Christmas Eve

We survived another Christmas!  We once again had a wonderful couple of busy days.  Christmas Eve started out by Jon and I running into town to do some last minute shopping once again.  I always say I will have everything done by the middle of December, but this year I kept forgetting at least one thing every time I went shopping.  All turned out fine, like it always does, so I try not to get too stressed over it all. When we got home our friends Lee and Heather (and Cora's God parents) came over to give Cora her present they bought.

They bought her a pink Radio Flyer trike that she will love in a couple years.  I guess that is tradition of theirs to give all their god children their first trikes (:  They also surprised us and bought us a Wii for our family which was beyond nice!!

After they left, we went to church at Old Mamre and it was great for half of it until Cora got hot and frustrated, so I left and walked around outside for awhile and cooled her off.  Then her and I stood in the back and sang the Christmas songs there.  I still enjoyed it.

Then we headed over to my in-laws and enjoyed spending the evening with everyone. We enjoyed Swedish meatballs once again and all the dishes that everyone made.

Here are my girls waiting to open presents... 

Here's Cora who just turned 5 months and Ella who is almost 8 months.

 

Gift opening, which gets a little crazy and overwhleming, esp. when you have four kids and you are trying to see what each of them get.  I still need to go through Jonnie's stuff to see what he got! The Swanson's are very generous and we appreciate it all! 

Cora's first talking dolly.  She really liked it! 

Sitting her in the middle of all the paper.  She's not sure what to think. 

She'd rather eat it. 

Sawyer opening a gift... 

Jonnie got two turtles which he was so excited about.  He named them Mitch and Marty.  They are a good pet for Jonnie!

My beautiful niece Kate! 

This is about how I felt, too.  Sweet Ella had enough. 

Sawyer and the other boys put together some of their trucks and tractors and had fun in the kitchen playing with them.

Cora hanging out with her Uncle Tim.  They matched so they looked pretty good together (:

Arriving home the kids got Santa's snack and letter ready and we read our books.  This is the first year Jonnie didn't want to sleep in Alaina's room with her and Sawyer.  He said he was just tired and wanted to sleep in his own bed. That made me a little sad as it just means he is getting older and the excitement is lessening a little for him.  Sawyer slept in her room, though and I think they were sleeping a half hour after I said goodnight.  I had some tired kids!

(We didn't have any cookies) 

At least someone or some dog enjoyed the crackers.  He probably thought I left them out for him!  When I caught him he had his big nose in the cup drinking milk-it was hilarious!!  

 Santa's response...At least this year he didn't say P.S. Rudolph says Hi! (;

Santa arrived and it looks like the he thought the kids were pretty good!  

Their stocking were stuffed, too!  And I can't wait for morning for them to see and open everything!

5 months old!

My baby girl turned 5 months! It's weird to even write that. What is new with Cora these days? Well, she is starting to get stronger and kind of sit up with support. She doesn't like to lay on her back anymore and is always trying to sit up-mostly to see what is going on around her.  She is an observer and doesn't miss anything that is going on, who is in the room, where is mommy?, etc.  She will be a happy girl when she can sit up all the time.

Here she is in her diaper and you can see she is little but chunky at the same time.  I love it!



We started her on food a few weeks ago.  She has been so interested in eating, so we decided to try it out and she has done so well.  So far we have only tried rice cereal, peas, green beans, squash, and just the other night we tried sweet potatoes and the girl was SOO excited about that-she loved them! She doesn't seem to mind any of them, but sweet potatoes are her favorite so far.

Here she is tasting green beans for the first time...

"What the heck is this stuff, mom?"

I am not happy to report that she is not sleeping through the night yet.  She still gets up a few times a night and acts so starving that I have to get up and feed her.  Have I mentioned that she is stubborn and when it is in the middle of the night, she will always win.  It will come.  I hope.

She is still a mommy's girl and I love it. She seems like she is getting a little better around other people and will let them hold her now.  She still likes to know where I am at all times, though.  I guess I should write that she is great with her siblings and daddy, too (:  When she sees them or the older kids come home from school she just lights up, makes raspberries, and can't stop smiling-it's adorable!   

She is growing so fast and this month will be filled with lots of firsts, triumphs, and challenges.  It will be so fun at Christmas to see her reaction to everything!

Rolling Over

Cora rolled over for the first time on December 1st from her back to front. The funny part was that it was in the tub and she got a face full of bubbles and water-pretty traumatic for her and also myself trying to grab her quick! Anyway, she has since rolled over once more back to front and now this afternoon she rolled over front to back and luckily I had my camera this time!!

I even got a short video of it. It surprises her every time and now she is a rolling over machine! It's all she wants to do-so adorable.



Good Job Cora!!

4 months old!

My baby turned 4 months a couple weeks ago, so I thought I would share a few pictures of her cuteness!

Thanksgiving

This year we enjoyed good food,

Good naps,

Good fun (making gingerbread houses),

Good family,

Good moods,

Good conversations,

Good new friendships,

and an all around good time!

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera for Thanksgiving on my side, but it was an equally good time there as well (:

Halloween

I will be playing catch up on here for a little while and here are out Halloween pictures. The first group of pictures is from a Halloween party at my sister-in-law Melanie's. It was a lot of fun and she did a great job on the food and decorations! She recently got a job at her son's school as a lunch lady so she decided to make fun of herself and dress the part for Halloween-very clever (:

Jon and I decided to sort of make fun of ourselves, too and went as a patient and doctor. On the way to the party we questioned if it was appropriate, but then decided it was-haha. Alaina did his make-up and did a pretty good job! The best part was before we left home, Jon took out the garbage and there was a bunch of people playing at the park across from our house. When they saw him, they couldn't stop staring! It was so funny-most people hadn't seen him since his accident so they must of thought he was REALLY injured!

My nephew the Ghost Buster and Sawyer the Power Ranger.
Cora and Ella=Kitty and Monkey
The whole gang!
Alaina broke free from an insane asylum and Katelyn was a vampire. Beautiful girls-haha!
Katelyn's new boyfriend
Jon's grandma and Aunt Jan showed up and it was the best! It was so fun to see his 80 year old grandma dressed up as a 70's musician!
The littlest taking a moment to chat
And last but not least is Jonnie the skeleton.
Here are my 4 on the actual Halloween night. It started out pretty warm and I was excited Alaina decided to trick-or-treat for one more year. I thought there were more houses handing out candy this year than previous years. We had a lot of fun and the kids made out pretty good in the candy area!


Cora stayed nice and cozy in her stroller.
Kitty's tail
"I just can't resist pulling all this hair!"
The wrapped up the night eating the delicious caramel apples my mom had made for them and dropped off. They were a great way to end Halloween night!

Dad's little buddy

Here's Jon resting the first week after the accident...It was too uncomfortable for him to sleep in bed, so for the first 5 weeks or so he slept on the couch.



We didn't realize how much Jon's accident affected Sawyer until he refused to leave his side when he got home and started sleeping on the opposite couch every night. In fact, after Jon started sleeping in his own bed, Sawyer moved onto a sleeping bag in our room to stay close to his daddy and is still there to this day. Also, at preschool, his teacher told me that he talked to her about it for about 5 minutes-the longest he has ever talked to her! So it has really affected him more that I thought. Jon hasn't gone back to work yet, but that is the day Sawyer said he will go back into his own bed...we'll see (:



Also, a week after Jon came home, Cora turned 3 months!



Jon has enjoyed being home with his little, spunky girl. It has been good for her, too to realize mommy is not the only one in the world who can take care of her (: