We've been M.I.A. for a while here in blog-land, so thanks for coming back to check on us!!
Belle and I went home to New York for the week before Christmas. It was a wonderful visit, but of course went by way too quickly. Our first night up there was our Stevenson Family Christmas party. I posted about last year's party on here and now here we are a year later. It was cool for me to look back at the post from last year and see and think about just how much things have changed since then. TWO new babies have been added to the Stevenson family since then! I was about 18 weeks pregnant at the party last year. Now I have my beautiful baby girl who was two days away from 7 months old at this years party! And my cousin Amanda, just had her baby boy 2 months before!
We have a large family- a total of 16 cousins. Many of us are close in age and spent a lot of time together when we were growing up. I really treasure and look forward to our get-togethers. It has been so much fun watching our big, crazy family continue to grow. Since the cousins have gotten older, significant others have joined us and slowly, more babies!
I love my family. We are far from perfect, but we are SO blessed!
Belle was very interested in Aunt Sandy's decorative Christmas socks!
I love these pictures of everyone sitting around the tree, waiting to open presents. The scene used to be so much different when we were all little kids. We have a lot of home videos that are so funny to watch. There were like 13 of us all within like 5 years of each other. We would all be crowded around the tree and our parents would tell us to sit back from the tree. But slowly we would all scoot forward, just dying to rip those presents open. So many times in the videos you can hear the adults saying "every body back up, scoot back!" Such chaos! But such beautiful memories. Now we are looking forward to having that chaos with our little ones.
My cousin Mike's son. Does anyone know what the relationship is between cousins kids? Like, Belle and Brayden are what in relationship? Its not second cousins? hmm...
My Uncle Johnnie and my beautiful cousin, Amanda!
Belle with my cousin, Sonya-
Newest member of the family, baby Logan- Amanda's adorable little boy. With his Daddy :)
Braydo sitting with his Daddy <3
My poor girl wasn't feeling well. You can see her runny nose :( She had a little cold and when we took her to Urgent Care the following day, we found out she had an ear infection too, poor girl. But even though she wasn't feel well she was SUCH a champ with meeting new people and being passed from Aunt to Uncle to Cousin and then back again! She was feeling the love, and giving it right back. My little lover <3
Annabelle's VERY FIRST Christmas presents! From her new little cousin, Logan!
We could have wrapped empty boxes and just let her rip the paper off of them all day and she would have been JUST as happy. But, the presents are super nice too, and Mommy is happy to have them! :)
When I looked at these pictures the next day, and came across these next few of me on the floor with Belle, I think me heart literally stopped for a minute. They brought tears to my eyes. Look at me, on the floor, opening Christmas presents with my daughter. Maybe it sounds weird, but it got me thinking. You go through these motions sometimes, and although I was loving and appreciating this DURING the moment, looking back at it really hit me. So often I just go through the motions of daily life with a baby, not always stopping to think about what I am doing. And I am thankful for that comfort, for that "normal-ness" but then there are moments when I do stop, look and think about it- I have a daughter, and I do Mommy things. Like sitting on the floor, helping her open her first presents. I think these pictures really hit me most because I don't have many candid pictures of the two of us just doing things. Most of the pictures we have are of us looking at the camera and we only have them because I asked someone to take a picture of us. These were taken by my cousin, and are completely candid, and in the moment, and I love them. Thank you Mike- they might not be special to anyone else, but they mean SO much to me.
Amanda bought these adorable outfits for Annabelle and Logan-
My Aunt Diana and Uncle Johnnie- the newest Grandma and Grandpa in the family. Logan is one luck boy! <3
It was a long day- Annabelle and Grandma needed a nap. I love these pictures.
New baby love <3
Seeing my cousin as a Mommy melts my Mommy-heart. I love my cousins and their babies so much.
("I'm coming to get youuuu")
Annabelle and Logan Christmas photo shoot. Be still my heart.
Mommy wanted pictures of Logan in his winter hat. I love love love these pictures. Is there anything cuter than a diaper-only baby?
I miss this newborn-sleep-anywhere thing. Seriously it's so CUTE.
Mommy snuggled right up to him and they took a much needed nap in the middle of the living room, in the sunshine. I obviously crept on them to get this pic :)
Logan's first bottle! Grandma looks so pleased!
So there it is! Lots of pictures! I filled up my memory card in ONE day- the FIRST day we were home! In the craziness of packing and getting ready for our trip I didn't pack the connector to put my pics on the computer, so I ended up having to delete a bunch so I could take pics the rest of the vaca. But these were my favorites- hope you enjoyed.
This is just part one of our Christmas. I will be posting the others sometime soon. So check back!
Stevenson family- I LOVE you! <3
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