A Year at a Glance

I can’t believe that 2008 has come and gone. It was a busy year for us full of firsts and changes. Here is a brief synopsis of 2008 in the Lynch household.
Ella Catherine took her first steps, had her first swimming experience, celebrated her first birthday, had her first haircut and made Christmas cookies for the first time. My brother celebrated his 40th birthday, Matt celebrated his 30th birthday, and I celebrated my 35th birthday. We moved to Nashville and started new jobs. We took several trips to visit family (Kansas City, Georgia and Memphis) and had family and friends visit us in Nashville. We moved out of our house in Memphis and our apartment in Nashville and now are living in a house in Nashville. We were excited to hear that 2009 would bring the birth of our second child.
As we approach 2009 we are excited about the year ahead and wish all or friends and family a very Happy New Year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

The Lynch Family had a wonderful Christmas in Nashville this year. Our Christmas festivities started Christmas Eve. Matt, Ella Catherine and I attended the children's mass at St. Henry Catholic Church. After church we all got into our pajamas, had a delicious dinner and followed that up with making some Christmas cookies for Santa. Once the cookies were baked and taste tested by all for quality control, Ella Catherine climbed up on daddy's lap for storytime. As is the tradition with many families, Matt reads Twas the Night Before Christmas every year to Ella Catherine. We started this while she was still in the womb. So, this year he read it to her and to baby Lynch #2 (as he/she can hear now). After the story, we put cookies and milk out for Santa and Ella Catherine went to bed. Christmas morning was as exciting as we had anticipated. She was overly excited to see all the toys etc... that Santa had left under the tree. She was equally excited to unwrap all of her presents from my side of the family. She had presents galore thanks to Nana, Pop, Becky, Aunt Kelly, Uncle Keith, Cousin Cori, Uncle Brian and Aunt Lori. She took her time unwrapping the gifts, playing with each one for a while before we prompted her to open another one. Once present opening was over, she glanced over and realized that the cookies and milk were gone. She was most impressed that Santa had eaten the cookies and drank the milk all gone. In fact, she mentioned it over and over and over throughout the day. The rest of the day we just enjoyed being a family. We went for a stroll around our new neighborhood and played with Ella Catherine and her new toys. We spoke with both of our families on the phone to wish them a Merry Christmas and to thank them for the presents. Today we are heading to Memphis to have Christmas with Matt's parents. Here are some pictures from our Christmas.


The Family before Christmas Mass


Ella Catherine ready for Christmas Mass. With the move right before Christmas, this was the best we could do for a tree this year. However, Ella Catherine Loved it and it didn't dampen our Christmas a bit!


Cutting out Christmas cookies


Daddy helping us roll and cutt out cookies


Opening a present! No her feet are not that big but we HAD to wear our Elmo slippers and they make our feet look larger than they are.

Playing with our new ABC toy, Hadn't even had a chance to take it out of the box yet. :)

Christmas Parade

Earlier this month we met up with Ella Catherine's best buddy from daycare, Reese, and his parents to go to the Franklin Christmas Parade. We met for pizza first and enjoyed getting to know Kirsten and Billy Sams. Reese and Ella Catherine were so excited to see each other outside of daycare. It was so cute! They kept waving and saying "hi" to each other accross the table. After lunch, we all got bundled up and headed to the parade. It was both of the kids first parade. They loved it! They waved to everyone parading by and danced to the music from the bands. We had a great day with the Sams and hope to get together again really soon.


Hurry up Mommy I am ready to go to the parade!


