Merry Christmas!!

The week prior to Christmas was VERY cold here! That made finishing up my Christmas shopping nearly impossible as I hated to get Hope out in the cold. One day we did just have to go. I was glad to have an excuse to dress Hope in this adorable outfit! Here's Hope with her Grammy. You can't read the shirt very well, but it says "Who needs Santa, I've got Grandparents." This Christmas, that couldn't have been more true for Hope!

Hope has fussy times late in the evening. Around Christmas I learned to put here in this Snuggly thing and I could still do some of my cooking for the holiday. She likes riding around in it.

Hope was such a good sport this Christmas being taken from place to place and passed around for everyone to hold. She actually enjoys it. I think she's going to be a very social girl! Here she is with Woody's grandmother- the hostess of Christmas Eve for the Maglinger family.

At Mamaw's Hope recieved so many gifts. This stack continued to grow as the night progressed!

Unfortunatly, late Christmas Eve Woody began to feel sick! We're pretty sure it was food poisoning from Long John Silvers. We've since heard of a couple other people who ate there the same week and were sick with the same symptoms. Poor Woody. He missed Christmas morning with his dad and brothers. Here's Hope though with Susanna. What a pair!

She's quite taken with her uncle Arthur. We actually had to make him move behind me with the camera to get her to look toward the camera for the above picture.

Susanna enjoyed playing with this box. I'm not sure she even cared what was inside of it.

Later Christmas Day Grammy came to help me pack us all up and took us to Jingo. She took care of Hope for us so Woody could get better and I could rest. Hope loved Grammy and Pappy's house! Every room has a ceiling fan! Here she is watching one.

Big Pappy kept Hope while Mom and Dad went to Beaver Dam Shoes. She thinks he's silly!

THEN! Saturday we went to Granny's house for Christmas dinner with her. I have no idea what story they are listening to, but it must have been good!

Sunday Woody was finally feeling better so we went back to his Dad's to see him since he'd missed seeing them Christmas day. I was able to snap a picture of Hope smiling. She's starting to get much more interactive and responsive. We love that!

It's a rough life!

You know it's a rough life when the worst things in your life are your gas pains! Still, Hope's are really bad! I've called the pediatrician and they assure me that all babies deal with this. Hope screams like a woman in labor when she gets gas. This is one of the only positions that helps her. She needs to get on her belly and I force her to stretch the legs out then pat her back pretty hard. Eventually it passes. Any suggestions from moms out there? Once the pains finally pass, Hope usually falls fast asleep. Even if she's not eaten in several hours. She goes from terribly fussy to asleep almost instantly. The crying must really wear her out!

Like I've said before, Hope loves to sleep on her belly. She's now starting to sleep for close to 2 hours during her morning nap. This is how she sleeps best. I love that little tushy in the air!

What a week!

This picture pretty much sums up our last week! Woody had his wisdom teeth cut out and then got dry socket and then a sinus infection. He missed 6 full days of work. I've never known him to even miss 1 day of work before! He's slowly getting better. Today he's finally back to work. Here's Hope playing with her floor gym. She had help grasping this, but she held it for several minutes and "pulled" it to make the thing play music several times. I don't think she had any idea what was going on, but we were proud just the same!

Hope is getting better every day about her bath time. Here's as close to a smile as I was able to capture on camera. She is starting to smile more every day. We love that! (sorry about the red eye...no time to fix it. She's stirring right now about to wake from her nap!)

I dressed Hope up in her first dress! (it's about time!!) She met all of Woody's mom's family for their Christmas gathering. Isn't she adorable? Again, sorry I don't know much about this blogging and I can't figure out how to flip the photo!

Mrs Maglinger's sisters holding Hope and Susanna. We like this shot because you can see her in the painting above as well so it's almost like they are all together.

More fun with Adult I

Our Sunday School class had it's Christmas party at the Taylor's this weekend. The theme was tacky Christmas. Here's Paul... and Bobby and Beth. Bobby was the winner of best outfit. This couple is so creative. They both made their own outfits.

Julie with our little Hope. We had a great time. Thanks Chip and Ashley!

Another big step for Hope!

