What a difference a year makes

Last Christmas day, we brought Haven home after spending her first 16 days of life in the NICU at Presbyterian Hospital. It was such an exciting, but weird day. We couldn't believe we were bringing home such a tiny baby, but so happy that she wouldn't be in the hospital anymore.

Here is another picture of Haven with her "Remember Me Preemie" doll.

Christmas Day 2008

Here we are on Christmas Day 2009.

We went by Presbyterian after our Christmas breakfast to take the nurses a little treat. We are so appreciative of the nurses that took such special care of Haven and gave us so much support during our stay. We figured this year we would celebrate Haven's "coming home from the hospital" day by taking gifts to the hospital and letting them staff see her.
This tree was very familiar, we walked passed it multiple times for 16 days. We are so thankful for a healthy baby.

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas Haven! Haven overslept and so we took her in her jammies to Grammy and Pop's for breakfast and presents. SO many presents!

Pop and Haven opening her present.

Where's the baby? Yes, those are all Haven's presents. Ridiculous. Every year, Jeremy and I display all of our presents for a few days, so we gave Haven her special corner.
We gave Haven her first Cabbage Patch doll, Luisa Kristie. I can't wait until we can take her to Georgia to the Cabbage Patch nursery.

Uncle John spent Christmas with us. Haven loves to play with him.

Dear Lord, Please let Haven have beautiful lashes like Aunt Lyndsey. Amen!
Haven playing peek-a-boo. She loves playing games these days.

The Andler fam.

Haven's new toy from Gampy and Meems.

Christmas Eve

Here are a few pictures of our Bradham family Christmas Eve celebration. Every year, the guys steam oysters, the kids play, and we have food and gifts. Next year, there will be 2 more Bradhams there. We can't wait to find out if Jack and Mary are having girls or boys.

Bethany and Haven both had on red, brown, and gold shoes. Haven had on her special dress from Aunt Lou. Her name is on it, so cute!

Cousins

Haven enjoying all of the presents.

Christmas jammies

Merry Christmas!

We have already enjoyed this Christmas season so much. I am sad that it is almost over. We have done a lot of celebrating in our family, but these next two days are the best. We celebrate Christ coming as a baby, so that he could know what life was like for us. He lived on the earth and although he never sinned, he dealt with a lot of the things we have. He then died for our freedom! His gift makes our life so sweet! We are so blessed.

Haven wouldn't hold her doll, so she is sitting behind her. That is her special doll, that is her size from last Christmas. She was our little Christmas miracle last year. Hasn't she grown?!

Jackie gave Haven a new phone for Christmas. Haven and Tiny are becoming pretty good friends.

Here we are celebrating our bdays!

Have I said...

that this is my favorite time of the year?

Haven and I met Jeremy for lunch on Thursday and joined the many other families in Founder's Hall to see the singing bears. She loved watching all of the other children dancing the most. We got to meet some of Jeremy's coworkers too!


Casey, Amber, and Layla came over to visit yesterday. Layla and Haven got to play. I love watching Layla. She is so calm and precious. Haven really wanted to pull out her earrings.


Amber knitted Haven this cute cupcake for her her birthday. So cute! It will be on our tree for years to come.


Yesterday, we also had some pretty snow and lots of sleet. We went out to get a few pictures.


The pictures didn't work so well because it was so windy and the sleet hurt, as you can see from this picture.


On today, my 29th birthday, I woke up to a beautiful icy day. Our trees looked so pretty shining in the sun. However, now we live on the lake. We have never had this much precipitation before and our drainage isn't doing a very good job.




I have had a wonderful birthday relaxing with family and friends. It really doesn't get much better than that. (plus, I LOVE presents!)

It's in her blood

Here is Haven acting like Pop, working on the A/C and Heat. I am just glad she didn't fall in the hole.

Did you see what I saw?

The last few weeks, Haven started standing up at toys and pulling up like a champ. Earlier in the week she started reaching from ottoman to couch to toys and cruising on furniture. Tonight while Grammy and Pop were visiting she let go of her toy and took 2 steps. We all cheered and clapped, but didn't get it on video. Maybe next time.

5 years and counting

Five years ago, we said our vows and life has only gotten sweeter. Jeremy has been said to be extraordinary and it is true. He is funny, caring, giving, and encouraging. He is the best daddy to Haven and the best friend to me. Happy Anniversary! I love you J!

Happy Birthday, Haven!

Daddy and the birthday girl

Today, our girl is 1! What a year it has been. It has been a long, but memorable year. At 12 months, Haven is walking around with assistance either fingers or a toy. She has a pretty large vocabulary - bye, hi, dada, up, baby, barks like a dog, hoots like an owl, mama, ball, big ball. She is still a happy baby, unless she is getting her nose wiped or a chest xray (we experienced this at the urgent care Sunday night). She loves finger food and has been resisting some baby food lately. We are starting to work on using sippy cups.

Her birthday present from us. It is so fun!

She loves playing with her bath toys. We stay in here quite a bit throughout the day.

Haven's party was on Sunday afternoon. We had our family over and she got some of the cutest things. We are going to go back through the presents tonight because Haven missed most of her party. She was feeling so bad and cried and slept through most of it. She even laid her head on Jeremy's shoulder while everyone sang to her. She did like her cake, but didn't get real messy. Here are a few pictures of the party.

Welcome to CANDYLAND!

What a Weekend!

We had the busiest weekend ever. Friday night we ran errands. Saturday, we had 5 events- Church meeting, Stella's 1st birthday party, Denver parade, Josh and Taylor's Housewarming Party, and my 10 year HS Reunion. So to say that I was tired is an understatement. Sunday, we served with our church in the community for our 20 anniversary "The Church has Left the Building." Jeremy painted and I raked leaves at Ida Rankin Elementary in Mt. Holly. Also on Sunday was Haven's 1st Birthday party. Another post will follow with pictures. AND on top of all of that Haven is sick.

Haven is still enjoying the balloons from our photoshoot the other day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STELLA!

Our beautiful niece, Bethany Lillian

Haven's first parade with Aunt Lyndsey and me.

Haven's 1st Photoshoot

Check out a sneak peek from our birthday/christmas photoshoot!

http://lindseyturner.typepad.com/lifecaptured/

Head on a stick

We have Haven's cranial band appointments every two weeks. Today, I thought I would take pictures of her "head on a stick." This is the "before" mold that they compare each time to her head to check her progress. I think it is really funny.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Show us Your Life with Kelly's Korner I can't get her button to work this time.

As most of you know, this is our month to celebrate. All three of us have our birthday this month, plus our 5 year anniversary is on the 11th. We also have a few other family members with December birthdays and then Christmas and everything else. So let the celebrating begin!

We finished decorating over the weekend and I love the way the house feels. This is definitely my favorite time of the year, especially when I wake up in the morning walk out of our room and see that Jeremy has turned all of the lights on. LOVE it and him!

I tried new toppers this year and I think they look great.

Joyce, a family friend, made our stockings. They are perfect, but just need to be embroidered.

For those that haven't seen my presents before, I recycle cards for tags for gifts. I cut them up, add string, and stamp the back with a to/from stamp.