A Beautiful Mess

So, just wanted to post a photo of my living room. This is what it looks like everyday around early evening... minus the clean laundry piles in the background... I do laundry like once a week so it looks THIS bad once a week. But isn't this glorious :) And to think it is almost always cleaned up by the time Alex gets home. 

Great Grandma and Grandpa came to visit!

On December 26th, my Grandma and Grandpa Schumann came to visit us. They had been in North Carolina visiting my aunt, uncle, and cousins so they made the 6 hour drive down to visit us. Since Grandma was diagnosed with liver cancer last November, she hasn't made the trip to North Carolina. Her medicine that she takes everyday makes her feel pretty crappy however, she had been having so many good days that she decided to make the trip! Everyone was so proud of her for getting out of the house and getting out of town. She did amazing on the trip. Naturally on the last morning, as they were leaving my house, she started to feel a bit yucky. We figured it would happen at some point but luckily it was the very last day!

Charlotte is so funny. Sometimes she doesn't warm up to people for awhile, sometimes it's right away. She usually warms up to Grandma right away and this time she did again. Grandpa on the other hand it took a bit longer. However he did find the way to her heart. He wore a path on the wood floor in our kitchen, dining room, foyer from pushing her in circles on her zebra and in our new tricycle she had gotten the day before.

He also had some treats for her when he needed a break from pushing her. He really does know the way to her heart... movement and food.

Ignore the creepy look on my kid's face.

I love this one. Grandma and Grandpa Great look so proud!

Naturally, presents were involved and someone had to be in the middle of it all.

I love this picture. It looks like they are discussing the present.

I love this one too... Grandma loves her blinged out nail file, Charlotte looks confused, and Grandpa is in awe of the bling on the nail file.

Not only is he a wonderful husband, fabulous grandpa, and a mayor, he also makes one heck of a meatloaf :) Every fabulous cook needs an apron :) He loved his gift from us.

A few more hugs before bedtime.

It was so great seeing Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma had never been to our house so we were able to show her our humble abode. Grandpa visited us last March when he stopped by with mom. He knew right where to find everything :) I made them dinner and we all hung out for a bit. Grandma had trouble sleeping and our computers and internet were not working properly. The next morning they got up nice and early for their long trip back. It was so great to see them and spend time with them. We miss them everyday.

One other huge thing is that Charlotte took her first unassisted steps the day they came. She was trying to get close to make and walked two steps without holding onto something. I was so proud of her!!!!!!!

Christmas Day!

Oh Christmas Day :) So the story of our first Christmas Day goes as follows...

Christmas Eve - We get up early-ish and leave Grandma Ann's house in Carrollton and go to the airport in St. Louis (Thanks Aunt Kat and Uncle D for the ride in your pimp-ca-lade). So we get to the airport, amazingly enough it wasn't busy at all. We eat some delicous bar food and fly to Charlotte. In Charlotte we took advantage of me being a sick preggo person and rode one of those mobiles from one gate to another. Being 6 weeks pregnant, the nausea had already started and I felt terrible. I seriously felt so sick this day... no matter what I did. I was so thankful Alex was with me to take care of Charlotte. So, we caught our plane to Charleston. Everything was one time. Perfect.

On our way home, we realize that we have no food at the house since we had been in Illinois. So we decide to stop by Walmart to get one of their premade pizzas and breadsticks. Bad idea. Walmart at 7 pm on Christmas Eve was just a stupid, stupid idea. After 2 minutes of shopping and 25 minutes standing in line feeling like I am going to throw up, I am done and we go home. We ended up missing church (our church only does Christmas Eve services). So we make our Walmart dinner, Alex puts Charlotte to bed, and I just go to bed. I felt so sick I could barely move. Finally I ended up getting sick and speaking to the porcelain gods at like 1 am and multiple other times throughout the night. It was terrible. However, Santa must still visit our house no matter how momma feels.

Christmas Day is here!!!

She is amazed by the tree and all of the presents around it!

Ready to dive right on in.

"Dad, which presents are mine???"

"There's more presents over on this side too!!!"

So instead of opening all of our presents at once, we took our time and opened presents all day. We stayed in our jammies from dawn 'til dusk. We watched movies, had the fireplace lit, and we played and played and played. And we took family naps together. We would play, then sleep, then play, then sleep, etc... we also had some Skype time with Gigi and Papa.

For breakfast, Alex and Charlotte had cereal. For lunch, Alex had warmed up pizza. For dinner, I actually have no idea what he ate. I had plain pasta. Delicious. I kept it down. SUCCESS.

The baby even got a present.

She loves to help open presents. I think we had her open every present under the tree.

