:o)

Nathan started smiling on Saturday, the day before we headed to Gillette.

I have to tell you, it's the most rewarding thing ever. I spend hours smiling at him and making faces, and he finally returns the friendly faces! I love his sweet baby smiles! We're trying to catch as many of them on camera as we can. I'll put a collage up once I have a few! :o)

His smiles are making me fall in love with him all over. I love when he breaks out into a big, cheesy grin. It's one of my favorite parts of the day, and makes all of his screams at night worth it.

The other night, Nathan screamed and screamed and we couldn't do a thing about it. We were worried about waking people in the Dooley house up and were just so sad because our little man sounded so, well, pathetic and miserable! Then he settled down for a minute and smiled a HUGE grin at Mitch. He said it almost made up for the 30-45 minutes of screaming!

I just had to document our little milestone :o)

Merry Christmas! I hope you take the time to remember the true meaning for this holiday, and the real reason for celebrating! That has my goal for this season. Right now I am counting my blessings and taking time to love the life Mitch and I have made for each other.

I am especially thanking the Lord for protecting our friends, Stephanie and Nathan Cross, who rolled their Explorer and shouldn't have lived, but did, with just minor injuries.