christmas part 2

i know, i know, it's been FOREVER since i posted anything and by now nobody cares about our christmas, but i'm going to post this part 2 anyway, then onto more current events!

as i mentioned before, we spent christmas eve at my mom's house (along with my sister, brother-in-law, and the girls). so christmas morning (with 3 babies) we were up by 7 or so.


the christmas tree looked so pretty with all the toys under it.


here's the girls' toys


and oliver's (aren't those blocks adorable?!? my sister made them, i LOVE them!)

it was a bit hectic and time consuming opening presents with so many people, and the babies one by one had enough! it was fun though, and next year it will be even more fun.


my mom made these amazing fabric books for each of the kids. they are so cute and clever!












it was the year for books! ollie got all of these from uncle matt and aunt andrea. we love books!


we also love kissable cheeks!

after a delicious breakfast of monkey bread, jamie, oliver and i packed up and headed to jamie's parents for round 2. when we got there oliver was ready for a nap, so we didn't open presents right away. we had lunch and then opened presents, and there were a LOT! oliver has no idea how much he lucked out this year! i just hope our little apartment with no storage can hold it all!


hanging with gramps and ollie's favorite dog, zoey!




emme and gramps also got oliver this awesome bouncer. he LOVED it! it was so fun to watch him in it.

we had a great christmas, we are very lucky to have such great families.

christmas part 1

sadly, since we had to fly to oklahoma for christmas, we weren't able to bring sophia with us. we had to board her, but found a great place. before we took her in, we celebrated an early christmas with her. we filled her stocking and i think she loved her gifts! oliver and i each got to open a gift too (sent from gramps and emme. don't feel too bad for jamie, he opened ALL his gifts from them as they came!) it was a good time, but i'm still sad she couldn't come with us : (

















we flew into OKC on christmas eve, and went to my mom's house for a little gathering. my sister and brother-in-law were there with the girls, and his parents and jamie's parents. it was the first time for us to meet the twins, and for them to meet oliver. he seemed to really like his cousins. he's not normally around baby girls, so he was very intrigued!











oliver was also thrilled to see his gramps (as you can tell from the pictures!)







it's a tradition in our family to open 1 gift on christmas eve, and it's always pajamas, or something related to sleep. so we opened our 1 gift and went to bed. we were VERY tired, having woken up at 4:30 to catch our flight!

santaland

i had really wanted to take ollie to see santa while my mom was here. not just santa -- THE santa, at macy's on 34th street. however, we ran out of time. i wanted to go on a weekday to try to avoid the crowds, so i finally took him on a monday. jamie works near there, so i was able to call him when we were getting close and he met us there. the line wasn't too bad, 45 minutes i think. and ollie did great! however, since we were trying to wait for jamie, i had to keep letting people cut us in line and so it started taking longer and longer. when jamie got there oliver was still in good spirits, but soon started getting fussy. he decided he was hungry. i had brought a bottle, but he doesn't get given bottles much, so he wouldn't take it. he then decided he was STARVING!!! so i had to figure out a way to nurse him. now, let me explain the situation: it's freezing out, so i've got 2 shirts on, oliver in the carrier, a coat, a carrier cover, a diaper bag strapped across my chest, and another bag i'm carrying. we are literally a couple feet from santa, and i have to find an opening through all of this to feed oliver, while standing in line with 100s of people. and i did it! i am super mom! i was so proud of myself. although, we could only keep letting people pass us for so long, we had to go to santa and oliver wasn't done eating, hence the crying baby with santa picture. oh well. maybe next year! the good news is we got to do a family picture before we got to santa while ollie was still happy. it turned out pretty good. we had fun and now we can tell oliver he went to macy's santaland and met santa.






















did i mention how disappointed i was in santa? his beard didn't even look a little real. and he had on a ton of make up, and he wasn't fat! what's the deal???

cereal

we've been noticing a lot lately that oliver is VERY interested in food - our food! he watches very carefully every bite we take. that, in combination with him suddenly not sleeping through the night anymore, lead us to deciding it was time to start him on cereal. we gave him his first bite on emme's birthday! he didn't miss a drop. from the very first bite he knew just what to do, he even got mad when we weren't fast enough! jamie is starting to worry he's a little TOO obsessed with food!

this is him on thanksgiving day watching very carefully while jamie ate his pie:


i have been trying for WEEKS now to put the video of him eating cereal for the first time on here, and it won't let me. i guess i will just have to put these pictures:


he is no longer using the bouncy seat to eat. we thought it might be easier for him starting out, but no no! he is a pro! the next day he was sitting in his high chair eating like a big kid.




i know this is blurry but it shows how happy he was with himself when he finished.