Bad, Bad Blogger!

I know, I know...I'm a bad blogger! It's amazing how much less time I have now that I'm actually raising a child!

So...during our Christmas kick-off weekend (which was absolutely wonderful...except for the rain...LOL), Bailey didn't sleep. Well, she did...but barely. About three broken hours each night. We were in the hotel with her and it was absolutely exhausting. Kelly and I had even gotten a suite in hopes that it would help her sleep. No such luck. So, after we got home, we moved her into her room!

Yes, you hear right...Bailey is now sleeping in Bailey's very own bedroom and Momma and Mommy have ADULT SPACE again!!!!! Seriously, it's wonderful. The really good news is that the transition for Bailey was very, very easy. We've had no long crying fits. No crazy nights of not sleeping while she cries it out in her room. For the most part, she wakes up and fusses...but then puts her self back to sleep. She goes to bed around 7:30 or 8 PM and sleeps until around 6:30 or 7 AM. Meanwhile, Kelly and I get to be adults for a little bit after she's gone to bed for the night. Being a slave to the binky is over...

It's been an absolutely excellent transition!

That was Monday night. On Tuesday, we brought our B to childcare for part of the day and put up the Christmas tree!!! Remember, this year is the first year that I was willing to go with a fake Christmas tree (last year was so traumatic and I have a horrible fear of the house and Bailey burning up in a tree fire). Well, this is what it looked like right out of the box:

Not the best. Kelly and I were both a little worried. As you can see here, we spent hours (literally) opening up branches and fluffing the tree. Honestly, I had no idea how much work it was to make an artificial tree look good!

Well, all our hard work paid off - because here is what it looked like fluffed up and then after it was decorated!

Bailey loves the tree...but honestly, the tree is no match for the stuffed animals and the Santa with a jingly bell that sits on the couch by the tree.My favorite from this year's christmas decorations is our new stockings...and the fact that there are three of them this year!!!

Then, it was Wednesday and time to start preparing for Thanksging! But, before we did that, we went and got our first ever round of family pictures taken! Here are just a few of them:

Bailey did a great job with her first round of photos. She got kind of tired of the guy who was making wierd faces at her...but all told. she did great. And I think we got some really good pictures!

After a much needed nap (for Bailey, anyway), it was time to start making pies! I made the first one...

Bailey helped me with the second one:

The third one got made while she was in bed, and finally the pies were done!

After the pies were prepared, Kelly and I went to bed! We hosted Thanksgiving this year, and I was going to spend Thanksgiving morning preparing my first ever solo Thanksgiving dinner.

PHEW. I had absolutely NO IDEA how much work goes into making a full dinner like that. It was insane. I spend hours...literally...hours...prepping, cleaning up, cooking, cleaning up, preparing, cleaning up and then juggling everything to have it all on the table at once. It was wonderful...but I had no idea how much work it was!!! I think it turned out alright, though:

The icing on the cake of a very wonderful day was that there was a beautiful rainbow right after dinner! It was magical!

The rest of our vacation was spent recuperating and actually getting ourselves ready to go back to work. We were low-key and just enjoyed each other and our time together.

In some other new - Bailey is now has two teeth on the bottom. She is going through a major growth spurt right now and eating more than she ever has. She is not yet crawling, but it is definately close. She's doing everything but actually crawl at this point. At some point, she's just going to do it and then...boy...it's going to be fun.

I'll leave you with this cutie phot of Miss. B in her winter snowsuit. It's a high-loft fleece suit from LL Bean and it just may be the best thing we've purchased in a long, long time. It's warm, snuggly and easy to put on and take off.

It's perfect!