8 Months Old

Jacob has been 8 months old for a few weeks now, but I wanted to post an update on him & some recent pics.

At 8 months:

-Jacob is crawling all over the place, pulling up on everything, & cruising around furniture

-Still sleeping through the night & has established a nap time routine in his crib. However, he will still nap in the infant carrier, which is nice when I do need to run errands.

-LOVES to eat! This boy is going to eat us out of house & home. He eats baby food 3 times a day. He will eat 2 containers of baby food plus puffs in one sitting.

-Still nursing & refusing bottles.

-Can drink out of sippy cup

-is much more verbal, but hasn't said "da da" or "ma ma" yet

-is still toothless

Playing at the park

My little casanova!

Getting into trouble

Playing

So big

Love his smiles

Christmas Day 2011

I'm FINALLY getting around to blogging about Christmas day. James & I decided last year that we wanted to have some time on Christmas for just our little family. So, Christmas morning we enjoyed our first Christmas morning as a family of four. It was so nice to just have a casual breakfast & watch the kids open presents & play with their new toys. We didn't have to be anywhere until 11:30 & we didn't have to drive across town, it was so nice.

James & I also felt that we went overboard last year buying presents and wanted to tone it down this year. So, we didn't buy too much for the kids especially since they would be getting gifts from the rest of the family. And of course Jacob didn't really know what was going on anyways. James & I agreed not to buy each other gifts because we bought a new couch & coffee table for the living room.

Jacob woke me up at 6 am wanting to eat. Jacob & I waited anxiously for Daddy & Abigail to wake up to see what Santa left for them. Abigail asked Santa for an American Girl Doll. Several months ago, we went to the new HEB in the Woodlands and they were selling Texas Girl dolls. They look like an American Girl knock off. Abigail saw the Texas Girl doll dressed as what she thought was a bride & wouldn't stop talking about it. Abigail wanted the "Quinceanera" Texas Girl doll. James & I of course thought that was hilarious, but Abigail did not forget about that bride Texas Girl doll & that's what she wanted for Christmas. Of course, Santa was happy to pay the $25 for the Texas Girl doll versus the American Girl doll prices. Abigail doesn't know the difference & that's what she wanted. Santa also brought a cowgirl outfit for the doll. Santa also brought Abigail a doll house for her Barbie dolls. Abigail got lots of other toys, books, & clothes from the family. Santa brought Jacob tools. James wanted Jacob to have a little tool box. Santa was able to find a few tools that were age appropriate for Jacob.

Abigail woke up saying "It's Christmas, woo hoo, Santa came" & came running down the stairs. She was so excited about her American Girl doll a.k.a. Texas Girl doll. Abigail couldn't wait to get her doll out of the box. She was excited about her doll house too, but had to wait patiently while Daddy to put it together. Jacob of course was too little to understand what was happening, but he did enjoy eating the wrapping paper.

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! We bought the Elf on the Shelf book & Abigail named our elf "Katie" because she's a girl & had a cute little skirt. Abigail had lots of fun finding her each morning. Katie didn't do anything too creative & sometimes she would be found in the same spot as the day before. Abigail really got into the whole "Santa" thing this year. We still made sure Abigail understood the real meaning of Christmas is celebrating our savior's birth. We spent the week after Christmas cleaning out toys & organizing toys in an effort to make room for everything. I always love putting up all the Christmas decorations & enjoy looking at them while they're out, but I also enjoy putting the decorations away just as much. I like getting the house all back in order.

Santa visited the Fehrle home

Abigail's presents from Santa

Jacob's presents from Santa

The stockings were hung

Jacob didn't know what was going on & just wanted to chew on whatever he could get his little hands on.

Abigail LOVED her presents from Santa

Jacob checking out his new hammer

Abigail was so excited about her new book. I hope she always gets this excited about books

Jacob wanted to eat the wrapping paper

Jacob likes his new book

My precious baby boy! Jacob's 1st Christmas!

