Our First Christmas

Dear Little G,

Mommy and Daddy were so excited for our first Christmas together. We dreamed about it last year when you were still growing in Mommy's belly. You will come to find out your parents are crazy about the holidays. Mommy has a storage room just for her decorations and Daddy has a hard time going to sleep Christmas Eve because he is waiting for Santa Claus. We had lots of fun figuring out what we want to do with you every year. We like listening to other families and reading about what they do, and we also came up with some of our own ideas. Mommy can't wait to start the family traditions she has planned. We hope you love this time of year as much as us.

We had a very fun-filled Christmas weekend. We started with lunch with friends. You got to see your friend Hawken who is such a cutey.

You then played with your friends at church while we were with Uncle Lee, Aunt Marisa, and Grandpa and Dolores at Mommy's favorite service of the year. You got in a quick nap while driving to Big Papa's and Mimi's. Your cousin Leila hugged you right away, and we thought you all were so cute in your matching outfits.

It was hard to focus on anything other than this dessert display.

Since you got your first tooth the day before our holidays were filled with alot of this..

And Mommy survived by drinking lots of this...

Leila and Jaxson had their Christmas Eve spirit in full swing.

You just wanted to chew on the bows from Daddy's presents.

The next morning we went to Aunt Kelly's where all of Daddy's family was. We had cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate, and watched you and your cousins play. Aunt Marisa made your Christmas morning outfit. We were all so impressed. She could sell them on Etsy.

And again we enjoyed you girls matching. Ya'll just enjoyed playing with each other.

Uncle Josh gave you and Tessa these outfits for Christmas, and you happily wore it for his birthday a couple days later. You really like your Uncle Josh and Mommy thought it was so cute that he designed an outfit for you and your cousin. Aunt Kelly helped by picking out sparkly jeans to match.

We couldn't wait to give Jaxson and Leila their Christmas present. We bought them in November and had to stare at them for a month.

I loved playing in their tent with them.

Uncle Lee and Aunt Marisa bought you this ride along toy. It plays a really awesome (and by awesome I mean annoying) abc song that stays in Mommy's head ALL day long. You love it and I think it might be your favorite toy.

We had to take advantage of the cousins being together and have a 2nd outfit for Christmas.

I was so happy to get these pictures.

Next we went to Grandpa and Dolores's house. They gave you a walker and you immediately loved it.

Mommy got a very special Christmas present by getting to see your cousin Aidan. I was not expecting it and it made my day. You guys were so excited to see each other.

And I was so excited to play with both of you.

Daddy made Grandpa a special picture that he really loved. Someday we will tell you about Grandpaland.

The next day DD and great-Granny came home and, you got your first baby doll. You loved her at first sight and play with her all the time. We just need to convince you her bottle isn't your bottle.

We got home from Christmas day activities around 6 and, Daddy and Mommy finally got to enjoy time as our little family. We wanted to give you a special first present. We looked everywhere and, Daddy saw this at a toy store. Your Aunt's and Uncle had one when they were little and Daddy really wanted to get it. If you are an engineer like him you will love it. You enjoy using it to stand and sucking on the metal at the moment.

After you played with that Mommy and Daddy gave each other presents. Mommy was so happy with Daddy for paying attention to her and was reading a book she got when Daddy pulled a present out from under the couch. He said he forgot to give me your present. You gave me my blog printed out as a book with a note. I was so surprised I had a little tear of happiness. I didn't even know Daddy knew I wanted to do that...and then he said you had one more present for me and it was behind the Christmas nutcracker. It was our new house plans wrapped up. Daddy had been spending days with the architectural control committee for our new neighborhood working on getting approval. This made Mommy so happy and she had more than just a little tear of happiness. The plans were finally done which means this time next year we will have your 2nd Christmas in Mommy's dream home. We can't wait to experience this next year with you, and see what the next Christmas blog will look like.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

G's Christmas present and a few things I am thankful for

After two months of saying "I think she is teething" Graysen gave us an early Christmas present yesterday by getting her first tooth. Ironically she had one of her best nights sleep in a few weeks and we would never had known had I not seen it helping Shawn change a particularly special diaper. This is the picture I took on my phone before we left for the day.

