Christmas Day - Santa (morning)

Santa was very good to Emma this year! Here's all of her presents before she got into them.



She got lots from Santa: lots of clothes, several books, stacking cups, a couple Veggie Tales DVDs, a Cabbage Patch Doll who's name is Emma Rose & shares her same birthday (Mommy got one for her first Christmas too!), & her big present was the Laugh & Learn Kitchen.






Thankfully, everything was a hit! Unfortunately, she wasn't too interested in helping unwrap anything. Maybe next year!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we stayed at home during the day & then met David's parents for a quick dinner at Subway before heading to the service at church. The service was very nice & definitely helped us remember what CHRISTmas is all about. Christ with us. My dad's cousin & her daughter-in-law & granddaughter were all there, so it was nice to get to see them again too!

Afterwards, we headed over to Mrs Casto's house (Aunt Barbara's mom) for snacks, singing Christmas carols, & then the reading of the Christmas story & of Santa Claus.







We really enjoyed getting to see everyone & enjoyed introducing Emma to singing Christmas carols. She entertained everyone by bouncing on my lap & growling, so her Papa took her & made her calm down.



A good time was definitely had by all!

We headed home & went to bed - we had to get ready for Santa to come!

Christmas - Sunday

Sunday before Christmas, my dad's extended family was over at my parents' house for their Christmas lunch. We didn't have our Christmas party last year, so this year we had a HUGE turnout. Needless to say, once everyone arrived, I was really too overwhelmed to take any pictures, but here's a few before the party really got going.

My Aunt Nancy & cousin Jared. This is actually the first time Jared met Emma.


My (baby) brother & his crazy girlfriend Amber :)



My sweetie



There were 50+ people at the party & it was great to get to see everyone! We ate too much food, received lots of hugs, & Emma got to meet many of her Great Aunts & Uncles, along with her distant cousins. Of course, she was the star of the show :)

I will skip over Monday & Tuesday of Christmas week. We had a short break before we dove into more Christmas festivities! Get ready!

Happy New Year!

We interrupt the scheduled Christmas extravaganza posting with a message from our sponsors...

Or me, as the case may be.

Happy New Year! I wish you good health & love to you & yours this coming year! Plus, stable jobs. That's good too.

Lots to look forward to this year!

Lots of love,
The Scrivners

(Christmas recap posting will resume later. Maybe tomorrow).

Christmas - Saturday

Saturday was a busy day! First we headed over to Grandma & Grandpa's house (Scrivner's) to have Christmas breakfast & our gift exchange. All of Emma's Aunts & her Uncle were there & all of her cousins, plus even Brad got to come!

We had a delicious breakfast casserole that Aunt Sharon made (it was french toast - yummy!) & had bacon, etc on the side. It was all absolutely wonderful!

Then the gifts began. Everyone was very spoiled, but the grandkids were spoiled the most! We all had a wonderful Christmas!







Then someone we all know well pooped out!



A family picture in front of the tree, & then we had to head out to the next party.



In the afternoon, we headed over to Uncle Perry & Aunt Barbara's house for Christmas lunch with all the Ganns. This included not only my Aunt & Uncle & cousins, & Nene, but also my mom's aunts & uncles & cousins & all their kids. It was great fun & Emma & Maddy were by far the stars of the show, passing from one person to the next. I even got a chance to hold Maddy for a few minutes, which I loved :) I'm starting to miss Emma being that small (5 months).

Then Nanny & Papa wanted to keep Emma & show her off to Mrs Sharon, Mr Marc, & Meemaw for dinner, so David & I went to see Four Christmases (pretty cute), had dinner at Zaxby's (fancy), & then ran through the drive through at Starbucks. When we went to pick Emma up, the company was heading out, so we got to see them a few minutes before they left. It sounds like Emma had a pretty fun night herself! :)

Christmas - Friday before

We've had a very busy, but blessed Christmas! I hope you all did too! I'd like to do a recap, but there are many pictures & things we did, so I think I'll go by the day. It all started the Friday before Christmas...

Nanny came home from work early, so after Emma got her 9 month shots & a blood draw (things we aren't talking about), we headed over to play.




Then Atchie, Robbie, Chris, Ashley, & Taylor met up with all of us & we went to California Dreaming for dinner & then back to my parents' for our gift exchange.











We all got wonderful gifts & of course Miss Emma was totally spoiled!

Time to update!

Our days are just flying by!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving & hope you did too. This mommy was lazy & didn't take any pictures :( So sorry. Nanny & Papa took a bunch, though, so I'll get some eventually.

I had a job interview last week. I survived, but it was hard. I'm just glad it's over. It sounds like I won't hear anything back until after the holidays.

My baby is wild. She runs (crawls fast!) around all day & eats books & toys & whatever she can get to her mouth. Yesterday she tried to eat the sock I was wearing - yuck! She likes pull all the books out of her toy "box" in the living room & then pulls out all the toys too. Yesterday she figured out how to actually get in the box! She did it once, but then the second time bumped her head. She pulls up like a pro & sometimes can stay balanced for a little while after letting go. Usually though, she sits back down pretty quickly, but it's generally because she's found something else to play with.

