Christmas 2017

 We had a great Christmas! Paige loved every minute of it and enjoyed all the holiday fun throughout the month. On Saturday it was a beautiful but cold day and we first went to Tahoma National Cemetery to see all the Christmas wreaths on the tombstones. It was beautiful to see and I love going there because it is so peaceful there.

 We then went on a quick family walk at Covington Community Park. It was really cold but good to get out. Baby doll even got to join in the fun.

 It was Baylor's first family walk besides walking Paige to school and I am excited for more adventures as a family of four once it warms up more.

 It was nice having Christmas Eve on Sunday this year. We all got to dress up for church and sacrament meeting was filled with amazing music and good reminders of what Christmas is really all about.

Then once we got home we had a little Christmas photo shoot.

 I love both of these smiley girls so much!

 I think this is our first family photo with all four of us in it.

 We then watch the Seahawks game and they actually won! During this time it started to snow and it was pretty exciting to watch it come down and Paige and I ran out for a quick photo and to catch some snowflakes on our tongues. Side note: I haven't held Paige in my arms in over a year and this past week was the first time and it was so sweet to be able to hold her again. She is getting so big and growing too fast that I love the moments that I can still hold her in my arms.

 Then the Christmas Eve party began. We started by signing the Christmas sandwich board.

And started to burn our Santa and tree candles to see how far they would burn down by the end of the night.

 The men making the sandwich. It was a lot smaller this year since it was just us and Dale and Margaret for Christmas Eve this year.

 This sleeping beauty snoozed away during the sandwich making.

All ready to carry around the house

 We joked how almost every year with the pictures of holding the sandwich there is usually a kid crying in the pictures and this year was no different. :)

 Tradition!

 We then each got different pieces from Margaret's misfit nativity and she read the nativity story from the scriptures and Paige set it up after each piece was talked about.

 Then we opened our presents from Nona and Pops.

 Anna and Scott came over with their family later in the evening and Santa even dropped by. Paige would not sit on his lap since she knew it was Peyton.

The candles by the end of the night.

Traditional eggnog toast to finish off the evening.

 We got home and Paige was so excited to open up her Christmas pjs and she was happy to help Baylor open hers too. It was fun to get kind of matching pjs even though it is hard to find matching clothes since there is such a big size gap between the two. Paige was so excited to get Santa's cookies all set up and she went right to bed anticipating the next day.

Baylor woke up around 7 and Nate kept on checking to see if Paige was awake. We were both excited to see her excitement about Christmas morning though we had to wait until 9 when she finally woke up. Paige loved everything she got and Santa spoiled her. She loved opening everyone's presents. She "helped" Baylor open all her gifts and ended up helping us open ours too. She was so just excited about everything! The holidays are the best with kids and seeing the magic of it all through their eyes. Baylor was fussy for most of morning but took a long nap on Nate in the afternoon and woke up much happier. As I have been holding Baylor this month with the Christmas season it makes me think about what Mary thought about holding her newborn child and what was Jesus was like as a baby.

 Some of our gifts this year

 Paige's gifts- she  loved everything she got and is one lucky girl!

 Baylor and her gifts.

 I love all her smiles!

 We had a hummingbird that kept coming to eat throughout the day. It would land on one of the Christmas lights and sit there until it got hungry to eat.

 Paige got some make-up from Santa and loved putting it on her and she even did my make-up too.

Nona and Papa came over to see what we got from Santa and they brought us some snowballs. Paige enjoyed throwing them off the balcony to hit the road below.

 Later in the evening we went over to Dale and Margaret's house for Christmas dinner. We went over a little early to enjoy the snow for a little bit.

 We had a delicious Christmas dinner and for dessert we all enjoyed a snowball with raspberry syrup on it. 

We ended the day with Skyping my parents to show them how our Christmas went. It was a great day and we hope everyone had a great Christmas too!

