What Love!

We fly out tonight to spend Christmas in Arizona! We are all very excited about our vacation. :) Christmas in the beautiful snowy (hopefully!) mountains! Warm fires, hot chocolate, family, coziness. Ahh, sounds great doesn't it? 

We're looking forward to this Christmas with Lucy. Last year she was 2 weeks old. :) She wasn't into much more then sleeping and eating. I can't wait to see her eyes as she discovers the wrapping and bows (because trust me, those will be more fun than the gifts!). I am so thankful to have a child to share Christmas with. I don't care about getting gifts any more. The joy for me is giving and watching the wonder in Lucy's eyes!
Gifts are fun and all that, but it's not the reason we celebrate. 

Last Sunday evening at church we had a Christmas music and salvation testimony service. SALVATION---What an amazing way to look at Christmas! Yes, we celebrate that Jesus was born. But He was born to die. He was born to die for my sins and yours. I am so thankful that no matter the trials, sadness, and hurt we may be experiencing, Jesus came to give us hope! Even though circumstances in life would make us bitter and angry, unlike those without Christ, we don't have to be. Jesus has given us HOPE! I do not have to be a slave to sin anymore! I can experience the true joy and love and hope and peace that Christ offers. What a beautiful gift! Eph. 2:8. "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God."

Tomorrow evening at my grandparents home, all of my family will be sharing what they are most thankful for this year. We won't be there, but this is what I am most grateful for: my salvation. Jesus coming to save ME. No gift is greater. I am praying for those close to me who have not received this gift--who are in the throes of sin and in bondage to self-- that they would accept Christ and be saved! Would you pray with me? I'm praying for miracles in lives. Let's pray together that our friends and family wouldn't spend another Christmas without Christ! If you have recieved salvation, reflect with me this Christmas and praise God for His indescribable gift!

When love came down to earth
And made His home with men,
The hopeless found a hope,
The sinner found a friend.
Not to the powerful
But to the poor He came,
And humble, hungry hearts
Were satisfied again.

What joy, what peace has come to us!
What hope, what help, what love!

When every unclean thought,
And every sinful deed
Was scourged upon His back
And hammered through His feet.
The Innocent is cursed,
The guilty are released;
The punishment of God
On God has brought me peace.

Come lay your heavy load
Down at the Master’s feet;
Your shame will be removed,
Your joy will be complete.
Come crucify your pride,
And enter as a child;
For those who bow down low
He’ll lift up to His side.

 Merry Christmas! 

Love Carey, Tali and Lucy

Tiny Feet

Lucy took 13 steps last night! 

Hooray, baby girl! 

I am so proud of her. 

She is a little cautious when it comes to walking,

but in the past few days she is becoming more brave! 

On Sunday, she took 9 steps 

and then she amazed me last night with 13. :) 

I think by the time she's 13 months she'll have the hang of it. 

Well, sort of.

Why is walking so hard for my little one? 

Because she's tiny, tiny, tiny!

About 20% percentile for weight. 

She's still a little pudgy so I've never been worried. 

Just petite like me. 

BUT, her weight isn't why walking is hard.....it's her feet! 

They're a baby size 3. 

For those of you who aren't familiar with baby sizes 

that's an average 6-9 month size foot. 

Lucy is 12 1/2 months. :) 

And most babies have fat pillow-top feet. Not my girlie! 

She has tiny, skinny and narrow feet.
So no wonder walking is hard!

There you have it.....my thoughts on the subject. 

So we're going to be practicing our walking 

and I'll keep you posted on progress!

Capturing Christmas

Yesterday we had "Christmas" with my family. 

On Thursday we're flying out to Arizona for a WEEK (yay!) 

to spend the holiday with Carey's family. 

So, yesterday was the one day
we all could get together to exchange gifts. 

We had a wonderful time! 

Anyway, the reason for the post is that I got a very
exciting Christmas gift from my Mommy and Daddy. :) 

Something I've been wanting for a while......are you curious?

A Nikon D3000!!! With a 18-55mm lens AND a 55-200mm lens. 

(Perfect for up-close portraits of the cutest subject ever). 

I am already in love. 

The quality of the pictures = amazing.

And I can capture Lucy's expressions because
the camera takes immediately! 

So be prepared for lots of cute pictures. I'm having a ton of fun! 

I have a lot to learn. These cameras are complicated! 

But thankfully the "auto" setting is perfect for beginners like me. =)

Here's a few of the pictures I've taken so far. 

Whatcha doin', Mom? How many pictures do you plan on taking?

Too much Christmas. I need a nap.

Lucy with her Christmas gift from us. A Build-A Bear Bunny!