Ella Catherine and Reese playing and dancing to the music


Waving at the parade


One of the floats in the parade


Ella Catherine so happy to be at the parade


One of the many floats in the parade

We have Moved

Sorry it has been a while since our last post. We have been busy house hunting, packing and moving. When we moved to Nashville in July, we only signed a 6 month lease for our apartment. Let's just say we were a little over optimistic that our house in Memphis would sell in that time frame. So, it has been 6 months and we had to decide what we wanted to do for our living arrangements. We knew we didn't want to own 2 houses, not with todays economy. So, that left us with 3 options. 1) Staying in our apartment (this really wasn't an option). 2) Finding a different apartment or 3) Renting a house. After much discussion and much debate, we opted for option #3. We decided to rent a house so we would have more space for Ella Catherine and our 2nd little one on the way. It would also allow us to have Baylor and Elway back with us (My parents have been AMAZING and have housed them for the last 6 months). Finally, it would allow us to move all of our furniture etc..out of our house in Memphis and free it up to be rented. This past weekend we headed to Memphis to pack up the rest of our belongings and decide what would stay and what would be sold. Monday the movers came and loaded the truck and Tuesday they delivered it to our new house in Nashville. Matt is great with people and somehow he even talked them into going and getting the Large furniture from our apartment. So it was asta la vista apartment and hello house. Although we were exhausted from moving, working and unpacking, it was nice to sleep in our new place. This makes twice we have moved when I was pregnant and I don't really ever care to do it again. Better planning will be needed next move. :)
I will try to get some other posts up as soon as we get things in order. My parents are coming up this weekend to celebrate Christmas and help us get settled and decorated for Christmas. So, hopefully the posts will be sooner than later.
Here is a sneak peek of what is to come: Christmas Parade and The Cole's 1st annual Christmas Party.

Christmas Parade

Saturday we met the Sams (Kirsten, Billy and Reese) for lunch before heading to the Franklin Christmas Parade. Reese attends the same DayCare as Ella Catherine and is her best buddy. When we turn the corner for "school" everyday she begins chanting Reese and gets very excited. We have been trying to get together for a play date but illness has plagued both our families...Thanks DayCare!!! So, we thought Saturday and the Christmas Parade would be the perfect time to get together. It was so fun to watch the kids when they saw each other for the first time at the pizza cafe. They both had huge Cheshire cat grins and started saying each others name. We had them sitting across the table from each other and they kept waving and saying "hey". After lunch we headed to the parade route and enjoyed the Christmas Parade. It was Ella Catherine's 1st parade and she LOVED it! It was a cold, windy day but we all had a good time. She was exhausted when we left and fell asleep on the way home. Matt and I enjoyed getting to know Billy and Kirsten and look forward to more playdates in the future.


Let's Go Mommy! Ella Catherine Ready for the Parade.

Ella Catherine and Reese dancing and playing before the parade

One of the many floats in the parade

Ella Catherine Watching the Parade

The Choo choo train was a crowd favorite and a favorite of Ella Catherine and Reese

Kirsten, Reese, Matt and Ella Catherine enjoying the day

Kirsten, Reese, Ella Catherine and Myself waving at the people on the floats.

One more reason to be thankful this year!

Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
We are expecting baby #2

Be it a girl or be it a boy
We are completely overcome with joy

So mark your calendars and hear what we say
Baby Lynch #2 is due in May


Matt and I are very excited and happy to share the news with all our friends and family. Ella Catherine has no idea what is coming but I know she will be a great big sister!
We have our big ultrasound Dec 19th and if we get some good pictures I will post some. We are not finding out the sex it will be a surprise to all in May.

Christmas Cookies

One of the big traditions in the Cassidy household is baking Christmas cookies. Since we will not be coming back to Georgia before Christmas, Nana decided it was as good a time as any to make some cookies. She made Ella Ctherine her own little Christmas apron to wear. We had anticipated that she would be covered from head to toe in flour. However, half way into it my mom and I looked at each other and just laughed. She and I were covered in flour but Ella Catherine was as clean as a whistle. She liked cutting out the cookies but by far her favorite part was decorating them. she was VERY particular about her decorations too. She added 1 spronkle at a time to each cookie. We were there a while! Nana and I just knew that she would eat the dough and some of the sprinkles (her cousin Cori did at this age), but she didn't and wouldn't even eat the finished product. The rest of us did and enjoyed them. I know she had a good time though because when all the dough was gone she was NOT a happy camper. I can say for certainty that this is one tradition that will continue on.

Out on the Farm

One of the big hits when we visit Nana and Pop's house is to go out to the cabin. She loves the outdoors and all the animals she can see out there. This visit she fed the fish with daddy at the pond and got to see ducks too. My parent's neighbors have horses and Ella Catherine LOVES to go visit and feed the horses. Matt, Pop and myself took her up the road to feed the horses some carrots. We rode Pop's hunting golf cart and that too was a hit. As you can tell from the pictures below the horses liked the visit as well. She loves to see them eat the carrots but is a little skeptical about actually holding the carrot for them. Can't really say I blame her as the horses heads are about the size of her whole body.

