Christmas and the latest!

Our month of December looked like this...

 Pinterest Find.  

Pretty.  

Rainbow cake in a jar...  

Pinterest Fail. 

Mushy cake in a jar.  

 

Such a bummer.  I tried TWICE!  And failed TWICE!  

First attempt was to make sure I didn't do a silly thing like, fill six jars of colored cake batter just to have them turn out uncooked.  Oops, did it anyways.  First time it wasn't cooked all the way but I was more concerned about how the purple took over.  Second time, I cooked for fifteen minutes longer, checked one, thought it was cooked fine, returned awhile later to find that all six were very much still in need of baking.  Boo.  

My homemaking skills still need a lot of work.

Christmas Eve Pajamas!  Looking for a Christmas Present for Cade, I found these sweet PJ's.  I asked Cade to let me buy Aleah's pajamas alone this year so that I could do this!  Matching Kansas City Chief's Pajamas!  Total daddy's girl, it was only appropriate. :) 

Cade did a nice job on mine as well!  He always does!

Wake up sleepy head!  It's Christmas!

So happy!

Christmas Day 2012

Playing with Christmas Present from Grandma and Grandpa Koyle

And everything else I have to share....

Just cute.

One of those fussy days she just had to be held. Looked down to see this. I didn't dare move it and risk waking the beast. :)

Griping things a little bit!

Sleeping in her crib!  Finally!  But not 100% of the time...

Just hangin' out

 Aleah is eleven weeks old!  Two and half months.  

Since 8 weeks she has been making serious improvements.  

Like, nursing... 

She wouldn't.  We tried.  If she wasn't in a good mood she wouldn't latch and after day two, she wouldn't latch, period.  Stressful.  Bought a pump instead, supplemented with formula too.  Got jury duty summons, found out if I was exclusively breastfeeding I could get out of it. :)  And was told cutting dairy out of my diet would help her colic.  Reasons to try breastfeeding again.  She latched.  Made it look like we never had a problem.  The girl is determined.  Picking up breastfeeding at eight weeks old?  So proud of her.  No more bottles for awhile for this girl. 

Sleeping in her crib..

Right around that same time she also let me put her down in her crib.  Up until then it was...at night, either sleeping in my arms (I know, some people would advise against that, but don't judge, I needed SOME sleep) or in her swing.  Now she'll sleep in her cradle in our room most of the night, but often she does get restless and won't sleep well (which means I don't sleep at all) unless I put her in bed with me. 

She smiles a lot more.  Will talk your ear off.  And is just plain CUTE and so much fun.

Her colic though?  Still here...  Christmas was great, but it also shared five nights in a row of a colicky little girl.  Kind of rough.  I gave up dairy for about three weeks.  Nothing.  Even though giving up dairy was hard, I would have really liked a break from colic.  Her pediatrician said that she'll probably continue to sleep...(what's the word he used?  I'll use awful..) until her colic is over.  The past two nights, she's been up just about every hour.  About a week ago I did get my first almost six hour stretch though, that was nice.  I'm soo hopeful there will be more of those, soon! 

So, I'm tired.  And hungry.  I don't ususally shower until Cade comes home from work.  Some days I feel my sanity slipping with every tear drop she sheds.  I don't remember the last time I had energy.  And all I feel like cooking with my energy level, are microwavable banquet meals.  Mmm, I actually kind of love that cheap watery mac and cheese.  Some days I don't remember why I was ever baby hungry, or I tell her over and over again her siblings can blame her for not ever coming down to earth. :)  I find it seriously unfair that she is a Daddy's girl when I am the one who stays home with her all day trying to make her happy and the one getting up every hour at night.  But, the truth is, I just really love her.  Some nights, I don't want to put her down in her cradle, I just want to sit and hold her.  And my husband, he's the raddest.  I couldn't do this at all without him.  I couldn't have picked a better husband and father of our kids. :)  He does way more than he will ever  get credit for.  He deserves one heck of a Father's Day present this year.  I feel lucky to have this cute little family.  And I'm going to go hug that good little napper right now!