Christmas Eve

Every year, we have our annual Christmas Eve party at our house. Last year, we surprised everyone with the announcement that we were expecting. There we NO SURPRISES this year!

Lyndon's family and my family came for the evening. Everyone brought finger foods or an appetizer to share. The kids played, screamed, and giggled all evening. It was a great time.

Some of the kids at the party. The number of kids grows every year. We are up to 8 kids now.

Parker (almost 7 months) and Collyn (Almost 5 months) hanging out on the floor together.

People enjoying the appetizers and company.

Cody (Susans husband), better known in our house as Uncle CoCo had to work that night, but he stopped by for dinner. He is a local city police officer in our town. Alden adores him.

the kids playing downstairs on the pool table (That came with the house when we moved in.) This is our basement.

It was Kem's (Lyndon's Mom) birthday on the 24th, so Grandma Kay (Lyndon's Grandma) brought a pecan pie for her and Alden brought it out to her, candles lit.

Alden and Collyn got to open their Christmas Eve present. New Jammies!!!!

Collyn is attempting to sit up by himself. Grandpa Bob (Lyndon's Dad) helped him a little while he opened his jammies.

The boys in their Christmas Jammies. They look so soft and cuddly!

Alden put out cookies and milk for Santa. And Santa ATE THEM! Alden was so excited the next morning.

First Snow of The Year

Alden was SOOO excited about getting snow this year. He would ask every morning if there was snow yet. FINALLY, one evening it snowed. We watched it from inside the house for quite a while, then I bundled him up and sent him out. He loved it. Ready to go out.

He loved catching the snow on his tongue.

Daddy and Collyn stayed inside and watched from the window.

Cookie Decorating At Grandmas

Lyndon's Grandma Kay, every year, brings the family over for dinner and we decorate Christmas Cookies. She makes TONS of cookies! I believe, this is my 5th year helping decorate cookies.

This was Aldens first year decorating. He sat there so content for over an hour decorating his cookies.

Kem, Lyndon's Mom, put in 4 cups of powdered sugar into the mixer. Turned it on and there was still a spoon in it. This is what happens.

Grandma Kay got Alden his very own apron to decorate with. In the end, I was very excited that he had it. He loved wearing it.

Collyn fell asleep on Grandma Kay while we were decorating cookies.

WOW! A great decorator and a great mess! Good thing kids are washable.

The cookie crew for 2012 Left to Right- Grandma Kay, Kem (Lyndon's Mom), Collyn, Me, Lyndon, Alden, Kolton (Lyndon's Brother), Jourdon (Koltons girlfriend)

Salt Dough Ornaments

I had my nieces over one night because their parents went to a Christmas dinner for my sisters work. I decided to have some fun.

I went to the store and bought Mini-Pizzas and sugar cookies. We had those for dinner and dessert.

We watched Elf and made salt dough ornaments. We just did hand prints, and Collyn did his footprint. After they baked, they painted them. It was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed it.

Alden got a little carried away with the paint, but nothing a bath can't help.

Festival of Trees 2012

The dance studio, every year, is an hour of entertainment on Saturday of the Festival of Trees at the community center in our town. We brough around 50 dancers and tumblers to perform. We always seem to get a good crowd. There were 8 different groups that performed.

Our Jazz 1 and Jazz 2 classes had very short routines, because they were still learning them and they brought what they had.

Jazz 3 performed a Christmas routine. These 3 classes are taught by my other teacher, Emilie.

Jazz 4 performed a Lyrical routine to Adele- Someone Like You.

Pom performed a routine to Everybody Talks

Tots performed a routine to Hey Mickey

2 of my tumbling classes came and showed everyone what they had learned this far in the year. It was a great performance. We are always so happy and excited to perform at this event. It is usually our first performance of the year.

Collyn- 4 Months

Oh, Baby Coll-Coll. I can't believe you are 4 months already! Having two little ones, time seems to go REALLY slow, yet super fast at the same time. Some days I don't think I will make it through the day sane, but looking back I realized a whole week has flown by. Collyn is such a laid-back kiddo. I love him dearly.

Here are some updates on my little man.

GROWTH: Weight: 12 pounds 9 ounces (5th percentile) Height: 23 1/4 inches (3rd percentile). The doctor isn't concerned about his weight or height. He is following HIS growth curve just fine. She will check back with him at 6 months to make sure he is still on this curve, or above it. He's just a little guy.

SLEEP: We are actually doing pretty good with sleep. I really have no complaints. No fully sleeping through the night yet, but he goes to bed around 9:30 with his brother. Some nights he wakes up at 1 AM to eat (Rarely) and wakes up at 4 AM to eat and we are ready for the day around 8 AM. He will nap from 11 AM - 1 PM and around 4 PM- 6 PM. This nap is nice because that is usually when I am at the dance studio. He will take little random naps throughout the day too, but they are unpredictable.

EATING: I am still exclusively nursing. I have tried different bottles and formula, but nothing... He eats about every 3 hours, so I haven't been away from him longer than that. He does great nursing, unlike Alden did, so I'm not complaining. It's way cheaper. He nurses about 15-20 minutes each time. I also introduced rice and oatmeal this month. He is doing amazing with it. It holds his tummy full just a little longer and has put a little weight on him. He is still trying to figure out the spoon, but we are starting to master it. At 5 months, we will be introducing veggies.

CLOTHING: 3-6 Month

DIAPERS: Size 2

DEVELOPMENT: Collyn loves loves loves to talk. He will coo and gurgle and giggle for 20 minutes at a time, talking to anyone who will listen. He can grab toys that are in front of him, he likes to shake rattles, he has rolled back to belly- but hates his belly so he screams until someone turns him back over. We have struggled with tummy time because he hates being on his belly. He will lift himself up like he is supposed to but has no interest staying there. His head is no longer wobbly and he likes to sit up when he is on our laps. He recognizes people now and will smile when Daddy, myself, or Alden talk to him.

He's my growing boy!

My 25th Birthday

At the end of November I turned 25. Quarter of a century. :) Hahaha!

For my birthday, we didn't do anything spectacular, but I definitely enjoyed it. Lyndon and the boys took me out to lunch at Olive Garden (Both boys did AMAZING so it was even better.) Then, we went shopping for a few hours buying some Christmas gifts for the boys.

The Sunday after Thanksgiving, Lyndon put on a small party for me with ice cream cake at our house. I really enjoyed having everyone over to celebrate. I am so blessed.

-Alden helping me blow out my candles-

-Mmm.... Ice cream cake-

-Collyn and Parker playing together-

-My parents and I-

-Sisters-