Santa picture

We took the cousins...Addison, Keegan and Lydia to get a picture with santa. Addison went right up to Santa and hugged him and said "I just missed you so much"! It was so cute!! They all did great, no tears!

Merry Christmas!

Uncle Mike reading with Lydia


Loving her new chair from nanny & papa

Lydia in her Christmas dress



Loving her new doll from Wendy & Kindred

Opening a present with Great grandpa
Lydia had a great Christmas! She woke up Christmas morning early(we had to wake her up)and Matt brought her upstairs to see what Santa brought her. He brought her the Rose Petal Cottage! She looked around with sleepy eyes and took it all in and then she said..."ALL RIGHT"!! It was hillarious! She got Dora bubble bath and new jammies and socks, and tons of toys! We went to nanny and Papas house in the morning to open more presents and have Breakfast, then to Uncle Mike & Aunt Jana's house to open more presents! By the time that was over Lydia was ready for a nap and slept for 3 hours! Then we headed to Grammy and papa's house for Christmas dinner. She was such a good girl all day. She even got to spend the night with papa & grammy!

Finding the perfect Christmas Tree

We went with Matt's parents on Wednesday to the Whidbey tree farm to get our Christmas tree! Last year we got lucky and it was snowing when we went...not this year. Matt had to cover Lydia's ears a few times to block the sounds of the Navy jets flying over-head. We searched and searched for close to an hour...it seemed to be slim pickings this year. Don and Marg found a great tree and cut it down! Matt and I actually saw one in the pre-cut section when we first arrived and ended up taking that one home. Lydia loved watching the machine that shakes the tree to get all the loose stuff off. She got to ride on Matt's shoulders almost the whole time...how fun!

New favorite passtime

Lydia has discovered that she can get on the furniture...not a big deal if she just sat on it! What she likes to do is jump on it, walk around on it and most of all she like to sit on the coffee & end tables. She also likes to climb up on the chair by the shelf with all of our dvds and knock them onto the floor...fun game!

She also says "cheese" every time you point a camera in her direction! We've been working on her colors and she knows yellow, blue and pink.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

From our family to yours we'd like to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!
We have so much to be thankful for...our health, our families and friends. We are so blessed to have you all in our lives!

Lydia's surgery went great! We checked in at 7am and were home by 8:30. She never acted like anything ever happened...by the time we got home she was her normal silly self. Let's hope this does the trick and she doesn't have to deal with another pesky ear infection.

Matt and I have been house hunting and looked at one yesterday that we both really liked. It's 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, nice big yard, 2 car garage...it just what we've been looking for!! Here's the "but", the previous owners trashed it! They obviously smoked in the house, which can be sealed with a special paint. They also trashed the carpet. It's at the very top of our price range so updating, such as hard-wood flooring, new appliances, etc...would have to be put on hold. It's a bank foreclosure so we'd have to make an offer by Sunday because it's up for auction. We'll see!!

Enjoy Thanksgiving and those you are spending it with!

Surgery

Lydia will be having tubes put in her ears on monday. She has had probably 10 ear infections, and has had allergic reactions to pretty much every antibiotic they have put her on. They discovered that her right ear drum is retracted and her hearing is slightly impaired, which they say should be fixed with the tubes. We'll let you know how it all goes!

Just an update

To say that Lydia is thriving would be an understatement. She is unbelievable! I thought I would let you all in on some of her milestones.
her vocabulary grows on a daily basis.
Mommy
Dada
Papa
Nana
Mamo(grandma)
puppy
cracker
cookie
chicken
ball
book
luv ya
ta-da
uhoh
oh man
no way
thank you
please
Addy
TeeTan(keegan)
night night
bye bye
nummy
dude
wawa(water)
baby
juice
tickle tickle tickle
and the list goes one....
Her motor skills are incredible. She is always trying to take things apart and put them back together again. She has figured out how to get on the furniture now so I'm not sure how we will deal with that situation...she's trying to crawl from the couch across the end table to daddy's chair!! Lydia has a flair for the dramatics and is quick to throw herself on the floor with a fake cry, it's actually quite hilarious! She's doing somersaults(sp?!)now too and loves doing what looks like the "downward dog" yoga position and putting her arms out to the sides and saying "TA-DA"...as if to say look mom no hands!! She has a contagious laugh and a twinkle in her eye. If you tell her to do the "monkey dance" she does this dance where she bounces up and down and giggles then she spins around and falls on the floor! We've also been working on sounds with her...she says a cow says "moo", a dog says "woof", a cat says "meow", a duck says "quack quack" a horse says "neigh" and a bear says "rawr". Whenever she sees a baby in a book she says baby and then she says "awe" and kisses it, it's so sweet.

In short, Lydia is the biggest blessing to Matt and I. We cherish ever second with her. We never knew a love like this existed until we had her. Thank you all for taking the time to read out blog and keep up on our little families happenings!