Anna's first cereal

I noticed Anna was interested in food lately. She watches me put food into my mouth and opens hers like she wants some. So at five months old we have her rice cereal for the first time.

To my surprise she liked it!

First I tried sitting Anna in the bumbo seat. She seemed to like it but slowly slouched over to the point she could lick the arm rests. I guess she needs to strengthen her torso a little more before we do feedings in it.

She's not sleeping- the flash is a little too bright

Macy loves and adores Anna

I love this picture of my girls.

Anna being a big girl!

Anna loves to smile, just not for the camera

 This was after her first few bites of cereal. I made it very thin with breast milk so it was like she was drinking milk from a spoon. But hey, she did it and liked it. And her face was pretty clean too!

Of course Macy wanted to try her hand at feeding Anna. Of course, she had to sit in the bumbo in order to do it.

I think Macy stuck the spoon a little too far in Anna's mouth.

That's better Macy. Anna liked the cereal for the next few days too. I found that it has to be very thin for her to eat it, otherwise she spits it out. Good job Anna! This is one step in the right direction!

Check-up at the doctor

Both girls visited the doctor on Wednesday. They did great which I was very thankful for since I had them both by myself, and the appointments were during nap time.

Macy of course complained and said she didn't want to go but liked it (most of it). She loves playing doctor at home so it was fun to get her blood pressure checked and have the doctor use the stethoscope for real. When the nurse checked her blood pressure she got her little I'm-excited-but-don't-want-to-show-it smile on her face. She wouldn't let go of me the rest of the visit but only cried for a few seconds when she had to lie down.

Here are her 3 year old stats:

27 1/2 pounds
37 1/2 inches tall
Blood pressure 98/52
Macy is in a lower percentile for weight but average for height.

Anna also did great and didn't cry at all. Until she got her shots at the end that is. She was all smiles and tried to hold the doctors hands and instruments anytime they were within reach. I loved seeing her cute little naked body since its covered up most if the time due to the cold.

Here are her stats:
11 pounds 9 ounces
25 inches long
16 inch head circumference

She's only in the 3rd percentile for weight and 27th for height. We have another little girl on our hands.

I love this picture of us waiting for the doctor. It pretty much sums up the girls personalities right now. Macy can be a little stinker sometimes and Anna is wide awake and curious about things.

The second picture is one Macy took. That little fuzzy thing in the bottom right is Anna's head. I laugh every time I look at it.

Macy's first snow!

I guess this title is wrong. Macy saw a ton of snow her first year of life but she couldn't enjoy it. Last year there was no snow at all so we were very excited to get our first few inches, that's enough for sledding!

The snow pants and boots I bought Macy last year still fit, thankfully. Holly had given me a pair of snow pants last month so we were fit to go sledding. I loved watching Macy walk around in all those clothes! It was very cute, almost cute enough to make we want to live in a place with lots of snow so Macy can become a skiier/snowboarder.  Almost. But then when we only played for 15 minutes when it took us 20 minutes to get ready.

It was very cold outside, a mere 19 degrees. Macy's gloves weren't the best so her hands got very cold. We had a blast sledding down the hill in front our building, screaming the whole way down of course. I think Macy loved walking around in the snow with her boots and pants because she would fall down in it on purpose. She probably liked that she didn't get wet or cold from it.

Macy would not look at the camera!

Although it looks like she's screaming, she is actually saying cheese

Anna Rolls Over!

Anna rolled over for the first time on January 16th. She rolled from her back to her stomach. She did it a lot for a few days and hasn't done it since. I haven't been able to catch it on camera since she stopped doing it. I did want to write it down so I can remember her great feat! We are proud of you Anna!

The rest of our Christmas vacation

We spent 3 whole weeks in California for our Christmas break. It was wonderful to spend so much time there since we had a lot of family that wanted to see Macy and Anna. We were able to visit both our parent's wards too. Ja and I both got the flu (mine was much worse and lasted a week) so it was nice being able to take time out to be sick and still feel like we had enough time to visit.

 Macy and Anna did great on the flight to CA. It ended up being 6 hours so we were very grateful. Macy loved listening to the TV with her new pink headphones.

Since we were in California for so long we were able to fit in time to see some old friends, Colby and Becca Gage. She is having baby #3 so she came in for an ultrasound and we hung out at the house that night. Sam and Macy are only 3 or 4 months apart and had a good time playing. 

This picture makes it look like Macy is in love with Sam. She was very sad when he had to leave.

This was some "guitar" thing Macy discovered at the house. For the first few days we were there she "played" it to a singing Frosty the Snowman. She eventually started dancing when she played. It was hilarious. She even carried it on her lap the whole drive down to Disneyland.

One of my favorite things was having Macy be with Lily again. They were so cute together and started playing again like they had never been apart.

BFF's

My mom gave Macy this dress for Christmas so I had to take a picture of Macy in it for her. Isn't her little ankle cross so cute?

Since Macy had her picture taken she wanted Anna to be in a picture too.

