Christmas Festivities 2014

Our Christmas festivities started this year with our tradition of going to see the lights on Temple Square with Trev's family the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The weather was wonderful (not too cold at all!) and the crowds were huge, as usual. Our little family split off from the rest so we didn't have to slowly muddle through the crowds just to keep up with everyone else. It was a lot of fun! :) 

On Black Friday, I got a good deal on a new 9 foot Christmas tree that was delivered to us in the first week of December. Once it arrived, I started a decorating frenzy! :) Here's a picture I snapped the first night the tree was up, decorated, and lit. Charlie was smitten by it, and has been obsessed with touching, playing with, and moving around the lower ornaments every day since. I had to let go the control of "perfectly placed" ornaments pretty quickly. Haha.

Trevor and I worked together the weekend after Thanksgiving and got our Christmas lights put up on our house! We were so glad we did, too, because it got pretty cold a couple days later and stayed that way. Being up on the roof is definitely adventurous and slightly terrifying. Actually, going up and down an old rickety ladder is the really terrifying part. We won't talk about the one time the ladder slipped a bit while I was on it and I saw my life flash before my eyes .  .   .   But regardless, I have to say the end result was worth risking my life! (Pardon the grainy iPhone photo)

Here's a "finished" picture of most of the Christmas decor in my living room, complete with handmade wood crafts and the brand new canvas print of our family that I got for our mantel! <3

Friday, December 19th was our ward's Christmas party! We had cookies and hot chocolate and Santa even showed up to tell jokes, sing songs, and take pictures with the kids. I was MORE than pleased with how our picture turned out. I loved that neither kid was afraid of him: Charlie was enamored by his candy cane and Delilah by Santa's beard. Haha!

We also did some pre-Christmas goodie making. Charlie, Trevor, and I all dipped pretzels one afternoon while Delilah was napping. I even made a batch of homemade fool's toffee to pass out to neighbors with our annual Christmas card (photo courtesy of the ever-talented Meghan Sonnenberg!):

My ceramic nativity was finally completed this year with the addition of the camels! 1000 thanks to my amazing, talented, and loving parents for all the hard work and care they put into finding and painting these pieces so I can own a beautiful piece of family tradition forever! <3

Delilah has been rolling and scooting around a bit. Once, I caught her under the tree, mesmerized by the sparkling lights. Christmas is truly magical at any age!

I dressed up little D in a cute little cream dress and an oversized red bow for church the week of Christmas. She looked SO cute that I had to snap a picture. :)

Then, later in the week on Christmas Eve, we went to Trevor's parents' house as is customary. We had a grand time eating taco salad and way too many treats, spending time with loved ones, and opening up gifts! At the end of the night, we snapped a photo of all the cousins (minus the Andersons who stay in Las Vegas for Christmas) in their new Christmas jammies! :) It's really hard to get 6 young, tired kids to all look and smile in the same direction. Haha!

Charlie fell asleep on the way home and we tucked him snug into his bed before Santa Claus came down the chimney and left heaps of toys and treats for us:

Here's my Charlie's excited Christmas morning face. This moment makes me so SO happy.

We spent the morning exploring Santa's gifts, opening the gifts under the tree, and making an absolute wreck of our living room with all our new goodies! :)

Santa left a yo-yo in Charlie's stocking and Trevor showed him some tricks! He thought it was great! And Trevor had a pretty good time brushing up some of his old rusty yo-yo tricks as well. ;)

Delilah was there, too, happily bouncing away in her jumperoo. Santa brought her this cute new red leather hair bow:

More pics of my Christmas morning kiddos! If you look closely enough, you can see the hint of leftover chocolate around Charlie's mouth.

I love that they love each other, and that Charlie will go over and make sure Delilah is having fun!

One of my favorite Christmas gifts I got this year was this new Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag from my Mom. Love love love! I feel so stylish carrying it! 

Our first real snow of the season came on Christmas morning. We had a gloriously white Christmas, and it wasn't too cold to go out and play in it... so we did! Charlie was in heaven, of course. We had a snowball fight and I even showed him how to make his first ever snow angels. 

That evening, Trevor's parents and brother Trent stopped in to say hello. We had planned to make a turkey dinner for our little family, and invited them to stay and dine with us! Trevor was in charge of prepping the turkey before sticking it in the oven. He put a delicious herb butter under the skin and on top of the turkey, and stuck part of an onion inside. The turkey turned out moist and totally delicious. I'm not usually a big turkey fan, but I really liked this one! Yum! We also made mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans. It was so much fun to have an impromptu family dinner! We MAY have to make a turkey every Christmas... a new tradition?!? We shall see! :)

Overall, Christmas was absolutely wonderful this year! It was nice to be able to relax at home and just enjoy a peaceful day together. I am grateful for the true reason we celebrate this time of year: the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He has given us everything we have. I hope your Christmas was as lovely as ours!

