Merry Christmas!!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

Our house is shaping up nicely, and it really does look like Christmas!

We have our beautiful wreath on the front door,  our Christmas tree is decorated, our cards are displayed… we are ready for Christmas!

Our beautiful Colorado Blue Spruce

Our card display (thanks to Pinterest)

Ashleigh’s Christmas plate

Ashleigh is fascinated by the tree and the ornaments, but because of the prickly branches, she hasn’t messed with the tree or the ornaments too much. She does like to gently touch the lower hanging ornaments. She also loves taking the presents out from under the tree and scattering them around the floor. She also loves snatching the bows off the top, but so far she hasn’t attempted to open any packages!

15 months old

I was just checking my email the other day, and I received an email from babycenter.com claiming that my baby was now 15 months old! I was a bit confused and thought, wow, somehow I must have entered in the wrong date on the website, but when I looked at the calendar, I realized the email was right! It was December 18, meaning my baby was 15 months old!

At 15 months, Ashleigh…

-has 4 teeth (two on top, two on bottom)

-wears size 12 month clothes

-wears size 3 diapers

-can do the motions to “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”

- eats and drinks everything “by herself”. No more baby food for this girl.

-has started signing “All Done”

-laughs at funny things.

-loves to chase Arden around the living room and dining room. Arden doesn’t mind it too much.

-loves to pick up the gifts under the Christmas tree and carry them around with her.

-had her picture made with Santa. She wasn’t a fan.

-enjoys looking at the Christmas tree and the ornaments on it.

-has been sleeping better at night but is still not consistent with sleeping through the night.

- is running (and walking) all over the place. She is on the move all the time!

-loves playing with her toys. She is so happy when she can pull all of her toys out of the toy basket and place them all around her.

- knows what a lot of words mean. This is so cool to see her understand simple words and commands!

- Let’s go upstairs (she walks to the stairs)

-Let’s go downstairs (she walks to the stairs)

-Get your shoes.

-Get your snack.

-Get your milk.

-Where is Ashleigh? (She says “right here” and points to herself!)

We love her more and more every day!

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Ashleigh loves doing the hand motions to The Itsy Bitsy Spider. It's still a work in progress, but I think it's so cute to watch her!

O Tannenbaum…

We went to Tannenbaum Farms in Mason, MI, to find our perfect Christmas tree. This is the first time we have gotten a live Christmas tree since our first Christmas as a married couple (2006) and the great debacle called, “Arden knocked the Christmas tree over and ruined our carpet and our nicely wrapped presents."” There was still a lot of snow on the ground, so we bundled Ashleigh up in her snowsuit and off we went to the tree farm.

Now, I’m no amateur when it comes to hunting for the perfect tree, but I’m used to southern tree farms. With no snow. And different types of trees. When we arrived, we had to walk very carefully across the pavement (lots of black ice), and we were given a saw and a long, red cart/sled which we would use to haul our tree back to the car. I didn’t realize how much work it would be pulling that sled behind us. Up and down the hills of snow. Trying to turn sharp corners. Making sure I didn’t whack the sled into Matt and Ashleigh. Whew.

We walked all the way across the fields until we got to the Frasier firs. They were pretty but they were not full and didn’t have a pretty “christmas tree” shape to them. Off in another field, we saw some other types of trees that looked like Frasiers but with a lighter, bluish color. These trees were beautiful and we immediately found the one we wanted. Matt chopped it down and we loaded it onto the sled. We tied it up on top of our car and away we went. When we got to the house and worked on getting the tree into the stand, we realized something… it was SHARP!! We had our gloves on the whole time we were at the tree farm, so it never crossed our minds to touch the needles to test their sharpness. Ouch. After getting a bit upset about how difficult it would be to decorate and set up, we realized that this might work to our advantage. We didn’t want Hobbes or Ashleigh messing with the tree, so what better way to keep them away? Sharp needles! And sure enough, neither of them has really messed with the tree at all! What good fortune! We did have to wear gloves to decorate it, but that’s okay!

Our first Michigan snow

Our first Michigan snow began falling on November 29 and continued until November 30. We received about 5-6 inches of wet, cold snow with a thick layer of ice underneath. There was so much ice that the city ended up canceling school for the day.

We bundled Ashleigh up  in her snowsuit and took her outside. She seemed interested and intrigued by the snow, but she was frustrated that she couldn’t walk in it. Every time she tried to take a step, she would fall face first into the snow. She couldn’t pick her feet up high enough.

Arden certainly enjoyed the snow. She ran around and around in circles. I’m glad she likes snow!