Abigail LOVED her new Olivia umbrella

Abigail was excited about her little people horse trailer

Family photo op (everyone was ready for a nap at this point)

My family minus my parents

Christmas Eve 2011

On Christmas Eve, we had Grandma & Papa over for lunch to celebrate Christmas with them. I cooked my first turkey. I was very nervous about cooking a turkey, but wanted to make the meal special. My mom makes the best turkey, cornbread dressing, & gravy, so I had a good mentor. First, I made the Pioneer Women's brine & brined the turkey overnight. Cooking the turkey was easy, but James did keep an eye on the temperature to make sure we didn't over cook the bird. I don't like eating dried out meat of any kind from being overcooked. The turkey turned out beautifully. We made the homemade cornbread dressing & giblet gravy with a little assistance from my mom who came over to help me. I was very proud of myself for pulling off a big meal like this for the first time. I guess it made me feel more like an adult since I'm used to always going to my parent's or Grandmother's for the holidays and they do all the cooking. The meal was AMAZING if I do say so myself! James was very pleased too! After our fabulous lunch, we opened presents & watched the kids play with their new toys. Grandma & Papa were very appreciative of the meal we made for them.

Making the brine for the turkey

Putting the turkey in the brining bag

My 1st turkey!

Making giblet gravy

Table is set

Grandma & Papa with their grandkids

Look at that cute little bottom

Jacob's favorite thing was playing with the wrapping paper

7 Months Old

Jacob has been 7 months for several weeks now, but I'm just now getting around to posting some recent pictures of him.

What's Jacob up to now?

-started crawling all over the place shortly after he turned 6 months

-pulling up on everything & starting to cruise around furniture

-FINALLY sleeping through the night (Mommy is so thankful)

-FINALLY establishing a nap time routine of napping in his crib & not the infant carrier while I'm out running errands

-LOVES eating puffs, the little finger food snacks that melt in your mouth

-Getting pretty good with his pincher grasp when picking up the puffs to feed himself

-is still a Mommy's boy! If I'm in the room, Jacob prefers me over anyone else.

-LOVES playing with his sister

-enjoys being outside

-is a happy baby full of smiles & laughter, only cries when he's tired or hungry

Jacob's 1st wagon ride

Abigail wanted to pull the wagon

Had to lower the crib

Playing with his friend Merritt's toys

Happy boy

Discovered the Christmas tree

The childproofing has begun

Abigail's Christmas party @ Sonkids

Abigail had so much fun at her class's Christmas party. They got to eat McDonald's for lunch as a special treat that day. Then, they played a book exchange game. Abigail loves books and was excited about getting a new book. Abigail's teacher had a craft planned for us to make candy canes with beads. Abigail did a good job & only needed a little assistance from me. And of course every good Christmas party ends with singing Happy Birthday to Jesus and eating a cupcake.

Abigail made a Christmas ornament for us using her finger prints as the bodies of snowmen, the snowmen on the ornament represented our little family. It's super cute! I took a picture of the ornament, but haven't uploaded it to my computer. Abigail also made a plaque of a reindeer using her handprint. I LOVE getting homemade crafts that my child has made especially when they're using her cute little hand prints!

Getting ready for the book exchange game

Abigail's looking a little bored! LOL!

Making a candy cane with beads working on fine motor skills & practicing AB patterns

Cupcake time

Reindeer Dance @ Boni's 2011

Abigail performed her annual holiday dance at Boni's. She did such a good job. It's been really neat to see her progress over the last few years. They performed a reindeer dance & one other cute little dance. After, the girls performed the Daddies were asked to come up so they could teach them a dance. James was happy he was able to be there, it was not easy for him to get away from work that day. Abigail is a Daddy's girl so she LOVED having her Daddy there & thought it was so funny that she got to teach him a dance. I took a video of both dances & posted them on facebook. So, this is the dance in pictures. Enjoy!

This little girl LOVES her Daddy!

Family photo op

Abigail & Honey! Mimi was there too!