Merry Christmas friends!!!

What a fantastic Christmas time this has been!! Grandma and grandpa came down for a visit. They hung out, brought lunch AND they helped us finish replacing the railing for our front steps. One project done...it’s a Christmas miracle!! 

We got to go to church together on Christmas Eve. That was a super special treat because BJ works every weekend. And then we watched the Chiefs game. They won (also a Christmas miracle). And Lily got to play in the snow!! Layla did not. Do they even make snow suits her size?

I was making cinnamon rolls when I heard Lily yelling. I ran over to the door and opened it to see what was wrong. Nothing. She was just yelling MERRY CHRISTMAS at the top of her lungs for all our neighbors to hear. Festive. Noisy but festive. 

Christmas Day was fantastic too!! Both girls did great. Layla Grace even unwrapped some of her presents!! It was super cute. 

Lily hasn’t had much of a chance to cruise in her car from Mimi and Papa because it’s been SO cold. But she does sit in it every day. :)

We’ve had so much fun playing with everything and we are so thankful...especially for all the time together. 

Santa

Dude...that iPhone update, has it caused 5,000 problems for anyone else? My battery dies at 30%, the app I use to write this blog hasn’t been working... Ah, yes...first world problems. Enough complaining. Here are some pictures. 

The girls met Santa this year. The first introduction was...

Layla was trying to de-beard the poor guy. Lily was taking “stranger danger” to heart. Actually, there were about 10 different people trying to get their attention and get the girls to smile. I was standing to the side making the exact same face...overwhelmed. 

The second Santa experience went a little better. 

I didn’t get any good smiling pictures with the guy but I did get these before.

Question: could these girls be any cuter?

Answer: nope

Alternate answer: definitely not!!!

11 days until Christmas? I better go get some wrapping done!!

Here are some things you should know...

1) Layla Girl is going a great job putting herself to sleep!!! She still gets up several times a night but at least I don’t spend hours rocking her. And, bonus, she looks super cute in her sleep sack. 

2) Layla is also loving solids! She’s pretty opinionated about what she likes to eat and when she wants to eat it but she so gosh darn cute I can’t hold it against her. 

3) We had our first family picture taken! Finally...a non-selfie version that doesn’t cut out someone’s face. And speaking of faces...Lily. :)

4) And one last thing you should know...matching pajamas are the cutest. 

Layla Bae

So....let me tell you something awesome!! Last weekend, I spent 90% of each day trying to get Layla to sleep. I would rock her for 45 minutes and lay her down only to hear her wake up 30 minutes later. Then I would rock her 45 more minutes to try to extend her nap. That’s not the awesome part. Actually it was a long weekend for everyone...especially Lily. We knew we needed to make some changes. 

So Monday we packed up the mamaroo, we packed away the swaddle and we prepared ourselves for sleep training (ahhhhh...not that...anything but that). We decided to teach Layla to self-sooth, help her become less dependent on eating to calm down, and sleep in her crib without a swaddle. I mean, if we’re doing it, we might as well do it all. 

The first night was rough. Layla did a lot of crying. I watched a lot of YouTube videos to try to distract myself from the crying. But (here’s the awesome part) the last couple nights, Layla has done a great job!!!! She still needs a little help getting back to sleep and I think Husband must have the magic touch because he will hold her for a minute, put her down and she will fall asleep in a couple minutes. Can he use “helping my kid learn to fall asleep” or “helping my wife stay sane” as a reason to call in sick to work this weekend? 

We are very thankful!! Sleep training isn’t an easy process and we haven’t totally got it down yet but we are so thankful for the success Layla has had so far!!!

Halloween

Sure, Halloween was a week ago but we’re still eating the candy so this post really isn’t that late. 

Han Solo, Princess Leia, Darth Vader (who “loves her church”) and a tiny Ewok. We already have our costumes picked out for next year too...guy wearing regular clothes, lady dressed as an angel, girl wearing a cape and baby teddy bear. 

It was a bit chilly and dreary but it was still fun. Mimi and Papa brought a wagon and carted Lily around the neighborhood. Our cute little Ewok did a great job too. 

And there weren’t very many scary things in our neighborhood which is great. That means Lily can stick to being scared of alligators...apparently a very real danger...in Missouri...to a toddler. 

#babyinapumpkin

“You aren’t going to be one of those parents who makes their kids take weird pictures, are you?”

Yes. That is my exact parenting style 😀