The Duggers: 2010

Monday, December 27, 2010

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Here is a little video snippet of Finley enjoying her first Christmas. She was very happy and excited about opening all her gifts! The video is a little dark but you can make her out just enough to see her loving Christmas!

Meeting Auntie/Tante/Zia Amy!

It took longer than expected for Amy to get home, after a big snow storm delayed

her flight out of Florence by several days.

Finally, she made it back home safely just in time for Christmas!

We are all so happy she is here to spend the holidays with us!

Finley is most excited because she finally got to meet and spend time with her

awesome Auntie Amy!

Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas Blessings

We have been truly blessed this year with our little Miss Finley Kalea.

She melts our heart each and every day from the second she wakes up in the morning.

Here is a video John took last week while I was at work.

Finley wakes up so happy and just lays in her crib smiling.

Her smile is contagious and makes every day a happy one!

Monday, December 20, 2010

Let it Snow

Finley is ready for a White Christmas!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

All I Want For Christmas....

This is what I look like when Dad leaves to go work in Chicago for 4 days

The car wouldn't start this morning,

so Daddy got to stay home with Mommy and me,

that turned my frown upside down!

Then Daddy got the phone call we've all been waiting for.....

Yay! Daddy got the job with Bank of America here in Waukesha!!!

Now I can really get what I want for Christmas!

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Trying to talk

In the last couple days Finley has really been trying to talk. She is full of coos and will wake up and lie in her crib cooing away, it's so cute to listen to. Of course when we tried to catch her making noises on video she caught on and acted shy. Here's a video of her letting out a few noises, hopefully we'll be able to capture more video of her "talking" later on!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Hands

Let me show you these two hands I discovered

I can scratch my nose and touch my tongue at the same time with them

They taste good too

These fingers are so cool!

Back to the Real World

It's hard to believe that it's been 12 weeks since Finley was born and 12 weeks since we've had to work. We've enjoyed every moment of our time off and being able to watch Finley grow into the beautiful baby that she is. I went back to work last Wednesday, and I'm not going to lie, I shed a few tears..... I've put Finley to bed every night since she was born and Wednesday was the first night I was away. John has done an amazing job of taking care of her while I'm away and Finley has been an angel! Work is busy as usual and my coworkers welcomed me back with open arms... all which helped the night go by very fast! And just in case I missed her too much, John snapped some pics and sent them to me while I was at work.

But back to Finley, she has been really noticing her hands, playing with them, putting them in her mouth, and trying to reach out for toys. She is getting a lot stronger and loves sitting in her chair and playing with her toy rattles. She's growing up so fast...and now that we're both back at work I'm sure we'll notice how much she is changing even more!

Hangin' out, doing my tummy time!

Hey Mom, look at me!

I wonder what will happen if I touch this blue thing?

Mom, where are you? Dad's making me watch golf again.

Trying to figure out this new toy

This is so much fun!

I am loving this!

Dad let me borrow his hat

I look good in it, don't you think?

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

John's big catch!

I know we usually blog about Finley but we had to share the photos of the big redfish that John caught while we were down in Gulf Shores. We decided to try fishing off the dock in Bon Secour Bay just to pass some time until dinner, not expecting to catch anything. After a little while of enjoying the sunset, John got a bite on his line.... a BIG bite! So big, it took about half an hour to reel in....we had no idea what was on his line or how big it was going to be, and we were so shocked when he pulled the fish out of the water! We took the fish home and found out it weighed 30 lbs! And per the locals, it's one of the biggest redfish ever caught off this dock! Way to go, John!

Waiting patiently for some fish

Finally got a bite

Reeling his fish in

The fish put up a long fight!

About 30 minutes later the fish finally gives up

Picking up his big catch

Getting the hook out

John and his amazing catch!

The perfect background for a great moment!

What a beautiful fish

Conquered

One last photo before we ate the most delicious fish ever!

Sweet Home Alabama and Missouri, too!

We finished up our maternity/paternity leave with a big road trip down to Gulf Shores and Missouri. It was Finley's first big trip and she did great traveling! She even decided to start sleeping through the night! We enjoyed golfing, relaxing, soaking in the hot tub, fishing, eating delicious seafood, celebrating Thanksgiving, and most of all spending time with family. Finley got to meet even more family members during the course of our trip and she enjoyed being held, cuddled, and smothered with kisses. We are blessed to have such a big family!

(on a side note, for those that asked, just click on the slideshow and it will take you to the web album of all the pictures)

Here are the pictures from our time in Gulf Shores

Here are the pictures from our time in Missouri

Hangin' with the East Coast Ehlkes

We've been enjoying our last couple weeks of maternity/paternity leave visiting with lots of family. We just got back from our two week road trip down south and are now gearing up to go back to work :(

A few weeks back Finley got to hang out with her Aunt Jae, Uncle Paul, and cousin Shari. It was great spending time with them, we don't get to see each other very often so we enjoyed every minute of their visit!

Meeting Aunt Jae and Shari