{Setting up for Christmas}

Christmas is my favorite time of year! The day after Thanksgiving we spent decorating the house for Christmas! The tree is up, the lights are hung, candles are lit, and nativities are set up :)

Evette is fascinated by the tree - she loves the sparkly colorful lights :)

{I love being a Mother}

My dear sweet friend is having a baby any day now and asked me to be a guest blogger and to talk about motherhood over on her blog.
I'm also sharing my thoughts on my blog here so I can have a record of it. At some point I'm going to print out this blog into a book - a little family history thing - and would like this in it :)




One of my most sacred moments of motherhood happened seconds after my precious Evette was born. My labor was a long grueling process, roughly 39 hours of hard labor - I was quite ready for our Little Girl to join us.


Just after Evette entered this world our midwife checked her breathing and then immediately put her on my chest. I was in complete awe - She was here! This was my daughter. I cried and laughed and cried some more. The very moment that she was placed in my arms something changed in me, it was so powerful, almost painful. I knew from that moment forward I would do absolutely anything to help and protect that Sweet Spirit that was entrusted to my care. I would gladly give my life for this child. The overwhelming love and responsibility that swept over me was a very humbling experience. I thought I knew what loves was, but when I held Evette for the first time my understanding of love got about a billion times deeper.

I repeated "This is my baby girl... This is my daughter... This is my Evette..." over and over and over, introducing her to myself, my husband, and all the helping midwives. I couldn't believe that she was finally here and how perfect she was.




Evette is an angel and has drastically changed our lives for the better. She has the sweetest demeanor and teaches me daily how to be a better person. As I am typing this one handed and holding my precious sleeping baby I am reminded to treasure every second we have together. I love being a Mother.

{Thanksgiving Day!}

We had Thanksgiving dinner with the Binns side of the family and it was freakishly delicious. Turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy are my absolute favorite. I could eat that every day of my life and be happy. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the food, but you better believe it was beautiful as well as tasty!

Great Grandma Binns and Great Uncle Matthew with Evette

Gotta love those sweaters!

Sam was showing the husband his Pokemon collection :)

Turkey Coma...

Evette and I took a nap on the couch :)

There were lots of games and laughter and talking after dinner. It was so much fun spending time with the family!  

We decorated the Christmas tree as well!!!

{Zoo on Thanksgiving!}

Did you know that the Hogle Zoo was open for Thanksgiving? Well, it was, so of course we went :) Evette loved going to the Bean Museum so much and we knew she would love the zoo - and she did! For Thanksgiving the zoo keepers gave the animals pumpkins for them to play with. The elephants were the cutest. Here are some pictures.

Happy Thanksgiving - these turkeys are lucky that they are in the zoo and not on a dinner table :)

The lion water fountain was out of commission due to the cold... sad day.

sometimes I think Evette looks like a monkey :)

Of course we spent a good long time at the elephants - they are my favorite, and Evette's too!

Here's a camel who does not look very interested at all with his pumpkins...

Here are elephants. The baby elephant would run and jump on the pumpkins and the big ones would pick them up and smash them in their mouths. It was so fun to watch!

We had so much fun at the zoo! It wasn't too crowded [except for around the animals that got their pumpkins] and wasn't too cold either. Walking around for a few hours definitely worked up our appetite as well :) We were quite ready for some turkey after our trip to the zoo! 

{McQuays in town}

For Thanksgiving the husband's family flew in from Texas and Georgia! It was so fun to have them up here for the week!

Evette got to meet her Uncle Brenden and Aunt Natalie for the first time!!

She was also excited to see her Grandparents and Aunt Megan again!

  

We also got family pictures taken by the wonderful Christine who also took our engagements, wedding, and Brenden and Natalie's wedding pictures. She's pretty much a part of all major family events :) She's wonderful. I cannot wait to see the shots!

It was a cold beautiful morning and Evette was so well behaved!

We also went up to the Binns house to visit with Sean's cousin and his family!

Here's Evette with her second cousins Elliot and Sawyer. Evette is about 2 weeks older than Sawyer

Elliot was having such a fun time with the babies!

All of us together!