Baby's First Christmas

Well it was an absolutely WONDERFUL 1st Christmas for Maddie! We had our worst snow storm in 40 years, so her first started out indeed as a white Christmas. We jam packed our week, with lots of last minute shopping, and some fun festive events. We made cookies with Grandpa Doug and Aunt Angie on Monday before, and headed out and about in the horrible driving conditions to get everything ready for her first BIG holiday!

Christmas Eve was spent with both sides of the family, in our grandest of traditions! We ate amazing prime rib with the Christopherson's, and it was top notch as always. In addition to the amazing piece of meat, we had lefsa, which is and will always be my favorite holiday tradition. I hope to be able to have Ethan and Maddie share in it as they get older! We opened gifts, and had a wonderful time! Maddie got some cute outfits, and some small toys! It really was a lot of fun, but honestly, what can you get a 1.5 month old for Christmas? It's tough shopping! haha...

Then we headed over to the Porter's for late night gift opening, in it's finest tradition. We attempted secret Santa's on both sides, and have come to the conclusion that we'd rather go back to the way things were. Ethan and Maddie definitely made out like a bandit.

Sadly, Ethan hasn't taken too much of an interest in Santa yet, so my attempts were futile when it came to putting out cookies, and having gifts left under the tree. Hopefully next year he'll be more cooperative.

Maddie sure was loving her stocking gift opening from mom and dad! We bought her mostly rattles and noise making toys, which oddly enough we never really had for Ethan. It was fun to see her face in reaction to the noises and sights as we opened them. Here's some fun moments of Christmas morning at the Porter household!

I just love the new expressions Maddie is starting to make. Of course she'll still giving us good smiles, and she's starting to talk here and there, finding her voice. It really was an awesome Christmas this year. Our first family Christmas!

Well in the excitement of the Christmas season, we've started to notice our littlest of little loves doing a first! SMILES! And let me tell you, it is by far the cutest smile I have ever seen in my life, well okay, I lied, it's exactly tied with how cute her brother's smile is. But it is so precious to see her little face just light up. We've found her "smile spots" on her face, where we can tickle her to get a good reaction. It's actually quite precious.

Along with noticing how wonderful her smiles are, we've also been having fun just playing around and taking pictures of her. Daddy especially takes great interest in loving on his baby girl!









I do so adore the family that we've created. We just feel complete! Not that we didn't when Ethan was born, but things just fit, and feel right now! Our wonderful family of four!


The three greatest loves of my life!






and of course, what fun is it being a mom, if you can't play dress up with your daughter! My aunt Monica bought this wonderfully cute little hat for Maddie, and thank goodness, because we have the most perfect season for it. When I put it on her, I couldn't help but laugh, and tear up with joy because of how stinking cute she was in it. It's one of the most amazingly cutest things I've seen on her. So I took some photos, and wanted to share them with you! Enjoy!



and of course she loves it too!










We're just excited as she becomes more alert these days, waking up longer, and spending time looking around. She's so strong, her grip, her neck, just very interested in figuring things out. We're having so much fun going through all of this again!

Maddie meets Santa!

I must admit that in the Christmas season, one of the things we are So blessed with, is a grandpa (my dad) who has the ability to get a Santa suit! It is one of the most excellent experiences in the world, not having to fight the mall crowds, and pay an arm and a leg to get a good (well, as good as they can get) shot of our kids with some stranger.

So this year, we had our session, first one ever during the day, and later than usual. We dolled the kids up, and got ready to get not only our annual shots, but to get our first Christmas pictures of Maddie with Santa. The experience was fun, and miserable, all at the same time. Ethan of course, in his two year temperament, and no matter how many times was told and shown that Santa was just grandpa, would of course give us no cooperation. But we did come away with some AMAZINGLY cute photos of our little Christmas baby! We will continue this tradition (hopefully) and as the kids get bigger, will come away with some great Christmas memories. Though let me tell you, a screaming child is no reason to not take some photos for blackmail later in life!

