Our Christmas Traditions

Thought it would be fun to compile a list of our family traditions.  We honestly don't have a ton but are trying to start new ones now that we have Molly Anne.  At the same time, I don't want to be so busy that we don't enjoy the season!  But here are some things we'll do or have done this year:

1.  Drive around and look at lights. 

2.  Make fudge and deliver to neighbors - this goes back to my Mom's Mom - the original Nannie!

3.  Family dinner on Christmas Eve.

4.  Kevin wants to start reading Twas the Night Before Christmas to Molly Anne this year on Christmas Eve. 

5.  Advent Calendar - we read one of the mini books each night.  Thank you Auntie Sarah for this!

6.  Christmas pajamas and clothes throughout December

7.  Picking out a Christmas tree together.  Maybe next year we'll pick the correct size! ;)

8.  The Polar Express train around our tree - and reading the book while watching it go round and round.  We've watched it go around but we need to read the book!

9.  Same breakfast every Christmas morning - sausage, egg and cheese casserole and cinnamon buns.

10.  Set up Dickens Village - Mom collected the real Dickens Village pieces from years ago and has generously passed them down to us.    

11.  Christmas carols on the stereo at home and I love the station I made on Pandora - Christmas in Dixie - all country Christmas.  This plays in my car constantly!

12.  Go uptown with our friends Gigi and Camille to visit the Ritz gingerbread house and see the Bears at Founders Hall. 

13.  Visit with Santa

Once Molly Anne gets older I bet we will do even more fun things!  I'd love to take her to see the Nutcracker and I also want to take her to New York in December. It's magical up there.  

Tell me any traditions your family does!

Five on Friday - Festivities!

Just a few fun festivities from the week!  And pictures of my girl.  

1.  The band is going pretty well.  She had her two week check up on Thursday and her head has already rounded out.  I've written a draft post telling about how we got where we are on the band.

2.  This pooch has been very busy playing parent to Molly Anne this week!

3.  Love this babydoll.  She was so smiley yesterday morning!

4.  I hosted neighborhood bunco last night.  

Mills of course had his bow tie on to see his girlfriend Sarah.

I made a Christmasy cocktail - champagne with a splash of cranberry and add mint leaves and cranberries.  I used the plastic cups from Swoozies that have cute sayings on them in lieu of washing glasses all night.  

We gift swapped and I can honestly say that everything was so good.  I would have been happy with anything there and I don't think I have ever said that at a gift swap before!  I gave Smashbox lip glosses and philosophy soap and I received go-vino wine glasses and a bottle of wine.  Other gifts:  Kate Spade stud earrings, blanket scarf and a corksicle mug. 

This boy hung all night with us.  

Kevin had gone out with a buddy and when he got home he hung out with us.  The last girls left at 12:45am!  I was tired this morning.  Running off of three hours of sleep! ;)  Today is FRIDAY!

5.  We have a festive little Saturday planned which I'll look forward to sharing about on Monday!  

Enjoy your weekend!

First Foods

Honestly I have no clue what I'm doing with this feeding Molly Anne real food thing. The doctor told me at 4 months old to start real food and give her an ounce a day.  At 5 months I should give her one ounce at lunch and one ounce near dinner.  And when we started at 4 months, give her the same food for four days in a row to be sure she isn't allergic to it.  And every four days swap fruit then veggie then fruit then veggie.  So we did. Banana, avocado, applesauce, butternut squash, pears, sweet potato, green beans, peas/carrots. 

I started with the first three which were easy because the doc said put it in a garlic press. She said it's the perfect amount and when you squeeze it through, it's the perfect consistency.  I grabbed a munchkin baby spoon and put a bib (link is my favorite) on her and went to town. 

It was easy to get frustrated at first because I wanted her to get it in her so she would be full. But in reality, they're learning so much at the same time - consistency of the food, something new in their mouth, how to swallow food.  It took Molly Anne a few weeks to get the hang of it.  I also made the mistake of feeding her as she sat in the bumbo. Bad move - she couldn't work hard to sit up plus learn how to eat. Now I feed her as she lounges in her Mamaroo or bouncy seat (not bouncing of course).  It's much better!

The sweet potato and butternut squash I roasted on a Saturday when I was doing other stuff.  I had bought this container pictured below which are one ounce little containers to use to freeze the food. I did a batch of each.  

 

This past weekend I roasted a bag of whole carrots (after I peeled the outside off) then threw them in my blender with a little water.  I did the same with a bag of steamed peas.  

Ms. Becky said she wouldn't like plain fresh peas so to mix with carrots.  See below. I filled the containers with 1/2 peas. 

Then topped with the carrots. 

Once each batch has frozen, I pop out the cubes and throw them in a labeled bag to put in the freezer.  

When she gets her food, I get a cube out, nuk it for 30 seconds in the microwave and done!  

Also, read April's post here for ideas on feeding your baby!  Her readers also posted comments on her post that shares how they do things.  Thank you April for your inspiration!!  

Christmas Card 2015

Linking up with Faith today to share our Christmas card that we took while down in Pawleys Island, SC for Thanksgiving!

