Christmas!

Warning, this post is mostly pictures. :) 

Instead of writing lots of boring details, I will just put captions under all the pics and you can read along. :) 

We went to Santa's Village with our friends, the Treadaways. Next year, we will choose another weekend- the last weekend they have Santa's Village is the MOST CROWDED and OVER-POPULATED event EVER.
Never the less, Lucy was a trooper in the cold weather and LOVED seeing all the characters!

Family pic at Santa's Village! And, crazy mom that I am, thought that Lucy's little cold was nothing and she'd be fine in the cold weather ("just give her some Tylenol, she'll be fine")- the next day, we took her to the doctor's office because she had a fever and had been up 3 times the night before...well, she had her first ear infection and RSV! What a great mom I am!

I really wanted to take Lucy to see Santa. Again, timing is everything. Note to self, if you don't want to wait 2.5 hours in line with an 8 month old to see Santa, go the first week of December, not the week of Christmas. Thankfully, Aunt Liz joined us and Lucy was a trooper while we waited. 

We hosted Mexican Christmas (my dad's side of the family's Christmas Eve dinner). We had 30 people come and were able to accommodate all 30 people down one giant table (3 tables put together). It was so fun!!

Our Christmas tree with all the loot

eating dinner...all 30 of us!

All the family!

Certainly couldn't have pulled off having 30 people over without my Mom!! It takes a village...

Lucy opening her stocking at Grandmommy and Papi's house on Christmas Day!

GG opening her very special gift- the grandkids all made a donation to Jack C. Binion Elementary School library (my grandfather's elementary school that they named after him). He and Grandmommy (GG) have placed so much importance on education and reading and supported us all through college, that we wanted to do something in their honor. She loved it!

Liz's Christmas gift to me- she made these uuber-cute wreaths for our front-door! 

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas! It actually started on the 23rd, at Mike's parents' house with his side of the family (sad that I didn't get any pics!), then continued on the 24th with Mexican Christmas at our house, as well as Christmas Eve service at Watermark, then ended on Christmas Day. We woke up on Christmas morning, opened our presents as our little family (Lucy got this really cute Radio Flyer walker and started walking all over the place with it!), then went to my parents' house for Serna Christmas and spent most of the day there (ending the afternoon with tamales, rice and black beans). It was fabulous!!

I do have to say that I really wanted to enjoy the Christmas season, not be a "Martha" but be a "Mary." I truly feel like I was able to have a continual heart of gratitude, thanking God for His gift to us, sending His Son to earth, which is why we celebrate Christmas. Praise God for His peace that surpasses all understanding and guards our hearts and minds- it's what kept me going!

8 months old!

Lucy-bug is 8 months old! What a joy she is! We've had lots fun this month!

My first pair of stockings! I wore them to church today!

Here are some fun things we've done this month:

She is drinking water out of a cup at meals.

She is trying new foods, most recently, zucchini! She's also starting to feed herself food, like peas (slightly smashed!), pieces of carrot, potato, sweet potato, toast, waffles. She LOVES MumMum teething biscuits! Sometimes I have to trick her to eat her pureed foods by giving her a MumMum to munch on while I sneak in bites of food. I'm trying to have her eat solids 3 times a day, but sometimes our schedule is a little crazy, and all we can get in is 2 meals. I'm still nursing her about 5-6 times a day. 

 She's sleeping through the night (Thank you Lord!!), she is starting to take 2-3 longer naps a day. Her typical day starts around 6:30 or 7:00 am, then she naps around 8:30 or 9:00 am for an hour or so, then she's up and playing until about noon, then down for another 1- 1.5 hour nap, then playing, then possibly another shorter nap, depending on how the day is going, then bath time, followed by bedtime at 7:00pm. She wakes up once around 10:00pm to eat, then goes right back to sleep until the next morning.

I cannot tell you how THRILLED I am that she is sleeping through the night!!! 

As far as skills go, Lucy-loo started clapping her hands this month, as well as drinking out of a sippy cup. She's also starting to wave. She's crawling all over the place, pulling up on everything, starting to take steps while holding on to something. She recently found the Christmas tree and likes the sparkly ornaments on the bottom. :) 

She's laughing more and more, and I feel like her little personality is starting to blossom- she's generally a very happy, smiley child- such a fun, sweet girl! She also knows when we're taking pictures of her, either on my phone or with the camera, and generally hams it up and smiles really big on cue!

I think she weighs about 16 pounds, if I had to guess. She was 15 pounds 4 ounces at 7 months, and she's been averaging about a pound a month....still a light-weight. :) She's still wearing 6 month clothes...

This month she celebrated her first Thanksgiving! She also got to go with us to Walls Family Farm and cut down our Christmas tree- one of our favorite traditions during Christmas! We also hosted our play group this afternoon for a Christmas cookie exchange- it was lots of fun, and very busy with 8 kids, all 8 or 9 months old!

  Mike or I play the piano most nights before she goes to bed and she has started to sometimes "sing"- aka, making a joyful noise, while we play. So sweet to hear. 

I just love this sweet girl! She is such a blessing and has brought such joy to our home!

Walls Family Farm....

One of our favorite traditions of Christmas time is to go to Walls Family Farm and cut down a fresh Christmas tree with our good friends! 

This year, we were so happy to be able to take Lucy with us! Only problem was that it was about 38 degrees and rainy. But, ever the die-hard tree-cutters, we decided to bundle up and tough it out. Thankfully, there was about a 20 minute window where it stopped raining long enough for us to take the tractor ride out to the tree area and cut down our tree....and then the heavens broke loose again, and it poured. 

But, AFTER we had our tree!

We had such a blast, and Lucy was such a trooper- she did GREAT!!

All bundled up with Daddy

The Treadaway clan

First Walls Family Farm pic!

After we came home that evening, we waited until Lucy went to sleep and decorated the tree while watching Home Alone. So fun!

Turkey Days!

We had great Turkey Days this year....we spent Thanksgiving Day with most of my family and had lunch at Franklin Park, Grandmommy's retirement home. After lunch, we came back to our house, celebrated Papi's birthday, and watched the Cowboy and A&M games. 

On Saturday, we headed over to Mike's parents' house and had Thanksgiving with the Frizzell side of the family. So fun to be around all our cousins! 

This past Saturday, my sister and her husband came up from San Antonio, and Paige's family flew in from California for Alyssa's birthday, and we had our third Thanksgiving meal with the extended side of the Serna family. Fun times have been had by all!

And here is my little turkey...