Christmas 2014

This was really the first Christmas that Max understood what was going on. We were excited that he knew about Santa and would try to count the days till Christmas.

Little Coco bean was just content watching everyone else. She of course wanted to eat all the wrapping paper, but let Max open her gifts for her.

We loved having Hadley there to watch her open gifts.

In Max's stocking was a sword which he loved. Of course Hadley had to defend herself so she got one too!

He then proceeded to open his gifts with the sword. Resourceful I guess.

David and I got these awesome construction vehicles for Max. There is 3 of them I think and we actually got them at a garage sale this summer. I'm surprised we kept them hidden this long, but he loved them.

I thought it was time for Hadley to get an oversized head wrap bow and necklace. Doesn't she look darling! Somethings got to control that hair!

It never fails that the kids love the boxes!

Santa brought Max a few nerf shoot guns which he asked for.

Miss. Hadley got dress up clothes and a dress up station for Christmas.

She wanted to wear them all at once!

There was 1 present left under the tree that Max spotted!

It's a BOW AND ARROW! Love his face. Max must have been a good boy this year as Santa brought him the other item he asked for. Mom and Dad are regretting Santa's choices, but he's only young once right?

Colette got in on the action and was tearing up some gifts! She got some great chew toys (ok, I guess I should say teething toys) and some much needed PJ's/outfits. She is growing like a weed!

Here is Max practicing with his bow and arrows. He actually only likes to watch us do it right now so we're good with that. We've had fun playing.

All us kids got mom a fit bit charge which she is really enjoying tracking her movements.

Love my little Colette.

Had to get the annual Christmas shot with Gigi!

So adorable!

Hadley's being silly, but there is just so much love for their baby sister/cousin here. I can't stand it!

Later that evening my cousin's came over for a yummy feast of fried turkey, honey baked ham and all the sides!

Love Colette's face in this one. No one was behind the camera so not sure who she was getting all excited for.

The next day we had Christmas with David's side of the family.

Colette is like, are you serious Dad? Do I really belong to this family? 

 

This is David's siblings and his parents. 

 

Here are all the grand kids and great grand kids minus 5 who couldn't be there. So that makes 13! Colette was sleeping on my in the baby carrier at the time. Max wouldn't go in the photo without Daddy.

 

We hope everyone had a great Christmas. I'll leave you with one last photo of Miss Colette. We were having a little baby food when she got a present to open. What a sweet girl. My brother and Marla come in today for a visit so we are all excited to see them! Looking forward to ringing in the new year. Happy New Year everyone!

Colette is 6 Months

Our sweet girl is 6 months old! With the holidays I had a hard time getting time to post her update. She also had a stuffy nose for quite some time so pictures were hard to get. So here we go!

 

 Stats- We don't go until she's almost 7 months for her checkup so I'll estimate somewhere in the 17 lb range. She kept grabbing her sticker and ripping it, so there is only one photo with it.

Personality- She is seriously the happiest baby ever. She smiles, laughs and talks all day. It would be impossible to take a photo where she wasn't happy. Even her resting face is cheery!

Some exciting news that occurred right on her 6 month birthday... She got a tooth! I can't for the life of me get in there to take a pic or see it good enough, but I sure do feel it when I stick my finger in her mouth. It's on the bottom. There might even be 2, but I'm not sure.

Well, hello there my little brown/hazel eyed girl. Closeup for you.

 

Eating- We started oatmeal cereal and she wasn't a big fan at all. Check out that face. 

After a few days she was a happy girl eating her oatmeal. We just give it to her once a day at dinner time. She's still getting a 4 ounce bottle every 3 hours while I am at work.

 

I tried some baby led weaning feeding where you give them real foods they can gum around and eat. I still do it occasionally if we have stuff, but I wanted to make sure she was getting enough to eat so we have introduced purred food, too. 

 Here is Colette trying apple puree. She was not a fan of any baby food at first. She would gag and try to spit it out. She opened up to it after a few tries, but it was funny to watch.  

 I got home early one day and she was ready for the bottle so I was going to feed her and was very surprised that she was wanting to hold it and feed herself! She did a great job. What a big girl!!

