Happy New Year!

Pheeeww...its been awhile since I've been on here.  We've been busy and I'm still catching up from our trip back from Charlotte seeing my family.  Alot has happened in the past couple of weeks and not sure where to begin. [Warning: this is going to be a long post].  My grandmother passed away the week that I was planning on going to Charlotte and was fortunate enough to reschedule the trip for the following week (27th) which worked out better I think because I had an extra day to be there.  Also, Sean wasn't able to go so I was originally planning to leave before Christmas and be back on Christmas Eve in time to spend with his family and now we just went after Christmas.  I was very upset to hear my grandmother's passing but was extremely happy that I took Hunter up to Erie, PA back in September to meet her while she was in the hospital.  She was a fighter and we all were very impressed on how long she made it. The way we see it is that she wanted to spend Christmas up in heaven with Grandpa...sorry I don't mean to get all sappy but we loved her so very much and missed her during the holidays.  I didn't want to go to the funeral because I had said my goodbyes to her then and just couldn't make the trip both emotionally and worrying about traveling so much with Hunter.  She will always have a special place in my heart.

Anyway, on to happier subjects (sorry again!)...Hunter obviously wasn't so sure what the whole opening gifts and Christmas banaza was about but he did actually open a few gifts and of course, would have rather played with the paper and bows instead of the actual gift until we opened it for him. Oh and he loved throwing away all the trash! Good boy! By next year, he will definitely know what to do! Everywhere we would go that had a Christmas tree, he would point it out and know what it was. 

Christmas Eve!

We had a wonderful Christmas over at Sean's mom's house.  She had a bunch of goodies over there for him including a little tent that he could go in and hide from us! It was so cute.

Sean's sister, Marnie and her boyfriend went up to NY to be with his family over Christmas so we had celebrated with them before they left.   

Remember back about a month ago how I blogged about having anxiety traveling with Hunter? Well, obviously I had to be strong and just do it.  Yep, there were definitely a few times where he was just not having it and would have a melt down.  Luckily, everyone that we were on the flight with totally understood and told me that I handled it very well (not much I can do anyway) and that for him being so cute it wasn't so bad! Haha.  On the way back, we managed to have a whole row of seats to ourselves and the flight was during his bedtime so I thought, no sweat he will defintely fall asleep because the cabin is dark ...yeah, thought wrong.  He ended up finally falling asleep right when the pilot got on the intercom to let us know that, "we are preparing for decent"! So he had about 15 minutes of sleeping.  We got back late and of course he slept in the next morning and I needed it too! This mommy's was exhausted! Now we are trying to get back on track this week and I think Hunter caught an ear infection from it because he was not a happy camper last night going to bed. Anyway, all in all it was well worth the trip seeing my family.  Hunter is one spoiled little grandson.  Luckily, my dad is a hardworking corporate professional at a pretty popular shoe store where he got 13 pairs of shoes to fit him for awhile ( the 13th pairi is not shown because he was trying them on) :

Thanks Dad and Elaine!!!

A gift from his grandparents that he absolutely loved!

Love my Grandpa!

We had a nice visit with my Dad and Elaine. Thanks so much for everything!

Hunter got so much stuff that both my mom and dad are having to ship boxes back to us.  I have no idea where we are going to put everything but we'll find a place =)

My brother and his wife, Jessica went to NYC on Christmas day for a few days just to visit and see what all the holiday action is like up there and had a great trip and even got to see some snow. Jessica, unfortunately came back with a little cold but managed to hang with it =)  The day after Hunter and I arrived, Matt and Jessica flew back to Charlotte so they were able to spend a couple of days with us before they headed back to Raleigh.  They were a big help and realized how much energy Hunter had pretty quickly.  I even got to watch 2 movies while I was there! I don't think I have watched one movie since Hunter has been born! I know. Sad.  It was nice to relax and kick back a little bit. We also were able to fit in some shopping and out to dinner a few times in between seeing family and friends.

Vroom Vroom....cars at Mimi's house!

Uncle Matt!

Me and Mimi watching my Baby Einstein DVD!

It was so great to meet up with the Beane's and the Meyer's families!

Another perk that I was very happy to fit in was being able to get a friend of mine to take some photo's of Hunter.  I hadn't been able to get any great photos of Hunter since he has been walking and thanks to KaraBeth Myers of Holden Memories Photography she took some amazing photos in such a short period of time and in my mom's own backyard! How convenient! Take a look:

Its a brand new year with new adventures for our family to come! We are excited to see what 2013 will bring us!  Happy New Year!