All I wanted for Christmas...

was to spend time with family... and that is what we did! We had an amazing time this Christmas! Mya did pretty well for her first Christmas, especially with all the traveling and such that we did. She loved seeing all the extended family for the first time. We took so many pictures, but here are the ones that made the cut! Mya and Uncle Steve at Grandma's house. We don't get to see them very often because they live in Chicago. It's always nice to get to spend time with them and their beautiful kids.

My Grandma "Longhair" and my sister. So cute!

My Uncle Jeff and my adorable cousin Matthew. We just love seeing Jeff and Stephanie and their boys.

This is Dan playing wii boxing with my cousin. He was not very good. I guess I probably shouldn't say that he was getting beat by a ten year old... oops, I just did!

It was great to get to see friends this Christmas too. This is Lindsey, Laurel, Cassie, and me. We don't get to see each other often and now that three of the four of us have kids, it will be even harder!

More friends! I'm so blessed to have such great friends from high school that I can still keep in touch with. Here I am with Anna, Morgan, and Anna. I love these girls so much!

Mya slept through most of Christmas morning and Mima was letting her do it! Don't they look so cute!

Here are the cousins on my side. Mya, Jordan, and Dorian. My sister bought Dorian and Mya matching outfits that looked so cute. It was Dorian and Mya's first Christmas!

I love this picture of Papa with his baby grandkids. Dorian was just staring up at him so intently. He's a good Papa!

Terry was insisting that there be pictures taken of him with his grandkids because he thinks there aren't enough taken, but I have to say that I don't have any of Debi with Mya, but I have three of him! So here's one of Mya with her Papa!

We had fun spending time with Matt, Sarah, and our niece and nephew. Here's an adorable picture of them, minus Silas. I'm sure Grandma or Papa was holding him!

Last, but not least, here's our adorable Santa! She was so calm and pretty in every picture I took of her in this Santa suit. My sister got her this and Dorian had a matching one. So cute! We had an amazing Christmas with family, friends, and most importantly, celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Dan and I are so blessed and we most definitely felt it this Christmas season.

Ready for Christmas!

This weekend was a lot of fun because Dan's parents and his brother came to visit. We didn't do anything exciting, but it was nice to just hang out and spend some time together. Plus, it was nice to have some help with Mya. She is a good baby, but she can be kind of fussy, so it's nice to have extra people to hand her off to when she is extra fussy.
Friday night was Dan's first basketball game and I was very curious to see how Mya would do. She did great and even slept through Dan's game and the JV game. She didn't even flinch when the buzzer would go off. Then she slept for five and half hours straight that night, which was so nice for us! Then Sunday, we put up our Christmas tree, which is always fun. I already started wrapping presents! Anyway, here are some pictures from the weekend. I have to apologize to Uncle Matt because we didn't get any with him while he was here. But we'll get lots at Christmas to make up for it.

The tree isn't decorated in this picture, but it still looks cute!

Grandma and Papa with Mya.

Mya loved having her grandparents here and so did we! We were sad yo see them go. But we'll see both of our families again soon for Christmas, which we are so excited for!

Mya's best friend

Mya and I had a fun day today because my best friend Lindsey and her baby, Cami, came to visit. I was so excited to see Lindsey and for Mya to meet her best friend. They did so well and let Lindsey and I have a nice afternoon together. Also, Mya had her two week check up at the doctor's office this morning and we were very pleased to find out she is growing very well. She is now 8 lbs. 10 oz. which is almost a full pound up from when she was born. And she is now 20 3/4 inches long. The doctor was very pleased with how she is doing. Yeah! Mya slept through most of Lindsey and Cami's visit, but that's ok with me.

Isn't she just so cute?

Here's Cami and Mya in their carseats and sleeping of course.
And here is Cami smiling in her sleep. So cute!

Tomorrow, Dan's parents and brother are coming to visit. I am so excited about that. We are all going to Dan's first basketball of the season, which is always exciting. I'll let you know how his C team boys do. Hopefully, they will start the season off with a win!

I love Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday, mostly because I love spending time with family and having great food, plus there's no stress of gift-giving like there is at Christmas time. Anyway, this year, due to having a baby a week ago, we didn't go anywhere for Thanksgiving. I was a little sad at first, but my parents came to spend it with us at our house and it was absolutely wonderful! They made way too much food for us, but it was delicious and we have tons of leftovers! Here are some great pictures of our Thanksgiving.

Family photo!

I love this picture of my mom and Mya. If you know my mom at all, you know she doesn't like posed picture, so this is a rare shot. It's great!
Papa giving Mya kisses! He's so funny!

Dan and Mya taking a quick nap. So cute!

Mya's begun her modeling career. My mom bought her the most adorable outfits and this is one of them. It's so cute, even though it's still a little big. She's going to wear one of the other ones to her first Sunday at church.

Just a couple more pics

Mya is sleeping right now and although I should probably be sleeping as well, I decided to post a couple more pictures. But first here's a quick update: Mya is doing her best to be nice to her mommy and daddy. She sleeps about three hours at a time during the night and doesn't usually scream unless she's really hungry. She started smiling yesterday, mostly due to gas, but Dan and I love it anyway. Overall, she's doing very well. Tomorrow is Mya's first Thanksgiving and we're excited to share it with her Mima and Papa Russell. I'm sure we'll have some cute pics from that. We hope you all have a great day of thanks and enjoy time with your own families! Grandma and her two girls! Cute, huh?

Mya loves football season already! Touchdown!

This has been an everyday occurence since she got home. She sleeps while we're trying to burp her and it makes it very hard to wake her up because she's so cute!

Welcome to the world!

Our little one has finally arrived! Mya Jae Barnes was welcomed to the world on November 20th at 5:22 p.m. She weighed 7 lbs. 13 oz. and measured 19 inches long. She is just gorgeous and perfect in every way, but of course, Dan and I are a little biased! So here are some pictures of our beautiful daughter. Enjoy and I'll update more later!

Here is Mya's room all finished and ready for her!One of many delivery room pictures! Daddy and his little girl.

Mya's first car ride. She slept the whole way... like a baby!Mommy and Mya relaxing at home.

There WILL be a baby!

No one can be pregnant forever, that's what I keep telling myself. And sure enough, there is an end in sight! My most recent update is that things are progressing and it looks like baby is getting ready to come out and join the world. However, if she decides she doesn't want to come as soon as we think, my doctor's going to help her come out by next Thursday. So no matter what, we will have a baby by next Thursday! Yeah! I'll update again soon... with pictures of our new baby!