Hope has moved into her own room and is sleeping in her crib now. She made the transition very easily. Mom is okay with it- only because I've got the tv screen style monitor! Here's Hope falling asleep in the glow of one of her favorite toys the Sea Horse. Don't worry all you SIDS police, we take it out of her crib after she's asleep and the 8 minutes of music that it plays have ended. Here's Hope on her first day in the crib. This is her just before her first nap in the crib. She loves her mobile. It's almost as intersting to her as our ceiling fan!

We've got lots of new photos!

We've taken lots of new photos of Hope! She's had many milestones as well... first road trip, beginning to (cross your fingers!) sleep through one night time feeding, and now rolling over from front to back. She's also becoming much more alert and somewhat responsive. Daddy and Hope during one of Woody's lunch breaks. It's nice to have him home for an hour each day to give Mom some adult interaction in her day.

Getting some attention from her uncles at the Maglinger Thanksgiving dinner.

Hope and her cousin Susanna getting to spend some time together.

The Sansom family gathered in Gatlinburg for Thanksgiving this year. Here's Hope resting in front of the fire place...once again on her belly!

Hope and Big Pappy. Big Pappy had just "rescued" her from her nap in the "straight jacket." (that's what he calls her swaddle blanket.)

Hope and her Grammy. This is Hope in her new hair bow! Isn't she cute?!

Uncle John and Aunt Christy got to meet Hope for the first time at Thanksgiving also.

Our cabin had a small tree. Hope liked the lights!

Our little buddy Luke was so sweet to his cousin Hope!

The men had some guy time hiking in the woods.

How sweet! Luke holding Hope.

Hope loves her Aunt Christy.

Luke in his batman PJ's.

This picture is from before Thanksgiving. Sweet face huh? This is Hope after she'd been up for the entire night and most of the morning. That day she just wouldn't sleep! Finally at lunch Woody took us for a drive and she finally fell asleep. After that, Hope really turned a corner and learned to be a much better sleeper.

A very tired Mommy and her sweet baby. I love reading to Hope. She's not interested yet, but I still do it.

Growing Up So FAST!

Hope has had lots of "firsts" this past week. Her doctor told us that she should be getting lots of belly time. I had heard babies hate this. Not Hope! She loves it. It puts her to sleep instantly. Unfortunately now she knows what this is like and almost refused to sleep on her back. This has made for some loooong nights for Mom and Dad! Hope's umbilical cord fell off sometime last week as well which meant we could give her a real bath. This is something I'd heard that babies DO like. Once again, Hope's an individual. She hates it! I've learned to get the bathroom much warmer before we do a bath and that has helped some. This is her first bath (no, I'm not choking her!). Things have gotten some better. She tolerates sitting in it and getting her hair washed but doesn't like any part of her body to be washed.

Hillary and her family were in last weekend. Our children got to meet! Here's Jack with Hope. I think they got along well!

This is Mommy's least favorite photo! The doctor also said it's a good idea to teach Hope how to take a bottle earlier than later. Grammy actually gave her the first bottle on Thursday. Here's Dad giving her the second one. I had no idea how much this would bother me. She nursed just fine afterwards and all was well. Not sure she really likes the bottle all that much yet. We'll keep working on it...

I've also noticed this week that Hope likes to look at the things dangling above her on her bouncy seat so I added her toys to her car seat also. She looks at them intently!

Having Fun with Hope

This was last Sunday. Whew. What a day. Hope Marie was NOT happy! Papaw is trying to get a photo of his two granddaughter's in their Cardinal's outfits. This picture pretty much sums up the day! Susanna and Hope just didn't cooperate at all. They were cute in their outfits, though. We'll have to try again another time! Monday was a much better day. Hope was having some fun with Daddy in these next two pictures while Mommy was busy on the phone with her work.

We aren't really feeding Hope these foods, but she is a good eater! She has gained to 8lb 10 oz as of her 2 week check up. They've told us we don't have to wake her in the middle of the night. She usually goes 6 hours between late night and early am feeding. Mom feels great after the extra sleep!

First week at home

Papaw is so proud of his 2 granddaughters! Hope had lots of visitors this week. Here are just a few. Great Granny came to see Hope on Sunday.

Doesn't she have the sweetest face?!

Great Aunt Bobbi brought lunch over.

Getting to know Papaw.

Snuggle time early one morning with Daddy.