What happened to December?!

Oh my goodness...I cannot believe this month is over! I have to say this has been the busiest, most crazy filled Christmas I can remember. I would say around about December 20th I began wishing I had stuck to my original thought I had back in the summer that was something like, "It would be a really good idea to have my Christmas shopping and decorating finished before the baby was born in November....". Oh well, hindsight is always perfect! Somehow all the presents got bought (although they were not wrapped until very late Christmas Eve!) and we made it. Would it be terrible to say I'm glad the holidays are over?! I just want to DO NOTHING!!
ha ha ha :-)

Seriously, we had a very good Christmas and tried to fill it with all of our little traditions we have created since Madelyn has been around. We started by visiting Santa at Fantasy of Trees (picture is on a previous post)...Madelyn told him specifically that she wanted a jewelry box (lucky for Santa it was just a little $10.00 very small jewelry box she saw in the Disney store). She then later was very upset because she forgot to tell Santa to bring Drew a rattle....she'll just tell Santa when she sees him at the mall she decided. We went to the Knoxville Christmas Parade with Papa Chas and had lots of fun...although Madelyn was very disappointed though because "Shoney Bear" was not in the parade this year. Not sure why she likes that bear so much!!

New to our traditions was a little Christmas show featuring all the little dancers at GymBugs (where Madelyn is taking dance this year). Madelyn's class danced to "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree". I was so proud of her up there doing her dance!! Justin always laughs at me because I always get a little teary-eyed at these things...I think being 4 weeks post-partum had something to do with it! It was a sweet little show and I got a huge blessing from some of the performers. There was a cheerleading group consisting of mentally handicapped adults. They did so good on their routine and it was so heart warming to see them having such a good time and being so excited about performing in front of an audience. It was really touching to watch.

So then there was all of the family get-togethers. I won't go in to details about all of those but let's just say we have eaten way to many sausage balls :-). Christmas Eve night Madelyn and I made some special Santa cookies we thought he might enjoy when he came to our house (sorry Mandy! Maybe Evan will give up his cookies next year more readily!! ha ha). She was so excited Christmas morning about seeing all that Santa had left her. She was even more thrilled to notice that Santa did not close the fireplace door all the way when he went back up the chimney (good idea, huh?!). And yes, Santa did leave Drew a rattle in his stocking.

Drew at his first dance recital....:-)

Gabriella Grace Deel arrived on December 23!! Merry Christmas Sara and Stephen!

Madelyn and Drew with Justin's Granny on Christmas Eve. Madelyn loves to play with the magnifying glass at Granny's house.... this picture is so funny of Madelyn!

Our special cookies for Santa!

The shiny little box is the jewelry box...notice the fireplace door :-)

Mimi with her babies!

Opening presents with Avery, Mallory, Riley and Kaylee

Drew is not too excited about his UT puppy dog!

Sophie and Emma are here this week from New Jersey! We have so much fun when Jenny, Pete and the girls come to visit. We opened presents with them last night.

Madelyn disguised as "Fancy Nancy"

My handsome little fella at 6 weeks old

Graduation Day!!!

Bath Time!!

Drew is 5 weeks old today! Here he is taking a bath tonight....

Oh my heavens!

I'm back! Okay, everyone says that having 2 kids keeps you busy and now I know why. It seems Madelyn is adjusting just fine to her new baby brother and daddy is adjusting well too....however, Mommy is having a hard time!!! :-) Maybe it's because I have a newborn baby right in the middle of the busiest time of the year? Or maybe because I am finishing up school and had to take an online quiz the weekend we came home from the hospital or because I had to work on a presentation for school when he was 2 weeks old? Or maybe it's because I am 4 years older than when I had Madelyn and the sleep deprivation is taking a much bigger toll on me now??? Or maybe because I had to go shop for a dress to wear to graduation 3 weeks postpartum (I was asking one sales lady if a particular dress looked okay and she kindly said "honey, that dress isn't going to work....it's too tight. Not exactly what I needed to hear!) ha ha ha....

I'll be okay, really. I'll make the adjustment eventually :-). We did finally get our Christmas tree up and decorated after several days of just the tree being up with no ornaments. Madelyn was very insistent on asking "Is it time to do the ornaments now?" until finally the ornaments came out.

Last night we took about 50 pictures or more (no joke) just to try to get a good one for our Christmas cards. It became kind of funny after a while...Justin and Madelyn were good sports and we finally got a decent picture of our children!!

Drew is growing so fast already. Last week at his 3 week check-up he weighed 8lbs 10oz; he has already gained 2 pounds! We love him so much and Madelyn is especially enjoying him. It has been so sweet to see how her motherly instincts have kicked in. She loves to try to "calm" him down when he is crying by saying "It's okay, it's okay...Madelyn is here". It is really sweet. It will be fun to see how their relationship will evolve as he gets bigger and more mobile. We'll see how motherly she is towards him then!

So yes, graduation is FRIDAY!!! I cannot believe that after 2 1/2 years of non-stop school it is finally over!! It seems surreal right now with everything else going on but I'm sure it will sink in on Friday. God has been so good to work out all of the timing and issues I was so concerned about regarding me going back to school. Madelyn was 2 years old when I decided to quit my job and return to school full-time to be a nurse practitioner. It seemed like such a grueling task at the beginning of it all. How would we afford me not working and the enormous thought of all the student loans?!! And then there was the issue of having another baby. I wanted so badly to have another child before Madelyn got much older. So now it is all behind me- I'm graduating, we may have a ton of student loans but overall we survived, we have another baby now which ended up being perfect timing, and I have a job waiting on me whenever I'm ready to start in January. I could not have made it through school without incredible support from 2 people: Justin and my mom. Justin has been so encouraging and definitely picked up where I slacked around the house! I love you, buddy and thank you so much for ALWAYS being there for me and for allowing me to do this! Mom (& Gene) has helped us in so many ways that I can not possibly name them all! Mostly, she has helped us tremendously with Madelyn. Thank you, thank you mom!

So now I will update everyone with recent pictures of the latest happenings~~~~

Madelyn with Santa at Fantasy of Trees

Here we are freezing our tails off at the Knoxville Christmas parade! Mom and Gene watched Drew at our house...too cold for him!!