Christmas Eve

Only a few weeks late! Here are our photos from Christmas Eve day.... the girls and I stayed home in the morning while DJ, being the typical man, went to run some errands and finish up Christmas shopping!I had to get some cutsie photos of Miss MC on her very first Christmas and on the day she turned 7 months old. My mom made the bloomers above last year for HPA, but we weren't able to sell them, so I saved them for MC.
And, I put an obscenely large bow on her head to take a few photos! I made the bow last year for G.

That afternoon we headed to a Christmas Eve show at one of the churches we have been visiting.
We dressed the girls in their Christmas dresses. And, this was about a good of a picture as I got! At least they are both smiling!
Here's one of the three of us before we left for church...... My necklace is a Dr. Bloom's chewable jewelry that was technically one of MC's Christmas gifts- we just opened it early!

After church, MC came home and took a nap and DJ, G, and I went outside to "feed the reindeer". G made the reindeer food at her class Christmas party with oatmeal and sprinkles.
She did an excellent job of spreading it over our entire lawn- last year she walked outside and just dumped it out all in one spot!
I told DJ that it was nice to not have to bundle up and walk on top of snow in order to feed the reindeer this year! I will say though, that my favorite memory from last Christmas, apart from having my parents there, was walking out of Christmas eve service to falling snow, but I do love these warmer temperatures!
MC spent some quality time with her daddy that night.
And, then we put the girls in their Christmas pi's from their Gee (my mom) and attempted a few pictures!

After we were able to get this picture, G started to misbehave. It honestly started at dinner time, but then it escalated, this may be my worst memory of this past Christmas, because I eventually decided that G was tired and just needed to go to bed. She lost her privileges of getting a Christmas story read to her and lost her privileges of setting out cookies for Santa. Obviously, she was in a lot of trouble.

After we sent her to bed, DJ and I just looked at each other feeling awfully guilty. We decided that we would simply try a "time out" period and start over again. I went in to her room and told her I called Santa and that he really wanted her to set out his cookies. So, I told her that if she stayed in her room until the timer went off that she could get up and set out his cookies. I think that 5 minutes was the quietest that I have ever seen her!
After her time out was over, she was much better behaved, and we set out the cookies.
And, you have to excuse this out of place picture~ but here's our tree after Santa visited!
After we set out the cookies, G said good-bye to our elf, Sally.

She then was able to watch a video that Santa had emailed to me. (It was one I found online where you can place in your child's name and a few of their pictures from the year.) Santa specifically told her that she needed to do a better job listening and obeying her parents and that she was on the nice list this year. I don't think I'll ever forget the look of surprise and excitement on her face as she ended up on the nice list after all! Santa also told her to go straight to bed, and as soon as the video was over she got off the couch and marched straight to bed without saying a word to DJ or myself. After that, we didn't hear a peep as she soon fell fast asleep. So, despite the difficulties of the evening, it turned out to be a memorable one!

The girls went to bed and by 9:00 Santa had visited and we were ready for bed! I remember last year, we were up until almost midnight playing Santa, so it was nice to be done early!
Here are our stockings all trimmed and full! Sally our elf made the snowflakes for us on her last night here. I purchased our stockings from Lillian Vernon. Typically, they are on sale after Christmas.

I hope y'all had a great Christmas Eve and I'm sorry for being so delayed in my posting of Christmas pictures!

Opening Presents

Opening our presents was so much fun this year! G is at an amazingly fun age, and it was fun having a new baby to buy gifts for.

Christmas morning G woke up around 7, but we've always had a rule that she cannot go into the living room and snoop under the tree without us being with her. MC wasn't as excited about opening presents, because she slept until about 7:45. Thankfully, G was happy sitting in our bed watching Alvin and the Chipmunks on DVR until MC woke up.
G immediately ran over to the tree and began to open presents as soon as we would let her though. She enjoyed her pink football and frantically found a gift with her name on it.
MC preferred the wrapping paper to her presents.
G received a strawberry shortcake.
MC received a Sophie Giraffe.
I'm pretty sure this is another Strawberry shortcake toy for G. But, she also received a few My Little Pony's and Snow White's prince.
DJ's brother-in-law gave him a Cubs hat. Those two are always arguing over the Cubs and Cardinals, and it was a big step for his BIL to purchase anything Cubs!
We let the girls exchange gifts this year. G picked out this little ball for MC, and MC gave G a princess camera. G also received a Rapunzel doll that you can fix her hair..... I remember the Barbie heads when I was little and I always wanted one, so I was excited to find this at the Disney store.
G also received a princess game.
My sister-in-law and her husband gave me a gorgeous scarf- they know me well, because I wear one almost every day!
MC enjoyed chewing on her toys while watching us open gifts.
DJ's step-mom loves to do genealogy research. A few years ago she gave us a framed copy of his family tree. When we received our gifts in the mail, we knew that DJ's was some sort of book and were both pretty confused as to what type of book it would be. But, it was amazing! She had compiled and published her research into a book and even had tons of photos to go along with it! I think it was one of his most favorite presents this year!

