Christmas Day

Luckily Santa didn't wake us up too early here--we didn't get home until after midnight from the Christmas Eve festivities with Corey's family. But we did open a few gifts here this morning.

This year Corey and I decided to start a tradition of getting each other and Danica a Christmas Ornament each year. Here are pictures of what we got this year:

This is the one that Corey got me--It says Baby's First Christmas and he put a picture of Danica and Santa in it. It was beautiful.
This is the one I got for Corey. It's called Living on Baby Time and says things like Diaper Time, Sleeping Time, Eating Time, Lullaby Time...you get the picture. And since that has been our focus for the last couple of months it was fitting. He got a big chuckle out of it.
And this is the one we got for Danica. Since her room has a Pooh theme we thought it was perfect. Around the bottom it says, "A baby," Said Pooh "Is a Very Nice Thing." And I have to say she is very nice.

After we opened our presents, we went to Shirley's to open more presents and have Christmas Lunch. And it was wonderful. Unfortunately, in my daze (did I mention not going to bed until well after midnight) I left the camera memory card in the computer (after my post about Christmas Eve), so I didn't get any pictures. But my cousin will probably post pictures in a few days. I plan to copy some of her pictures since I know that a certain cute little baby was in quite a few of them. :)

Some of the moments:

Corey got gift cards from Best Buy and wanted to know if they were open on Christmas for him to go spend them--and he may wake up the moment they do open to get himself something (he has quite decided yet what he wants--but the cards are burning a whole in his pocket).

Danica got a play mat--and did tummy time for everyone to see. She loves her gift.

Dad's brisket that he made by modifying the recipe used to make Brisket at the reunions went over famously. Corey had never had it and he loved it. And now I want the modified recipe (the original calls for like 200 pounds of meat--not likely to happen for a family of three).

Danica got her first quilt--it is so cute. And it is nice and thick and warm. She loved it!

Flannery had all of our presents passed out to our spots before we had even sat down. She was so excited to find more presents with her name on them. :)

Danica got her first stuffed horse--now all I need to do is get a picture of her in her cowgirl outfit with her stuffed horse and we will all be set. :)

You may have noticed someone's name popping up a lot in my memories from Christmas. What can I say--I am a little enamored with our little blessing this Christmas. It is hard to believe by next Christmas she will be walking and talking and not be my baby girl (by then she will be my big girl).

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is when Corey's family traditionally gets together for the family gift exchange. And so last night was Danica's first real taste of Christmas--and she seemed to like it. She lasted much longer than Corey and I ever expected. And she watched with an amazed look on her face as everyone opened gifts.

Last night was the first time Corey's nieces met Danica--and they were amazed with her. They were constantly asking to hold her. They couldn't believe that she wore diapers and drank milk--and were totally shocked when we told them that they used to do that too. Here are pictures of them holding Danica--they were so excited:


The girls also loved giving Danica hugs and kisses.
Corey's dad is home from the hospital and loved holding Danica too--what can I say she is quite popular. Corey's nieces also loved to be picked up by their uncle. And when he picked them up they were fascinated with his sunglasses. It was so cute:

Corey's favorite gift was the picture quilt his mom made him with pictures and momentos from his childhood. She had news clippings from when Corey played hockey that listed the number of goals he made and his stats from when he played goalie. And his baby pictures were on it--Danica is a spitting image of her daddy when he was a baby (with more hair though--hehe).

Overall it was a wonderful evening.

Shot Through the Heart

At least that is what it felt like while I watched the nurse give Danica her shots today. But now she is immunized against a whole bunch of things.

On the upside she is growing wonderfully. She weighed 11 lbs. 11 oz. and was 23 1/2 inches long.

And now that she is home she seems to be okay--which helps me feel a little less guilty about taking her for her shots.

At least Christmas will be here in a couple of days and then she will have other things to think about. :)

Meet the Cousins

My cousins from Portland are in town for Christmas--and couldn't wait to meet Danica (what can I say she's an instant celebrity). We had a lot of fun playing Zoo Match and Hide & Seek with the stuffed animals. And of course we had a lot of fun playing Pass Around Danica. Here are some very cute pictures we took:

She's Growing Like a...

