Christmas Festivities (part 1)

Christmas Eve this year was spent with the Acker's! We had a great day of being spoiled with delicious food and tons of gifts! Later that night we went to a Christmas Eve service at our church which was fun too. Lily in front of her GIANT stocking!And Jameson with his GIANT stocking! I love how little he looks in this picture!Showing his Grandma some smiles!Auntie Andrea helping Lily open her giftsPlaying with her new white erase/chalk board! Being such a good girl while waiting for her turn to open presents.She got this adorable hat and of course as soon as I take out my camera she acts silly and pulls it over her head! Oh well!Grandpa Dan holding Jameson

After the Christmas Eve service we headed home and AJ and I opened our presents to each other. We thought doing it then would allow us more time on Christmas morning to open presents with the kids and get ready before heading to my parents' house.

Such a goofy guy

I was very proud of my husband's wrapping this year!

Love my sweet boy!

SMILE!

Jameson has been smiling so great lately and I finally had my camera out and was able to take a picture of him doing it. Of course, it was right after he did his biggest smile ever towards me! Oh well. But, at least you get a little taste of his adorable little grin!

Oh, he melts my heart! And of course the camera was on the wrong setting so it turned out a bit dark. But at least I captured it! Hopefully more to come later! :)

Christmas cookies!

This Christmas season I wanted to do something special with Lily that we can make into a tradition and do every year. I decided to make sugar cookies with her! I remember doing this as a kid and it was so much fun to cut out the cookies and frost them however we liked! Plus, they were fun to eat too! Lily and I had a great time making cookies and she wanted to do everything by herself! I will admit, I didn't even make the cookie dough from scratch nor did I make the frosting from scratch! It just sounded like too much for me to do-especially with a newborn! Maybe next year I can do it all :) Rolling out the doughCutting out the cookiesLater that night...frosting the cookies! Honestly, I just had to let go of her and my house being clean. I mean, it's no fun to frost cookies when you have to follow rules! She did a great job though!

A close up of one of Lily's cookies! She would just put a little frosting on one and want another one to decorate! She'd also take a bite out of a cookie and want another one to frost, take a bite out of that one, and so forth!

I'm pretty sure this is the worst picture of us, but I had to document this new tradition! And we were home all day in our pj's....so there you go :)

The finished product! If you look closely, I'm sure you'll be able to tell which ones Lily decorated!

Here's a close up on a few of them...I especially love the reindeer with the green blob of frosting on him!
What a fun new tradition we started! I can't wait to do it next year-and even Jameson can get in on the action (well, if his sister lets him!)

1 month!

I can't believe that Jameson is 1 month old today!! In some ways it feels like he's been here longer than a month, and in other ways it feels too short as well! We are loving our son and Lily loves her brother (until she picks on him to see how we'll react, ugh!) Anyway, a few highlights for Jameson at 1 month:
*He smiled for the first time at us a couple weeks ago-and no, it wasn't just his gas making him do it! He was clearly looking at me and then again at AJ and smiling! Some day we'll catch it on camera!

*He is already out of 0-3 month clothing! I just put him in 3-6 month clothes today for the first time and they fit him great. This scares me!

*He is REALLY heavy-especially in his car seat! I struggle carrying him in it now that I'm worried what it'll be like when he's 4 months old!

*Sleeps great during the day-I have to wake him all day long just to make him eat.

*Wakes up on his own during the night to eat! What is this about? The kid is over 10 pounds that you would think he could go longer than 3 hours! Although last night I had a 4 hour stretch and it was heaven!

*He is a very happy and content little baby (except for when his sister hurts him, then he'll cry!)

Just hanging out-I can't let him lay on a blanket without my FULL supervision. Lily tried to step on him one time. Awesome.

Daddy helping pull him up to get good neck strength!

He didn't like it after a while

I wanted a picture of me and Jameson and Lily wanted in as well :) When this girl sees a camera she always wants her picture taken!

All cozy and ready to brave the FREEZING weather we've been having!

Sleeping on daddy-melts my heart!

Christmas Tree

Last weekend we bundled up the kids (still not used to saying that!) and headed on out to a cheap tree farm (we got a 5 ft. noble for $15!!!) that we've been to for a few years. My sister came along again (now a tradition) but sadly her fiance' was sick so didn't come. We also had my sister-in-law Andrea and her husband come along too. It was lots of fun but SO COLD!!! I just wish we could at least get some snow with this cold weather! Anyway, here's some fun pictures from our fun family outing: Lily with her auntie Lu-and she's wearing "gardening gloves" for mittens. And they are too big for her. Awesome.The family! We took Jameson out of the car just for the picture but put him back in as soon as we were done. It's too cold out there for a baby!AJ getting ready to cut down the treeAnd cutting it downLily with her uncle Jeff and auntie Andrea

We were going to decorate the tree that night but Lily unfortunately came down with the stomach flu! That morning she randomly said her tummy hurt one time but said nothing the rest of the day. That night we had dinner at a friend's house and right after we ate she started crying and complaining of her tummy hurting. We left thinking she just needed to go to bed and would hopefully feel better in the morning. Well, after being in bed for 15 minutes she started throwing up! It was HORRIBLE. This girl has luckily not gotten sick with the flu since she was a baby (even then it wasn't that bad) so this was all new to us. She threw up a total of 7 times and was done by 3 am. Of course this happens on a Saturday night when we have church in the morning with AJ leading worship! And of course me trying to nurse a newborn and deal with my sick child. See, I don't do puke at all. AJ rose to the occasion and would run in there and help Lily and change her sheets while I would sit with Lily on my lap in the bathroom while he cleaned everything up! I did change the sheets 1 time, but was gagging just doing that! I'm such a wussy mom! Sorry such detailed information here-but it was bad! Luckily she's feeling great now and is over it all. She just has a cold-which she has now given to her brother. And so the cycle begins :) Anyway, we didn't decorate our tree until 3 days after we got it:

Lily doing her part in hanging ornaments. She had a nice little row of ornaments all hanging next to each other in one spot. It was cute. We finally told her she could spread them out a bit!Jameson doing his part by watching us decorate!

She moved to another part of the tree now!

Putting on the angel with daddy's help!

This picture doesn't do justice, but AJ did an excellent job of putting lights on the outside of our house. Usually he moans when I ask him to do it, but this year he was all in the mood to do it and added more than we usually do! I've got such a great husband! And I love Christmas time!!

P.S. I have found to be a terrible blogger since having a baby. Please excuse my absence as I am figuring out life with 2 kids. :)