Patterson Christmas

My family had Christmas at my parents house and we had a great time carrying out traditions that we hold on to every year! We ate fried quail and all the fixin's and had strawberry shortcake for dessert.  That's how my dad's family has done it every year, for I'm pretty sure as long as I've been alive.  My mama cooks it all up and my dad fried the quail, and it was all very yummy! We loved getting to hang out with Granddaddy, Steve, Jan, Daddy, Mama, Anna, and Aaron.  It was low-key and very fun.  At the end of the night we got to read Savannah the Night Before Christmas story, and the story of Jesus' birth from Luke 2.  Very special. :)

Granddaddy and Uncle Steve chattin'

 Daddy frying the quail! YUM!

Uncle Aaron checking up on his favorite patient. :)

 Family pic!

SCM is a lucky girl that Santa LOVES obviously! She got tons of great stuff! Among those are a first Bible with her name on it, a jewelry box, some books, and diapers and wipes of course! :) I also can't leave out Birc's favorite gift of her's, the Hungry Catapillar stuffed animal, that has a zipper on his booty that opens up and out comes a huge blanket with a BUTTERFLY on it! How cool!

 SCM and my Santa presents! I got a roomba, a sewing machine, and some ornaments and other goodies in my stocking!

 Birc's awesome haul from Santa! A TV for his workout room, golf shoes, a law book[??], clothes, and other stuff in his stocking that I can't remember! :)

Anna and Aaron got SCM the sweetest things! The adorable dress, great books, and much needed diapers! I love that my sis picks out things for my sweet girl.  It makes my heart happy :)

Savannah is so lucky to get so much stuff-I only wish she could say thank you too, cause I don't feel like my 'thank-you's' are sufficient! This is what CC and Grandad got for SCM! a humidifier, lots of books, some thank-you notes, name cards, a sippy cup with her name on it, stackable blocks, a Nemo fish for the tub that swims, her first Madam Alexander doll-Peter Pan!, and some teething toys too!

Books from CC and Grandad [they had just written in them so SCM would know when she received them and the paper towels were absorbing the marker stuff so it didn't reprint.]

Walker Christmas 2011

My mom's side of the family always gets together the weekend before Christmas to celebrate, and we had a great time having it in Searcy this year so that Birc and I could go with SCM.  Everyone just drove up on Saturday and Sunday and we spent our time hanging out and eating, while catching up with everyone's lives.  SCM was a little over 2 weeks old here!

4 Generations! GrandJoyce, CC, Amy, Savannah

My mom's youngest sister, Maia meeting SCM

and my mom's younger [middle] sister meeting SCM [please ignore how exhausted I appear!]

Anna and Aaron had taken Tucker out to potty and Birc snapped this great shot! If only Tucker had been looking at the camera...

All the cousins, their boys, and the baby.  We missed seeing Graham, Lesley, and Cathryn so much!   We had a great time though and are hoping to get together this summer at the lake. 

My baby girl is growing up!

She's officially out of the newborn size diapers! :( We moved up to size one yesterday, after really struggling to get the newborn size to fit around her adorable belly. 

In SCM news, she is really loving her baths these days, and I know any day she will be smiling at us because she almost does it now.  She also LOVES her little activity mat (or whatever they're called?) and can stare at the 'safari animals' for a long time. 

My readers [I know, like 5 total]  will be glad to know I'm getting caught up right now and plan to have lots of blog posts coming up.  I can't wait to catch up on reading all my friends and family blogs too-miss Savannah has kept me very busy and very sleepy.  But I'm adjusting.

For now, here's a little sneak peak of her 1 month photo shoot from last Friday!

still not caught up...

I still want to post about our wonderful Christmas holiday, but it is already past New Year's and I can't get caught up! Hopefully soon.  Here's our weekend in iphone pics to show you guys what a great time we had as a family!

Savannah had her first two dinners out this weekend! Friday we went with Birc's mom and dad to eat at their country club, and Saturday we went to Graffiti's restaurant for New Year's with both our families.  Super fun!

After a little cold lingered around for a week, Savannah hadn't been able to sleep on her back very well but we are back to it now! She'd been sleeping propped up in her bouncy seat...poor girl.

Cadence-Bo-Badence finally has realized SCM isn't going anywhere, and she isn't too bad either.  He had been really scared of her until this weekend and he's finally coming around!

Caddo is still happy she's here.  In fact, he nominated himself as her first toy by jumping in her toy basket CC brought for our den!

With the 60+ degree weather, we finally got out and went on a little family walk! We like our stroller!

Savannah is finally really filling out her newborn clothes! She's getting ready to pack on the pounds (or ounces, at least) and be a cute pudgy baby!

We did a lot of sleeping so that was SUPER nice.