Christmas!!!!

My little beauty.

This picture captures the personality of my Lucy. :) I love it.

So if I didn't already take a million pictures of Lucy before....

=)

I am also excited to take some pictures while we're in AZ. 

Contrary to popular thought, AZ is not all warm and sunny. 

Carey's family lives in the mountains

where it's cold and *hopefully* snowy! :) 

There is endless beautiful scenery for me to photograph!

Thank you, Mom and Dad for such a generous gift!

I love you!!

Birthday Girl

On December 7th, Miss Lucy turned 1! 

Here's some highlights from her big day 

(actually big week---the celebrations kept coming and coming!).

The Wednesday before Lucy's birthday
we celebrated with Momo and Grandpa. 

They got her an awesome cake! Check it out!

You think that's cool? Look at the INSIDE!

You guys are going to let me eat that!?

Yes, rainbow cake was everywhere!

But it was oh so yummy!
After cake, Lucy had a bath and then it was present time!!

The picture above is of Lucy dancing to music. Lucy got a Touch and Teach Turtle which keeps her occupied for long periods of time--thank you!! :) She also got a kitty cat piano, a fun walker, and a Little People Nativity!

Thank you, Grampa and Momo!!!

On Lucy's real birthday we had a small party with the 3 of us. 

Mommy and Daddy stayed up late the night before
baking a cake for our princess. 

(The tiara was our inspiration. I might look silly, but who cares?) =)

Here's Lucy enjoying her cake! Mmm!!!

Good stuff. After cake, Lucy opened her gift from us. 

What could it be?? 

Just what I've always wanted!!!

A shopping cart with play food! Mom and Dad, you guys are the best!

Lucy then spent 30 minutes taking the play broccoli out of the cart and putting it back in. Who knew that could be so much fun? :) We picked the right gift! 

Now Lucy and Mommy spend lots of time "eating" and "shopping." 

Lucy also got a super cool Disney Princess ride on toy 

from Grandmother and Granddaddy Wilson. 

Pictures to come.....but this provides hours of fun! 

It lights up, plays music--the works!! Thank you!

I can't believe Lucy is ONE! Such a big girl. Still not walking. Her record is 3 steps. :) 

But she's doing lots of talking! 

Here's her vocabulary so far: ma-ma and mom, da-da and dad, bath, hi, bye-bye, nigh-night, eye, more, uh-oh, oh-no, eggs (yes, because Lucy and I eat them frequently for breakfast!), banana, bottle, yum, mmm!, puppy, grampa, momo, TJ (my parent's dog. She wakes up talking about him most mornings.), yeah, no, no no no (haha!), mine, tree. 

There may be a few more I'm not thinking of.
Pretty good for 12 months! 

She will also repeat most things you say. 

Today she said "coffee." :)

Lucy also learned how to blow kisses this week. 

Cutest thing ever. 

It melts my heart.

That what's happening with our 1 year old! Love her to pieces!

Merry Christmas! Love Carey, Tali and Lucy

SO, check out our Christmas card above!! Shutterfly has really made me love them this year. I got $120 worth of cards---FREE! I just had to pay shipping (which could have been cheaper if I didn't procrastinate making cards and then have to rush my order!) =)

Anyway, Shutterfly is also giving me $25 to use on future projects just for posting our card on Blogger! Great for me since I don't have enough cards to give to EVERYONE.

Now all my Facebook friends can see our card up close. Yay!

It seems like Santa HAS been good to me this year.

I'm going to use my $25 to Shutterfly on a cute calendar full of Lucy pictures

---just what I've always wanted! So excited.

Merry Christmas from the Wilsons!
Carey, Tali and Lucy

Baking Together

Yesterday I was baking pumpkin rolls and had some sweet company in the kitchen! 

Mommy baked and Lucy "baked."
Not sure what she was making, but it tasted good. 

Trust me, I know. I had to try it a zillion times. :)

Here is my little helper!

We had fun baking and talking. Lucy is my little talker.
She always has something exciting to say!
She's very expressive when talking too. 

Here she is telling me all about baking.

I see lots of fun times in the kitchen in our future! :)

Little Orange Packages of Happiness....

From the moment I received the first e-mail about my little orange package arriving from Shutterfly, I knew we would have a long lasting happy relationship. :) The reason: inside the email there was a note. This note said, "Exciting news. A little orange package is on it's way with your pictures!" For some reason, I loved the way they worded the "exciting news " part. Short and simple. It made me smile. 

Since my first picture order I have put together these awesome photo books for some family members. I am currently playing around with their calendars--LOVE them! Maybe Santa will be good to me and bring me some holiday $$...then I will use that $$ for my calendar. :) (Filled with pictures of Lucy, of course.)

