Christmas Came Early At Our House...

Jeff and I weren't really sure what Christmas was going to look like this year. Since we've been married we've had pretty elaborate gift exchanges between ourselves, and this year was beginning to look a little different. We've never put ourselves out financially to have a fun Christmas filled with gifts, and we weren't going to start this year. Because we just bought our first house and it's taken a lot more money to fix up than we naively thought it would, we were running short on extra cash for the "fun" stuff of Christmas. But like I said, we didn't want to put ourselves out financially, so we had accepted the fact that it would be a small Christmas this year with all the presents going to family and friends and of course little Sydney (who probably won't have any idea what's going on) instead of ourselves. We were totally cool with that and figured that's just what happens some times when you make the hugest purchase of your life (a house) just a few short months before. But as God continually does, He surprised us with a huge blessing. I had no idea how this church did Christmas bonuses, or if they even did them at all, so I was shocked when Jeff told me a couple days ago what his bonus was going to be. I totally wasn't expecting anything, so anything would have been a blessing, but for us, it was amazing. Jeff was thinking of surprising me with a treadmill (I've been wanting one for a long time) come Christmas, but thought it was smarter to talk it through with me first (which I really appreciate because now I could spend some on him, which I love doing). We decided that we'd use the money to pay off some of what we owed to his parents, save some for home repairs and then splurge on something fun for ourselves. We had also received some Christmas money from my Granny and had some money built up on one of our credit cards that we could redeem, so we went all out and bought something that we thought would be years and years away - A 26" widescreen LCD TV for our bedroom and a DVD player to go with it! We were shocked that we could do this and ya, we probably went a little overboard, but I couldn't say no to such a giddy school boy when he saw the TV and realized that if we played our cards right we could have it. So now we have a beautiful TV hanging on our wall and have spent the last two nights watching TV in bed. (Yes, Jeff is watching basketball, what else would we watch on TV? And sorry the pictures aren't that great, but you get the idea.) It's a little hard though, it's a lot nicer than our regular TV so I want to spend all my time in bed, but Sydney's not quite as fond of the whole "bed" idea as I am, so I end up in the living room with her. But just seeing the huge smile on Jeff's face when he sits down on the bed to watch basketball is all that I need to know that we made the right decision. We are so blessed to be so blessed by God and for Jeff to work for such an amazing church. We truly have a perfect life.

On a side note, I think that I might finally be getting over the whole first trimester of my pregnancy thing. Today was one of the first days in a long time that I felt any energy at all. Still not back to normal, but much better. And my stomach only started to get annoyed when I needed to eat, so that's another bonus. Let's hope that it doesn't go back to what it's been like tomorrow like it has done to me in the past when I thought I was getting over it all.

Sydney News....

It's finally happening... Sydney is walking! Okay, so it's generally only for about 5-6 steps, but still, every once and a while it's more and she's getting more and more brave. We've been having so much fun with her and so proud of her progress. It's amazing to watch your little baby become so independent. She also has her second tooth coming in. The first one is still barely a bud poking through, but the second one has just broken the surface. She's also working on her speaking. She's got "hi" down to a science now and loves to say it, Daddy which comes out more like "Duh-dee" with a slight British accent, please which is "dees", dog which is "daw-dee", baby which is "day-dee" and hmmm, let me see, is there anything else? Yes is pretty similar to please, only slightly shorter "des". She'll also copy you often if you say "I.... Love.... Daddy." We're still working on mommy, which is only pulled out when crying or she really wants something. All these words don't happen all the time or even mean what I think they're going to mean most of the time, but still, it's all coming together. Over all she's doing amazing. I still can't believe that in just over two weeks she's going to be a year old. Wow, it has all happened so fast. Sadly I'm sure that I've already forgotten so much of the super cute and amazing things and stages that she has gone through, but I will always treasure this time in her life. Jeff and I are probably some of the most proud parents you'll ever meet, how could you be anything but with a daughter like Sydney?!