Christmas Time

We had a lot of fun at Christmas time this year.

It's been super cold here in Utah and we've been getting loads of snow. We've played out in the snow a little bit. Here is Jenny in her blueberry. Thanks grandma for knitting it.

We had enough snow to make big snowman. I thought Tessa would think it was cool to have a snowman as tall as her. When I tried to get her to stand next to the snowman for taking a picture, she wouldn't unless she was sitting on my lap so that is the picture we got. The funny thing though is once I saw the picture I ended up getting, I could see the snowman from the angle she was seeing it and I see why she found it scary. 

Here are the kids 'helping' with the holiday cooking.

Everyone enjoyed the Christmas tree this year.

Here we are cutting out snowflakes for more ornaments to decorate the tree with as Tessa really enjoyed decorating it and she kept wanting to keep decorating it more and more.

The funny thing was Tessa wanted to decorate the tree with the scraps instead of the actual snowflakes. I guess that gave her more ornaments to decorate the tree with. 

Here we are doing our annual gingerbread house decorating.

Santa sent the elves this year and they got into plenty of trouble. Tessa loved finding them every morning. Thanks Grandma!  

Then we had lots of fun visiting family in Washington. Here we are decorating gingerbreadmen.

In the last picture we got of Jenny and her cousin Adam, she looked absolutely tiny and Adam looked giant. It's nice to see Jenny has caught up some. 

Tessa asked for one thing from Santa - pink sunglasses. Thanks for being such an easy kid.

Then both girls together on Christmas morning.

Tessa loved her new face paint and had to play with it immediately.

Here we are enjoying more Christmas gifts.

And then of course the traditional baby in the stocking photo! It was a really fun Christmas! It's so fun making memories and seeing the girls having so much fun with Christmas traditions.

6 month old Jenny

Jenny is 6 months. At her 6 month appointment, she weighed in at the 35th percentile for weight. She is also in the 92th percentile for height. So we're really happy she is doing good and growing well. We've also moved her into her 6 month clothes too so we're happy that she is finally fitting into her size group clothes on schedule.

Here she is in all her length!

We've recently started her on baby food and she loves it. She has been really interested in real food. When we eat in front of her, she'll watch really intently, smack her lips and fuss and reach for our food. She seems at least a little bit appeased when we give her semi-real food (baby food).

She is doing really well with her milestones. She can roll over from front to back and back to front. She has even on a few occasions rolled repeatedly and actually got some distance. She is starting to figure out sitting up and can do it for 10-15 seconds at a time. She doesn't get up on her knees to practice crawling at all yet but she does like putting weight on her legs in the standing position. She has also gotten really good with controlling her hands. It's neat to be able to see her roll toward something and reach for it. You can see what she is interested in and see her little personality a little bit more.

Lately she seems especially interested in Tessa. She'll watch her whenever she is playing nearby and reach for her if she is close. Jenny seems to look at Tessa with this thought that she wants to be just like Tessa; she seems to me to really look up to Tessa. You can just see in her eyes this look of love and admiration. I've really enjoyed seeing some sweet sister moments. It's neat to see Tessa reach out on her own to hug Jenny or hold her hand or say that she loves Jenny.

Jenny still loves to be talked to. She laughs easily and is just such a happy and social baby. She still doesn't cry very much and is still such an easy baby.

We feel so lucky to have her!

Halloween

We had a blast with Halloween this year. The fun started early in the month of October with a visit to Cornbelly's. Tessa had a blast with it.

Here she is trying on a princess costume for the first time ever. She loved it. She kept looking at herself in the mirror and smiling.

And here we are as a whole family rocking on the Cornbelly Rocks! rocking chair.

Tessa had a ball with the bounce house!

Tessa played on the play ground equipment for a couple of hours. There was this truck, a pirate ship and more. Then there was this giant hay stack with slides coming off it.

Jenny didn't seem to mind this rocking horse too much.

Here Tessa is picking out her pumpkin.

She liked the tiniest ones.

We have these face painting paint markers that Tessa loves that made it really easy for Tessa to paint her pumpkin on her own.

Tessa loved painting her tiny pumpkin so much that I let her paint our butternut squash we were going to be eating for dinner.

Here is Tessa and her cousin dressed as Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Thanks Heather for Tessa's costume!

Jenny is dressed as a pumpkin.

And here are both girls in their Halloween costumes. We had a lot of fun trick-or-treating this year. We didn't hit tons of houses but we still had a good time. Tessa wanted to eat each piece of candy as soon as she got it. I let her for a while until she started complaining that her stomach was hurting. Luckily right when that happened, we stopped at this house that was giving out little dixie cups of soup and mini-breadsticks so that was fun. It's been fun getting more into the holidays now that Tessa is getting older.

Tessa Says the Darndest Things II

Tessa: Tessa sick. Tessa need these medicines. (while pointing at sprinkles)


Tessa (while rubbing Jenny's head): I pet her.

Tessa's Two and a Half-ish Photos

We took Tessa to get her pictures taken. She was a little shy with the photographer but we think they turned out pretty cute any way.

Tessa Says the Darndest Things

Tessa says things that crack me up sometimes. In what I think what will be a continuing type of blog post, I'll note some of the funny things she says. Here are a few funny things she's said in the last few days:

Tessa (holding a foam Q): This is?
Mom: That's a Q. It makes the "Qu" sound like Queen.
Tessa: Ooohhh...Queen. Tessa loves Queen. Queen best princess.


Mom: Tessa when you get a little older you'll be able to go to preschool. I'll go with you at first but then you'll go on your own.
Tessa: Tessa need help drive.
Mom: Mom or Aubrey will drive you and will drop you off at to preschool.
Tessa: Help doors.
Mom: We'll help you open the doors to your preschool.
Tessa: K.


Tessa (giving Jenny her Minion toy to play with): Don't spit up.
Mom: Oh, Jenny can play with your minion as long as she doesn't spit up on it?
Tessa: Uh huh.


I'm sure there are more that I can't think of at the moment. I'll add more as they come up.