A Post-Christmas update

Merry (belated) Christmas to you all! And what a wonderful one it was. I wanted to write a quick post about our holiday happenings, so bear with me. This post will be mainly pictures/captions :)

We left my parents at our house and headed south for this year's Christmas celebration with Patrick's family. Over 4 days we slept at 3 different houses, opened presents 5 different times, and at one point had 44 people crammed into a very small house. It was lots of fun!

Christmas Eve

Listening to Charlie (my father-in-law) read the Christmas story

Morgan and Great-Aunt Lola

Christmas Morning Stockings

(Yes Folks....Nannie bought her a recorder. Thanks a bunch Nannie.)

I am not really sure how this happened...sorry folks, end user error.

Christmas Day

Great-Grandma Opalene and the newest "Moffatt", Kole

Patrick and his Uncle Rodney

Morgan and her 2nd cousin, Anna

Christmas Evening

Me and my Afghani pashmina

Signed 2008 Fiesta Bowl ticket and Noel Devine (#7) picture and autograph

A castle for her princesses!!

This princess loves it! :)

Even our puppies got presents.

(Pfeffer on left, Bailey on right, both Dachshunds)

Christmas with Mom's Family (Dec 26th)

STICKERS! (And a beautiful kimono from San Fransisco's Chinatown)

Admiring her castle...

Morgan's Buddy--she hardly left my cousin Matt's side!

Mom teaches her sister how to wear her Afghani pashmina

Presents at Jeff and Cecelia's (Dec 29)

A new, special coloring book. Morgan really likes it and has drawn pictures for us already.

Cecelia's pashmina from Afghanistan

Play-Doh Ice Cream Shop!!! Morgan loves it. She and my mother made ice cream sundaes for everyone this morning.

Only an engineer wraps his sister's gift in Engineer of Record shop drawings!

After a whirlwind Christmas season Morgan and I are relaxing at my brother's house in Maryland. Patrick will join us tomorrow. I am taking this time to sit on the couch and be a lazy lump so when I return home on Saturday I will be rested and ready to tackle taking down the Christmas decorations (sigh).

We'll catch back up with you in 2010!

My BIG Problem

Today I have been dealing with a BIG problem. I've been cleaning, working, moving, and preparing, all for this BIG problem. After over a year of talking about it, it's finally here.

Today I got my Christmas present from my husband, just a little early. It had to come early because I had to be instrumental in picking it out! He said he would never dare pick one up without me approving. Intrigued? I was.

For Christmas this year, my wonderful husband bought me...


A KING SIZE, MEMORY FOAM BED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My problem is how do I fit this bed into a room that is already busting at the seams with furniture, since our bedroom functions not only as our bedroom, but as our exercise room, our office, library, and scrapbook room. It's only 200 sq feet. Whew.

Not that I am complaining....I am so happy! Once again he managed to surprise me on an amazing level. Thank you honey, you are so thoughtful and I am very happy with my gift.

Some more firsts for Morgan

We've had a lot of excitement going on in the Tenney household over the past few days. On Saturday my parents FINALLY arrived after leaving their home at 4:00 AM Friday morning, getting stuck in Wytheville, VA after 12 hours of driving, being relocated to an emergency shelter and sleeping on bleachers, to finishing a 15 hour trip 35 hours after it started. Morgan and I were both so excited that they are here. Since Morgan only gets to talk to them over the computer, when they are here she really gets excited. Naturally, after 5 months of not being with my parents, I always love when they come home.

Sunday we took Morgan to her very first movie! All 5 of us packed up and braved the snow to get to the theater for Disney's The Princess and the Frog.

Of course we got the BIG bucket of popcorn, as our little princess loves popcorn, and since this was a first, it naturally called for big snacks.

The movie was really cute, and we all enjoyed it. Morgan is now asking to go see it again!

Yesterday Morgan was in her first school production. The day care that she goes to put on a Christmas performance. Morgan was a very cute little cow, and was "that kid" who constantly waved at her parents and grandparents from the stage. It was SO cute!

The Chrsitmas festivities have officially started and it's totally crazy. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

A Baby No More...

On December 6, the day of her cousin's birth, Morgan gave up the last true vestige of babyhood. For months we had been preparing her for it, and when it came, she took it like a champ. On this day, she gave up her BeBe (her pacifier). We had told her that when Baby Kole came that she would have to give all of her BeBes to Kole, because only babies used pacifiers. Now it certainly wasn't a totally smooth transition. She asked for it for two nights, and we are still feeling the effects of no soothing tool because she now stays up well past 11:00. But she did it.

As a prize for her becoming a true big girl, and to ensure that she would always have a BeBe in her bed with her, we took her to Build-A-Bear to create a friend with a BeBe heart.

Unfortunately, and shockingly, I left the camera in the car. Thankfully, Patrick's Blackberry has a camera and we were able to remember this moment forever.

She didn't take long to pick out her black bear. She helped stuff her, and placed her BeBe and a very special heart in with her stuffing.

