8 Months (and the past month)

Baby W is now 8 months old and things are really getting busy around this house!

What W is up to at 8 months:

-still at four feedings a day - this boy can eat and always gets upset when you tell him "all gone" and put the bowl away no matter how much was in it to start with!

-3 naps, but we are cutting back on the third

-2 teeth!!

-happy as always

-scooting... if he sees something he wants, he can get to it!  He's taken about 3-4 "crawling strides"

-pulling up onto his knees and even completely a time or two!

-thinks his sister is the funniest person alive

-sleep... ahh, sleep (as a warning, have your babies in a harder to easier order not the other way!)  goes down b/t 7 and 7:15 most nights and sleeps until around 4:45/5:30 and then cries for about 5 or so minutes and then goes back to sleep until 6/6:30ish... not what I want but it could be worse... this is also why we're cutting back on the third nap!

The past month pictures of W:

All fours!

AR is slowly learning that if she doesn't want him to get it, she'd better move it!

 

Rest of our past month:

But first, I should let you know that I do put warm clothes on my child when we go out.  We have been trying on last year's summer clothes, as well as all my 4T stockpile of thrift/consignment store finds so that I know what to buy at upcoming sales and she got to choose an outfit to wear for helping me do this!  And in case you are wondering, this 3-months-shy-of-being-3 year old is in some 3T and lots of 4T already!

We had our first "movie night" in which we popped popcorn (which AR hogged) and watched Robin Hood together.

Drawing on her new easel!

Helping daddy fix the garbage disposal

Don't really have a caption for this!?  Does this mean she's OCD or something?!?!

Christmas Festivities with Extended Family

We were able to all of our families this Christmas and were gone for a total of 6 nights (AR stayed an extra 3 nights with Lovey and Grand Daddy)!

First, we headed to Mimi and Papa's for a few days!  We love it when Andrew and Sarah can make it and with everybody there it meant 13 heads sleeping in one house!  We had a great time and AR and W loved it!  Following are some pics from time spent there:

Looking like a little music teacher!

Thanks Aunt Mollie for the cute jammies!  AR loves to match her cousin.

BFFs in the making!

Sweet AC!

After leaving here, we headed back home and celebrated at my aunt and uncle's house here.  My parents and everybody came down for it.  That evening we left again to go to Lovey and Grand Daddy's house until Sunday.  We enjoyed being able to go there for a few nights but greatly missed Uncle Clint!  Below are the pictures from these two events:

Visiting with JJ

 

 Grand Daddy and Lovey's House:

Instead of calling it a gingerbread house she kept saying "gingerbread man house"

She loves this car... probably not going to be up for sharing it in a couple of months with her brother!

I have, once again, successfully managed to be in none of the pictures since the pre-Christmas activities... I must do better!  I know that's why you all check out the blog anyway!

Finally, all Christmas pics are posted and now I can hopefully finish our family yearbook for 2013 in the next week or so!  Having this blog helps tremendously with that task!

Hopefully, I'll blog again soon but January is usually a rather slow month (and for that I'm thankful!).  So you might get one big blog at the end of the month as we really don't have anything planned but hanging out at home and getting AR's "school" back up and running!  Oh, and lots of new recipes are in my future, or so I hope... yesterday I made homemade chicken salad... totally homemade, even made the mayo!  Want to figure out a good sandwich bread next and get more creative with my baby food making!

Santa Came!

This Christmas was lots of fun with a 2.5 year old!  Santa came the past two years, but she didn't understand then.  This year was different and much more exciting!  We left cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for Rudolph... both seemed to be enjoyed!  Both kids each received five presents (something to read, something to wear, something useful, something you want, and something you didn't know you wanted) and stockings full of goodies.  Honestly, it still seemed like too much and Santa  has not settled with this method for sure yet... he might go with the three gifts method, as in how many gifts the Wise Men brought Jesus.  Check back next year and see!  :)

Below are pics from Christmas Eve and Day:

Somebody woke up earlier than his sister and waited patiently for her to come out!

All that AR asked Santa for was a "train book" and she'd point to this one on the back of our Frosty Golden Book.  Santa  probably got a good chuckle seeing as how we didn't know it has a bazillion words on each page!

It is an older sister's duty to help their younger sibling open his (or her, in my case) presents!

Checking out the stockings!

Many of you saw W's announcement picture which was taken in a truck like this.  We had borrowed that one, but Santa found a good deal so he got this one for W!

Santa knows how much daddy looooves his pepper!

When we went to see if Rudolph ate his carrots this is what we found!

Somebody was a bit excited about their playhouse!  (Santa loves some Craigslist!)

Next up, pictures from our extended family Christmases!

Oh, and Happy New Year to you and your family!  I pray that each of you who read this grow stronger this year in their relationship with the Lord and for those who not have that relationship will come to have one with Him.