Merry Christmas!

From Christmas Eve...

...to the excitement of opening presents from Santa...

...to getting all dressed up for Christmas Mass...

...to celebrating with the entire McGee bunch the following day...

...we had a great time celebrating Shannon's First Christmas! Hope you had a nice Christmas too!

Shannon Meet Addie, Addie Meet Shannon

Ohhhh, as if there wasn't already enough to be excited about this time of year! We a fun visit from Baby Adeline this weekend. This little cutie pie is six weeks old. She lives in DC with Mommy Monica (my BFF from Georgetown/Spain) and Daddy Steve. They were on their way to visit Steve's family and we were one the way. I love being back on the east coast on days like this!


My camera battery was dead for most of the visit and Monica did an awesome job of capturing the highlights on Addie's blog.

The girls will get to see each other again when we head down to DC in January to watch the Hoyas take on the Irish.

Five Months

Our little girl is five months old today! This last month went by in a blink, but what a fun one it has been.

She really is turning into such a little person... the other day I found myself handing her a toy and it was only a few seconds after she took it from me that I realized that I had just HANDED her a toy and she TOOK it from me! A few months ago she didn't even know she had hands!

Speaking of extremities, she's found her feet. Shortly after she learned how to grab them, she learned how to put her toes in her mouth. Think we can take back all the Christmas presents waiting for her because she has found the best toys in the world.

We've always been a house of drool but Shannon is giving the dogs a run for their money these days. And, we are proud to report that the first part of a tooth has made it's way through on the bottom!

She continues to be a smiley baby and you can really get her laughing by tickling her or being silly. She is still a big fan of "z" sounds so Mommy sings "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" quite a bit (try it! there are LOTS of "z's") and Daddy plays a funny game called buzz cut.


Her very latest trick is a reverse scream... think about the huge inhaling sound you'd make before saying something like "you scared me" or "what was that?". Now add some shrieky baby joy and you've got it!

Visiting Great Grandma

Shannon took her holiday smiles on the road this weekend. Our desination was Erie, PA where we introduced Shannon to her Great Grandma (who turns 94 next week!).

Great Grandma was impressed by Shannon's grip and got to see how playing "sit down-stand up!" can be a fun game for hours!

Holiday Giggles

If you're not in the holiday spirit yet, this should make you all holly and jolly!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1271002071

(Thanks for the website, Erin!)

Although it feels so long ago...

...here are a few pictures from Shannon's first Thanksgiving.

Both sides of the family came to our house for our feast.

Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Kathy

Aunt Hanna, Uncle Mike, Great Grandma Rose, Grandpa, Grammy, Rico Suave

Shannon participated in her first Thanksgiving morning hike...

...and provided the designer placecards at the table.

So much to be thankful for this year! :)

Four Months Old

Miss Shannon is four months today! Hard to believe that it was such a short time ago that she was looking like her new BFF, Addie. (Who, after 10 days, is about to lose her title as Shannon's youngest friend because Sarah is about to get a new brother.)

Shannon continues to be an "off the charts" baby. She's up to 18 pounds and covers a mean 26 3/4 inches. She ain't no newborn, that's for sure!

A Few of Her Favorite Things

What's on Shannon's list of favorites these days?

--Giggling...especially at the goofy things Mommy and Daddy come up with

--Being tickled

--Playing with that other baby in the mirror....

--Watching Sadie (who is more than happy to be RIGHT in Shannon's line of sight and glad for the attention!)

--Playing the oh-so-cleverly-named game of "sit up, lay down"

--Daddy

--Reading books...

--Pulling Mommy's hair (ouch!)

--Kicking and reaching for toys on her activity mat

--School! We're 3 1/2 weeks in and so far all is going well. Her teachers have made us so comfortable with taking her there. We are SO lucky to have found a good place.

The Baptism Gown

One of the best parts of Shannon's baptism was that her baptism gown was made especially for her by Mommy's Mommy's Mommy (aka Grandma Rose).

Grandma Rose is an amazing seamstress and Shannon has already been lucky enough to have some handmade things from her. You might remember the beautiful blanket she was wrapped in in her birth announcement... Grandma Rose. Or the cute striped bedding/curtains in her nursery... Grandma Rose. So when it came time to outfit Shannon for her baptism, it was only natural that we turned to... Grandma Rose.

Not only was the gown handmade, it's also special because it was made from part of my wedding dress. And it is made from the same pattern that Grandma Rose used to sew my baptism gown. Which was made from fabric from my mom's wedding dress. This is one special garment!

Last Sunday was a chaotic day and we missed getting some close-ups of the holy girl. So we did a little photo session today. Definitely got some winners!

Trick or Treat!

We had fun taking our little penguin out trick or treating last night. The weather was perfect so we made it all around our neighborhood to show little Chilly Willy off. (I don't remember this cartoon at all but Chris does a rousing rendition of the show's theme song.)

She got to see her buds, Andrew (3 weeks!)

and Kaelyn (oh, so much more wordly at 5 months).

(5 bonus points if you know who Shawn is dressed up as... look closely, the answer is not a Viking.)

"All tuckered out" :)

Baptism

We welcomed Shannon into the Catholic Church over the weekend. We were so blessed to have family and friends from near and far come to be part of her baptism. Aunt Kathy and Uncle Mike are her godparents. (Lucky girl!)

It turned out to be a l-o-n-g ceremony, but Shannon was a trooper. (And a cat-napper.)




She made very funny faces when the water was poured over her head and thought the oil used to annoint her tasted pretty good (she wanted to suck on Deacon Ray's finger!).

Afterwards, we came back to our house for lunch...

... and cake!

Thank you to everyone for sharing this special day with us, especially those who did a lot of traveling in a weekend!

PS. I owe you all another post soon with some close-ups of our holy little girl in her beautiful baptism gown made for her by her Great-Grandma Rose.

Three Months Old

Here's our cheery girl at three months old. She has really gotten fun recently. She is a smiley baby, especially in the morning when she has just woken up and especially when you coo and tell her just how adorable she is. She is absolutely smitten with Daddy and gives him the biggest grins.

She's started "talking" and is a pretty convincing conversationalist. (I would love to meet this En-gee seems to be quite fond of.) Sometimes she'll muster up a great 2 or 3 syllable streak and then start to laugh. Clearly, she has inherited Mom's trait of thinking that she is hilarious.

She's able to hold onto things now for short periods of time. Her links, pink ball (Thanks, Brette!), pieces of fabric (Thanks, Grammy!), Mommy's hair and measuring spoons are favorites to grab these days.

I had some fun playing around with some recent shots. I love that she's got different "moods" to capture now. Enjoy the black and whites!

Encantada

What could delight a little girl this much?

Her super-amazing, magical mobile.

One day last week I set her in her crib and turned it on for her. I expected it would entertain her for a few minutes while I got something from downstairs. I came back up to find her laughing and staring and just plain old being amazed by it.

(This one is blurry because she was dancing when I snapped it.)