Christmas Eve

Growing up I remember loving Christmas Eve almost, if not just as much as Christmas Day. It was that final day of preparation and anticipation for what was to come. Once our mom instituted the rule that no one was allowed to wrap presents on Christmas Eve (which is now a rule in our house too), the day was centered around simply family time and togetherness before the focus shifted to the chaos of opening gifts the next morning. 

We did a lot more baking this year. I have really stepped up my sugar cookie game from two years ago. We made 4 different kinds of cookies (not all on Christmas Eve), and I made my first homemade pizzas, which was also a tradition of ours growing up. It helps that I have a girl who loves being in the kitchen and is constantly encouraging me and asking if she can help.

Bonnie was excited to make reindeer food to sprinkle outside.

Is it even Christmas without matching jammies?

We had been cooped up in the house for a few days given the frigid temperatures the week leading into Christmas. We decided to get everyone bundled and try to go for a little walk for some fresh air. It took about 30 minutes to get everyone layered, snapped in, and ready to ride.

The walk lasted 9 minutes before the littlest one just couldn't take it anymore. We didn't even make it to the end of the street before we turned back around. 

At least birdy got to put her reindeer food out.

My pizza dough rose and turned out much better than I anticipated. I completely forgot to get a picture of the finished pizzas. 

We went to the Christmas Eve service, which was beautiful as always. 

We came home to eat our pizza and watched the Grinch.

We got in our matching jammies and set out cookies for Santa. 

Benny read The Night Before Christmas to the kids before bedtime. 

Then it was time for these munchkins to go down for a long winter's nap while visions of sugarplums danced in their heads.

Riser is 9 months old

 

This little guy is 9 months old! He is 18 pounds, 10 ounces (32nd percentile) and 28 inches long (35th percentile). He is still in size 3 diapers and 9-12 month clothing, but can fit into some 18 month clothing as well. He still loves meal/snack times and is very vocal when he is hungry, which is a big change from his older sister. He also still nurses 4-5 times a day and does a great job drinking water from a sippy cup, although he still needs help holding it. He still takes 2 naps during the day and is 50/50 on sleeping through the night. We are still battling some of the night wakings that started last month, usually when he wakes up and can't find his monkey stuffed animal. To be fair, he also has been sick on and off since Thanksgiving, with the latest ailment being his first ear infection. Thankfully, he is doing much better now.

This month Riser and Bonnie have been playing so much together and it just melts our hearts to see. He absolutely has the biggest smiles and giggles for his big sister, if she will just give him the time of day. Some of their favorite things to do are play fort (both of them get in Riser's crib and drape a blanket over half the crib and just giggle their hearts out and hug each other), peekaboo with a blanket, or crawl around chasing each other.

Riser is pulling up on everything and can slowly cruise around furniture, still a little unsteady. We stopped using the baby tub to prop him up in the bathtub and now he loves to splash and share Bonnie's bath toys. He is exploring everywhere and loves inspecting new objects. As social as he is, he also seems to be totally fine playing independently at times (until he sees me). He loves crawling around with one of his or Bonnie's socks in his mouth. He's pretty adorable. 

Riser and Bonnie at 9 months:

Visiting Santa

Last weekend we went to visit Santa! Bonnie was so excited to get dressed up to meet him. We asked her ahead of time what she was going to ask for, even offering a few suggestions but she just said "I don't know what I want." Either way, she actually sat on his lap this year which was a much bigger success than last year. I think it helped that she had her little brother there this time. And he was happy as a clam to be sitting on Mrs. Claus' lap. 

Bounce House

We knew Bonnie's cousins weren't going to be around on her actual birthday, so it was fun to take her, Ben, and Rosie to the bounce house the week in between their birthdays so they could celebrate together. They had so much fun Bonnie was almost in tears when we had to leave!

Mantel

Ever since our first Christmas in this house two years ago, I've been dreaming of a place to hang our stockings for Christmas. 

I was a little unsure when Benny offered to build me a mantel last year, because I know how picky I am and what a centerpiece it would be whether I liked it or not. I decided to take him up on his offer and he was excited for the task. 

We put up our Christmas tree and most of our decorations. But our stockings layed in a corner of the room, just waiting for a place to be hung.

Well, Benny delivered. And I absolutely love it!!

Every time I walk into the room I can't help but have a huge smile on my face. (Ignore the eyesore of a baby gate that will be up for the next year). He did SUCH a good job!

Christmas hasn't even happened yet and I feel like this has already been the best gift!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year at mom and Dave's house. Almost everyone dealt with some variation of a flu and/or stomach bug at some point or another so it was a much lower-key get together, but lovely nonetheless! Riser was smitten with Maggie (I'm not so sure she felt the same), Bonnie loved running around with her cousins and doing pretend sleepovers, and we enjoyed playing lots of games any opportunity we could get.

Mom threw Bonnie a little birthday party since she didn't get to celebrate with family on her actual birthday. She loved it! 

The weather was beautiful, we tried to soak in as much vitamin D as we could to help heal our ailments.

We did a lot of food prep on Wednesday. Katie made her delicious apple pies, Dave made an incredible turkey, and Mom made all the amazing sides!

Bonnie, as usual, loved helping where she could.

Eric broke out the lacrosse sticks.

Poor Maggie couldn't relax anywhere without Riser barreling toward her.

Riser wasn't his usual cheery self as he was popping his first two teeth. But Ben always knows how to make him smile!

Katie and mom were so sweet and patient to take some family pictures for us.

We did our annual field goal kicking. Poor Eric hurt his foot before he could even kick.

After kicking it was time to finish getting dinner ready!

I think it was one of the best Thanksgiving meals we've had yet! Riser sure enjoyed his first Thanksgiving, may even be his favorite holiday so far.

You know what comes next - naps and football. This was the first time Bonnie had fallen asleep on one of us in over a year.

There was a lot more time spent outside the next day and resting, recovering. 

I couldn't be more grateful for this group of people, as well as the rest of our family and friends. If we had to be sick, it sure was nice to be able to do it together and play games while recovering! Mom and Dave, thanks for letting us bring our illnesses to you and hosting us regardless. We love you!