This is one seriously long Christmas post...like over 50 pictures long! I enjoy my once-a-month blogging routine, but it tends to make for long posts. Oh well. As you can see from our stockings above (which I was excited about having matching stockings for the first time), this was our first Christmas as a family of four. It was lots of fun creating some Christmas traditions with Harper this year, and, of course, Owen was just along for the ride.
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I couldn't resist getting Harper and Owen matching pajamas. Hey, they can't match much of anything else, but they can wear matching Christmas pajamas! So, I do believe this will be a tradition of ours for several years at least.
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Owen giving one of his trademark open-mouthed grins
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This one brings a smile to my face every time.
In addition to matching Christmas pajamas, another tradition of ours will be plenty of holiday baking. Harper got to have a Christmas cookie play date with Lydia, Aubrey and Ryleigh. They had fun making candy cane cookies (well, any of them that actually resembled a candy cane were made by the adults in the group, but they had fun trying). |
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Fashioning the dough
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| Lydia sprinkling on the peppermint candy pieces |
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| Love these cute girls! This was just a week before Ryleigh and Aubrey would be meeting their new baby sister Hannah! |
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| Owen spent his time either being held or hanging out in his bouncer seat. Ryleigh was sure loving on him! A natural big sister-to-be! |
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| Harper and I also made eggnog sugar cookies together! They were yummy! |
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| I love that Harper is old enough now to really help out with all aspects of the baking. We attempted to make different cookie cutter shapes with the dough, but the dough was too sticky even with flour and wouldn't hold a shape. I think I need to refrigerate it some next time first? But Plan B snowmen worked out well too! :) |
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| This was something new we started this year. Each of the pockets holds an ornament. Harper would velcro an ornament to the tree each day, while we followed an Advent reading plan. She really got into that! |
At Harper's school, the three-year-olds performed a Christmas musical that they had been working on in music and chapel for two months. Harper still mostly sings monotone (which we endearingly love about her), and we had been hearing snippets of songs over the weeks. She especially loved singing this one song in particular about camels and donkeys. I didn't know how Harper would do on stage in front of so many parents. She can get shy about performing in front of people, even us, if we make whatever she's doing into a big deal. But my heart felt so proud (first "parent-watching-their-kid-perform-moment") seeing our sweet little girl up there. She mostly sang the songs and mostly did the motions, and she smiled when she found us in the crowd.
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| Her expression looks so young and sweet, I just want to bottle it up and save it. |
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| This song had something to do with "looking." :) |
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Harper's Great Grandma Grace and Mimi and T-Pa came to the performance as well, and we all went out to eat at Chick-fil-A afterwards. I know Harper loved that they were there.
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| Mimi and Owen (who drank a bottle and fell asleep during the performance, except when he would be startled awake with applause at the end of each song) |
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Harper's class
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It was my family's year for Christmas, but we had an early Christmas celebration with Brent's family on the 22nd. We opened gifts, played, and had chili instead of the traditional Christmas fare.
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| Harper listening in on the adult conversation--Jenevieve's sister and brother-in-law were visiting from England, so that was a fun treat. |
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| And we got to spend time with precious baby Molly. It was Harper's first time to see her in person, and Molly is about six weeks old here. |
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| Kathy in Grandma heaven! |
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| Owen being loved on by his T-Pa :) |
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| Harper and Addy playing with the new Memory game in their own way. "It's a match!" |
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But the biggest gift hit were these microphones that Mimi and T-Pa gave the girls. You could sing along with Christmas carols and either have your voice sound normal or sound like an elf. Not annoying, AT ALL. :) But they loved them!!
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| Matching snowmen cousins! |
We arrived at my mom's house on Sunday, the 23rd and planned to stay until the 26th. Our visit was extended a bit when our car wouldn't start on Christmas Eve. Car trouble is such a hassle, especially around a holiday! We eventually got it fixed up with a new starter, though, and Brent and I still got to go out on a date, thanks to my mom letting us use her car. We enjoyed seeing Silver Linings Playbook.
