Decorating

We were super excited to decorate the house inside and out for Christmas this year! Julian is at an age where he likes to help, and Bella knows all about Christmas and loves everything about it. Me, Steve, and the kids helped Eric put out all the decorations and lights outside. Like every year, I made hot chocolate and cookies. We sat on our chairs and ate our cookies and looked at our beautiful hosue :)I'd say we did a great job!
A few weeks later, Eric brought home our fresh tree. The tree is my favorite part! I made homemade cranberry/orange muffins and the 4 of us went to town decorating the tree. That day was by far one of my favorite family moments to date. Everyone had a big part in it and had a lot of fun.

Glendale Glitters 2011

This year we decided to try Glendale Glitters again because the kids LOVE looking at lights, especially Julian. We have to drive around our neighborhood on our way home so that they can see all the lights in our neighbors yards. Glendale Glitters had snow to play in which Bella absolutely LOVED. There were way too many people there, but still fun.

Thanksgiving 2011

This year was a different Thanksgiving for us. Normally, we eat with the Hoover family in the morning/early afternoon and eat dinner with my Mom and sister and my mom and I share the cooking. This year, we ate at the Hoover family's house with Grandma, Grandpa, Great Grandma, and Eric's brother, sis-in-law,and 5 kiddos. It was a great time, we all had a fun day and a full belly :) Bella and Julian got to hang with their 5 cousins and play.

Anthem Tree Lighting 2011

We decided to go to the Anthem tree lighting ceremony again this year. We invited Nino Steve, The Tortora's and Amy to join us. It was super fun, the kiddos loved seeing the tallest Christmas tree in America being lit. Michelle Branch sang and we even got to see her up close and personal. Afterward, we let the girls run around in the grass to avoid the traffic, and it was a great idea. We got some good pictures of us in the sleigh, and some good play time. We look forward to doing it again next year!

Halloween 2011

This year, Bella was adamant about being Rapunzel. She has watched 3 movies that interest her: Cars 2, Toys Story 3, and Tangled. Tangled is a movie about the story of Rapunzel, and Bella loves it! So she was super excited about being Rapunzel for Halloween. We had a little trouble finding the costume because every place was sold out, but we ended up grabbing the last one at the 4th party city we visited. I ordered her long blonde hair on line and VOILA her costume was done :) Bella definitely looks better as a brunette :) Eric was in charge of deciding Julian's costumes and he chose Superman. He looked adorable!
We did our traditional trick-or-treating with our friends. Deb and her girls, Amy, Stevie, and Jen joined the Hoover's on our trip around our neighborhood. I really love our neighborhood because we are surrounded by families and people who are really in to the holidays. Our neighborhood was decorated with haunted houses, pumpkins, graveyards, etc. It was super fun and we all had a great time trick or treating together. Can't wait to do it again next year.

















SUPERMAN

Julian and Carina ending the night exhausted

Julian's 15 month check up

Julian's 15 month check up went well. He is growing just as he should, and is doing all the things he should be. He is now 32 inches (70th percentile) and 29 lbs (94th percentile). Dr. Rampley asked if he was doing all the things he should be, and he is. I expressed to her how active he is and how naughty he can be. She has 2 boys and totally understands what I am going through :) She said that he is now at an age where I can use time out if need be.

I am so impressed with how much my boy talks nowadays. He repeats everything you ask him to and is using so many words. Dr. Rampley asked about how many words he has and I couldn't even answer. He is talking so much and using a new word almost every day. He is still sleeping beautifully, eats everything except green veggies, can play and run all day, likes to pull things off the walls or tables, and loves playing with his big sister. Speaking of big sister, Bella is such a good sister. She plays everything with him and rarely gets annoyed by him. They are such good buddies.

Here is a list of the words I can think of off the top of my head that he is using spontaneously:
-mama
-dada
-Bella (his favorite word)
-papa (for food)
-tata (grandpa)
-Dora
-airplane (anytime he hears an airplane , even while inside he yells it)
-poo poo (he has started telling me when he has poo poo, maybe he will be as easy and early at potty training as Bella)
-no no
-eye
-truck
-apple
-banana
-night night
-bye bye
-hi
-hello (loves to say hello over and over while pretending to be on phone)
-shoes (loves to give everyone their shoes and say shoes 100 times in a row)
-dog ( every time he hears a dog bark he screams it or chases Sadie around saying it)
-nice (pets sadie while saying "nice" 10 times)
-ball
-hat (every time he says anyone wearing a hat, he yells it, even at grocery store)
-milk
-wa wa for water
-cup
-up (this one can be annoying because he will say it over and over until you pick him up)
-down
-choo choo
-more, especially when it comes to food
-book
-duck
-baby (whenever he sees a baby, he finds it necessary to scream baby at them)
-hot (always touches the oven even when its not on and says hot)
-dance (loves to get his groove on)
-ashes (this is my favorite thing he says, he says it when he wants bella to do ring around the rosies with him)

He is doing so much and really keeps us on our toes. He makes being a mommy so much fun and amusing. I love my baby boy!

Family Photos

I have been dying to get our family photos done with Amanda ever since she took a picture of Bella a couple of years ago. She is a good friend of our old sitter Simone. I ran in to her at the hospital after having Julian, she takes pictures of the newborns. I had to keep canceling with her as scheduling conflicts came up, then Julian was sick. Anyway, we finally made a date and were able to follow through. I wanted Sadie to be part of our family photos as well so that the kids can look back at them when they are older and remember our beautiful Sadie. Bella really enjoyed the photo session, she takes such beautiful pictures. Julian was less interested and became frustrated after a while. I am SO HAPPY with the way the photos turned out. She really is a fabulous photographer, and will never use anyone else when we want our photos done again. I fell in love with every photo, but here are my favorites....