Friday, December 28, 2012

family: Christmas 2012

The decorations have come down but the memories that we made this Christmas, will last forever. Christmas is a totally different experience when you have your own children. Watching the joy and excitement is just priceless. Julianna "got it" this year... she was so thrilled about everything Christmas related.

We taught her about the real meaning of the season and she kept singing Happy Birthday, Jesus over and over. We took her shopping with us to buy Christmas gifts for a family that our church group adopted. At first she was confused and thought the gifts should be for her but we tried to explain to her that we were giving them to someone else who didn't have anything and she got all excited about choosing things for the children. As much as she could understand at nearly 3 years old, she did.

She got to tell Santa what she wanted this year and watching her little face light up when she saw exactly what she wanted by the tree on Christmas morning filled my heart with happiness. Even though the past few months have been very hard on our family, our faith in God has pulled us through. We were very blessed to provide a nice Christmas for our own family as well as for another one.

Little Olivia celebrated her very first Christmas. She seemed to love her gifts but she especially loved the bows, wrapping paper, and ribbons. I can't wait to share many more Christmas memories with my sweet daughters and husband!












Sunday, December 23, 2012

Julianna: potty training // victory at last

I reported a few months ago that my sweet toddler was smarter than me (or so she thought). Potty training wasn't going well. She even tricked me into believing that she'd used the potty by pouring water into her free standing potty and saying, "Look, Mommy! I peed!" Such a smart, dishonest potty trainee.

So basically I threw in the towel. Oh well if she wasn't potty trained by 3. I knew at least she wouldn't go to elementary school in a diaper so I decided to just relax and let her do her thing.

And that she did! The week before last she kept asking me to change her diaper every single time she peed. As soon as she went, she came to find me and asked me to put a new diaper on her. I did for the first 3 times and then I we just went for panties. We had an accident or 2 that day but overall it was a success. Basically she just decided she was ready and she led the way... we just followed and encouraged her with claps, hugs, dances, stickers, and a few sweet treats along the way.

About a week and half later she's in panties all day except for a pull up/diaper at naps and bedtime. She's got it down for the most part. Just working on the tricky #2... if any parents have advice in that area, please send it my way!

Victory at last and half as many diapers. Yiiiiiipppppeeeeee!

Sticker chart! We ran out of stickers quickly!

A sweet treat to celebrate our potty training successes!

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Olivia: 7 Months

Olivia Grace is 7 months old! She's about 17 pounds and around 26 inches long. She is still a nursing champ but loves pureed foods as well. She's had sweet potatoes, carrots, avocado, apples, and bananas. Her favorite is definitely bananas but she enjoys eating anything very much! Give her a spoon and she's a happy baby. She has one tooth on the bottom and loves rolling around on the floor. She has mastered rolling to get where she wants to be and even a backwards crawl occasionally. We adore our little baby girl and love her so much! We are very excited to celebrate her first Christmas in just a few more days!



Wednesday, December 19, 2012

family: Tacky Christmas Sweater Party

Last night we attended a tacky Christmas sweater paty with our church community group. Josh had a blast turning an XL maternity sweater into an epic tacky sweater. The whole family dressed up and we had a fun time with our friends!








Monday, December 17, 2012

family: Christmas on Sunset

This past Friday night, we went to Christmas on Sunset. It's a fun Christmas celebration downtown. Local businesses open up to show off their goods and services. There's also carriage rides and Santa! We took this opportunity for Julianna to meet Santa since she's been talking non-stop about him. I thought for sure that she would want to sit on Santa's lap to tell him what she wanted for Christmas. We waited in line for about 30 minutes and she was so excited. We finally get up to Santa and she won't sit on his lap. Screamed and clung onto daddy. But she did very clearly ask Santa for "rocket chips" (rocket ships) and candies. Sweet little Olivia did sit on Santa's lap but she wouldn't look at that camera. We had a fun family night!





Saturday, December 8, 2012

family: Christmas parade 2012

One of my favorite things to do during the holiday season is go to the Christmas parade downtown. I loved going when I was a little girl. Josh and I have actually never been together until last night. So it's been a long time since I have been to the Christmas parade. This year it's all about starting new traditions since Julianna is old enough to understand. We began another new Christmas tradition last night and Julianna had a blast. She was so excited about going all day and it was all she talked about. She was so excited to see Santa and get "candies!" Olivia did great at the parade too...she happily snuggled with mommy while smiling and "talking" to those who caught her eye.

Julianna and Daddy

Olivia and Daddy

Olivia and Mommy

Chick-fil-A Float

The Giant Shopping Cart

McDonald's Float

And Real Camels!


Thursday, December 6, 2012

family: fun photo booth

Back in November, our church had a fun celebration to celebrate Project Relaunch. Our church location will be moving and expanding in the coming months. At the party, there was a fun photo booth- complete with silly props. Here are a few photos that I participated in...








 

family: cinnamon Christmas ornaments

I've always loved cinnamon Christmas ornaments... they smell so good! I just didn't realize just how easy they were to create until I found a "recipe" on Pinterest. Josh and I spent some time together during naptime a couple of week ago creating our own. It was so much fun!

Olivia: first tooth

Olivia's first tooth has officially broken through. It's on the bottom and the same spot as Julianna's first tooth. Julianna got her first tooth around 7 months and Olivia is 6.5 months old right now. She's been a little fussy but I think she's handled getting her first tooth pretty well. I just hope she's this nice about getting the rest of them!

And a couple of recent pictures of sweet little Olivia...