Christmas and New Year's

I have to admit that I have been terrible at taking pictures lately with my camera. My camera has been broken and you have to hold it a certain way and it sucks. So I take pictures with my phone, which is really low quality, which usually just leads to me not taking any pictures. I did get a couple of our Christmas activities, so here they are to prove that I am not a total Scrooge.

Jenni, Jenny and I made gingerbread cookies! Okay Jenni made the gingerbread cookies, Jenny cut them out and I was there when they were decorated. Then I pulled out my new cookie cutters- NINJABREAD COOKIES. I had so much fun decorating my ninjabread cookies. I definitely will get my boys to decorate cookies with me!

As I already said, I took Ben to see Santa...

As always, we were crazy busy on the holidays themselves. On Christmas Eve, we had lunch, presents, and games at Tim and Kamie's house with the Fischer family. Ben was mega spoiled by his nanny and papa and cousins. He fell asleep during the present opening, but enjoyed playing games with everyone!

After the Christmas Eve celebrations, we headed down to Salt Lake. We usually stay with my mom on Christmas Eve and celebrate on Christmas morning, just like we did when we were kids. I was so excited to buy Ben Christmas jammies and then I didn't even get any good pictures of him in them! So here is my attempt at a Christmas jammies pictures. Next year I'll do better.

Again, Ben was so spoiled by his grandma and grandpa Fox and aunt Cassie and aunt Alex. So many toys and cute clothes. His stocking was full of all the little things that he needs and a couple things that mom confiscated (chocolate). After all the presents and even a little nap, we headed over to see my dad and Laurie and the rest of the Hightower family. Ben snuggled right in with grandpa Norton and listened to songs that may or may not be appropriate for a baby. It was pretty tough to get all his presents in the car, and when we got home we realized that we don't have enough room for so many toys! We also realized that we are suffering for all the obnoxious toys that we bought for nieces and nephews over the years- thank heavens all the toys have OFF buttons!

Matt had to get dressed up for church the Sunday after Christmas. He got a lot of funny looks, but the best part of the day was when he asked me how to get in the car. Kilt problems.

Just after New Years, we headed down to Eureka to see Marc and Jeana's new house! They started building their house a little over a year ago and it was so much fun to go see it all finished! They did a great job and it was perfect for our gathering of friends. Everyone has kids now, so we had lunch and got dressed for some sledding! I was too scared to take Ben, so he had fun watching everyone else fly down the hill.

After sledding, he promptly fell asleep! Pretty exhausting playing with friends all day!

We are so lucky to have such amazing friends and family in our lives. We love them all so much!

Ben's Discovery of Solids

At Ben's four month appointment in November, Dr. Brown gave us the green light to start trying solids. We started out with rice cereal mixed with formula, and Ben figured out the spoon and sitting up while eating really fast. Then we added sweet potatoes. He LOVED them! He would open his mouth really wide and make yummy noises the whole time he ate. After he was doing well with the one feeding a day, we added a breakfast feeding and fruit! Now he's eating breakfast and dinner with solid foods and eats rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, squash, bananas, pears, and apples. The only thing he's had but didn't like was peas!

Some meals are cleaner than others, but he's always happy after!

I have become a little obsessed with making baby food. I have been buying a lot of produce for myself and decided to just buy the Sam's Club size of everything and eat half myself and turn the rest into baby food. It is not that hard and actually kind of fun to learn how to make everything. I had to ask for a food processor for Christmas after my first blender died though...

Our unsuccessful experience with peas. See the full bowl of uneaten peas on the right and the wiped clean bowl of sweet potatoes on the left. He would purse his lips and spit out anything I could get in there! Such a drama queen! (He takes after his mom)

Kamie let us borrow her Bumbo until Ben was sitting up well enough for his highchair. Ben is a chunker and barely fits in the Bumbo. We have to pry him out of it! Luckily he figured out how to sit up and we can use his highchair now!

I can't even tell you how many ice cube trays I've broken making baby food. When it is frozen it sometimes struggles to come out of the ice cube tray and I guess I just don't know my own strength... Yeah a lot of broken ice cube trays. I finally bought the big expensive ones. I've only broken one of those!

It has been so fun watching Ben grow into these different stages. I miss his newborn size, but love his interactions and watching him learn and try new things!

Five Months!

O Christmas Tree

I am so happy that Matt is willing to let me have my way with our Christmas tree. We went to the tree lot on Black Friday and they were just getting set up. Most of the trees hadn't been unwrapped yet, so I had my pick! I picked my tree and it is the most beautiful tree we've ever had! I'm so in love! Especially watching Ben and Ollie, who both love the tree and all the lights!

I snapped a few pictures of Ben with the tree and lights, and here are a few of my favorites!

What Do We Do In The Winter?

Having a baby in the winter has really changed some of our habits. I used to hate going outside in the winter, but now I REALLY hate going outside. So we find other things to keep us occupied...

Trying out new hairdos...

We went for a five minute walk but it was freezing so we came home.

We go to doctor's appointments. Ben had to get his four month shots and I had to get blood drawn.

We take selfies...

We play with the puppy and get sad when she gets in trouble....

We watch the crazy puppy curl up in the corner of her huge bed for a nap...

We snuggle up tight! Ben has always been swaddled at night, but has grown out of his other blankets. These SwaddleMe blankets are the only thing that keep him in, and even then he can Houdini out of them too!

Ollie snuggles up on Matt's hoodies in the mudroom. That's what happens if you leave your clothes on the floor.

We try out some of our cute winter clothes, including winter accessories!

We put on the Christmas stickers from nanny!

We snuggle more and watch movies from Redbox! Matt was swamped through December getting his parents' house finished and then helping them get all moved in. He also works with the young men and coaches the young men's basketball team and Claire's basketball team. Ben and I have a lot of nights together while Matt is gone. We are Redbox frequent customers!

We chew... EVERYTHING.

And not just the dog. I have a puppy and baby who are both teething. Bad timing.

And finally our first tooth pops out! Ben refused to snuggle with me but curled right up in Matt's arms and that's when we found his first tooth! He was a week shy of being 5 months old. His second tooth came through the next week. Two little bottom teeth that make his smile that much cuter!

More snuggling... are you sensing a pattern? Matt is in charge of Ben on the night that I do my shot, which also includes the morning after while I recover. He and Ben definitely get some quality nap time together those mornings.

Ben got to go to his first Jazz game right before Christmas! He was totally enthralled with the game (even though we were up in the boonies). He couldn't stay awake through the whole game though, and whenever he'd fall asleep in my arms, something exciting would happen and everyone would cheer and wake him up. Then he'd fall asleep again...

I loved how he was resting his hand on Matt, reminding him that he was there.

We went to see Santa! This is a favorite tradition of mine from my childhood, so I wanted to continue it with my children. We get dressed in our Christmas clothes and go see Santa at the mall. Ben hammed right up and gave us this darling smile. He was not afraid at all!

More puppy time at home. Ollie has really adapted to our home and life. She does well with Matt at work and comes home and goes crazy. It is a rare occasion to see her sitting calmly.

Ben has been working on physical therapy to help strengthen his neck muscles and even out his flat head. Laying on his right side isn't his favorite so we have to get creative to help him stay occupied and calm.

He's pretty cute if I do say so myself.

I guess staying inside during the winter isn't so bad....