Christmas Day

Santa came! Our stocking were full. The tree was packed with presents. And we were all up ready for Christmas morning.
This is the stuffings in Emerson's stocking.

He was so excited to get it!

Emerson's First Chrismas Present from Mommy and Daddy:
Emerson's First Christmas Present from Santa:

The girls loved helping with opening the gifts.

Aunt Natalie made all of the neices and nephews capes. I love the "e" on Emerson's

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve

For the first time in two years, we were able to all be together for Christmas this year. It was looking like Amy wasn’t going to be able to make it because of Austin, but we are able to get permission for him to come up. We ended up celebrating Christmas Eve and Christmas Day each a day late though.

When Amy and Chris got there Emerson for some reason kept of freaking out at Chris. I don't know why, but it was really sad. He got over his fear though.

For Christmas Eve, we have some strong traditions. First we eat a delicious ham and potato meal.

Jason was the hit of the girls this night. They kept on coming over and sitting with us. It was so cute.

Then, we open up new Christmas PJ’s. This year I bought Jason’s and then bought an extra pair and made Emerson some matching PJ’s of his own.

Then we play a game called Dog of Dover. This is an obnoxious game, but it is has been a tradition in my Dad’s family for generations, so we keep it in the Christmas Eve line up. After Dog of Dover we play a White Elephant Bingo game. This is a newer tradition from the past 4 years or so. It is really fun. Then we sing Christmas carols. I think that this is my favorite part of Christmas Eve. I love singing and listening to others sing, no matter how off pitch we are and how high we start.
While we were singing, Emerson loved trying to play with Austin's face. It was so cute the he was attentive to Austin, but I wish that it was something other than his eyes that he wanted to keep on grabbing.
After singing Christmas Carols, we sit around and talk until it is time for bed. We sisters stayed up really late this year. It was fun chatting and being all together again. It kind of made me miss the old days when we all lived together, but not enough to want to go back to it permanently.

Now off to bed and hope Santa finds Emerson this year, a night late.

Little Baby Steps

On the day after Emerson's 10 month birthday, he took his first steps. He had been pulling himself up for a little while now and being able to stand on his own for a little over a week. So, we knew that it would be just a matter of time until he took his first steps. So, on Wednesday night, he took 3 steps in a row. It was SO cute! Then on Friday, he beat his record by taking 6 steps in a row. And then just this morning he had taken 7. He is definately by no means a "walker", but he is stepping here and there, and I LOVE IT!

10 Months

Weight: 18.75 lbs

Height: 28 in

Wears size 3 diapers

Wears 6-9 and 9-12 month clothes

Loves looking at the Christmas tree

Squeals randomly while crawling

Sleeps more often by himself, but still screams himself to sleep

Loves to eat. Starting to eat more and more "adult" food.

Interacting more with other kids.

Standing on his own.

Loves to laugh and smile.

Got a second tooth

It the best baby! I love him so much!

So sad...

I was looking around last night trying to figure out when everything is going to start for the Winter season. When I ran across an article saying that Pushing Daisies is "not picking up the shows (Eli Stone, Pushing Daisies, and Dirty Sexy Money) for the second halves of their seasons."...another way of saying cancelled! I am so sad. I LOVE this show. I love that it is a cleaver show that is cute and CLEAN. I don't usually get upset about a show being cancelled, but this one is among my favorites and I am going to be so sad to see it go. I am also really sad that Eli Stone is going to be cancelled too, but not nearly as much as Pushing Daisies.

Diaper Cake

Last night, I hosted a baby shower for my friend Kristin. She is due with a little baby boy in January. I am so excited for her. At the shower we had lots of good food (orange rolls, cream puffs, and summer salad), fun gifts, lots of laughs, and a good time all around.

Here is the diaper cake that I made for this shower. I thought that it turned out great! I was very happy with this one.

How many pacifiers does one baby need?

The answer must be 3...for now.

Happy Birthday Jason!

Yesterday was Jason's 27th birthday. We had a lot of fun for it. We didn't do much, but it was still fun. We had really yummy Cinnamon Swirl Cake...with 27 candles on it. Jason opened all his presents. He got a Boards & Bits gift certificate from my parents, the game Munchkin from my sisters, and from me and Emerson he got God of War II, a tie, and Arkham Horror. It was all exactly what Jason has been wanting.

After presents, we started a game of Arkham Horror. We started it at about 4:30 pm and it didn't get over until about 1 am (we did take a break for dinner and cake). This is an interesting game. It is a cooperative game, so you are playing together to beat the board. We were so close to winning, and then the BIG monster woke up and we couldn't beat him. We are definately going to have to play that again and hopefully win next time.

I love you, Jason! I hope that you had a great birthday!

Christmas Tree Loving.

We put up the Christmas tree during one of Emerson's naps the day after Thanksgiving. It was so much fun bringing him down as seeing his reaction to the Christmas tree. He was fasinated with it. He especially loves a bell that we put down at his level. I have been surprised that he hasn't been more destructive of the tree. Jason showed him that he can see himself in the silver balls, so he likes to look at himself in those. It is really cute.

This is our newest ornament for the tree this year. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it and I knew that it had to be on my tree. It was a search for the perfect Christmas ornament for the birth of Emerson. And I don't think that I could be happier with it.

Thanksgiving.

We had such a great Thanksgiving. Jason got a 4 day weekend from work. So, we spent it alone, so most the time we were in our PJ's relaxing. Thanksgiving day was spent cooking and consuming YUMMY food. We always forget how much we love Thanksgiving dinner until we have it again...especially Sweet Potato Soufflé . Emerson loved eating all the food too.

It was fun spending Thanksgiving as just our little family. It would have been great to be able to have family and friends around, but since we couldn't we made the best out of what we had and loved every minute of it!

They are bought!

It's official!
We bought our tickets to go on an Alaskan Cruise this May!!! I am so excited. Now just to figure out what to do with Emerson for a week.

Emerson's newest boy cousin!

This is my beautiful little sister, Amy.

She welcomed this sweet baby boy this afternoon. His name is Austin. I just want to hold him so bad. Hopefully at Christmas I will get the chance to.

Isn't he just the sweetest? Emerson is going to love having a boy cousin his same age. It is going to be so much fun seeing these two grow older together and become great friends.