Fun before Christmas

This year, Joe's sister was in town for Christmas and a few days before so we all wanted to do some fun pre-Christmas activities with Emilia. One thing that I've always thought sounded fun was the Heber Creeper's version of the Polar Express. We decided that Emilia's first Christmas would be a fun time to take a train ride so we bought tickets. We almost couldn't get any because it is so popular, but we managed to get on the 11 o clock train on December 23rd. We were served hot chocolate and cookies as the train took us out of Heber and toward the North Pole.

After we arrived at the North Pole, Santa got on the train and gave every kid a special Christmas bell. Emilia loved her bell and would not let it out of her hands the whole way back.

Another baby-friendly activity we wanted to do was a sleigh ride. There were a few different options, but we decided on the Sleigh and Dine package from the Homestead. We had planned to go the Saturday before Christmas, but there were problems with our reservation so we ended up going Christmas Eve, which was a lot of fun. 

We decided to go on an afternoon ride so the baby could be awake and enjoy it. There were deer everywhere and  everything was very pretty. I would like to go on an evening ride in the future- The sleigh paths are lit with Christmas lights when it gets dark.

After the sleigh ride, Emilia had a nap and got changed into a pretty dress to go to Simon's Restaurant. We decided to get the Holiday dinner which was seriously amazing: Appetizers of warm bread and fried cheese curds and then salad and platters of chicken, ham, green beans, pumpkin pudding, and mashed potatoes. Dessert was pecan pie. 

One thing that we have discovered since having a baby is the appeal of early dinner.We got to the restaurant right when they opened at 5 and got a table right next to the fireplace. It was a lovely place to spend the evening of Christmas Eve.

8 Months!

This post is quite late, as Emilia turned 8 months old on December 16th. The reason it's so late is because I have filled my computer's hard drive with pictures. I had to delete some things and move some things before I could load any more. Oops! Emilia is continuing to amaze everyone with her development. She spends all day pulling up on furniture and scooting around tables. She always crawls with her tummy off the floor now. She has also recently discovered that she can go up the stairs and can make it from the bottom to the top in under 5 minutes. We bought some baby gates, but she still manages to get herself into "trouble" several times a day.

My girl still loves to get out of the house. One of her favorite activities is going out to restaurants, which is really awesome because a lot of babies don't like that much. I'm crossing my fingers that she keeps it up because we love going out to eat! She talks all the time, but doesn't say mama or dada yet. I'm hoping that will happen soon.

Likes:

Pulling the DVDs off the shelf
Standing, crawling, going up the stairs
Playing with her toys
The pets
Eating puffs
The Christmas tree
Oranges
Pickles

Dislikes:

Having anything taken out of her mouth (even if it's something that shouldn't be in there like a receipt)
Diaper changes
Baby gates

8 months

7 months

6 months

5 months

4 months

3 months

2 months

1 month

St Nicholas Day Tea

Every year, my mom hosts a tea party to celebrate St Nicholas Day and to jump start the Christmas season. We always have a delicious assortment of teas, sandwiches, scones, and sweets and I really look forward to it each year. This year was extra special because it was Emilia's first tea party. Emilia and I made sure to dress in Christmas colors.

Holly headband

My mom always gets out her special Christmas dishes and gets everyone a treat or gift. Emilia got some keys!

After everyone was full of yummy food and tea, we went to the living room to chat and watch the kiddos play. Emilia had seen Juliet playing with a rocking horse and thought it looked pretty fun. She tried it out and loved it!

Hangin out with Uncle Ethan

Thanksgiving

I thought I should post about Thanksgiving sometime before Christmas! Thanksgiving was quite different this year. Jessica asked if we could celebrate it on Friday. We weren't sure what to do on Thursday, but finally decided that we wanted to go out to a restaurant. We were hosting Friday Thanksgiving at our house so we didn't want to cook 2 big meals in a row. We picked out a Park City restaurant that was serving a fancy Thanksgiving dinner and made reservations. It wasn't the same as a home-cooked turkey dinner, but it was very good and Emilia loved all the people (it was packed!)

