A Very Merry Christmas

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We celebrated the birth of Jesus with our families, ate a ton of amazing food, and received way too many presents. This was a special Christmas because it was Gracie's first. We had so much fun watching her experience all that is Christmas for the very first time. Here was our amazing Christmas in pictures.

The awesome family photo Brian took. It was SO good to have them here for Christmas! We love them and miss them like crazy!


I love this picture! Not the best quality, but so full of emotion. Ainsley loves holding Gracie and here she is making her laugh. I loved seeing Gracie playing with her cousins.

We received so many wonderful presents from everyone. My favorite part was helping Gracie open her presents and watching her excitement as she discovered her new toy. Some of the things Papa and Kaymi got her were a talking kitchen, a walker, a beautiful doll named Gracie, and her very first basketball goal! This is one of the toys she got from Uncle Brian, Aunt Brooke and her cousins Ainsley and Braxton. She LOVES this activity table!

This picture is one Brian took and it is one of my all time favorites of Gracie. He took this while setting everything up for the big family photo. My little naked baby is so cute on this beautiful antique couch!

Over at Papaw and Mamaw's we opened up more presents and Johnny got to be the reindeer. Cutest reindeer I ever saw!


Mamaw and Papaw got Gracie her awesome playpen, a baby karaoke machine, a little people nativity scene, and some of her favorite books. Here is Gracie with Mamaw riding the train Joey, Nicole and Jackson got her. She's pretty excited about it!

One of the best parts of the night was the last present the boys opened up. They each got an authentic moose glass that Cousin Eddie drank eggnog from in the movie Christmas Vacation! Best gift ever mom! Hilarious!!!
What a blessed Christmas!!!

Priceless Pictures

"Capturing the moments you never want to forget."
This is our motto for our photography business Raspberry Rain Images. It is important to me to document life with pictures. I love knowing I have reminders of the different stages of my life, my single years, becoming Mrs. Jonathan Williams, and now my life as a wife and mother. I wouldn't give up these pictures for the world! These images bring back so many wonderful memories, evoke emotion that still moves me to thankful tears, and remind me of how good God is.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Baby's First Christmas

Well, this will be our first Christmas as a family of 3. I will say, everything has felt more "Christmasy" this year as we get to share our favorite holiday and time of year with our favorite little girl! She is mobile now and will crawl over to the tree every chance she gets. Once there she looks at the lights, plays with the ornaments at her level (non-breakables of course) and pulls the bows off of the presents. The Christmas tree lights and ornaments are definitely her favorite. Her least favorite part, Santa. On Friday we dressed her up in one of her many Christmas outfits and headed out to the mall for that oh so important first picture with Santa. She looooved every part of our outing, except for the picture with the extremely realistic looking Santa (seriously one of the best Santa's I've ever seen). We went ahead and purchased the over-priced picture package because 1. we had to ( its her first christmas!) , and 2. her expression is AWESOME! I think she is smarter than the average 8 month old and realizes that sitting on a creepy old man's lap is not fun and NOT very Christmasy!

Here are a few pictures of Gracie in her cute little Christmas outfit. I know the bow is big, but seriously how cute is she?!


The skirt is so cute it makes me want to cry!


And here is the infamous Santa picture. Are you wondering what I am (is that the real Santa?

Unforgettable

"I used to hate uncertainty, but I'm learning to love it. It is an aquired taste. I am discovering that the greatest moments in life are unscripted. They are unrehearsed, unplanned, and unpredictable, and that is precisely what makes them unforgettable." Mark Batterson

I feel like I am learning these words. Just let go and be in the moment. Let life be an adventure. How boring is a life where every moment is planned.

The unplanned moments that will always be remembered...

-Just moments after Gracie was born, she turned toward the sound of my voice to see me. I'll never forget that moment of her and I seeing each other for the first time.
-Laying in the grass with Gracie, looking up at the sky, listening to baby babble.
-Gracie's poop explosion outside of Albertson's. I don't know if I've ever laughed so hard! (granted the poop was on Jonathan and not me) :o)
-When Jonathan comes home and Gracie starts doing the arm flap and squealing with delight.

"We naturally want everything to go according to plan, but the element of surprise infuses life with so much joy."

I remember when Jonathan took this picture. This was the moment i felt like a mother.

Baby's First Thanksgiving

Gracie's had a blast on her first Thanksgiving!

First we celebrated with David and Donna Kay (Papa and Kaymi). We ate great food, played with new toys, and played football outside on one of the most gorgeous days all year!

Next, we went to my parents' house (Papaw and Mamaw) where we ate some more amazing food, played with more new toys, worked a 1000 piece puzzle that my dad said we would never finish (which we did!), and took our family Christmas photos.

Gracie wanted to take a few too! Like mother like daughter.

