Christmas Eve

The morning of Christmas Eve, we got ready for the day at the Martin's, put the girls down for naps, and then headed up to Salt Lake to be with the Smith side.  We went out to dinner like we always do, and were planning on seeing lights at temple square but had to cancel that because a few people weren't feeling well and it was super cold outside.  So we went back to Lisa & Brandon's apartment and did the rest of Christmas Eve.  We all opened up comfy new pajamas, sang Christmas songs, watched a Christmas movie, and had some treats.  Also, Lucy had a ton of fun playing around with her cousins, especially dancing around in their new pj's and getting excited for Santa to come!  Unfortunately, I could tell that Claire wasn't feeling well and wouldn't really eat, but then she got really sick and threw up several times.  So after cleaning it all up, we headed back to get the girls in bed.  Sick babies are so sad.  This little incident cut the night a little shorter than we would have liked, so we missed getting a picture of everyone all together in their new pajamas and a few other things, but overall it was still fun and we have good memories from it!

Some of the girl Martin cousins: Lucy, Amyah, Susie, and Lynnlee

 Out to dinner at Olive Garden with my family.  Lucy and Ashlynn definitely look related!  They got along really well and had fun together.

 Modeling her new pajamas!

 Reading a new Christmas book with Grammy.

We got back and washed off poor Claire and put her right to bed.  The rest of the kids were just about to throw out their "reindeer dust" and so Lucy joined in on that before going down to sleep too.

Snow fun and Danish pastries

The first day we were in Utah it snowed a ton!  It was a beautiful winter wonderland and it was Lucy's first time really playing in the snow.  She LOVED it.  The Martin's have the perfect backyard for kids to play in the snow- we could even go sledding without leaving their yard!  This also happened to be the day that we made the traditional danish pastries with Ryan's family.  It was a good start to our trip!  And now, 5,000 pictures of Lucy in the snow because she was just so happy being out there that I couldn't pick just one.

Claire: 3 months

Claire turned the much anticipated 3 months a few weeks ago on January 3rd.  Three months is that magical age where all of a sudden they are growing out of that newborn crying stage and become more interactive.  Claire has been such a sweet girl, it's been so fun to have her in our family.  And in case you were wondering, her cheeks are still nice and chubby. :)  Since there's no 3 month well-check I don't have height/weight stats, but here is a little about her at 3 months.

• Gave her first real-deal laugh a few weeks ago and smiles a lot.
• Loves attention and will often just get a little fussy until you start to play with her.
• Claire LOVES Lucy.  She will watch her go all over and keep her eyes on her and just randomly smile at Lucy all the time.  
• Easily entertained by rattles, toys, anything that can be shaken/dance/whatever in front of her face.
• Still sleeps solely on her belly but she moves all over that crib!  I put her down at one end an she ends up at the other, in the corner, with her body the other way.  Unfortunately she goes crooked and ends up banging into the crib over and over until it wakes her up. Still a better problem than losing a pacifier or continually coming unswaddled.
• Still sleeping great. Yay!
• Only seems to have reflux if we feed her too much.  Not really even when she's had a little cold or anything.
• Hates pacifiers, but starting to be a serious thumb sucker.
• She loves baths so much that as soon as we bring her in the bathroom and start the water she instantly calms down and becomes super content.
• Starting to get consistent with naps.  Is up for somewhere between 1.5 and 2 hours and then goes down for a nap for an hour or two.  It's nice to get some consistency in there.

I love this picture of Claire.  Lucy decided to accessorize her one day.  Lucy's living doll. ;)  Claire was obviously happy about it.

She sits in the bumbo now... for about one minute until it makes her spit up everywhere.  But I think she likes the new view here and there.

 Getting fed very well by Lucy (all fake food, except for the Wheaties Lucy tried to shove in Claire's mouth this morning).

 My cute view at night just after bath and bottle and right before I take her up at night.  I love soaking in her cuteness right after bath and bottle and just before I take her up to bed.  Sweet, sweet girl!

Claire's Baby Blessing

We flew into Utah for Christmas break on Sunday, December, 22, 2013 in the afternoon and had Claire's baby blessing that same night.  We had to wake up at about 4:30am that day, so needless to say we were tired and I didn't feel very put together.  I also didn't think about this until I was getting Claire in her dress, but it was size 0-3 months, and she was a 2.5 month old in size 6 month clothi. So the dress was a little short, but oh well.  The blessing Ryan gave her was beautiful with many promises for the future.  She was happy during it and it was so fun to see all of our family right away.  After the blessing, we had dinner and dessert together and sat around visiting for a little while.  It all turned out just great!

 The blessing circle: Craig, JR (Ryan's cousin), Mark, Kevin, Ryan, my dad, & Jonathan.

 Claire's grandparents and family.

 The Smith girls.

Blue M&M

Working for Mars gets us quite a bit of free company gear around here.  One random thing that Ryan brought home one day was a blue M&M golf club cover.  Lucy found it and immediately became attached to it.  She thought it was a puppet for her arm to go in, which totally works too.  Blue came everywhere with us for a few days and still makes a cameo appearance here and there.

 He gets lots of kisses.

 And two mysterious selfies that appeared on my phone after the whole photo session with Blue. 

Typical Lucy

I usually (keyword: usually) love when Lucy disappears for a few minutes because she comes back doing something like wearing someone else's shoes or something crazy.  This time, she felt like the tree was a little too bright and came out sporting my sunglasses and diaper bag.  So stylish.

 Oh just putting on every headband in the house the wrong way.  She didn't know I was watching.

 Lucy got a fun playdough kit from her friend Mason for her birthday and she loves it.  Kept her busy a lot the first few days especially.  

Santa round #2

So seeing Santa didn't go super well the first time for Lucy, so a few days later Ryan read a book to Lucy about Santa which made them decide to write/draw Santa a letter so he would know what Lucy wanted for Christmas.  Lucy got really into it and had a good time.  A few days later when Marci asked if we wanted to go see Santa with them at the mall, we decided to go and have Lucy deliver the letter in person.  It really took a lot of courage but she was brave and went and handed her letter to Santa and you could tell she was proud of herself afterwards.  I'm so glad we went back because it was just as much fun for me to see her do this.

The letter didn't last long in the actual envelope.  Who needs envelopes anyway?

 She gave me one good, quick smile that didn't last long enough to catch on camera and then this look the rest of the time.  Still a little unsure.