Santa's Tiniest Elf

Last year during the pregnancy, we found a Santa hat that reads Baby's 1st Christmas. Well, we dug it out of the closet tonight and were able to get a few good pictures....our faves...

First trip to see Santa

2 nights ago, Gillian was accompanied by an entourage of people to see her sit on Santa's lap for the first time. Aunt Amy rode along with us to Crown Center and we were met by Shaun and Lisa and Sara and Jason. We had a great time, and Gillian didn't cry one time. Since we had to wait around an hour to visit with Santa, I'd say that's a pretty big accomplishment for her (especially since I forgot to pack toys in the diaper bag!).

While patiently awaiting her turn to sit on the big guy's lap, she decided (well, we sat her down, but who's keeping track) to take a seat in the Crayola playhouse.
Here she is with Santa Claus...

Here is a great picture of her with Sara and Jason...

2 posts in 2 days???

I know, I know...you looked outside this morning and there were no pigs flying, so you thought there was no way that I could POSSIBLY post today.....well, I've somehow defied logic and decided to post again. I put together a little montage and wanted to share it. I had planned on emailing it to the Smith family, but it was around 30 MB when I was done, which far exceeds any attachment size limits that I've seen. So, I was relegated to sharing it this way. Thank you to Abby for taking the pictures at Grandma and Grandpa's...they lent themselves well to a montage :)



Also, I know this may be cheesy to some of you, but it humbled me a little bit. I heard about this site on the way to work this morning. After they talked about it for a bit, they played the song that you can find on the website. Just a reminder about all of our troops serving our country who will not be able to be with their families this Christmas. The site.

Life at a breakneck pace

I am so sorry it's been so long since I've written. I last posted on Thanksgiving; which seems like just yesterday, but somehow we're only 8 days away from Christmas. In the past few weeks, Gillian has grown so much. She can sit on her own for a little bit and is doing her level best to crawl. We still think she's a few weeks away from being mobile, but it won't be long...

We have been dealing with quite a bit of weather over the past 2 weeks, and luckily everyone that we know here in Kansas city has avoided the worst of it. Unfortunately, 2 of Michelle's siblings and their families were hit pretty hard with the ice storm and were without power for a time. You can see more pictures and read a narrative of the storm on Don's website. Mother Nature is truly amazing sometimes; I just wish we could have the picturesque scenes without the hardships that are endured as a result of the storms.

This past weekend, we spent our time in Iola at the Smith family Christmas. This is my mother's side, and all of her sisters were present with most of all of their children present. Gillian was able to visit extensively with all kinds of people. She was especially excited to see her second cousing Caitlin. They had not seen each other since cousin Eric's wedding.

I keep thinking of things to write about, so I apologize if this doesn't flow very well....last week, Gillian was at the babysitter and her friend Campbell decided that Gillian was being a pest, so Campbell bit Gillian on the face, directly below her eye. We took some pictures, but the pictures really didn't do it justice in hindsight. Other than the initial shock of being bitten, Gillian is showing no ill effects from the incident...however, that being said, you should see the other kid :). Just kidding, no retaliation was taken in this incident.

On a much more serious note, the family of the girl who bit Gillian experienced a great loss this morning around 3 am. Their house burned in Kansas City, KS. At this time, I do not have any more information, but please keep their family in your thoughts and prayers, especially during this special time of year. I will post any more information that I may receive.

In addition to all of this, I saw something today that deemed worthy of posting. George Martin, former NFL defensive end for the New York Giants is walking across the country. Unlike so many other efforts, this is not to gain notoriety for performing such a feat. He is doing it to help raise money and awareness for the heroes of 9/11. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of individuals who are suffering from the toxic combination of dust and airborne particles that accompanied the Twin Towers' collapse in lower Manhattan 7 years ago. You can read more about George Martin in Peter King's column for SI.com; or you can visit George's website. An extremely interesting read....

Happy Thanksgiving!

One of my favorite holidays is upon us...maybe it's because it involves football and food :), but I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Michelle and I are truly blessed to have so many beautiful people in our lives, and lucky for us, today gives us the opportunity to give thanks for so many blessings.

