Family Update

I have been really bad lately about blogging and taking photos so sadly I didn't have a holiday post or anything lately, but since this is our "family journal" I thought I better post what we've been up to!

Christmas- We spent Christmas with the Stevens family and had a great time! The Christmas Eve program was a lot of fun with the kids re-enacting the nativity, Christmas games, white elephant, stories, etc. Lizzie was very excited to open presents and had fun pulling items out of her stocking. We had a great time going to movies and spending time with family.

New Years- We then flew to the Washburns and spend New Years Eve in Chicago! We had our traditional fondue and got to talk to Trevor, who's in Russia, that night. Then, we celebrated my mom's 50th birthday! The whole family was there by this point and we spoiled her all day with gifts, food, and partying. Lizzie had a great time with her grandparents! It was also nice to spend time with the newest member of the fam-Brandi!

Lizzie Updates: (14 months old)

She has 2 teeth and 2 more on the top that are almost in! She's a late bloomer in regards to her dental development. :)

She got a potty for Christmas and....
she has successfully used it!!
I am just barely introducing her to potty training because she is so excited about it all but we are probably just going to take things slow since she is still pretty young.

The New House:
The deal is closed, the old owners are moved out, and we have started painting walls and picking out new carpet! We are VERY busy packing and working on our new house lately. Sooo excited for moving day... soon!

Christmas Spirit

2 More Days!!

This past week we have really kicked the Christmas activities into high gear! Each night we do something to celebrate the season such as watching the Nativity movie, Elf, or just encouraging Lizzie to dance to the Christmas music! I noticed this morning that she has really picked up on the spirit of the season.

She, often, lays on the floor and cuddles her stuffed animals in the morning so I was teasing her by cuddling her stuffed kitty. Usually she'll whine in protest and then attempt to steal the cat out of my arms, but today was a different reaction. She smiled at me, grabbed the kitty, ran into the next room, and immediately appeared again with her stuffed lion too. Then, after a big hug she gave the kitty back to me! She cuddled her lion while encouraging me to cuddle her kitty.

What a sweet Christmas gift!

Big Lion

Lizzie's love of lions started with her stuffed animal "Lenny" when she was about 8 mo old. Lizzie is now 13 months and her love and obsession with large felines has only expanded since then to include tigers too. Lately, she's moved on to even bigger lions! Ok, so Lenny is still the fav but she really likes to play with "Big Lion" too. Big Lion was made so that a child could sit and "ride" on his back. Lizzie used to try and climb onto him by herself and would inevitably just knock him over. Then every time he fell over she would start to scream and cry in horror until I stood him back on his feet. I endured many days of Lizzie starting to cry for no apparent reason until she would get me close enough to Big Lion so that she could point out that he was lying stiff as a board on the ground. The world was all better once I stood him back on his feet, though.

Over time she has come to accept the fact that Big Lion tips over. In fact, she has completely embraced the reality of it and puts him to good use as her personal lazy boy. Now, she just tips him over on purpose and kicks back while she holds her baby and rests on his soft underbelly.

13 Months

Lizzie is 13 months old going on 2 yrs old. She has entered the phase of testing boundaries, asserting her independence, and wanting to do things herself. It makes things challenging at times but I love seeing her learn and grow!

The biggest event that happened this month is that she FINALLY has a tooth! One sharp little tooth erupted along with fun teething symptoms at times. Now, her toothbrush has a purpose! And so the bombardment of dental care and prevention begins from her dentist and hygienist parents.

She is really showing the sweet side to her personality, lately, too. When she was a little baby she didn't like to be touched or cuddled too much. She would get fussy and squirmy when we hugged and kissed her. But, we finally broke her!! She loooves giving mom and dad hugs and kisses now. I get many spontaneous hugs from her throughout the day and I love it!

The girl has been a little entertainer, lately, too. She loves to make silly faces, noises, dances, spins, and says funny things all day long just to get her parents to smile.

We are Ready for Christmas!

Our mini Christmas tree is up and we are ready to celebrate this Holiday Season! Liz is enjoying the festivities already! She's surprisingly good around Christmas trees, too. She loves to look at them, but is good about not touching them.

We even had a late night visit from Santa Clause last night! He rode in on a fire truck and we exchanged some canned goods for a candy cane for Lizzie.

We Bought a House!!!

Its official! Well, almost...you know how house buying can go (its never for sure until closing day). We are going to be first time home owners starting Dec. 23!! Lately, we have been making many trips to the house for various reasons and this past week we stopped at a nearby park. Lizzie gave it her approval- so we decided it really must be the right place. :)

We are so excited to finally own a house! A couple facts about our new home:
Located in Lakewood/Oakbrook area
Big backyard
Lots of trees in the yard
Color: Blue
Brand new roof
All bathrooms newly renovated
Plenty of space for our family to grow
House is connected to a backup generator
Beautiful front room w/ vaulted ceilings
Crawl space, attic, and third garage (hooray for storage space!)
Short walk from a park

And the first bit of work we are going to do as soon as the title is handed over to us is completely recarpet the place!!




PS- Our new computer finally arrived so its time to play blog catch up!!

Blogging on Hold

Yes, I have been totally slacking about posting on my blog. In fact, I have been slacking in taking ANY pictures at all lately. I have to admit I did not take any pictures this Thanksgiving either! :(
I am just too frustrated with our computer situation. It is not working well and I cant download any pics....we ordered a new one and now we have to send it back for repairs...it should be here soon..maybe.

I just couldnt let Thanksgiving go by without any post, though, so HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! We celebrated with the Stevens Family and had such a good time! Lizzie was spoiled by her grandparents and we all just had a lot of fun together!!