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| My family has always opened stockings on Christmas Eve. I know it doesn't make any sense Santa-wise, but that's just how we do it. What Harper was most excited about in her stocking were these dress-up earrings my mom made for her. She had a blue pair and a purple pair and was so into switching them out and saying her "purple pair were for church and her blue pair were for school." Ha! |
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| Owen all dressed up for the candlelight Christmas Eve service we were going to attend... |
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| ...until the car wouldn't start! Boo! :) |
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| Christmas morning! Harper could finally tear into wrapping paper this year. I think she felt a little overwhelmed with all the gifts though. We decided that in following years, Brent and I will stick to getting three gifts for each kid, and my mom will also only get three gifts for each kid. That way, hopefully, it will not be overwhelming or materialistically out-of-control. I am speaking to myself because I love buying gifts as a love language. |
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| Figuring out her drill set with Granddad. Although Harper is really into girly things right now (she LOVES wearing skirts best), she also randomly likes to play with Brent's tool box (supervised at the kitchen table). |
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| So fun to have snow on Christmas day! We didn't get any snow last year so this was Harper's first snow as far as she could remember. What a joy it was to experience it through her eyes! |
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| Our friend Melody made this hat for Owen. What talent! I love it on him. |
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| Maybe we were a little lazy and didn't attempt a full-on snowman. Instead we made a pile of snow, decorated a girly snowman face and called it a day. :) |
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| "What is all this cold white I see?" |
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| If you can't tell from Harper's head-to-toe attire, pink is Harper's new favorite color. After two years of being completely loyal to blue as her favorite, she has officially moved on. Oh, we will miss blue a little bit. :) |
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| Harper's big present was this scooter from my mom and my dad. We had to wait until the 26th to go outside and try it out with all the snow. |
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| Still figuring out how to steer |
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| And Harper got a kid digital camera from us. She has learned to put the image "in the box." I love seeing what she decides to take a picture of! The picture quality is not great, but it's still pretty cool to have a collection of her photos. |
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Multi-tasking--holding an apple slice while taking a picture of Mommy :)
Here are a few pictures Harper took... |
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| "A Snowy Day" |
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Self portrait
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| Taking a picture of Mommy while I'm taking a picture of her |
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In addition to some clothes, here are some of the things Owen got for Christmas! That book "Boy of Mine" is really a sweet one--makes me choke up a little bit when I read it.
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So that pretty much wraps up Christmas, but I will go ahead (because I love monster length blog posts!) and include some things about Owen at four months.
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| This is one of my favorite pictures of Owen at four months. His smile is so darn sweet! He has started getting excited when he sees me when I come and get him out of the crib. I love that. |
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| Owen drools a lot and is starting to put everything in his mouth. I put a bib on him if I want his outfit to last because the entire front of his shirt will be soaked. |
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Owen's four month stats are:
Height -- 25 3/4 inches, 75th %
Weight -- 14 lbs. 10 oz., 50%
Head -- 75 % |
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| Still loving the magic sleep suit. When Owen falls asleep nursing, I just love to hold him asleep for awhile when I can. If he is awake after he is done eating, that is when I will read him a book! |
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Big sister Harper likes to help give Owen a bath. This bath she desperately wanted to get EVERY baby washcloth we own and drape each one over Owen. I suppose he was nice and warm! :)
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| All clean! Owen's skin is fair compared to Harper's more olive complexion, but in my Mommy's opinion, it is a very beautiful peaches and cream complexion. |
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| As I mentioned before, Owen has a great open-mouthed smile that he is very free with. |
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| Owen likes the exersaucer and can turn himself around to play with all the different toys. Something I have discovered about myself is that I am having lots of fun dressing a boy too. I especially like button down shirts, or anything that makes him look like a "little man." |
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| My mom bought this shirt for Owen on a trip she made to Cuba. Harper was off to the side making Owen laugh. |
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Owen's blue eyes are beginning to change color now. They have a burst of brown in the center, and the blue is looking more gray.
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| We love this happy four-month-old! |
And not to only post pictures of Owen, here are a couple of cute pictures of Harper from this month. At three years and four months Harper:
--loves Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood -- It's her favorite show, and I love its content.
--has opinions about her clothes now -- skirts are IN, any pant that is restrictive is OUT. In fact, to test her clothes, Harper will perform a deep knee bend each morning, and if she can't go all the way down, the clothes must change.
--She can require much patience and discipline on some days -- It is true what they say about the three's being harder than the two's. But she also has a very sweet heart and is the best big sister!
--She has a very vivid imagination and even has an imaginary friend named Amon (it's a girl).
--We have started letting her play on the iPad a little some nights. She is becoming a whiz with it. It's so innate in kids.
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| My mom's cousin gave Harper this hat with matching mittens...so cute! |
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| Harper on a warm December morning headed to church |
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| Three blessings in one chair!! |