Stockings & The Mess

I'm putting up Christmas pictures backwards, because honestly, it's easier for me to scroll through my pictures that way, but also once all of the Christmas posts are finished, they'll appear top to bottom on the page in order.... yes, i'm pretty good at coming up with excuses!

I actually forgot about our stockings this year- at least, almost forgot about opening them. I was all ready to go and cook breakfast and for DJ to turn off the camera when he reminded me.

I think stockings were my favorite as a kid, because there was always candy, and as I got older, there was money.
G received princess sidewalk chalk in hers. I was able to get a lot of her stocking stuffers from summer clearance at Hobby Lobby or the Target $1.00 section.
MC received a new rattle in hers, as well as some snacks, a new sippy cup, and spoons.

DJ put gum and a new kitchen knife in mine.
And DJ got an iTunes gift card, handkerchiefs, and peanut butter trees.
I always think it's fun to see the mess we make in the house with our presents. Thankfully, I don't think we made too much of a mess this year, because we did scale down with the presents, but there were pb cups scattered all over the living room. One of which was found whole in MC's mouth!

MC loved playing with all of her new toys, and a few of G's as well!
Such a happy 1st Christmas for MC!

MC is 7 months!

MC turned 7 months on Christmas Eve day. It was honestly a sad day for me. I think as long as she was under the 6 month mark, I could still pretend that she was an itty bitty baby. But now, at 7 months, she's eating baby food, sitting up, and even worse, she's "crawling" in order to reach for fascinating objects. While, I was so excited for G to reach all of these milestones, it's bittersweet to see MC grow. Partly because, we are 90% sure, she will be our last baby, and I want her to stay that way. She is such a joy though, and I have probably said that every month, but I have not seen a happier baby. She just loves to smile, and she knows exactly when to turn it on. She's really good at smiling at me when I break out the camera or my iPhone.

She is developing her sense of object permanence, and she immediately cries when I leave the room. It's rather pathetic.

She is the absolute mommy's girl. She has stranger anxiety when anyone 'new' is around, although she's more willing to let them hold her once I've let her know that they are ok and they've been around for a while.
She has the biggest eyes. I would say her eyes are her best feature. We had several compliments on her eyes while we were in Dallas last week.

Her favorite toy is either her Sophie Giraffe she received for Christmas, or a rolling snail. She also likes her exersaucer. She still enjoys her seahorse when going to bed at night.

Her favorite food is sweet potatoes. But she also eats squash, bananas, and apple sauce. She does well eating mums (crackers) and is able to hold them herself. She hates avocado.
MC spent most of December, battling a runny nose and fever, and finally, right before Christmas, she was diagnosed with an ear infection; our very first in this household.

She has her two bottom central teeth in, and she continues to put anything in her mouth. On Christmas day, I actually found a whole peanut butter cup in there! (Insert the dramatic mother moment as you can imagine.)

She still weighs about 16 pounds.

She sleeps through the night (about 12 hours) with a dream feed around 10 pm.

I'm looking forward to the next few months, as bittersweet as they may be! And, I've also started getting together ideas for her first birthday!

Armed Forces Bowl: Game Day

After a long, fun, stressed, crazy filled week, game day was finally here!

Like I said yesterday, we had to get up at 6 in the morning in order to get dressed, packed, and to the stadium for 11 am kick off.

Some how, we managed to make it, and we were able to enjoy pre game festivities.
G developed a love for CFA, or Chicken Fil A as she calls it, while we were gone this week. We ate their at the mall earlier in the week and she received a cow watch, that is now her favorite. And, CFA was handing out signs and free chicken biscuits before the game. I do have to let them know that we are the Hurricane, and there is no S.
G even took her picture with the CFA cow, and I was so surprised because she hates largely stuffed costumed people, granted, there's no person in this, but I'm still shocked she was more than willing to go stand by this cow and get her picture taken.

We made our way into the game and managed to get settled, which included spreading out as much as we could, getting out the toy bag and snacks, feeding MC, going potty, and getting lunch all before kick off.

I'm so thankful the girls Nana was there to help. I swear, God should have given mommies a few more arms to do it all!
See what I mean, I could barely hold both girls for this picture, but here we are before kick off!
The pre game festivities inside were pretty awesome as well. There were several parachuters that brought in flags of the armed forces as well as the American Flag.
The Captains were taking the field.
And, we spent the game cheering loud and proud for our TU boys!

