White Christmas in Texas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I can't go into Christmas without first talking about Christmas Eve. It was beautiful.. snow falling outside.. Christmas music playing.. my mom came over and we were just sitting around talking. We decided to try a new chilly recipe, which was great for us but not so great for Lilly. Christmas Eve/Christmas morning went something like this:

2 am - Lilly wakes up puking.. we change her, change her sheets, rock her for a bit..
3 am - Lilly throwing up again.. we give her a bath (right after which she throws up for the third time), change her, change sheets again.. put some laundry in the wash. Nate wakes up and we let them play for a bit before we put them back to bed.
3:30- Round 4- change sheets but nothing got on her- alright!!
4 am- Round 5 - she is sooo exhausted and so are we. Change sheets, change jammies again.. do more laundry..
4:15- Final round- change sheets, change Lilly (at this point she is wearing clothes because we are out of pajamas!) ans change myself..
4:30- bed time
6:30 - Good Morning Nate!

It must have been a bug because she never had a fever and nothing else seemed wrong with her. Christmas day she was pretty much back to normal.

We went over to my mom's and spent the afternoon with my sister, brother in law and their kiddos.

Here is a rundown of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in pictures! Enjoy!

Grandma and Lilly in the snow on Christmas Eve
Notice Nate still on the porch in the background while Lilly runs right out in the snow!

Still thinking about it..

There he goes!

We let them unwrap these Christmas jammies so they could wear them to bed..

Little did we know Lilly wouldn't have hers on long..

Santa!

Fast forward to Christmas morning..

More presents over at Grandma's!

6/8 of the cousins with Grandma!

Chillaxin' in her chair the next day..

Merry Christmas to ALL!!

Christmas Card Rejects..

Oh yes, it's that time of year again. We tried several places, different scenery, inside the house and outside.. and here, for your viewing pleasure, are a few rejects that did not make the card..

The pictures that made the card will be posted soon, but I want to give everyone a chance to get their cards in the mail!

18 months old!

EDIT: I forgot to add these official 18 month old pictures.. in the chair!

Already half of another year has gone by? You have to be kidding me.

Oh, there is so much to report. Nate and Lilly are like sponges these days. Just absorbing everything around them and it is neat to watch!

As you can see from the post below, they have been very loving lately (usually only on cue- but I'll take it!). Lilly walks around with her baby doll and silky, and she has started trying to cover up the baby with her silky, and even swaddle her! She got a stroller from Donna for Christmas, but instead of pushing it around she likes to just pick it up and carry it. She is my strong girl! She does everything how she wants to do it. I think she will definitely be a leader. They both love making you read books to them- any and all books! She has become more picky about what she's eating, so I guess for that reason and because she is running around now, she is getting skinny! My chubby little baby is losing her chubby! Her favorites are mac and cheese, breads, peas, anything with cheese! Recently she has become extremely clingy.. much more than in the past. She wants to be held and have 100% of your attention all them time. When you ask if she is ready to go to bed she shakes her head "no" and her whole body kind of shakes along with it.. it cracks me up! She's very social and warms up to people quickly. She takes books to people wanting to sit in their lap and have them read to her- it is so cute! She still loves to carry my purse around and even has tried to put on my shoes a few times already!

Nate on the other hand, is more shy. Although he is running around also, and is definitely my curious explorer, he is still very suspicious, as he has always been. He is so smart, he has really been amazing me with everything he is figuring out. Every morning we wake him up first, and after we change him the first thing he wants to do is go wake up his sister! It is really cute during the week when she needs to wake up anyway, but not so cute on the weekend when she could be sleeping in!! If you say to him "let's go wake up Lilly" he heads toward her room and opens up the door. The other morning you could hear him say "Hi Lilly!" when he walked in her room and peeked into her crib.. ugh.. so sweet! Nate is still eating anything and everything, hence the Buddha belly and double chin! He is NOT a picky eater!

Right now their favorite thing to do is read books (they are both always handing us books to read and backing up to sit in our laps)! I will not confirm nor deny that a couple of weekends ago we were so sick of reading the same books over and over that we hid all of them in my closet. I was like "No more books- watch TV!" haha.. They also love taking baths and being in their high chairs (piggies!). Their favorite snack has gone from cheerios to graham crackers.. and they LOVE bananas! They are both copying a lot of words and sounds that we make, which can be kind of scary!

This Christmas is going to be so fun. I know they don't really get it yet, but it will still be more fun than last year! At least for me, anyway!

Random pictures from this month-
This is how Nate lets us know he's hungry now..

Proof that I actually do try to teach them how to use a fork..
We tried to color in our big coloring books for the first time..
Nate's green color ended up on the carpet and on his face (click on the picture if you can't see it)

I love Nate's face in this picture.. So funny..

More interested by a suitcase and a humidifier than all the toys in the world!

He thought he was so funny trying to back into the tree! ouch!

Maybe they really DO love each other!

WARNING: Heart Melter!

For all the fighting Nate and Lilly have been doing lately, all it takes is one moment like this morning and all of that is forgotten.. at least for a few minutes. I put them next to each other to take pictures of the clothes from Grandpa Dick and Grandma Diane (so cute, by the way!), and they just started getting close and giggling.. and then giving each other kisses!! We have seen them do this once or twice, but this time they realized how much I was loving it so they just kept doing it! We were all laughing.. it was an awesome way to start off my Monday morning, I have to say..
See, told you it would melt your heart..