her very own blog

her first christmas!

it's my understanding that bennett was up & playing his new ds (he'd received the night before at nana's.) in the den at 5am. at 7 on the dot he came into our room to let us know santa had indeed come!

a sidenote: my kidlets know how important it is for me to see & capture their faces when they see their santa loot.

bennett was upfront with me that he had looked at his stash, but was careful not to touch anything and knew we'd want to sleep a bit later then 5. thank you nintendo ds! he even waited-on his own- before tearing into his santa gifts, remembering that we would pray as a family thanking God for the wonderful gift of His son, Jesus Christ!

here he is opening his biggest wish, super mario brothers wii game. ooh the fun we've already had with that!  

the roo, not knowing the excitement before her, slept until her normal wake up time of 9ish.

she slept with 'sweet pea' ...a stocking gift from nana's. this is a neat little baby for her since her daddy calls her sweet 'p' :o)

 
 time to get out of the bed & into the living room...christmas awaits!

this little piggy was peeking out of her little stocking. i may have informed st. nick that it would be a fabulous stocking stuffer since the roo played with one just like it at walmart & it kept her & everyone who passed us by entertained for a solid 30 minutes as she jigged to it's obnoxious oinking of jingle bells!

and there is the baby doll we asked for! the one she saw as an itty bitty baby on our first trip to the baby boutique on magazine street in new orleans. baby stella with a paci. she loved that baby on the shelf. darn pig is just really cool though!

look everybody...it's oinking 'jingle bells!'

wait...is that a baby?

see...she is excited about the baby (just not enough to toss the pig). ha!

look at that little stocking :o) next year we'll have to update the whole family's to match. i love our current stockings, but p has to have one that matches, of course.

checking out the big brother's game...still with the pig ;o)

heather left nana's and went to spend the night at her mom's. she was back home before 10 and caught up on her santa before we opened gifts under the tree.

a pair of toms! and santa is a funny sort of fellow :o) anyone who knows heather understands her love for ketchup...guess santa thought she needed some for her purse!

i'm wondering if the roo didn't partake in santa's snack of cookies & milk...that belly begs the question!

on to our presents under the tree. among them...pj's for heather & for bennett...some new underware...just what he always wanted :o)

we got the roo a jewelry box complete with the twirling ballerina.

yeah...she knows she wasn't suppose to do that...look at her face.

oh i love how she squats down now rather than plopping on her hiney!

glad there was an extra ballerina hidden in there...i have a feeling we might need her!

oh! and she got a wooden puzzle of shapes. she liked the taste of all of them & i had to gather it up & put it away until she can keep the pieces out of her mouth. stinker!

all of nana's family came & we had our feast of dressing, turkey, & dumplings. smoked ham, more turkey, pineapple casserole, peas, carrot souffle, broccoli casserole, shoepeg corn casserole, cream corn, sister rolls, sweet tea, red velvet cake, chocolate pie, lemon icebox pie and whatever i've left out. feast, i tell you!!

pailyn got a good 2+ hour nap after gifts and on into everyone arriving and eating lunch she woke up happy and rested!

the roo loved her some dressing! nana's dressing is easily the tastiest dressing you'll ever taste! she liked the dumplings too & i have no doubt nana snuck her some sweat tea cause that's what nanas do. i gave her a taste of the icing on the red velvet cake and she loved me for it!

she was her normal busy-body self throughout the day, toddling all around the house showing off for everyone. she let us play a game of trivial pursuit 90s, catch phrase, and we had a wii bowling tournament (i bowled a 216 i believe, unheard of for mii, (ha! ...see what i did there?!) winning the first round! we also played super mario wii...what fun!!

after everyone left it was time for bed for one tired little baby girl. she sat right here while i prepped her bottle. paci in upside down, hanging on to her new friends, sweat pea and baby. :o) what a blessed day, she couldn't have been better & i know she enjoyed the chaos every bit as much as we all do!

merry christmas pailyn! what a perfect age for your first christmas to come along :o) you made the day extra special for us all!   
  
 

twas the night before christmas...

and nana began a new tradition...

she sent us home from her house christmas eve with one more present & instructions to open it just before bed.

 

that nana is brilliant i tell 'ya! she gave them the classic the night before christmas storybook. not just an ordinary storybook, but one in which she had recorded herself reading it :o) what a fabulous idea!

pailyn quickly recognized a familiar voice & just like any book she got excited :o) see her pointing to something on the page in the photo above? notice that she's making a sound too with that little mouth? i can hear it right now...it's the sound she makes when she points at something...always the same sound, lol...and excied one!

they listed to their new book being read a couple times.

