A Major Catch Up

FINALLY! The holidays are OVER! :) As much as I LOVE this special time (especially seeing Makena enjoy it), it's always a stressful time trying to fit in spending time with every family in just a couple of days...and doing that with a baby is, well, STRESSFUL. All though, it seemed to be MUCH better this year...last year Makena cried the majority of the time because she wasn't in her own quieter surroundings and it was a LONG couple of days. I decided I'd NEVER have a baby again around the holidays (if i can help it) because of how stressful having a 1 month old (for Thanksgiving) and a 2 month old (for Christmas) was, especially when trying to establish boobing and not feeling comfortable whipping it out in front of everyone. Not to mention all of the GERMS around this time of year and of people being sick/sniffley...I consider a baby less than 3 months old very susceptible to getting sick and wouldn't want to take her around ANYONE if I knew they'd been sick recently (and I'm sure I'll ALWAYS feel that way, especially with a brand new baby).

I dug myself into a blogging hole because I didn't want to have to face all of the junk that we were about to have to do. But it's OVER now! And I can relive the fun times. :)

-Our computer Hard Drive crashed (and it's less than 2 yrs old). Thankfully, the worker man was able to save all of my pictures and videos that I haven't backed up yet. phew. But, being without a computer for 5 days, this day in age, was HARD!

- We went to the park a LOT in November because it was SO SO SO pretty!

she was a little scared of the slide at first, and now, scarily for ME, it's her new favorite thing (falling from up there would be very, very bad).

-We took Makena to the Dallas zoo, which was a ton of fun, but I do not recommend this particular zoo. Because of the time of year, a TON of animals were off exhibit so we missed out on seeing some of my favorites. I've heard the Fort Worth zoo is WAY better, and I'm interested to see it, but this served our purpose to take Makena to see some animals. She loved the monkeys/gorillas (probably because that was my favorite part as well).

Daddy explained to 'kena what the tiger would do if she accidentally got in his cage, so we left there immediately to go see more monkeys.

this is how she rode around most of the time at the zoo. she felt like a princess.

-Makena has learned several parts of her body and will point to them when you ask her where they are (ears, nose, eye, cheek, tongue, foot, toes, knee, belly button and mouth). This is how I found out she knew what mouth was...she kept putting random objects in her mouth (some edible, some not, and mostly dog food--which taught me she knows how to eat crunchy food), so one day I said, "Makena, what's in your mouth?" and she did this, so of course I had to get a picture to send it to her Daddy at work. :)

-Makena discovered a love for phones. And then broke mine causing me to get a drug-dealer-pre-paid phone since my contract isn't up until May (which is Mother's Day month, hint-hint Luke!) so instead of paying a gazillion dollars for a new phone, I paid $30. I feel really cool with it! :) Kidding, it works fine! At least I have a phone!

And, she's not particular about what her "phone" is. She'll blab away with anything up to her ear! :) (And by blab away, she baby blabs, she really hasn't said too many words yet, and is causing me a little bit of anxiety...but, i know she UNDERSTANDS what I'm saying to her, so hopefully she'll start saying more actual words soon.)

chillin' talking on the phone in her old take along swing.

-We took a trip back to good ol' College Station and introduced Makena to the world of Aggie football and tailgating. The weather was DISGUSTING. It rained a ton the day before so we were like a herd of cattle squishing our shoes in the mud trying to get around in the tailgate location. (Nothing stops a good Aggie Tailgate, not even freezing cold rainy weather...it did end up sunnying up later and the Aggies WON...WHOOP!) She slept in her stroller for a couple of good hours and then was ready to explore Aggieland. I love this place so much! It was SO much fun to go back and see how much it's grown. It's hard to believe it's been 4 years since we were in school there! We went to eat at all our old favorite places (which happened to be mostly Mexican food). I loved it. I loved it. I loved it. :)

Makena chillin' with a couple of the A&M Yell Leaders. They couldn't resist her cuteness.

kena the explorer (keeping her OUT of the mud was So much fun!). She did make a LOT of friends down the concrete walkway.

We had to stop and take a picture with the sawed off-horned Bevo (a new little thing we found since we've graduated).

-Makena tasted her first ever Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cookie. We had to get something tastey before we embarked on putting up our tree. ...and it looks like she couldn't figure out how to eat it, but the second picture is proof she finally figured it out....and only left a FEW crumbs behind. :)

Then the tree decorating ensued, and I QUICKLY discovered I was going to have to hang ornaments halfway up the tree to stop curious minds/hands from trying to "help" by taking them down and bringing them to me. Luckily there was only one ornament casualty before I realized this.

She loved walking around with the empty wrapping paper roll using her super-sonic arm to knock many things down she never knew she'd be able to reach.

-We got to play with Lindsay and Lucas!!!!! It was so much fun to see my long lost friend and get to finally meet Mr. Lucas. Makena is in love, especially with Lucas' Kix (and by that, I mean cereal...she was a cereal stealer). I tried getting a good pic of her giving him a hug, but this was probably the 3rd time I asked her to do it for the camera, and basically the only one I got. Miss you guys! Come back SOON!

-One day, Makena and I had a modeling session in front of the tree. I decided this would be my first year to attempt to send out Christmas cards. I need addresses. This was a last minute decision, so if you didn't get one, it's because I didn't have enough time to gather your address. Email me so I send you one next year! :)

This was a 2nd place contender because of her adorable smile...but her panties were majorly showing.

This was the one we went with:

-Luke and I decided to start a tradition and let Makena open one present (a pair of PJ's to sleep in) on Christmas Eve when we got home from that day of craziness. ...we'll see how long I continue that, especially as more munchkins are added to the group. She was so happy to finally be able to open a present after WEEKS of being told "no". (We had several presents that had to be taped/mended).

-We woke up Christmas morning to a WHITE Christmas! And this was after some of it had already melted! I loved it!

The tree before presents were opened:

Santa left Makena lots of goodies:

...and even a special note!

I had to take a picture of Luke's wrapping job. He claims it was because he was afraid i was going to walk in and see the gifts. I loved it either way.

I got every single thing I asked for (perfume that he picked out all on his own...I love walking around knowing that he thinks I smell yummy, and 3 different books that I'm excited to read), and even a bonus robe!

Makena got a new potty that she loves to take apart. She will sit on it though, so we'll see how long it takes her to REALLY be interested.

Miss K-Leigh in all her Christmas mess. Christmas was so fun this year! It was exciting to watch her rip into her presents and be excited about EVERYTHING (even clothes). I love watching her have fun.

Santa brought us some silly stocking stuffers this year...because Luke requested it. (He said that the normal every day things Santa brought were not fun (toothbrushes, floss, shampoo, car smeller gooders), but I'm pretty sure after 80% of the 'silly gifts' ended up in the trash, he'll ask Santa to go back to his normal stocking stuffers next year).

We each got a pair of silly glasses, but I only got a picture of Makena in hers.

And these nastified teeth:

K...that's about all caught up. I've got to leave SOME things to talk about later this month. :)

Happy New Year!