Winter Time Update

Things are fantastic around our home. (By the way, Aunt Amy taught Elizabeth how to say fantastic. It is pretty cute.) We are adjusting to our new normal and as always staying very busy. Even just being at home I find myself very busy. Most days it is enjoyable though and on the days it’s not so much fun we make it through anyway. We have already celebrated our first Christmas celebration at my Papa Joe’s house. It was really fun.
Katherine is doing great. Elizabeth still loves her and gets so excited when she sees her. So far Liz hasn’t tried to pick her up but I fear we are getting closer to that event. Whenever Katherine cries Elizabeth rushes in insisting that she needs her passy. She is actually not a bad helper. Katherine is smiling at me on occasion and is even starting to find her little voice. I love to listen to her little coos. It is amazing to think how much she will learn over this next year. She is on a great schedule and is doing pleasingly well at night. Although I would love a full nights sleep I most certainly cannot complain one bit. She eats at about 9:00pm and then sleeps until 3:00am, eats and goes right back to sleep, then again at 6:00am and usually goes back to sleep with no problem, then at about 9:00am she wakes up for the day. I am VERY grateful she is doing well at night.

The weather has been somewhat cold recently. I have been trying to keep Elizabeth entertained with things other than TV. She really loves to play outside on the slide so I decided to bring the outside in. This has kept her happy for hours! We don’t leave it in all the time that way it is something new. She also really likes to color and she especially enjoys it when I have stickers. She is a lot of fun and is getting so smart! We discovered that she can quote the last word if almost every page of almost every book we read to her. We also have fun letting her fill in the words to songs that we sing. Yesterday she was standing up in her highchair, which is a known no-no and when I looked at her she quickly instructed herself “Sit down izibeth.” I remember when my niece Jasmine went through that stage.
Elizabeth is also learning how to count. She knows the numbers one through ten but can’t consistently say them together in the right order. I was reading her a book that has a scripture at the end. Since she has started saying the last words of the books I thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and read the reference so she could learn the whole scripture. The reference was Psalm 47:6. We had only read it a few times but as I was reading decided to pause at the very end to see if she knew the last word. I said “Sing praises to God sing praises. Psalm 47:…” Without hesitation Elizabeth filled in the blank with “eight.” It was pretty cute. I wasn’t sure if I should correct her or praise her for the great counting skills. Kids are so much fun!

I thought it would be fun to make Christmas cookies with Elizabeth. I decided not to worry about making perfectly decorated snowmen or candy canes. That I was certain would lead to dissapointment. So instead I made a small cookie receipe and let liz sprinkle on the sprinkles. It worked out great and I am happy to report our Christmas cookie adventure was a good old fashioned fun memory making time!

We were doing just fine until Uncle Jonny suggested that Elizabeth taste the sprinkles. It didn't take her long to discover she liked the way they tasted. Unfortunantly her hands are still a light shade of blue. I think she enjoyed her christmas cookie experience. Mommy sure did!

There was great anticipation as she awaited the big moment. :)

Elizabeth was excited that the cookies were almost done. She enjoyed her little taste of our work before bed.
I can hardly believe Christmas is less than a week away!!! WOW. It has been not quite as pleasant trying to get the Christmas shopping done so close to the big day but I believe we are going to make it! Hopefully next year will be better. Under the circumstances it hasn’t been too bad and Brandon has been a huge help! We have already received some very kind gifts. Some people are just so generous! We hope you and your family have a fabulous celebration of Jesus’ birth. I will try to post pictures quickly after Christmas. I'm sure Brandon will post from his phone during the celebrations.

Merry Christmas!