Amanda & Brian's Trip Through Parenthood: Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas everyone! It ended up being a quiet but good Christmas in our new house. I had to work the morning show then came home to open up gifts with Amanda and Olivia before having to go back to work to do the noon newscast. This year, we also set up our webcam so my mom, dad, and sister could share in the experience of Olivia opening up her Christmas presents. It was actually my sister's idea, so I give Jennifer all the credit for it. They have a webcam too, so we were able to watch my niece and nephew open their gifts as well. Long distance Christmas in the 21st century! Here's a video of Olivia opening up some of her gifts from Santa!

She really likes her kitchen...except for the voice part of it. I put some tape over the speaker to muffle it and it works pretty well. Santa also got her some extra play food, so with plenty of food props and a vivid imagination, Olivia has been "cooking up a storm" for the last few days. As for Amanda and I, we pretty much considered the house being our big Christmas present to ourselves...and it's one of the best gifts we could have given ourselves.

A couple days before Christmas, Amanda had another ultrasound and everything is looking good! Amanda has been doing pretty well so far...although she has noticed a definite decrease in her energy level lately. Plus, her ability to get a good night of sleep is starting to drop off too. Amanda's efforts have been focused on getting the house is as good a shape as possible before April. I'm doing my best to help, but there's only so much I can do. In other words, Amanda wants it done and done HER WAY! So, I just do my best to stay out of harm's way. As for a name for our new little girl, there have been *brief* discussions about a name, but nothing in depth as of yet...so stay tuned. Here's one of those really cool 4D pictures of her.

Last weekend, we transitioned Olivia into her "big girl bed" and to this point, things have been going very well! The first couple nights were a bit rough, but she is sleeping through the night without any problems now. We also have our own built in alarm clock because when she gets up, she comes right into our bedroom to get us! Yay! Yes, that was a bit of sarcasm...but it's really not that bad. She sleeps usually until 8 o'clock, so we end up getting a decent amount of sleep. Here's a few other pictures of Olivia taken over the past few weeks. The last two pictures are definitely my new favorite pics of her. She's growing up so fast and looking so old! Sometimes you get a picture of her that solidifies that statement...and those are a couple of those pics. Enjoy this pictures and we wish the best to everyone in 2009!