Thanksgiving 2016

This Thanksgiving we spent the night at Nana and Papaw's for the first time with Joanna.  It went better than I thought it would as for sleep.  

We arrived around 11am, Joanna took her nap in the closet at 1pm (had to wake her at 3:15pm), ate at 3:30, B's sister and her family arrived around 4pm, the kids played their little hearts out.  So nice they are all around the same age.  ML is six, Will is 4 months older than Vivian, Isla is a month older than Joanna and Ford is 6 weeks old. So fun!

 

18 Months Old

Happy 18 months, 1.5 years, to this sweet thing.  I'm late posting, but better late than never.

Stats:  Weighing 19.4 pounds, but we will know your exact weight and height this Tuesday at your well-check.  You are a petite thing like your sister!  You have 13 teeth with another trying to make its way thru.

Sleep:  Wake between 6:30-7:30am, but if you wake before 6:45am, I don't get you out of the crib no earlier than 6:45am.  You nap around 12:30pm for 1.5-2.75 hours...I wake you no later than 3:15pm to preserve bedtime.  Bedtime is between 7-7:30pm, but it usually takes you an hour to fall asleep.  Our bedtime routine consists of turning your box fans on, teeth brushing, getting into your sleep sack, reading a few books (If I Were A Lamb, Pat The Bunny, Numbers Book, Who Do I See), turn your lamp off, take a drink of water, I sing 'Jesus Loves Me', 'This Little Light of Mine', 'Jesus Loves The Little Children', and 'You Are My Sunshine', give you lots of kisses, you go in your crib, give you a lovey and tell you 'night night, I love you you, see you in the morning sweet darling, sweet dreams, hug hug kiss kiss' while walking out of your room.  

 Eat:  You are starting to become a little bit picker of an eater.  You do love Multi-grain Cheerios, strawberries, Annie's yogurt tube (frozen), soup (Annie's chicken & stars are your favorite), cereal bars, veggie straws, cheese, beans, pasta.  You are drinking cow's milk well.  You aren't the biggest fan of water like your sister.  

Favorites:  Nursery rhymes (5 Little Monkeys, If You're Happy And You Know It, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, 5 Little Duckies are your favorite songs). Dogs and birds.  You go bananas when you see a dog.  You point and scream out 'DOG!!!' Playing chase, sliding, swinging, bouncing on the bed, piggy back and shoulder rides, crayons, bubbles, riding in the stroller, running up and down hills, being naked (I could watch that sweet tushy run around all day long until you poop or pee on the floor HA), your Vivian (monkey see monkey do with you girls).  Y'all love each other oh so much!  

Dislikes:  Your car seat!  Hopefully Santa will bring you a new one for Christmas.  Diaper changes. Having your hair and body washed, but love just playing in the bath.  Having lotion rubbed on you, sitting in your high chair.  

Milestone:  You are saying more words....'dog', 'duck', 'daaddyy', 'mama', 'bir for bird'.  You try to make animal sounds when I say an animal...too cute!  I'll ask you what Santa says and you'll go 'Ho HO!'  so so cute!  You can sign 'I Love You' :)

I love you ho so much it hurts!!  I just love when you run to me with your arms spread wide to give me the biggest hug.  You wrap your sweet little arms around me neck and squeeze me as tight as you can.  Love it oh so much!!  

 

Christmas 2014 pt 2 (Christmas Day)

I slept horrible Christmas Eve.  I don't know if was excitement for the next day or what, but I probably got a total of 4 hours of sleep.  

I got up at 6 am to start making this breakfast casserole for B.  It took a little time to prepare since I'm slow at prepping and another 30 minutes or so to bake.  I'm such a good wife, ha!

Just before 7 am I heard Vivian doing her morning jibber jabber on the monitor.  I got B up so we could get her out of the crib together.

She loves handing be all her babies before getting out of her crib.  So stinking cute!!

We wished her a Merry Christmas and told her that Santa came that night and left her lots of gifts.  

B and I got into the living room before Vivian to capture her face with the camcorder and camera.  She knew something was up!  Her little face lite up!

 Two books were left unwrapped next to her stocking.  She went straight for the books.  Obviously.  

Then she went for the stocking and pulled out each item one at a time and placed each one on her table.  This process took a little time since Santa had that stocking stuffed.

^^bath bubbles^^

^^piggy paint ^^

After getting everything out of her stocking, she moved it from the table to her highchair.  Strange little booger.

^^ car seat ^^

Then she wanted to read us her book.

Vivian reading 

Then it was time to open some presents.

^^Chica and Star plush dolls^^

^^Minnie Mouse bangle bracelets ^^

^^ Her favorite out of the bunch, Elmo who actually hugs ^^  She was a happy camper when she saw him.  Loved hugging him and kissing him.  

^^ Alex Jr Tots Finger Paint^^

^^Smocks and finger paint paper and tray^^

^^Washable markers, crayons and floor pad^^

^^t-shirt^^

^^ Elmo Boo Boo Sticker Book and Doc McStuffins sticker book ^^

Even Santa came to see Mr. Brody.

After opening Vivian's gifts, I made my Mom's little bread.  Pure sugar, but so incredibly good.  Still love it to this day and so did Vivian.  She kept going "mmmm" after each bite :) This will be part of our Christmas morning tradition.

Little Bread recipe

For your EGG MIXTURE (whisk 4 eggs...1 tbs of cinnamon...1 tsp milk in a shallow bowl...stir before each bread dip).  Make sure to use WHITE BREAD, not whole wheat bread.

For your POWDERED SUGAR MIXTURE ( 1 cup powdered sugar...2 tbs cinnamon...mix well)

FRYING BREAD (turn oven eye on low-medium heat...add 1 and 1/2 tbs of butter to each 2 slices of bread...make sure the bread is wet enough so the sugar mixture will stick...may have to rub more butter on them)

After your bread is done frying, coat bread with the powdered sugar mixture until well coated.  Cut the bread into four squares, hence why they are called little bread.  I usually add a little more powdered sugar mixture after cutting when on my plate for a little extra sugar. 

This recipe makes about 6 slices of bread.

After breakfast, B and I opened our gifts.  I got B a 

Kindle Fire HDX 7 which was upgraded to the 64 GB, a cover case and a couple of boxer shorts.  

He also got a gift card and shirt from his parents.

He got me lots of goodies.  A Keurig, a carousel holder, muffin and brownie pan from Anthropologie and a candle from Anthropologie.

My Mom got us a year membership to the aquarium and a couple of pair of leggings from J.Crew.  B's Mom got me the most comfortable pair of maternity pj's from A Pea In A Pod.

We had a FANTASTIC Christmas!!

^^18.5 weeks pregnant^^

After opening our gifts, Vivian was back to playing with her toys and trying on a couple of things.

And painted our piggies :)

 Next Christmas will be even more special having Vivian and our little boy or girl.  The Good Lord has truly blessed my little family!!!