Holidays

Finley's first Christmas was pretty eventful.  Matter of fact, she just wrapped up her fourth and final Christmas two weekends ago!!  Gram came up for the Christmas weekend and we all had a big time!  First, it was Christmas Eve gift exchange and dinner at the Basset's.  Ella and Grace got more gifts than they even knew what to do with, and with Sarah's advice for gifts, we (Uncle JJ, Russlyn, Wes & I) were able to get them a couple of their favorites! Grace loved her Rockin Elmo and Ella couldn't wait to bake us something in her Easy Bake Oven.  Christmas day was lunch and more gifts at our house.  Our first attempt at smoking a turkey, and I must admit it was little dry, but everyone at least pretended to like it and ate it anyway.  Gram got to watch as Finley opened her gifts on her very first Christmas.  Finley's favorite thing about all of her gifts was the tissue paper, boxes, and bows!

Tight squeeze from Gram

Loved her glow doll from daddy

Uncle JJ clowning around

Daddy steeling a kiss

Loved her Easy Bake oven

Pretty pumped about Rockin Elmo

Aunt Sarah and her girls

Finley teething on Uncle JJ's nice shirt

Grace loves her "baby Finley"

Yummy paper!!

New Year's weekend we went to see Grandpa George and had her third Christmas there.  She got a lot of toys that make noise and light up!  Some of which we chose to leave there for lack of room in the car, and also so we could share the noise making toys amongst all of our family members! ;)  Wes was the only one who stayed up long enough to officially ring in the New Year.  Boy how times change for us all.  I was actually proud to be in my pj's by 6pm that night.  Pretty sad huh?

The weekend of 01/08 we had our final Christmas with Finley’s favorite boy cousins Grant and Griffin and Grandma Phyllis.  We opened gifts and played with the boy’s new Linkin Logs and train set.  Finley loved her gifts from the boys.  Grant later told Karrie that he wasn't impressed with the hippo toy they gave Finley, which we found amusing because he played with it numerous times throughout the weekend.  We went to the park, out to eat pizza, and played the Kinect adventures game.  I played very little of it and woke up so sore the next day, I can only imagine the workout that Grant got from it.

Griffin playing at the park

Grant, toy 4-wheeling through the dirt

Finley bundled up because it was pretty windy out

Grant helping Finley get her doll

Grant helping Finley open a gift from them.  Notice the look on Griffin's face.  A little bit of  a story behind this gift.

This was actually Griffin's duck but Grant wanted to give the pink duck to Finley for Christmas.  Griffin wasn't excited about giving up his duck when Grant came up with this idea.  I think Karrie had to go buy him a new replacement duck in order for Griffin to agree to give this to Finley for Christmas. 

Finley eating the ribbon

Grant liked his Linkin Logs 

We all had fun with Griffin's train

I later caught Griffin with none other than....the pink duck

Wes and Grant playing Kinect

Grant showing us his snaggle tooth mouth.  He just turned 5 and has already lost 2 teeth!!

On Friday night we had several people over to watch the Cotton Bowl game.  We had a great time and ate way too much food. Unfortunately, the next afternoon, Finley got sick for the very first time!  It was so hard to see her with fever, glassy eyes, a runny nose and so congested.  She had trouble eating and sleeping because of it and it made it a little rough on all of us throughout the work week. :(  I missed a couple days of work because I couldn't stand to leave her even though she was in good hands with Wes.  I think only a mother would understand, and thankfully I have a great boss that is also a mother and is very understanding!

On a happier note, Finley is really doing good sitting up by herself now.  She can sit and entertain herself while we get ready and not just roll over to her stomach and get frustrated like she was doing. She is rolling around a little more and loves standing but is still not keen about tummy time, so I'm still not making her stay on her tummy for very long.  So what if she can’t crawl for a couple of more months.  I’d rather see her happy now!  I get so tired of hearing about all of these milestones that babies should be at and what everyone else’s kid is doing in comparison.  I’m just fine with letting mine be a baby!


She is doing better and better with her solid foods and so far her favorite is bananas and least favorite are green peas!

Aunt Sarah claimed that Finley said "Hi Dada" and followed that up with the fact that she is putting two words together at only 7 months.  Aunt Sarah says she is "advanced"! :)  I will admit that she later said it at our house that same night, and we too were pretty impressed.  She definitely has hi down with a wave to go along with it. It's pretty cute. 

Thanks again to everyone for all of her gifts.  We now have an abundance or toys to entertain her, cool eating gadgets and some cute clothes!  She should be set for a while.  Thanks!