tree. New favorite game.

Reese's first Christmas concert performance. Away in a Manger has never been performed cuter.

A few decorations around the house.

And a few more.

Kraft Christmas Party.

SO glad Wes works with one of his best friends, and SO glad his wife is one of my besties.

Date Night.

Bentonville Christmas Parade.

Fayetteville Square.

Little Girl was a bit distracted by the lights.

Post-church. Love these two.

Two little buddies. He pretty much follows her around the house.

My BEAUTIFUL girl.

Play date with some fabulous friends and kids.

Reese, Stella, and Campbell. Sweet friends for sure.

Craft time.

2nd annual high school friends get together.

Ready for church.

Not so ready for church.

Stella, Campbell, and Reese playing and laughing and tackling and hugging and melting our momma hearts.

Graham's THIRD Month

So my computer is running out space, and so is my blog. These are things that I don't really have time to deal with right now. Oh, and our router broke, so wireless is out until we get a new one in the mail. These are petty issues, but these are the reasons no blog entries have been written lately. I actually typed up a blog entry last week, got so excited, and then tried to upload pictures to it. Then blogger said I don't have space, so I just shut it down for the night. 

Here we are again, and I'm going to try to figure out how to make it work tonight. Graham is THREE months old today, and he totally deserves this monthly update. He's wiggling and giggling beside me on the couch right now; he loves his cute pictures I took today. This past month has been quite a blur, and when I think back to the first few weeks, it feels like forever ago that I was longingly dreaming of the 12 week mark. We are so much more into a routine, Graham is a rockstar sleeper compared to even a month ago, and I'm just smitten by the giggles and huge smiles I get all day. Graham talks a ton, and it's my absolute favorite thing right now. Lots of fun baby sounds going on in our house. There are days when he sleeps amazingly well and days that are a bit more rough. However, like I said, Graham is getting into a great routine with naps and night. His schedule is very similar to a month ago except nights, and he's just settling into it much better. He's still too young though to predict which will be his best nap if we are at home for each of them. The afternoons seem to be better on a more regular basis. He's learning to keep his pacifier in better, and I just started unswaddling one arm because he was getting it out every nap and at night. It would wake him, and now he's just used to it being free. I'll probably slowly start unswaddling him but keep him in the sleep sack for a while. He usually wakes between 4:00 and 4:30 in the morning and then again at 7:00/7:15 to start the day. I can handle it, but I'm looking forward to getting rid of that 4am feeding in the next few months. 

Graham is mostly a happy baby, but he has his days. He doesn't like the car too much, and he doesn't sleep well outside of his crib. 

I honestly had forgotten how incredibly wonderful little babies can be. The newborn months are so extremely rough for me, but I already feel way out of that stage and into a new phase of getting to know my baby boy. My little Graham is just about the cutest thing ever. He loves to just watch his big sister and his momma play and dance and read books. He spends a lot of time on his play mat looking around and staring at the toys above his head. 

Now I'll leave you with some sweet pictures from the past month...

THREE Months.

Lighting of the Bentonville Square.

Thanksgiving in Conway.

Gran, O'Pa, and the NINE grandchildren. Camden Thanksgiving.

Cousin time in Camden.

Exploring the Hendrix Village greenspace. Mom and Dad are moving in this week!!!