Baby Blessing and Updates

December was a full month and I am sorry that I didn't document more of it.  We had the baby blessing at church and Cullen's first Christmas.

I am so thankful that I am able to stay home with Cullen.  Sometimes I do feel like I have nothing to talk about but the baby, but I would rather stay home to take care of my baby and be a poor conversationalist than go to work and have lots to talk about.

I have decided that it is my job to take care of Cullen and find ways to save money since I am not bringing home a paycheck.  I clip coupons and shop sales about once a week.  Sometimes I save a lot and sometimes I only save a little... but every little bit really does help.  I have started making our bread from scratch.  Sometimes I make it in the bread machine and sometimes by hand.  It depends on what recipe I am using.  If you have never made homemade bread, I would definitely recommend trying it.  It is quite satisfying to eat anything made from scratch, especially bread.  We are also doing very well with eating at home instead of grabbing fast food all the time.  After almost six months of recovery, I finally feel good enough to cook again.  While I was in my last trimester and recovering from my c-section, I rarely felt like doing anything, much less standing at the kitchen counter for an hour or more everyday.

Here are some pictures of the baby blessing... I will add some from Christmas later on.

Cullen's First Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving, we stayed at home.  We ate a small Thanksgiving dinner and spent a few hours outside, "camping" in our backyard.  It was fun.  Cullen loved it.  Here are some pictures.

Cullen is 4 Months Old!

Our sweet little Cullen turned 4 months old on Monday.  It is hard for me to believe that it has been 4 months since his birth... it is just as hard to imagine my life without him.  I sing "You Are My Sunshine" to him quite often because he lights up my life so much.  People ask me all the time if he always smiles so much and the answer is yes.  He loves it when people look at him and talk to him.  He usually will talk right back.  Lately, he talks all the time: to his pacifier, mobile, teethers, other babies, etc.  He did well at his check up.  He is on the tall side and the light weight side, but the doctor isn't too concerned.  The pictures below were taken about 3 hours after he had his shots.  He is so good!  I hope you enjoy the many faces of Cullen :)

14 Weeks

Here are some pictures of Cullen in his bear outfit that Grammie made.  He still has room to grow into it, so you might see more pictures of him in it later.

Another Halloween Picture

Halloween Party

This year, we were unable to do our normal thing for the trick-or-treaters... but we found other ways to have fun with Halloween.  We threw a Halloween party for our small group. It took two weeks to decorate the house and it was worth it.  The main feature of the party was dinner followed by a couple of silly party games.

Grant and I served a full course meal including punch and hors d'oeuvres, tomato soup, bread, pot roast with carrots and potatoes, salad, and pumpkin spice pudding for dessert.  According to the Emily Post etiquette book, it was not a formal dinner because we did not have servants.  Grant and I served the meal to all 20 of our (adult) guests plus we served ourselves.

At the party there were 22 adults and 4 babies.  Unfortunately, I was very busy with the meal and did not get many pictures of our guests.  The costumes were great!  We had so much fun! Hopefully we can do it again.