Christmas 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We decided to stay home for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so that we could enjoy some time with our little family at home. We went to Christmas Eve service at our chruch. They did a childrens program at 5 pm and Raegan really enjoyed it. We love our church, they do such a good job! When we got home we did a quick family picture and the girls got to open a present. Surprise! It was Christmas PJ's! We put their new PJ's on and headed over to our neighbors house for dinner. We had a delicious dinner and enjoyed our time visiting with friends. The kids had a great time playing with each other and exchanging gifts with their friends. On Christmas morning both girls woke up around 7 and we came down to open presents. Raegan did really well. I don't think she quite understood Christmas morning this year ( I am sure it will be different next year!). She came down and saw the presents and said " what's this?". The first thing she spotted was a Little People school bus and she loved that. I didn't wrap it because I got it at a consignment sale and I thought she would like it because she loves to put her dinosaurs in things and push them around. I think we could have stopped there but we had a few more presents for her. The big present we got for the girls was a kids trampoline. We had it covered up but Raegan was a little bashful about opening it up. Once she got started she didn't stop bouncing! We thought it would be a great present for the winter because it's something she can do to get some energy out ( so I'm not sure if it's more of a present for me or for her!). Karis enjoyed opening presents too. She got the hang of it pretty quickly! Her favorites were an activity toy ( that I also found at a consignment sale) and a Sophie the Giraffe teething toy. After we did presents we made Eggnog donuts and all had breakfast together. Then we opened stockings after Karis woke up from a nap. We enjoyed a nice quiet day together playing with new toys. And we finshed off the day with a yummy prime rib dinner and ice cream cone cupcakes for dessert ( for Jesus' Birthday). We have really tried to work hard about keeping the focus of Christmas on Jesus and not on presents or Santa Claus. Raegan is not a big fan of Santa anyway so it wasn't really an issue for us. She did not want Santa coming to her house so it made it easier on us to keep the focus off of Santa and presents and more on the true meaning of Christmas. Two special moments on Christmas day for me were when we all gathered around the computer and watched a video of Operation Christmas Child boxes being delivered to Columbia ( where our boxes went). Raegan was really excited to see the kids getting their boxes. She commented several times on how happy her friends were when they got their boxes. It brought tears to my eyes to hear those words coming from the mouth of a two year old. She was excited about giving during the whole process of picking items and packing boxes for "our friends" and watching them receive gifts. I pray that she truly learned about the gift of giving this year. Another special moment was later in the morning when Raegan told me that I needed to hurry up and take a shower and get dressed so that we could go see Baby Jesus. I think maybe she thought that she was going to get to go see Baby Jesus like she got to see Baby Karis when she was born. We explained that Baby Jesus was born a long time ago but that He is so special we still celebrate his birthday. It was a really cute moment.

The day after Christmas we travled over to Winchester to see Josh's parents and family. We enjoyed a nice dinner with everyone there and Raegan and Karis got to open some more gifts. Then we traveled to my parents house on Monday. My brother came up with his family from North Carolina. So Raegan got to play with all of her Auer cousins for a couple of days. They all got more presents and enjoyed playing with each other and their new toys. Raegan cried when we had to leave on tuesday night but both girls fell asleep as soon as we got in the car.

We had a wonderful time celebrating with family and friends and we are looking forward to what the new year will bring!

4 Months!

Karis had her 4 month birthday on Monday! It's hard to believe how fast she's growing. I knew she would be 4 months around Christmas but is it really almost Christmas!?! Time flies when you are having fun, I guess!

Raegan and I took Karis for her 4 month check up yesterday. She was not quite as patient with the doctor and nurse and she was for her 2 month check up but she still did ok. She is now 25 inches long ( 75th percentile) and 15.7 lbs ( 86th percentile). So she is catching up with her big sister on the growth curve! The doctor said she is doing great. They did start her on Zantac because of her reflux which seems to be getting worse and not better. The doctor also suggested I start her on some cereal because that may help her reflux and also since she is so big she may be starting to get hungry for more than just milk. I was going to start her soon anyway because she certainly is strong enough and she seems very interested in food recently. I don't think I am going to be able to keep her from eating much longer! So hopefully the Zantac will help her. She got some more shots which were not fun but all in all it was a good check up!

Karis has changed so much recently. She now likes to sit in her bumbo and high chair and also play in her jumperoo. She looooves her big sister and likes to watch her every move and smile and laugh at her. Raegan can make Karis laugh the most out of everyone! Karis had been doing really well with sleeping but recently she started waking up more and not going to sleep as easily. I think this might be due to her reflux so hopefully the Zantac will help. They change so much at this age that it's hard to know what's going on. But she is doing really well!

Speaking of the big sister. Raegan has been going to school for a couple of weeks now and she absolutely loves it! She can't wait to go and she gives me a quick kiss and runs off when we get there. The only time she has cried has been at the end of the day on the first 2 days. The teachers thought she was crying because she wanted me but after the second day I got her to tell me what was wrong and she said she was sad becuase she wanted "to go back into school" and she wanted "her friends to come to her house". I guess that's better than her crying becuase of seperation anxiety. It makes it easier for mommy to let go knowing that she loves it so much! The teachers say she is doing really well and fitting right in. She has also been doing really well with going potty. She has only had a couple of accidents in the last month or so but most of the time she does great with telling us when she needs to go. We are so proud of our big girl!

Both girls are growing up so fast! We are enjoying every moment with them (even the difficult moments). And we are looking forward to having a nice quiet Christmas together with our little family!

First Day Of School

Raegan started school today! I can't believe she is already old enough to go to school by herself! We hadn't planned on putting her in school this year but after Karis came along I began to see the need for her to start something outside of the house. I had been trying to do some homeschool with her but it was just to hard to keep up with it with a new baby. I called around and the schools that I was looking at for next year didn't have any openings but I found out about a playschool and when I called they had an opening since one child just moved. We decided to sign her up and she was so excited when we told her. She couldn't wait to get out her "pack pack" and her "lunch pack pack" and get it ready to take to school. When I dropped her off I was a little nervous but Raegan didn't seem to be nervous at all. We met the teachers and then when they called the kids back she gave me a quick kiss and ran off. When I picked her up they said she did great. She only cried at the end because she didn't understand why all of the kids were lining up to leave. She told me she had a great time and she couldn't wait to go back! We are so proud of our big girl!