Christmas!!

Leading up to Christmas this year, I was kinda blah feeling about the whole thing. Jonathan was trying to get home for Christmas, but it wasn't looking like it was going to happen. I'm pregnant and have had way too much morning sickness, and taking care of a toddler by myself was stressing me out a little (a LOT!). I forced myself to put up a tree and try to get excited, but it just wasn't happening. A series of really good events followed.

Every year, for forever, my family has done this thing called "Action Group", where we help provide Christmas dinner and toys for a bunch of families in my grandma's community. My great-grandma started it a long time ago. The crazy day came, and we filled the gym at our church with tables and tables of toys and food donated by the wonderful businesses and people in the community. For each family, we have a list of every kid and what they want for Christmas, so we take a family and "shop" the toy tables for each kid. It's one of my favorite things to do at Christmas time and it really makes me get into the spirit of giving and not focus on the materialism of the season.

Then, randomly one day, I got a text from my wonderful husband that said, "What are your plans for tomorrow? Can you stop by the airport around 10?". I literally screamed with excitement! He got to come home for an entire week and a half! Cecily LOVED having him home, and so did I. It was wonderful!! And having my whole family together for our first Christmas in our house was perfect! Jonathan got to be here to see the ultrasound of our new little baby, which was great! After lots and lots of Christmas music, I finally felt in the Christmas spirit! But, I fell behind, so now I have to keep my tree up until I get over it. :)

Cecily got SO spoiled this Christmas!! She's just a tiny baby, and won't remember it, but it's pretty awesome, and hopefully all of her new toys will keep her occupied while I'm feeling sick and yucky from the pregnancy, and especially when there's a newborn that needs to be fed and taken care of. Jonathan and I got pretty spoiled, too. His mom bought us a set of french doors so we could finally replace the ugly broken sliding door we had for our backdoor before. And my handy husband put them in with the help of his uncle! He also got a table saw from my parents that he is THRILLED about!

Here's Cecily and Daddy on Christmas morning. Cecily is wearing my Christmas dress from when I was a baby (of course, I was only 6 months old, so it was more of a tunic on her).

Today we said goodbye to Jonathan until March. It'll be about 10 weeks until we get to see him again, unless I manage to drag my pregnant self and the toddler on a 23 hour car trip to go see him for a weekend, then drive 23 hours back.

1 year old!!

Holy cow. 1 year ago, Cecily was born. It's been a crazy year. It seems to have dragged on, but also gone so fast. A lot has happened in our lives over the past year.

Cecily is so awesome! According to my speech pathologist mom, she's very developed in her language skills. She says mommy, daddy, that, I want that (ont dat), what's that (waz at?), meow, cat, cup, hi, bye, uh-oh, ow, wow, and whoa. It's super adorable! Sometimes she'll pick up my cell phone, hold it up to her ear (backwards, of course) and walk around the house saying, "hi daddy! hi daddy!" over and over again. Then when he's actually on the phone, she gets really shy and won't talk at all... :(

She can walk, but she doesn't very often. Right now I think crawling takes less effort, so she's sticking with that. But, when she really wants something (aka, her dad), she'll walk over to it (him).

Her hair looks a lot like mine when I was little. Same color, same length, but I think mine was a little thicker. She still has the adorable dimples that she inherited from Jonathan. I love them! She's a pretty tiny kid and can still wear most of her 6-9 month clothes...

She loves:
broccoli
extra sharp cheddar cheese
her daddy
stuffed animals
bathtime
shoes
her play kitchen
banging things together
eating dirt
other little kids
being outside
mac n cheese

She strongly dislikes:
peas
getting her nose wiped
not getting her way
diaper changes
sleeping anywhere except her crib
meat
the vacuum
being in the car for a long time