Carys' first Christmas!

After being out super late the night before Carys was exhausted on Christmas day.

although she didn't go to sleep until midnight she still woke up at 8am, so she was still really sleepy all morning. she napped on the couch and finally around Noon she opened her presents!

here are a TON of pictures of Carys opening her presents...

confused as to what to do with it...

with a little help, she opens a present from Grandpa (my dad)

she got soooo many gifts! our living room just keeps filling up with more and more toys!

here she is playing with her Fisher Price house that Grandma (my mom) got her...

it plays music... here she is dancing to the beats

and her singing purse from Auntie Jenn

My mom and Chris' sister Bethany joined us later in the afternoon and we all hung out while Chris made a Christmas dinner feast (which i wish i had a picture of, it was soooo good!)

This was such a fantastic Christmas... Carys got everything she wanted (or that we wanted for her) and so much more! But the most important thing to me was spending time with the people that I love the most.

Hope everyone had a very happy holiday!

Carys' first Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas! sorry i'm a few days late... i was in a Christmas dinner food coma and i'm just now starting to come out of it ;)

My Dad's side of the family has been getting together on Christmas Eve ever since I can remember. I have a huge family on his side, and I don't get to see them enough, so our Christmas Eve get together is something I look forward to all year. And this was Carys' first time joining us, and the first time my family was meeting her, so I was extra excited this year. The festivities don't begin until the evening and usually end around 12am. I was a little nervous that Carys would be cranky b/c she goes to bed around 7pm, so she would be up WAY past her bed time. However, she did wonderful! I could tell that she was tired but she stayed awake the whole time, and was in her normal happy mood. She had a great time socializing with everyone! I was amazed at how well she did!

Chris, Carys and I had such a good time hanging out with my family, I always have so much fun being with all of them. I have a crazy and hysterical family... there are always lots of laughs! I was sad when we were saying our goodbyes b/c everyone was like "see you next Christmas!" So in 2011 I am making an effort to attend more family functions!

here is a picture with my brother Eric

(this is the only picture i have of the night. i brought my camera but i am really bad at taking pictures in social settings... but i have made a mental note to work on this)

A funny story I have to share from the night...
When my aunt Jennifer saw Carys she said: Hi Carey!! And I was like, no no, her name is Carys... C-A-R-Y-S. Said like Paris with a C. And Jennifer was like, no I read your blog, I thought her name was Carey. And I was like, nope... its Carys. Well, she seemed a little distraught that she had gotten her name wrong, but I was like, no big deal... she has a unique name and its common for people to get her name wrong.
At the end of the night when we were opening presents, Jennifer had Chris and I open a present she had gotten for Carys...

her very own personalized pillow case! lol... after Chris and I opened the present I understood why she felt so bad that she got her name wrong!

Oh well! it's the thought that counts, and i thought it was so sweet of her to think of my baby girl on Christmas! plus it'll be a funny story to tell Carys one day when she's old enough to spell her name and wonders why she has a pillow case that says Carey :)

thank you aunt Jennifer, we love the pillow case anyway and love you too!

My Dad got Carys a BEAUTIFUL Swarovski Crystal Christmas Ornament

Chris and I couldn't find a "baby's first" ornament that we liked so I kind of felt bad that we didn't get her one... but thanks to my awesome Dad, now she has one!

the Christmas Day post is coming next...I'm still working on that one

messy eater

do you like my yogurt beard???

*i try to scrape the excess off of her face with her little spoon while i'm feeding her but she HATES having her face touched or wiped. so i just wait until she's done to clean her face off... i have found that yogurt is especially messy!

First Snow

it's the season's first snow... and Carys' first snow!

*it has snowed much more since i took these pictures this morning

checkin' out the Christmas Tree

Gingerbread Houses!

Friday night my best friend Mindy and her boyfriend Tito (who I also consider one of my best friends) came over to decorate ginger bread houses! Chris and I started this tradition last Christmas, and Mindy and Tito came to join us :)

*BTW, Carys was fast asleep but I just wanted to show you our houses b/c we worked hard on those things!

Mindy and Tito did the big houses aka Gingerbread Mansions. We named out little row of houses Ginger Lane. And all of this ginger has made our house smell amazing...mmm!

climber

so not only has Carys mastered the skill of pulling herself up but i found out yesterday that she is also a great climber!

i left her alone for literally 1 minute and the laundry basket was supposed to block her from escaping her little play area. well, when i came back this is how i found her...

and this is what she was going for...

she loves my UGGs... i have to keep them out of her sight or else she goes straight for them. basically she loves anything that she can't have. maybe i should start pretending that she can't have her toys and then she'll like them more ;)

standing up

Carys' new favorite thing to do these days is pulling herself up onto ANYTHING she can, she absolutely loves it! she has definitely mastered this skill. now she just needs to work on the coming down part. she's not very graceful at this yet, but today I did notice that she's getting a little better at it. i told her that mommy can't keep coming to rescue her when she's tired of standing, she's gonna have to figure it out on her own ;)

grocery shopping

although Carys can sit up on her own pretty well at this point, we had been holding out on sitting her in the shopping cart b/c she is sooo tiny... plus she doesn't really like sitting up for long periods of time. she'll just flop over (she'd rather be rolling around on the ground playing with her toys, or finding the nearest thing to pull up on). anyway, we finally tried it out for the first time the other day when we went grocery shopping...

she looked so cute! however, she didn't last very long in the cart b/c as usual she got lazy and started slouching and leaning to the side lol. plus, b/c she's small the seat belt was around her chest instead of her waist. every time i would look at her i would just start laughing... and then we felt bad b/c she started to look really uncomfortable. so Chris ended up carrying her while we shopped :)

in a box

fun in a box! it only lasted about 5 minutes b/c she became more interested in trying to eat it... and then it collapsed 

who's in the mirror?

as i'm sure most of you know... babies love looking in mirrors.

i was sitting right behind Carys so she could also see me in the mirror... which she thinks is hilarious...

it's funny b/c she'll go back and forth from looking at me in the mirror and then turning around to see if i'm still behind her... like "hey, what's going on, how are you in two places at once?"

Happy 8 Months Carys!

CareBear is 8 months old! November seriously flew by... I feel like I was just writing her 7 month blog...each month goes by so fast, its crazy!

Our baby girl is 16lbs and probably around 26in (I haven't measured her so I'm guessing on her length) 

she is such a happy baby... from the time she was born she has always had such an easy going personality. she loves to smile and laugh. she is also great around "strangers" and family she hasn't seen in awhile. she loves people! it doesn't really seem like she has stranger anxiety (which is very common around this age)

Carys is on her way to sleeping through the night, yaaaaay!!!! She has only slept through the night (completely) once... but she doesn't really eat in the middle of the night anymore. If she wakes up Chris or I will go in there and comfort her and usually she'll go right back to sleep. She sleeps about 12 hours a night and takes 2 naps a day.

when we are sitting down on the floor with her she loves climbing into our laps and pulling herself up to standing (what she is doing in this picture)

Carys loves her daddy!

i'm posting this picture to embarrass Chris... maybe he'll stop making weird faces when i take pictures now ;)

in my last post i wrote about how Carys has learned to pull herself up in her crib (which we have lowered finally). so of course her new favorite thing to do is pull up on anything she can reach

she also has started doing this (i'm not sure what you would call it) but she'll put her hands on top of a toy and lift herself up halfway

Carys and her BFF London (our friends Billy and Barbara's 4mo. old daughter)
They are so cute! I can't wait until they can run around and play together... I'm sure that day will be here before we know it!

here is a good picture of her two teeth

Happy 8 Months Carys!