Maddie's 1st Snow Day!

Well - - as most of you around here know, we've witnessed Winter Storm 2008! On top of the awesomeness of seeing nature's winter miracles, it was awesome that Maddie got to see her first snow day so early in life. And so we decided to catch this "Christmas Miracle" on film...

We bundled her up as best we could, and headed outside, to see how she'd react to this cold, cold, weather that we've been experiencing.

In some aspects, she didn't mind the weather so much, but the first initial shock of the coldness was not pleasing to our little Madito!

And then the cold hit... and as you can tell... she was LESS than happy about the conditions to which she was surrounded with.

look at that face... our daughter is NOT a snow bunny!

look how cute Maddie and Daddy are together! What a fun first time in the snow! We love our little bundle of joy... even if she doesn't appreciate the snowy goodness right now!

Christmas with Maddie!

Well - - as Christmas time is approaching, we are learning the difficulties of baby's first Christmas, when baby is so small still. Though we're definitely making the most of this wonderful time of year. One of the traditions I've really tried to hold on to is always having Christmas photos taken of Ethan, and I'd like to continue this tradition with my beautiful little lady. So we embarked on a photo session with our two little ones, and needless to say, though the experience was less than fun, the moments captured are well worth it.

We decided to find the cheapest photo package we could find (because after all, we're not made of money), and ended up going where we had had Ethan's taken at 6 months for his first Christmas. Though really, they weren't actual "Christmas" pictures. Ethan of course was LESS then cooperative, and wouldn't sit close to his sister without having to "take a moment". So we, I kid you not, got ONE photo of the two of them together. And thank goodness it was SO precious!

Maddie of course was not very cooperative either. We'd have to plug the "bink" in her mouth until she'd calm down, then take it out quickly to get a shot of her, before she'd start crying again. It almost felt defeating! And let me tell you, it was worth the $5 the package cost us. But there were some OH so precious moments caught on camera, that we were so thankful for.

I love this photo, because really, it was just Allan calming our little bundle of fury down because she was SO upset, and it just shows that sometimes, all a girl needs is her daddy!

And in all honesty, who could NOT love that face. She's so amazingly beautiful. I can't get over how blessed I have been with the good lookin' kids that have been welcomed in to our household. I just stare at them in amazement of how so very cute and cuddly they are.




So look for your Christmas cards, they should be coming soon (as long as I have your address) - - though in truth, none of these pictures will be on them! haha... There will be more Christmas memories to share as Santa visits our home in the next couple of days to do our annual photo shoot! But I'll share more later.

Eventually, I plan on being able to take these photos on my own, because I love photography and want so badly to be able to do it for the rest of my life. But for show, I will let the not so professionals worry about getting my kids in good light!

The FIRST Bath at Home!

Well... our second little one has proven to be just as modest as her big brother. Amongst getting used to the schedule of a new born again, we are remembering the fun of first. Since we had been home for a few days now, it was time to give Maddie her first bath. I had been taught a really good trick by my delivering nurse regarding how to give babies baths in the beginning. So we started with the unpleasant part. As you can see, she was less than thrilled.

But then the fun part began. After getting her full body wash, it was time to wash that WONDERFUL head of hair! And wouldn't you know it, she LOVED the sound of the running water. She calmed right down, and allowed us to run her head under the water. All swaddled up, she just patiently allowed us to finish up with her bath.

She is so precious about getting her hair washed too! She'll move her head from side to side, depending on which side we're attempting to get wet or rinse off. She's a natural already!

It's the best shot I could get of her being held under the faucet, but her face is so precious when she's getting her hair washed!

Then it was finished, and she was at peace! All swaddled up! We had a wonderful first bath, and have had a few good ones since. But we're mostly excited for when she's big enough to sit in the big bubble bath! But we're still quite a few months away from that!