This is our 14th Christmas together. We have a very efficient assembly line between us. I get everything ready in piles and I put labels on after he wraps. I am so thankful Shawn wraps presents. I am very slow and terrible at it. I also just don't enjoy it at all. This year brought a new complication because our very active 7 month old wanted to get into everything. We ran out of tape last night and while he was gone she had chewed a tag off a shirt, chewed a bow off a box, and picked up one item and had it in the kitchen when I looked for it. She provided lots of laughter and entertainment for us but we were much more productive after her bedtime.

Yesterday we finished our shopping and as we were driving I realized how much I appreciate Shawn's ability to know the quickest way to get anywhere. I am always amazed at his knowledge of every back road in our area. We were done much faster than I thought and had time to relax and enjoy our little family last night.

Merry Christmas Eve! We are off to spend the day with friends and then family.

Shawn might have a sugar problem.

He has always had his gummi bears on his nightstand...

But I have recently noticed he is always chewing something. I started seeing stashes around the house. I have no idea when he bought this, but he brought it out for our friends on Saturday.

He bought these cupcakes as a "surprise" for me when he picked up lunch this weekend.

This is last years peppermint bark which I was going to throw away until he got mad at me.

He went to Target last week by himself. Did he remember the boogie wipes we needed? No, but he did manage to pick up these Andes mints and the popcorn which he carries around at night.

Someone is taking the holiday weight gain very seriously....

We have a 6 month old...

Well actually she is 6 days away from 7 months but we have had a few things going on in our house. I didn't want to skip it because it is the only place I know where her statistics are. We decided to take her to Disney for her first half birthday (not really, the trip was planned since before her birth, but it just sounds awesome for all the people that tell me I spoil my child). I had a goal to have her on a plane by 6 months and we just made it.

She makes it so easy on Mommy and Daddy when she gets her shots. She cries for less than 10 seconds and is then her usual happy self for the rest of the day. She was 27" and 18 lbs 4 ozs (85% for both) at her 6 month check-up. Shawn has to go to all her appointments and you can tell this just makes her so sad.

Her are a few of her pictures from her 6 month session. She was still recovering from her stomach bug so she wasn't smiling as much as usual but Deanna managed to get some good ones. A big thank you to Marisa for helping me with ideas since I had been very busy at work and didn't really know what I wanted.

I might have a favorite Liardon kid....

Shhh...I know I'm not supposed to have a favorite. I tried...really, but I just can't help it. Before Disney a certain curly haired red one held a special place in my heart, but after seven days with this five year old I am smitten.

Look at the shear excitement on her face as the plane was about to take off.

She is pure joy to be around.

She is thankful for whatever happiness occurs in her day.

She is a very pretty princess.(They all were....we had the prettiest princesses at the ball)

She is an awesome picture taker.

She plays well with everyone.

She and my nephew are the sweetest children to Graysen.

Little G is very smitten as well.

I was so honored to be her ride pal on our trip. She would occasionally allow other people to join our space too.

She is a champion lollipop sucker. Such determination to finish.

I feel very blessed to know a child with such an awesome personality. She is beautiful on the inside and out and I hope she teaches Graysen a thing or two.

Teething, stomach bug, growth spurt, and a cold=no sleep insanity

This was my birthday, October 16th. It was the last time I was well. It wasn't the best birthday and it certainly hasn't been all that great since then. Shawn is getting the short stick on that whole in sickness and in health thing. He probably wants to trade me in for a new model. I don't blame him. He has also had to deal with getting whatever Graysen and I have so our family is just wishing for a healthy Christmas.

We both had a version of a cold from mid October through mid November. The week before we went to Disney Graysen got it too, as well as a stomach bug. She gave the stomach bug to Shawn on the day we left for Disney, and I had it the day we flew home and Thanksgiving Day. I managed to get her dressed before crawling back in bed. Shawn went to his Dad's and I spent the day in bed.
Thanksgiving week was the worst week we had with her. She was teething, getting over the stomach bug, enjoying a new strain of a cold, and attempting to have a growth spurt. Do you know how hard it is to drink 49 ozs in one day with a cold? The nights were spent in hour long trade-offs with her. She seemed to only be happy being held upright. One morning I wearily climbed out of bed to take my turn and saw this on our couch. They seemed so comfortable and I know they didn't mind the extra hour of sleep I got out of it too.
We hoped she would be on a schedule by this age but there seems to be no sign of consistency in our future. I am hopeful things will improve as we get better. She still has a stuffy nose and we both still have coughs. She is very happy during the day and that smile can get you through some rough nights.