Christmas 2009

The Saxton's hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! We had a very relaxing day enjoying our first Christmas with the little one. We started the celebration out with the children's service on Christmas Eve. We got there at 3:15 for a 4 pm mass and got the last 3 seats in the church. Phew. We'll be leaving even earlier next year! Noelle was much better behaved than the rest of the children there (especially the 3-5 year old ones that clearly don't go to church except for Christmas and Easter) and we sang both O Holy Night and the First Nowell, so it was a very special service!





Christmas morning I woke up and played with Noelle for awhile while Bryan enjoyed a short sleep in. When he got up, Noelle was about ready for her morning nap so we didn't do presents until about 9:30. Noelle loved the wrapping paper and looking at her stuff for a little while, but like any little one, after about 10 minutes of the same thing she is ready to move on to the next activity. Of course, the 5 million pauses for pictures and video recordings probably didn't help her patience level! She got some great stuff and spent the afternoon and evening playing with her new toys! Well, it was actually more like Bryan played with her toys, but she got in on the fun a little bit!









Noelle hasn't been sleeping well recently so we were surprised to find that Christmas really took it out of her! She definitely napped the majority of the day - and in whatever position she happened to find herself in! I was worried she wouldn't sleep at all during the night, but she actually slept almost 7 hours before eating and going back to sleep for another 3. We are hoping that this is a sign that she has decided seeing me every 3 hours during the night is no longer necessary! That would be a great Christmas present for me!







It was nice to have a quiet Christmas at home but it was definitely weird to not be with the Hayhoe crew for the holiday. It was our first Christmas apart! But we are definitely excited to start new traditions with the little one and look forward to many Saxton Christmas celebrations to come!

The Blizzard of 2009!

So last Saturday we got some snow. A lot of snow! In total we had about 20 inches, by far the most since we have been back in MD! My mom, Noelle, and I were planning to head to Philadelphia and New Jersey for some Gidjunis family fun but thought better of it when watching the weather forecast Friday night. So we were snowed in with my mom for the weekend and had time to relax and play with the little one!

The worst thing about snow is the shoveling. Just ask Bryan! As you may be surprised to hear, he is quite a little perfectionist. Therefore, he spent 3 hours Sunday morning shoveling our walk, our neighbors' walks, our three parking places, etc. This was in addition to spending a combined three hours of shoveling on Saturday to "keep up with the snow as it fell" so that he could actually shovel on Sunday. Then he salted for about 2 hours. I swear it was more exercise then he did the rest of 2009, but gosh darn it, our part of the street looked awesome. And since JHU and Tydings decided we needed to work Monday despite every other company in Baltimore staying shut down, we appreciated all his hard work when we left in our cars that morning.



The funniest thing about getting so much snow was watching Maddie go outside. This was the first time since we have had her that the snow was actually taller than her little body. As you might imagine, this caused her significant problems when it came to going outside to do her business. Thankfully she can hold it for quite some time, and she had a little spot out back under the deck that got less snow then everywhere else, but the whole thing was kind of amusing. She did enjoy her time outside as long as she stuck to the partially plowed streets and shoveled walks.



We also took the opportunity to bundle Noelle up in layers of snow clothes that were way too big for her to get a few pictures. Ellie didn't seem to mind the cold, but she was pretty angry at how bright it was outside. I guess I never thought about how blinding the snow really is when it is sunny outside but the little one took it all in for about 10 minutes before letting us know she had really had enough of this fun. Here are a few family pictures of the snowy event!



Noelle also opened her presents from the Hayhoe side of the family while my mom was in town. Since she is sitting up now, she was really able to get in on the wrapping paper fun!



Ellie is also really becoming vocal. I'm pretty sure she'll be speaking sentences next week, but in the meantime, she sings and chats a ton, particularly in the morning when she gets up and in the evening when Bryan gets home from work. She learned how to shriek when she is happy last weekend during the storm. We aren't loving that new trick as much as her previous ones, but at least she seems proud of herself!

We'll post again in a few days, but in the meantime we want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Blessed 2010! We certainly know how lucky we are to have each other and you all in our lives and we are thankful for all your love and support! Best wishes!

Failing to Blog Regularly

We are continually amazed at how hard it is to keep up with blogging these days! I would like to think that we will get better, but realistically, I should just apologize for our lack of updates. So, we'll make this a mega-post and update you as much as possible about what is going on in our lives.

Even though it has been a few weeks, we are still recovering from Thanksgiving - or at least the trip home. We went to my mom's house in Chattanooga, Tennessee for a whirlwind couple of days. On Thanksgiving morning, we got up early and headed to the airport to experience the joy of flying with two extra suitcases, a pack-n-play, a stroller, a car seat, and a beautiful little baby! Overall, things went well and all of the other passengers were super excited at how calm Noelle was on the flight. We were pretty proud of the little one as well. Now, if I could have stopped crying for a few minutes, it might have been more peaceful . . .