She pulls all the lower ornaments off the bottom of the tree (yes they are baby safe) & likes to play with the branches. She tries to pull herself up a little on the lower branches, but hasn't been very successful. She also likes the presents & took a ribbon off & starting opening one of Uncle Cory's presents. Needless to say, she keeps me on my toes.

She likes Puffs & is starting to like Cheerios (they are more bland). We've been through most of the baby food jars (purees), so I'll ask the Dr on Friday what we should try next. We've done all the stage 1s & 2s. Oh and she eats yogurt & has had turkey, chicken, & beef baby food. So yeah, foodwise, we are moving right along. She seems to really have the chewing action going, so we can probably try something more solid soon. I also bought mesh feeders, so she'll probably like that. She's finally learned how to hold her bottle herself & feed herself & does SO well. She has totally been holding out on us all this time. This morning I actually finished getting ready while she fed herself a bottle. It was wonderful.

Today we went to Target & Babies R Us with Shelly to help her register. We really enjoyed helping her pick out all the cute baby stuff & I picked up a few things for Emma's stocking. I officially only have 3 more gifts to buy, which I should finish up tomorrow & Friday. Tomorrow we're going to Nanny's work to have lunch & for Nanny to show off Emma & Friday Emma has her 9 month Drs appointment. I'm acutally going by myself to that, so I'm not looking forward to it.

This weekend is looking pretty busy! We have Christmas with Atchie, Robbie, & kids on Friday night. Saturday morning we'll head up to Ball Ground & have Christmas with Grandma & Grandpa, Uncle Brent, Aunt Leslie, William, & Thompson, & Aunt Sharon & Aunt Susan. Saturday afternoon we'll have Christmas lunch with all the (extended) Ganns & then Sunday afternoon we'll have Christmas lunch with all the (extended) Hughes'. Then I think we'll take a long nap!

Then we'll have a couple days break & then Christmas is here! I can't wait to see how Emma will react to all the new toys (not to mention all the awesome paper!) Over that weekend, David's family will be in from out of town, so we'll be busy enjoying them. We are definitely looking forward to it!

Now, a few pictures for the road...





I'm sure next time you hear from me I will have TONS of pictures to share! Get excited!
Hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

Absence makes the heart grow fonder?

Haha, yeah I know. I suck.

Emma's now 8 months old! EIGHT. I can't believe it. She's so stinkin big. She's so busy too. She sits up, she crawls, she pulls up, she cruises. She thinks she can stand totally on her own, but thank goodness, she can't yet. Needless to say, we will have a very fun (busy!) Christmas!

I've started shopping for her. Santa is bringing her a laugh & learn kitchen, as of last night. It should arrive next week. It looks so cute, I hope she likes it! Also, I bought her (early) the little people's nativity, so she's getting that as soon as it arrives. That way she can play with it all the Christmas season. I know she won't get it this year, but maybe next year she'll get it a little more. I still have lots of shopping to do, mostly for family. I think David & I are just going to get a shared big present this year & then maybe a few small things. That's good though, we don't need much.

Thanksgiving is coming up next week! It's hard to believe! Emma is going to have turkey next Thursday too (but baby food!) I'll get her to start trying it this weekend. We'll be staying home this year & going to my Aunt & Uncle's for dinner with my family. It should be fun!

Santa....already?

My mom was off work today to take Nene to the Dr (she had a cataract removed yesterday). Em & I met them for lunch & then we had planned to go to Belk because Nene wanted to. She was too tired, so we took her home & Mom, Emma, & I went by ourselves.

We shopped awhile in Belk & Macy's. Mom got Emma the cutest dress with that is pink with white polka dots & a big snowman on it. She can wear it all winter. Mom was then like, let's check & see if Santa is here yet, Emma could get her picture made. We really didn't expect to see him, but walked to check anyway.

Well, Santa was there! I guess he's been there all week. So we quickly changed Emma into her new snowman dress & she got her picture with Santa without waiting in a line AT ALL. And oh my goodness, was she adorable! She was SO good & smiled & didn't cry or anything. And Santa was super nice & asked her to leave him cookies :)

And now we have a super cute 1st picture of Emma with Santa. And I've talked David into taking me to Zaxby's for dinner.

President Obama

No, I didn't vote for him. But he's now our president-elect. And guess what? I'm proud of America for electing a black man as our president. Although I disagree with some of his views & didn't vote for him, God knows the bigger picture & He's in control, not me, not even President Obama.

I think it really shows how far our country has come in the past 50 years. Back then, I bet many believed a black person would never become president. I think it really shows that our country as a whole is changing for the better & is becoming more accepting of all people regardless of their background or race. And honestly, that's a very good thing. I really want my daughter to grow up in a world where race doesn't matter. That's really the way it should be & it's a shame that it's taken this long.

So although there's a good chance I will disagree with President Obama in the future, I'm proud of what this election means to all of Americans. I think we're finally moving in the right direction.