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...

Birmingham!

A couple of weeks ago, Lucy and I boarded a plane to Birmingham, AL for a fun girls weekend! One of my good friends, Melissa, is about to welcome her sweet baby girl into the world and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go to her baby shower and celebrate with her!

I will admit, I was a little anxious about taking Lucy on a plane by myself and keeping up with her all weekend, but she did really well!

We arrived at Love Field in Dallas at 6:00 am on Saturday morning, and made our way through security. I was uuber organized before arriving to the airport and tried to have all my ducks in a row. It was a little crazy going through security, though- trying to hold her while collapsing the stroller, putting all my stuff on the x-ray conveyor belt, etc....but thanks to TSA security, we both made it through in one piece.

Lucy did GREAT on the plane both ways- slept the entire time to and from! What a huge answer to prayer!!

We arrived in Birmingham and I'm pretty sure I looked a little ridiculous, with me pushing a stroller, large bag on my shoulder as well as pulling a suitcase behind me, but it worked and we got to our rental car. :) 

Oh, and a side-note- we arrived the morning of the Alabama vs LSU game- half of our plane was full of Alabama fans, who were also getting their rental cars along with me and then pulling out their dozens of magnetic decals and sticking them all over their rental cars- no lie.                            

It was so, so wonderful to be able to see old friends and celebrate Melissa and sweet Anne Charlotte!!

Lucy did pretty well at the shower- thankfully, the hostess had a crib, high chair and lots of toys for Lucy to play with....great setup!

We spent the weekend laying low at Melissa's house after the shower, going through all of her fun baby gifts, figuring out what else needed to be purchased, running to Babies R Us, etc... I was so thankful for Melissa and her mom for helping me with taking care of Lucy! They were such a blessing!!

Lucy did really well while we were in Birmingham- only bad thing was her sleep (or lack of it!). She woke up about 4 times on Saturday night and about 3 or 4 times on Sunday night- it didn't help that it was Daylight savings time and she had her times all messed up. She ended up waking up for the day on Sunday morning at 5:30 am- I couldn't find the coffee pot, so around 7:00 am, I loaded Lucy up in the car and we went to O'Henry's Coffee House in our PJ's and got coffee. Needless to say, there were several other young families there as well- apparently Daylight savings doesn't get translated to little ones yet....

Of course, we had to go and visit Mr. Beeson at Mommy's alma mater.... 

Melissa with Anne Charlotte (inside!), Lucy and me

Lucy thought it would be fun to eat Mr. Beeson....

One of my favorite things about the fall in the South- the BEAUTIFUL trees and hills- lots and lots of color!! 

I also got to catch up with one of my roommates, Andrea, and her friend, Lauren, at the Cheesecake Factory on Sunday morning! So fun to see her again!

All in all, a GREAT trip! I was so thankful to have been able to go and was glad to have taken Miss Lucy along to see where her Mom spent her college years!

7 months!

 7 months old! And so, so busy!!

Here's what our ladybug has been up to:

- crawling! She started crawling at 6 1/2 months, and pulling up on everything a couple of days after that. Needless to say, we've had to baby-proof everything super-quick. Gone are the days that I could let her alone on a blanket and expect her to stay there. 

 - Sitting up on her own! (started right at 7 months) It took her awhile to learn this trick because every time I'd try to get her to practice sitting, she'd lean forward and crawl off. Life is too exciting to sit still for this little one! I love her curiosity and how she is always wanting to be on the go! 

 - Pulling up on EVERYTHING! She prefers to be crawling or standing. Just recently has she started to like to sit. The pulling-up has led to several head-bonks a day, and I had to go and find some of those socks with the grippers on the bottom, as she is starting to take a few steps while holding on to what ever she's pulled up on. 

- Eating! She's a great eater. Another post to follow about how I'm making her food, but her current foods are carrots, green beans, butternut squash, winter squash and sweet potatoes. We've tried bananas, pears and peaches, but she really doesn't like fruit. We'll have to keep trying...I also started trying yogurt this week, but she wasn't a fan. She eats table food twice a day- I'm trying to get that to three times a day, but it's hard to fit it all in sometimes. She also loves to chew on MumMums and puffs. We're trying to incorporate drinking out of a sippy cup- sometimes she gets it. 

Other fun things this month:

- Lucy took her first plane ride to Birmingham with me! She was a CHAMP on the plane and slept the entire flight both ways! She also did great while in the airport- it was a trick, though, getting through security by myself. I think I had her stroller, her car seat, a giant bag that had her diaper bag inside as well as the Baby Bijorn....thanks to the airport security for helping me get through. But apparently, if you have a baby strapped to you in a Baby Bijorn, you look more suspicious and are subsequently subjected to having your hands swiped.....whatever. 

- Lucy was able to meet some of my good friends from college while in Birmingham! More to follow in another post about this trip- it was super fun and I was so glad we were able to go!

- We are now mostly sleeping through the night! After we got back from Birmingham, we started to cry-it-out at night for the nighttime feed. We've had a couple of nights where she'd whimper/fuss for about 2 hours. This is our second week where we're sleep training and now she'll get up maybe once a night and cry out for about 5 minutes, but then go back to sleep on her own. 

As far as sleep goes, she gets up between 6:30 and 7:00 am, and then naps about 2 hours from when she last woke up, averaging about 3 naps a day, for an hour in duration. She consistently goes to bed at 7:00pm, wakes up around 10:00pm for one last feed, and then back to sleep until the morning. 

- Lucy is such a happy baby! She's typically smiling, talking ("da-da-da") or making cute little noises. She laughs when tickled, especially those ribs! She loves it when Daddy rolls her around on the carpet and also loves when he kicks the ball with her (he holds her under her arms and swings her legs to kick the ball- she thinks this is hilarious!).

-She loves cats and dogs- she will crawl so fast to try and get to Bella, our cat. Bella doesn't really like Lucy all that much, but tolerates her. When we were in Birmingham, my friend, Melissa, has a big black lab named Knox- Lucy LOVED Knox and thought he was the best thing ever! He would nuzzle her feet and she would laugh so hard! 

7 years ago...

7 years ago today, I had the privilege and joy of becoming Mrs. Michael A. Frizzell!

What a fabulous 7 years it has been- 2 houses, 2 Master's degrees, multiple fun trips, 3 new jobs, wonderful family, great friends, awesome community, loving how we serve together, 1 cat, and of course, the best addition, our sweet Lucy.

There is absolutely  no one else I'd rather be with! God has truly blessed me with a wonderful husband- he is so patient, level-headed, a great provider, smart, great at what he does, a hard worker, a fun Daddy to Lucy, my best friend and confidant. 

For our anniversary, I had a sweet friend re-create the top of our wedding cake as a surprise to Mike! It turned out great and tasted so good! (spice cake with cream cheese icing!!).

My parents watched Lucy and we enjoyed a nice dinner at La Duni and then enjoyed our wedding cake and champagne afterwards!

These are the fun flowers Mike got me for our anniversary- reminds me so much of our honeymoon in Maui!