Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!

When what to our wondering eyes would appear???

A sleigh full of goodies and sooo much cheer!

For our Christmas festivities, Dan and I sprang off to Little Rock again and it was a fantastic visit. Good food, good company, too many presents, and great times. We even snuck in Christmas morning Mass. Oh how we love that church. So beautiful, and so many memories.

On the day after Xmas, we took the short ride to Fayetteville for some quality Knight family celebrations, which are always fun. It's so good to see the boys and I'm constantly amazed how fast the years fly by. They are so cute! Biased opinion here, but I'm positive they have to be in the top 5 of cutest kids EVER!

After the short trip north, we headed back to The Rock where the 4 of us enjoyed some shopping and took a trip down to the Duck Capital of Arkansas to get our beautiful rings polished and to check out the Pandora charms. We were lucky to catch 'Avatar' in 3-d at the IMAX, we stopped by Cracker Barrel and of course we got Dan some BBQ. A new hole-in-the-wall creole restaurant also opened so we headed that way to sample a small taste of all the fares; jambalaya, gumbo, Louisiana BBQ shrimp, mud bug po-boys, bread pudding...whew! It was a great meal!

We were sad to depart home, but we did have responsibilities to check back in on.
Tonight we'll celebrate with sparkling grape juice and I'll start making some New Years black eyed peas in one of my new Le Creuset pans! It'll be an excellent way to start 2010.

Hope everyone has a great New Years!

New Christmas Traditions

A couple weeks ago, we mentioned how awe struck we were over our new Christmas tree and all the shiny lights. It's an absolutely beautiful tree...we've actually had many people speculate that it IS real because of the amazing detail and handy work, and it truly does look real! (Thanks Dad, you did a great job picking it out for us!)

So you ask, why do I reminisce about a post from a couple weeks ago? Well, if you read the post carefully, we eluded to maybe finding some new Christmas traditions along our path to the 2009 holiday. And boy did we!

Dan and I are so excited to tell everyone that we'll be expecting a new addition to our family coming in June, 2010!

As you may have noticed already, we've added some new features to the blog. In order, down the right side, you'll see:

1) A couple of tickers tracking our little one's progression

2) A poll for you to cast your vote regarding the gender (we should find out on January 22nd, so start the guessing!)

3) And we've also started an online baby pool where you can guess the weight, length, gender and birthday. Feel free to log on and take a guess!

We are wishing everyone a VERY Merry Christmas this year!

Baby Halsted,
June 18th, 2010

8 Week U/S

Sick as a dog...

As most of you know, Dan's been battling a bad bug for well over a week.

Poor guy is finally seeing the end of his ailment, thankfully, but about 4 days into the severe coughing, non-stop fever, sore throat, congested nose and chest, I walked into the living room to see this....His attempt at keeping me from getting sick.

Yes, yes...I did explain to him that it was a bit too late, 4 days into it, but the gesture was too cute and way too funny not to share.

He also asked in this one..."Can you tell I'm smiling?"

Classic.

Happy Birthday Zach!

I can't believe how fast the years have flown!!

Happy Birthday Zach, have a great and fun day today!

Love you so much!

Uncle Dan & Aunt Laura

Oh how we love the sparkly lights!

2009 brings many new and continuing traditions. This will be our first Christmas as a blissfully happy married couple, it was our first time decorating the beautiful house, I purchased a brand new Advent wreath for the season, next week I'll make all the mini cranberry and poppy seed breads for the coworkers, we look forward to enjoying the Goodwin/Knight clan's company and merriment, we'll sit in awe of our brand new tree (courtesy of Dad's unmatched shopping skills and picking it up for us at "THE" place in LR to get trees). And I'm sure we'll discover a few more new customs in the coming weeks until Christmas.

As far as the beautiful lights, I had all the decorations up about a week ago, but with all the hubbub, had neglected to take some pictures until last night. We hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas season!

Christmas tree, sparkling bright,
Filled with baubles, warmth and light,
Precious symbol of our affection
For Christmas time and its perfection,
Show each night your radiant glory
For "oohs" and "aahs" obligatory.

Christmas tree, don't let us down;
Show something special at your crown,
An angel, star, or splendid piece
To make our Christmas joy increase,
An icon, pure, ideal, complete,
For Christmas memories fond and sweet.
Glitter and glisten, gleam and glow,
Oh Christmas tree, we love you so!