Christmas Fun

We had a great 1st Christmas with Riley! Her favorite part was hitting the boxes and playing with the bows. Christmas afternoon with Brian's family...

Christmas morning at my parent's house...

Christmas Eve with Great-Grandma...

Brian and I celebrated our own Christmas the weekend before with just the 3 of us...

1st Santa Photo

9 months

Making a mess while eating couscous...

9 month highlights:

• She now weighs 20lbs. 8.5oz and is 75% for both weight and height. Since she started to crawl she's thinned out a bit but still in 12-18 month clothes.


• She has 5 teeth now (2 on the bottom and 3 on the top), her hair is growing in now a dark brown, still has blue eyes


• She's crawling and pulling herself up on tables and couches, but I think still has some time before she starts walking. The house is getting baby proofed, but we still have some things to do. She's pretty good about not getting into things, but I know it's only a matter of time.


• Her favorite things: she loves to dance, pet the dog and cat, feed the dog from her highchair, loves her Elmo puppet book and cuddling with her big stuffed bear



• She's now giving hugs. It melts my heart everytime she puts her head on my shoulder to snuggle and give me a hug. Sometime she'll stop playing with a toy to come over for a hug and then she goes back to playing. So sweet!


• She loves other babies but has been tackling them lately. When she sees another baby she always wants to touch them or hold their hands, but also snuggles into them or some might say she's tackling them. Not sure if she's trying to give them a hug and a kiss or if this is the beginning stages of trying to bite. I hope she won't start bitting!!!



• She's saying Mama and Dada, but still not sure if it's just words or she means them. Sometimes when she sees Brian she'll say Dada. When I say Daddy, Kitty or Puppy she starts looking around for them. We're still working on some Spanish words but I need to brush up on my Spanish. We're also working on sigh language, but so far she hasn't picked up on it.

Ready for Christmas

We are excited and ready for Christmas! The day after Thanksgiving was busy with decorating the house and doing a little Black Friday shopping. That same weekend we went to Stoney Ridge Farm, outside of Bellingham, to cut down our Christmas tree. Normally we go to Whidbey Island to cut down a tree with Brian's family, but this year they came out here. I feel like we cheated though. We looked for a tree but there weren't many good ones and it was just too cold and muddy, so we ended up getting a pre-cut tree from them. I have to say it's the best tree yet and smells so good!



Christmas is my favorite time of year! I'm so excited to share some of my favorite holiday festivities with Riley and also create some of our own family traditions. Here are some of my favorite family traditions:

• Making Christmas cookies
• Decorating the house--both inside and out-- and the Christmas tree
• Cutting down a Christmas tree and drinking hot apple cider afterwards
• Listening to and singing Christmas music
• Opening one gift on Christmas Eve and then my Grandma always gave us PJs to wear that night
• Waking up really early on Christmas morning to open presents
• Eating my Mom's famous egg brunch for breakfast
• Having lots of fun stocking stuffer goodies
• Making hot chocolate, then driving around to look at Christmas lights
• Reading Twas the Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve night
• Playing games with family on Christmas Eve night
• Having my own small tree to decorate as a kid
• And most importantly, spending time with family

Riley's first Christmas books...


Riley's first Christmas ornaments...

Getting our Christmas tree with Brian's parents...