I will let you fill in the blank, but I had to tell everyone that when I went to get my back adjusted by my dad's friend (and my doctor) I got Danica weighed again. I was too impatient to wait for her next appointment with her doctor. Anyway, Danica currently weighs 11lbs and 8oz--that is a full 4lbs more then the day she was born. It is amazing to think she has grown that much in less then two months.

Go Cardinals!

As I mentioned in my last post--my sister loves the Cardinals and has for years. She likes to say she was Cardinals when Cardinals wasn't cool (hats off to Barbara Mandrell). And she wants to make sure that her little niece is a Cardinals fan too (as long as the Cardinals aren't playing the Dolphins Corey is okay with Danica being a Cardinal fan). To that end here is the outfit that my sister has provided for Danica to wear on Football days:

Aren't those shoes the cutest--I wonder how long she will let them stay on. :)

Dear Santa,

My wish for Christmas is to spend time with the people I love--preferably getting lots of pictures so I can document the occasion. And today I got to do it again--while introducing Danica to the magic of Santa Claus.

My niece and my sister's niece with Danica--they were totally enamored with Danica. They loved holding her hands and walking next to her stroller.

My niece Jessica kissing Danica. You can see the cute little rattle my sister got for Danica. She got the letter C for the Cardinals. My sister has been a Cardinals fan for a long time and is so glad to see them going into the playoffs.

Jessica and Danica with Santa Claus--yes to get pictures with her not crying I had to leave the pacifer in until the last moment and then run out of the picture with it.

Danica with Santa by herself--I have to say she is the cutest baby but I may be a little prejudice. :)

And Danica loved his beard--after every picture we had to get his beard out of her face because she kept pulling it on her face so she could rub it against her cheek.

Overall it was a wonderful way to spend a morning/afternoon. And Danica had a blast with her aunts and cousin again.

Love this season

One of my favorite things about the season is that people will make more of an effort to get together as a family then they do the rest of the year. Even though my sister and her family live in Phoenix, I don't get to see her as much as I would like. With work and other obligations, there doesn't seem to be enough time to get together.

But last night we all dropped everything and got together to make sure we got to hang out before Christmas. And it was a blast. I don't think I have laughed that hard in months--my niece Jessica can leave us all in stitches.

And they got to see Danica--who they have been wanting to see again since they met her on Vetrans Day. They were so excited they even volunteered to change her diaper and hold her throughout the meal. And she loved it.

In the second picture you can see the pink ballet slippers with flowers that they got her. Umm I am not sure how well pink ballet slippers go with a cowgirl outfit. Any Nicolls want to comment on that?

They gave Corey and I a swing as our gift--they swear that their swing was a life saver when Jessica was little. And Danica seems to love it. She may not look as happy in the picture--she got cranky when I had to stop the swing so I could take a picture. But when its going she seems to love it. :)

Overall it was a wonderful way to spend an evening--and a night that really helped me to remember the true meaning of the season--family.

Tis the Season

Corey and I have learned that Christmas decorating with a newborn must be done in stages--and so far the only stage we have completed has been the tree. But really we were rather proud of ourselves for figuring out how to get our tree up--the directions were not helpful at all.

So now I am answering my cousin's call to show our Christmas decorations--I will try to show more as we get them done.

While Danica may have been sleeping, someone else in our house was watching us put the tree up for the first time. And we have some concerns about how she is going to handle the tree and the ornaments.While I was giving Danica a bath, Corey took a picture of Brandy investigating the tree. We are actually starting to take a pool on how many of our ornaments we will have at the end of the holiday season--but so far she hasn't found them yet. But she has tried to eat one of the bottom branches--hopefully artificial trees are not toxic to investigating cats?
But we also have realized we have many decisions to make regarding our decorations and the traditions we want to start in our family. First you may have noticed we don't have a tree topper--we can't decide what we want at the top of the tree. Its a big decision.

Second, we have our wonderful stockings but no mantle. So we have to decide where we are going to put our stockings. I was going to line them up with garland under the window by the tree--but Corey reminded me that Brandy would probably think they were her new toys. And I probably would have to murder the cat if she attacked our stockings.

