7th day of Christmas

7. It said for us to get hot tasty drinks from Starbucks tonight on Pecan St and then walk around the neighborhoods looking at lights!

I'm very excited about this one! Today is Friday which means FAMILY FRIDAY! We have been doing this special tradition every week for the last month or more and it's so needed in our life!

so right now, i shall start off with some quiet time in bed before little bug-a-boo wakes up again. stephen and i have gotten into a new routine and so far it is really really good for us. we actually get up out of bed every morning at 6:00am-on purpose. kiah routinely wakes up to eat around 5:30am or 6:00am every morning because she goes to bed around 7:00pm every night. we can't keep her up past then most nights no matter how hard we try. so she needs to eat pretty early. but then thankfully she will go back to sleep for maybe 2 more hours. so, stephen and i realized that is we actually get up then we will be able to do things that we need to do and we are able to start the day feeling productive instead of dragging ourselves out of bed to the alarm of the crying baby. ITS BEEN REALLY WONDERFUL.   so today should be really good. stephen is already out the door on his way to play soccer with the guys. i'm writing. and drinking coffee in my PJs. 

what shall me and kiah do when she wakes up? first i will need to try and give her some cereal. then get her dressed and i think this morning we should go for a long walk. i'm too sore from the gym to go back again today. i need to finish the rest of my homemade Christmas presents.

1:00 stephen and i are going to see our friend elise who hooks us up with free hair cuts and color so this time we are going to leave kiah with my BFF faith. i really hope she is good. and then experiment more with a rosemary soft pretzel recipe that i messed up on yesterday bc i was trying to rush through it while kiah napped. the dough did NOT rise. i hate when that happens.

 don't they look amazing?!?!

here is the recipe

On the 6th day of Christmas

6. Bake a cake for Jesus.

so i made a pumpkin pound cake

here is the recipe

on the 4th day of CHRISTMAS

4. create a perfect holiday pandora playlist
      so far the best tunes come from the indie holidays radio but i have to have some NSYNC and mariah carey in there somewhere too!
i'm learning that kiah just loves to be out and about. on the days that i get up, go to the gym, walk around the mall, and do my normal life things>she is totally content. she sleeps better and loves GOING. like today! it been an awesome  awesome day!  on the days i try to stay at home and make a routine and focus on HER> she doesn't do well. yesterday the poor little doll face had to go in for her 6 month check up and get 3 shots. thankfully stephen came with me because it is soooooooo hard to watch her innocently laugh and play and roll around on the table where she will very quickly be surprised with stings of shots on her legs. she was very very brave yesterday though. the pediatrician said she needs to gain more weight though. from the last check up she had not gained even a pound so i am now focusing more on getting these solid foods in her and feeding her well. she's just a tiny little bug-a-boo. 
this week she is eating cereal in the morning and avocado in the afternoon. i also got her her FIRST SIPPY CUP yesterday because she needs to start drinking water now too. I've been using our BABY BULLET to grind up oats and make her super baby porridge from the The SUper Baby Food Book. i like it a lot. she doesn't really love the new food yet but we are getting there. i do not see why people WANT to rush the food eating process because it really is a lot more work than just sitting down and giving her my milk. more dirty clothes, more things to wash and sanitize. all of that to say, it is fun. she is fun. she is such a happy baby. 

on the third day of CHRISTMAS

3. eat waffles with hot chocolate for dinner

on the first day of CHISTmas...

1. kiss under the mistletoe 

Get Ready...december count down

2012 Christmas Count Down begins tomorrow. i just finished our first annual 25 days of things to do in december advent calendar. 

i kinda just made this up myself with a combo of ideas from the infamous PINTREST. stephen and i came up with 25 things to do this winter as a new family starting our own traditions. so i decided to make it even more fun by turning it into an advent calendar where we open the little baggie every day and see what it tells us to do! kiah makes me wanna be crafty. i bought my very own hot glue gun too! oh the possiblities. i plan on getting some help from my BFF jessica jones on some stockings for kiah, stephen and i out of an old sweater!
    having kiah has justified my desires to decorate and start traditions. before, when it was just stephen and i, i always wanted to do things like buy a pumpkin or buy a tree or decorate for holidays but since he could care less about it i just didn't do it. but NOW...things are different. this is the beginning of a beautiful thing. we have to start off right. gosh, I LOVE TRADITIONS! 
    the other thing that we have decided to do as far as the gift giving stuff is the, "something you want, something you need, something you wear, and something you read." 
for me-
want: some type of good work out clothes
need:
wear :maybe TOMS, or sunglasses or a new scarf
read: subscription to REAL SIMPLE
for kiah-
want:
need: a warm hat
wear:
read:
for stephen-
want:
need: luggage for thailand
wear:cleats and indoor shoes for his trip to thailand
read: i'm sure this won't be too hard, he loves getting new books

if anyone has any gread ideas, i sure could use them because i'm not getting very far with this list.

1st THANKSGIVING

        i always look forward to "FIRSTs" ;you only get a first time once! EVERYTHING!!! FROM KIAHS FIRST CAR RIDE, to her first giggle, to the first bottle, the first tear, the first taste of cereal, her first time on an airplane, her first bath= so this year we are enjoying and celebrating EVERYTHING! every month we celebrate and this month is a big milestone.    6 Months OLD. i remember thinking about when she would be 6 months old way back when she was only a few months old and feeling like 6 months would take forever but here it is before our very eyes.

..........the funny things that kiah does these days are roll around the floor all over the place, suck on everything, she kind of growls and smiles and it is sooooo cute, she hates getting her diaper changed in the middle of the night so we don't do that anymore, she almost jumps herself out of her little activity bouncy center, she laughs at PEEK-A-BOO, she is SO curious, she goes to anyone who wants to hold her, she loves listening to stories, she loves the bath, she has a bit of a temper..-thats just a few things that i don't want to forget 

       thank God i have been able to simply breastfeed kiah through this whole time and she has been growing beautifully. feeding her other things is going to take some extra work. she has been sleeping through the night since Nov. 12. this has made a huge difference in our lives. i believed in my heart that she would get it before or around her 6 month point and sure enough she did. it just clicked for her and i am so glad i did not have to have excruciating nights of letting her cry it out...which i was prepared to do by her 6 month birthday. thank you God!

       this has been an amazing thanksgiving family vacation with Stephen's family down here in sunny florida. on thanksgiving day stephen, his dad and i ran the 10k turkey trot in the morning and then in the afternoon we boiled and mashed some carrots for kiah to try for the first time. she was a great sport about it but defiantly didn't love 'em. its gonna be fun introducing her to more foods now and entering into THIS NEW SEASON! a new season of being able to be away from kiah for longer periods, a new season of CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS that we start as a family, a new season of teeth and crawling and changing and growing. wow! its so good!