Chritmas 2014

Christmas has always been my favorite holiday.

I just love it.

Ever since I can remember, I have always had a giddiness when Christmas time comes around. And it wasn't ever really about the presents for me when I was younger (yes, I loved getting presents), but it's the season I love.

 

Twinkle lights.

Decorating the tree.

Christmas music always playing.

Cookies.

Pictures with Santa.

Christmas cards.

Family traditions.

Christmas movies.

 

It's all magical to me.

And now that I have kids, I love it even more.

I get sad when Christmas day is ending because that means the season is over and we have another 11 months until it comes again.

 

Here are some pictures of our Christmas Season.

 

Santa

 

I was super sad that we didn't have any tears this year, but Livve's pouty lip almost made up for it.

 

Baby's First Christmas Photo Shoot

 

Looking at Christmas Lights

 

 Christmas Eve

 

 Christmas Day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be honest, Christmas Day was pretty crazy!

Jack woke up in an awful mood because he had stayed up so late on Christmas Eve at my parents.

He wanted nothing to do with his presents at first.

And his Strider bike that Santa brought was making him cry?

 

We were supposed to have dinner with Jason's parents, but they were sick, so instead of staying with my family, we decided to just go home and have a quiet evening since our kids were over Christmas. Ha.

 

Still my favorite, and it was a season to remember as Livvie's first Christmas.

Olivia {7 Months Old}

Little Ms. Independent over here.

Our Livvie Lou is becoming such a big girl.

And that she wants to be. 

I swear she does not want to be a baby anymore.

The quote, "Thou she be but little, she is fierce" sums her up perfectly.

Our little peanut does everything in her power to keep up with her brother.

Her shins are bruised as proof.

Her new favorite activity is pulling up on everything. She does it all day long...

And she is trying to climb, too.

She will pull up on something and then start lifting her leg in an attempt to climb up on it.

At about 6.5 months she mastered crawling on her hands and knees opposed to army crawling. She crawls this way 100% of the time. 

Her favorite destination is the bathroom (just like Jack's was), where she attempts to climb into the tub (because she loves bath time). 

So, that bathroom door is kept shut...

She also loves find all the cords in the house to chew on. Oh, how you forgot all these things...

Everything she finds she continues to put her mouth...still in that fun phase!

And, feeding her is becoming near impossible because she wants to feed herself.

Again, little Ms. Independent...

I can't feed her with a spoon anymore because she just grabs it and wants to do it herself. Giving her a spoon of her own to play with while I try to feed her doesn't seem to work either.

I've tried the pouches and they are just a mess because she grabs in and squeezes it everywhere. I saw on amazon that they sell special caps for the pouches so the food can only come out when you suck it and not squeeze it. Looking into those, but right now the thing that seems to work best is just giving her actual food instead of pureed food.

I've been stemming fruits and veggies and then mashing them a little and giving her chunks off my finger. If I try and have her do it on her own, she just shovels it all into her mouth.

So, eating has been our biggest challenge this month.

 

Otherwise, Livvie continues to be bubbly, happy, and giggly.

She is so much joy to be around, and we all love her to pieces!

Here are Livvie's facts at 7 Months:

Clothing Size: 3-6 month; 6 month

Diaper: Size 2

Eating: Nursing or bottle every 3 hours or so (takes about 5-6 oz from the bottle); Eats 1-2 small meals of fruits/veggies a day

Napping: 2 naps/day (morning nap around 9 or 10 for 1.5-2 hours and afternoon around 2:30 or 3 for 1.5 hours)

Sleeping: Down around 7pm, wakes around 6/6:30pm. Still wakes 1-2 times per night between 1:30-4:30. I need to just let her cry (because I do that when she wakes earlier in the night when I haven't gone to bed yet), but I'm half asleep when I go and get her in the middle of the night and just do it without thinking out of my mother's instinct reaction....

Firsts: Real crawling

Favorites: crawling everywhere and pulling up on everything; loves the bathroom and bath time; 'flying' up in the air as we hold her; TV...

Dislikes: Still cries for a minute or two when going to sleep