So…without further ado, here’s Amelia’s first official visit with Stoner Santa.  She petted his collar and waved.  She loves him as she should since he is the almighty bearer of presents.

Oh yea…and check out the k|d loftis blog…we have a contest going on which this image would never win. Tell your family and friends about it and check back for the voting and results!

http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1778399

His funeral Mass will be at St. Ignatius Loyola (Spring, TX) on Saturday, January 10 at 11:00am.

We’ve also been asked about flowers and donations.  In lieu of flowers we would ask that donations are made in Pop’s name (John Lane) to:

Dedham Youth Baseball
P.O. Box 324
Dedham, MA 02027

We appreciate everyone’s love and support!

As you may remember, last year Amelia was exactly 1 week old on Christmas day… but that wasn’t too young to leave Santa some nice snacks.

Well, this year she thought she’d help him eat them!

A few more Christmas photos are in the gallery (here) already, and more will be added in the next couple of days.

Merry Christmas from Kelley, Dustin, Amelia, Lila, and Felicity!

I haven’t been the greatest about writing letters to you or chronicling your every waking moment (especially in these last few months), but I hope this letter and the one I will write for each of your birthdays will make up for it.

For the last year I’ve been your food source, your snuggle pillow, your evil disciplinarian and your most loved and most hated confidant.  I’ve learned a lot about you in this last year, about your daddy and about myself.  This year has been the hardest, but the most rewarding year of my life.  I’ve learned a few things the hard way and so have you.  We’ve had lots of bumps and bruises along the way, but hey…we made it through a year sane and happy so I think we’re doing quite well.

When I was a little girl I didn’t really dream about being an astronaut or a doctor, about traveling all over the world and spreading world peace.  I dreamed about being a mom.  As a little girl there’s no way I could have understood what that meant, there’s no way until you were mine that I could have comprehended the love and the pain I would feel as your mother.  I will admit that I do wonder sometimes if traveling the world would be more fun than changing your diaper or if spreading world peace would have been easier than getting you to take a bottle.  Although I will joke about the other lives I might have led I can say with absolute certainty that I wouldn’t have my life any other way.

In the last year I’ve begun a new life with you.  I departed from a career that I enjoyed to do my life’s work as a mother and as a wife.  I’ve started a new business that has taken me to a new level of creativity, one I have longed for and I am thrilled with its success and that I’ve managed to balance things.  I’ve been able to watch you grow from a tiny newborn in preemie clothes to a soon to be toddler…who is still quite petite (18lbs 12oz as of yesterday).  Every day I wonder where that tiny baby has gone, but every day I am greeted by your smiling face, your loving embrace and the joy of knowing that we’ll both learn and grow together that day.  In the last year you’ve saved some really great stuff for when Daddy and I were both around; your first smiles, your first laughs, your first time to crawl, to stand on your own, your first words, your first steps…and the list goes on and on.  I had always hoped that I would be able to experience those things, but they were all made so much sweeter by the three of us being together.

My heart is so full of love for you and for your father, for the life we have and for the life we’re building together.  I remember the day so clearly that I found out I was going to have a baby.  It was early on Easter morning and your daddy said that I smiled in a way that he’s never seen me smile before. I smiled because I knew you were going to be mine, I knew that I was going to be a mother, your mother.  My heart grew that day and has every day since.

As this year comes to a close and my time as your food source comes to a end and as our snuggles and discipline are just beginning, I hope and I pray that each day I am always your most loved confidant and your most hated only on the really, really bad days…you know, the ones that I say “no”.

Dream big, or dream small.  Regardless, find your passion in life and live it.  I am and it’s perfect.

I will love you always my Amelia.

Love,

Mommy

I take photographs for families as their families are changing and growing and I take many of my own family too. I don’t know when I take a photograph how it will move someone or how they’ll appreciate it in years to come. But I knew when I took this one how important it would be to me and to my family, how in that moment I was preserving a part of our family’s history. This is why I love photography. In a moment I am able to capture a lifetime.

I took this photograph of Pop in June at Amelia’s baptism. He’s wearing Amelia’s pool hat and smiling Pop’s smile. This is our Pop.

Our new home should be done in a few months so we’re using a mail box for a while for our personal and business mail (we’ll likely keep it for the business after we move into the house).  If you would like our new address please email us and we’ll happily give it to you!

In all of the craziness we had going on we didn’t realize that our builder had started our house, eek! The slab is poured and the framing will likely start on Monday. We should be in the house in 3 or so months (weather permitting). Dustin will likely take the reigns on blogging about the new house. I’m a bit overwhelmed with the business and the baby so my personal blogging has taken a back seat lately. I’m hoping to get back to it, to catch up and get it going again over the next few weeks.

Today is a big day in our family…stay tuned for details and pictures! Nope…I’m not pregnant! (thank goodness!)

I am in the midst of packing, the baby is in bed and Dustin is off helping a friend tonight.  I am trying to multitask so I’m searching for the perfect outfit for Amelia to wear to her Aunt Lindsey’s Engagement Party next week, calling around to stores to find a gift I’m searching for and packing/cleaning/organizing and throwing out food that expired 6 years ago, yes, 6 years ago.

I am just banging stuff around in the kitchen; dancing and singing

“baby your all that I want, when you’re lying here in my arms I’m finding it hard to believe we’re in heaven”

when I suddenly hear a man’s voice, it’s not Dustin…who is this man talking to me?  I snap back to reality and realize that I was still on hold with the store I was calling.  It had just been so long since I had been placed on hold that I had completely forgotten I had my cell on speakerphone.

I sure do hope he likes Bryan Adams.

At least he couldn’t see me dancing.