thanksgiving - check. christmas - w.i.p

I can NOT believe Thanksgiving has already came and gone! Sheesh. This year has flown by.

Our first Thanksgiving with Elaina was great! As always, we ended up going to my parents for lunch and Kevin's parents for leftovers/dinner. I know it's hard to sympathize with us because we have to eat twice (okay, so maybe we don't have to!) but it's seriously so hard! Every year I promise myself I'm only going to eat a small plate at my parents so I'll have room for a small plate at Kevin's parents....it never works.
Elaina and I headed to VA on Wednesday and spent the day helping Mom bake and just hanging out at their house. Kevin's best friend, Adam, was flying in from Phoenix so Kevin went to pick him up after work. It was Elaina's first time meeting her uncle Adam and Kevin and I were both super excited to see him since he hadn't been in since our wedding! We stayed up past midnight catching up with him, which was nice.

Thursday was nice, yummy, and Elaina did great. Mom gave Elaina a taste of sweet potato, to which she made a hilarious face! She's still not a huge fan of her cereal, which is okay with me. Since the doctor told us the cereal is optional, I'm not super concerned with her not loving it. If she does learn to like it, great...if not, I'm sure she'll fall in love with real food when we start it.

We ended up staying in VA Thursday night too and headed home Friday. I didn't dare go out to any stores, but I did get some deals online!

Did I mention Elaina is now FOUR months old?? =( Having this week off from work to stay home with her has made me realize a few things a) i'd LOVE to be a SAHM :( b) she's grown up SO much. not just in size but just every little thing she does. she's so amazing.

I'll go ahead and do her 4 month update too. At her doctor appointment Tuesday, she weighed 17lbs 6oz (90th percentile) and is 26" (also 90th percentile). She had to have 3 shots but other than the dramatic fit she had when they gave her the actual shots and drowsiness, she didn't seem bothered by them at all. She's holding her head up like a champ, sitting up by HERSELF for about 30 seconds at a time, rolling over like a crazy woman, and staring at her toes and ALL other toes around her non-stop!! She's changed SO much in the past month. Mommy's baby is growing up way too fast.

Okay, is Christmas SERIOUSLY less than a month away?!?! I want to decorate for Christmas, BUT I've been too busy playing with Elaina all day, annndddd our tree is under a bunch of crap in the garage. Darn my husband for being a flippin' packrat. :P

Now for your viewing pleasure............

silly girl playing in her seat...notice the crazy hair :)

at Nana's getting ready to try some cereal.

we survived...TWICE!

What did we survive??



Our first TWO nights without Elaina!


As you may or may not know, Kevin is a DIE-HARD New Orleans Saints fan. By no means is he a "fair weather fan" who just jumped on the bandwagon when they won the superbowl. Nope, he's been a fan since he was in middle school! Anywho, I'd bought him tickets for his birthday to see them play the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte. So, to make a long story short, Elaina spent the night with Kevin's mom and dad...and needless to say, she did MUCH better than Kevin and I! We called probably 15 times in the 36ish hours we were gone. However, it was nice for Kevin and I to get away, just the two of us, for the first time in 16 weeks.

Then, we let her spend last night with MY parents because we both had to work today. She did great with them too! They had such a good time with her and were sad to see her go.

She's such a good baby and adapts to various environments so easily. She's so lucky to have two sets of amazing grandparents who are bananas about her.

Now don't think for one second that we're going to be "those parents" who ditch their kids every possible chance they get. Heck no. Not even close. Actually the night before we left for Charlotte I begged Kevin to just sell my ticket to someone else and let me stay home with her. He assured me she'd be fine and that it would be good for me to get away...and though I won't tell him, he was right! hehe.

We have family pictures/Elaina's 4 month pictures this coming Thursday with the WONDERFUL Kalyn! She's the same photographer who did Elaina's newborn pictures. We fell in LOVE with the results of our first shoot and thought it would be crazy to NOT have her do another...and another...and another...until she gets sick of us. haha. I can't wait to post the prints. Until then, you can see some of her other fantabulous works on her website.

OH, and HOW COULD I FORGET?? Two of my very very very best friends are going to be mommies!!!!! My dear BFF Tiffany is due in July and my long time friend/poshum pal Amanda is due in June! I'm so so so so soooo excited for them! They're both going to be AMAZING mothers and Elaina is going to have two more Mommy-approved friends to have playdates with! :)