Merry Christmas!

We had a very busy Christmas! Devyn got to visit lots of family and had tons of excitement. I really don't think she slept for like 3 straight days! She was on overdrive.... but mommy and daddy were exhausted! (And I know she exhaused granny and gramps too!) But overall we had a great Christmas. Devyn loved all the presents and there are some good pictures below of her playing with some of her Christmas toys. Brandon and I couldn't be more thankful for our beautiful baby girl and all the joy, excitement and love she brings into our lives.

Our festivities start off on Christmas Eve. Family tradition says that Santa always comes to our house on Christmas Eve while we are at Church.

Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa Finley's. The whole family is there! Uncle TJ, Daddy, Grandma, Aunt Tawny, Gramps, Me and Mommy

Devyn with Granny and Gramps

A picture of the family (minus the family cat, Brutus, he didn't make the trip to Ohio.) It's almost impossible to get any good pictures these days.

Devyn spotting her first presnt....she can't wait to rip into all this good stuff!

Devyn is fascinated by Christmas Tree's. Mostly because she likes to take off all the ornaments and tree decorations! I can remember last year how much she enjoyed staring at the lights on the tree. Well the same is true of this year, except this year she points and claps and gets all excited when the tree lights turn on!

(ok, so I know at this point I'm supposed to have some pictures of her opening presents, but it was too hectic! I tried to get some video, but that didn't even turn out too well. Maybe next year.... :)

CHRISTMAS MORNING

Devyn looking all cute on Christmas morning in her Christmas Dress. What a great picture of her and Grandma

Our first stop on Christmas is to my Dad's side of the Family. This is a complete picture of the Finley Family. All the cousins were home for the holidays this year.

Great-Uncle Randy got out is original train set (I think he said he got it in 1954!) and set it up for the kids this year. Devyn LOVED it! She enjoyed sitting with Randy and just watching the train go round and round.

However, the train did have some technical difficulites (it is over 50 years old!) so then Devyn thought she could help get the train back on track!

Ah, at last some pictures of Devyn opening presents! (but don't get too excited, I only have this one!) She loves this pop up toy, after she opened that is was hard to get her to pay attention to anything else!

NEXT STOP- GREAT-GRANDMA RAY's- By this point in the day Devyn had had enough of the dress! So now she's in some super cute Christmas PJ's. I have only a few pictures of Christmas with my Mom's side of the family. And I don't have any that show the true choas that was Christmas at my Grandma's. But that of course is what makes it so much fun!

Devyn enjoying all the great Christmas food. She got WAY too much sugar... (Thanks to her great Aunt Amy and Jan!) Here she is sitting with cousin Laura and grandma is feeding her some type of junk food

More fascination with the tree. I think she took this ornament off the tree about 50 times!

At the end of the night we realized my grandma's TV wasn't working. Devyn of course is Miss fix-it and thought that she could make it all better by pressing all the buttons!

DAYS FOLLOWING CHRISTMAS

AH, back and home and time to relax... well not really! Here Devyn is playing with her Cabbage patch kid that she got from Grandma Finley and the stroller that she got from Mommy and Daddy. She LOVES to push her baby around the house. And she takes the baby out of the stroller and feeds her her bottle and gives her kisses and hugs. It's too cute!

Here she is getting hugs and kisses from her new Curious Gerorge stuffed animal that she got from Great Aunt Marie.

Aunt Marie would be so proud. Here Devyn sits reading her new board books, that she got from Nana Walker, with her new friend George

Beans is exhausted from all this playing. But Devyn really wants to get to her toys!

Beans.... GET OUT OF MY WAY!!!

She finally figured out how to get around him so she could play with her Little People's carnival that she got from the Mehrle Family. The best part for her is the Monkey that falls down into the dunk tank! I hear those sound effects in my dreams.... that is how much they are played during the day!

And Last, Uncle TJ bought Devyn and rocking horse for Christmas and at first she wasn't too sure about the whole thing. But what a difference a few days make because now she loves to ride and even likes to do it with no hands. You have to watch the video to get the full effect!

Thank-you to everyone for all of Devyn's great presents. And while I don't have pictures up of all of them, she loves everything she got! She is so lucky to have such great family and friends!

Devyn Turns 1!

Devyn getting ready for her party by playing with all the decorations! She really loved the balloons.... to bad she kept trying to bite them all... silly girl :)

Devyn and her birthday guests... Great Aunt Jan and Amy, Great-Grandma Ray and Grandma Finley

Cousin Jordan

Cousin Kalisha

Friend Anthony

We can just sit next to Anthony without giving him a big kiss! He'd been working all week on giving Devyn her birthday kiss.... I don't know what Daddy thinks about all this kissing buisness....

Great-Grandma Johnson giving Devyn birthday hugs and kisses

It's present time! This is the best part of the whole day...

I really love this toy, can I play with it now Mom? PLEASE!!!

Devyn started out very timid with her cake. I even had to give her a spoon so she would try to eat it (she loves feeding herself.)

Then I put her birthday hat on her and she really didn't want to eat the cake, all she wanted was to take the hat off... but doesn't she look so cute!

After the hat came off she got much more excited about the cake and even put the spoon down to dig in with her hands

Now she's enjoying this birthday thing

Oh boy, this cake eating is good times!

Look everyone, I've almost finished my whole cake!

Success... it's all gone and I'm a big mess... what a

great birthday!

11 month old pictures

She's just recently figured out how to climb into chairs (she can't quite get into this one....) but she loves to sit and rock and of course the cell phone is a staple favorite item!

Laughing after she's done something bad...

Her new favorite toy- her first puppy stuffed animal

Devyn with HER own cell phone, but it isn't nearly as cool as mommies

Here are some pictures of Devyn at 11 months. Sorry I missed the 11-month old birthday. It's hard to believe Devyn will be 1 next Sunday! I also didn't get any pictures of Thanksgiving - I lost the battery charger for my camer :(

Devyn the Helper

Devyn LOVES to help out with mommy and daddy's chores. Too bad she can't really help, she usually just makes more of a mess! We hope this helping trend continues as she gets older! :0)

Helping with computer work- she especially loves to type on the key board

Devyn loves to unload the dishwasher- unforturnately she likes to eat the dirty silverware... not so good....

Ahh laundry, Devyn's favorite. She'll take it out of the dryer for us, she takes it out of the basket for us and her all time favorite is to unfold it and spread it around the house once we do get it folded~!

Devyn Loves her Beans!

Devyn likes to visit Beans in his cage.

She also thinks she can ride around on him like a pony! :)

Dedication

Godparents- Uncle TJ and friend Leanne

Devyn enjoying her party after her special day.

It's been a long wait but we've found a church home here in Indianapolis. Devyn was Dedicated to the Lord this weekend with the support and love of her family and Godparents.

Thank-you to everyone that celebrated Devyn's special day with us. I know you will all be around to help raise her in God's Love.