the happiest holiday

This post is short on words, heavy on pictures. 

I know Addilyn won't remember her first Christmas but there is no doubt we will.  It was better than I could have imagined and I after every day that passes I continue to love her more and more.  It has been so fun to experience this time of year as a family of three.  Here is just a handful of the overload of pictures I took this last week.  I am so thankful for these pictures to look at and savor all of the wonderful memories this first Christmas had for us. 

I hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas!

Addilyn's gift to daddy

I usually have a hard time choosing a good present for Chris and never know what to get him that, especially a gift that isn't super expensive.  I was really excited to give him a gift "from" Addilyn this year.  And this one was free and may have made him shed a few sentimental tears.  (Which to my happiness isn't hard to do when it involves him thinking or talking about Addilyn). 

After making our little mistletoe craft I wanted to do something else with footprints.  I'm a little sad I didn't think of these gifts sooner because I think they would've made great grandmother gifts too. 

I saw a few similar prints like this on etsy but decided to make one on a canvas that I already had.  I used fabric paint for the writing so that I could do it a little neater than if I used a paintbrush.  

I love how it turned out and Chris loved it too and is excited about hanging it in his office.  And now I kind of want to put Addilyn's footprint on everything.  
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! If you're like me you don't even love looking at your Christmas tree anymore because you're sad that it is all over.  I plan on going through and sharing some (or lots) of our pictures from the last week tomorrow.  

5 Months - just a little late

Dear Addilyn, 

This last month has gone really fast and has been so much fun.  This has always been my favorite time of the year, but has been even better with you here.  We've been really busy this month and have gone to lots of new places.  You have loved it!  You are so social and love being around people.  Every time someone looks at you, you do this little giggle and shrug your shoulders and give the biggest smile.  It is wonderful! I hope you keep loving people.  

One of the parties you got to go to this year was a Cowboy and Indian party.  We all got to dress up and you were the cutest little Indian ever.  I had so much fun making your costume and getting to dress up as a family.  

We are so lucky to have lots of friends to play with.  You're especially lucky to have lots of girlfriends your age.  We've had lots of playdates and this month you have started noticing other babies more and more and I can't wait for you to really play with them.  

This month we celebrated Thanksgiving and clearly we are the most thankful for you this year! We had Thanksgiving at your Grandma and Grandpa's house first and then went to Aunt Sheri's house for a second Thanksgiving and a little Hanukkah celebration too.  

The day after Thanksgiving is always my favorite day of the year and I think you loved it too! I know you won't remember it, but luckily we'll have tons of pictures to show you.  You were so happy even though it was a little cold outside.  We rode on a tractor ride to go pick out our tree and found a perfect one!

This day last year was really scary for us, as I was newly pregnant with you and we had a scare where we thought we had lost you.  It such a hard day and I was so happy to replace those memories with new ones this year.   You have made every tradition we have better and better!

That night we decorated Grandma and Grandpa's tree and decorated ours the next morning.  It was so fun putting up the ornaments and telling you about them.  Soon we will have lots of ornaments for you!  You were much more interested in wanting to eat the ornaments than putting them on our tree.

Your sleep finally started getting a little better at the end of this month.  You are now spending the whole nights in your crib and on a good night you wake up to eat twice and have even stayed asleep until 7:45 in the morning.  We still haven't managed to break you of being swaddled as your flailing arms still wake you up, but maybe next month? 

One of your biggest discoveries this month is that you can blow bubbles.  You blow bubbles all day long.  Even in the middle of the night when I am feeding you.  It is really funny and you are quite proud of your new skill. 

You got to go swimming for this first time this month and you loved it.  We went away for the weekend to a little house in Wisconsin with our friends David, Ally and Ella.  We had so much fun, but I think the best part for you was swimming.  We went at least three times and each time you were so happy in the water.  This made your daddy SO happy, since he loves swimming!

My favorite thing about you is your smile.  You smile ALL the time.  You smile at me, at daddy, Molly, other people, everything!  You even smile when I take your picture.  You may be one of the happiest babies there ever was.  It has been so fun watching your little personality come out and your daddy and I couldn't be more happy with who you are.  

