at 11/05/12 8:02PM
Not sure now many read this, but I am looking for ideas for Christmas traditions to start with Abigail. Right now, we do our family gift exchange before christmas, travel to my husband's family's house for christmas day, then travel to my parents' for new years'. I would like some ideas for fun things to always do with the kids to make our small family gift exchange more exciting. What are your family christmas traditions?
at 09/13/12 10:45AM
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Well, Elijah is 2 months old now and doing great! He is sleeping through the night (usually between 5-7 hours, but he went 8 hours one night) pretty consistently, weighs 11 lbs 9 oz and is growing so fast! He's such a smiley baby loves for anyone to smile and talk to him. He will smile and coo back. He has had some tummy problems (probably a dairy issue) but he is still happy most of the time. We are so blessed.
Abigail is doing great too. She just crossed the 19 lb mark a couple of months ago! YAY! I think Elijah is going to pass her up soon, but that's ok. If I am going to have one of my kids be super tiny, I would rather it by my daughter than my son. Abigail has really started to love singing. She Loves it when Daddy leads "Happy To-Day" (I'm happy to day) and according to her she's happy because "He's taken all my friends away" Ha ha. She loves to "dance" to any kind of music, especially while singing her ABC's. We are working on the books of the Bible and she's doing pretty well. She loves kissing her brother and is a big help to me. She loves to "clean up" though often wants to pull everything out after. We are still working on potty training, but she almost always stays dry during naps and nighttime. She has such a tender heart and always tries to please. When we go out shopping I can trust her to stop when I say stop, and to stay with me, which is so great while also taking care of Elijah.
Jacob and I are doing well, the last couple of months we have been keeping our obligations to a minimum, but things are picking up now. We went to Oxford over Labor Day and it was a good trip, and the kids did really well. Jacob is going back to Oxford, Lord willing, on Oct. 27 to preach in a lecturship, and we are trying to work in a visit to my parents and grandparents. I am hoping to stay there for a week or so with the kids.
We bought 1/4 of a cow from some friends and are really excited to get it sometime next week or the week after. We bought 1/8 about 3 years ago and it was so so much better than the beef in the grocery store. We get better cuts than I usually will pay for, and, on average end up spending less per pound total. Yay! I had filled the freezer with easy meals before Elijah was born, so the timing is great because the freezer is getting pretty empty.
I mostly posted this so I will remember what was going on around this time, so sorry if it was boring :) Hope all of you are doing well!
at 07/15/12 8:39PM
Thanks Kendra, changing the Avatar is pretty easy so at least here is one picture of Elijah. He is doing well, we got home tomorrow and of course he has his days and nights confused, but that is pretty normal. Jacob's mom is here to help out keeping the house up and with Abigail while I work on nursing Elijah. Next week, my mom is planning on coming to help. YAY! :) So blessed around here.
at 07/13/12 9:21AM
Elijah was born yesterday at 1:09 pm weighing 6lb 12 oz, 19 in long. He is doing great! So so blessed! Check Facebook for pictures, I don't remember how to do pictures on here.
at 07/05/12 10:48AM
Not inducing today, scheduled for next week.
Our Christmas Eve tradition is to read The Gift of the Magi by O Henry and talk about it together.
We always got an ornament each for Christmas, and then as adults, we had a collection of our own to start with.
A couple weeks before Christmas, we decorated the tree all together- used to include picking out a live tree till we went faux. :) But we always always play the Muppet Christmas cd while we decorate.
We always got a junk-food-cereal to eat for breakfast, because my parents never bought those.
Mom makes "Christmas tree bread," which is basically a giant Christmas-tree shaped yeast roll with green icing.
We always had to wait until EVERYONE was up- no one was allowed out to the living room where the tree and presents were till we could all go together.
And then there's all the food. We have a really traditional Christmas dinner with the ham and sweet potatoes and LOTS OF PIE. We support pie.
~ Driving around looking at lights
~ making bread/cookies for families at our congregation. I have done this for a few years. I start making loaves a weekend or two before and by the week of Christmas we have 40 or so. Elderly LOVE this! This year, my girls can "help"
~ watching christmas movie in our pjs on Fridays in December...we don't watch much tv so this is special