Happy New Year! and Merry Christmas :)

We're back in the swing of "normal life." The past 3 weeks were busy, but amazing! I hate that its all over. BUT, we had a super fun Christmas, an awesome 2 weeks in Texas AND we have a 1 year old! So 2012 started with a bang and hopefully that means this year is gonna be rockin :) My goal is to do a separate post for each event because I have a gazillion pictures...so hopefully this week I'll have some nights to Blog.

Christmas definitely took the cake this year. I know I've had some great Christmases, but this year, with a 2.5 year old, man oh man! It was so fun watching Raya open presents and hear all the commentary that came with it. She was full of pure excitement. Like true, "OH WOW!" and "Oh my gosh!" phrases we're coming out of her mouth left and right. It was so great. Her facial expressions and the enjoyment that was written all over her body was priceless. I've never had such a fun Christmas. We made cookies, talked about Santa, made sure to be "Nice and not Naughty." All the things you think make Christmas- yah, we probably did it. And because I'm OBSESSED with Christmas its not hard to see why I loved every minute of this season. The kids got A LOT of presents. In fact I'm pretty sure she's been opening presents for over a month, so I'm working on how to help her understand that opening presents like this doesn't happen year round. She loves opening presents. The 25 Days of Christmas was a total hit and, lucky for her, her baby brother really didn't care too much about opening any so she got to open all his too. We opened presents Christmas Eve at my Aunt's house. Then all day Christmas Day. Then had 2 more Christmases when we got to Texas, so Raya got lots of present opening opportunities :) Here's some pictures for your viewing enjoyment:

 We started Christmas morning at our house

After presents at our house we went to my Mom's (aka Santa's house ;)

 Last year Raya got a Mercedes and this year they got this! They are some lucky kids :)

He clearly was enjoying his 1st Christmas!

Coolest kids on the block

Apparently global warming is in FULL EFFECT. Its not weird to have weather like this in Cali for Christmas Day, but it was also this warm when we were in Texas! Wth?!

Christmas Dinner with Uncle B

Just a few of her presents: A princess house and sleeping bag/pillow. And headphones for her iPad. She had a great Christmas. And the next morning Kallen was enjoying them just as much :)

I was so thankful to be with family, to watch my kids enjoy 3 Christmas with all their grandparents, for beautiful weather and for beautiful children!  It was an incredible holiday season and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world :)

Keeping Up with Kallen-- 11 Months!

Well big guy, you turned 11 months on Dec 3rd. WOWWWWWW! 11 freakin months. And you get cuter and cuter ;)

 You're walking like a pro. And actually you've started "running." One of your favorite games is when I jog after you and say "Hey! Where are you going?! Get over here!" You look back at me and then turn the other way and run and giggle. It is SO CUTE! Seriously. I love that game. You let out the best giggles and smiles. Uh. You kill me! And you've started climbing. Help me.

I don't know if you're teething or have a cold but you've had a runny nose for like 3 weeks. Its so annoying. Lol. I know it drives you crazy. It drives me crazy too. I don't see any new teeth coming in, so maybe its the others just coming down more? You have 8 teeth-top 4 and bottom 4. You still have baby breath, but every once in awhile I get a whiff of your morning breath and my heart breaks a little. Day by day you're turning into a toddler. I know I know, its what happens. And I so love watching you grow, but it still kills me ;)

You are really happy. You're still a pretty calm and cool baby. You love to cuddle. You give the best hugs and kisses. You don't really cry. Well, unless you hit your head. I'd cry too if I was you. You've taken some nasty falls. Luckily none of them have cracked your head open or really even left a bump. Your head might be made of steal ;) You really only fuss when you're hungry or just want to cuddle. I feel so lucky that I have such a cuddle bug. For as long as you live you can always sit in my lap and hug on me whenever your little heart desires.

You're quite the tank. You weigh about 25lbs and wear 18month clothes. You're in a size 5 shoe and very close to being in a 6- like probably by the end of the month. Your feet are Flintstones feet! They're so wide and thick. Finding shoes for you is so much work. Seriously, I had at least 10 pairs of shoes in size 0 to 5 that you couldn't wear. At all. None of them. Grrrrr. So I'm thinking you might spend the next few years of your life in crocs :) Or just socks. Lol.

You love your big sister. You've started trying to pull her down and tackle her. Haha! If she's sitting in your chair you crawl up on her and sit on her. You cuddle up to her when you guys nap. And you think she's one of the funniest people ever (next to me ;) She loves making you laugh and you love laughing at her!

You're still taking 3 naps a day. Sometimes if we're out and about you'll do fine with just 2, but you prefer 3 :) And you almost always catch a little cat nap in the car- even if you've had 3 naps. Lol. You LOVE your sleep. The last few weeks you've been waking up when Gentry's getting ready for work, which is way early for me. Haha. For awhile you were waking up at 7:30 or 8, but now its more like 6:45-7. You sleep through the night...well until 4:30. You WILL NOT give up your morning bottle. Seriously, you're clearly starving after your 8 hours of sleep. So around 4:30 you wake up for your bottle and then go back to sleep until about 7.

I've started you on milk. I think we're at 50% formula 50% milk. So far its going fine. You eat any and every time I give you food. My little snacker :) You love string cheese and cheese puffs. You've also been liking bananas and crackers. Oh, your favorite food is gold fishes. Except I have to bite the tails off of all the ones I give you because you still gag on them too much if I don't, so that's kinda annoying. Don't they have mini gold fish? I need to find those...

You say "Mama" and "Dadda" and wave Bye. You say "Mama" just about all day. Its sweet! I'm trying to teach you to give high fives or fist bumps. I can't remember how old Raya was when she started but it was around this time. You throw a ball great and you can walk behind a ball and kick it all the way down the hall way. Remember, No football! Ok? I mean I guess you can be a kicker, but that's it. Lets stick to something with less head injuries...like basketball, or soccer, or water polo. I'm open :)

All in all you're a very easy baby. You're happy, cute and such a love bug.  I could sell babies like you for so much money. Hehe. You're turning into a bit of a flirt. And you're also bashful at times. You give the cutest bashful smile. And you also laugh out loud when you try and get someones attention. Or if we're all talking and laughing with Raya you start laughing too like "Hey guys, don't forget I'm over here!"

I love you sweet boy! Thank you for the being the best baby boy I could ever ask for. I can't believe you're almost 1!!! This has been the best year of my life. Thank you!
Xoxo,
Mom