Anyway, we got to my mom's house and Noelle got to meet her great grandma, three uncles, two aunts, and cousin Rubie. I think that Ellie was confused more than anything else, although she took to meeting all of the strange new people in stride.

We had a good Thanksgiving dinner and even played a little football until we realized that Raymond is in much better shape than the rest of us. It was the first time that all four boys had been together in a couple of years, so it was good to see them.

On Friday, we forewent the Black Friday shopping for a trip down memory lane. My mom lives 45 minutes from the town in which we grew up, so I got to show Laura our old house, my high school, and numerous other places in the town of Calhoun, Georgia. To cap off the day, we went to one of my favorite Mexican restaurants, El Pueblito, and enjoyed some wonderful food.

By Saturday, it was time to head back to Maryland and Noelle was again extremely cooperative on the plane. She did keep looking at me strangely as I cried non-stop, however. I caught a cold on the plane that made its way around the family over the next few days, so we are still trying to kick the last remnants of that. The trip definitely took it out of us, Noelle included, as you can see!

Since returning from Thanksgiving and trying to kick our colds, we have been getting back into the non-stop swing of things. It seems that every weekend is something new, although mostly time spent with good friends.

Noelle is growing non-stop and looks bigger to me by the day. She is starting to get more and more of a personality and likes to show us that she is really the important one in our house.

Ellie got to see her first snow recently. She was pretty mesmerized by the white stuff falling from the sky. She spent most of the time just lying by the door looking out.

If I knew it was that easy to amuse her, I would have put a snow machine outside months ago! Going out into the snow and cold is another matter, though. We, of course, want to keep Noelle warm, so we bundle her up every time we go out, even if she will only be outside for a few seconds on the trip to the car. She tolerates it pretty well, but definitely has started to give us some dirty looks when we start the process.

Last week Ellie started what I call her new "trick." I suppose I shouldn't think of it like that, but every new development continues to amaze me. A couple of weeks ago her "trick" was rolling from her back to her front. That doesn't seem too interesting until you see her do it. Ellie kicks her legs in the air, grabs her toes, flops her legs to the side, and then rolls onto her front using the momentum. You gotta love that the kid is already using physics! Anyway, this week's "trick" is staying in a sitting position when I put Ellie down. Now, if she would only start changing her own diaper, we'd be set!

Noelle and I did have a traumatic experience this weekend when I slipped and fell down the stairs holding Ellie. Fortunately, I was able to hold her in front of me as I fell on my back, but it did inspire a few seconds of crying from Ellie. Once I started rolling around on the ground in pain, it inspired some laughter from her as well. I hope I will not have to hurt myself too much in the future to amuse my child.

We also took our Christmas card picture this weekend, which was a feat considering we have two people with short attention spans taking the picture and Noelle and Maddie in it. We finally got a shot of both of them looking at the camera. We'll be sending out the official holiday card soon, but here's a preview for those of you who just cannot wait.

It should be an interesting week this week. On Thursday, I get sworn into the Maryland bar! Yes, I did get my bar results in early November. No, I am not a lawyer yet. Yes, it is a long time to wait. (Can you tell I've had this conversation before?) My ceremony is Thursday at 11:30 am. For those of you out there that are interested, you can watch the ceremony live online, or an archive later at: http://mdcourts.gov/coappeals/baradmissionwebcast.html. After Thursday, I will officially be a lawyer and can put Esquire after my name if I so choose and Laura doesn't veto it.

We also get a visit from Grandma Carol on Friday. Laura, Ellie, and Grandma will then head up to Great Grandma Gidjunis's house in Philadelphia for a tour of family holiday parties. It should be a fun time for all!

We hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season and we will try to do better with posting, even if we don't succeed!

The One Year Anniversary of a Big Day

Well we thought it was hard to stay updated with the blog before. Now with being back to work, getting ready for the holidays, and everything else going on, it is practically impossible to remember to do our updates. But we'll really try to get at least one on their a week. Stay tuned for a recap of Thanksgiving. But first, we just wanted to acknowledge the anniversary of finding out that Baby Amoeba was coming to join our family.

Yes it took four pregnancy tests (I was pretty sure that the cheap Target brand tests couldn't possibly be accurate so I made Bryan go with me to Costco to buy name brand tests), but finally I was sort of convinced that we were growing a child inside me. And 9 months later, out popped Noelle so I guess the tests were right! We are so excited that we have been blessed with our little one. Now that she is coming up quickly on her four month birthday it is hard to remember our lives without her. So happy pregnancy anniversary!