Merry Christmas to you and yours

today is Christmas Eve and it feels like it too! i love that, when it feels like the holidays. sometimes Christmas time rolls around and it just does not feel like it. my Christmas spirit got dampened of course with the ordeal of our Christmas tree trying to commit suicide and it did succeed. we will know rejoice and share Christmas presents under a completely dead tree that is now brown instead of green, but we will STILL rejoice! i made sugar cookies with icing and listened to Harry Connick Jr and i forgot about my brown Christmas tree. then we went to church and watched the little children put on the real Christmas story while i held my sweet child and my husband by my side and that, my dear reader, is what truly put me back in the Christmas spirit b/c Christmas is not about the presents and what we get, although that is nice, but about a tiny little baby who sacrificed so much so that we can REJOICE! So have a wonderful Christmas and hug your family and pet your dog.

Sweetie Baby turned 7 months old on saturday and she woke up clapping, seriously! when she turned 6 months old she decided it was time to sit up and now she is clapping. it is pretty cute if you really want to know. in these pictures you can see what a good guard dog rainy is being. she is really protecting our nice new hard wood floors from any morsel of food that might possible slip by B-Rose. i think rainy thinks that BellaRose is eating her milkbones. the picture of worth and BellaRose is the first time that BellaRose saw snow. granted it is not a lot of snow, but there is in fact snow falling from the sky. she thought it was strange and wonderful all at the same time. well i gotta hit the road and go join in some Christmas eve festivities. we know a couple of kids who are getting a puppy tomorrow for Christmas and i will happily share some pictures with you. have a good time and be careful. we love you.

Music Together

Annie and I took BellaRose and Will to the Music Together
class at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts,this by the way is where Annie teaches her pottery class. Music Together is similiar to Kinder Music I think. It was pretty fun. BellaRose actually had quite a blast. I, on the hand, felt sort of silly dancing around and waving fabric in the air but that is neither here nor there. The exciting part is BellaRose can be anything in life right now. I want to introduce her to as many things as possible and give her the best start at finding her way. I have a feeling that she will really like music. She seems to already and Worth is very talented muscian as well. I bet you did not know that! As many of you can attest to, this girl has some lungs. Mothers with many children have never heard lungs like her's so this could lead to many great things for out Sweetie Baby music wise at least. Of course she could follow in her mother's past and be and amazing cheerleader! Ha, that made laugh pretty good. The only cheerleading I have ever done is cheer on the Atlanta Hawks while Dominique Wilkins was still there. Go # 21! I digress, anyway the point is, Will and BellaRose had a lot of fun at this class and if there is one in your area I suggest checking it out. Will was a little timid at first, but towards the end he got into it. BellaRose from the very beginning was kicking her legs and looking in awe at the teacher. Maybe because she actually heard a good singing voice for once in her life! Whose to say?

updates

our house has been struck. we have the cold! I had it last week, and now poor sweet BellaRose has it now. she sees the red suction ball coming her way and she starts to cry. i don't blame her. i would hate to have my nose suctioned like that. i wish i knew a better way, but until she learns how to blow her nose the red suction ball it will be. i don't think that she really feels all that bad, but her poor nose won't stop running. i am sure it is terribly hard for her to breath. this too shall pass though. i am looking forward to getting out of the house today. i feel like i have been here non stop lately. BellaRose and i hope to finish up our Christmas shopping. can you believe it is a week and a day away. have i told you time flies? i am sure i have mentioned that before once or twice. speaking of, BellaRose will be 7 months old on saturday. she is doing wonderful besides the cold. we have really tried to stick with a routine and she seems to do really well with that. she is a homebody much like myself. so we have stayed put for all of our sanity, not traveled but only for day trips. that has made our life so much easier. i am not sure when we will be able to travel again but for the time being this is just fine. she is eating like a champ. you can give this girl anything and she loves it! what a blessing that has been. right now she is completely in love with her Earth's Best Teething Biscuits. you give her one of those and you better watch your hand because those 2 little teeth will get you. we have given her all sorts of "solids" and the whole time she is eating she is saying "mmmmm". last night i gave her some avacado and she LOVED it. she still only has 2 teeth. i was thinking she was getting more, but she is sticking with those 2 right now. Worth has been working on some "frustration" crawling techniques with her. i am not sure how well those are going. he puts something out of reach for her and tries to get her frustrated enough where she will want to get it. i just feel sorry for her. my poor little baby on her belly crying. oh it is a sight. i have to tell you i am just fine with her not being mobile. we finally are able to just set her down and she actually can entertain herself. it has been heavenly. well i just thought i would update you on what Sweetie Baby has been doing lately since we haven't really told you. enjoy this wonderful time of year and remember why it is so important. a lot of times that just simply gets lost in all the things we HAVE to day. take a break and rejoice!

