Christmas

After a great Christmas Eve, and a good night's rest, we woke up Christmas morning to see what Santa had left in our stockings.

Emery liked sitting in her big girl chair.

And she got some other good treats.

After stockings, we all got ready while munching on breakfast and sipping mimosas (well two of us, at least)!

We got Emery all dressed up in her gingerbread finest!

Then we headed to Grandma and Grandpa K's house to open gifts.

  

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, eating, and playing with new toys.  Emery even took a 2 1/2 hour nap!

Here is Grandma K with all the grandkids.

Emery sporting her Christmas bib (purchased last year after Christmas by an excited soon-to-be mom). 

Giovanna ready to open presents.

I am definitely considering this Christmas a success!

Now we are relaxing and putting away Christmas decorations.  We'll be off to SM later in the week to celebrate with Grandma and Grandpa D.  

45 Weeks

BEST. WEEK. EVER.  

I've been thinking about E's first Christmas since before she was born, so of course that was the highlight of the week.  No time to go through Christmas pictures tonight, so that will have to be it's own post. 

Earlier in the week, I had some of my friends over for a little Christmas get-together, and Hayden's mommy brought him along.  

The babies look so much older than they did the last time they got together!

Other than that, the week was filled with last minute Christmas preparations and our Christmas Eve celebration.  

Here are a few more pictures I took throughout the week.

Hope your Christmas was fantastic!

The stockings were hung...

I should be sleeping. We have a busy morning tomorrow.

Santa has visited our house. Well he's missed my stocking, but I'm sure he'll stop back by before morning!

Christmas Eve

What a wonderful first Christmas Eve with Miss Emery!

My family has wonderful Christmas traditions, so when we can't spend Christmas with them, I like to share our traditions with Abraham's family.  So this afternoon we headed out to a candlelight service at church.  They had 4 services that were overflowing.  All the candlelight was gorgeous.

After church we had everyone over for chili and tamales (yum)!

It's been awhile since all the K siblings have posed for a picture together.

Our little family of three!

E with Cousin G.  It's not easy to get 2 babies to pose!

As Abraham and I form our own little family, we are coming up with our own traditions.  A couple of years ago, we started exchanging pajamas on Christmas Eve.  For some reason, we always say they are from Rudolph, but I can't remember why!  I was excited to start the tradition this year with E.

Once E had a bath and changed into her new pajamas, we started a new tradition of reading The Night Before Christmas (Thanks for the book, Grandma D).

I'd definitely call it a success!  Now Santa needs to get stocking ready...

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas Eve, and from our family to yours, have a very Merry Christmas!

Family Nut Bowl

Dear Emery,

You have quite a few nuts in your family, but that's not what this post is about.  This is about the Family Nut Bowl.

Here is a picture of Grandpa D passing the Nut Bowl to Daddy last Christmas.  If Mommy looks a little fat, it's because you were in my belly!

You are probably wondering, along with everyone else reading this, what in the world I'm talking about.  So here it is - the history of the Nut Bowl:

It was a wet and cold night that Christmas Eve of 1982. The phone brought the occupants of 925 Lamar out of lethargic stupor.  The call was from Pat and he had a secret to tell.  It seemed that the Manager of the store he was working at had left early and the Assistant Manager had decided to put all the Christmas merchandise on sale at 10 cents on the dollar.  This news really got the place hopping as all the good little boys and girls saw visions of fantastic bargains just a short drive away.  Dashing to the car, they were there in no time filling their baskets with goodies.

Well Mike (aka Grandpa D), being the frugal guy he is, decided every house needed at least two paper towel holders and no one could have enough nut bowls.  The following year; after having reconsidered his judgment on the nut bowls, he decided to share his windfall with the person who had made it all happen, Pat.   The gift was such a big hit he decided to pass it on and thus the tradition of the nut bowl.  Over the years, it has been used to welcome new members to the family or for congratulations for a particular accomplishment.  

This year, it's Daddy's turn to pass on the nutbowl.  We will just have wait until Christmas to find out who he's chosen!

44 Weeks

E is a happy girl this week.  Maybe she's excited about Christmas!

Most notable event this week was E's 10 Month birthday!

I think she looks like such a big girl when she's serious.

Grandma D brought some Christmas PJ's!

E practiced crawling.

E even had her very first (non-family) babysitter this week, although she slept through it!  The lovely Miss Candace came to watch E so that Mommy and Daddy could go to a Christmas party.

Since I didn't take too many pictures this week, I'll add a couple from my phone.

I'm really bad about taking videos, but I did take one today.  We bought this Jumperoo 6 months ago for $35 off of Craigslist.  I can say with certainty that is has by far been the best baby purchase we've made.  You can tell by this video that she loves it just as much today as she did when we brought it home.

1 week until Christmas!  Make it a great one!

10 Months

Little Miss E is 10 months old today!

No doctor's appointment this month, so here are my approximate at-home measurements.

Height:  29 1/2 inches

Weight: 21+ pounds

E takes 3 bottles a day (6-8 oz. per bottle) and eats 3 solids meals.  We are gradually introducing more table foods, and she seems to like most things we give her.

I am happy to say that sleep has gotten MUCH better since the 9 Month post.  We took the doctor's advice and let her cry it out.  It was not fun AT ALL, but it worked!  She is still taking 2 naps a day, anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours per nap.

E is making progress on her milestones.  She can now army crawl, and she stands well while holding on to something.  We are working on cruising now!

I can't believe I only have 2 months until she turns 1.  Can we slow this down, please?

I will leave you with one last picture I took on my iPhone.

Happy 10 Month Birthday, Sweet Girl!