Happy Three Months, Georgie!

I truly can't believe we have a three-month-old on our hands.  In the last few weeks, George has started laughing.  During bathtime, Clay can get him to do a belly laugh that I can hear across the house.  It makes my heart just well up with joy.

Here are a few of George's favorite things:

George has literally started playing himself to sleep.  Harper really benefits from this, as you can see.  He reaches for the toys hanging down, and giggles when he hits them and they make a sound.  Evidently, this can be exhausting.  I think Harper is longing for the day that George starts to play with her.

George likes tolerates tummy time.  This is the face he makes before he melts down, because he knows we'll rescue him from the most dreaded time of his day.  He has gotten so good at holding his head up, pushing up on his hands, and has rolled over a few times.

As you can tell, his most favorite time of the day, everyday, is bath time!  The only time he stops smiling and laughing is when bath time is over- and trust me, it is really hard to end such a sweet time of the day.

Happy Three Months, George!  You are so, so loved.

A Very Nana Christmas

Christmas celebrations for Clay and I always start at Nana's House.  It is hard to put into words the amount of fun and craziness that goes on in that little garage in Pinson, Alabama.  For the few hours we are all together, there are countless stories, laughter, and tears shared among family.  Things usually get started with the Christmas Pageant.  This year, Hank and George split the roles of the Angel of the Lord, and Baby Jesus. Chase was the Little Drummer Boy, who wore a coonskin cap, of course.

 Nana as Mrs. Claus.

 George as the Angel of the Lord, Hank as Jesus, just before Chase's big entrance.

Goodness gracious.  I just don't think it gets much cuter.

After the pageant is over, we form a circle and there is usually lots of sharing.  This year we all shared the blessings in our life.  How seldom do we share the things for which we are truly thankful, and feel the Lord's blessings in our life?  It was neat to hear everyone's testament of how the Lord is working in their life and in the lives of their families.  

After a time of sharing (and after much coercion), the aunts sang Sleigh Bells.  I'm not sure how long this has been going on, but I absolutely love it.  I mean, whose family has choreographed songs and dances? If this video doesn't put you in the Christmas Spirit...I'm not sure what will.

**Disclaimer: I cannot figure out how to embed videos onto my blog.  While I have been complaining about my frustrations about not being able to link a video, Clay has been working diligently on our nephew's Christmas present.  This has involved the assembling of 12,560 pieces to make one Christmas wish come true.  Maybe I need to keep things in perspective, right?

There is lots of time for visiting, passing around babies, and eating.  And that is just what everyone did.

Sleigh Bells

Santa Claus: Take 2

Clay and I took George to see Santa at Brookwood Mall.  George was not too happy about being woken up for a picture with a stranger, but the memory was captured in this little picture:

I feel like the craziness of George's hair is really portrayed in this picture.  And I love it.

The visit was pretty short and sweet, so we took a few more pictures before heading home.

Merry Christmas!

Too. Much. Fun.

It is 4:16pm on Sunday afternoon and Clay and I are already in our pajamas.  We have just had too much fun this weekend, and it has worn us out.

The weekend started for George and me with a visit to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa with our neighbors, Claire and John Grady.  

Clay and I will still take George to see Santa sometime soon, but we thought we'd do a trial-run at Bass Pro Shop since it's FREE.  It sure is hard to find anything that's free these days, especially a picture of your precious child with Santa.  

(You may need a magnifying glass to find George. Does it remind you of Where's Waldo?)

Friday night, we got to keep our nephew, Rogers.  He was so much fun!  He's always so fascinated in whatever George is doing, which is sort of ironic, since George doesn't do too much, and Rogers is all over the place.  It was time for George's bath, and Rogers needed to go in to supervise.

Then Harper decided that her help was probably needed too.

Then Rogers decided that he was going to need a bath.

We had SO much fun with him, and hope we can keep him again soon!

Bright and early Saturday morning, we packed up the car and headed to Nashville.  Clay had not been back to visit Nashville since we moved to Birmingham in 2009.  It was so great to see our friends there, and George needed to meet everyone!  

We drove straight to Jen's house, where I lived until Clay and I got married.  

We met some friends for lunch, and then walked around Green Hills and Hillsboro Village.  Saturday night we went to dinner and then called it a night soon after.

George slept all night (thanks buddy!), and we packed up our gear (I still cannot believe how much one tiny person needs), and drove around to our favorite places and took some pictures.  I never did that when I lived there, and I wish I had more pictures of the places I've lived.

We took the scenic route to Franklin, and had lunch at our most favorite place in Nashville.  Puckett's Grocery was where we went on our first real date when Clay came to Nashville from San Antonio. They have live music and incredible food at dinner, and a fun atmosphere and great brunch and lunch during the day.  It brought back so many great memories.

By the end of lunch, George was ready to head home.  He slept the whole way back to Birmingham, but I think he had a good time.  Now, we're about to settle in to watch Polar Express.  

I love this time of year.

What a weekend.

You may be wondering how this happened:

It all started at this three-year-old's birthday party.  Happy birthday, Owens!

I have two words for you people: Jump-Jump.  Rogers did a little bit of this:

But he did a whole lot of this:

And when it was time to go...he did this: 

 In short, Rogers LOVED the jump-jump.  He was the absolute last person to leave the party, and he didn't go down without a fight.  Almost as much as Rogers loved playing in the jump-jump, Uncle Clay loved playing in the jump-jump with the kiddos even more.

  

Fast-foward to Saturday night.  George got to have his picture taken with Santa for the first time at a fun Christmas party.  George was pretty disinterested in the events of the night.  

Chase and Hank with Santa too.

On Sunday we celebrated Mama Zo's birthday in Springville.

It was a fun day celebrating such a wonderful mom, mother-in-law, and grandmother.  We love you Mama Zo!

 These two pictures make me so excited for Christmas!  How much cuter does it get??

After a long weekend of fun parties and family time...all George could do was this:

 

Thankful.

This past weekend was Thanksgiving, and what a sweet weekend of family time it was.  I may have mentioned it before, but I really, really love my family.  Equally as big of a blessing, I also really love Clay's family.  The more I talk to friends with in-laws, I am realizing how rare it is to treasure both the family you were born into, and also the family you marry into.  Much to Clay's dismay, I tend to get more emotional sappy around the holidays.  I can't decorate the Christmas tree without getting weepy over sentimental ornaments.  I just love looking around a holiday table and seeing the people I deeply love gathered around.

Can you tell I'm already in the holiday-sappy-thankful-mood??  Now, as Clay likes to say, "give the people what they want!"  Here are some pictures (of George) from a special Thanksgiving weekend.

 This is my view Thanksgiving morning.  I watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and cooked in the kitchen.  Here are my happy helpers.  George is loving his playmat these days, and Harper loves it because she can get so close to him.

 Thanksgiving lunch at Granny and Grandaddy's house.  Here is grandaddy with three of his great-grandsons.  

 The newest Cochran...Hank!  We are so glad he's here...and he could not be any cuter.

 The whole Cochran family at Granny & Grandaddy's house.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 We celebrated my dad's birthday a little early- Happy Birthday, Pop!

 Decorating Saty's tree with Rogers

 One day these two will learn to take a sweet picture.  Until then...I'll take this.

Thanks for our Christmas jammies, Saty!

All-in-all, to say that I am thankful for my family, for Clay, and for George is such an understatement.  How can you not have fun with these faces??