We are spending our holiday weekend in Tulsa with Grandma and Grandpa Youngman, Aunt Catherine, and Uncle David. We escaped KC in the midst of our first winter storm yesterday afternoon. Living in the heart of the midwest, I truly believe you can experience all 4 seasons in a 24 hour time period....it was 75 degrees on Tuesday, and 31 and snowing yesterday (Wednesday). Um...wow. I was wearing shorts last weekend for cryin' out loud!!!

Lots to update with our Gilly bean. We went to the doctor on November 14 and Gillian weighed 14 lbs. 11 oz. (which put her in the 80th percentile for weight) and was 25 3/4" long (90th percentile for height). The weight thing I can understand...but since when do I have any genes that would allow her to be tall.....regardless of how old she is....??? We were in Gas with Nana and Pops last weekend when Gillian rolled over from back to belly. That happened on Saturday, when she was 4 months and 5 days old. Now that she's accomplished that, she has made a habit of rolling around the front room, as if to say 'look at me, I'm mobile!!' Earlier this week (Monday the 18th, I believe) we gave her cereal for the first time. It's a lot of fun, but definitely messy!!

Enjoy your turkey day!!

Here's a little treat that I put this together on the Office Depot website....

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9557254449

Gillian meets cousin Josh

Here is a link to an album that I meant to put out here last week but didn't get a chance. Angela and Joshua visited from Houston for the baptism and the Saturday that they got in, we went to the Farmstead where Michelle worked up until Gillian was born. We took a hayride, pet the goats, got to sit on an antique tractor, and visited the turn-of-the-century 1-room schoolhouse where Abby was the School Marm (yes, that would be my brother's wife Abby). I've attached some of those pictures here, and if you would like to see the entire set, go here.

Happy Halloween!

Tonight, we took Gillian over to the Shawnee Safe-Scare for a little trick-or-treating before we came back to our house to hand out candy. Gillian went down to bed about an hour ago and Michelle and I have been watching Halloween H20. We've only had about 15 trick-or-treaters tonight. We were hoping it would be more, but maybe next year....

Baptism pictures

I don't have too many pictures, but I know that there are several people who have a lot more than we were able to get. Our batteries died not too long afterwards, so there are no pictures of the reception. However, I will share what Garret was able to take for us! As always, you can find the album here, or view it through the slideshow below...

Baptism weekend

Yesterday, Gillian was baptized at Good Shepherd Catholic Church where we belong as parishioners. It was such a special day and a very incredible ceremony. We enjoyed the company of around 30 of our friends and family afterwards at a reception held at our friend Eric's art gallery. It was a perfect day. Once I get the video downloaded to the computer, I will be sharing it for everyone to see. There was a lot of talk about my inability to update the blog in a timely fashion, so I'm making that a big priority as Gillian begins to discover new things and amaze us even more.

I will upload pictures as I receive them from everyone, but before I close for now, I wanted to share this very special story with everyone.

Before I start the story, I want to point out that as you walk into our house there is a fireplace and a mantle directly to your right. To help keep my mom forever in our hearts and the forefront of our minds, a picture of her sits on the mantle. Our nephew Josh, who is 4 shared this with his Mom, Angela this weekend.

Josh: Mommy, who is that? (gesturing towards the picture)
Angela: That's your Uncle Matt's mommy.
Josh: Where is she?
Angela: Well, she is in heaven.
Josh: I don't want her to be in heaven because I haven't had a chance to meet her yet.

Yup, this was definitely a special weekend.

Lots to update

It's been almost a month since I posted anything out here, and I truly apologize. I know all of you out there who haven't gotten to see Gillian any time recently. She is getting very big and we've certainly noticed that the carrier is much heavier than it used to be. She is hardly the same little baby we brought home over 3 months ago. It's hard to even qualify her as a newborn anymore, but she is still the cutest baby I've ever seen!

Last time I posted, Gillian was starting to come down with a cold. She seemed to only be sick for a couple days where she was just really congested and had a runny nose. Now that she seems to have licked that, she's happy as a lark most of the time. She's doing wonderfully at the babysitter and is making all kinds of new friends! One of her new favorite things is to roll over. We have it on video and I fully intend on putting that video out here as soon as I get a chance.

Everything else is going very well. I also have pictures of our trip to South Dakota to our cousin Eric's wedding that I will be putting out here as well.