First Haircut

We went to Georgia for Thanksgiving. Wednesday before Turkey day we took Ella Catherine for her first Haircut. It was the perfect time not only becuase she needed a haircut but also because my sister's best friend is a hairdresser. I knew Wendy would be great with her and she was superb! I got my haircut first so that she wouldn't think it was too scary. When I was finished she jumped up in the chair without hesitation. she was so good that Miss Wendy gave her a "Prize" after she was finsihed.

Tales from a Warehouse Sale

I had heard that Kelly's Kids was having a warehouse sale in Nashville this Saturday, November 22nd. You dads out there may or may not know what kelly's kids is but I am confident that you moms know what kellys kids is and are thinking Wow a warehouse sale. Those were my thoughts exactly. So, I made arrangements with Matt to watch Ella Catherine so I could go. It started at 9am and I wanted to be there when it opened to get the best deals. Well, I didn't take parking into account and so I was 5 minutes late. I thought 5 minutes isn't a big deal, there will be plenty of good deals left. I could not have been more wrong. When I opened the door I was completely taken a back. I thought I had walked into the set of a TV sitcom. Seriously, it reminded me of the Friends epsiode where Monica goes shopping for her wedding dress. You know the one, she takes Rachel and Phoebe along and gives them whistles. When the door opens, Monica goes to it scavaging for her dress while Rachel hides and Phoebe stands there completely overwhelmed. I was Phoebe. I was completely overwhelmed and flabberghasted at what I was experiencing. Women were running around grabbing what they could and looking at sizes later. By the time I located the girl's size 2 rack it had been wiped clean. I was a rookie and these women were pros. 10 women had gotten together and when the doors opened they split up and grabbed everything they could off of every rack they could. They then went and sat in a circle at the back of the room and dispersed their goodies. If there was any item left after their group had rummaged through everything they would offer it up like crumbs to the women hovering over them like vultures. I couldn't help myself, I found myself among the vultures looking for a crumb to be tossed my way. In the end I left with 3 cute items and a very BIG lesson learned. I will never go to one of these warehouse sales by myself again. So, any of you moms interested in coming to Nashville for the next sale just let me know. I'll provide the whistles and buy the margaritas at lunch.

Wrestling, Vanderbilt, and Spaghetti

Friday started like every other day until I went to go pick up the girls from daycare and from Vanderbilt. The adventure started when I got Ella Catherine from the day care and the teacher tells me that she had an “incident” today.

(Background Info)Ella Catherine has a buddy that is the same age but a little bigger than her and his name is Reese. Reese and Ella Catherine are buddies, the lady at the front desk in the mornings always tells EC if Reese is here yet or not. So now with this background the incident is not as bad.

The teacher tells me something that as a father I am proud of but as a parent I am embarrassed. “Ella Catherine and Reese were “wrestling” today and she was sitting on Reese so to pin him down and Reese bucked her off and she punctured her tongue.” I just started smiling trying not to laugh out loud. I was so proud of her showing that boy who was boss.

From there we gathered our stuff and went to mom’s work so all of the people at Amy's work could meet Ella Catherine. To say the least she was a hit as soon as we entered the door all of the co workers started talking baby talk and commenting on how pretty she was. One of the ladies ask Ella Catherine if she could wear her pea coat and EC just looked at her like you are crazy. The girls went around the office meeting all of Amy’s coworkers.

When we got home, we had spaghetti for dinner and this picture describe how it went.

