Leading up to Christmas

There are only 4 days left until Christmas. This month flew by in a flurry of parties, gift buying, baking, programs, and festivals.  I had a constant battle of making the season fun and magical for the kids (really Mady, because what does Owen really know at this point!), and keeping us rooted in true meaning.  I think we make it too hard on ourselves, or maybe that's just me.  At one point I felt like Charlie Brown, and wanted to scream out "Can anybody tell me what Christmas is all about?!"  And today at church, I got my answer from Pastor Jason: Christmas is for sinners.  That means, Christmas is for everyone.  It's not just for the religious, the good people, or the Christians.  That night, long ago, we were given a gift.  We were ALL given a gift.  I'm taking my gift, and enjoying it with a grateful heart, during these last few days left of the Christmas season, and every other day of the year.     It was a great sermon today, and with it being our last service at Gospel Life for the year, I left thankful for having found it.

While we were busy, this month, a lot of it has been with fun things.  We have been in New Braunfels for six months now!  This time last year, this wasn't even a blip on our radar.  Oh, what a change a year makes!

Christmas tree lighting downtown:

Christmas in Boerne:

Wassailfest:

Getting the Christmas tree:

Decorating the house:

Santa visits:

Poor Owen was not a fan

First time to see The Nutcracker:

The next morning she told me "Those ballerinas spin around too much Mommy" LOL

Visit from Lito and Lita:

Dine and Flick with St. Nick:

Halloween/Thanksgiving

Oh yes, I'm posting about Halloween in December.  Surprisingly my little Frozen obsessed daughter did not want to be Anna or Elsa for Halloween.  She wanted to be Ariel, so of course, I had to dress up Owen like Sebastian the crab.  They looked so cute!  The wig did not last past this picture though.

We went to Port Arthur for Thanksgiving, and spent it with the family.  It was nice and relaxing, filled with great food and good company.  We had fried turkey for the first time this year, and it was wonderful.  I think we started a new tradition! Our little man got to have some turkey too for his first Thanksgiving!

During the month of November, I put up a "thankful tree" in our house.  I traced Mady's hand and cut out her handprints to make the leaves.  On them we would write throughout the month various things we were thankful for, and put them on the tree.  It was a great everyday reminder of all that we have to be thankful for.  We will definitely be doing this again.

10 (and a half) months

Yes, our little man is ten (and a half) months.  Life has been busy, and before I knew it, we were halfway through December.  From Thanksgiving to now we have been non-stop, but I guess that's most people these days.  I wrapped up my online classes this past weekend, and feel like I can breathe a little easier now.  I've found that working from home can be tough sometimes with two small kids!  One of my new year's resolutions will be to be more intentional about carving out dedicated time for my classes.  Let's see how that goes!

Owen is doing great, and getting so big!  He. is. everywhere.  He crawls all over the place, pulls up on everything, cruises around anything he can hold on to, and gets into everything.  He can make a mess like nobody else.  He loves to get into everything, take it all out of its place, and he is great at ignoring you!  He would much rather play with random things around the house like doorstops, and paper, than actual toys.  He's now using his walker too, and can walk around the house with it.  He loves it, and has a huge smile on his face while he's doing it.

He can make shopping a little tricky

And he's such a great helper

His world of food has expanded quite a bit and he loves table food.  We haven't found anything he doesn't love.  He's a bottomless pit.  He will eat if there is food in front of him, and I haven't ever had him stop eating with food on his plate.  I don't think he ever gets full!

Sleeping is great, with him sleeping through the night, and sleeping until 7!!!  Because he was so sensitive to caffeine when he was really small, I had to cut it out.  That was really tough, especially with him waking up no later than 6 every morning.  I brought back caffeine last week with a cup of coffee in the morning, and it hasn't affected him.  So I'm sleeping until close to 7, and drinking my morning cup of caffeine, and I'm a brand new woman!  Yay!

Those eyelashes!

We got some wonderful news this this month.  We had a follow-up appointment with a pediatric urologist in San Antonio to check Owen's kidneys.  They are now normal, and he has hydronephrosis no more!  The doctor said that in majority of cases, there is no re-occurrence, and he should be normal from here on out.

Goodbye my friend

A few weeks ago we said goodbye to our fur baby, Lucy.  It took me a while to write a post about it.  I didn't really want to, and then I was just putting it off.  She was a big part of our lives, and so I knew I had to write something.  Nick and I got her when we were in college, and had her for nine great years.  She was our first baby, before kids were even a thought in our minds.  She was my study buddy in college, my companion during my many road trips to Port Arthur and then Fort Worth to see Nick during my last semester of college.  She was with us when we got married, graduated, moved into our first house, and had our kids.  She was sweet, full of energy, protective, and loyal.  She LOVED her ball.  She could chase that thing all day, everyday.  Sadly, she lost her eyesight last year, and was never the same.  She went blind just at the time Mady was getting old enough to really enjoy her and play with her.  As much as we miss her, we know this was the right choice for her.  We'll always love you and miss you Lucy.  There will never be another dog like you.

9 Months

Our little man has reached the nine month mark, and it has been full of new things.  His nine month check up was on Halloween, and we here are his latest stats:

Weight: 19lbs 10oz (35th percentile)

Height: 28.125 inches (46th percentile)

Head: 18 inches (63rd percentile)

This little guy is on the move now. He is an official crawler, and can get anywhere he wants to go.  Getting him to try and crawl was tough because we couldn't find a motivator for him.  If he was playing with a toy and I pulled it away he would just find something else to play with.  This went on and on until he was left in the middle of the room with nothing but himself, and he was just fine with that!  Lazy little man.  But those days are over, and now that he can crawl around, it has opened up a whole new world, and he wants to touch it all!  His favorite right now is the doorstop.  I guess it's the noise it makes, but he loves to flick that thing over and over.

 He is also pulling up on almost everything, and cruising around while holding on to things, like the coffee table.  With him being more mobile, that does mean more disagreements with Mady.  She is not fond of the fact that he can now take her toys, and knock over and destroy her creations.  I'm now taking on the job of referee and it is only the beginning!

He is eating like a champ, and we are now giving him some table foods, which he loves.  No teeth on top yet, but he has four teeth on the bottom. He's still learning how to get it into his mouth, but he loves trying!  Sleep is going well, with two naps a day, and sleeping through the night.  He is, and always has been an early riser.  With the time change he was ready for the day at 5 am.  Thankfully, today we slept in until 6:30.  

Owen has always been more of the silent type, especially compared to his sister at this age, but the past week that has changed some.  He is starting to talk more, and using several consonants.  He can say mama, dada, baba, wawa.  He is recognizing words now too, like mommy and daddy, bath, and nose.

October was full of things, and it just flew by.  We had grandparents come visit, we were out of town, we had to say goodbye to our sweet dog Lucy, Mady started ballet, and Halloween.  We have a lot of fun things to look forward to in November, including Thanksgiving!  One of my favorite holidays, because of the time with family, focusing on what we have to be thankful for, and most importantly, the food!  ;)