11 Months

So I am a few weeks late in posting this, but the actual photo was taken on her 11 month “birthday”, which was Christmas Eve. She has started moving ALL over the place in the last month. She is crawling, and pulling herself to stand on everything. Time to start baby-proofing every last thing again! It’s fun to be “reminded” that I can’t leave cups on the coffee table, or my magazine on the couch, without someone finding them. She is so fun and her little personality shines through more each month. She doesn’t like, but will tolerate baby food, and is pickier than Owen ever was. She has quickly learned how to shake her head “no” to foods she’s not interested in eating. It is very easy to tell if she doesn’t like something, because she gets a huge puckered look on her face and does full-body shudders. It’s funny.
She is a delight and I am just eating her up everyday!

My sister Gail makes these darling hooded towels and sent one for Olivia recently. We LOVE these and Olivia is so excited to have this one...as you can see...

Jordans’ wife, Samantha made (yes MADE!) this dress for Olivia for Christmas. We were trying to get out to Utah this year, and the idea was that Olivia and Elanor would wear matching dresses...that would have been even cuter. But I just had to show off this dress. She wore it to church on Sunday and it was a big hit.
PS this picture was taken on January 1st, which is why you still see a Christmas tree up in the background. 

Christmas

This year we spent Christmas at the Puzeys. We had a great time! On Christmas Eve, after our dinner, the kids put on a Nativity, under the direction of Morgan. It was really cute! Kate and Owen were Mary and Joseph, baby Jesus was played by one of Kate’s dolls, Olivia played the angel, Morgan Narrated and Carter and Zac played innkeepers, shepherds and sheep. They put it on in the basement, and when they got to the “stable” Mary and Joseph sat down in beach chairs and laid baby Jesus in a milk crate. It was awesome! Here are some pictures of the cast.

After making every last preparation for Christmas morning, Nate and I headed to bed, where we found our cute little guys (hogging our bed) in their Christmas PJs, fast asleep. Why does it feel so good to see your kids sleep? 

What makes Christmas morning so much fun? Playing with all of your presents...even simultaneously! I had to snap a picture of Owen, playing with his new kitchen, while riding his new bike...the cutie can’t help it, he comes by it honestly.

I knew Owen would be a lot of fun to watch on Christmas morning, but what I didn’t anticipate was how much fun it would be to watch Olivia. She was crawling around between her toys, the boxes, ribbons, stockings, everyone else’s toys just playing with everything. I honestly think she was down there playing for at least 3 hours. It was so fun to see her enjoy Christmas just as much as the rest of us did. I love the holidays!

Gingerbread House

Here is how our little gingerbread house turned out this year. This was a really fun activity that we did the Saturday before Christmas as our advent activity for the day. Owen was THRILLED by the idea of decorating with the candy. He was really proud and I think it turned out quite cute. We are into Mickey Mouse Clubhouse right now...can you see our Mickey’s on there?

Visiting Santa at Lennox Square

As you can see from the expressions on their faces, my children didn’t quite know what to make of the whole Santa Claus experience this year. This is the first time Owen sat on his lap, without crying. He told Santa what he wanted for Christmas, and then as we left he wanted to know where his present was. So we told him how the process works...elves and all!

Raking Leaves

What is the best part about raking leaves? Jumping in them, of course. We have had plenty of piles of leaves in our front yard the past few Saturdays, and plenty of chances to jump in them.

Park Day

We actually still have a few of those in December in Atlanta! I know I have over-blogged about it in the past, but this airport park is still our favorite. We were out that direction running errands the other day and I took some pictures of the two of them. Then later that same week we met Kristen and Mark there with the kids. Here are a few pictures...

Field Trip to the Fire Station

We took a little field trip with our preschool friends to the fire station a few weeks ago. We had a great time! We got there and took a tour of the fire station and truck, and while we were there they got a call and headed out on the truck! It was perfect! The kids all had a great time and seemed a bit overwhelmed by the experience. I had to carry both Owen and Olivia a few times because he was a bit nervous about the whole thing. It was really cute and fun. Here is our picture with Fireman Cronic:

Charlie Brown Christmas

We are going through a Charlie Brown phase around here right now. We showed Owen the Great Pumpkin, and he loved it, so we’ve been watching all of them lately. Recently we pulled out the Charlie Brown Christmas, which is also a hit and the other day after we put up our tree Owen ran and got his blue blanket to put around the bottom of the tree. I thought is was so cute I had to take a picture...

December Advent

My friend Laura has the greatest ideas, and one of my favorites is her December Advent idea. She doesn’t wrap a bunch of little gifts to be opened each day, or a piece of candy to eat, she puts a little tag on each day of her advent calendar and does a little Christmas activity each day. How fun is that? We have come up with a list of things and I will be posting as we go.
Day 1: we had FHE and read our little book about Baby Jesus while letting Owen and Olivia play with a little nativity we have. We set it up in their room.
Day 2: we made snowball cookies. We made lemon meltaways and then shook them up in a baggy full of snow (powdered sugar) and enjoyed them (see picture above).
Day 3: we visited Santa at Lenox mall. By the way, if you are interested in visiting Santa, he is a good one...real hair AND beard!

Sam the Lovesick Snowman

The kids and I went to a puppet show a few weeks ago at the Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts. It was a lot of fun and they were both mesmerized by it. Olivia (who does NOT sit through movies for even a nano second I recently found) even watched quietly (for the most part). It is about a snowman who falls in love with a stove...too cute. I only got this one picture of the stage, because I found out after I took it that there is no photography allowed...oops. So I took a picture of them by a display of Fraggle Rock...those guys in the background are doozers! :)