One Month

 We are loving our little BB (baby Baylor)! The month of November flew by and she is already one month old. It seems like she has been with us much longer and we are loving every minute of it except maybe the lack of sleep. :)

Baylor is such a good baby and here is what she is up to at one month:

• She is a really smiley baby especially in the mornings and when she is falling asleep. The older she gets the more she smiles at you which we all love so much.
• She is finally starting to like the binky which is wonderful.
• She is content but a grunter which is hard to sleep through.
• She likes her hand in fists and has started to suck on them more.
• She LOVES the shower even just the sound of it will instantly make her completely calm.
• When she is awake she is very alert and will study whoever is talking to her. She especially loves Paige when she talks to her.
• She is very wiggly and loves to kick her legs.
• She loves to be naked and to have her diaper changed. She doesn't mind having a dirty diaper but is happy when you change her.
• She likes to stare at you with her head way back when you are burping her.

And here are a few more photos of the cutest one month old. 

I know it's blurry but I love it when she does this open mouth smile and her eyes squint because she is smiling so big.

 The alert stare when she is studying you.

 Paige loves it when her pants have something on the bum. It is so cute on little babies!

 We love you so much Baylor and you fit into our family perfectly!

Thanksgiving Weekend

 We had a great Thanksgiving weekend filled with visiting with lots of family. I got surprise visitors on Tuesday night- Erika and Amy came to spend the weekend with us and meet their newest niece. It was awesome to see them. We got to visit with them for a bit Tuesday night and then Wednesday they came with us to see Paige get an award at school and then we headed up to Seattle to go to the big Goodwill and enjoy some lunch together. That evening we just visited and they got some last minute things for Thanksgiving.

Thursday we spent the day at Dale and Margaret's house with all the Smiths. It was a lot of people but so great to see them all. Baylor was passed around all day and I pretty much saw her when I needed to feed her. Paige loved all the cousin time.

Dale decided that he wanted to deep fry a turkey this year and it was quite the gathering to watch it all happen.

 All ready to eat! We all went to the church to eat dinner and it was so good. I love Thanksgiving and I am so grateful for the amazing food to eat and be surrounded by family that I love.

 After dinner the kids had fun playing in the gym while the adults cleaned up.

Paige and Carly had lots of fun together- they are the same height even though Paige is a 1 1/2 years older than Carly. :)

 Then we had some pictures:

Everyone in attendance

 The Dale and Margaret Smith clan

 Grand kids

 Dale and Margaret with their 5

 Then the siblings- we had lots of laughs throughout this part of the photo shoot

 Then we had some sweet potato races- you had to push the potato with your head.

 The kids came up with another race to do- slide on your back across the floor.

 Then Friday was spent at Dale and Margaret's again just enjoying family time.

 We went on a walk on the Soos Creek Trail with Mike and his boys.

 Then the rest of the cousins came over after lunch and all the cousins had at fun playing at the park.

 We had a big family dinner of turkey bone soup that Dale makes every year and that evening we just visited. I went to Trader Joe's with Erika and Amy before we headed home for the evening.

Saturday we went to Black Diamond to enjoy some donuts for breakfast with Erika and Amy and then walked around the little antique shop they have there and also a museum. We spent most of the morning there before we went to Ivar's for lunch until Erika and Amy left to go to the airport. Paige loved spending some time with her aunts and it was fun to have some Idaho family come and visit us.

 That evening the Smiths that were still here all went to the Covington Aquatic Center for a family swim. Margaret rented the pool for an hour so we had it all to ourselves. I didn't swim even though I wish I could have but it was really entertaining to watch everyone.

 This little cutie kept me company while everyone swam.

 Then we went home and had some dinner and it was more cousin time for Paige and Baylor got some cousin time too.

 These two have birthdays in December and got to get some money from the birthday money jar. 

 It was such a great weekend and I loved being with all the family though I am ready to get into a bit more of a routine and enjoy my little family of four.

I love seeing all the things Paige brings home from school especially during the holidays and here are some Thanksgiving things she did for school.

 I thought it was funny that her third thing was forgiveness. That is a good one but I have no idea what made her think of it.

 This one was a homework assignment and it was fun to brainstorm ideas with her in how to disguise her turkey. She came up with making it look like a cat. I gave her the idea of making the eyes look like cat eyes and make the gobble be a name tag but she came up with the rest. The name tag says "Cat's name: Thankful." I love that after she was done she added the meow signs and the food and water at the bottom. She is such a creative girl! Her turkey got first place at school and she got a coloring book as a prize.

 Then she made this Thanksgiving book at home.

'The story about the turkey"

 "Once upon a time there was a turkey. And the turkey found a flower. It was a sparkly one."

"And she loved it!!! The end!!!!"