On this night the adults (minus Greg and Dorothy who watched the kids, thanks!) went to see the Donny and Marie Christmas show at the Pantages. I had never seen them in a show, not really at all actually. The show was awesome and had me laughing tears. They are great entertainers. My parents and Jill were able to join us.

We also got to meet our newest nephew Ryan. He is only a month older than Anna but twice her size. He's a happy and adorable baby.

Macy had a great time playing with her cousins. Henry is very kind to her and was very good at playing with her.

I also loved all the people who were able to help with holding and feeding Anna. I love knowing that other people love my children too.

Anna is zonked out.

Macy and Charlie had a fun time hanging out of New Year's Eve.

Papa also joined in on the fun. Although now it looks like the kids aren't having fun anymore.

Then Papa had a lot of fun feeding Anna! 

Uncle Darin sent Macy a Tangled birthday card. Macy went to get the mail with Dorothy and was looking through it when she spotted the pink enevelope. She instantly knew it was for her (who else would be getting a pink starry envelope in that house?) The card had flashing lights and sang a song. She loved it and stared at it for quite awhile pressing the button over and over. Uncle Darin knows how to win her heart.

I have no idea what possessed Macy to do this. She put all the toys in the room all on top of the chair and wouldn't let us clean it up.

Macy and Anna were able to spend so much time with their grandparents. It was nice to spend one on one time with both sets so they could really see how great our girls are :) I love this picture of Macy reading to Granny Dot and Anna. Doesn't Anna look so enthralled with the story?

Enjoying books in bed with Aunt Tiffany

This picture needs explanation. At my parent's house we had gotten the Halloween costumes down for some reason . Macy saw this white beard in there and wanted my dad to dress like Santa. Remember I mentioned how she really liked Santa? She also made him wear the white gloves which are actually women's princess gloves. The funnier part is next time we went to their house she wanted him to dress like Santa again so he made a beard out of paper and string to appease her.

Wouldn't Anna look so cute with pigtails? Aunt Stacie found this headband in the costume box.

Macy was such a good helper with Ryan and Anna. She loved reading to them. Someone moved Ryan and she got really mad because he was reading to him.

We went to Pasadena to view the floats from the Rose Parade. That was really fun and I'm glad we did it since I have never gone to see them up close before. 

Macy took this picture of me.

This eye would open and shut and Macy was mesmerized. 

I thought the Cat in the Hat float was cool.

Of course the Cars Land float was cool.

Macy wanted to "text" so I opened up an email for her to write at Granny Dot's desk.

Macy loved playing with Aunt Tiffany's old dolls and Barbie toys. 

The weather was a little cold at first. I know it's winter but it's also Southern California so it took us by surprise. Towards the end of our trip it was warm again so we headed to Montrose Park. Macy and I had a ton of fun.

Merry, Merry Christmas

First things first, we had to write Santa a letter and make him cookies! Macy was very into Santa this year and reminded me everyday we had to leave cookies for Santa. Lily joined in on the fun. First we made cookies (Hence the removal of the clothes. I think. Otherwise I don't know why they had no clothes on).

Then it was time to write Santa a letter. Earlier in the day Macy called "Santa" to tell him that she was in California at Granny Dot's house so he shouldn't leave her presents in Virginia. It was a very cute conversation.

The final letter

After our traditional dinner of chicken velvet soup in bread bowls we had the first half of our annual root beer tasting contest. Nathan had 30 different kinds this year! We only tried 15 on Christmas Eve. I think Americana was the winner. I liked one named Brownie because it had caramel in it.

We tried to act out the Nativity but Macy tried to steal the show. She saw that someone was going to read a story out of the Bible so she got her own book (from Bill Cosby) and told us about Jesus. Henry got the globe to show us where it was all happening. We couldn't really understand what she was saying most of the time but that served as our Nativity story since some of us dressed up for it.

Macy and Henry teaching us

Nathan and Henry

Before the festivities began

Then it was time to say good night to Papa and leave out the cookies and milk. Macy placed them very carefully right outside the fireplace so he wouldn't miss them. She also made me move the decorative grate that was in front of the fireplace so Santa could get out.

Christmas day was a wonderfully lazy day spent in our pajamas. Tiffany made us a delicious baked french toast with blueberry syrup for breakfast. We opened presents, which took awhile because we had a lot, but we were not in any hurry to get anywhere so it was nice to take things slow.

Slow was good because it took forever to get this doll out of the package! There were so many strings holding her in. Then once I got her out of the box there was a weird hair net that stuck on her hair.

Anna sang Papa to sleep

Macy got the Tangled wedding veil and flowers

Anna took a nice long morning nap so I could open presents with out distractions

Anna and Granny Dot

My sister-in-law Holly made this shirt for Papa. It is a road map of the places in La Canada her kids go when they visit. She also added Hot Wheel cars for the kids to drive around the streets. So Papa (or Ja) get a nice massage while the kids play. Isn't that a great idea?

My Christmas Anna with Daddy

And Mommy

We had a delicious ham dinner that night and had fun being together as a family. It wish Christmas could last a couple of days because it's so much fun.