First Christmas as a Family of 3

Our first Christmas as a family of 3 was spent at our new home (Josh's parents house) in Florida. We did not get our tree up until 2 days before Christmas. It was very important for us to have our own family Christmas tree. Sara had a white 2' tree with pink orniments all over it with lights in Kaylee's room when we arrived. I sadly did not get a picture. After I had taken the tree and the decorations down I realized sadly that I did not get one. We had our reef on our door and our stocking we hung (off of our desk hatch). you do what you have to do when the situation is not necessarly ideal for putting up Christmas decorations.
This was Kaylee's first Christmas and we wanted to start traditions and make our own family memories...and we did! We planned on reading the story of Jesus's birth on Christmas Eve but we went to church and did not get back until her bedtime and there was no holding her off. So Christmas morning we woke up and got the video camera and went into her room. We got her and brought her back to our room with the Christmas tree.
First, daddy read to Kaylee the story of Jesus' birth. Then she opened up her stocking and boy did she know what to do! She pulled out her sippy cup and a hot pink bathing suit. Next, was her ornimant. It was a bird..for all the bird faces and sounds she made this past 8 months. (she was also a bird for Halloween)Then it was onto what Santa brought...which was wrapped...at least for this year :) She got books and a Leapfrog BrightLings toy. She didn't really understand the ripping the paper off even with mommy and daddy helping out but once the paper was off she had a ball with it! The it was onto Kaylee helping mommy and daddy opening our stockings, orniments. Our gifts to each other were our orniments this year but mommy got daddy good buy getting him the National Treasure 2 movie for his stocking. Joshua always goes over budget while I work extremely hard to use every single penny without going over. We had a $10 limit for our stockings this year ...just enough for some candy but I got him good! He was expecting for me to do that and he was excited!
After we were done Kaylee, Josh and I went downstairs and had Christmas with his parents and sisters. They were all ready and waiting. Kaylee was ready. She ripped through her stocking that had stuff overflowing from the top. One thing I learned is that my family is not the only one's who do Christmas BIG!! Kaylee was a pro at taking things out of her stocking one by one. The onto the gifts... Kaylee participated a little more with the unwrapping..aka..she actually pulled a strip of paper off of most of the presents. She was hillarious. She knew exactly what to do...unwrap the toy and play with it for a second and then she was ready. She knew there was more and she was estatic. She wanted to open more. As soon as the one was opened she looked toward the tree where more of her presents were and would get giddy and clapp her hands in excitment!
It has been a whirl wind moving, unpacking, getting up decorations, celebrating Jesus' birth, Kaylee opening gifts, organizing all the new stuff and still get our home together. It has been such an amazing time to see Kaylee grow and try new things. She is now eating bread...it's the kind for teething, unsalted crackers and yogurt puffs. She is about to start testing out cheese in the next couple of days. She now has two more teeth in and has started standing up on her own. She stood up on her own and actually balanced herself instead of just falling down on the Monday after Christmas which was Dec. 28,2008. We are having a blast being parents and are so blessed that the Lord has brought Kaylee into our lives. Joshua has so much fun playing around with her and he is such a great dad and husband. He helps me out a ton when I need it. I am truely blessed!