don't you just love her radio flyer push wagon. it is a big hit. this is her early Christmas present from my Dad and Charlotte. thank you!

Angela's 3?!

heading to Greenville this morning to go see my sisters and my mama. We are going to be celebrating the birthday of Angela, one of my wonderful sisters. her birthday is actually tomorrow, but we will pretend it is today. I love you probably more then i tell you. i am thankful everyday for you! where in the world would i be without my sisters! one lonely girl that is for sure. Happy Birthday big Sista! You deserve all your hopes and dreams!

it is dying!

my tree, is fading quick! i mean i know things die when you cut off their life support, but this is like nothing i have ever seen. i am pretty sad about this. i usually keep my tree up until new years day, but i have a feeling this is not going to happen. i guess when you have a tree that was in a flood plain and had been flooded, and the trunk is all mush then this will happen. i pull on a limb and all the needles fall off, every last one of them. it stopped drinking water awhile ago. you would think it would be happy to be loved so much and to want to be a christmas tree, but i think it liked just being a tree better. 'o christmas tree!

my new plan is simply to not touch the tree. that works out right? especially when you have a yellow lab who is in a constant state of tail wagging and likes to hit the tree with said tail!

fun ole fashion family Christmas

So we had our Christmas party this weekend and it was a BLAST! Fun was had by all! We had 2 kinds of homemade chili. Thank you Angela for the amazing green chicken chili. It was a hit and quickly gone. We watched the movie outside by the fire on the side of the house and I have to tell you, it was fabulous. If you have never watched a movie in your backyard before I highly recommend it. I could hardly sit and watch the movie b/c I was so excited about it. I had to capture a picture of Clark and cousin Eddie talking with the moose cups. I almost bought a couple just to have around the house, but they were a little expensive, maybe next year, because I gotta tell you this will be a family tradition for sure. Thank you to all the good friends that came and hung out with us, we sure do appreciate you! It was real nice.

and while we are on the subject of Christmas I have to tell you about the wonderful experience my sister and I had at 1 o'clock in the morning. I was going to turn out the lights on the tree, closing up the shop for the night. As I was backing out of the corner that the light plug is in I sort of tripped, well as I was falling back the tree decided it wanted to join me on the ground. That is right, it fell on top of me. As you know now it is an ENORMOUS tree. This enormous tree also holds a lot of ornaments and drinks a lot of water. Oh man if you could have seen my sister and I scrambling around trying to pick up this tree, hold it upright, clean up the water, and all the broken ornaments on the ground, you might die of laughter. I am sad to say though that a couple of my favorite ornaments did not survive the fall. I was pretty bummed out about that. This is the 3rd time the tree has fallen, the 1st time with all the lights on it though. If it falls again I have to tell you it might be the end of my tree and and the end of my Christmas spirit. Although I might have to ask myself what would Sparky do, AKA Clark W. Griswald.

