Christmas, New Year, and More!

We had a wonderful Christmas in Maryland this year with my family.  We were able to spend 10 days there with our family.  Mimi and Pop-Pop were wonderful hosts.  We kept talking about our trip to Maryland before we left and Jack kept telling us the things he wanted to do.  He said he wanted to making Christmas tree cookies with Mimi and Mommy while Pop-Pop and Daddy sat on the couch.  Where he comes up with these things I don't know :)  While in Maryland we did not have a white Christmas, but there was some snow while we were there.  We had a great time at our family Christmas party, shopping, and spending time with family.  It was great to see Mom-Mom who is recovering nicely from a broken hip that she suffered on Halloween.  We were so glad that she was home for Christmas and that we were able to spend it with her.  When we got home we were able to celebrate Christmas again with Bryce's family.  After all was said and done, Jack was pretty upset that we had to take down the Christmas decorations and that Christmas was over.  He kept saying "Can we have Christmas back Mommy, please, pleeeeeease!"

On our trip to Maryland, I think Jack's favorite activity was making "pretzel bites," pretzel on the bottom, Hershey kiss in the middle and M&M on the top.  My parents are visiting now and as soon as we started talking about their visit, he started asking if he could make the pretzel bites again with them.  So this time he is going to make Valentine's pretzels for his friends at school.

The new year has come and the first month has gone already!  In just a few days we will have a 3 year old and yesterday our baby girl turned 9 months old!  Jack has such a wonderful little personality, he loves sports, I think football is his favorite. Although his War Eagle, Auburn Tigers did not have a good year, his NFL team won the Super Bowl!  He loved celebrating Purple Friday and wearing his Raven's jersey on those days.  He is so funny because when he sees Joe Flacco (that is the jersey he has) on TV he gets excited and yells "that's me, that's me!"  Kaylea is also starting to develop her own little personality.  We have finally (for about 3 months now) gotten on a good schedule with her.  She sleeps 12 hours at night and is on a regular eating schedule now.  She loves to be held, but she also enjoys playing too.  Currently, she loves to laugh at her brother and she also cracks up if you play peek-a-boo with her.  Her little laugh is just too cute!

Kaylea is growing so much everyday, it is all just happening too fast!  She eats 3 solid meals a day with snacks in between too.  She has loved pretty much everything I have given her with the exception of meat.  I tried to give her a piece of turkey and she was not pleased.  Otherwise, she has liked everything I have made for her, yogurt (if you are interested in making your own, here is the recipe I use for crockpot yogurt), avocado, broccoli, cauliflower, squash, peas, green beans, lima beans, carrots, zucchini, apples, bananas, blueberries, strawberries, grapes, pineapple, mango, and probably even more that I can't think of!  Her favorite snacks are cheerios, yogurt bites, veggie straws, and graham crackers.

Here are some pictures and a  video to get you caught up :)