Christmas with Pa and Grandma

We usually spend Christmas Day with my in-laws, but this year we decided to push our celebration out until yesterday...mainly because several of us had to work the day after Christmas.

Shorly after we got there, the kids were dying to open up presents! So that was the first thing we did!

 

Avery and Bianca

Owen and Avery

Grandma and Owen

Bianca and Avery




Cassandra napped during most of the gifts, but once she woke up, she got to open a few too!

Cassandra and Grandma

Daddy and Cassandra

Silly girl showing off her tongue!

After gifts, it was time for dinner! The yearly menu consists of filet and shrimp scampi-delicious! Then we relaxed and had some dessert while the kids played.

Bianca, Avery, Owen

We all had fun playing with the sets of reindeer antlers too!

Christmas with Papa

Typically we see my Dad on Christmas Eve while we're in Buffalo, but this year he had to work....so our celebration got postponed until yesterday. We all had off for the day, so my Dad and Colleen came out in the afternoon and spent a good part of the day with us.

We had some appetizers and I made stuffed shells for dinner. And we had a nice time visiting!

Avery enjoyed her new Barbie (#3 for this Christmas alone!)

Cassandra enjoyed her new toy!

Papa and his girls!

Baby's First Christmas!

Our Christmas was extra special this year because it was Cassandra's first Christmas!

When the girls got up in the morning (around 8am!) we went downstairs to see if Santa came....

and he did!

We opened up a few gifts and then I got breakfast put together and got it in the oven so we could finish our gifts.

Cassandra liked her new ball:

And Avery couldn't wait to tear into her big gift from Santa! What could it be??

A new playhouse!

Cass had to come over and check it out too!

And here is the aftermath of gift opening....where's Cassandra??

Avery showing Cassandra how to use her new octopus toy

Cassandra just loved hitting the balls together!

The best part about our Christmas day?? We didn't have to go anywhere! This is the first time in who knows how long (ever?) that we had nothing to do. It was glorious...especially for the kids. I stayed in my jammies until 5pm, took a shower, and got back in my jammies...it was awesome! The kids got to play all day with their new toys and we all just hung out. Gabe's parents stopped by for maybe an hour to see the haul, but that was it! It was such a relaxing day filled with just us!!

My 1st Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve varies year to year for us. Some years it's non-stop house hopping and other years we get to relax in one place. One thing is a sure bet-we spend it in Buffalo. This year it was the latter of the two-we got to relax in one place, which was so, SO nice!

We got to my Mom's a little after  noon and they had some lunch waiting for us. 

Nama of course had to eat up her babies:

Mom and Cassandra

Mom and the girls

Avery? Avery? Over here!!

After we had some lunch, we exchanged our gifts....

This year, Avery knew just what to do and did it very quickly! Cassandra was clueless-you'd start the paper for her and she'd just stare at it. Needless to say, Avery did a lot of gift opening this year!

Cassandra checking out her lantern

She loved the paper too!

Me and my (posessed) girl!

After we did our gifts, my friend Renee stopped by. My Uncle Joe and Aunt Marion came by shortly after that.

opening Renee's gift

Cute pig from Uncle Joe and Aunt Marion!

I'm so excited that the girls got a new sled! We'll be using this for sure this winter!

After our company, Gabe and the girls did some reading before our other guests arrived!

And we took a quick family photo...did I mention how hard that is with 2 children?!

nice tongue, Ave!

Another "winner"

My cousins then arrived and we had a nice dinner. After that was more gifts and dessert. Then it was time to get in our jammies and head home!

It took the girls a very long time to fall asleep on the way home. I don't know if they were so wound up from our visit or if they were excited about Santa coming...but it took a very long time! Thankfully they both fell asleep eventually!

Eleven Months Old!

We have one more month until someone special has her first birthday! Gosh, I still can't believe it! But yes it's true-our little Cassandra is now 11 months old!

 

She's wearing either 6 or 9 month clothes depending what it is. She's in size 3 diapers for daytime and 4's for overnight.

Her sleeping is pretty good. The last week of the month she slept through the night every single night! (knocking on wood) Before that, she was either up once a night or would sleep through. I *think* we're getting there!  Cassandra usually naps twice a day still-times and lengths of naps vary. Some days for her afternoon nap it takes her forever to fall asleep....I'm wondering if she's getting ready to drop it soon? We had 1-2 days where she didn't take an afternoon nap (because I gave her over an hour and she didn't fall asleep) and the poor thing was so exhausted by bedtime. She really needs the 2 naps but is just wound up at naptime sometimes!

She's nursing 4-5 times a day now-she seems to be cutting back on that.  

Cassandra is still having 2 meals a day now-lunch and dinner. Some new foods for this month include: turkey, grilled cheese, grapes, waffle, canned peas, blueberries, graham cracker, blackberries, hamburger, fruit cocktail. She tried and liked everything-but wouldn't swallow the hamburger (Avery did that too!). She kept shoving it in her mouth and was storing it in her cheeks-so I ended up fishing it all out of there! Silly girl!  

Let's see....new things for this month! She gets up into a push-up/plank position now. She'll play peek-a-boo with a blanket and will "dance" when asked. She started saying "Dada" and says "A-ya-ya" for Avery. She'll "meow" when we ask her what Jerri the cat says. Cassandra gets up on all fours and rocks-and has her own little style of crawling-it's adorable! She finally can drink from a sippy cup, but we have to tip it up for her-she hasn't grasped that idea yet, but finally got the sucking thing down! She loves sleeping with her bear blanket toy now! She says "na na" for "night night" when we go to bed and she loves to wave bye-bye!  If we ask where her tongue is, Cassandra sticks it out! We also moved her out of her infant carrier and into a big girl car seat!

 

Here are her photos for the month...which are getting more impossible to take! 







sticking out her tongue!

Looking at her lights

My faves:

Hugs

Love this pose!

More hugs!

"So big!"

Where's your tonue?

And for fun? Avery's 11 month post!