She washed her...

And picked out a Hello Kitty outfit for her to wear, right down to the Hello Kitty panties!

She chose to name her Holly, and in less than 30 minutes, Morgan adopted her.

It was really fun to do this with her, and once in a while when she asks about her BeBe, we remind her that Holly has a BeBe heart and Morgan snuggles in with Holly and falls asleep.

It's so adorable.

Cousins

Kole Alexander

Let me tell you folks, there is nothing more precious than holding a newborn. And I have had some AWESOME quality time with my nephew. He is a great baby. He only cried during diaper changes and didn't quite care for his bath. But if you keep him warm, he's as good as gold.

When we got here yesterday Morgan's introduction to Kole was less than exciting. She came in, Nannie carried her in to meet Kole, she glanced at him quickly, grabbed a pony and announced she was going to go play! After all the talk about wanting to see Kole, I guess he wasn't what she had pictured in her mind. She did ask to hold him about 2 hours later, and I got this precious picture.

We spent some time today just looking out the window. He was awake and very intent on staring out the large window in the house. For about an hour we talked and took pictures. Well, when I say we I really mean me. He's too young to take pictures yet.

I don't know how anyone can hold a newborn and not believe in God. What a precious gift from heaven, given to our family by our Lord. A December baby really touches me more, as we are celebrating the birth of our new born Jesus. It makes it so real. I am so glad I get to be Aunt Jen to "my guy". I am truly blessed.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Over the weekend we FINALLY were able to get the Christmas decorations out of the attic and displayed. Thankfully Kole waited until our tree was put up before he made his debut :) Morgan had such a wonderful time this year. When we got the nativity scene out she crammed all of those figures into the creche! Then she spent about 20 minutes rearranging them so they were "just right". She will be playing the role of a cow in the stable for the day care's Christmas program, so our cow is right next to baby Jesus in the creche.

Her favorite part, by far, was decorating the Christmas tree. She was less than pleasant yesterday, and multiple times was banished from the living room. But when it came time to decorate the tree she was as cute and heart melting as ever.

As we unwrapped ornaments you could see the anticipation on her face. She was so excited to place the ornaments, hanging them all on the bottom of the tree. With some help from Daddy she started scattering them around more.

I took a video of her decorating the tree here. It takes a while to load on YouTube, so don't be surprised if you have to wait longer than normal. While we were decorating the tree, I noticed that Morgan was spending a lot of time on the opposite side of the tree. When I stood up to look I noticed her kissing every ornament. It was the sweetest thing I have ever seen. It's nice to have these quiet moments, when she has no idea I am watching (or videoing) to remember how wonderful it is to be a child at Christmas. I love that she knows about Jesus as well as Santa. She fully understands that Jesus' birthday is coming and talks a lot about what she learns at school. She also knows very well who Santa is and about his reindeer.

It's so fun to have this time with her, to remember the real reason for Christmas as well as have fun with the silly parts that are tied to the holiday.

A child born on the Sabbath day...

We are excited to introduce our first nephew, Kole Alexander, who was born this morning at 5:48 weighing 7 lb. 1 oz. He looks just like Julia. Patrick's sister Amy is doing very well. She is thankful that her labor lasted a little over 4 hours and after 3 pushes, Kole was born. He is nursing like a pro already.

His big sister, Julia, is completely in love with her baby brother. Morgan and I will be going down to Charleston on Tuesday to meet Kole and spend a few days with the new family of FOUR (I have 3 days of work down in that area). For now we simply say prayers of thanks to God for an easy delivery and a healthy, handsome baby boy.

Off the beaten path

Hello! Yes I am still alive and well even though it has been a while since I posted. I have lots of updating from the last few weeks to do, but tonight I am settled quitely in a beautiful, quaint bed and breakfast in Petersburg, WV.

I've never stayed at a bed and breakfast before. I arrived much later than expected but the Innkeepers were waiting for me with a cup of tea and a slice of freshly baked (and still warm) pumpkin pie.

I've been on the road all day and was so tired when I arrived. However, unlike the anonymity of a hotel, Geri and Ed engaged me in conversation, asked about my visit to Petersburg, and we had a nice chat over pie. Even though when I arrived I only wanted to find my bed, I was glad to have some company and conversation. When they showed me to my room, I was amazed!

I have a wing to the house all to myself. We entered into a morning room with a day bed and some antique furniture. The french doors were opened into the Sweet Country Suite. I so wish I had brought the camera to get pictures of my own, but I was able to pull these off their website.

The suite is decorated with lots of Thomas Kinkade (who happens to be my favorite artist) and floral country. Even the bathroom is very tastefully done. I am already in love with the place and am trying to figure out a way to get back down here with Patrick and Morgan.

Unfortunately my stay will be very brief (about 12 hours or so) then I am back on the road for work. But for tonight I will enjoy the country quiet with my cup of tea and mints, yes actual mints, on my pillow!

Stay tuned for an update of the past few weeks soon...