First Thanksgiving and first family outing

Sallie Rose is now 6.5 weeks old. This last week she had her first Thanksgiving and she slept right through it. I bought her a new dress and all she did was sleep in it. I have a friend who has 4 adorable nephews who range in the ages of 5 to 8. We stopped over at her family's before heading to the Beckwiths, so that Sallie Rose could decide which of the boys she wanted to date later. Arranged marriages are making a comeback, at least in our household. I would hate for her to grow up and get to choose who she marries. What if she is like her Mom and marries someone 21 years older than her. I can't have that! I am joking! We had a great Thanksgiving and Sallie Rose was adorable as usual.

Saturday we went downtown to see the big Holiday Celebration. We heard there was going to be ice skating and fake snow for the kids to play in. Crazy as I am, I thought we would take Sallie Rose down there and take her picture in the fake snow. I got her all dressed up and what do you know, she slept right through it all. We still had a lot of fun and it was nice to get out of the house as a family.

Sallie Rose has been a great baby so far, but we are having some day sleeping issues. You take her somewhere in the carseat and she sleeps the whole time. When we get home and put her in her bed she immediately wakes up and cries. So, now I am having to "break" her of her day sleeping habits. I put her in her bed and she cries and I check on her every once in a while and then she finally falls asleep after about 45 minutes of crying. And then I think "great she is asleep", but that only lasts for about 20 or 30 minutes. Then she is up again. What a hard job! I think she will finally get it one day, Lord I hope!

It is hard to hear her cry and I wonder sometimes if she is going to be mad at me when she wakes up, but then there she is lying in her crib smiling and cooing. Now that she is smiling and laughing all the hard parts seem to go right away.

Here she is: Miss Sallie Rose

Yesterday was Sallie Rose's one month birthday. I hired clowns, circus animals, and magicians to come to the house to help celebrate her one month of being alive. Not really. I did however change her diapers, feed her, and hold her for her one month birthday. That is all she really likes to do right now.

She has been a very good baby thus far. She sleeps good at night and only really cries when she has gas or is hungry. Her gas was pretty bad in the beginning but I think now that her tummy has grown she is getting less and less gasy. She is still as beautiful as the first moment we saw her and she gets more personality every day. My favorite time of the day is when she wakes up and stretches her little arms and kicks her legs. Then, she will go through all the faces that she knows how to make and I just watch. At night her Dad sings songs to her and he holds her up and pretends she can walk. She will be walking by next month. I can already tell she is ahead of the pack. Genius and strong like her MOM.

Here are a few pictures of her on her one month birthday. Her aunt Tara came to help her celebrate her big day.

And yes, she has a lot of hair and it sticks straight up. I don't fix her hair in a mohawk every morning, that is natural.

Happy Birthday Grandma Rosa Lee

Today is a day that I knew would make me sad. It would have been my Grandma Rosa Lee's 88th birthday. I knew that one day she would not be with us anymore, but I had hoped it would be longer than her 87th birthday. I hoped that she would get to hold all of my and my sister Tara's kids and tell us many more times that we needed to lose weight, cut our hair, or see a doctor about our teeth. She was such an honest person, but she knew how to be honest and caring at the same time. Many of us think we are doing the World a favor by being honest or "blunt", but she really had a way of being honest in a kind way.

Grandma Rosa died last year on November 14th. She did celebrate her 87th birthday with her family, but just a week later she went on to be the Angel she was always meant to be. I could go on for days about how great she was and how much she did for me and my family, but most people who will read this also know how great she was. She touched so many people's lives outside of her closest friends and family. She was a generous giver, caretaker, volunteer, and she had a sense of humor that stayed with her until her last breath. I credit my Grandma for so many of the wonderful things in my life. She was a person that I could talk to about certain problems and she would give very wise advice and I never felt like I was being judged. She was positive, Christian, and selfless.

Although I am sad that I can't call her and tell her Happy Birthday and ask her if she is going to go party (she would always say yes), I am so grateful that I had the chance to spend 27 years of my life with her and have her as my Grandma. Having a heartache and feeling so much pain when you lose someone might not seem like a gift, but to love someone so much that it hurts so bad is a gift. I miss her everyday, as I know many of us do, but I know she lives on through me, my sister, Dad, cousins, aunts, uncles, and now through my baby, Sallie Rose. I always knew that I could never tell her thank you enough or do anything that would ever amount to what she has done for me, but naming my daughter in honor of her is one way of trying. I just hope that I can be half the person she was and now I hope that Sallie Rose has inherited her Grandma Rosa Lee's heart and soul (she didn't get her red hair which I had hoped for too).

Grandma, Happy Birthday to you and keep us all in line as you watch over us and guide us to be better people to everyone in our lives. I want to make you proud and do wonderful things for other people without recognition, just as you did. I miss you, I love you, and I will never go a day without thanking God for you.

Pearl, Santa Claus, and Grandma Rosa Lee