Santa Clause Comes to Alivia's House!

This morning we had a great surprise! Santa Clause and Mrs. Clause and their elves stopped by on their train! We were so excited when we heard the bells ringing in the street. Alivia was just about ready to go down for her nap so she was still in her pajamas but we quickly ran outside for a quick picture. She didn't really LOVE Santa Clause but they were all so friendly and she even got a present. How fun! This is so great that Grain Valley does this for the kids. :)

Not too sure about this mommy!

A little better since he is giving me a toy!

Waving bye to Santa!

Bye...bye!!!

Her first gifts from Santa under her tree!

Play Date with Matthew

Matthew and Alivia are growing up so fast. Matthew is a little over 8 Months and Alivia is almost 10 Months now. It is fun to watch them play now because they interact or maybe I should say Alivia bullies Matthew. Sorry Matthew! They both have the same walker so they were enjoying standing on it together! What a fun day of playing!

Alivia's Christmas Tree

Growing up my brother and I always had our own Christmas Tree in our rooms with our special ornaments on them so today Alivia got her own Christmas Tree from Grandma and Grandpa Stewart and Grammy. It even has a special "A" ornament at the top as a star. She LOVED opening all of her ornaments and wanted to eat the paper..he, he! Alivia's tree is now in here room just like mommy's was! :)

I love my tree!

Wearing mommy's hat and scarf when she was a baby. Yes, Grandma Stewart keeps everything! Uncle Phillip is helping her!

Grandma took Alivia to the mall dressed up in the outfit I wore when I saw santa clause. The left picture is me and the right picture is Alivia! I LOVE IT! The front is engraved with Alivia's name and the year on it. This is so very special! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Reader ornament from Grammy.

Angel ornament from Great Grandma Stewart who is no longer with us but we will remember her by this angel. We know she is watching over us.

Sweet pea baby's first Christmas from Grammy

"A" ornament- the topper of the tree

Alivia's First Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with both of our families today! We are very thankful to have such loving families! Alivia got to eat mashed potatoes and gravy, banana jello, marshmallow salad, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie and she LOVED all of it. I was very surprised by this because she tends to be a picky eater! Maybe she just likes "real" food better?? She was very tired by 4:00 at Grandma and Grandpa Stewarts buts she made it through and crashed in bed early tonight! Thanks for a great day everyone! We love you! :)

Alivia with her cousins, Tara and Brooke

Alivia with her cousin, Conner

Alivia with Grandpa and Grandpa Richeson and her cousins

Alivia standing with Conner! :)

All of the cousins and Aunt Laura and Uncle Rick

Our first Thanksgiving as a family! :)

Grandma and Grandpa Stewart

Grandma feeding Alivia pumpkin pie and boy did she LOVE it! :)

Great Aunt Mable and Grammy (great grandma)

Uncle Phillip and Grandma and Grandpa Stewart

Our last picture of the night...Alivia was soo sooo tired!

Christmas Decorating Fun!

Last weekend we put up our Christmas tree and a few decorations. Daddy even hung the Christmas lights outside on the house. Alivia had a lot of fun helping. It is hard to believe that Alivia's first Christmas is already here! This time last year we were putting up our tree and I was pregnant thinking how excited we were going to be this year having Alivia. We never knew how much of a blessing she would be until we had her!! What a great time of year! :)

Finished the tree with Daddy!

Alivia's first stocking!

Alivia's first Christmas tree!! :)

Taking a break to drink a bottle!

Slamming it so she can hurry and get outside with daddy!

Daddy..let me out! I want to help you!

Please....mommy!!!

Yeh...the Christmas lights are all done! Way to go Daddy! :)

9 Months/Christmas Pictures

Today we went to portrait innovations for Alivia's 9 Months pictures and Christmas pictures. Unfortunately we had a really bad experience and were almost there for 3 hours. :( We learned our lesson to never make an appointment on a Saturday again. Alivia was such a good girl though...thank goodness for gerber snacks and gold fish because if it wasn't for that who knows what kind of mood she would have been in!! Here are a few of the many pictures they took!! Just a fun little fact...the black shoes were mine when I was this age!! Thanks mom for keeping my shoes all these years! :)

Walking???

Here is a video I took of Alivia trying to walk with her walker. Do you think we might have a walker soon?? Too cute!

Toilet Paper Fun!

This morning I was getting ready in the bathroom and Alivia was crawling around on the floor playing with her ball. The next thing I knew she had the toilet paper streamed out all over the bathroom and she was having a blast. Needless to say I kept rolling the paper back up and she would go back and roll it out again. It was pretty funny! We also enjoyed our visit from Katy and Vicki this morning and Uncle Phillip this evening!! Miss you guys!

Hmmm...I think I should roll this out as far as I can!

and more.....

What mom? Whats the big deal?

Going back for more after it was rolled back up many times!

Sippy Cup :)

We have been practicing the sippy cup a lot and Alivia had been having trouble tipping it all of the way back by herself and the other night she just got it!! She is such a big girl now. This makes mommy feel a lot better because I was starting to worry that she was going to have trouble transitioning from the bottle to a sippy cup since she likes her bottle so much. Before we know it she will be drinking milk from the cup and I will miss the bottle days I am sure! Here are a few pics of her "chugging."

Up.....

and up some more to finish the last little bit in the cup!!