See?

Hope everyone had a happy and restful weekend! Now back to the grind...(for my hubby anyway)

Newborn Pictures

Savannah got her picture taken when she was 9 days old and I am so glad I had them done.  I debated on whether to get newborn pics taken, but these are so precious I can't imagine not having them! My friend and sorority sister from college, Cara Beth, took the pictures.  I haven't seen Cara Beth since college, so it was great to see her and watch her use her talents! She just started taking pictures full-time recently and you can see she is so good! I'll put a few of my favorites below.

Caddo-bo-baddo hung around the whole shoot, cause he knew Cara Beth loves animals and would eventually take his picture too! Such a pretty kitty :)

We love the pics and can't wait for the 4 month, 8 month, and 1 year pictures too!

Savannah comes home and other pictures!

While I try to get ahold of my life and get Savannah comfortable in her new home outside my belly, I have had to temporarily ignore my blog.  So sorry folks, but this newborn care is TIRING! However, life is going on and I had better try to catch up or I probably never will. 
We stayed in the hospital two nights at my doctor's orders, and so we came home on Thursday. 

Here's the dress I wore home from the hospital and now miss Savannah has worn it home too! She looked SO PRETTY even though the dress was a tad large on her. :) [sorry I can't seem to rotate it.]

Welcome to our home!

My mom drove over from Searcy and met us here so someone would be here to take pictures!

Showing Savannah her room, while trying to introduce the kitties to her as well.

We made it home!

After she had a bath, we took her "just born" picture that this new mama forgot to take when she was actually 'just born'. hah!

We are adjusting and I am finally feeling like my head is coming up above the water a little bit.  She'll be two weeks old tomorrow and I can't believe she's already that old!

Here's a precious pic of her I snapped with my iphone while she was really awake and alert.  Such a cutie! [I might be biased but seriously I think she's adorable!]

Savannah Cate is here!

Our sweet girl arrived on Tuesday, December 6 at 1:34 PM.  She weighed 6 pounds and 12 ounces and is 20 1/2 inches long, with a head full of dark brown hair.  We think she is absolutely beautiful and are just loving every second of getting to know her.  [We might be a little more exhausted than ever before, but it is all worth it.]

Out the door to the hospital! last belly shot!

And she's out! [if only all I had to do was walk into the hospital-hah!]

She looked perfect in my opinion!

My doctor, Dr. Seguin, saying hello to miss Savannah!

There's her bassinet tag, with Uncle Aaron's name!

Right when we arrived into our post-partum room, it started SNOWING! Daddy showing his new daughter her first snow on her birthday. Very special.

Sleeping in her bassinet

Let's not talk about how rough I look, but I still want to remember her first 24 hours of life. 

Again, no commenting on my rough appearance, but such a sweet first morning sunrise with pretty sunlight on the snow for her.

Grandad and CC LOVE their baby granddaughter! Her Gran and Nana LOVE her too but I somehow don't have a picture of them holding her at the hospital.

This is the first outfit we put her in! Such a precious little girl!

And just for my memory purposes, I want to recall when things happened at the hospital on Tuesday.  Birc and I decided to induce labor on Tuesday with my doctor for many reasons, [even though I was hesitant about it] but I am so glad we did that and she is here now.  We arrived about 8:15 and got checked in and I got a fluid IV. [but not before they blew my vein]  Then my doc came at about 9:00 and broke my water and informed me I was 4 cm dialated and 95% effaced at that time. Then they added a pitocin drip to my IV. My nurse checked at 10:00 and I was already dialated to 7 cm and 100% effaced.  I hadn't had any pain meds yet so I decided to wait just a bit and see how fast things would go.  I didn't think the contractions were too painful, and I had told myself if I made it to 8 cm I would go without an epidural.  Well, 20 minutes went by and I think I was at 9 cm, so I was at the point of no return and decided on no pain meds.  Then my doc arrived about 12:45 and I started pushing [and blew another IV]. Miss Savannah Cate arrived right at 1:34 PM and we [me, most] were so relieved and happy labor was over! Birc did amazingly awesome and cheered me on, cut the cord, then kept a close eye on Savannah while they checked her out.  My sis was a total Godsend and helped me through the entire labor, and my mom got there just in time to help when I needed another person to talk me through each contraction.  My mother-in-law was a help holding the fan over my face for each contraction.  All of the people I just mentioned got to see miss Savannah being born [by default, don't know if they all wanted to be in there but I wouldn't let them leave! hah!]

After a bit the granddaddies and uncle Aaron got to come in and meet her and took turns holding her.  It was a very special day to meet our daughter.  Birc and I are so blessed and happy to have a healthy little girl.  We think she's just beautiful and perfect!