Leftover Christmas Pics

Filed Under Christmas, Family, Gifts, Two and a half years old | Leave a Comment

Just realized that I STILL haven’t finished posting pictures from Christmas at my mom’s house. Here they are, if you want to see them enlarged you can click on the pictures.

Christmas Morning 2009

Filed Under Christmas, Gifts, Holidays, Two and a half years old | 3 Comments

On Christmas morning Bailey woke up around 6:30 and I heard her fake crying in her room. I went in and asked her what was wrong and she mumbled something about wanting to see her presents and Santa Claus and Mr. Potato Head. And then I realized we forgot to put out cookies and milk for Santa… oops… so we headed into the living room to see what was under the tree. We had just put a few gifts out for her since we were going to my mom’s to do the “big Christmas” later in the morning.

Under the tree she had a new sled, some books, and her stocking filled with presents. She was a little tired and overwhelmed at first…

but she woke up and got excited quickly!

The first thing she got out of her stocking was the Reeses Pieces candy cane. It was the only candy we put in there and she was pretty sure she needed to eat the whole thing right. that. minute.

She opened all her stocking presents in about two minutes- necklace and bracelet, tattoos, sunglasses, water colors, bath paints, chapstick, stickers…

Then Jonathon and I took turns showering and getting ready, and supervising her with her new paints.

By 8:30 a.m. we were all dressed and ready to head to Grammy’s house!

More later!

Christmas Eve

Filed Under Christmas, Church, Gifts, Holidays, Toys, Traditions, Two and a half years old | 1 Comment

We had a really nice Christmas Eve. Nothing exciting or huge but just nice to be together as a family. I had been working a lot of hours at my mall job and really missing time with Jonathon and Bailey. So I was glad just to spend this night together. We spent the afternoon getting some last minute Christmas things ready and wrapping done during her nap. Then we got dressed up and went to church together. I was able to get a few pictures of her at church (in the nursery) when I remembered to get my camera out.

Afterwards we didn’t get to have the Jesus Birthday Party because my parents decided to go to the late service instead. We came home and ate snacks and let Bailey open a few presents. We decided that as a tradition our kids will get a new ornament and pajamas on Christmas Eve, and that we will get a “family gift” like a game or something we can all do together.

This year she opened the Mr. Potato Head (one of her favorite gifts) that our neighbors brought over for her. She became almost irrationally obsessed with him, wanted to keep talking to him and hugging him and bring him to bed.

Her ornament was a princess castle, all pink and sparkly, with her name and the year on it. I thought that would be a good representation of this year and this Christmas, since she has been asking for “A castle with a princess and a princess and a princess and a princess and a king and a dragon and a dinosaur!” She has also recently gotten really interested in her Beauty and the Beast book, her new Tinkerbell room decor, and playing dress up in general. I have been looking forward to this stage!

She got a Disney Princess Memory game which we attempted to play. Really she just wanted to keep stacking and organizing the cards- but at least it was something we could do together! I know one of my friends got her daughter (who is a few months younger than Bailey) the Candyland game for Christmas. I’m wondering if they had any luck with that.

These are her new snowman jammies that she got to open and wear to bed. I don’t know that I am going to do any sort of matching jammies for the kids in the future, since we’ll have one boy and one girl. I might just try to get ones they will each like. I knew Bailey would love the snowmen and I was happy to avoid “character” pajamas this time. She has one pair of Dora jammies and they are enough for now!

The one regret I have about Christmas Eve is that I completely forgot to read the Christmas story to her! I was going to read it from her Jesus Storybook Bible and then we got all busy at bedtime and she was so wound up and kept running around her room and jumping from her bed to the beanbag chair. It completely slipped my mind. I am going to have to be more intentional about that next year because I don’t want this to just be a “gift holiday” and nothing else. We have been talking about the Christmas story and Jesus’ birthday etc but I was just disappointed.

2008 IN REVIEW

Filed Under Bailey's Birthday, Christmas, Cloth Diapering, Daddy, Disney Vacation, Eighteen Months, Eleven Months, Fifteen Months, Firsts, Fourteen Months, Hair, Halloween, Nineteen Months, Play, Professional Pictures, Seventeen Months, Sixteen Months, Ten Months, Thirteen Months, Twelve Months, Twenty Months | 4 Comments

We were so blessed with a wonderful year. No major catastrophes, no deaths in our families, a daughter who has stayed healthy (with the exception of a few colds) and continued to grow and learn and amaze us… Here are the highlights of our year.

January- please note her lack of hair, compared to now

February- and Bailey is walking!