 

her turn to hold it :o)

she loves a good story!

bennett, while the roo listened to the story some more & tried to eat the book a little was quite concerned with getting santa's snack out & getting to bed :o)

we always have high expectations on baking something homemade, but i make sure there is a back up. santa has enjoyed our fudge and bennett and heather decorated sugar cookies in the past, but he doesn't seem to mind store bought either :o)

  

christmas eve at nana's

is always how we begin our christmas. we head there for dinner...sometimes we have breakfast food-pancakes, sausage, eggs, etc. this year we had fried deer meat (the last in my freezer as a matter of fact, gasp!) and biscuits...mmmm & we open gifts.

nana has always gone a bit overboard with christmas gifts-she always has. i get it though because i'm much like her in the aspect of gifting. i am not the parent who takes my kids to the toy isle each walmart trip & lets them select something & when they do see something and ask, the answer is generally 'no.' she was the same way with me as a child, so my guess is it's something that has rubbed off. but when christmas rolls around...all limitations are off (subject to available finances, lol) and we go a bit crazy on the little people & enjoy every second of it!

this year was no different...my three could have left nana's and not gotten another single thing & made out very well! we all love nana and her christmas spirit!

the roo loves gracie the dog!

check out that little round bottom would you! she decided she really wanted to check out the ornaments on nana's tree! along with anything & everything she didn't need to mess with (as usual). look at the determination on that baby's face...

(place family pic at nana's here)

we engaged her in a little elf action & had her help pass out presents.

only she liked to just hang onto them for herself :o)

the big sister with her neatly stacked packages...

pailyn, being the youngest got to go first. she dumped these fabulous shoes out of a bag and was in heaven chewing on them! she loves shoes in her mouth.

she also opened this steering wheel and loved it!!

bennett had two big wishes this year. one was a ds...he's wanted one for a few years and i've fought it. this year nana won out & got him one. look at the glee on his little face, would you?!

a new 'thing' of p's to do is to point at stuff. this is an ornament she was relentless about trying to snatch off the tree, so nana finally just gave up and gave it to her to play with (you know because i took away the shoes before she completely ate through he strap & the steering wheel isn't nearly as exciting as an ornament she isn't suppose to have). i will say, she selected a good ornament to play with...it was one nana had made featuring her (the roo) in a pink tutu.

me helping her get into one of her presents...

a favorite gift that (even though i helped nana get her prints on this dull clay plate weeks ago) i had totally forgotten about! isn't it precious?! a place in new orleans does these and nana plans on adding  to the collection each year with more plates and she mentioned a platter with the roo and the big kids too. how fabulous?! i confess, that our christmas lunch is far too big a spread to enjoy on 'fine china' so we opt for the hefty divider plates around here :o) ...it would be nice to do a little family meal during the holidays using these special dishes though. i love that momma helps create such great traditions!

and these last two i just love together! pailyn is chatting with her favorite pooch gracie and loving it. nana begins conversing to the big kids across the room and the roo hangs on every word. adorable!

nana sent us home that night with one more special gift and instructions to open it just before bed. another sweet, sweet tradition to blog & share pictures of coming soon!

her at 10 months old

 

as she zooms right past yet another month...here are some things i've observed over her 9th month...

you're adorable. i'm partial, but still...you're adorable!

 

you are officially mobile! this began the day you turned 10 months old, so you've been walking for a month now and had it mastered within a week or so. oh my. you are something & are into everything!

this was one of your first walks. you were in deep concentration...note the tongue, lol!

 
 
you are into everything. yes, it bears repeating!

you are crazy about your big brother, but don't appreciate it when he is sent to 'fetch' you from another room (when you leave the den...he often goes to go get you & return you, lol) you make this difficult for him by throwing your arms up in an attempt to slide out of his hands.

and in case it isn't apparent from the above picture...you are a chunk. a butterball. chunky monkey.

 

you are working on those front teeth! the two on the bottom and one on the top have sense been joined by two more on the top. first one just to my right of the right center tooth that came out of nowhere (i guess i was on the look out for the left center tooth and that one snuck up on me & was almost all the way through before i even noticed.) and the left center one is breaking through now. you're handling teething very well!

 

you love snacktime & i'm thinking it might be a good idea to buy stock in gerber's puffs and yogurt melts!

you enjoyed your very first real shower & loved it!

we spent much of the past month inside because of yucky, rainy weather. but you love to be outside!

 

rain rain go away...the roo wants to go out and play!

 

finally...after christmas we got to spend some time outside watching bennett shoot his rocket & fly his rubberband plane :o)

back to the part about you being a chuck. seriously...you are. daddy, heather, and i were just observing that your thigh is thicker than it is long & that your mastering the walking skill came so easy for you because of your low center of gravity, lol! you are super petite, yet super plump. all in all...it's super adorable!

 

have i mentioned you *love* shoes? well...you love shoes!

you're a saints fan! really...who isn't this year, but you would have been regardless...your nana would have seen to it if need be. she hasn't had to...we don't miss a game in this house & you dress for the occasion!

 

you have acquired a great appreciation for the opening song on christmas vacation (your momma's favorite movie of all time, followed closely by the sound of music, mary poppins and annie) you stop whatever you're doing and watch the cartoon santa struggle with his delivery :o) and dance a jig too.

