Carly's First Christmas

Carly's first Christmas was spent in Marion with John's family. All of his family. All 16 (10 adults, 6 children) in the immediate Mayer clan stayed at Joannie and Claude's house. We spent Christmas Eve first with the Mayer clan, then at John's grandfather's house. We heard that about 104 folks made it there this year. It was packed!

Christmas Day was a relaxed day with John's dad's family. There were just 30 of us at that celebration.

Yes, John's family is large.

Enjoy the pictures! John combined (and edited) pictures from all his sisters, so we ended up with nearly 300 pictures from 4 days.


Joannie and Claude
Us
Sharon, Sasha, John, and Amber
Lynette, Abbi, and Jeff
Alyssa, Kathleen, Clark, and Julianna

All the girls - Julianna, Alyssa, Abbi, Carly, Sasha, and Amber

Carly's first stocking
Opie, Carly (sound asleep - poor thing was worn out from the festivities), Lana, and John
Opening presents!!

"Ooh, I love that bow. I want to eat it."

The girls helping Grandma and Grandpa cook breakfast.
Carly and Aunt Kathleen
Mayer extended family
Mayer clan

Sasha at her baptism


Carly (5 months) and Sasha (11 months). Carly is a pound heavier than Sasha. Sweet Sasha is in the lower end of the percentiles for her age, and Carly is in the upper end of percentiles for her age.

New Tricks

Carly has two new tricks. First, she has been making a growling noise. She's been sick with several colds and coughs, and potentially RSV, so I think the growling is related to her congestion. It is pretty funny to hear. I'll try to catch it on video.

Second, she can apparently roll from her back to her belly. I found her sleeping soundly on her belly this morning. Since she still sleeps with her arms swaddled by her side, it was probably relatively easy to roll to her belly. However, I have no idea how she would roll from her belly to her back when she's swaddled. Its time to break the swaddle habit! What a fun holiday break project. Ugh!

Christmas Party Weekend!

We've had a busy weekend of Christmas parties! Friday night was John's firm party. They have a family party in the office, so Carly came along. She met Santa for the first time.

She's looking at me. I was clapping to try to get her to smile. It worked, except she was looking sideways. Oh well.

Saturday night we attended my firm's Christmas party. My parents came to town to watch Carly. Thanks Mom and Dad. We had a great time at the party, and of course Carly enjoyed her time with Nanny and Pop.

One last picture. We finally got the excersaucer from Amy, Eric, and Aubrey Cate. Thanks for allowing us to share the baby gear guys. Carly and I cleaned it up on Thursday, then she played in it Friday. She loves it!

Rice Cereal

Carly had her first rice cereal yesterday, December 8. It was a better experience than I expected. As you can tell, she wasn't too terribly fond of it, but she at least tried it and didn't throw a fit. I made it a little thicker today, and she actually seemed to like it!

She's fascinated by the camera.

She reaches for everything now. Spoons, plates, glasses, etc. She's so curious! I have to hold her arms down to keep the mess to a minimum.

"Dad please save me"

Carly's Laughs

Carly has been laughing since around 3 months old, but here are 2 recent videos of her laughing. Her laughs crack us up.

Thanksgiving in Arkansas

We spent Thanksgiving in Arkansas, and we saw almost every person in my family who lives in the state. It was great to see everyone! We didn't take a whole lot of pictures, but here are a few.

Carly loves her grandparents.

Jenny, Mrs. West (aka Big Genny), and Joe joined us for Thanksgiving. Carly enjoyed seeing her Auntie Jenny again.

Zonked out after the busy Turkey Day.

On Saturday, we drove to Stuttgart to see all my Mom's family. It was a quick trip, but we enjoyed seeing most of the family.

Go Hogs!! Carly enjoyed seeing Arkansas and D-Mac beat LSU.

However, she's still waiting for some Razorback gear to wear. No one has bought her any yet.

With Meemaw and cousin Makala.
I love this picture of Carly with her great-great aunt and uncle.

Carly and Great Aunt Kay
Carly in her Texas gear. Too bad she didn't have much to cheer about.

Dress Up Time

Carly and I played dress up again. This outfit was mine when I was a little baby. I think she's pretty darn cute in it.

When we were in Little Rock for Thanksgiving, my mom found the picture of me in this outfit. After seeing that picture, I have decided that this child looks nothing me at all. She might have my skin tone, but that's it! She is definitely her daddy's little girl!

Love that smile. :)