Anyway, Shutterfly has made me happy all over again. They are offering Bloggers 50 FREE Christmas photo cards. Yes, please! I have seen a few blogging friends post this and decided I had to get in on it too! I love love love saving money! Plus, Christmas cards didn't get done last year. Our sweet Lucy was born December 7th, and well, Christmas cards weren't at the top of my list. Plus, I was gigantic and didn't want my photo on a card for all to see! Ha! 

Here's a picture of my little bundle of joy last Christmas. 

This year I have no excuse. 

Here are some of my favorite card designs. It's so hard to narrow them down. I love most all of Shutterfly's adorable holiday photo cards. Let me know what you think!

I'm leaning toward card #2. It's Carey's fav. But it doesn't have quite enough spaces for photos. How do I choose just 3 pictures of Lucy? 

Actually, 2 pictures. 1 is going to be of all 3 of us. 

Decisions. 

At least I don't have to decide where I'm getting my 2010 Christmas cards! 

Thank you Shutterfly!!!

Want to get in on it too??
http://bit.ly/sfly2010

One Year Ago...

Happy 1st Birthday, Lucy Noelle!!

One year ago, Carey and I packed our bags and headed to the hospital. 

We were so excited to meet our baby girl!

At 4:48pm the most beautiful baby girl was placed in my arms. 

I fell in love. 

There is no way to describe the love you have for your child. 

It's a whole new kind of love that you never knew you had.

6lbs. 2 oz. 19 1/2 inches

My tiny little "peanut"!

Just look at those eyes and that cute little smile. You would be in love too. :)

From the moment Lucy was born she was alert and calm. 

We couldn't believe how easy-going she was. I don't think she ever cried in the hospital!

Well, except when she got her shot and they gave her a bath.....

Was she ever this small?

Lucy was such a cuddly baby. She was content just to snuggle.

So happy to be a family of 3!

This year has been the best year of our lives. We can't imagine life without Lucy!

She is happy, silly and oh so much fun!

Not a day goes by when she doesn't crack me up!

Our lives have been filled with lots of extra joy since having this girlie.

It's hard to be sad when you have this little sunshine in your life!

We have quite the little ham. She gets her "showmanship" from Daddy.

And her personality from Mommy.

We are so thankful that God has blessed us with this child and placed her in our care. 

Being a mommy is the best thing I've ever done!

I can't wait for all the years to come with my Lucy Noelle!

Festivities

I am really not great at this blogging thing yet. I realize that I only post something about once every 3 weeks. Sorry followers. I will attempt to do better in the coming weeks! :)

That said, here's what we've been up to recently.....

Lucy turns one, ONE, next Tuesday. This year has flown by. I can't believe it's already been a year since we brought our precious baby girl home. In other ways it feels like we've had her forever. I can't begin to imagine life without Lucy!

I know I post this picture a lot but it's one of my favorites!
I'm in love with this baby girl!

Tomorrow beings Lucy's birthday festivities. :) My parents will be out of town on the big day so we are celebrating with them tomorrow. Mom got an adorable cake and they have fun gifts for the birthday girl! Then on Tuesday we'll be having our own little party with Lucy. Just Mommy, Daddy and Lu. We are very excited about the gifts we got her. She's going to love them! Stay tuned for pictures and details!

Anyway, Saturday we took Lucy to cut down our Christmas tree!!

She was with us last year......

But obviously in a different way.

This year we have a much bigger Lucy and a much smaller me! :)

We enjoy cutting down our tree each year. It's a fun tradition we've done every year since we've been married. I hope Lucy will someday look forward to this tradition each year! This year she wasn't quite sure what to think.

The tree was kinda pokey.

I love this girlie!

 Helping Daddy carry back our tree!

Lucy's doing a great job of leaving the tree alone now that it's home and decorated. 

Such a good girl!

In other news, Lucy is making a mess of meal time. Here's some of her handy work.....

Who knew bananas make for great hair gel? :) Needless to say, we've been getting a lot more baths around here! I think she's doing it on purpose. Lucy loves baths! She has even added the word "bath" to her vocabulary. :) Speaking of her vocabulary....it grows daily! She has started to copy what we say a lot! She says "tree" when we look at the Christmas tree. And she said "carrots" today too. Hahaha! They are her favorite food.

Also, Lucy has taken a few steps!! Usually only 1. She actually did take 3 the other day. But we've got a ways to go! :) Crawling is a much faster mode of getting around.....why walk?

There you have it! We have one more week with an 11 month old. 

Growing up so fast!!!!