Lily's First Christmas

I know, it’s February and I am making a post about Christmas but I am a little behind in my blogging and I don’t want to skip over the last few months. We have been very busy and I will do my best to catch up on all that has been going on… starting with Christmas!

We had such a great Christmas this year with Lily! Everyone came into town this year so Lily had all of her aunts and uncles there to shower her with love.

We celebrated Christmas Eve mass with my family and then had dinner with the whole Mason family at Uncle Dick and Aunt Kathy’s. One of my most favorite traditions growing up was gathering on Christmas Eve with the Mason family, having all the aunts, uncles and cousins there together. It makes me so happy to have this tradition a part of Lily’s Christmas too.

Lily turned 8 months old on Christmas day and even though she is little I think she really knew that it was a special day. We woke up that morning and spent our first Christmas morning together as a little family. Lily had lots of gifts to open and was excited to pull the tissue paper out of the bags and find the toys inside. Then we went over to my parent’s house for breakfast and gifts with my parents and sisters. Lily was certainly spoiled by all the gifts and was enjoying all the love and attention she was getting.

Our next event of the day was going over to my Grandparents house to share the day with my mom’s side of the family. This is also a tradition that we have carried on since I was little. We always have such a great time with the whole family and this year we had four generations celebrating together for the first time. That is such a great blessing and truly made for a special Christmas.

Our final event of the day was going over to Austin’s parent’s house for dinner with the King family. Everyone was there and we had so much fun playing games together and making dinner. I even won a Gin Rummy game and Austin won a game of Sorry. Everyone brought a homemade dish to share so we came home with so many yummy treats that lasted for quite a while.

The day was so busy but we feel so blessed to be able to share Christmas with all of our loved ones. It is so easy to forget the true miracle of Christmas and get caught up in the presents and hustle and bustle, but for one day we share meals, gifts and so much love with our entire family. I think that makes for the best Birthday celebrating the birth of Christ and to me brings forth the true meaning of Christmas. God has blessed us in so many ways, the biggest being our faith and the love we share in our family. Both are celebrated on Christmas and it brings us so much joy for Lily to be a part of that now.

Merry Christmas to all of you (a few months late)!! If you are reading this then you are someone we love and we thank you for being a part of our lives!

Now for some or a lot of pictures...

Decorating the Christmas tree with Dad

Christmas Morning

Crawling with Grandpa

Hanging out in my silly Christmas hat with Aunt Katie

And Aunt Jenny

Having fun with Nana Diana

The whole Mason Family

Great Grandpa Daddy Ed and Great Grandma Pam Pam

The King Family Dinner

Hanging out with Uncle Hunter and Aunt Aimee while Aunt Ali takes photos

This was Lily's favorite Christmas gift...

Watch out... She's a crazy driver in her little car

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful for this year and we are so happy to be celebrating our first Thanksgiving together as a little family! Lily is seven months old today and she is the greatest little blessing and we are so very thankful for her!

Today is the first Thanksgiving I will be spending away from my sisters and I miss them! Katie lives in Austin now and is spending Thanksgiving with her boyfriend, Kent, and his family. Jenny lives in Irvine and is actually cooking an entire Thanksgiving feast for her and her boyfriend, Derek! I am so impressed by her ambitious cooking! Sisters, I miss you and love you very much!! I am thankful for each of you and I hope you have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Here are some pictures of our little seven month old! She is so much fun lately and really has such a little personality.




Lily and I fell down the stairs at our house last weekend... It was quite scary and Lily got quite the goose egg on her head. She was tough but Austin and I were quite worried about her. She took her first visit to the ER just to make sure her little head was okay and it was. Below is a picture of her bruise (and the tip of Austin's nose).



The next few pictures are of Lily with her sippy cup. She is just learning how to drink out of it on her own and she loves having her own little cup.



Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family out there! We love you!!

Our Little Flower

Lily’s first Halloween was so much fun! We took her to a pumpkin patch, she was invited to a costume party, and we went trick or treating! Here are some fun photos from the pumpkin patch.

Bald Head - Baby Belly and Lily's First Squash Adventure

Hello Internet,

This is Lily's dad typing. I promised Suzanne I would post to this website when she created it a few months ago. So here goes nothing!

Suzanne thought it would be best to make our own baby food for Lily - sans perservatives, additives, grossness, and anything else that may go in to those little glass jars of goo. So after several hours in the kitchen, and a vegetable mess later, Lily had her homemade baby food. Sweet potatoes, squash, and sweet peas were her menu for the next weeks.

Editors note: Most adults would not choose to eat a large bowl of any of these three items alone. I don't recall the last time I sat around and craved a large bowl of squash or sweet peas. Heck, I don't even recall the last time I wanted peas on my dinner plate period. In the support of sweet potatoes - I do like you when people make you in to french fries.

Needless to say and as the videos shows, her menu has now been reduced by one vegetable.

Lily and I like to hang out. We don't do much, we just hang out. Sometimes we make goofy faces, and talk about her friend Agoo. Sometimes we dance, and then we bounce. Most of the time we laugh. One of our latest fun things to do is Bald Head - Baby Belly. She digs it, and typically gives it a good laugh. So while in San Francisco man sitting while Suzanne worked, I decided to get it on video.

That's all I have for now. It's time for Lily's veggies, followed by a round of Bald Head - Baby Belly.

Austin

Busy Baby!

Lily has been quite busy this past month! She has been rolling over, swimming, playing with her grandparents and great grandparents, traveling to San Francisco, eating solid foods, and attending parties.

We have a lot of pictures to share…

Here are some photos of Lily playing around and being goofy. She is really good at that.

Lily’s first time swimming! She wasn’t too crazy about it... She was a little cold and I think she was a little unsure about the whole thing. She prefers her bath tub to the swimming pool for now.




Austin’s parents, Barney and Gera celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary on September 11th and threw quite a party. It was a really special night at the Tuck Shop with family and close friends. Barney and Gera told stories of how they met when they were in high school at 4H camp! Barney was Gera’s archery instructor and they have been loving each other ever since. Lily loved all the attention she received at the party and was so happy being passed around all night.





Lily rolled over for the first time on September 14th and she is already starting to scoot! She rolls all over the place now and we really have to keep an eye on her. She will be crawling before we know it and I don’t think we’re quite ready for that yet.






Lily loves seeing her Great Grandparents, Daddy Ed and Pam Pam. Here are some pictures of them playing and also some pictures from Pam Pam’s 80th Birthday Party. It is so special to have four generations together at once and I will always cherish these memories of Lily with her Great Grandparents.







Lily took her first big trip this month to San Francisco. I had work meetings in San Francisco and I wasn’t quite ready to leave Lily overnight so I brought Austin and Lily along. Austin and I celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary on October 11th so we flew to San Francisco a few days early to celebrate as a family. Lily did so well on the plane flight and Austin and I did pretty well too! We took Lily to China Town, walked all along the Embarcadero where Austin and I were pooped on by sea gulls, we took a ferry ride to Sausalito, went to Union Square, and Austin and Lily went to Fisherman’s Wharf and did some sightseeing on their own while I attended meetings. It was a lot of fun to take our first vacation as a family!











After we returned from San Francisco we decided it was time to introduce Lily to solid foods. We first gave her some rice cereal and she loved it! Next, we tried some pureed squash that I had made and she hated it. She acted like we were feeding her dirt! Then we tried sweet potatoes and she loved those. I am hoping she will like some veggies before I introduce her to fruits which I know she will love. Here are some pictures of the first time she ate her rice cereal.





Lily will be turning 6 months old on the 25th and it is just so hard to believe we are half way through her first year. Time really does fly when you’re having fun!