Merry Christmas

This was the first year we stayed home on Christmas Day due to the fact that we have a newborn, it was nice to be home so Santa could visit us at our house, but it sure was different not being in Texas and spending time with all of our family. Luckily though, Lex's parents were able to come up to see us. I will say though, I am glad we didn't travel with a 6 week old and a 2 year old - I would have been a stress ball! Overall, we had a wonderful first Christmas as a family of 4.

We all woke up to full stockings and lucky Katelyn got some orange presents, a piggy bank and a tricycle from Santa!!

Our little sock monkey....

...needed a little help opening his stocking this year :)

After opening Santa's gifts, we had an excellent breakfast (crockpot breakfast casserole & cinnabon sticking buns - both recipes from pintrest - yummy!), then opened a ton more presents. I think it took us about 2 1/2 hours to get through all of our presents - we realized that we shouldn't have gotten ourselves quite so much because all of our family mailed us a ton of presents that we saved to open on Xmas morning as well. We are so thankful for everything we received, but wish we could have opened those presents in person.

Katelyn LOVES her new dollhouse and orange sweater/bow from Mimi & Pops...thank you!!

Levi all decked out in his bow tie, napping with Mommy and apparently having some pretty sweet dreams - love this pic!!

Around 5, Sandra & Fred made it to our house. We opened a TON of more presents and ate a fabulous dinner! We are so thankful they were able to make it on Christmas Day so we could celebrate with them. It made the day so much more memorable.

Grammy made Katelyn her very own box to keep all of her favorite orange things, what a great idea! She also go a new art easel and some princess figurines that have adopted the new dollhouse as their castle!

Levi is growing like no other. Today I went though and packed up all his newborn clothes and brought out all the 3-6 month clothes since he is outgrowing them all so quickly. Time is going by way too fast. Maybe it will slow down a little once the new year hits - I hope. Here Grammy is getting some good quality snuggle time in.

We hope you all had a wonderful Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we took the kids to "big church" for the first time. Usually Katelyn goes to "kid church" as we call it, which is the 2 year old class, but they didn't offer childcare during Christmas services, so we decided to try it anyway. She did fairly well, was quite the whole time, but we both took turns letting her go in the hallway and run a little to let off a little energy. Levi, of course, slept through the whole thing!

All dressed up for church and looking so sweet!

Katelyn LOVES all of her little plastic people right now. Here she is with the Virgin Mary from her Nativity set and some of her other people all lined up in a row. She is my little organized girl!

After church we had a "Journey to Bethlehem" dinner. To help understand the journey that Mary & Joseph had finding a place to stay the night before Jesus was born and the kinds of food they could eat (i.e. dried sausage, hard cheese, crackers, grapes, olives - we did add a few extra items - hummus, veggies...wine :) And ate it on the ground in front of the fire. We really enjoyed this and hope to make it a fun tradition over the years.

HUGS from big sister!

K and I also spent a lot of the morning making 3 different kinds of cookies/chex mix. Or...I made the cookies and she sampled them/decorated them...we had a great time!

Can't believe...

...I actually got both kids smiling at the same time! It's so hard to catch those Levi smiles on camera, but on the first try, we got this pic! Happiness...

My middle name is HANDSOME :)

I have been resisting cutting Katelyn's hair for a long time, I just love the baby fine uneven look she had going on, but it was getting a little scraggly (if that is a word), so I decided to try and just trim it myself...it's not the most even job ever, but it looks okay. Maybe if I keep practicing I'll get good at it, I just can't spend $20 to cut an inch off her hair :)

I love this little outfit Levi got and the shoes (in the picture below)...good thing I tried them both on him a few days ago because he is almost too long and his feet are almost too big for these shoes already!! He is only 6 weeks now and several of his 0-3 month sleep-n-plays are too short for him!! I think he's going to be a tall one :)

I need to do a fashion show with all his cute clothes and shoes before he out grows them!

Christmas Fun

Lex had a few extra days of vacation to use up before the end of the year, so he took Monday and Tuesday off this week and we spent the days shopping & visiting Santa! We headed up to Charlotte on Monday to Bass Pro for their Winter Wonderland. They had the best Santa - very jolly and with a real white beard! I was happy to see Katelyn jump right up on his lap and tell him how she wanted orange presents and a piggy bank. She hasn't veered from those requests yet, so hopefully Santa will come through for her :) Levi of course did great too! The official pics we got I have to scan and haven't been able to do that yet - so here are a couple of shots Lex took with our camera.

They had a cool train and a craft area too. We had a great time!

