Maternity Photos

Since I started this blog after I had Lilly, I wanted to share with you all my maternity photos. These beautiful photos were taken by one of the best photographers I know and my dear friend Jenna Moore. She took our engagement, wedding, and maternity photos...all within one year...she was there to capture our whole journey.  We had only been in our new house for a couple of months when the photos were taken. We took some around the house, in the nursery, in our backyard and at the beach. 

Hope you like!

Baby's 1st Christmas Gift Ideas

A baby's first Christmas is an exciting and joyous moment in parenthood, but deciding on gifting for such a young baby can be kind of a headache. You don't want to overdo it because they more than likely can't open the gifts themselves and won't remember a thing. Here are some tips I have for gift ideas for baby's first Christmas: 

Think about your baby's age on their first Christmas and think about any items that you do not have for your little one that you may not have received when they were born. 

Lilly is going to be 4 months old on her first Christmas and a Jumperoo is going to be her big Christmas present from us. She's starting to get bored with her swing and tummy time mat sometimes so I think she's going to love this with all the activities she can do on it.

Clothes are always a good choice for a Christmas gift for a baby.

Developmental toys are a great idea as well. I have gotten a bunch of 3m+ and 6m+ toys for her from Marshall's and TJmaxx (they start at $3). Also,  a good tip when shopping for developmental toys is to utilize website's search by age tool to get ideas on gifts.

Stuffed animals are always a safe choice.

Books are also great. I think Lilly is going to have a small library after Christmas with books from us and the grandparents.

Since Lilly is going to be starting on food a couple of months after Christmas and she's starting to want to hold her bottle I have gotten her a trainer cup for her stocking. Trainer cups are good for babies that are 3m+ to get them started on using cups instead of bottles.



I hope this helps you other parents out there trying to decide on how to get gifts for your baby's first Christmas. Think about your baby's age and don't go too overboard :)

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas and 4 months

That's Josh's hand with a white glove through a cut stocking to look 

like Santa's hand

All my tree decorations are from the Dollar Tree! 

(All ornaments, clip in flowers, and clip in birds cost $50)

Frasier Fir tree from Food Lion $32

Josh putting the star on the tree

Lilly's First Thanksgiving and 4 months

We spent Lilly's first Thanksgiving in North Carolina with Josh's family. We had a great time with family, amazing food, and Lilly loved his mom's Christmas tree, she couldn't stop looking at it. She wore an adorable thanksgiving outfit from my aunt and cooperated very well when we decided to go to Target, Michaels and Dick's sporting goods at 8pm on Thanksgiving. Yes we are crazy, but the crowd was not that bad where we were in North Carolina so shopping was quick and easy. 

Thanksgiving outfit

Doesn't look too thrilled to go black friday shopping

Mommy and Lilly snuggles

Daddy's girl

Lilly did pretty okay on the trip. She slept the entire 4 hour drive to Josh's mom's house. We stayed for 2 nights then went to Josh's dad's house for one night and one day (drove back Saturday night). She was fussy and upset on and off the entire weekend because she was out of her normal routine and not at home. I learned that even though I can pretty much take her anywhere with me (ie if we go shopping, run errands, or go grocery shopping) going out of town and being with a lot of people that she doesn't recognize on the norm just throws her into sporadic hissy fits where she just wants to be alone with mommy. She was better at Josh's mom's house because she was fascinated with all the Christmas decorations and had been to her house before so once she got re-acclamted she was better. But it was her first time to Josh's dad's house and by the time we got there she was just done with the entire weekend. She was ready to be at home in her house. She had more fits and I constantly was taking her into the back bedroom to just be alone with me, which was the only way I could get her to somewhat calm down. Going to two different places in one weekend with a lot of different people was just too much for her. Next year we might invite everyone to us. 

But we got some adorable pictures while she was happy!