Christmas 2014

We had a wonderful Christmas this year, despite everyone getting the stomach flu (aside from Jake) and both kids getting a cold/pink eye! We celebrated with Jake's side of the family a couple of weeks before Christmas, we spent Christmas day at home with just the 4 of us and then we celebrated Christmas with my side of the family on the Saturday after Christmas! I love having it all spread out and spending so much time with family! It was a lovely Christmas season and it was so much fun having both kids this year. Jackson is at a great age and Avery... well she enjoyed trying to eat the paper and ribbons. ;-)

Here are a few pictures from each of our family celebrations.

Jake's Family:

Santa Came!

After opening a few presents, we went to the St. Charles Christmas Parade, which was very fun!

I love this shot of the 4 boys eating their popcorn at the parade. ♥

Christmas Morning:

(Jackson had on his Christmas jammies before going to bed, but ended up getting the stomach flu that night, so the jammies got "glucky" as Jackson would say, so we changed to Spider Man.)

Avery chewing on a bow...

... and wrapping paper. Ha.

Jackson loved his new stuffed Pluto. ♥

Big brother enjoyed helping Avery open all of her gifts. :-)

The best present this year. :-)

Jackson loved his Ninja Turtle Sleeping bag. :-)

Jackson got this super cute bowl in his stocking and he couldn't wait to try it out. He is always wanting to drink the milk after eating his cereal but that often ends in a mess, so I found these cute bowls at Target and snatched one up for his stocking. He loved it!

At one point, I snapped this picture with my phone to show you how crazy it got with the toys all over the living room floor... just the way it should be on Christmas day. :-)

Christmas with my side of the Family:

Avery loves these singing snowmen. She rocks back and forth everytime the music starts. :-)

Opening stockings.

Avery with her "big" present from Maw Maw and Papa!

Jackson and Mason got bikes!

Our annual Christmas meal tradition... bacon, eggs, sausage, biscuits and gravy! Yum.

We had a really great Christmas this year. I hope you did too!

Happy New Year!!!

Our 2014 Christmas Card

Now that our Christmas cards have all gone out and been delivered, I wanted to share our card with all of you! 

I hope you all have a Very Merry Christmas!

Favorite Photo Friday

I haven't shared this on the blog yet, but Avery was chosen to be a brand rep for Sassy Sweet Pea Designs and we are so excited. Marie from Sassy Sweet Pea Designs makes headbands (and a few other handmade items) and has her own Etsy shop. The headband we were sent for the month of December was a beautiful Christmas theme. It went perfectly with Avery's Christmas outfit, so while we were in Old Town St. Charles for their Christmas Parade last weekend, I took a few pictures of Avery in her headband. We had fun with our little mini photo shoot. :-)

I hope you all have a great weekend!

What Avery is Getting for Christmas This Year

I'm so excited for Avery's first Christmas and it's been so much fun shopping for little girl toys for a change. :-) Here's what Avery is getting this year:

Her Santa gift this year will be the Fisher Price Magical Moments Mirror. It is just too cute!!!

A gift I knew I wanted to get her was a little tea set for her age and I found this one on Cyber Monday. It's the Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Pretty Please Tea Set. It's so cute and plays music, which she loves. :-)

We found her this cute book on Black Friday. Its the Fisher Price Growing Pals Peek-a-Boo Book!

And we also found this cute Fisher Price Growing Baby Fun Sounds Flip Phone because she loves our cell phones. ;-)

These super cute pajamas! These will be her first set of 2 piece pajamas.

Then we ordered five books from Scholastic for Avery as well. 

So that is what Avery is getting for her first Christmas! I'm so excited and can't wait for Christmas morning!!

What Jackson is Getting For Christmas This Year

We did some Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping this year and are pretty well done shopping for both Jackson and Avery (besides stocking stuffers). So here is what Jackson is getting:

His Santa gift this year is going to be the Fisher Price Discover Disney Castle. He's been asking to go to "The Castle" ever since he saw a commercial for Disney World a few months back, so when I saw this and it was a boy version, I just knew he would love it. 

We got him the nabi DreamTab so he has his own ipac (as he calls it, ha).

He's been asking for some Jake and the Neverland Pirates pajamas, so his wish will come true for those. Walmart had a set of 2 pair for only $10 on Cyber Monday. :-)

We were also able to get this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Sleeping Bag for only $10 on Black Friday! :-)

I picked up this stuffed Pluto the other night to add to his stuffed Mickey Mouse Clubhouse collection. He has 3 different Mickey's and Goofy so far, so he'll be excited to have Pluto now. :-)

We are also getting him a bike helmet. He is getting a bike from my parent's so we thought we'd get him a helmet to keep him safe while riding. :-)

We also ordered him some books from Scholastic to give to him for Christmas. We ordered each of the kids 5 books, so I'm excited to have some new reading material. :-)

And finally, we are taking a trip to Phoenix to visit a friend in January, and because Jackson's been asking to go to "The Castle" so often we thought this might be a great time to try and make a trip out to Anaheim to visit Disneyland since we'll be somewhat close. So we will be driving to Anaheim to visit Disneyland for 1 day and 1 night. So this is a big gift for him as well, even though I'm not really sure he will understand until we're there. :-)

So that is what Jackson is getting. :-) I'm really looking forward to Christmas morning this year now that he's a little older.

