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Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Gingerbread House Contest!

This year, while with Reid's family for Christmas, we spent one day making Gingerbread houses!  We decided to add a twist, and make it a little competitive.  There were 9 of us, so we split into teams of three (by random draw) and each got to work!  First we put the houses together...


Team #1: Becky, Rhett, & Gram (not pictured here)

Team #2: Jennifer, Reid & Kendall


Team #3: Ryan, Ashley & Caeden


Once the houses were put together, we took a lunch break and let them dry...
(FYI: The "childish-looking" house on the far right is Rhett's team.  His strategy was to make it look like a kid worked on it...so people would vote for the kid...and he would win....
And he did come in second place...)


That afternoon, it was back to work!  This time, decorating with candy!  Caeden and Callie were ready before anyone else....taste-testing everything of course!

Lovin' her some M&M's!

Everyone working hard!


Caeden's house in progress.  
He smeared the icing on the roof,
and made the wreath.

Nonni & Callie

Still decorating!



And these are the finished houses....we posted this picture on Facebook, and let the voting begin!


At the end of the voting, house #2 won by a landslide!  The fake-child-like-looking house (#1) came in second!  And poor #3 only got 2 votes.... :(   But that's okay- we had a great time and I think we have started a new tradition!

Monday, December 30, 2013

Christmas Cookies!

We made our annual Christmas cookies right before we left town last week.  We split it up into two nights this time.  It's my Grandma's homemade dough recipe...So we cut out the cookies and baked them one night.  And decorated them the next night.  Of course, each kid did 3-4 cookies and they were off to play!  So Reid and I were left to cut out and decorate 2 dozen cookies!  Oh well...we made memories and had fun making cookies as a couple at least!  Here are a few pictures I got...

NIGHT 1: CUTTING OUT & BAKING!







Playing in the dough...

Clapping for herself!



Just look at the flour on that cute face!


Making one by herself!


NIGHT 2: DECORATING!

(Yes, he's wearing a ninja costume.)



YUM!
(notice the icing dripping off his cookie...)


Trying to sneak a bite before 
they had even frosted it!



Finally...




I sure do love these two little ones...and I love the memories we make with these traditions!

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Caeden's Christmas Play!

Caeden's preschool put on a Christmas Play a few days ago.  Although it was only 10 minutes long, it was so super cute! Daddy, Mommy, and Nana all got to come see it!  Here are some pictures!

Ella walking out as an angel!

Caeden as a shepherd...they sang 4 songs for us!

Ella started crying halfway through when
she saw her mommy in the crowd.
I just had to get a picture...

Eating a cookie at the reception afterward!

Callie eating her cookie too!
Talk about a sugar high for this little 1 year old!

Friday, December 20, 2013

Callie: 14 mos!

Our sweet girl is 14 months old!  She still has her sweet personality!  I am daily amazed at how much a little one can communicate, interact, and understand at such a young age!  We love her to pieces!  So here is her (shorter than usual) summary on her 14th month (when she was 13 mos old)!

She loves wearing her sunglasses...
even when we're inside!

EATING
Callie has become much pickier this past month.  Her favorite foods now are: macaroni & cheese, strawberries, green beans and pizza. She will still eat most vegetables, but the only fruit she really eats is strawberries.... :(  And she's not a big meat eater (except hot dogs and chicken nuggets).  I was really hoping we would avoid the "picky eater" this time around.  We shall see...  She also started feeding herself with a spoon this month....messy, but she can do it!

Feeding herself dinner


PLAYING
Callie still plays great by herself!  But she still prefers to be with Caeden and Ella.  She doesn't necessarily play with them, but she likes to be in the same room as them.  She likes to sit at our little Step 2 table & chairs with them when they're coloring and such.  She just sits in the chair, pounds on the table, and smiles real big.  She just feels so old!

One of her favorite toys!

First coloring!

She has also begun coloring this past month, but its just random marks on the page, and it doesn't hold her attention terribly long.  She is learning to pretend with her babies more now... feeding them, rocking them, and putting them in her stroller. She also likes to play with the kitchen, stirring spoons in bowls.  I don't remember Caeden pretending this young, so I've been a little surprised!

Pretending to vacuum while mommy 
was vacuuming!

She also LOVES LOVES LOVES books!  She will bring us book after book and listen to each one.  She will let us read as long as we're willing!  But of course she has her favorites that we read 5 times an hour!  She has certain ones "memorized" and will make animal sounds and hand motions when we're on a certain page.  She has also gotten to do a few simple crafts with us this past month!

