Christmas break with the Martin's

Ryan's parents and his brother, Craig, were able to come out here for ten days at Christmas. Whenever I told people out here that my in-laws were here for that long I always got a negative reaction with comments like "oh... sorry!" and "uh... I hope you survive that long." But I never feel that way with them and was so happy to have them here. Not to mention that I had three extra people around to help with Lucy (only now I'm back to wondering what to do with her sometimes)! Anyway, we had such a fun time doing lot's of shopping, movie watching, puzzles, baking and cooking, hanging out and relaxing, etc. Ten days went by way too fast!!

Here we are making Danish pastries- a very tasty yearly tradition.

You should see Craig when he's actually trying to flex...ha!

The first 1,000 piece puzzle was done quicker than expected, so Janae bought another 500 piece one as well. Puzzles are also a Martin holiday tradition of sorts.

Here's Lucy rockin' her first triple chin:

These plates look just like Janae's Christmas plates that she uses every Christmas, so when we found the paper version at BB&B, Ryan insisted we surprise his fam with them.

We ventured from a traditional Christmas dinner and went with steak, baked potatoes, salad, and lion house rolls. It was delish.

And for dessert we had apple pie made by Ryan and Craig, and red velvet bundt cake with cream cheese frosting made by Janae.

On Christmas Eve, we had a little family home evening and read the story of the birth of Christ, followed by a bunch of mormon channel Christmas videos.

She was NOT a happy camper for this picture. But she should have been since she had a cute new "baby's first Christmas" ornament behind her on the tree. :)

My mom found this gem of an ornament for Ryan. Fits him perfectly. He loves a good hot dog!

Mark and Janae found this ornament and I LOVE it!

Best stocking stuffer ever:

On Christmas morning we went to church and had a beautiful Christmas program. Then we came home, took a family picture, and then changed and opened gifts.

The contents of one of Craig's boxes. I have some even better ones that I might just hang on to as blackmail in case we ever need it someday. :) My favorite line of this visit came from Craig. We were sitting around in the living room eating ice cream and Craig, who was laying on the floor eating out of the small container sat up, looked around and said, "umm... did anyone see a chunk of ice cream fly somewhere?.... Like, a really big chunk?" haha.

And the best Christmas present of ALL..... SMILES! Real, intentional, non-gas-related ones!!!!

One Month

A couple weeks ago Lucy had her one month appointment. She sure has grown in just 4 weeks! Here are the stats:

21 inches long

8.5 pounds

14.5 head circumference

At one month, Lucy was a content baby when she was not having tummy troubles. She still didn't sleep for more than about and hour or two at a time during the night. She was very alert and awake all the time with her eyes wide open exploring around her. Her newborn clothes finally started to fit and not be too big. She loves lights, especially the Christmas lights on our tree. She could lay and look at them for a long time. It's cute.

Lucy's baby blessing

Today was Lucy's baby blessing in church. Ryan did an excellent job giving her a blessing. It was sweet and thoughtful and promised beautiful blessings. I am so thankful for my little family! My dad was also able to be present in the circle, along with the bishopric. Lucy only let out a small cry once, but was calm and content the rest of the time. Since she is so small though, her little outfit was kind of swimming on her and I wish I would have realized that her headband was on funky in these pictures, but oh well. It's crazy to me that even newborn clothes are big on her sometimes, but she's still growing!

I love this picture with my parents because it shows Lucy's cute dimple that she has.

Grandma & Grandpa Smith's visit

My mom and dad were here this last week and it was heaven. It was SOOO nice to be able to relax and have someone always willing and wanting to hold, soothe, rock, and change Lucy. I love doing all that, but it was amazing to have so much time to get some stuff done, get myself ready, and to just relax. We watched some Christmas movies, made sugar cookies, went out to eat, did some shopping, etc. My life felt a little more normal again! And I'm sure Lucy loved the constant care and attention from her grandparents. Thanks for all of the help, mom & dad! Please come again very, very soon!!

Lucy's first flight

Ryan always "flies" our nieces and nephews around (see here) and they love it. Well, now that we have our own child, he decided that even though she was only 3 weeks old, it was her turn! I think she liked it... well, at least she didn't cry. :)

Our little family

We ran outside really fast this morning and attempted to take a nice family picture of the three of us since we didn't have one. I think they turned out okay considering my parent's are not professional photographers and we did it in about 3 minutes or less. Unfortunately it was the coldest day of the season so far and was 13 degrees outside. Our poor little Lucy was frozen (and so were we!). Anyway, we saved the best one for our Christmas card, but here are some of the outtakes:

And here's Ryan just looking handsome. And keeping the baby warm in that big blanket we grabbed as we ran out the door. She's in there!

Faces of bathtime