On Friday, everyone made the drive to our house for Friday Thanksgiving. I followed all the traditional recipes and I think everything tasted pretty good. Emilia was busy with everything and missed her afternoon nap so she was pretty grumpy all through dinner. There was one moment where Juliet was playing with a ceramic turkey and I said, "I hope you don't break that, sweetheart" which was a big mistake because Juliet is very sensitive and started crying which made tired Emilia cry which made James run into the living room crying. I sat at the table trying to decide if I wanted to laugh or cry along with the kiddos. I decided to laugh. It's a pretty great (first hosted) Thanksgiving memory and a reminder that things won't always turn out exactly as planned.

I wish I had taken more pictures of Emilia. I certainly spent a lot of time thinking about how thankful I am for my little family!

Even though dinner was at our house, my mom provided the traditional ornaments and chocolate turkeys

Turkey!

My sleepy baby. This dress had a turkey on it, but it isn't showing here. Emilia loves her cousins! She followed Juliet around all night. 

7 months!

On November 16, Emilia turned 7 months old. This month has been crazy for development. Emilia is really figuring out how to crawl on her hands and knees and she can move! In the last week, she has also started to pull to standing. She figured it out one night and practiced and practiced until she could do it. Now, she is constantly pulling up on toys and the couches. Unfortunately, her balance still isn't awesome and she tumbles quite a bit. I hate hearing my baby cry, even though it's usually just because the fall was scary and not because she's hurt. She can also get into a sitting position really easily. She is pretty much always crawling, sitting, or standing these days. She does not stay in one place very long.

She is still a great eater. She likes everything now, even sweet potatoes that she used to hate. She loves going out to restaurants and chewing on bread.

She is a terrible sleeper. Like, almost newborn terrible. This has been going on for a while now and we're all exhausted. I don't know if it's all the developmental milestones or teething or what, but I would like to sleep for more than 2 hours at a time at night please!

Likes:

Being out of the house
Toys that have buttons/light up/play music
Peas
Cows
Standing/Sitting/Crawling
The Little Mermaid

Dislikes:

Going to sleep
Falling down
Not getting her way

She chews on her fingers a lot, but I can't see tooth buds yet

Beautiful brown eyed baby

7 months

6 months

5 months

4 months

3 months

2 months

1 month

Baby's first Halloween- Costumes

Joe had the great idea to dress up as a family this year. He suggested Prince, Princess, and baby unicorn which sounded perfect to me! I found a costume that I absolutely love and hope to wear again in the future.

The whole family

Princess and unicorn

My costume

We didn't go out trick or treating this year. Emilia is too little to have candy, but I wanted to give her a little treat so she got some peach baby yogurt. She loved it! Joe and I had our traditional pumpkin shaped pizza and made a few snacks to have while watching Nightmare Before Christmas. We had a lot of trick or treaters, but everything quieted down around 9 which was good for the baby! It was a great first Halloween as a family of 3. 

Here are some bonus pics of Emilia in her costume:

A visit from Mogget

I love this next series. We put a fake candle in Emilia's pumpkin while it was in the house. My smart baby took the top of of the pumpkin and pulled the candle out!

Baby's first Halloween- Pumpkin carving

After a month packed full of Halloween activities, Halloween finally arrived! Joe and I needed to carve some pumpkins so we put a Halloween movie on and got to work. We left Emilia playing with some toys, but that didn't last long. About 3 minutes after we had sat down to carve she crawled over to investigate. I had to strip her down to her diaper because she was all over the pumpkin guts. She liked to squish and eat them! Emilia even had her own pumpkin- the one she picked out at Wheeler Farm- she wanted to carve an E for Emilia on it.

Still in her onesie

Checkin out her pumpkin

Look at that orange mouth!

All of our pumpkins