Christmas Memories 2013

January 7, 2014 by Aliesha

We had a really wonderful Christmas season, filled with many happy memories as a family!

We celebrated with Tad’s side of the family in early December.

All the grands!

Jude with the Grandanny.

Me with Jude, in front of Grammy’s tree

We went to a lights display at the botanical gardens which enthralled all the kids!

Seeing the kids’ faces on Christmas morning was just precious.

Tad always reads the Christmas story from Luke 2 first thing in the morning.

The girls sat and listened pretty patiently.

Everyone tore through their gifts, excited about what was inside.

Cordelia loved her new headbands from Vera and change purse from Jude.

Jude liked his hats from his sisters.

After Christmas, my family came down for three full days which was awesome!

Phillip read stories to Vera.

Cordelia has become more interested in books recently too.

We added some beautiful new ornaments to our tree this year.

The kids all loved the time they got to spend with MiMi and Pops!

The girls think Uncle Nich is lots of fun!

Phillip and Jude almost share a birthday… Jude’s is one day after his uncle’s!

“Uncle” Caeleb is part of the family too, since he has been Phillip’s roommate and friend for three years and spends many holidays with my family.

We just really had a great Christmas season with healthy children, great memories, and lots of celebrations of Christ’s incarnation!

We are very blessed!

Jude’s Three Months Old!

December 13, 2013 by Aliesha

Jude is three months old today and is about to celebrate his very first Christmas!

He’s our smiling sweetheart (except for most pictures, ha!) and we just love him to pieces.

Some milestones:
-has vibrant blue eyes that I’m pretty sure are staying that way
-started sucking on his fingers recently
-wears size 3 diapers (and will be transitioning to cloth soon)
-wears 6 month clothing
-loves Christmas lights
-follows our voices and faces by turning his head
-coos and giggles at us
-looooves it when I sing to him
-sleeps 9.5-10 hours a night usually
-still hates tummy time
-has upwards of 3 chins 🙂

We’re so blessed by our little Christmas elf!

Back to Normal!

December 13, 2013 by Aliesha

I’m back!

In the last month, we:
– traveled out of state twice (for a total of 10 nights away from home)
– celebrated Thanksgiving with both sides of the family and Christmas with Tad’s family
– (well, I) had mastitis
– had our living room painted
– hosted a Christmas party
– had a stomach bug that hung on for almost a week (fortunately the kids were spared)
– decorated our Christmas tree!

All that to say, this poor blog has been a bit neglected! Here are some (cell phone) photos from the last few weeks.

Vera made cookies at MiMi’s house at Thanksgiving.

The girls had such a fun time with their fun uncles and their friends who joined us for Thanksgiving! Here, Caeleb and Jeremy (my brother’s friends) took turns lifting the girls (each around 30 lbs.) in the air!

We left for Thanksgiving with the living room looking like this…

…and came back to this! (Well, not quite… we finished up a bit of painting and put the furniture back in place, but Tad’s dad did the vast majority of the work while we were gone… so very sweet!) I have better pictures to post soon.