Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! It was mine and Mitchell's first Christmas on our own without traveling to be with family. It was a little sad because we definitely miss being near our families but it was a neat experience to put in place our own holiday traditions. It was exciting that this year is Audrey's first Christmas! Mitchell and I didn't think she would get it at all, we pretty much thought Christmas would be like any other day to her. We were pleasantly surprised that she was extra excited that day! Here's how it all happened. Christmas Day Mitchell and I woke up about 7:45. We were SO excited to take Audrey to the living room to see what Santa brought! She normally wakes up between 7:00 and 7:30 so we didn't think she would sleep much longer. We waited and waited. We even went into her room and watched her sleep thinking that for sure she would stir and we could go open presents! No...she slept in until after 9 that day!! We probably should have taken advantage of the opportunity to sleep in on Christmas morning, I'm sure there will come a time when that is a luxury not to be had. I heard that my 9 year old cousin set his alarm for 5:00am this year! Anyway, Audrey was so cute and excited about all of the new toys and books! By the time we were done opening presents the living room floor was covered with fun new things for her to explore! She crawled from one toy to another playing with them and squealing with delight! She circled the living room playing non-stop until noon which was WAY past time that she should have had a nap. She wanted to play so badly that she was crying from exhaustion as she crawled from toy to toy! After a nap though, she was right back at it for the rest of the day! I think Christmas is made for kids. Seeing Audrey so delighted was definitely a highlight of the weekend!

Here's Audrey's haul! She was definitely spoiled on her 1st Christmas!

Later in the afternoon we decided to walk across the street to the big park nearby. There were TONS of people out sledding! We don't have a sled so we tried to improvise by using the lids from plastic storage bins. It was a fail. Bummer.

~HAPPY BIRTHDAY MITCHELL!!~

Sunday was Mitchell's birthday! And not just any birthday either, it was his GOLDEN birthday! We of course went to church in the morning then we had the missionaries and our friends Andy and Lynn over to celebrate! I made Mitchell's favorite meal of Chicken Curry Pasta Primavera and we had a yummy chocolate cake with lemon curd fulling. I attempted to get fancy and pipe 'Happy Birthday' with melted chocolate to make a 3D decoration on the cake but it was a fail. That's why the cake has a very crooked 'Birthday Happy' on top. ;)

Audrey loves company and is quite the little social flirt. She sat at the head of the table in her high chair for an hour entertaining herself and us. That earned her a little taste of birthday cake!

As seen in the last post Audrey figured out how to pull herself up on the furniture last week. Apparently she is very proud of herself for figuring that out because now all she wants to do all day is climb! She climbs on the couch, the fireplace, chairs, people, toys, her crib...basically anything she can access she wants to climb! She also thinks she can walk even though she really can't. She gets herself standing up then she lets go and tries to walk off. Of course she promptly falls flat on her face. I wonder how long it will take her to figure it out? It's very fun but I am nervous that she will fall and dislocate her shoulder or break her arm or something. Well, gone are the days of getting anything done during the day. Nap times are all the more precious now! I am so happy to get to be home with her though, I wouldn't trade this time! Another silly thing that she has started doing lately is fake coughing. She coughs all the time. I think she does it for attention, or maybe just to experiment with sounds.