BellaRose's stats are in from her 6 month check-up. She weighs 14.1 lbs and 26 inches long. She is still a tiny baby and I love it so much. She got her shots and the flu shot. I feel good about it. I know we are doing the right thing for our baby. It could be different for other people, but for us this is good. She seems to be changing everyday. We are working on a third tooth and sometimes I think that causes her issues but for the most part it is just a whole lotta drool!

o Christmas tree o Christmas tree

i give you theGrant family Christmas tree..................>

we had to take 2 feet off of the tree. as you can see the top had to have some off as well. it is a wonderfully beautiful tree though and BellaRose loves the lights on it. i love this time of year. have i told you that before?

there is not much going on around here. just getting ready for the holidays and watching a 6 month old baby change everyday, wrapping presents, and planning for our Christmas party. don't forget to come! we are going to be having a couple of different kinds of chili, cookies to decorate, marshmallows to roast, and movies to watch.

6 months

like i said, BellaRose turned 6 months old on thanksgiving day, how appropriate. we are so thankful for our little precious bundle of joy. she is amazing, and i cannot get over that she is 6 months old. how has it possibly gone this fast! when we first brought her home, and it was so hard, i wondered if it would always be that way. then all of the sudden Worth and i became parents. i mean of course we were parents when she was born, but i feel like there was this magical transformation and things stopped being hard, and just became normal. well normal to us now. they are still hard, but i could not imagine it any other way. i am so excited to have her around for the holidays. she is already in wonder of Christmas lights. this is going to be oh so very exciting. thank you for sharing the journey with us. your encouragement got us through a lot of difficult times. we are thankful for you as well!

we went to the High Country the day after thanksgiving to get our Christmas tree. it was snowing up there and perfect weather for picking out our tree. we got an amazing tree, but we worked hard for it. we visited 6 farms, count it, 6 farms until i found the perfect tree. this, of course, wiped B-Rose out. that is her asleep in the bjorn stuffed in Worth's jacket. it was the sweetest thing ever. anyway, we got this amazing tree, you know like the ones that Williams-Sonoma would charge you and arm and a leg for, right from our very own mountains. we had to cut 2 feet off of our tree just so it would fit in the house. i will get you a picture for the next post. we had a wonderful time driving through the land we love!

odds and ends

BellaRose has been helping me prepare the Thanksgiving feast and it has been quite exhausting for her. This will mark her first official holiday and her turning 6 months old! I CANNOT believe that we will have a 6 month old. She will have been in the world for 1/2 a year. I just can't get over it. Anyway we will talk about that milestone later on in the week.

A little FYI for you we are having our Christmas party on December 1st! After the Holly Jolly parade here in black mountain, we will come home to chili, a fire outside, and some "Christmas Vacation" projected onto the side of the house. Come one come all. Consider this your invitation. We are spreading this party through word of mouth so get those gums a smacking. Our guest room will be occupied, but feel free to bring a tent or an air mattress and we will have a big slumber party. You may want to bring blankets and sleeping bags anyway since we will be watching the movie outside! okay well I must go prep some food. talk at you later!

ode to katie!

we got a package in the mail yesterday and it was from our friend katie in grand rapids michigan. it was those tiny little mittens on BellaRose hands. Katie made them just for our Sweetie Baby. She also made that wonderful dress that she is wearing too. i am so honored to call her MY friend. we met many many summers ago at camp. we were both on staff and her, jessica, and myself became fast friends. we have not seen each other since that summer but i consider her a very dear friend to me and now my husband and child. when i brought the mittens home and showed worth he knew right who they were from. how special! i just had to share this wonderful person with you and to encourage you to go to her etsy shop and look and buy. there is some beautiful items there. thank you katie for the dress, for the mittens, and most importantly your friendship!