March

April- happy first birthday, Bailey!

May

June

July

August

September- Jonathon and I went to Disney World

October

November

December

Happy New Year!

Christmas

Filed Under Christmas, Gifts, Twenty Months | 2 Comments

I should probably write a nice post about our Christmas and tell all the details so that I have them in my head for later. But at this point I’m not so concerned about it anymore. A few quick highlights-

-Bailey loved to pass out the packages to everyone, and watch them open. Much more than she liked opening her own gifts. She is so generous and did not have that “I want it all for me” kid mentality. She was content with one gift and was almost annoyed when I wanted her to open more.
-I tried to read the Christmas story to her from her Jesus Storybook Bible but she wanted nothing to do with it. I had all these visions of us having this family storytime… right….
-She does not like sleeves with elastic in the cuffs.
-She will eat any kind of cookie, sometimes ice cream, never cake. She will not eat watergate salad or ambrosia even if I tell her its ice cream.
-My grandma was coughing all day and finally went to the hospital on Friday to be diagnosed with pneumonia. I am glad she wasn’t contagious!
-Jonathon got me a GPS, my parents got me a tennis bracelet (white gold to replace the yellow gold one I have from college graduation), my grandparents got me a sewing machine.
-Jonathon forgot to buy anything for my stocking.

Christmas Eve

Filed Under Christmas, Church, Twenty Months | 3 Comments

We are trying to make sure that Bailey knows why we celebrate Christmas- that it’s Jesus’ birthday- and not just a Santa Claus holiday. We also want to do all the fun Santa stuff, too. So we are kind of trying to find the happy medium in all of it.

Every year, we go to Christmas Eve service at church. This year, we went to the 5:00 service. I wanted Bailey to join us for part of the service. I brought crayons and puzzles and other quiet activities for her. She would have done really well if she could have seen her toys. However, they decided to have the whole service in the dark so there was no way for any of the kids to stay busy. There were a lot of antsy kids during the service. They offered nursery for kids under 3, so I took B to the nursery partway through but it was full and we couldn’t leave her. I was really frustrated, we probably would have just stayed home if I had known that she couldn’t go to childcare.

After church, we went over to my parents house. It was just the five of us. In the past, we used to open our stockings on Christmas Eve and then play games and eat lots of snacks. Obviously it’s not the same anymore, but it’s so much more fun with a little one around than with just a bunch of adults.

We decided to make a tradition of doing a birthday party for Jesus on Christmas Eve after church. Bailey got to open one gift (a coloring book) and when she is older we will probably play a game or something. Also the kids might get Christmas jammies! This year, we just did a cake. Note the Little People Jesus on top He had to take a break from sledding down the roof of the nativity in order to appear on the cake. (If you haven’t heard, Bailey thinks Jesus likes to sled and/or slide down the roof of the stable. She says “Wheee, swide!” and then when he lands on the floor, she says, “Cwash!”

Thanks for the new coloring book! It’s time to go to sleep so Santa can come bring more toys!

Two Days Post Christmas

Filed Under Christmas, Cooking/Baking, Gifts | 2 Comments

It is now December 27th. The Christmas madness had died down and I have a lot left to blog about. First I want to tell about my gifts, though! Guess what I got? Jonathon gave me a TomTom GPS thingy! I had never really considered getting one, but it makes sense because I hate driving and I get lost ALL THE TIME. (Can it be a business expense for delivering my Avon orders? LOL)

We took it out that night and used it to find some houses where we wanted to see Christmas lights. One of them was Christmas On the Hill, which I recommend going to see if you live close enough. The lights themselves aren’t that spectacular, but they have the whole thing set to music (you tune in on the radio) and it’s a cool show to watch.

My grandma got me a sewing machine. I have been wanting a sewing machine for a long time, even though I basically have no idea how to use it. Jen, we are going to have to get serious about sewing classes! I don’t even know how to thread it. But I am really excited to learn how to sew! I have a bunch of things I want to try and make.

Jonathon got a digital picture frame (from my parents) for his office at work. It holds up to 4000 pictures and can also do video and music. He had been wanting one of these for a while. I got him a grill light and grill cookbook from Avon, hamburger storage containers for the freezer, a cd, and some Best Buy gift cards and guess what he did. He has been griping that all of his hard drives are full so he went and bought another freaking hard drive. And a card reader thing for an SDHC card he got for his birthday. So now he can boot his computer off a memory card or something? I’m not really sure but he told me all about it.

