The Winters' World: January 2015

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Elise at 9 and 10 months!

This pretty lady turned 10 months old, and before that she turned 9 months old...haha. Can't keep up with time these days. We sure love our little sister so much! And I want to document all that she's been up to these days. For the sake of time, it will be all over the place as it comes to my tired mommy brain :-)

10-months-old photo shoot

All over the place, this gal!

And whose momma didn't do a post for 9 months old? So the two months will be combined (poor third child :-)

9 months stats: 22 lbs (93%) 30 inches (99%)

Love this little lady (wearing a hand-me-down outfit, everything except the bow, from Cousin Claire!)

At 9 months, she is babbling "mama and dada," and we are starting to sign for meal time (more, all down, milk). She still only has two teeth this month. She is army crawling, trying to pull up, scooting backwards, and she often does a plank pose :-)

She is all about copying, clapping, waving and likes to be on her toes when in her jumperoo (maybe a future ballerina?).

At this age, she likes to pat hard surfaces, shake her head, and breath heavily through her nostrils to be funny (need to post the video). She LOVES paper products (all my kids did for some reason...give them a wipie at this age and they're set!), and doorstoppers, ugh. You can ask her, "Where's Elise?," and she'll put her head down and lift up for me to say "Peek-a-boo!" Love love this!

She is finally sleeping through the night consistently, woohoo!

Regarding eating, she is usually eating what I cook for us, so table food, and we are down to four nursings or bottles a day! For food, she really likes carrots, avocados, and sweet potatoes

At this age, she is showing a lot more of her personality! She wants to be a part of the busyness that is her big brothers, only sits still for books and when having her nails trimmed (I see pedicures in our future:-) .

At ten months, this gal is busy! She started crawling all over the place (as of 12/23),

is trying to pull up on everything, is eating three meals (table foods) a day, is cutting THREE more teeth (to make for a five total teeth), waving hi and bye and pointing! She loves to give kisses, clap, play peekaboo, and to play with zippers, light switches, the dog bowls, and door-stoppers.

Some days she is down to only one nap a day, all depending on how late she slept in the morning and our morning's activities. She is babbling new words, "Doggie and Hobo (our dog's name), is copying us (coughs, squeals, etc.), and is working hard at signing.

She pulls anyone's hair if it is within reach (common victims are her mommy and brothers),

gives the best wet kisses, sings herself to sleep for naps and bedtime (doesn't need rocked or pacifier).

At this age, she is obsessed with light switches and towel racks :-) She is babbling like crazy and added "dada" to the mix. She is consistently sleeping through the night (woohoo!) even with the teeth coming in. She likes to sing herself to sleep, and does not use a paci at all. I am signing "more," "all done" and "milk" with her.

E loves to pat tables/books/anything she can get her little paws on,

shake her head from side to side quickly, scrunch her nose!

This month, E had an allergic reaction to penicillin after she was put on an antibiotic for another ear infection. You couldn't tell by her demeanor though!

At this age, she is so interactive!! Little sis LOVES our dog Hobo,

And her bubbas!

We love little sis and this age so much!

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

New Years 2014

We had friends over and grilled out for NYE...what a wild and crazy way to ring in 2015, right?!

The kids seemed to have fun, too (and Elise stole Matthew's pacifier all night, like she did with cousin Claire at Christmas)

My 2014 collage. SO thankful for the blessings we've received!

It's been a tradition now for 3 or 4 years for us to have Christmas with my dad and stepmom on New Year's Day (we love being able to see every side of both families...and my dad's famous Hoppin' John dish :-)

The littlest two, Josie (2) and Elise (who isn't much littler :-)

Present time!

The oldest two

Middle cousin, for now, Blake plays great with both sets of cousins

Sissy had fun!

Best gift ever...a custom made blanket. As a friend said, "And you though their heads were big before this?" Hahaha!

Pops and E. She had just started clapping a lot right before Christmas!

We also celebrated Aunt Maggie's and Aspen's birthdays (Dec. 28 and 29th)

Elise is mesmerized by beards!

The whole cousin crew!

My seeeeesters!

And that's a wrap!

Christmas preparation and Eve 2014

We always set up the Christmas tree the Sunday night after Thanksgiving
My big helpers cheesing it up for the camera:

All three cheesing! LOVE!!

My greatest gifts in life, them and their Daddy!

At the beginning of December, E hadn't quite learned to crawl yet. Thank goodness!

We LOVE footed pajamas around here!

We had two Christmas programs, the one at the kid's school (only 3 years and up perform))

And the one at our church!

Elise was a proud supporter and attendee of both :-)

Our church puts on an awesome Breakfast with Santa event!

And they have professional photos with Santa available! unfortunately, Blake was having a "2 moment," as we call them. Two outta three ain't, bad, right?

And, he's back!

So we went to Cabela's, where we had better luck with Santa for Blake...only problem was, his suit made Sissy want to sneeze, haha! There's always next year :-)

We do an Advent Calendar, and our activities are chock full of crafts, some service projects, and fun Christmas-themed activities. Making our Reindeer fingerprint cards!

Our upstairs tree (it is only 4 ft) holds all of the kids' ornaments they've made. It's my favorite tree! And our calendar sits right by it. Jameston and Blake loved waking up each morning to find our elf on the shelf, but what they loved more was finding out the day's activity

Heart melt

What's becoming a tradition is taking our letters to Santa to the Galleria, where Macy's donates money for every stamped envelope. And we all love seeing the world's tallest indoor tree!

More crafting!

And wrapping!

Brett had to work Christmas Eve morning, so the kids and I enjoyed a North Pole breakfast with our Elf before he had to leave (complete with powdered donuts, green (spinach) smoothies, and bananas :-)