Callie's pile of books she made on Caeden's bed


SLEEPING
Callie was still taking two naps this month.  Both naps last about an hour-ish.  Her morning nap is around 10/10:30 and her afternoon nap is around 2:30/3:00.  They have gotten later and are getting shorter, so I'm afraid she's going to be switching to one nap soon.  But I'm holding onto two naps as long as I can!

At night, she still sleeps about 11.5 hours, approximately from 7:15pm - 6:45am.  She has her favorite blankie now!  She calls it "night-night."  So if she wants it, she walks around looking and saying, "night-night" over and over.  AND we have now transitioned to having her paci only when sleeping.  A week before she turned 14 months old, we just started taking it out of her mouth after nap or nighttime and putting it in her bed.  Now, after a week, she will take it out by herself, put it in her bed, and smile real big!  She never needs it when awake anymore!  Yay!

She has enough hair that she
doesn't need a headband anymore!
I can just put bows in her hair!




LANGUAGE
Again, Callie is saying way more words than Caeden was at this age....maybe it's a girl thing?  I mean...her mom is a big talker!  These are words she's saying, in addition to the 3 words she was saying already...

  • night-night
  • ho ho ho (when she sees a picture of Santa)
  • Day-dennnn  (this is for Caeden)
  • Brrr (when we go outside and it's cold)
  • Oh...oh!  (for uh-oh!)
This makes at least 8 words she's saying at 14 months!  There may be a few more, but this is all I can remember at the moment.  She still signs "eat," "more," and "all done."  We've now added the sign for "please" to the repertoire!  She also points her fingers LOTS and shakes her head "yes" and "no" to communicate her needs.  And she LOVES giving hugs and open-mouthed kisses, our favorite part!

She loves to stand on her head like 
this and look under her legs! :)

Wearing her robe!




TEETHING
Callie got two teeth this past month!  They are on the top, next to her two front teeth.  So this makes a total of 6 teeth!  4 on top, 2 on bottom!  She has done great during both!  A little fussy during the day and up a little at night, but nothing too bad.

Playing outside on one of our rare warm days!

First time to ride in the Power Wheels truck


CHRISTMAS TIME
This past month has involved us getting ready for Christmas.  She has done an amazing job at leaving the Christmas tree alone AND at leaving the packages alone.  We've been reading lots of Christmas books to her.  When we play with our Little People Nativity and I ask where baby Jesus is, she can find him. Obviously she doesn't understand much this year, but it's fun having a little toddler run around and be more involved than last year!

LIBRARY
I finally took Callie to the library for the first time this past month.  This is something I did with Caeden from the time he was 6 months old....we went to story time every. week.  Well, I haven't with Callie...  But I figured out they have a baby story time while Caeden & Ella are at school.  So we went for the first time.  We got there early so she could play and of course she loved it.  I kept her in the kids section and all she did was pull lots of books off the shelf.  She was also fascinated with the big fish tank.  During story time, she actually sat through the whole thing in my lap, really still.  But I think it's because she was in awe of what was happening.  So we'll see how well this continues...





DOCTOR
Callie had another ear infection this past month.  This means she's had 3 since September.  If she gets one more before March, we may be considering tubes.  We'll see...


Getting into Mommy's make-up while
I get ready in the morning!
She likes to imitate putting it on!

DISCIPLINE
Callie is being told "no" a lot more, now that she's gaining independence.  Most of the time she obeys us pretty quickly and willingly.  But she gets the most mad, and throws her little mini-fits when we have to take something away from her.  We try to redirect, but she is still old enough to know that she's not getting what she wanted.  There's been a few times lately that she'll find something she shouldn't have, and when I ask her to give it to mommy, she takes off running as fast she can and whining the whole way... Poor girl... But it's just so funny (right now, anyway).

Cuddling with brother Caeden

Rough housing with Caeden

GROWTH STATS
Weight: ~24.5 lbs
Length: ??
Clothes size: some 12-18 mos, but mostly 18 mos
Diaper size: 4
Shoe size: 4

Callie is officially a toddler.  And while it makes me sad at times, I'm still enjoying every moment of this fun age!  She still loves Caeden (most of the time) and I'm praying this continues!  We love our sweet baby girl and want time to slow down just a little bit....