We have created a Prize Monster

For those of you who know me well, you know that I do not believe in giving babies/toddlers a lot of sugar. For this reason, our daughter did not have anything considered a sweet (that I know about) until her first birthday. Since that time, she has been allowed to have cake at birthday parties, an occasional cookie with her multiple sets of grandparents and most recently has enjoyed her Sunday doughnut hole at the social after mass. However, on a daily basis her life consists of your basic fruits, vegetables, dairy and meats with a few graham crackers thrown in every now and again. Halloween came and I believe in trick or treating and letting kids be kids. We went trick or treating and she was allowed to eat a few pieces of candy that night but then we hid the bag of "prizes". Since that time we have given her a piece of candy as a "prize" when she eats all of her dinner or doesn't throw a fit in the bath tub (tub time is a nightmare at our house). Yesterday I told Matt that I didn't want her to think she would get candy everyday because let's face it Trick or treat candy doesn't last all that long (especially when daddy and mommy are helping to eat it). Well, she is a smart cookie and had it all figured out! She went pee pee in the potty last night and took her bath beautifully (not one tear shed and Matt even washed her hair). We were praising her and telling her how proud we are of her and she smiled and said "Prize!" I definitely think we have created a prize monster.
Sadly, she has inherited her mother's sweet tooth.

Happy Halloween!!!!

Happy Halloween Everyone! Today is one of my favorite days. I was a little sad as the day drew near. The was my first year in 10 years not celebrating Halloween by dressing up in a costume for work. At St. Jude Halloween was a HUGE deal and I greatly enjoyed it every year. In the adult medical world dressing up isn't usually done. So, I missed that part of Halloween. However, I was greatly looking forward to taking Ella Catherine for her first real trick or treating experience. If you scroll through our blog you will see that Ella Catherine did indeed dress up last year ( a pink octopus) but we just drove around and showed our friends and family her in her costume.
This Halloween began with Ella Catherine trick or treating at DayCare. Her Daycare is in an office building in downtown Nashville. They went on a Halloween Parade through the building collecting loose change for the March of Dimes. Along the way, some of the people gave them candy. She didn't come home with candy. So either a)they got the kids juiced up on sugar by letting them eat the candy they received or b)the daycare workers snagged it for themselves. HMMM
The Vanderbilt Greek life hosted trick or treating for the faculty and staff's children. After work, Matt picked up Ella Catherine and joined me on Vanderbilt's campus. We weren't sure how Ella Catherine was going to react to all the adults dressed in costumes. The first house she was a little leery but when they gave her candy to put in her bag she perked up. By the 3rd house she was excited, picking out her own candy and saying "Thank You". By the time we turned the corner of Greek Row she had let go of my hand, was running up the sidewalk and trying to cut through the grass. Toward the end her bag was getting a little heavy so Matt offered to hold it for her. She was having no part. Her little hand had a death grip on that bag amd she was not giving it up. All in all it was a very successful Halloween and a Great first Trick or Treating experience. Now we just need to hide the candy and ration it out slowly so she doesn't go into sugar shock!


Ella Catherine and Daddy before school this morning

CUTEST CANDY CORN EVER waiting in line to get her trick or treat bag

We have our trick or treat bag and we are off!

The first trick or treat stop ever and she was a little unsure but perked up after they handed her candy

KD legacy right at home with the ladies of Kappa Delta! By now she was getting the hang of it!

By the end we were a pro! She walked up and would take a piece of candy and say "Thank you"

Weekend in Pickwick

Birthday Boy with Cake

Group Photo ( left to Right) Christopher, Carlin, Caroline, Michael, and Hugh

Friday after work we headed to the Lynch Family Cabin in Pickwick for a weekend at the lake. Matt's youngest brother, Michael, turned 14 on Saturday and decided to have his birthday celebration at the lake. We were all fine with that, a weekend away was just what the doctor ordered. Ella Catherine enjoyed being spoiled by her grandparents and uncles. Matt and I enjoyed have all the extra hands around. Pictures to come, but a good time was had by all!

There was a party on Saturday night and lots of friends came over to celebrate.

Centennial Park

Yesterday Matt picked Ella Catherine up from Daycare and then picked me up from work. It was a beautiful fall day in Nashville. So, we decided to head to Centennial Park to feed the ducks. Here are some photos from our trip.

Ella Catherine throwing bread for the Geese and Ducks.

Ella Catherine and Mom sitting in the park.
Matt and Ella Catherine feeding the Geese and Ducks

Get her Groove on

For the past several weeks Ella Catherine has shown her artistic dancing skills. She has no prejudice against any music, she seems to get her groove on for all types. During this particular show it was Hip Hop. We can't seem to find the camera when she really gets going but we were able to capture a little bit on Friday.