Here's the front:

Here's the back:

Merry Christmas to all!

The Bottle Process

This is the process we've done since Molly Anne was born.  This is basically for ready made formula bottles. 

1.  Let's start when they're dirty because when you get them from Amazon or wherever, they're dirty.  Undo all of the parts and throw them in your biggest pot.   As she goes throughout her day and bottles are used, we rinse the bottles and throw them in there. They wait until there are 5 or 6 then we fill the pot full of water and boil them.  This was a big load.  

2.  After they're done boiling (and I've done 5 other things while they're going) we take them out and throw them on the grass drying rack.  I used a paper towel this day because I was doing 9 bottles.  I usually only have 5 at a time and they all fit on the grass.

3.  Once dry, I assemble the top three pieces together but I didn't have time to fill the bottles yet.  

4. I came back later and filled all of the bottles with 7 ounces of tap water. 

5.  Screw on the tops 

6.  And you're finished!  Lots of bottles ready to roll whenever they're used over the next couple of days.  Fill with formula and instant bottle!

I keep her formula in a large Tupperware container.  We keep one in the kitchen with some bottles that already have the correct number of water ounces and same thing in her bedroom. 

Then whenever she needs a bottle, I just add the correct number of scoops to however much water is in there, shake it and done!

Here are some in her room with that container. 

The process is really easy. We usually boil bottles when I make dinner so it takes no extra time.  Or Kevin does them when he's home for lunch.  Yes, I've forgotten they were in there boiling and the water has gotten low but I usually leave the microwave fan on or something to remind me. And technically we have enough bottles to go two days without cleaning but we like everything clean!  

A couple things I thought of after I wrote this:

1.  I have heard of girls making big pitchers and leaving it in their fridge.  Maybe this worked great for them but I didn't like the fact that we would have to have a microwave to warm the bottle from freezing cold to room temp or warm. I like to be on the go and thought I could always use room temp bottled water if in a jam. 

2.  Molly Anne has never had a warm bottle. I know, I'm a terrible mother. But she had the pre-made formula containers in the hospital and those were room temp so this is all she knows. 

Okay share how you do it!!  We could all use new ideas!

Company Party

This weekend we had our company party.  Usually it's at a restaurant in Southpark but this year we jumped on buses and headed to a small town in South Carolina where someone at our office has some land and a few buildings!  It is GORGEOUS.

Inside the barn.  PS this is my new favorite shirt and it's on major sale (under $50).  I may have ordered two more colors yesterday.  Please look at this animal!

Red Rocks catered it.  It was truly a special evening.

We rode the buses back to Charlotte and all my co-workers and their spouses went out to a couple places in Southpark. Team bonding!  We got back home at 1:15am.  Whoa. Molly Anne stayed with Kevin's parents and Mills got loved on by Smother.  It was a long time to be gone but such a special Christmas party!  

I was up early Saturday morning to go get my girl. We made fudge, played an went out to an early dinner.  Mills was on guard of course when I was feeding Molly Anne at her bedtime.  His toys are always spread all over her room! 

Sunday morning - hanging out with our love bucket and we went to Sams Club for some major shopping.  We got so much stuff for the next couple of weeks.  I'm hosting my neighborhood bunco this week and we are having family dinner at our house over Christmas.  

These two weren't thrilled I was trying to get them to pose!

Kevin went out with a couple guys to watch the Panthers game so this queenie and I did things around the house and she had a long nap while I made more fudge, did laundry, steamed some of my shirts and cleaned up.  

So awesome that the Panthers are now 13-0!  Crazy!

Molly Anne was up a lot last night.  I'm thinking it's a combo of teething and a growth spurt.  The Wonder Weeks app said she just started another leap so maybe that's it.  I can't wait until she can tell me what is wrong! 

Five on Friday - Random

I'm spastic today so here are five quick things:

1.  I changed the setting on my phone this week to make text messages be on silent.  It has been AMAZING.  Now I just get them when I look at my phone instead of hearing ding ding all day.  My emails have always been on silent because otherwise my phone would be constant all day.  Now the only sound my phone makes is when it rings.  Woohoo. 

2.  Speaking of my phone.  I've been on an unsubscribe from emails binge.  I am so tired of getting every retailer email.  So this week when I got those emails, I just clicked unsubscribe.  

3.  Several posts coming up that I've been meaning to share - an update on Molly Anne's band (helmet), an update on how I'm doing real food for her and and lastly sharing the bottle process of how they get cleaned and filled every day.  

4.  Last night I put The Polar Express train around our tree.  I need to get some batteries for it but I can't wait to see Molly Anne's reaction.  Mills will freak as he's done every year at my parent's house.  He flipped last night when I got it out of the box haha.  I don't think he liked the styrofoam sound.  He's so wimpy.

5.  We got our Christmas cards on Wednesday and somehow they got stuffed, stamped with our return address and stamps put on all that night.  All 135.  I'm excited for people to get them starting today and I'll be sharing it on here on December 16th for Faith's Christmas Carousel.  

Happy Weekend!