Photo Bomb

4 days until Christmas, everyone!  Hard to believe it's almost here.  Can I just say that the saddest part of Christmas for me is taking down all the decorations?  I hate it.  It's just sad to put away the tree and all the cozy, pretty garland and shiny silver and candlesticks.  It's especially sad when you live in a climate that the weather tends to get worse after Christmas - cold, cold, cold.  And doesn't warm up - and when I say 'warm' I mean 50's warm - until the end of April.  Sigh.  

Buuut - the good news is that we have 4 more days of parties, spending time with family, time off work (yay!), Christmas movies, good food...it really is the best time of year.  

I'm planning to do a 4 month post this weekend (where is the time going??) but in the meantime I figured I would just put some sweet pictures up.  I swear, there are no words to describe how much I love this girl.  I was telling Brad the other day that I have a lot of respect for people - especially women - that say they don't want to have kids because they know it's just not right for their lives.  I think that's a conscious decision to make and should be respected because every baby born in this world deserves to be born to people that love it selflessly.  However....I was saying that even though I respect these people, I sometimes think that if they only knew the kind of incredible, unexplained joy that comes from having a baby,  they would maybe change their minds.  There really is something in you that wants to put them first and just do nothing but love them.

Anyway...onto pictures!

During the day when I'm working I'll put Hadley in the Bumbo on my desk and give her a diaper rag and sometimes a toy.  We're at that stage where anything and everything tries to get in her mouth.  In this case...both Sophie and the diaper rag.

One of those evenings where I couldn't do anything to appease her unless I was holding her, so this was the solution.  It worked for about 10 minutes, ha

I just can't even handle her.  Look at those cheeks!

She's such a happy baby.  Literally wakes up smiling in the morning.

I promise that Brad is a very involved Dad and does more than sleep with her :)  But when he does sleep with her, it's just too sweet for me.  Look at how little and curled up she is.  Love it

Auntie Leah reading Hadley her very first book.  I hadn't read to her yet because I just unpacked her boxes this last week.  She was super engrossed in it

Hadley and Eli, the son of some good friends of ours.  Eli was born July 3rd, about  6 weeks before Hadley.  We always joke that Hadley's going to have a great selection of little boys around her since literally all of my girlfriends here have boys!

I know this is a "no-no" to put her on the table in the Bumbo but I was sitting right here the entire time and I know my child, and know that she's not moving enough yet to fall out or over or whatever.  Anyway, during the day I have to have a circulation of entertaining things for her to do, and one of the new things we've added in is watching a Praise Baby DVD.  I guess it's like the Baby Einstein videos where they show big shapes and pictures or whatever to music and it's supposed to stimulate their brain.  This DVD plays worship songs and shows pictures.  It only holds her attention for about 10 minutes, which I will take!  But anyway, she was also very engrossed in this so I had to get a picture of it :)

I loved this little outfit, a denim shirt and black leggings.  Brad told me I had to put a headband on her so she didn't look like a boy.  I figured that the ruffled pants gave that away, but I did it anyway :)  

So lately this is what I've been seeing after I lay her down in her crib for a nap.  She's started rolling from back to front but for a day or two it was all she wanted to do when she laid down - practice rolling over. She definitely did not do any sleeping and we had a couple rough days

My sweet girl sleeping in her carseat at Walmart, clutching her toys.