First Christmas

Lakelyn's first Christmas was a lot of fun! I wanted to try to make sure I did everything I could with her! I wanted to start traditions! Obviously, we started with the Christmas tree. And yes, I am a horrible mother and did not even get pictures of us picking out her first tree :( what was I thinking?

The weather this December was just RIDICULOUS! It was so hot! I am talking in the mid 80's! We took her to the Christmas Parade in town where she enjoyed her first sucker. It was cotton candy flavored and she made a huge mess! I tried to take it from her so she could get ready to see Santa come by and she freaked out! haha. Her little cheeks were so red because it was so hot out there! She was also really tired too. The parade was super long. I don't ever remember it lasting more than 1 1/2-2 hours. This parade was a good 2 1/2-3 hours long!

   

This is her reaction to seeing Santa on the firetruck! We covered her ears because the sirens were pretty loud! She was so amazed :)

 

 I took a couple of pictures of her one day while I was waiting on a customer to do their shoot. The best part was I am not even sure what she was laughing at. She was looking into the sky just laughing. I did throw some leaves up so maybe she was expecting that? Or maybe just talking to God.

Tyler and I started the tradition a few years ago of going to see the Christmas lights on  December 23rd. This year we had to make other arrangements for Christmas and we were thinking we would be doing Christmas with my mom on the evening of the 23rd. So we decided to go on the 21st because 1) it was supposed to rain on the 22nd and 2) because it wasn't going to be too hot or too cold. Like I said it was HOT this December!

So we went on the 21st and pretended it was the 23rd! As soon as we pulled in to the James Island County Park Festival of Lights we took her out of her car set and let her sit up front with us. Side note on the traffic: there is ALWAYS a ton of traffic getting into this place. I mean a good 2 hours of traffic and this year I don't know if it was because it was a Monday or what, but we didn't have too much traffic. Back to the regular scheduled program! She LOVES to drive! She LOVES lights! So this was for sure her thing!

We got out and went to the amusement area where we stood in line for yes.. about 1 1/2 to see Santa! She was in such a good mood up until the last 30 minutes. By then she was so sleepy and ready for bed. So by the time she got to see Santa she just had a blank look on her face and would not smile! After that we took her into the shops where we got our yearly ornaments! We got one for baby's first Christmas and one for a family of 3 <3 After that we went back to the truck and finished the lights. We normally go around twice, but since it was already 10:30 and we spent so much time waiting to see Santa we decided to just head home. Baby girl was super tired.

 

 

 

I didn't get to take all of the awesome Pinterest pictures that I wanted to with Lakelyn, but I got a few. I will definitely have to do better next year. Plus it might be easier when she understands what i'm saying and actually listens to it. But here are a few of her with the tree.

 

We spent Christmas Eve morning opening presents with my family. Which I do have pictures I am just so slack that I have NOT uploaded them yet. I know! Then shortly after, around lunch time, we headed to Columbia to spend Christmas with part of Tyler's family (this was a first, we normally do it here). We got home around 8 or so and got her a bath and she was ready for bed. So much going on that day she was exhausted! I had Tyler help me assemble Lakelyn's bike and then he and the pups went to bed and then Santa came!

We woke her up around 6:30 so that we could do Christmas together as a family before heading to Tyler's parents around 7:30. This little baby did NOT want to wake up! I don't know that I will be waking her up that early anymore just to make it places. We have a lot of family and we love to see them all, but we have a family of our own now and it is just too much on us to do it all. We literally get up that early on Christmas morning and do not get home until late Christmas night. Its just too much with a baby.

 

It took her a little bit to wake up. Tyler brought her in there while I was recording and she just looked around really confused for a little. He sat her down on the ground so she could go get into her stuff, but she was so sleepy that she would just look at me and then look back at her toys. She did notice her Minnie Mouse and started pointing at it, but wasn't sure if she could go get it or maybe just too tired to go get it. She finally came through and started playing with everything. By the time we finished opening our stuff though, she was way ready to go back to sleep and was getting a little grumpy.

 

We went to Tyler's parents to eat breakfast and open gifts. She was into all of the toys there, but before we got out of the driveway to head home and shower she was OUT! She took a nap while we got ready and then we had to wake her up and head to other family's houses. By the end of the night this was all piled in my living room. This is only a picture of her stuff. Some of her toys were left at Tyler's parents house and a lot of stuff is covered up by clothes or other toys.. Needless to say.. she was spoiled and we need a bigger home!

 P.S we didn't even get to do our stockings until after we got home Christmas night which is why hers is full of stuff in the picture.

It's now the end of January as I am typing this post and she is just getting around to playing with all of her stuff. Now we prepare for her birthday toys in March :)

 

We had a great First Christmas with Lakelyn! I can't wait to spend many, many more with her!