We also hit up Roper Mountain Holiday Lights on Saturday night. I think Katelyn's favorite part was getting to sit on my lap while the car was moving :) The candy cane lane was a big hit too.

Levi got to enjoy the lights from behind his eye lids :)

We also roasted a few marshmallows and enjoyed some hot chocolate.

Yesterday we had our Playgroup's Christmas party. The kids decorated gingerbread houses, made hand print snowman ornaments and exchanged books. We love our little playgroup!

On A Roll

Levi rolled over today 2 1/2 times :) I put him on his belly and he was lifting his head higher than normal, so I went to grab the camera and when I turned back around he had rolled over...boo, I missed his first roll!! So I tried to recreate it and he rolled over again, but yet again I missed it with my camera (not thinking he would actually do it again). So I tried to recreate it one more time, but didn't get him all the way over on his belly and he of course did it again (this one I got on video, but it was more of just a 1/2 roll). What a fun milestone!

He is also starting to smile at us & at his Baby Einstein star mat. I did catch a glimpse of a smile with my camera this morning though! Bigger smiles are right around the corner, I can't wait!

One Month

Today Levi is one month old!

And here is his first official Month-Birthday Pic with Argy the Giraffe. If you remember, Katelyn has the same Giraffe (named Dotty) that my Mom made for her as a baby.

It has been a wonderful month, definitely a lot easier with the 2nd child (at least so far)!! In the last 24 hours he seems to have started to wake up a little bit. He was awake from 6pm to 8pm last night and happy! I am ready for him to have a little more awake time, plus after that he gave me his first 4.5 hour stretch in the night - which was refreshing! Hoping for that to continue and get longer very soon. We went to the doc today for his well check and everything looks great. He measured at:

Weight: 10 lbs. 13 oz (77%)

Length: 23" (92%)

Head: 15" (68%)

More Levi Pics

Our sleepy stretching cuddle bug...

And our crazy sweetie poo....who decided to color her whole hand and nails with markers one afternoon. Silly kiddo!

Traditions

We are very excited about starting and instilling some family traditions this holiday season. Katelyn has really gotten into the holidays this year and we are loving it!

Lex has done a great job with our lights this year...here's a pic. We are still thinking about adding something else (we try to add something every year), but we can't decide what to get this year. Any suggestions?

Elf on the Shelf

We've heard so many great things about kids really getting into the spirit of Christmas (and being extra nice) during the holidays with a fun little Elf's help. Here is Katelyn and Daddy learning all about it...so far Katelyn has been calling him Elfie Ta-da...we'll see if that name sticks :) I can't wait to see her excitement over the next few weeks when she wakes up to see what Elfie Ta-da has been up to!

Levi chilling while we play with Elfie Ta-da

We also hit up the Simpsonville Parade this afternoon and met up with our friends the Batkin's. We went last year too and had a great time. Katelyn especially loved the dancers & candy canes :)

Katelyn & Landon

Katelyn & Levi sporting their adorable matching hats made by Mimi

We are loving the holidays this year!

Dear God,

Thank you for carousels and the colors and Mimi and Pops and Grammy and Pappy and Logan in Minnesota and Emmy and Ryan and Emmy's Mommy, Sara.

**Daddy: Who else do you pray for??**

Pray for Mommy and Daddy and Mommy's Mommy and Cindy and Cindy's Mommy's Mommy...

AMEN

Dear Santa,

I'd like a piggy bank and orange presents. :)

Love,

Katelyn

Gig 'em, Happy Thanksgiving & Merry Christmas :)

Our little Aggies! We decked the kids out in Aggie gear on Thanksgiving to watch the game. Too bad we lost, but they sure looked cute!

Pappy even joined in on the Maroon Out!

This year we decided to make Thanksgiving as little work and stress as possible, so we ordered our meal from Cracker Barrel. Definitely the way to go, plus easy and very little mess! Poor Levi had to watch from his carseat while we ate...he had spit up on the swing, so the cover was being washed. At least he had a First Thanksgiving Bib to make him feel included.

Grammy and Katelyn enjoyed cooking cookies one afternoon...with Orange sprinkles of course, Katelyn's favorite color!

"Mommy's Little Helper" - I love this cute apron Grammy made for Katiepoo! She is definitely my favorite little helper and such a great big sister!

Again, one of Levi's favorite spots!

We actually put up our tree on Thanksgiving Day - it took us 2 days to put it up this year, instead of one afternoon like normal, but it's up and we are looking forward to our first Christmas as a family of 4!

Levi @ 3 weeks old