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.