Speaking of stockings I have to show everyone the beautiful stocking that my Aunt Shirley made to match Corey's (she made it too) and my stocking (my grandma made that one). Isn't it the cutiest stocking ever!!

When I figure out how I am going to display the stockings I will take more pictures so you can see all three of the stockings. But as you can see--our Christmas decorations are a work in progress right now. :)

Thanksgiving

As this day comes to a close I realized that we haven't really talked a lot about what we are giving thanks for this holiday season. Well it may be obvious that we have a new family member that we are very thankful for. We are thankful that she was born healthy. We are thankful that I had a safe delivery. We are thankful that Corey was able to get the time off from his new job to spend time with us the first week.

But even before she was born we had a lot to be thankful for. I am thankful for my job at ASU--my dream job at my favorite place (go SUN DEVILS!!). And even when I am stressed and things are crazy at work--I remember that this is 100 million times better than working at UOP. We are thankful for each other--we have been through a lot as a couple but have found strength in each other. We are thankful for our families who have been supportive of us even if they didn't agree with all of the decisions we made (of course now that they have Danica to play with they forgive us for everything) :).

And we are thankful for our friends who have always been there for us to make us laugh or help us think through a new idea or make plans for things we want to do.

Overall we have a lot to be thankful for. But today we will share with you some of our thanksgiving pictures featuring the person we are most thankful for this year:

Danica in her Bouncy chair that Aunt Shirley gave her with her outfit from Bradi--Danica is a cowgirl already:

Danica looking around--ahh she is so cute!!

Danica and her grandpa:

Danica sleeping after the turkey dinner--I seem to remember other Nicolls needing a nap as soon as the dinner was done...hehe:

More Baby Shower Pictures

Since I didn't remember to take my camera to the baby shower, I am at the mercy of others for pictures. So I wanted to share some of the pictures my cousin posted to her blog from the baby shower. It was so much fun and I want to thank everyone again for coming to the shower and giving Danica such nice gifts.

http://goldenthreadsandsilverneedles.blogspot.com/2008/11/danicas-baby-shower-november-22-2008.html

Picture Day

Wednesday Corey and I took Danica for another set of pictures (since our last session had some trouble). Here are some of the pictures that we loved:

Me and my cuddle bug :)

Look how little her hand is :)

The family :)

And the reason we closed up--she was a little tired of taking pictures. :)

Baby Shower Fun

Today Danica and I went to our baby shower--and we had a blast. There was yummy food and we had a lot of fun talking to our friends and family. And Danica got all kinds of cute gifts to play with. But first and foremost she came home tired so Corey and I put together one of her gifts (a bouncer from Aunt Shirley) and as you can see Danica is enjoying her gift. She has been napping pretty much since we put her in it. Ahh isn't she cute?

Thank you everone for the wonderful gifts and for coming to meet Danica--she had a blast.

Isn't she angelic?

Everytime I look at the pictures I think ahh doesn't she look angelic? But then reality sets in and I remember that last night she decided to stay up until after 8:30 crying. It got to the point that Corey--who swore he wasn't going to do this because he doesn't want her to get used to it--even agreed to take her on a car ride so she would fall asleep. Seriously she gets into the car and immediately she is quieter--until we get to a stop light or stop sign. Then suddenly even those don't bother her--and we look in the car seat and she is out like a light. And she stays that way even after we get home. It really works like a charm--but really with the price of gas it isn't the cheapest way to put a baby to sleep. And really it is weird to say that our date nights have turned into car rides to put the baby to sleep. But when she is asleep and we get to look in on her--she really looks angelic. :)

Doctor Update

I was going to take a picture of Danica for everyone to see, but she is asleep and I am relishing her sleeping--so I am not risking waking her up to the flash of a camera. But we have more family pictures scheduled for Wednesday so I will hopefully have more pictures for everyone soon.

But the point of this post is to tell everyone that Danica is growing like a weed. I took her to the doctor and she is already 9lbs and 10oz. She has grown over two pounds since she was born. And everything looks good.