Delilah: 6 Months Old

Half a year old! I can't believe how fast it has gone! You'll have to excuse her slightly red eyes in this picture... we took it at night instead of during the day, and she was starting to get a little sleepy-eyed and ready for bed. :)

At age 6 Months, these are some facts about Delilah:

• Weight: 14lbs 8 oz (18.3%)    Length: 25.75 inches (40%)    Head Circ: 16.25 inches (22%)
• Size 6 month and 6-9 month clothes (still fits in a couple 3-6 months, barely)
• Size 2 diapers
• Breastfeeds 8 times a day for 5-15 minutes on one side at a time. 
• Takes 2-3 naps per day. Always a short one in the morning, longer one mid-day, and sometimes a cat nap a couple hours before bedtime.
• Started eating some solid foods! She has tried rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, pears, sweet potatoes, peaches, apples, bananas, and green beans. Her favorites are oatmeal cereal and peaches. Green beans and apples made her gag... but we'll keep trying!
• When we feed her solid foods, she gets so anxious and excited that she'll start kicking her legs and open her mouth wide and try to grab for the spoon. And it seems that as soon as I get the spoon out of her mouth, she's already swallowed and has opened up again for more more MORE! 
• Bedtime is around 8 or 8:15pm. She still wakes up once a night, sometimes twice. Sigh.
• Is excellent at rolling over, both from back to front and front to back
• Has started pulling her knees in and putting her little bum in the air so only her head/hands and feet are on the ground. She can figure out how to scoot forward about an inch at a time. This combined with her rolling skills means I often find her in a completely different place than where I left her, in just a matter of minutes!
• Doesn't want to sit unsupported yet. If I balance her in the right position, she'll sit by herself for a few seconds, but she loves to push off with her legs and it makes her head fly backwards and she falls back really hard and, obviously, she doesn't like when that happens very much. I laugh that she may crawl before she sits! Silly girl!
• Has started being interested in trying to reach her toys that she can't reach by moving around to get to them. 
• Some things she hates: Being hungry, being tired, initially being strapped into her carseat, being left alone for too long, and sudden loud noises in her face. 
• Her favorite things to play with include her rattle, books, her jumperoo, and empty plastic water bottles (oh so crinkly!) 
• She talks the most when she's REALLY happy, like when she is jumping in her bouncer or when I stand her in front of the mirror and she gets to play with her reflection. It makes her laugh and jump and giggle to see herself. Sounds like a girl to me! ;)
• Loves to be in water, whether it's splashing in her bathtub or floating with me in a pool (we took her in for the first time just the other day and she LOVED it!) 
• Enjoys watching shows and movies on TV with her brother. 
• For the most part, she enjoys riding in her carseat, especially when we pull back the canopy and she can see out the window and also see Charlie. He will start giggling at her and she'll start giggling right back. It's literally the cutest and most heart-warming thing I've ever heard. It's little things like that that makes all the tough moments completely worth it!
• Overall, she is a really laid-back baby. She goes with the flow and is generally very happy! She definitely has an intense temper, which can flare up loud and suddenly when she decides she's just not happy anymore. As I have said and thought very often with her: "Well, that escalated quickly!" At least when she gets unhappy, she can be made happy just as quickly as she became unhappy! 

We just love this cute little girl! Although I do wish she'd start growing some more hair one of these days... ;)

The Big 3-0

Well, it's official! We have a 30-year-old living in our house!! For the big 3-0, I really wanted to do something big and surprising for Trevor, but I know he likes his birthdays low-key and with everything we have going on around here, I just decided to nix the idea of planning a surprise party. So, we did a little celebrating at home! The morning of his birthday, he woke up early to go to work and I had taped some colorful paper "30"s all over the house so he wouldn't forget how old he was turning! ;)

He worked a very long day on his actual birthday, so he got to open his presents from us the next day (Thanksgiving day). I was pretty proud of the fact that most of his gifts were surprises! :D I snapped this photo of Charlie wearing these awesome glasses shaped like a 30. Trevor told me I could take a picture of him, but I forgot and when I remembered a couple days later, he had "conveniently" thrown them away. Haha.

His gifts included a Seinfeld "No Soup for You" shirt, a Jazz basketball, some peanut M&Ms (as usual), a nose hair trimmer (yep, he's definitely 30!), and some Obama toilet paper... because who DOESN'T want to wipe their behind with his face? Slightly uncivil? Maybe. Totally hilarious? Yes. :)

We spent the rest of Thanksgiving day hanging out with his family eating delicious food. According to Trevor, that was exactly how he wanted his birthday to go. No fancy parties or attention. Just a couple gifts and some love from his family! :)

Happy Birthday, Hubby!