We also spent the game taking potty breaks, changing diapers, convincing G to not climb on the people around her, to not eat the popcorn off the ground, going on walks, and passing the baby back and forth.

Finally during the last 3 minutes of the game, which is about 10 minutes of real life time, we cheered super loud and held our breath. TU was up but BYU had the ball. I'm not a sports commentator, but I'll try to explain it the best I can. BYU was about 30 yards from the end zone, and it was 3rd down, and we should have stopped them, but the quarterback kept the ball and ran (that's called a quarterback keep) and we couldn't get to him, because they had been throwing the ball a lot (at least from what I saw). And BYU made the first down, which gave them 4 more chances to make the touchdown and put them closer to the end zone. Needless to say, with only a minute left in the game, they scored. We did get the ball back for that last minute, but we were just too far away, and BYU ended up winning the game.

After the game we headed to eat and then began the 4 hour drive home. Such a great week, and I felt blessed to have time with the girls and to get to know some of the other coaches wives better!

Armed Forces Bowl: Days 2-4

After the girls and I explored downtown and took naps, we headed to Billy Bob's, which is supposedly, the world's largest honkey tonk. And, by the looks of it, I'd believe 'em. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but to be honest. It was overwhelming keeping up with two girls- carrying one of them plus a 50 lb. diaper bag, and my stress levels were pretty high considering MC didn't sleep well at night. So, we'll take whatever pictures we have and be happy!Anyway, here's DJ with the girls on the bus. I was a nervous wreck taking MC on the bus, but it would have been very difficult for us to drive our own vehicle everywhere. The bus did have seat belts (which I have never seen before) so G wore hers and I put MC in the bjorn carrier, so at least she was strapped to something during the ride. (Please no hater comments about how totally unsafe that was!)

After we somewhat enjoyed our BBQ dinner- getting the food was a process in itself, and trying to find something besides pickles and pecan pie for our 3 year old to eat was next to impossible..... we explored the honky tonk.
There was an indoor bull fighting area.
And, we were able to get up close to the trophy, which was nice considering that TU didn't bring it home. Yes, we lost, but i'll get to that later.

The next day was the Wives Day out, but MC woke up around 5, and continued to cry until 6:30 that morning. So, I cancelled the babysitter we had hired and stayed in with the girls. That afternoon we braved the traffic and headed to a mall just to get out of the hotel. Thankfully, MC felt better and that evening two of the coaches daughters watched the girls so DJ and I could enjoy the Comedy night followed by dinner.

I have never been to a comedy show, but we went to an improv place and let me tell you, it was fabulous and so funny! I think that we need to find one in Tulsa so DJ and I can have a date night!

The next day was busy. We had to repack all of our suitcases and get everything loaded in to the truck so DJ could take it over to our new hotel. I could have driven with the police escort, but I was so nervous about the traffic, that I decided to ride the bus.
We arrived at the hotel, found our room, and I was going stir crazy, because we ended up sitting on the bus for over an hour before it finally left the hotel in Ft. Worth for the hotel in Dallas, so we walked around outside because it was another beautiful day.

Once DJ finished setting up the meeting rooms, we picked up his mother from the airport, came back to the hotel and opened Christmas gifts!
MC got this super adorable purse, that G has really enjoyed playing with!
We gave my mother-in-law a Tulsa sweatshirt to wear to the game.
And, Nana gave G an American Girl doll.

That evening I decided that the girls and I would skip the TU bowl bash for some shopping at the Galleria mall, plus, my mother in law would not have been able to go, so this gave us some more time to spend together.

Our first stop at the Galleria mall was to the American Girl store. I wanted to buy an outfit for G's doll, and my mother in law decided to go ahead and get MC a Bitty Baby.
I tried to somewhat document it, because I took a crazy amount of pictures the first time we took G to the American Girl store in Chicago, but I maybe only took 2-3 pictures! Like I said, keeping up with the girls and lugging around a 50 lb. diaper bag was enough in itself!

Afterwards, we walked through Saks and I tried on a $500.00 Jimmy Choo shoe, and yes, I fell in love. Had our per diem money covered the cost of that shoe I would have bought it, and then DJ probably would have shot me. I thought about snapping a picture of that baby on my tootsies, but I thought it might be in poor taste, so I digressed.
The Galleria had this amazing Christmas tree in the center of the ice skating rink. G has been talking about ice skating for the past several weeks, I'm assuming she saw it on t.v. so she was really fascinated by this, and we ate pizza downstairs so she could see the ice skaters. I think next year we'll have to break down and take her.
Afterwards, we tried to do a little bit of shopping, but I was pooped, so we let G work the runway in this store. She was having a blast!

We eventually went back to the hotel and to bed. The next day was game day and we had to be up by 6 am (no kidding)......