Sleeping- Funny how both my kids were the same on this. I could copy paste from Max's 6 month update. Things have gone from bad to worse! She was getting up around 3-4 times a night. I would try not to feed her, but she just got more frustrated and I was tired. It was easier to just feed her quick and put her back. I knew that we were going to have to start sleep training her soon. We follow the moms on call method, but it's basically just a little tough love. She needed to learn how to soothe herself back to sleep. She is a tummy sleeper. Since she's almost 7 months and I'm just now writing this-- Spoiler alert-- She sleeps all night in her crib now without me getting up! The first night was rough, but after that it's been pretty smooth sailing. She still has off nights where she will whine/cry a few times, but it's only for minutes and I don't have to go in. I am now ready to make up for 6 months of no sleeping! She was worth it though.  She goes to bed around 7:30pm and naps 3 times during the day in her crib now!

Development- She loves to roll all over the floor. She also loves her rainforest bouncer. And boy does she bounce! She puts everything and anything straight into her mouth for chewing.

Colette still loves bath time and will just kick around and "talk" to us.

 

Just look at those cheeks! Such a cute snowman. 

Randoms-

-She is in size 3 honest company diapers.

-She likes puffs

-She's wearing size 9 month clothes

-She does great at sitting up now, but still need to make sure she doesn't tip back and hit her head

-Still has craddle cap that we keep trying to get rid of. Her cheeks also get dry and red, probably because winter.

My fluffy haired beauty. I can't believe she is a half a year old!! I don't want her to grow so fast yet!

November and December Latest Happenings

I guess I will be doing monthly updates for a while! It's a busy time between a baby who is still up at least twice a night, working all day and getting ready for the holidays. So I guess a monthly update is better than none. I do update probably every few days on instagram if you want to follow me there (Jens871).

Let's back it up to Thanksgiving. Michelle and James went to visit his family so we kept the tradition with doing a fried turkey.

 

 We actually had 2 turkeys (one in oven and one fried). The regular turkey was used as an appetizer as you can see, it's been picked over in this photo :).

 

 We had thanksgiving with my cousins and Bill's son Brian, Wife (Dayle) and daughter Amanda made the trip up from FL. It was so nice to see them. They had the great idea to take a photo in front of our neighbors very festive light display. Heather is even in on the photo from China.

 

We saw them a few days later for a bacon explosion breakfast (sausage wrapped in bacon and grilled for hours with bbq sauce) and as we were leaving they decided to wave to us in pageant style. 

 

Hadley always wants to hold baby Coco and she is making a silly face. Love cousins. 

 

Our elf, Chippy came back with a north pole breakfast! Max is pretty into him and finding him in the mornings. He understands very well that we are not to touch him. I found Max one morning saying "I want a shoot gun and a bow and arrow". I said I know buddy you've told me before and I look up and he is telling Chippy to pass the word to Santa. Silly (and smart) boy. 

Our tree finally got decorated with the help from everyone!

Hadley, Max and Colette got to meet the big man himself. I'll post Santa pics once my cards deliver to mailboxes. Let's just say there was only 1 child not crying!

Look at this pretty princess in her Christmas picture dress! It was the perfect size and she is just darling!

Max is so into fixing things all the time. He must have his head lamp and flash light to get the job done right though. Serious working face here.

 

We had our annual cookie exchange party this past weekend and we had to take a girl selfie! 

 

I chose Raspberry thumbprints (Michelle didn't want raspberry so mom made her some strawberry ones). I will do a separate post soon about the cookie party. It's always a great time and lots of yummy cookies for the holidays. 

 

Now ya see him, now ya don't! This crazy boy was jumping on my bed and when I snapped the picture it was funny to see him in action!

We went to see Disney Junior's Pirate & Princess adventure this weekend. They were at the perfect age because Max knows those shows very well and was looking forward to it. Colette did pretty well for a 6 month old. Only got antsy a few times (well and a poopy diaper change mid show). Max is not into characters of any sorts so he was a bit shy while meeting Jake. My friend, Windy is the best and set us up with a meet and greet. It was awesome. So glad we can do these fun things with the kids. I will be back after the weekend with Colettes overdue 6 month update!