I hated being sick ALL of Christmas Day...especially on Charlotte's first Christmas. I am just so glad that we did not have any plans to leave the house on Christmas Day. If we had had plans, we would have had to cancel. I felt so terrible... it ended up being a stomach bug because multiple family members in Illinois had the same issue. It was still a great day spent at home with my two favorite people and my favorite cat.

Successful first Christmas as parents :)

Christmas Trip to Illinois - Day #4- Part #3

We love having Christmas at Grandma Ann's house. When Alex and I decided on the dates for coming back to Illinois for Christmas, the first thing he asked was if everyone (meaning all of the Webers) could come to Grandma Ann's house while we were there. It just so happened that there was a Friday night that we were there so everyone except for my cousin Mallory were able to make it. The great thing about Christmas at Grandma Ann's is it is busy, chaotic, loud, funny, and full of deliciously fabulous food. Everyone comes and stays for hours. We play games, tell hilarious stories, and we have a gag gift exchange after regular present time.

This is a hat I bought Charlotte at Target. How hilarious does she look in it?

Two of my favorite kids of all time. Charlotte loves Katie.

Of course we are frying raw meat outside as part of the meal :) Uncle Richard made Alex's day by bringing him some wild mushrooms. He was like a kid on Christmas :)

I love this picture. Great Grandma Ann and her two youngest.

The coolest cat in the world... Smokey Joe... if we didn't have Max, this cat would be ours. He even lets Charlotte pet him. In fact, he walks up to her. Max would NEVER do that.

Charlotte loved all of the attention. All of her great aunts are so crazy about her.

FAMILY PICTURE TIME!!!!

The Weber/Jackson/Perkins crew

In case you didn't realize it, this is the Jacksons. Yes, we are all wearing plaid... even the unborn fetus is wearing plaid.

Mr. and Mrs. T Jeremy Perkins. I love the hand on the belly. Mom does that to dad all of the time. Like Mother like Daughter :)

Mary and Chad. So happy together. And Chad is wearing the shirt I bought him for Christmas :)

Didi has Chad's vote for County Clerk.

The James Weber Family

The Grizzle/Weber family

Which one is 32 weeks pregnant? I'll give you 2 guesses.

The next wedding! He proposed a few days before Christmas! There is ANOTHER Weber wedding in the works. They are NEVER boring :)

The Griz's

The Hendricks Family. This should go on a postcard.

As should this.

The core 6. It all started with them.

The Sibleys. Poor baby Kyla. She's so over pictures.

I am so in love with this picture of Kyla. Her face is HILARIOUS!!! She looks so bored! And Charlotte has no idea what's going on. 

Grandma Ann with all of her grandkids, the spouses of 3 of us, and her 2 great grandkids

I always wonder what Charlotte is thinking.

My fabulously wonderful Aunt Bev came over to see us and give us our Christmas presents. Charlotte loved seeing her.

Look how sleepy the Goose looks :(

Aunt Bev and Uncle T. Charlotte says, "Stop with the pictures. This is annoying."

PRESENT TIME!!! She LOVES opening presents.

I look like a trainwreck. I threw up a few hours after this picture. I had a GI virus that I got from my mom. It was pretty perfect. I look good. Seriously, I don't even have to try that hard.

:) Presents! More animal print! They knew the way to mommy and Charlotte's heart.

So happy to see my sweet Godmother and tell her my preggo news in person.

Charlotte loved that the doll Great Grandma got her laughed. She didn't know what to think of it.

The rowdy crew. They partied way too hard.

I really wonder what Caleb was saying here. I am pretty sure the alochol was doing the talking.

Time with Grandpa before bed.

"I'm not sure I like this..."

My aunts and uncle.

I love when Caleb is liquored up. He's always such a good time. Party on, Cabster!

Sweet baby Kyla Margaret Sibley. I love this picture of her. She was so happy to be in her mommy's arms. Nice and calm and quiet.

This is out of order but I love that dad got this chair for Grandma. She wouldn't sit in it though.

Yep. That's my dad. He's cool.

So during the gag gift portion of the night, we told the rest of the family that I was with child. We draw numbers and then pick the presents by numbers. We then open them by numbers. Well, Uncle Jim (my Godfather) got our present. It was an apron we had made with a picture of Alex and I on it. (Pretty snazzy gift). We included a piece of paper that said to please read aloud. Well, he read the first sentence to himself and started crying and hugging me. No one knew what was going on. My cousin Melissa read it outloud and told everyone we are expecting baby #2. Yes, Aunt Kathy cried. And I am pretty sure Aunt Diane and Grandma teared up as well. I would have cried but all I really wanted to do was throw up. It was a great night, though. We were so happy that we got to see everyone and even more thrilled that we got to tell them about Baby #2 in person.

And tomorrow was Christmas Eve....