Christmas program

Emily had her Christmas program and party at school today. Abigail decided to start crying at the beginning of it so I had to go to the back. Here's how the pictures turned out from the back after I tried to edit it:

They sang Twinkle Twinkle Christmas Star and then a song where they got to jingle some bells (can't remember the name from all the mayhem). They were cute. Emily saw me standing in the back and stood up during the song and yelled out "Mommy Mommy Mommy" with a big smile on her face. So at least she wasn't upset that we were in the back with her sister adding to their singing.

Abigail slept thru the party after I fed her so here are some pics from that:

This afternoon we had Abigail's 2 month appointment. She weighs 11 pounds 9 oz and is 23 inches long so she is in the 75% for both weight and height. She got her first shots today so that made me sad. But so far we are o.k. She still has her first round of Tylenol in her!

Here is a video of Emily singing one of the songs from her program today:

2 Months Old!

Abigail is 2 Months Old Today!

Sleep

Last night was a crazy night. One of my children had me awake from a little after 1:00 a.m. until 4:45 a.m. . . . and it's not who you think:

For some reason last night Emily kept getting out of her bed and either running to our room and back or getting out of her bed to look out the window. Joe and I kept hearing her when she stepped onto the step stool beside her bed. He got up with her twice and I got up with her twice. Abigail thankfully slept thru the night or I would have had a middle of the night meltdown. So today I was only going to let her stay in her room for an hour and then wake her up . . . but the girl won't wake up now : ) She is sleeping so hard. I hope we aren't in for round 2 tonight.

Here are some smiley pictures of Abigail. She has been smiling alot the last couple of weeks and it's so fun to watch. She has slept from about 10:00 p.m. to almost 8:00 a.m. for the last 3 nights! It has been nice . . . I'm sure there will be other nights of getting up in the middle of the night but I take the sleep when I can get it. Someone needs to give Emily the memo as well.

I also finished our Christmas stockings last night! So Santa can come now.
And lastly, here is a sweet video of Abigail smiling this afternoon. Enjoy!:

Party Time

Today we went to Anna's birthday party. Emily got the invitation a month ago and has been talking about it off an on over the last several weeks. This morning she came to our room and woke me up asking if it was time to go to Anna's party. So Happy Birthday Anna! We enjoyed being with you on your special day today!
Jason and Joe enjoyed the capri suns and Emily enjoyed the cake:
Abigail is now 8 weeks old. I can't believe it. We have gotten into a little routine together at night and it has made for peaceful evenings. As long as I keep her close and snug in the baby sling at night she is content and when she starts to fuss at me to go to bed we go have our quiet time in her room while she falls asleep. So it took us a few weeks to figure out that this is what she likes . . .

Visiting Bethlehem

This morning we visited the little town of Bethlehem. Emily's preschool has an event each year called the Bethlehem Walk where you get to walk thru the city streets and at the end you can see Baby Jesus in the manger with the shepherds and magi coming to worship Him. We've tried for several years to go and have always missed it. So we went this morning when they had a special opening for all the local preschools.
It was very cold this morning and I didn't dress us warmly enough. It took a while for Emily to get into visiting the booths. She was very shy at first. I felt bad for her because by the time she got excited about it and wanted to see more, Abigail started crying and let me know that she was really tired of being out in the cold. So shortly after we left. I guess one of the many times Emily will need to sacrifice a little for her baby sister. By the time we got home, Abigail was sleeping soundly and the stinker slept for the next 2 hours! Oh well, I guess on the bright side we added a little reality to the manger scene with the sounds of a real baby crying : )

Visiting Santa

Tonight we visited Santa. Here is Abigail's first picture with him. Emily is a pro now and wasn't scared this year:

Getting ready for Christmas

Last week we pulled down all the Christmas decorations and put up our tree:
Emily enjoyed getting all the ornaments out of the boxes this year. Joe and I had a hard time keeping up with her because she had so much fun unwrapping them and handing them to us. But it was so much more fun decorating the tree with a little person so excited about it!

I also bought a count down to Christmas calendar for Emily. She pulls out an ornament each day to put on the tree. We had a similar one growing up where you pull a candy cane off each day and we always had fun with it. Emily wants to put them all up each day so we aren't really following the numbers so much this year. But I look forward to putting this calendar up each year for them to use:

We visited Santa last night at the church Christmas party. Emily wasn't scared this year to sit in Santa's lap. He asked her what she wanted for Christmas and she just looked at him:
She hasn't grasped the concept quite yet to have her big ol' list to give to Santa . . . yea! Joe and I have enjoyed telling Santa what we want to get for Emily and Abigail.

And now on to little Miss Priss:
Don't let the calm pictures of her fool you : ) Abigail has been fussy the last couple of weeks. It's mainly at night and we've discussed all the things it might be. After asking some fellow moms and observing her, it looks like Abigail just gets fussy at night and over tired and it just takes her longer to calm herself down or pacify herself at night. But I can't complain much because during the day she is much calmer and the girl sleeps well at night! I just feel bad for Joe because he mostly sees the fussy Abigail. She did have a good day on Saturday so he got to see that his 2nd daughter can be pleasant : )

After sending out an email to ask advice about her fussiness, on Saturday she slept most of the day and then went to bed at 9:00 without much fuss and slept until 4:30. On Friday night after she got all her crying out she slept from 10:30 to 8:30 . . . so like I said . . . we can't complain much! She is a sweet baby girl.

Over the last couple of weeks I have experimented with some Christmas embroidery. I made a hand towel, kitchen towel, and shirt for myself. It was fun trying these new designs out:
I am now working on stockings for us since we only have 3 and Abigail doesn't have one currently. So I will make hers first to at least have that one done by Christmas. When I finish all 4, we will have our family stockings for Christmases to come!

We hope you are enjoying your December!