Our First Family Christmas

I first have to apologize that it's taken me so long to get this post out! Life has been busy, but fantastic!

This Christmas was especially fun for us as our first Christmas as a family. Maddie made the holidays so much brighter and more special. It is wonderful having a baby around to share the joy with! We travelled out to California to spend the holidays with my family and Maddie was such a trooper! I was a little worried how she would do on such a long flight (and one we had to wake her up at 4am for!), but she is proving to be an awesome little traveller! She handled both flights really well. I think her hardest obstacle when traveling is getting used to sleeping in someplace new. She had a rough time our first night, but was into a good routine by the second day. We can't ask for much more than that!

We had a fantastic time seeing everyone while we were there! My mom arranged two big family get togethers - Saturday was a belated Christmas celebration with my mom's side of the family. Maddie absolutely loved playing with her cousins Paige and Emma! There were about 20 people at the house and she didn't bat an eye at all the new faces and people. She was her cheerful self and charmed everyone she met!

On Sunday, my mom hosted another open house (thank you mom and dad and Dawn!) for my dad's side of the family and our family friends. I think there were probably 20+ people there too and she had a great time! She was able to meet Addy, the daughter of Dawn's friend Courtney, who is just 2 months younger than Maddie. They had a lot of fun together!

On Monday, we visited mom's office and showed off our Maddie girl - she was a huge hit! That afternoon we went up to see my friend Deb, and her two little boys. The boys had grown up so much! On Thursday, we had a fun girls lunch with Kerri, Liz, my mom and some of her girlfriends. Kerri is my oldest childhood friend (I think we've known each other since I was 8...yikes, that makes me feel old!) and I've known Liz for almost as long! Liz, her mom (Karen) and her son (Jack) all traveled down from the Sacramento area just to see us at lunch that day! Thank you to everyone who came! Maddie loved playing with Jack's cars too and she may have developed her first crush! She loved watching Jack and laughing and playing with him!

For our Christmas gift, Dawn, mom and dad got us a professional photo shoot with an amazing photographer, Ashley Maxwell. David and I both fell in love with her eye and style and were so happy that she was able to do the shoot for us! We went over to Capitola on Tuesday and spent a few hours taking photos there and then had lunch in downtown Santa Cruz. It was a gorgeous day - probably about 65 and sunny - and it was so much fun to capture the family and Maddie at this stage. Thank you Dawn, mom and dad for this awesome gift! These photos will be treasured for a long, long time to come! I've included some of the favorites that Ashley had posted on her blog - I just love them!!

Thank you to everyone who made our Christmas visit so special and wonderful! We had an incredible time!!

Maddie is doing great too! She now has 3 teeth, is babbling up a storm and loves to pull herself up to standing on things! She has taken a few steps while holding on to the couch (or other object), but isn't quite standing on her own yet. She is just so much fun and such a joy! We just love, love, love her!!

And now, on to the great photos!!





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Love you all!
Nile, David and Maddie