I baked a lot before Christmas. I made five kinds of cookies and a loaf of banana bread. This is the first time I have ever made a loaf of bread (I swear) and I didn’t even use a mix! I am trying to learn how to cook more.

Santa Came Early (Dec 23rd)

Filed Under Christmas, Gifts, Toys, Twenty Months | 5 Comments

We decided that Santa was going to deliver one of the gifts early to our house. Bailey is one year old, she has no idea how many times Santa is supposed to come and let’s face it- she doesn’t remember from one day to the next whether he’s been here already or not. Since I needed to get a lot of baking and cleaning done, and I was excited for her to get her kitchen, we gave it to her the morning of the 23rd when she got up. She was SO excited.

It’s the Step 2 Lifestyle Partytime Kitchen. Try saying that five times fast. Originally, I was going to get her a much smaller kitchen. But we decided that it made more sense to get something she could use for a long time instead of having to replace it in a year or two. This one is a little too big for her now (she can’t really reach the microwave, etc) but there is plenty for her to do anyway. Also it’s big enough to have a friend play too. It’s so sturdy that I think it will hold up well, and it got good reviews. We got it on sale and it seemed like the best kitchen for the price.

Bailey’s favorite things to do with the kitchen are to cook her Little People and to cook an ice cream cone. We just got her a small set of food for it. She also likes to warm up her baby’s bottle- my mom showed her how to do that. The burners even light up and make different bubbling/sizzling noises depending on what pot you put on them. The microwave makes noise and you can press a popcorn button to hear popcorn popping.

No kitchen is complete without a phone! It has more realistic ringtones and stuff than some of her other play phones. She will only call Grammy (Geenay), Grampa (Popock) or Santa Claus (Kee Claush). Her conversations usually go, “Hallo. Hi. Good. Toys. Bye!” She also paces while she talks- it’s funny the stuff you learn about yourself from watching your kids!

She also loves to explore all the cabinets and drawers and stuff. There are little slots for the plates inside the top cabinets. I tried to show her how to put the silverware in the drawer but she thinks it is for “binks” (a.k.a. her binkies, which she would NEVER use as a baby but is now obsessed with playing with them).

Thank you, Santa Claus!

Merry Christmas!

Filed Under Christmas, Nineteen Months, Professional Pictures | 2 Comments

Colored Lights

Filed Under Christmas | 2 Comments

You are Multicolored Lights

Your holidays are a time for cheer and excitement. You love so much about the holidays, and everyone perks up a little from your happiness. You try to be grateful for what you have this time of the year. Even if things have been tough, you can’t help but be joyful.

Christmas Tree Shirt Painting

Filed Under Christmas, Crafts, Twenty Months | 6 Comments

The other day, my friend Casey invited us over to make Christmas shirts with her and her daughter, Addison. We had been talking about how we didn’t get the girls Christmas shirts this year, just dresses. So she had this cute craft idea and we decided to try it out.

Bailey loved painting. I thought that she would flip about having paint on her hands but she didn’t seem to mind. We have been working on doing more sensory stuff, so hopefully it’s been helping. She also loved these little puffy ball things and kept wanting to hold them all. She would take one and rub it on paper and tell me she was painting. So I’m not really sure that she grasped the definition of “paint.”

Yes, she has eyeshadow on in this picture. You might have to click on it to see it bigger in order to actually SEE the eyeshadow and paint. She kept bugging me about mind so I told her to close her eyes and she let me put it on. She also likes to wear powder and lip gloss. Kids these days Anyway i thought this picture was funny because you can see the eyeshadow and also the paint she got all over her face. We also learned from this experience- if you are doing an art project with one and a half year olds, and it has the potential to be messy, it’s better to let them do it one at a time so you have another adult for backup help. Otherwise you are both messy and have a kid covered in paint, and no spare hands.

Here is the finished shirt. It turned out cute but I wish it didn’t have the random smears of paint on it. That’s what you get when your kid makes it themselves, though. But I have always told myself I am not going to be one of those moms who does their kid’s art project FOR them. I know you know the kind I mean. You go to a class and the mom is all “No honey, let mommy color it for you.” Who cares, it’s their art, not yours. And I guess everyone will be quite aware of that on Christmas day this year when she wears her shirt!

This last one is from after we got home that day. Bailey likes to put stuff in this little Christmas tin. She is also starting to get really excited about Santa. She tries to say Santa Claus but it comes out “Kee Claush.” If you ask her what Santa brings, she says “Toys!” and if you ask her what else, she says “Shishens.” She is getting a play kitchen for Christmas so we keep telling her maybe Santa will bring a kitchen.