Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with their family. We had a great Christmas and feel so blessed to have Morgan in our lives. It has been so much fun to see Christmas through the eyes of a two year old.



Santa brought Morgan a new "giant doll house." At least that's what Morgan calls it. She LOVES it. She has played inside her new house nonstop.




Waving out the window.


Grandma D got Morgan a indoor trampoline. She LOVES jumping on it. She jumps so high!

Morgan's new art easel that her Papa and GiGi got her.

Morgan loves her new art kit.

Her new puppy that came with a doctors kit to make the puppy well. Morgan is giving her puppy a shot...ouch!

Morgan was excited to get a "big sister" book. It was a present from her little sister. :)

Opening stocking gifts

Little People doll house. Morgan loves playing with her new doll house.

Christmas Eve

We had a great Christmas Eve that started off with snow. We headed to church in the afternoon and that evening we spent with Andy's family. We opened gifts and had lots of good food. It was a fun evening. Morgan had so much fun she fell asleep on the ride home.

Christmas Eve snow! Morgan enjoyed playing in the snow even though there wasn't very much. :)


Our Family...Christmas 2010

Morgan and her Aunt Vicki.

Morgan, GiGi, Papa, and Lily

Vicki and I always take silly pictures. We are comparing tummy's since we both ate a lot over the holiday. Uhmmm...pretty easy competition for me to win. Since I'm pregnant I won hands down! :)

Morgan opening one of her gifts from Papa and GiGi...and adorable piece of luggage for Morgan to take to the lake, their house, etc.

We rock out on the holidays! GiGi knows how to play the guitar and kindly plays for Morgan who loves dancing.

Snuggled up in her new sleeping bag from Aunt Vicki.

Happy Holidays!!!!

Getting ready for the holiday...

We headed to the library this morning for story time and instead of the normal story time...Santa was there to read a story and give cookies to the kids. Morgan LOVED it!! She told Santa she wants a doll house for Christmas.

We enjoyed snowman pancakes for lunch today...yummy! Morgan ate every bite!

This afternoon my "little elf" Morgan and I went around to our neighbors to deliver our Christmas card and cookies. We have awesome neighbors and we enjoyed stopping by all their homes to wish them a Merry Christmas!

26 Weeks

Mommy and "Big" sister Morgan

It is hard to believe I am already 26 weeks! I look back at my picture from 20 weeks and wow...my belly has really grown!!! I am feeling great and sleeping well. The hardest part of my day is getting up and down from the floor playing with Morgan and constantly bending down to pick up toys, etc. That's really the only time I feel tired and big. Can't wait to meet our little girl! I love all the kicks and movement.

Lots of Doctor appointments ahead...

I wanted to update everyone on "baby bean..."

I found out at my 19 week appointment that the baby only has a 2 vein cord. Normally babies have 1 vein and two arteries in the umbilical cord. Our baby is missing one of the arteries. This happens for no particular reason and occurs in about 1 in 500 pregnancy's. Due to this 2 vein situation I have seen a specialist and everything looks good. Our baby is growing well and appears to be healthy. Sometimes in the third trimester babies with a 2 vein cord have a hard time gaining weight or can be in stress due to not having as much blood flow as a baby with 3 veins. This puts me in a high risk category and my Dr. will continue to monitor the baby closely. Next month I will start going to the Dr. twice a week for the last twelve weeks or until delivery. At those twice weekly appointments I will have 2 non-stress tests done and a sonogram. When we first learned of this complication both Andy and I were nervous, but everything is looking good. Thinking positively it will be nice I will have all the extra Dr. appointments. They will closely monitor our little girls growth and make sure everything is good. This helps put my mind at ease. I also look forward to seeing my baby during the weekly sonogram. The Dr. will definitely not let me go past my due date of April 1st. It looks like we will have a March baby!


We would appreciate prayers for baby Hilbrich that she continues to grow healthy and she can handle the 2 vein cord until she is full term. We will keep you up dated!

Daffer Family Christmas

We enjoyed the Daffer Christmas tonight at my mom's. We enjoyed good food and a fun time with family. Morgan loved opening all her gifts! She is going to have so much fun the rest of the week with all our Christmas fun ahead!!

My sisters and I are officially old. We all wanted floor cleaners for our homes. Yes...I was really excited about this gift. I finally have a "good" vacuum for my stairs. YEA!

Mr. Stinky Feet

Another fun library activity...Mr. Stinky Feet! Morgan really enjoyed his music and she was excited to be picked to come "play" in his band with her cousins. I think she would have stayed up in front of the audience all day, but unfortunately it was only an hour show. Fun! Fun!

Rocking Out!

Gingerbread House

We enjoyed making gingerbread houses at the library with Morgan's cousins. I was impressed Morgan spent close to 30 minutes working on her house. I think it helped watching her "big" cousins (who she adores) work on their houses right next to her. We had a lot of fun! :)

Fun!

Tasty frosting!

Cousins!

Kindergarten?!?!?

Morgan just informed me this morning that she is going to Kindergarten. I guess she doesn't feel the need to go to preschool next fall. HA! She also dressed herself in an interesting mix of clothes, shoes, and socks and said she is going to wear this outfit to Kindergarten. Funny!!
Her Mommy isn't quite ready for her to go to Kindergarten. Preschool will be hard enough on me! :)

Christmas Cookies

Morgan had a fun morning with her best buddy James! They enjoyed decorating sugar cookies after lunch. They made a huge mess, but had a lot of fun in the process. The best part...they actually wanted to help clean up! :)

She loved the icing!!

Yummy!

Clean up time!

Look at sweet baby Blake...he is tired from the big kids cookie decorating. Morgan loves having a buddy who enjoys sucking his thumb as much as she does.

Sneak Peak...

We have started getting the spare room ready as Morgan's "Big Kid" room. First step...paint! I picked out a soft pink to go with her bedding and white furniture. I know the two pictures below only show Andy and his "assistant" painting, but that is as far as we are on the room. We are also refinishing a dresser and it looks like it is turning out really good. I can't wait to get the room all together. After we get the room painted we'll need to purchase a twin bed sometime in the next week. I will post pictures once the room is completed!

I couldn't resist taking these cute pictures of Morgan and her Daddy painting. I am a big believer in giving children ownership in their lives. I feel that if you let a child participate in moments like this they are more likely to take pride in what they accomplish. I hope letting Morgan complete her room with us will help her appreciate and take good care of the things in her room. She was so excited to help paint her room!

She really looks up to her Daddy!

Breakfast with Santa!

We had a fun morning at Powell Gardens to enjoy breakfast with Santa. Morgan is at a great age and she LOVES Santa. She calls Santa "Ho Ho" which is too cute! I wish I had a video of Morgan's face when Santa arrived at breakfast. She truly glowed and had the biggest smile I have ever seen. She loves Santa so much we had to go through the line four times to visit him. :) We also enjoyed a story with Mrs. Claus, a holiday craft, and a polar express ride around some of the grounds. (I stayed indoors during the train ride. It was freezing, but Morgan insisted on going and her brave Daddy had to endure the cold.) It was a really special day for our family. I love moments like this! We made a great memory!!


Morgan all smiles with Santa!


Story time with Mrs. Claus.



I love my sweet little girl!


Our big girl (2 1/2 years old!)

Taking a picture by the pretty flowers.

Daddy and Morgan making a craft.

Enjoying breakfast with Daddy.

Giving Santa a "BIG" hug!

Telling Santa what she wants for Christmas.

What a fun day!