2nd Annual Holiday Cookie Party

Happy New Year! Since I am a few weeks behind on blogging I wanted to finish up a post on the holidays before getting into New Year items. Coming up will be goals revisited and finally the basement reveal! Between colds, pink eye (kids and mom), ear infections, coughs etc... we've been fighting off everything under the sun. We are ready to get back in the swing of things.

We had our 2nd annual cookie exchange a few weeks into December. It really pushes us to get our decorations up and get into the holiday spirit.

My sister made a yummy punch for all to enjoy.

She also made Grinch Santa hat fruit. We had yummy appetizers to go along with all of our cookies.

We had 13 entries this year. I should have taken close up ones but I didn't.

Everyone always does such cute packaging. I printed recipes this time so people could take some home. My mom made these yummy chocolate thumbprint cookies which I loved and hope she makes again. My recipe (that mom made) was raspberry thumbprints (I wouldn't make again) and my sister did yummy cow plops from our friend Jen!

Colette got to come to the party and everyone loved seeing her.

My sister was also glad to come to the party this year.

More guests.

I had prizes in 5 categories. We had a dual category winner with her chocolate cherry cordials, yay Natalie! Awards were also given for most festive, creative and best tasting.

Michelle changed to her comfy clothes before we got a family picture so we made her take one anyway!

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!