Taras Tweets: January 2012

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Two Taras Tweets!

Here are my two little birdies in their matching birdie pjs!! Have I ever mentioned that Costco has the best pjs?! Who would have thought?? And one of my favorite things about having girls is dressing them alike! ;) happy Wednesday!

Friday, January 20, 2012

4 weeks!

My goodness!! How is it that Gracie is already 4 weeks old?!! Time is flashing before my eyes!! Here is a quick update on life at our house lately! It is CRAZY!! I am pretty sure all my posts since Gracie has been born have said that... but seriously! We are all still adjusting to life as a family of 4! It is a new ball game for sure! But even in the midst of all the crazy... I could not be happier! What a blessing our two girls have been for Sam and me! We are realizing more everyday how much we need God's grace and strength in our lives! Because without it Sam and I would have already given up by now! Thankfully the Lord knows just how much we can handle and his grace is new every day! With that being said....

Gracie is just as sweet as she can be! She is being the typical infant... eating, sleeping and pooping ALOT! =) She sleeps most of the day... ahhh the life of an infant!! I would give anything for a little more sleep these days! But we love it when she is awake and we get to see her sweet eyes! No real smiles yet... but I am anxiously awaiting for that sweet, toothless grin!

Like I said... this girl loves to sleep! She is a great sleeper so far (thank you baby wise)!! Besides her routine feedings during the night, she sleeps great in between! PTL! We even had 6 hour stretch the other night of sleep and can I tell you how wonderful I felt when I woke up and realized I had gotten a good 5.5 hours of uninterrupted sleep!!! Its amazing what that will do for you! On the other hand... Virginia Kate has had quite the adjustment to her sister's arrival. Bless her heart. As much as VK loves her sister... the arrival of Gracie has sent VK for a tail spin...well all of us really! Virginia Kate has always been a WONDERFUL sleeper, but since the arrival of her sister she decided to stop napping and sleeping through the night!!! HELP!! Not only that but she seems very worried all the time and has a new worried look that she sports most of the day. She has become SUPER clingy to me and when I am nursing Gracie, she will do anything she can to distract me and/or gets into things she knows she is not supposed to because she knows I can't do anything about it while I am feeding G! I feel like I have slightly lost my first born! But, I was talking to a friend the other day at Bible study, and she told me that her oldest did the exact same thing when his brother was born. She said it took a good 3 months for everyone to adjust to the new addition and that after about 3 months she felt like she finally had her older son back to normal! What encouraging words those were for me!! The Lord knew I needed to hear that! I will say, every day gets a little easier and VK is starting to get a little better about her naps and sleeping through the night again. But that has probably been the hardest adjustment for all of us! Sam has been wonderful with Virginia Kate through all of this. He is typically the one who gets up with her in the night and the morning since I am still getting up to feed Gracie in the middle of the night. I don't know what I would have done without him and his selfless help! But that is the update on VK! If you think about it, please pray for her especially right now!

As you can see from the pic below, Virginia Kate really does love Gracie... just having a hard time sharing mama and dada's attention with her! I know it will get better...change is never easy! But we are learning so much and probably the most important thing I have learned through all of this is that I can't do it on my own accord. Without the Lord's daily grace and strength in my life I am nothing!!

I love these two girls!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

A Christmas to remember!!

Warning: This blog posting contains an obnoxious amount of pictures! We took so many I had a hard time deciding which to post or not to post so ALOT are posted! This blog post is mainly a memory jogger for me because this Christmas this year was literally a big BLUR coming home from the hospital on Christmas Eve eve! But it was definitly a Christmas to remember with our newest little Christmas blessing, Gracie and our 16 month old Virginia Kate!

This might be my favorite picture of all time...

My girls with their Gigi!

Needless to say, everyone came to our house this Christmas! We usually go to my parents but there was just too much going on so they so graciously came to us! It was very laid back and very fun!

My dad had a huge surprise for me when I came home from the hospital...He brought my grandmother's Christmas village to my house and set it up in my dining room. This might not seem like that big of a deal...but I grew up LOVING looking at my Gran's Christmas village all set up... it brings back so many wonderful childhood memories! Not to mention I was VERY close to my grandmother and I miss her DEARLY!! It hasn't been set up since she passed away back in 2007. So you can imagine the emotion I felt when I walked in my dining room and saw it all set up! I immediatly burst into tears like a baby when I saw it! Possibly one of the sweetest labors of love ever! Thanks Dad! You will never know how much that meant to me!!

This little munckin definitly adds so much joy to our lives! Look at that silly girl! I love her!

VK loving some time with Mae Mae!

This is pretty much the way Gracie spent all of Christmas... she was exhausted from her entrance into this world! Its a hard life!

Sweet baby...

Uncle Buck getting some baby G time!

As you can see... we had a VERY informal Christmas eve dinner! I didn't even make it out of my PJs! The meal was so wonderful... and Sam even busted out a fancy bottle of wine for the wonderful occasion!

Please get the camera out of my face!!

Sam doing his Santa duties! Who knew it would take a good 30 minutes to put together a baby doll stroller!! whew!

Santa went a little over board this year... thank you Gigi and Jack!

Christmas morning shot of my girls! They are ready to see what Santa brought! (Ha... funny thing is neither one even knows who Santa is!!)

And yes... we still do the traditional picture on the stairs at 5AM... yep little Robert still wakes us all up at 5AM and how old are we again?!

Virginia Kate eyes her baby doll stroller for the first time...

I think she likes it...

Yup... she knows just what to do with it!

Showing it off to everyone.....

Robert excited about a new good read...

typical dad.....

Gigi enjoying her coffee, Gracie and watching VK enjoy her new table and chairs!

And it wouldn't be Christmas with out a mullet wig!! Yep, Robert got a mullet wig for Christmas and might I say I was jealous of this gift!! It was an amazing wig!

Hilarious....

Mary McCadden's favorite gift... a painting of her dog... Jok

Tired mama helping VK open some gifts!

Even Gigi tried on the wig...

Then we headed to Yia Yia and Papou's a little later for more Christmas festivities! VK not so excited to have her picture taken!

But she was very excited to open some gifts from Uncle James!

VK wearing her vintage Christmas dress that her Yia Yia bought her!

And last but not least... our Christmas day marathon ended at Sam's Uncle Pete's house for Christmas dinner! This was Sam's grandmother's first time to meet Gracie... precious moment.

I still can't believe she is 91 years old!! I only hope I look half this good!

Sweet hands...

We got lots of great family photos!

so typical....

This is about as good as it gets for a family photo these days!

Uncle Pete took an old toy of Sam's from when he was little and rebuilt it to working order for VK for Christmas... it is a little barking dog... she was very intrigued...