Wowzers what an amazing Christmas we just had. Each year seems to get better and better and this year was by far my favorite - though I probably will say that every year - I hope!
If you were looking for a lot of pictures I don't think you'll be disappointed.
the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...
z admiring the tree
Olivia on Christmas Eve before we left for Cecil County
Before we left Z put out the reindeer food
Rich and his girl
Zachary playing with Nana's train
Anna & Olivia playing
Olivia in the middle of opening gifts
Zachary modeling his Raven's jersey
Miranda - Elf
Mike getting his surprise Christmas present - a HUGE recliner
that's the recliner - seriously
Santa came! He left his footprints of magical dust on our fireplace
Santa's hard work
Z opening his first, and favorite, present
Do you think he likes it?
Pillow Pet!
Some of Z's loot
Miss Happy finally woke up to join us
This is how she spent Christmas...haha!
She loves her ball popper!
I didn't get any pictures of our Christmas dinner celebration at Chris and Cristin's house but it was fab. The food was amazing and the kids got spoiled some more. Next year we host Christmas!!!
This evening we went to Rich's work for a dinner with Santa. The kids got all gussied up so I had to get some pictures of them in front of the tree. Thankfully they were good sports for me!
Zachary actually went up to Santa - I was shocked!
Olivia's 1st present - ever! She wasn't too sure what to do with it.
Zachary and I finally got around to making some Christmas cookies last week. We had so much fun decorating them with sprinkles and icing! He is so fun to do projects with now because he really takes an interest in them!
Can you believe it? Well believe it, Olivia is 9 months old today! I myself am in denial and plan on staying that way for the next few months while she works her way up to her 1st birthday.
Let's see...this past month Olivia has really started cruising. She has shown a little more interest in walking with the push walker and a lot more interest in getting into EVERYTHING. No roll of toilet paper is safe in this house anymore.
She is eating almost all finger foods at this point - with the occasional spoon feeding of yogurt and other fruity purees. Sleeping has gotten a lot better! She still gets up on average once a night but has been putting herself back to sleep a lot! yay!
Olivia graduated from the infant car seat to the convertible car seat recently. She started getting really upset every time we would put her in the car so I figured it was time for a change. She's doing great in it and loves sitting up a little higher, even though she still has to look at the back of the car!
Overall, our little chunk is doing amazing! We go for her 9 month appointment tomorrow to see how she measures up!
Big Girl Car Seat!
Zachary wanted his picture taken with the sign. Love him!
This year we went a more formal route with our Christmas card but I still had to get pics of the kids in their jammies! I just love how these turned out - maybe next year we'll go back to our silly card format :)
We have been pretty busy around here getting ready for Christmas! I can't believe how quickly it is sneaking up on us. Anyway, here are some pictures from the past week. They are in no particular order because I am far too lazy to arrange them tonight.
Olivia had spaghetti for the first time tonight. Of course we had to strip her down to nakey (well diaper) state so she could get nice and messy. She absolutely LOVED it! I actually made the spaghetti with a spaghetti squash instead of noodles (thanks Carrie for the idea) and she shoveled it in.
Yesterday while Olivia was supposed to be napping I watched her attempt to take off her shirt over the video monitor. She did get an arm out which is pretty impressive! She was very unhappy when Daddy came home and woke her up from her nap. (It was 5pm and we wanted her to go to bed on time - we aren't THAT crazy)
Here is Olivia at Mrs. Laura's birthday party playing with a firetruck. She looks very intense here - I love it!
My silly kids playing together - nothing makes me happier!
We're all feeling a little upside down these days - especially Zachary.
Rich and I got to get all fancied up to go out to dinner last weekend. We celebrated Mrs. Laura's birthday at Tio Pepe's - yum!
Another one from Mrs. Laura's birthday party - all of the kids tackling Rich.
Olivia likes to help us out with unloading the dishwasher. When I snapped this picture on my phone I knew I had to find the one of Zachary that I had of him doing the same thing.
Here it is!! I just love it!!! (He was 10 months here)
Last Sunday we woke up to what I'd like to call the first snow of the year. We all know that's a joke since the beginning of 2010 dumped a ton of snow on us. So I guess this is called the first snow of the season? It wasn't a ton but it was just enough to keep the tradition of Magical December 5th alive! Here is a video from tonight of Z making Olivia laugh. He was checking for her 2nd tooth - as he has seen us do - and she was cracking up. He is the only one that can make her laugh this hard.