(I will post what Avery is getting tomorrow.)

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

We took Jackson and Avery to see Santa Claus last night at the mall. I was unsure how they would do because Jackson wasn't too excited about him last year. But, much to my surprise, they both did great! Jackson was a little nervous at first, but we started talking to Santa and Jackson warmed up to him pretty quick. He told Santa that he wanted a Dinosaur Train toy, a blue bike and the Mickey's Castle toy that he's been wanting for quite a while. It was super cute. He also told Santa that Avery wanted baby girl toys and he wanted big boy toys. :-) Avery sat right on Santa's lap and smiled for the camera several times. After about 8-10 shots, we finally got one where they were both looking at the camera and somewhat smiling. I call that a win!!

P.S. Avery was making this face all evening. I think she feels a tooth coming in and keeps doing this with her mouth to feel the new tooth. Ha. She also made the same face when I was taking her picture later in the food court as we were eating dinner. :-)

Jackson's 3rd Birthday Party

So it's been almost a month since I've published a blog post... bad blogger!!  So I thought I'd try and get back in the swing of things and post about Jackson's 3rd birthday party. Better late than never right?

We celebrated Jackson's 3rd birthday with a party at the Frisco Train Store on October 26th! He had such a fun time with his family and friends. The kids played with the trains, played a pinata game, ate cupcakes, watched the train go by out the window and Jackson even got to put his hand-print on the wall. :-) He got lots of great gifts. It was such a fun party!

Wordless Wednesday - Jackson's Fall 2014 School Picture

I just love that Jackson did so well for his school picture this year! I loved his picture from the Spring and I really love this one too. :-) Of course he never poses and looks at the camera for me, but I'm glad someone can at least get a good picture out of him.

Avery's 6th Month

Sweet Avery, 

You turned 6 months old on October 28th!! I can't believe you are 6 months old already. That just seems so big.

(Read about her first month, second month, third month, fourth month and fifth month.)

You are growing so fast and getting so big. You had a doctor's appointment on Oct. 24th because you were coughing again and you weighed 17 lbs. 8 ounces!! You had to go on your first antibiotic because your ears were on the verge of infection. :-( You did great with the antibiotic though and took it pretty well. You seem to be feeling much better now. Yay!

You are getting better and better at sitting up. You still need a spotter, but you are just about to get the hang of it. You can go much longer periods of time without falling over and you even catch yourself if you lean too far to the left or right. We just have to watch you because you will sometimes lean a little too far backwards. :-( You love being able to sit up and play with your toys though! 

You are taking a 6 ounce bottle every four hours now and you are eating baby food mixed in there as well. You love your baby food! There hasn't been a food I've given you that you haven't liked. We've tried all kinds of foods now and you like them all. :-)

You are wearing size 3 diapers and size 6-9 and 9 month clothes. 

You are also still sleeping great. You generally only wake up once to eat and you always go right back to sleep. :-) You usually go to sleep at around 9 p.m. and then you usually sleep until around 8 the next morning. You also take around 3 naps a day. One short one in the morning, a longer one (sometimes around 2 hours) between 12-1 and then another short one in the evening. You are such a good sleeper, just like your mommy. :-)

You got your 2 front, bottom teeth this month. Maw Maw noticed one of them poking through on Friday, October 24th while you were at the doctor's office. Then later that evening, Papa and I noticed the one right next to it poking through. They are both through now and it's so darn cute.

Things you love lately:

-Bottles/Baby Food

-The Remote (I was letting you play with it Sunday evening and you kept changing the channel, so I tried to hide it from you and you threw a little fit. Ha. So I remembered that Jackson had a little toy remote from when he was a baby, so I got it out and you were satisfied playing with it instead... thank goodness.)

-Bathtime

-You're growing to like your binkie more and more.

-Being the center of attention, as you always have.

-You love to scream and have us scream back at you. You could play this game for a long time. :-)

We celebrated Halloween this month and you looked so adorable in your little mouse costume! It was too cold on Halloween to get you out trick or treating, but thankfully I had taken you to the pumpkin patch down the road from us the week before and I took a few pictures of you and your brother in your costumes. :-)

You also went to your first Harvest Fest at church this month. Thankfully it was super warm that night, so we were able to spend the whole evening outside by the fire. Once again, you looked super cute in your mouse costume!

Well, I think that wraps up month 6 for you baby girl. You are so precious and we all just love you to pieces! I seriously can't get enough of kissing your chubby cheeks! They are just so kissable. You are such a blessing and we all love you to the moon and back.

xoxo - Mommy