A Merry Christmas Message

 Skyping with Grandma and Papa

 Cookies!

 Master cookie decorator and mess maker

 These are already all gone by the way

So proud! She wouldn't stop or take a break until they were all done!

I want to start off by saying that Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. Growing up my mom and dad always made it a big deal too. I remember making cookies with mom. We always made a ton and I still make the same ones that were always my favorite. My dad always made a big deal about the tree. I will never forget the year he decided that the tree needed a color theme and wanted a tree that was blue and silver/white, with ONE strand of tinsel on each branch! Katy and I joked that it was a department store looking tree,but it was beautiful. After that it was always something like that-red/white, blue, red/green. To this day my tree is pretty much always red/silver/white. I do love a blue themed tree, but my collection of ornaments hasn't grown to that level yet. I love that this year Lily has really fell in love with the holiday. She loves the tree and everyday rearranges the ornaments. The advent calenders are a hit and the elf Kyle has yet to disappoint.  And of course she loves the cookies and the rest of the treats.

With all that being said the last couple of years have been hard for me. I miss my family so much. I miss the huge Christmas Eve dinner at Aunt Jill's and Christmas dinner at Mom and Dad's house and seeing how many people we can fit into that small little house. And I miss playing games with everyone after dinner. And I miss meeting up with friends that are also home that can make me laugh so hard it hurts.

You might be asking yourself if you miss it so much why do you live 2000 miles away? I too ask myself that same question and believe me we are trying our damnedest to get back in the Wisco area. If I could go back in time I would tell my 25/26 year old self to think about what it is going to be like when you have a family. I don't regret moving here. Shane and I were on our life adventure together. We fell in love here, got engaged here and made our beautiful family here. Our intention was to always move "eventually". We didn't anticipate a housing crisis/disaster. We didn't anticipate how much we would need our families. We didn't anticipate needing our friends companionship so much. We had each other and that was enough. 98% of the time it is enough. I have a house full of blessings. But I find myself feeling lonely sometimes for all the people who love me and mine so much. So the message here is don't take your family for granted. If you have them close scream with joy from the rooftops!

Disclaimer: This post might be stemming from lack of sleep and the tantrum I threw at 3:30 am last night (foot stomping, snot filled sobbing kind of tantrum) because a certain little 8 month old wouldn't go back to sleep and didn't want to be held, fed or rocked. And another certain 34 year old husband just stayed sleeping

8 months!

It was not easy getting a picture this month. I think I took about 70. Thank god for digital cameras!

8 MONTHS!

So happy!

 Pucker up

 Yeah, I'm 8 months

He is on the move! Crawling, pulling himself up on anything and everything. He stands up next to his walker and walks it around the kitchen. He is the proudest, happiest baby when he stands up. He is saying Mama and Dada. In the middle of the night I hear "Maaaammmaaaa" coming from his room. I go in and the sweetest little monkey is reaching out of his crib for me. When I pick him up his head instantly rests on my shoulder. We snuggle for a few minutes in the rocking chair and then he is ready to go back into his crib back to sleep. As much as I love my sleep, I do love these moments with my babe.

As you can see he is a good eater. He still loves squash and bananas and is starting to eat little bits of pasta and pancakes. He is really interested in what we eat and wants to try it all.

His hair has turned completely white, his eyes are still blue and his ears stick out a bit. He is starting to get a third tooth. Everything goes in his mouth. We have trained Lily to keep her small toys in her room and make sure to pick them up when Brock comes in her room to visit. He still loves being out and about. He barely makes a peep when we are out shopping or eating. People are always commenting on what a good baby he seems to be. It is true, he is a good baby, but sometimes he doesn't like the car rides or being cooped up in the house all day. He likes to look at new things and see what is going on in the world. He still loves to watch his sister do anything. sometimes he uses her hair to pull himself up, but she doesn't seem to mind too much. She adores him. He is the first person she asks for when she wakes up in the morning.

Diaper changes have turned into a WWF wrestling match.

Nicknames: Lily and I call him "Boobers" Lily's also calls him "Luigi" and Shane calls him "Bubba" or "Buds"

Two kids, holy cow, they are exhausting! I think we were in bed at 8:30 last night.

As much as I love my two little wonderful monkeys. I am thankful for the babysitter tonight and Shane's Christmas party!

Christmas happenings

Christmas has arrived at the Gaylor house!

 We got this beauty of a tree. Lily was very excited to decorate it and told us how each ornament was very special.

 We went to Bellevue botanical gardens for Garden D'Light and Lily was in heaven. Brock was just happy he had on about four layers.

 Lily was amazed that they used all her favorite colors in the lights and that there were butterflies, dragonflies, turtles, spiders, alligators made out of lights. All her favorite animals of course. How did they know?

 She stopped to smell all the "flowers"

 checking to make sure my babe was nice and toasty

 "I just love this!"

 kisses

A Pucker up and a poke in the eye. Now that's Christmas!

 This is our elf Kyle. Grandma Lois sent him to stay with us this month

The Grandmas gave us these advent calenders. 1st thing Lily does each morning!