First Thanksgiving

Usually for Thanksgiving we don't do a whole lot. We've been black Friday shoppers since I started dating Tyler. So normally we would go to Tyler's parents around 1:00 to eat Thanksgiving dinner and go through all of the ads and then go home nap and then meet up to go shopping. Well this year things were a little different.

We didn't really have any plans for Thanksgiving and Tyler's family wasn't doing any Black Friday shopping since their kids are basically all grown up now. So I decided since this is the first year of us being parents that we would start something new and have Thanksgiving at our house.

We had just our immediate family over and since it was kind of last minute only my mom was able to make it. My brother and his girlfriend had other plans and my grandmother also had other plans. Tyler's parents and sister and her boyfriend came so it was just us. Which was still nice.

My tree always goes up before Thanksgiving and always comes down before New Years (I acutally used to wait until after New Years, but a few years ago decided its nicer to start the New Year with a nice clean home) This year I waited a little longer than normal to put it up, but it was still up before Thanksgiving. I get a real tree and like to have them up and look at them and take in the smell and memories of Christmas for as long as possible. It is my favorite!

So my mom came over around 10-11 to help me cook and then Tyler's mom came and brought the stuff that she cooked and helped us finish everything. We ate around 1:30-2 and sat around and talked for a bit.

I had a little bit of time before heading out black Friday shopping which my mom joined me on so that Tyler could stay home with Lakelyn. I didn't get to nap, but was able to look through the ads and make my list before leaving! I got home by midnight went to bed and then went back out on the actual Friday after Thanksgiving with Tyler's mom around 6:30 and this time Lakelyn got to go :)

Over all it was a fun time and something to look forward to for years to come! Sadly, that is the only picture I got of Thanksgiving.

First Halloween

For anyone that knows me knows that I absolutely LOVE holidays! Christmas is by far my favorite, but come August/September (whenever the weather decided to cool down some) I am in heaven! I sometimes get antsy and start putting out pumpkins in August because I just can't wait any longer, but this year I waiting until September before doing anything. It was tough, but I managed.

 

I started dressing Lakiebug in Halloween stuff as soon as decorations went up. So basically 2 months early :) She didn't mind at all!

 

We typically don't do much for Halloween other than put out a few pumpkins and hand out candy in our neighborhood. We usually just get our pumpkins from Walmart too. This year though, we decided to take Lakelyn  to the pumpkin patch to get some pumpkins! It actually ended up being really cold this day and we got a picture or two without the jacket, but it was just too cold to not have it on her, especially on her little bald head!

 

 

Of course, she tried to eat them ;)

 

We bought her 3 little pumpkins and 2 little baby pumpkins from the pumpkin patch, but I just could not see myself paying $30-40 for a big pumpkin when you can get nice fat pumpkins from Walmart for $4-5 a piece. So off to Wally world we went!

 

It took us a few days weeks to actually carve them, but a week before Halloween we did. Lakelyn of course carved a Minnie Mouse (I started it and daddy finished it and OMG it was harder than it seemed. We even chose the easiest looking one). I carved a bat and Tyler carved some kind of thing from the nightmare before Christmas I think it was called. I really don't know to be honest, I just found it and he picked it out.

Again, trying to eat them. And look how big this pumpkin is compared to her. Only paid $5 for it! WIN!



 

 

Parts on Minnie Broke off. Oops!

I couldn't find any good baby costumes. All the ones I found were the same ole lady bug or bumble bee and I just wasn't feeling it. So we were in target getting some candy to hand out and we found this cute little witch hat on a headband (it was for adults) and it fit her perfectly! and she already had the striped pants with the tutu on it and the Halloween socks. So I found the onesie at Walmart that matched. And that was her costume! The black hair was from a couple of years ago. I wore it and was the lady from the Addams Family. I cant remember her name now. But I saw it and just HAD to put it on her. lol. What is a witch without long black hair?

I wore a witch hat to match her and Ella wore a little witch costume too! It had a hat and tutu! We put a blanket in her wagon to sit on and took her for a walk around the block just to look at the decorations and all of the people. We did not get her any candy. She obviously could not eat any and we are those kind of people that lets our baby get candy for us to eat.

The dog was terrified of all of the people and because Lakelyn kept trying to grab her!

She had so much fun and then we went back home to hand out the rest of the candy and ate some pizza. After all was done we went inside and got a nice warm bath and some cuddles while watching the Hallmark Christmas Movie Marathon! (sidenote: on this day a year ago after the candy was handed out and a shower was taken and I was cuddled in the chair watching these Christmas movies that was the very first time Lakelyn kicked)