One of those days

Today was one of those days where it seems like everything is stacked against you. Danica decided to be incredibly crabby all day--she didn't want to sleep at all unless we were rocking her in the rocking chair. So it was a day filled with crying and rocking to stop crying. And of course today was the day we were going to take family pictures--not exactly the mood I want Danica in on picture day.

She did fall asleep in the car though--not unusual and making Corey and I think that next crabby day we are going to take a long drive.

Then our photographer ended up late because he spent the most of the day in the ER with his newborn. And also due to his unexpected hospital run he forgot to charge his camera batteries. So we will be doing family pictures another day but we got a couple of shots before the batteries died.

Here is my favorite of Danica--and that is the most peaceful she has looked all day. I want to treasure that moment.

A Sight to See

Danica and I woke up for our early morning feeding to find this:

Apparently Brandy has been feeling a little left out and so she decided to unravel a skein of yarn down the hall from Danica's room to the bathroom and even into the living room. So now that I have talked about her again hopefully she feels better and won't find something else to undo. :)

Danica and I went to lunch with my friend Jenny and her kids yesterday. It was a lot of fun--and I got to expose Danica to mediterranean food (I had a gyro--it was yummy). Before we went home I had to stop at the Carter's store (very dangerous store I have found). I got Danica some clothes--and the onies below may be one of my favorites. I call her my cuddle bug--so the love bug logo seemed to fit perfectly. So here are some pictures of Danica with one of her new outfits on. This is proof that taking a picture while holding the baby does not give the best results--but she is so darn cute that I had to share. :)

Two Weeks

Ahh isn't she a cutie. And today she is officially two weeks old. And I honestly can't remember what it was like before we had her--although I am pretty sure I got to sleep more and taking a shower didn't seem like such a luxury. But still we are so happy she is here.

Monday was her second doctor's appointment--I would have written about it on Monday but my camera battery was dead and I didn't get my replacement charger until last night. :) Anyway, she now weighs 8lbs 4oz (at her first appointment she was already at her birth weight). She is also 22 1/2 inches long. So she has grown quite a bit in two weeks. It is hard to believe.

She had her first cousin's dinner last night, although I openly admit I was totally okay with her sleeping through all of it in her car seat. :)

So that is the two week update--with a cute two week picture. :)

Pictures

Here is a link to the pictures/webnursery for Danica. These pictures were taken the day we left the hospital.

http://www.our365.com/newbornportraits/babydetail.aspx?BirthId=7a239743-38ea-4623-aee5-03193e6961f0

Let me know if you have trouble getting into it and I will send you the email that should allow you to see the pictures because I have to say she is a pretty darn cute baby. :)

updates

I have learned one very important thing--newborns do not make blogging easy. Its much harder to find time to tell you all what is going on around Danica's schedule--but we are working it out.

I have to say I am very lucky--Corey is very hands-on and helpful. He really tries to make sure that I get as much sleep/rest as possible. And he only complains a little (and usually very jokingly) about having to change diapers. :)

But here are some pictures--the flowers are part of an arrangement that Corey's mom and step-dad sent to us after she was born. They are so beautiful!! And I thought it would be fun to share them (for like 2 seconds while I snapped a picture) with Danica.

We also went to our first doctor's appointment--and Danica passed with flying colors. But I will have a funny story to tell when she is older because the first thing she did was pee all over the exam table--and I am not exaggerating it was almost the entire table. So I guess we all know what she thinks of doctors, offices, and appointments. :)

Day 3 (belated) with more pictures

Danica spend the majority of her time under ultraviolet lights in order to fight the jaundice. So the pictures I got were all from the special care nursery. It was the hardest thing in the world to see her in there and not have her in the hospital room so we could hold her and look at her whenever we wanted. But we both agreed that the only way we were going to get her home with us was to let her be under those lights as much as possible. So we were very strong and kept the feeding times to 30 minutes so we could get her back under the lights as much as possible. But we did take a few pictures--we looked at them during the times we couldn't be with her. :)

The thing that makes me smile about these pictures is that Corey was still trying to convince me that Danica was not going to have him wrapped around her little finger--but honestly you look at these pictures and you know Corey is a goner. :)