Poncho Baby

Gracie is 7 months old now. She was born in the spring, endured the hot summer, and is now getting ready to tackle her first winter. With the change in weather comes new winter clothes and ADORABLE photo opps! To help Gracie weather the first day of cold, we put her in her adorable poncho from Chile that she got as a gift. Thank you Ron and Cindy Kveton for the cutest little poncho sweater ever! We could not wait for it to get cold so we could get her in it, and of course I had to take pictures (58 to be exact) Here are just a few. :o)

Gracie's First Halloween

We had such a fun Halloween this year! We dressed up Gracie in her precious giraffe costume, added a pink bow to make sure people new she was a girl, and headed to the harvest carnival at First Baptist Flower Mound. Gracie hung out with her Papa and Kaymi (Johnny's parents) and met a lot of new people. From there we headed to her Papaw and Mamaw's (my parents) house where we went trick-or-treating at the neighbors and hung out with family. What a great day!

Pumpkin Patch

Today we went to the pumpkin patch in Flower Mound. We took pictures, played, and just enjoyed being with family. It was a perfect day.

My First Halloween Costume

Introducing...the cutest little giraffe in the world! We found this precious costume on sale and fell in love! The costume is so soft and comes complete with a tail and giraffe feet. The little mohawk hair makes me want to cry its so cute (and it kind of reminds me of her "crazy hair" days). I can't wait for her to wear this on Halloween!

So Thankful

Well, Gracie is now 6 1/2 months old. She is more fun than i could have ever imagined and I love her more than i ever thought possible. My relationship with her has brought me a deeper appreciation for my own amazing parents and a greater understanding of what it means to be a child of God! Thank you Lord for this blessing!

So, in honor of God's handiwork, here are some more pictures of Gracie in all her cuteness.

Messy Little Monster

One of the messiest eating days yet.

(I posted this on facebook, but in case you missed it, here it is)

This Video Makes Me Happy

Gracie's new noise.

The Fake Cough

Well, our little baby is growing up. I can't believe she is almost 6 months old! She is sitting up on her own, saying "hi" all the time, and eating rice cereal like a champ. One thing she recently started doing is this fake cough thing. She does it to get our attention or to let us know she is excited or just plain mad. It is hilarious! It seems like it would hurt her little throat, but she does it all day long and seems completely unaffected. I try to get her to say ma ma or da da, but that's apparently not as cool as the fake cough. Here is a little taste of what we hear every day.

So Cute

Here is a video of Jackson and Gracie loving on each other. Gracie loves Jackson so much she wants to tackle him.

5 months old

Gracie is finally big enough to wear one of her fancy hats I bought her on Etsy. Yay! In this photo shoot she is wearing her "love me" onesie with her guess jeans. The hat just makes the outfit!



Here are a few new things Gracie has been doing. She is officially 5 months old in one more day!
-flapping her arms like crazy
-she has reached new decibel levels when talking and screaming
-learning how to say "huh" sounds
-eating cereal twice a day now
-her hair is getting a lot longer so it is laying down (no more baby crazy hair, except after baths)
-sitting up by herself (still pretty wobbly though)
-rolling over both ways (back to stomach to back)


For those moms out there looking for fun homemade hats, or anything else homeade, check out www.etsy.com

mmmm...paste.

Now that Gracie is 4 months old, she has become extremely interested in the things we eat and drink. She has something (hands, toy, teether) in her mouth at all times and she opens her mouth wide when she's ready to eat. The Doc said its time for cereal. Yea! Yesterday we fed her rice cereal for the first time. We didn't know if she would like it since it smelled just like paste, but she did. The hungry little monster ate it all! Here's the proof...

The world's most photographed child

I know this is an addiction - taking pictures of my baby - but I blame my family. Apparently when we were little our Aunts took tons of photos of us. It must be genetic. So, Vicki and June, I blame you! :o) Go here for the latest photo shoot of Gracie.


www.jessicawilliamsphotography.com/wordpress/

We miss you!

To all the family in Kentucky,
Gracie wanted me to post this blog so she could say a few things to the family.






We miss you all so much and can't wait for Gracie to meet you! Wish we were on the lake with everyone! Love you!!!!!

Love,
Jess, Jonathan, and Gracie

4 Month Doctor Visit

Well, Gracie had her 4 month check up the other day. She had to get 2 more shots (one in each leg) and it was so much harder this time - not for her- for me! It broke my heart to hear that painful cry (even though she only cried about 5 seconds) and then to see her look at me with those sad eyes - pitiful!
According to the doctor she is doing great!
Here are her stats:

14.3 lbs (60%tile)

23.75 inches (33%tile)

New Tricks:
-grabbing feet
-new "words" (gurgle sounds)
-chewing on everything
-an even deeper level of cuteness