Pre-Christmas Family Celebration

Due to the busy schedules on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, my parents have my brother and I (and our families obviously) over on a night either before or after Christmas depending on everyone's schedules to eat dinner together and exchange presents.  We have found this to be way easier than trying to find a time on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day to get together and exchange presents.  This year we did it on Sunday December 23. 

My mom made italian beef, cheesy potatoes, salad, corn casserole and of course cocktails for us to enjoy.  After dinner the kiddos were able to open their presents.  Jack's big present from my parents was a bike.  And of course it had to come fully equipped with a helmet, a bell and a horn.....(thanks mom and dad for those last two items I mentioned).  

My brother and I decide this year that we were not going to buy for each other's kids.  It just gets to be too much, and neither of our kids are really in need of anything, so we thought it would be best.  I know I might sound like a Scrooge by saying this, but sometimes you just have to draw the line on buying presents and gift giving at the holidays because it can get really out of control.  This year we cut back and I really feel like it made the holidays more enjoyable.  I wasn't going crazy running around trying to find gifts for someone that already has everything, and we were not overwhelmed with gifts that our kids had received from others.  And let's face it, spending less money is a good thing. So I am definitely pushing for this same thing to take place next year.  

Happy Holidays!!!

 

Christmas Pictures by HK Photography

I love having my friend, Heather Kaszynski, at HK Photography take pictures of my kids.  She does such a great job and she has some really unique ideas and style.  I just love her.  Of course I had to have her take pictures of Jack and Teagan for our Christmas card this year.  I am really happy with how they turned out. 

Thanksgiving 2012

I think Thanksgiving might just be one of my favorite days out of the whole year.  Mainly because it kicks off the most exciting time of the year, Christmas.  And I usually think of December 26th as the most depressing day of the year because Christmas is over, you have to start thinking about taking down all of the pretty decorations, lights and trees.  Now I am going off on a tangent, I need to focus and get back to our Thanksgiving this year.  

For Thanksgiving this year, Nick's parents and sister and her family went down to my inlaws house in Lake of the Ozarks.  So the weekend before Thanksgiving we had Nick's side of the family over for pizza so we could have a little early Thanksgiving with them.  We ordered pizza, enjoyed some drinks, played with the kids and spent some time together.  It was a lot of fun.  

These are the only pictures that I took that night.  This is Chuck, our really close family friend, this is the first time he has held Teagan.  He says that when babies are little he is too nervous to hold them because they are too fragile, so Teagan has finally reached the age that she is "tough" enough to be held by Chuck, so of course I had to take a picture of it. 

 

On Thanksgiving we went to my Aunt Sherry's house with my mom's side of the family.  Eventhough pretty much everyone lives in the area, we really don't get to see everyone together at the same time very often.  So it is always nice to have everyone together.  Teagan was very willing to give just about anything a taste, Jack was a little more picky.  He stuck to the mini hot dogs and Ritz crackers.  

Teagan and my Aunt Carla

Teagan and Cassidy

Angie and Teagan

Angie and Jack playing around and being silly......Angie really did a good job of entertaining the kiddos that day

 And of course on Black Friday we started decorating the house for Christmas.  I would take breaks from decorating to do a little online shopping, and I was really impressed with some of the bargains and sales that some of the stores were offering that day.  I would much rather bounce back and forth from store to store to compare prices and deals that have to fight the crowds at the actual stores.  All of the stores that I ordered stuff from were offering the same or better deals online than they were in the stores on Black Friday.  This Santa was very happy.  It was a little more difficult to get the house decorated with Teagan checking everything out, so I tried to be as productive as I could during her naps. 

My Little Helper

Nick went to the "Men's Night" thing that they have at the Moose every year on Black Friday, so my mom, Nana and Toni came over to help me decorate and we ordered a pizza.  I can tell you that we seemed to do way more eating, talking and drinking than we did decorating......actually I don't think any decorating was done that night. 

Toni and Jack doing what they do best.....singing.  Jack just LOVES Toni

My Nana and Teagan, we are definitely going to miss Nana when she goes to Florida for the winter

 We had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving weekend and we were thankful to be able to spend so much time with our loved ones.  Jack and Teagan are so lucky to have such wonderful and loving people in their lives. 

9 Months Old (11-24-12)

9 Months In......9 Months Out......but it felt like being pregnant for 9 months went a lot SLOWER than the 9 months that Teagan has been here. 

I had to move Teagan from her bedroom floor to the chair in her room because I just couldn't get her to sit still for the pictures

Teagan continues to be a delightful, smiley, sweet and cuddly little sweetheart.  Her personality is starting to come out a little more, and I think it is safe to say that Teagan will probably be more demanding, outspoken, and voistrous(sp?) as her brother.  Now don't get me wrong, Teagan is a very good, easy and enjoyable little girl, but Nick said it best when he said, "Teagan is always happy, but Teagan is never satisfied." That is our little princess in a nut shell.  Always on the move, always checking things out, and she wants what she wants when she wants it.  

Yes she is at the park in her PJs, it was a lazy Sunday

Teagan still likes her baby food, but she has really been showing an interest in what we are eating.  We have introduced her to macaroni & cheese, grilled cheese, toast with butter/jelly, french fries, hamburger, Rip's chicken and pancakes. And so far she has been a fan of everything. If she sees you eating anything, and it doesn't matter what it is, she wants to eat something.  So you either have to hide so she doesn't see you, or you better have a snack ready to give her.....maybe we did make the right choice when we picked out her Halloween costume....lol.

Teagan continues to sleep through the night.  She is usually sleeping by 8:00-8:30 and she is nearly impossible to wake up in the morning. No matter how tired or grumpy she is when I wake her up in the morning, she always lights up and puts on the biggest smile as soon as she sees her brother.  It just melts my heart to see how much she loves him and how excited she gets when he is around.  And Jack loves his sister, but he does get a little annoyed when she gets into his stuff....can't say I blame him.  But he is always concerned and asking what happened to her whenever she is upset and crying.  

Lately it seems that Teagan's favorite thing to play with are Jack's matchbox cars.  It might be because they are small and easy for her to pick up, or because we have about a million of them in our house so they are very easily accessible and on any given day at any given moment you can walk through our living room and find about 20 matchbox cars.  So our little princess likes to play with cars, at least she is fully accessorized with a headband while she is playing with them.  

Notice what she is playing with....of course it is a car

Teagan has started to pull herself up onto the furniture and onto the fireplace hearth.  I am interested to see when she will actually start walking.  And this might sound weird, but I am having the hardest time getting Teagan's feet into any shoes that she has.  And it isn't due to the shoes being too small or anything like that, but Teagan seems to keep her toes crunched up quite a bit, which makes it very difficult to get her feet into her shoes.....has anyone else had this problem? 

This month we switched Teagan to her new car seat, well actually not new, it is Jack's old car seat and Jack is the one who ended up getting a new car seat....lucky guy.  I have mixed emotions on Teagan being out of the carrying carseat.  It is good because it gets a little difficult lugging that thing around all of the time, it is bad because I hate having to take her out of the carseat when she is sleeping.  So just a couple more months of being rear facing, and then Teagan can be turned around and face forward in her carseat.  

Happy 9 Months Teagan, We Love You