Sorry for the shotty camera work I am still trying to learn how to use a digital video camera.

JAWS

Well, it happened. As a parent of a child in daycare, there are 5 words that you hope you never hear. And those words are, drumroll please................................................................ "Your child bit another child." Matt heard those words yesterday when he picked up Ella Catherine from daycare. I am so glad it was him. You just feel so bad and although you know it is a phase that most children go through, you can't help but feel like a bad parent. We had a talk on the way to daycare about how biting is bad and not nice. So, let's hope that she kept her chompers to herself today.

Walking in Memphis

We headed to Memphis this past weekend to check up on the house and spend some time with Matt's parents. Ella Catherine wasn't too sure about the house when we first arrived Friday night. Of course, she had been asleep in the car for several hours and was a little groggy. It didn't take her long to remember the place and start bringing out toys and books. We had a time getting her to sleep Friday night. Saturday morning Mimi came over and they played outside. She picked up acorns, squashed bugs, rode her trike and played at the park in our neighborhood. After some lunch, we headed to Olive Branch to surprise Grams, Grandpa, Uncle Christopher and Uncle Michael. Surprised they were! She had a sleepover and mom and dad had an evening to themselves celbrating our 3 year anniversary.
We met with our realtor and unfortunately it wasn't great news. The housing market in Memphis is not good. If you know anyone looking for a house in Memphis, Tn send them our way, we will make them a really good deal!
Matt is going to post some pictutres of our trip soon. She is getting so big!

Doctor's visit, a Test and a lost child

This is a post from Matt:
Ella Catherine visited the doctor last week for a check up. Everything looked and sounded GREAT according to the doctor. She is in the 80th % for height and 60th% for weight and 94th % for head size. For those who know us, the latter is definitely a daddy gene. She is getting more teeth her two top fang teeth are coming in. We are working on potty training; we started working on this last Friday afternoon. We were successful once but she is more comfortable with sitting on the toilet and reading while waiting.

Last Saturday Amy had to go and take a recertification test for her work. She tried to go the previous weekend, however when she got there they didn't have a record of her registration even though she had a confirmation printout, so they told her to either wait for four hours until a computer was available or try again the next weekend. She was able to take the test last weekend; unfortunately she will not know the results of her test for six weeks. I know that she did a great job on it and will get her recertification.

Amy is substitute teaching Sunday school at the church we are attending. This past Sunday was here first class. She was very nervous because we are new to the church and she has never taught Sunday school before, plus I didn't pick up here lesson planner on Friday or Saturday, as I was asked to do (oops!). Class is from 10:05 to 10:45 in between masses at the Church. We all went to mass at 7:30 a.m. (which is not that difficult to get up for when your daughter wakes up everyday at 5:30 am) so that Amy could go by and pick up her lesson planner from the office after mass. After church we went home and ate breakfast, then Amy left for school. When she got home I asked her how it was and she said it went well except for the child that I LOST. Turns out that every class is supposed to have two teachers. Well, the lady that called Amy only obtained one substitute instead of two. She and her husband normally teach the class and where going to be out of town. So, a mother offered to stay and help. After class was over, Amy lined all the children up at the front of the classroom at the door. The “helping” mother went out in the hall and said she would help make sure each child’s parent or guardian was there to pick them up. So, Amy handed each child an assignment card as they left the room and then began straightening up the room. Two little girls came back in the room as there mothers were not there to pick them up yet but a short while later both moms came. Amy was about to close up the room when another teacher came to the door. She had a little girl with her that said she was supposed to pick up her little brother and meet her mother at the flag downstairs. Well, there was no little boy left to be picked up, oops. After a short search with panicking teachers, sister and a mother, the little boy was found playing on the playground.

Beautiful Weekend at the park

It was such a beautiful weekend here in Nashville that we decided to take Ella Catherine to the park. As you can see from the photos, she enjoyed herself.

We came upon some deer and I don't know if Ella Catherine or Matt were more excited!

Taking in the scenery below.

Here is what she was looking at.

Enjoying the beautiful day.

Hanging out with Dad.