traditions

**this just in~ we are getting snow!**
we are having thanksgiving at our home this year! we are starting our own traditions. i could not be more thrilled. Worth and i usually travel for the holidays, taking turns in between his family and mine. last year while pregnant we said it would be the last year that we travel. we want BellaRose to be home for the holidays. i always loved being in my home for thanksgiving and Christmas. nothing like waking up Christmas morning and seperating your presents from your siblings and counting who got more (me :)). so we are hosting the thanksgiving festivities at our house for some folks on our new table. let the good times roll. i am meticulously planning the menu right now, getting my shopping list together. i shall start to cook this weekend. the first thing i will cook for our 1st thanksgiving at home is key lime pie. yes you read me correct, key lime pie. i told you we were starting our own traditions. i am sure the pilgrims in key west had key lime pie! so my question to you is, what will you be making for thanksgiving and what traditions do you enjoy? i want to know, maybe we will incorporate that into our families traditions!

and as promised here is my fabulous new chair given to us by my mother for Christmas. isn't it wonderful. you should come sit in it. you won't be disappointed! i am working toward getting that green bench/coffee table. my house is coming together. we are slowly but surely starting to not look like college students. not that there is anything wrong with looking like college students, one of the best times of my life!

randomness

so this is how it is going to work, my friends. i have been "tagged" by katie. this means that i have to write 10 random things about me and then, in turn "tag" some other people for them to do the same, and they "tag" someone else. do you get it? i did not at first, but now i do. sort of like those e-mail forwards where we have to answer the questions like... hugs or kisses? depends on who is giving them. pink or red? really neither. okay so here we go 10 random things about me that you may know you may not.

1. while driving i count horse strides in between light post

2. i was not real excited about being a mom when i got pregnant, but now i can't imagine it any other way!

3. i was a real big worrier when i was little, but now i surpress it, not very well at times. the other night i woke up worrying i was going to die.

4. i hate touching feet, especially when they have socks on them.

5. i love being copied, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

6. i always knew Worth and i would get married, even when he was telling me we weren't

7. i took flute in 2nd and 3rd grade and only learned one note the entire time, ONE NOTE!

8. i am 1/2 irish too

9. i always have to enter and exit the same door at the grocery store and i always have to go to the produce section first even when i don't need produce

10. i used to listen to jazz flavors everynight while growing up in ATL, it helped put me to sleep

okay so those are 10 very random facts about me, now i must "tag" some folks and i believe it will be the Atlanta crew. you can play if you would like, it would be oh so fun if you did, if not it is cool and we can talk about it later :). i tag Missy because she has a "spirited" baby too, Rebecca because she loves High School Musical and she bought Emerson UGGS, Catherine because she is pregnant with a girl! and had 2 little boys already, and finally Erin because she told her husband she did not want and iPhone when he offered to get her one (what?!)

as i was saying earlier. BellaRose is now getting teeth! she has 2 so far. they are there and they are sharp! i don't have any pictures of them yet b/c she is not ready to show them to the world. when she is i will be sure to share them with you.
here is our new table!!! i LOVE it. it took some convincing, but i love it! it is counter height, extra workspace (that was one of my selling points to the husband). this is also our christmas present from worth's parents. i believe that furniture is the theme this year for christmas, and getting your presents early. my mom bought us a beautiful chair, which i need to get a picture of, for Christmas. we may have no presents to open under the tree, but we sure will be sitting on some nice furniture looking at the tree!

4 years

welp! 4 years. it has been 4 years since Worth and I have been married. for the past 8 years he has been my "other". we weren't always "on" for those 8 years, but for the past 4 we have been in wedded bliss! we have done many things and seen many things, but I believe our greatest acomplishment as a couple has been BellaRose. It is no easy task being a parent. it has been down right hard at times, but i could not imagine having a better man by my side. he has seen me at my weakest moment sobbing on the floor of our closet after someone told me i was still pregnant when BellaRose had been outside of my body for sometime. it wasn't just her words that took me to that point, but the culmination of being pregnant and the postpartum, and just dealing with all the hormons of no longer being pregnant. he held me and told me that i was the most beautiful. to me that moment was untouchable and i am forever thankful for that... that......girl who said that to me. in that moment i had to turn to my husband, not my friends or my family, but MY HUSBAND. we have had many spectacular moments, and some not so spectacular moments. i would not change any of them. our wedding was amazing. everything was just as i wanted it to be, yeah maybe i should have worn a veil, or carried flowers, but those little details don't matter, not one bit. the only thing that matters to me is that i married the man i love so deeply. so heres to us, and heres to many, many more years together living, and loving!

