2 months

Wow, I feel like a complete failure for not keeping up with our blog. It isn't like I have been busy or anything. ;) The last 10 weeks have really flown by. I am happy in some ways for those weeks to have gone quickly, but I am also sad that our little girl has grown up so quickly. The first few weeks were very challenging to say the least. Cara had a hard time adjusting to life on the outside. I think she would have been 100% fine with going back into her nice cozy hiding place for a while longer. She has really started enjoying life a lot more in the last month. That is welcome relief to both me and Philip. We have absolutely fallen in love with her, and are completely thankful and blessed to have her as our daughter.

Philip is an AMAZING father, and I am so grateful that the Lord has blessed me with having him as my husband. He was such a trooper throughout the labor, delivery, and first few weeks of having a newborn. Labor went really well! The midwives at St. Luke's were amazing, and I was able to go completely natural! It was a great experience and such a special time of growth in our relationship and I really learned to have dependence on Philip. It definitely wasn't "easy", but felt extremely accomplishing.

Cara has really grown up a lot in the last few weeks. She has become so much more social, and really loves to laugh and smile. This is very welcome considering she spent her first 5 weeks of life crying most of the time. :) We just absolutely love sitting and talking to her and having her reciprocate her love for us by cooing, smiling, and laughing. We were talking the other day about how appropriate the meaning of Cara's name, she is definitely "one who is dearly loved"!

This time of year is definitely my favorite, and I am just so excited to share this season of Advent and Christmas with our baby. I look forward to teaching her the true reason for Christmas and the love of our savior coming to this earth as a baby to save His people!!

We went Sunday, December 5th after church to get our Christmas tree. Christmas tree shopping is never an easy thing for us to do. We are such perfectionists, and every year we spend hours looking for "the" tree! We finally picked one out after 1 hour and 45 minutes, took it to the check out counter and were about to pay for it, and I started having second thoughts. Philip assured me that this tree was going to be just fine, and we didn't change our minds! We had it loaded on top of our car, brought it home, set it up and put lights on! I love that we get to share our Christmas traditions with Cara! We turned on Christmas music, Philip and Cara danced in front of the tree, and Philip put the lights on while Cara and I hung out on the couch. It was such a special time!

I am going to add pictures to catch you up with the recent happenings in our life. We wish you a happy, blessed, joyful Christmas. What a special time to celebrate the coming of our beloved Redeemer and Savior!!!!



This is Cara at 1 month. She loves her swing!



Cara is 2 months old in this picture!



Cara and Daddy dancing in front of the Christmas tree.



After 2 hours we finally have the "perfect" tree!!!



This is where Cara spends a good amount of her time most days. I love having her close to me, and she loves it too!



We are at Coffee and Cars with Philip. Coffee and Cars is a get together the first Saturday of every month where a bunch of people bring exotic cars and you can walk around and look in them!! Philip and I have been going with friends for a couple of years now.



This is a very special picture to us. My great grandfather, Cara's great-great grandfather, is 95 years old and Cara's middle name namesake. We wanted to get a picture of them together ASAP. It isn't very often that you get a picture with 5 generations!



Here we are with my Pawpaw. I love the way he is looking at her in this picture. So sweet!