Merry Christmas

Hi Everyone and Merry Christmas! Madeline had a great first Christmas, although she slept through most of it :) We started off at my parent's house with breakfast and presents and then headed to George's parents for dinner and some more gift exchanging. I still need to get the pictures on my laptop, but for now I will share this video of Paisley dancing. A couple of weeks ago we all went to watch her perform. Later that day, she performed at a nursing home. It was pretty darn cute...

Madeline Learning to Smile

Madeline has been starting to smile a lot lately. She is exploring different facial expressions. It is so cute!! I was glad that I was able to catch it on video :)

This and That

Hi Everyone! I hope you East Coast folks are staying warm! I realized when we were in Colorado  that I absolutely hate being cold. Good thing I live in Arizona!  Cold to me is 50 degrees...actually like 60. Haha. Speaking of Colorado, we had a very nice trip up to Beaver Creek again this year. It was Madeline's first trip. The trip to Colorado (a little bit under a 2 hour flight) and the drive up to the mountains (3 hours) was a complete success. Madeline slept a ton and was pretty much an angel. On the way home, however, there was quite a bit of screaming and crying on the drive to the airport. Eventually she did get all "cried out" and went to sleep. The flight home was smooth too. Phew! We have all seen those parents with a baby who is screaming uncontrollably on a flight. Don't you feel sooo bad for those people?? Thank goodness that wasn't us! :) I didn't do a ton of skiing b/c of the temp and Madeline's feeding schedule, but I honestly just enjoy being up there. The hotel is so luxurious that it is fun to just be there and "do nothing"! It was so great to have the Moore gang up there too...although they had a terrible time getting home (stupid airline!)

George is taking some time off of work for the holidays right now. It is fun to have some family time before I have to go back to work in 3 weeks. I go back on January 6th and we are going to put Madeline at an in-home daycare in our neighborhood. It is walk-able from our house and the lady seems really nice. Nevertheless, I know it is going to be hard to leave her.

Madeline is so alert these days. She is always looking at her surroundings and checking things out. She is also starting to smile quite a bit, which I love! 

My parents just moved into their new house. I was telling them tonight that our house feels so empty now! It was great to have them here for the past 6 weeks. They gave George and I quite a bit of help with meals, grocery shopping, and Madeline. I'm thankful for the timing of their stay with us...it really worked out so nice. 

Anyway, that's a little bit of what we've been up to. This week we are going to wrap up some Christmas shopping (I did most of mine online this year) and get ready for some visitors! Sergio and Andi (our old roommates from California) will be driving out on Friday for the weekend. We love hanging out with them and are excited to show them around. I will leave you with some pictures. 

Brian and Terrisa took Paisley to see Santa the other day. I wanted the non-Facebookers to see these pictures....

 

Terrisa said that Paisley asked Santa for pink teddybear (good luck with that one, Santa!)

Marie came over last week after school and held Madeline while I did a few things around the house. The picture of the right could not be more sweet!

 Here is a shot of the guys skiings. From left to right: Gabe, Brian, Dad, Dan, George

Gabe, Brian, Alaina, Dad, George

 While the boys were out skiing, we snapped this shot of Paisley and Parker. Haha :)

Emily looking lovely in front of the hotel's Christmas tree. I always say it, but isn't Emily the most photogenic person ever?? 

Here are a couple of Madeline on George's lap. He is the expert at getting her to smile!

I meant to share this a couple of weeks ago, but forgot. Emily got us (and B&T one for Parker) "chalkboard art" of Madeline's birth stats. She had them done by a girl at her church, who has a custom hand-lettering business. I love it and plan to hang it on the wall her nursery! 

GOODNIGHT!

Thanksgiving Weekend

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend! It was nice to have everyone off of work to hang out with Madeline and me. Hannah and Emily came "home" (our house is home for now) for the long weekend. We celebrated Thanksgiving at George's folks' house...they hosted all of us (11, including the kids) plus some of their family. There were about 20 people total and Rachel (George's sister) did almost all of the cooking. She really enjoys cooking and wanted to take it on. I enjoy cooking too, but not for 20 people! :) Anyway, she did a great job and prepared a nice meal for everyone.

Brian, Terrisa, Paisley, and Parker went onto San Diego for the rest of the weekend to see Terrisa's family. My mom, Emily, Hannah, and I did some Black Friday shopping on FRIDAY (not Thursday)! We weren't very hardcore this year. We started at about 7AM and finished up around 2PM. It honestly wasn't that crazy when we were out shopping. I think that the crazy people that started on Thursday night were back home, in bed, by the time we started. On Friday, we also watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade (recorded). Hannah's high school, Mountain View, was in the parade -- it was really cool to see them. Going to the parade is actually on my bucket list....some day!

Most of us (minus Hannah and Jeremiah b/c they have finals) will be heading to Beaver Creek, Colorado this Thursday morning! This will be our first trip with Madeline so I am a little bit nervous about the flight and car ride up to Beaver Creek from Denver (2 hours). We are all on the same flight so I'm sure the business men will steer clear of us, the group with a toddler and two infants. This is a trip that we all look forward to every year. Can't wait!

I have some sort of random pictures to share today (I didn't get any from Thanksgiving).

I thought this was a cool picture that George took the other day when he was out working on the yard...

This one cracked me up. Notice that Madeline and George are making the same face... :)

My mom bought Terrisa and I iron-on monthly milestones for the babies. I think I've mentioned it before that Madeline is a squirmy baby. Here is proof...she was not really into cooperating for picture. Haha :)

Madeline relaxing with Aunt Hannah this weekend...