Christmas on the Road, of Course

Well, we've been home for a couple weeks now but, phew... The holidays for my little family were absolutely crazy!! (Shocker, right?) Danny had two weeks off work, which was nice, so what did we do? We hit the road again. We made plans to visit four different cities and see as many people as possible... sadly, there were still so many we failed to see but there are only so many hours in a day and days in a week. Total drive time was 21 hours. 

Our journey started out Saturday, December 21. We packed everything we could into our little CRV and headed to Cincinnati. Danny has a lot of family in Cincinnati and I have a good family friend that we stayed with for one night. It was a good time. We saw lots of family including Zilphia and Katera Clarke (Danny's cousins that are 5 and 3) who LOVE "baby Stella". They had a blast. Sunday, Stella and I hung out with my friends Brent and Normarys and left for Knoxville that afternoon. Danny stayed a few more hours to go to the Vikings/Bengals game and then met back up with us at my parents where we stayed four nights - yay! I have missed my family sooo much - I miss Danny's too but feel like I have actually been blessed to see them quite a bit over the last fall and so far this winter. It was so good to catch up with my mama, hang with my dad, brothers and sister-in-law AAAANNND hang out with this cutie! 

      (My one and only precious niece, Kaylee)

Seriously, she is the greatest and I hate that they are in PA right now so I don't see them much. Anyway, we all had a great time playing games, makin music and laughing our butts off. :)

Thursday morning we headed to Kingsport (only an hour and half NE) to see the O'Neill clan! It was also a very joyous celebration having two new members to the family since last Christmas. 

...these two sweet peeps :)

 

While there, Stella got to meet her first baby friend! Kaysleigh is my friend's little girl. She was born exactly one week after Stella so her mom, Sabra, and I have shared a lot of our pregnancy and new mama woes. She was my "prego pal" :) They live in NC though so the girls had never met. It was really neat! Here they are being held by Kaysleigh's daddy, Eric. 

They were baptized together in the church that Danny was baptized when he was a baby. It was a really special day! 

Our time in Kingsport came to a close on Monday. We had plans to visit with some friends and go to a concert for New Years. My parents watched Stella and, while I cried when I left her lol, I had a really awesome time with my husband and catching up with friends! Danny and I talked on the drive to the concert about what a blessed year we'd had. It has truly been amazing to look back at all God has done. New Years Eve 2012 is when we found out I was pregnant. I was terrified and didn't have a clue what to expect. I now can say without a doubt that I was MADE for motherhood! It is hard, sure, but I could never imagined the joy and love that overwhelms my heart and soul when I hear her little squeal or look into her eyes. Danny and I couldn't be happier with 2013. 

Sighhh... I could just sit here and bask in the pure goodness of God's blessings...

But that wait! There's more! The last city we wanted to visit was in my home state, Georgia. My grandparents live in Covington which is about 40 minutes east of ATL. They hadn't met Stella yet, so we figured it was time! We just went down for two days/one night but it was such a good trip. We played cards with my grandmother - she is super competitive when it comes to cards lol. She's a hoot! And my grandad got to hold one of his ELEVEN GREAT grandchildren (Hope I counted them all :-/ I think I did...)

 

I love my grandparents DEARLY and I am beyond grateful that they met my baby girl. They have been an incredible example of a beautiful Christian marriage and so much more. It was such a special time. 

After that, we went back to Knoxville to spend a little bit more time with friends before FINALLY heading home on Saturday. It was a good trip and I'm thankful we were able to see so many people, but it was so exhausting. I was ready to be home and Danny and I have been enjoying living life at a little bit slower pace the past two weeks. :) 

On another note, Stella is now five months which means lots of exciting developments for her! Unfortunately, this post has taken all my time for tonight so that will have to be saved for another day. I also want to post more from the Christmas shoot Jana and I did with Kaylee and Stella, so stay tuned!