Margaret Brooke Moss

Ben, McCullough and I headed to Dallas on Tuesday afternoon hoping to make it in time for the arrival of our niece Margaret. Luckily for us we did, unfortunately for Whitney and Spencer, it was a long process....so this is what the waiting room looked like for about 7 hours from 5pm to 1am...that's right!!! Our rock star babysitting, Christie, even agreed to spend the night when Margaret still wasn't here at midnight.

But shortly after 1am, on January 5th, Spencer came out of the elevator with great news that Margaret Brooke Moss was here, healthy and doing great!!

Everyone raced to the nursery to meet her...
and then we all stared for 10 minutes as she got her first bath and evaluation. Whit was still in recovery but we got to see her shortly after. And let me just say, my sister in law is AMAZING!!! She was a champ...as I tell people, she checked in on the 3rd and had the baby on the 5th...she's superwoman in my eyes!!
My adorable little niece!!!
Brothers!!!! After a LONG hard day
Spencer with the family!
I was SO happy that I could stay in Dallas for a few days to help Whitney get adjusted to Motherhood. Man...I forgot how painful and hard those first few days are...but when you hold that little angel...it sure is worth it all!
Margaret was the star of the week for sure!!
McCullough did get to see her, but only from a far...of course she kicked her legs in excitement. It will be a few months before we let her too close :)))

We miss everyone SO much!!!!! Welcome to the world Margaret B, we adore you!!!

Christmas with the Moss Family

So after BR, we headed up to Dallas to spend some time with Ben's family. His grandmother, Meg, who just turned 90, always flies from NC to see us, and it is a wonderful treat for all of us!! We absolutely adore her!!! Ben is so blessed to have three grandparents still living, so the camera is always out in full force whenever we are with them.

McCullough adores Meg and they "play well" together! Sweet Meg is always chasing her around and trying to entertain her. She wishes McCullough would snuggle more, but so do the rest of us :)
We actually did two 1000 piece puzzles in just a few days. It's great to have so much help - so I can do fun, mindless things like puzzles!! This year we did the NY skyline and another one with farm house.
PRESENTS!! McCullough is still trying to figure out the whole presents thing, but one thing for sure, she loved the copper hose holder that we gave Nancy!
She also loved the chair that Nana and Pops got her!! She loves to sit in it and has figured out climbing in and out of it. We often bring it from her playroom to the main room so she can sit with us and hang out :)

She also got her first tea set (of many I presume)
We had a great time...and though it was short...we will be right back because our niece, Margaret Brooke is about to be born!

Christmas Morning

Well...let's just say it wasn't what we expected :) It turned out to be great but it started off shaky. To give you a little background, Glo went to 4:00 church on Christmas Eve and by 4:05 she was gone because she felt nausea. I'll spare you the details, but we never saw her again that night. So, we pulled off Christmas Eve dinner as best we good without her, said our goodnights and wondered "who's next''. Before we even got to sleep, Clint texted to say Samuel was now sick. We woke up to find out Glenn was sick during the night.

So at 9:00am on Christmas morning, it was Aus, Ben, Squirt and myself wondering what to do!! Should we cancel Christmas (how do you to that...and this was my year in BR which made me even sadder at the thought of canceling). We decided the show must go on, so we put the turkey and ham in the oven and then wondered...hmmm, what other food. Thankfully the rest of the family wasn't coming til later, so hopefully mom and glenn would show up.

So, here's McCullough opening up presents in front of Uncle A :)

Clint and Bethany showed up around 10:00 after a very long night and put Samuel straight to bed (he slept until 4:00).

Mom and Glenn finally rallied around noon, just in time for the Schexnayders to join us and bring some much needed Christmas cheer. Of course, this meant it was time for matching Christmas dresses!!!

YES...there is life other than kiddos...here are a few pics to prove it...

Ben insisted McCullough was cold and wanted her fleece :)

You can see what Samuel got for Christmas!!!

Proof that Glo made it!!
At about this point, she asked me if I got the plastic bag of gizzards OUT of the turkey BEFORE I put it in the oven. My reply.....NOPE!!
The lovely couple patiently waiting the arrival of their first baby in June. We find out tomorrow what it is!!!
Poor Glenn never got out of his robe!!

Well, all in all, we had a great day, quite different than we thought, but that's what family is for!!

Off to Dallas to celebrate some more!!

McCullough is TEN!!!

Well...nothing like being a month late. TODAY McCullough is 11 months old (it's also Uncle Clint's birthday...so a sweet shout out to the worlds BEST big brother!!!!). But instead of posting her 11 month pic, I am first posting her 10 month (and will take the 11 tomorrow).

Dont be fooled by this sweet, precious face.....
This is what she NORMALLY looks like :))) Ben loves to make this face to McCullough, so of course it is now her ALL TIME favorite new expression. Of course, it gets her lots of attention at the grocery store, on airplane trips, and most of all...from her grandparents!!!

Cookie Swap

While we were in BR for Christmas, McCullough got to make her first grand appearance at the McCullough Cookie Swap :)) Except for the giant blow out that she had half way through the night...she did great and was certainly one of the many stars of the night!

Sadly, Glenn (the photographer) had to work late, so there aren't too many pics from party. No evidence of Brooke, Blair, Lindsay, Elizabeth and many more... oh and Clint missed the party thanks to an illness that took him down. AND...some little kid passed around the vomiting virus, which subsequently put a MAJOR damper on our Christmas...but that's for the next blog.

The REAL action was taking place in the playroom where there were no less than 15 children at all times...CHAOS for sure :)))

The first half of the EHS group...

Christmas Playgroup

Needless to say...it's been a month and I am really behind on blogging so I am just posting some pics to get me caught up!

I hosted our little playgroup in December and we have a Christmas luncheon -- the kids were precious!!