Week One

We flew in on Friday, and our little home in beginning to get in order!  So the following is the recap of our first week in Atlanta, spent with my family at my mom's house.  

It was SUCH a sweet time of cousins, cousins, everywhere!  A constant state of motion and fun until bedtime.  We flew in on Friday and had an extended Elliott family party on Saturday night.  Here are Ashley (7 months) and Abby Jane on the night of the Elliott party in their Christmas outfits!

My Grandaddy and Joan came over on Sunday night to see all the great-grands.  Here is Grandaddy with the oldest two, Katie and Scott.

Katie (5) and Abby Jane became best friends, according to Katie and the looks on Abby Jane's face, throughout our time at home.  Katie got really good at feeding Abby Jane with me!Grammy is the Pied Piper as always, and was continuously up to her ears in grandkids.  At least two or three of the six slept in sleeping bags in her room every night, and they read books every morning before coming downstairs.

One of the greatest things that happened this trip was the christening of the "jumping room," as the kids called it.  My mom had everyone clean out this huge storage closet in her basement at some point a while back (we were conveniently on the opposite side of the country), and there is now a mattress and a ton of pillows in there- and the point is to be a fun place to jump.  There were a lot of hours logged and energy burned in there.

One of my favorite things we did as a family was sugar cookie baking and decorating, using Jodi's wonderful recipe!  Everyone participated, and we had the greatest time.  I'm hoping it becomes a tradition. 

We celebrated Christmas morning twice- once on Christmas Eve before Greg and his family drove back to Greenville, and again on actual Christmas with Jo and her family before we headed up to Cartersville.  This is the first Christmas morning, and Abby Jane's box of BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS from Uncle Greg and Aunt Susan!  That was what we asked for this year, and everyone came through fabulously!
Here are Jake and Abby Jane opening up her stocking at Grammy's on real Christmas morning.  Santa is so smart to know how Puffs can light up a girl's eyes!
Here are Katie and Ian helping Abby Jane open up her fridge farm from them!

So I uploaded 296 photos from the last three weeks to my computer last night, so needless to say, this is only a tiny sampling of all the fun that went on that week.  I'm trying to restrain myself!  Coming tomorrow are pictures from our week with the Gross family!