so little time

*update* ~ BellaRose is working on her first tooth. i see the sharp little thing on the bottom row!
i made sauce today, spaghetti sauce. in the process of making sauce i looked in the fridge, so i cleaned the fridge. while cleaning the fridge i looked down and saw some dog hair. so i go get the vaccum in the garage. while i was in the garage i saw the laundry, so i got the laundry out of the dryer. so when i walk back in the house i smell the wonderful aromatic smell of garlic and see the wine that i "had" to put in the sauce, i decided that i would have a glass. while getting a glass my mind wondered to how plastic is effecting (affecting? never got those right) my baby, so i came to jessica's blog to look at what plastic is doing to BellaRose. while i was at the computer i thought i would check my e-mail. i look down i see dog hair, crap! i forgot to get the vaccum. so i walk through the house to get the vaccum to clean up the dog hair, and then see the bottle of wine, crap i forgot to get a glass, while i was getting the glass i see dog hair! crap, i forgot to get the vaccum, AGAIN, so i walk by the stove and look at the wonderful red sauce simmering, and crap!, i forgot all about the sauce!!!
i am happy to tell you that the sauce is made, the dog hair is vaccumed, BellaRose was fed, and the laundry is still sitting in the basket. i have not solved world problems or let alone what i will do about plastic, and vaccines, but hey at least the sauce is made right?!

A whole new world

As I told you before BellaRose is completely weened from the swaddle. We are so thankful that it did not take that long to do, we just had to persevere. She has discovered a whole new world of sleeping. This is her sleeping the other day. She loves being on her side. Right now she is asleep on her belly, sucking her thumb. 2 things that she has never done before. This freedom she has discovered in her sleep has been awesome. She is sleeping through the night for the most part. She will wake up a couple of times and whine, but will fall right back asleep. Her naps have been sound and she sleeps for awhile. The other day Worth came home after one of these sound naps and she was in such a good mood. She was laughing and squeling. I think it made his day. Life is really changing around her. Her personality is coming out more and more. She is on solid foods 3 times a day. She loves to eat. So far we have of course had rice cereal, sweet potatoes, bananas, and right now we are on carrots. She loves it all!

Worth asked me the other day if I would recommend the swaddle to people, and I am up in the air on that issue. We loved it when we brought her home. We would swaddle her up and she would go right to sleep. Weening her from it was a huge pain, but from what I am learning we are in a constant state of weening our babies, from nursing, from the pacifier, from the thumb, the list goes on and on. I have wondered if the swaddle is what kept her from sleeping well in "other" situations. But I believe the bottom line is, this is just.who.she.is. Like Missy says, she is spirited. I like that. She is a fighter, she is persistent, she is sassy, but she is o'so sweet. It is challenging at times, not having a easy going baby, but I hear they make fabulous toddlers. Amen on that!
I head out for Atlanta again this weekend. This is the 1st time I am leaving my baby so it will be a fast trip. I am going for Sumner's Cocktail party to celebrate her wedding in Greece. I am looking for to it, but I am going without Worth and the baby. The last trip to Atlanta with her was WAY too hard. We will see how this goes. I am excited for the break, but also know it will be super hard for me. I will let you know how it goes.

I could not resist this picture. Don't you just want to eat her up!

This is her rolling over for the 1st time! She made is all the way over that arm. She got pretty mad once she learned she was on her belly, but she is liking the belly more and more.

Ya'll have a great weekend. Play hard.