I am continually amazed at how much you are growing and changing every month.  Sometimes I am sad that it is going so fast.  There are days I wish you were a little newborn baby again, but I am also so happy at the sweet, happy, fun little girl you are becoming.  It is so much fun being your mom and I am thankful God picked me for the job! 

Love, 

your mom 

Merry & Bright

cards from Tiny Prints
I couldn't be more excited for a holiday season than this year.  I haven't done Christmas card pictures for the last few years and am so happy we did them this year.  

I'm thankful for a beautiful, healthy baby girl who has so much joy and brings us more happiness than I could have imagined.  The other night after we put her to bed Chris and I watched this little video of her laughing at least ten times and couldn't stop talking about how lucky we are. 
I'm thankful for a husband who tells me daily how much he loves me, who makes me smile, takes care of our family and after eight and half years of marriage continually wants to work at and strive to make our marriage stronger.  
I'm thankful for this week to spend with my family and soak in all the memories we get to make this year. 
Mostly importantly right now I'm thankful for this time of the year to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.  It's so easy to get lost in all the wonderful things about this time of the year like traditions, Christmas presents, baking, decorating and making memories.  Which are all things that I love and are special to me.  But I don't ever want to forget the most important reason for celebrating. 
I plan on spending time this week thanking God for sending his Son, for this season of joy, and for blessing me more than I can imagine. 
Merry Christmas!

Mom Fail

I know I am not alone, but five months into motherhood and I've had my share of mommy fail moments. Like the first time Addilyn cried a real hurt cry was because I jammed my finger in her mouth when I was getting her dressed and she turned her head really fast.  Or the time (or two) that I locked her in my car.  
I know I am not alone in my imperfect mom moments, but it's impossible to not feel a little bit of guilt in those situations.  
One of the first stressful failing mom moments I had was when we went to our first fancier event as a family of three. We were going to Chris' cousins wedding when Addilyn was about two months.  I of course had been out many times and to many places, but this was our first "big" event and the longest we were gone for, plus we were about forty five minutes from home.   It took us much longer to get ready, but that I was prepared for and we got there on time.  It was a little cold and rainy so Chris dropped me off at the front door with Addilyn and met us inside.  When he came inside without the diaper bag I sent him back to the car to get it, and to our complete disappointment we realized we didn't have it.  No diapers, wipes, toys, blankets, nursing cover, burp cloth or sweater for Addilyn who was dressed in a sleeveless dress.  
Major mom fail. 
I of course cried because I pictured having Addilyn in the same diaper for seven hours, with spit up all over her and me having to nurse with my non-nursing friendly dress in front a million people. Post partum hormones added to my feelings of course.   With no time to go home, thank goodness there was a CVS down the street where Chris ran there quickly and bought a pack of diapers, wipes and some wash clothes for burp clothes and our evening ended up being just fine.  Addilyn had no clue that we were completely unprepared.  With the holidays here it is really easy for me to stress out about the littlest things and having a baby definitely makes coordinating, planning and being prepared a whole lot harder.  It's a good thing we're surrounded by stores like CVS so that I know if I ever forget our diaper bag with everything we need in it again, I don't have to panic quite as much.  

Thankfully with diapers like Pampers I know that Addilyn's cute Christmas outfits are protected from diaper leaks and blow outs.  Plus my favorite thing is that their diapers have the little indicator line on them that turns blue when they are full so you don't waste diapers changing them before you need too. 
Being laid back and relaxing are far from second nature to me, so it's probably a good thing for me to learn that things like forgetting our diaper are far from catastrophes. 
Going into this holiday week I'm going to do my best to have our diaper bag full of quality diapers and wipes like Pampers, but am going to remember that I'm bound to forget something and a quick trip to a CVS and making due with what we have will get us through just fine!

Want to win a box of free diapers and wipes for your baby? Enter the giveaway below:

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Winner will be contacted at the end of the week and will be mailed a coupon for a free box of diapers and free box of wipes.  Thank you for entering!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.