(insert video here)

your vocabulary hasn't expanded much. basically you love babbling momma, dadda, and a few other 'b' and 'd' sounds. you've said bye bye before, but aren't a fan of doing it on command. you prefer to wave hello to people as opposed to waving bye. you do both, but greet people with a wave if they pay you attention in public or at church :o) you even have your own little sound for 'hey!' while you aren't putting together 'real' words just yet...you sure aren't quiet either...preferring to speak in your own language for the time being.

you enjoyed your first christmas almost as much as i enjoyed watching you enjoy it! a new fifth stocking was added. new traditions began. watching the big kids grow up so very quickly is just a little less painful knowing that's not it for daddy & i. we all- heather & bennett included love our little caboose...God certainly knew what He was doing!

 
bring on the 11th month! (and please let it pass by a bit more slowly than the last 10)

dressing her up for christmas sunday

it's no secret that before bennett was born, i wanted a boy. no secret at all & i so enjoyed having a sweet baby boy to snuggle with. when we announced our happy little surprise 19ish months ago, everyone wanted a baby girl. i never really vocalized what i wanted; i think i honestly didn't care...i had my boy that i so wanted & spent the first part of my pregnancy getting use to the idea of a new baby!

when we learned that pailyn was a girl i immediately began thinking clothes, hair, shoes, accessories! and of course i spent a ton of prayer time praying for her health followed closely by the request that she be as beautiful as her big brother :o)

all that to say...oh how i have enjoyed having a little girl! she's so girly! she carries herself like a girl-oh at the girly hand gestures! she has her daddy's heart like only a little girl can have it. she screams like a girl. she's obtained the nicknames 'drama queen' and 'princess' because of her girly ways.

and she looks adorable in each and every outfit, dress, accessory, and pair of shoes i put on her :o) ...i played with dolls & barbie until i was old enough that i knew it wasn't cool anymore...i'm enjoying having my own babydoll to dress up!

that brings me to christmas sunday :o) she was a real live babydoll in her dress. see for yourself!

 a quick snap before the fabulous car-seat wrinkle set in! her daddy had to come assist hold her in place so i could get a shot of miss busy-body-can't-stand-still for even one second.

after a fabulous christmas program by our choir and a nap, we headed outside for a couple with the big brother. heather preformed at church and wasn't dressed for pictures, so here are just the little two.

she's not good & awake just yet i'm afraid, so mr. bennett does a little wake up performance, and gets a classic roo response...

to which he replies to with a classic ben response.

this one...not anything stellar, but i'll take it...you see above what i'm working with, right?

i know...sweet :o) after he did this i told him he was free to go & he went.

and she watched him go...

and she didn't like it.

and she showed her girly drama-queen self. and right now, while it's manageable...i love it :o)

there was one particular present she liked

a lot!

she was able to soften up an edge and eat some of the paper away. it happened to be her gift to the big brother :o) ...he never even noticed.
 

she loves santa

 

you heard me right & can see it for yourself! december 17th...marked on the calendar & a true countdown occurred awaiting our big shopping trip and photo with santa at the mall of louisiana in baton rouge. her bff, amelia came along & brought her mom too :o)

the girls were amazing. just amazing! they both chatted and traded paci's and gold fish and such in the backseat for the hour + long drive (we left well before the roo generally even wakes up, mind you) and each decided it would be a good time to fall asleep as we exited onto bluebonnet. it was a nasty, rainy day, so they snoozed while angela & i stalked a decent parking spot. here they are after running through the rain to get into the mall :o) (thanks angela for the pics!)

we did santa pics first thing & i just really had a hunch p would delight in sitting in his lap & i was right! she looked and smiled at the camera and then wouldn't come to me when i held my arms out to get her. i chatted with santa about how she wanted a baby doll for christmas & he let me know how much he enjoyed having such a content baby girl to sit in his lap. :o)

mimi wasn't as much of a fan of jolly 'ol saint nick, but was adorable nonetheless! they let us stroll and shop and each got stroller naps at perfect times and played amongst the clothes in dillard's and fought a bit over a fabulous polo outfit they each wanted. and just generally seemed to enjoy their outing! they hung out a bit during a bathroom break...it was so much fun to see the roo interacting with a friend her age!

we wrapped up our shopping, had worked up an appetite and headed to a very fave restaurant, bravos! for a yummo dinner & can i just say...after a  l o n g  day...near perfect behavior from these two! they loved the bread and were very tired by the time we were done! amelia was out quickly and p needed some cuddle time from mrs. angela to finally give it up. we had much fun and i so look forward to making the santa pics in br an annual tradition!

photos taken 12.17.09
  

she likes the ornaments. i know, imagine that!

it's been fun keeping the busiest, most curious, most strong willed little toddler out of the tree this christmas! look at her checking up to see if i'm paying attention...

ooooohhh!! look how pretty...*must* have it!

pailynnn? are you suppose to touch the ornaments?

plop. i'll take my punishment...i *want* this big breakable one, please.

this little series could have been photographed at least once every single day.

ETA: only one ornament broken, and it was technically after christmas...a ball. shattered. i feel like we made out well!