Uncle Jeff & Aunt Lara

Rusty's sister, Lara, and her husband Jeff came and visited us for Christmas.  We loved having them here and have missed them.  Them moving to Smyrna 11 years ago is the reason I met Rusty.  We were both sad to see them move to Virginia and wish we could visit more.  Caitlin LOVED having them here to play with and Alaina loved how they spoiled her.

Visit with Santa

I always take Caitlin to see Santa.  This year was a little tricky with the baby coming at the same time.  We ended up going on Christmas Eve and Rusty, Lara & Jeff joined us.  Santa seemed a little nervous about holding Alaina, but he did okay.

Alaina's First Photo Session

Here are some pictures from Alaina's first photo session.  To see the rest, click here.

Alaina Gail

Alaina Gail Hairr was born December 14th at 11:30am.  She was 7 lb 1 oz and 20 inches long.  She is perfect in every way and we are so blessed to have her in our family!!

School picture

We have now entered the world of yearly bad school pictures.  I was shocked to get Caitlin's proof and actually like the picture, so I bought the digital image instead of prints.  If anyone wants a picture, let me know and I will get them printed.  Or if you want the digital image, I can email it to you.

Update

Had my last checkup today.  I am dilated to 3-4 and 40% effaced.  The doctor asked if I wanted to have the baby on Monday instead of Tuesday and I said, "ABSOLUTELY!!"  I'm not sleeping well and so uncomfortable so I jumped at one day early.  So December 14th, at 5am we will start the inducing!!  We'll call, post and send pics when she is here!!

Decorating for Christmas

After we got home from our St Louis trip, we immediately started decorating for Christmas.  I thought seriously about not putting up a tree this year because of everything going on and the hassle of getting it out of storage.  But we decided that it just wouldn't feel like Christmas if we didn't have the tree.  So we started early and already are done and enjoying the Christmas lights!  Rusty got everything out for us.  He doesn't enjoy the decorating but Caitlin and I love it.  This is Caitlin putting on the first ornament.

Caitlin loved finding each of "her" ornaments as we unpacked.  This is her reindeer from Papa Larry.

Her red rooster!

And the finished product - it's much better in person!

St Louis trip

We went to St Louis for Thanksgiving to visit Pat and Colleen and the cousins.  Caitlin loved their pet bird, Guido.  Last time we were there, she said she wanted to hold it but always got scared.  This time, she was a little more brave and was able to be still.

We went out on Saturday and did some family pictures for them.  While out, I caught these of Caitlin and Lauren.  Too cute!!

And more fun with Guido!

Thanksgiving Feast

Caitlin's Kindergarten class had a Thanksgiving Feast and invited all the parents to eat and watch their program.  They dressed up as pilgrims and indians and put on a play for us.

This is Caitlin's teacher, Mrs. Pearson.

Here's some videos from her program -

And here's the whole program -

Cousin Alli

A few weeks ago, Caitlin and I watched Heather's little girl, Alli.  This was good practice to see what it's going to be like when the new baby comes.  I was pleasantly surprised with how good Caitlin did.  She fed an entire bottle to Alli while holding her.  I thought she would get bored, but she didn't.  She even held it up right so air wouldn't get in.  Then we took her to the baby's room and played with her.

I love this one of Alli "watching" Caitlin play her Dora game!