Christmas

I'm always amazed by how fast the Christmas season goes by. It seems like just yesterday it was Thanksgiving and Jackson was asking when Christmas would be here. And now it's gone!

We had a really wonderful Christmas- full of seeing lots of family, a little bit of traveling and feeling blessed beyond measure.

On Thursday and Friday before Christmas we went to Mobile to see Kevin's family. This was only Emmy's second road trip and like her brother she isn't a good car sleeper. For the four 1/2 hour car trip she slept for 45 minutes. She wasn't fussy though. She entertained herself well- it helps to have big brother in the back. Jackson enjoyed watching a movie in the car. On Black Friday we got a super good deal on a DVD player for the car. Jackson was so excited to watch a movie in the car and it gave Kevin and me a chance to just talk! (Unfortunately the DVD player was stolen from our car while in Mobile which is a whole other story.)

Jackson had a blast seeing Mimi and PawPaw. Kevin's mom (Mimi) saved all of Kevin's old matchbox cars plus some other toys and Jackson was in heaven! Kevin has a pretty big family so there were lots and lots of people and kids running around. Jackson had fun with some of the kids but he was very intimidated by some of the older, bigger kids. Emmy had fun too although she was a little out of sorts. She refused to take a nap while at their house. She did sleep through the night while we were there but without naps she was more than just a little cranky. We left late Friday afternoon to head back home and both kids slept for almost two hours! They were worn out! Emmy is still having a hard time settling back into her routine. She is napping and sleeping through the night fine but she cries quite a bit when I put her down(which she has never done before). I'm pretty sure she is having some major separation anxiety.

Kevin's parents:

The next day, Christmas Eve and Kevin's birthday, we enjoyed a quiet day at the house. We went over to my parent's house that night to celebrate Kevin's birthday and enjoy Christmas with grandmothers, aunts and uncles. It was another fun filled night with good food and visiting family. I think I have mentioned that Jackson and Emmy are the only kids on my side of the family so they get lots of attention and presents from everyone! Jackson had a blast as he received a remote control monster truck and loved driving it around Gigi and Pop's house.

Emmy sitting with her two great grandmothers:


Jackson enjoying cupcakes for Daddy's birthday:

Christmas morning was so fun. The kids were so tired that they both slept past seven! This is not unusual for Emmy but it is extremely rare for Jackson! but once he was up he ran in to see the tree and squealed in delight. We have some fun video of him. Later that morning we went back over to my parents for brunch.

Emmy got this walk behind toy from Santa and had eyes for nothing else! She LOVES it:


The kids on Christmas morning:





It was definitely a wonderful Christmas!

10 Months

Emmy was 10 months old on December 22. I wanted to note some of her milestones:

-Emmy waves bye bye upon command (most of the time).

-She follows directions like: "no", "come here", "give it to me".

-She imitates lots of things like banging her hands, clicking her tongue, other noises and speech sounds.

-She's not big on table food yet. She likes puffs and cheerios but that's about it.

-She loves to walk around the house while holding on to my hands. She's getting pretty good at walking while holding only one hand too.

Christmas Program

I am way behind on blogging. I'm going to try and catch up in the next several days. We've enjoyed lots of Christmas festivities around here. Last week Jackson's school had a three year old Christmas program. I think there are four or five different three year old classes and they all put on the program together. It was the most precious thing. I was such a proud mama. I was so impressed with these three year olds and how hard the teachers must have worked. Every child stood up on stage singing their little hearts out and doing hand motions as best they could. Of course they were all doing different hand motions at all different times but it was so cute! They sang eight different songs. Yes, EIGHT! I couldn't believe it. And there was only one song that I recognized (Away in a Manger). All the rest were new to me (and Jackson) and all centered around the birth of Jesus. I'm just so happy that Jackson is surrounded by such wonderful teachers who teach him the word of God!

Little Jackson singing his heart out:


Doing some hand motions:




MERRY CHRISTMAS!
AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEVIN!

First Word and Three and a half

It's hard to believe that my 9.5 month old is saying her first word. This past week Emmy started imitating Jackson and me anytime we would say "uh-oh". After a couple of days of that she started using it on her own. She now loves to drop things on the floor and say "uh-oh". She says uh-oh ALL DAY LONG! I love it though! It is so cute! And she is babbling so much!



Emmy is getting another top tooth and another bottom tooth. She doesn't let me look in her mouth for very long so there could be more. That means she will have a total of 6 teeth.

She is very very mobile. Crawling, pulling up and cruising everywhere. She loves to hold onto our hands and walk around the house. She gets so excited she'll stop walking to jump up and down.

She adores Jackson! She laughs at everything he does and tries so hard to keep up with him. She will crawl after him around the house. She loves to be in his room and play with his toys and roll around on his bed.

She loves the Christmas tree! She's almost pulled it over a few times. She grabs the branches and tries to pull them to her. Of course she loves the ornaments too and tries to pull them off.



Jackson is so excited about Christmas this year. If you ask him what he wants for Christmas he will tell you: cars, puzzles and Mater. He loves seeing all the Christmas lights and will point out all the trees, lights, etc. as we are driving. We've been talking a lot about the birth of Jesus and the meaning of Christmas. This is the first year that we can really converse about it and he really likes our Advent calendar.



Jackson is officially 3.5 and he has grown and changed a lot just since he turned 3. He is so smart and loves learning. He loves to sing his ABC's. He is identifying letters all over the place and even knows many letter sounds. He is able to identify his name in print as well.

He still gets speech therapy once a week but he is at age level now. It is still hard for some people to understand him at times but he is doing so much better. His sentences are much more complex and he uses complete thoughts. It's fun to have conversations with him.

Love these two kiddos! They are both at a very fun age!