First Christmas

We are back home after a whirlwind first Christmas for Blake. We celebrated early with Grandma and Grandpa (a.k.a. Pappaw) here Tuesday night before we left town. Blake wasn't really sure what to think about all the presents, boxes, and paper everywhere, but I would have to say that her favorite thing of all of the great presents she received was her little bendable Pinnochio. She's chewing on it in this picture!
Then, after Tim worked a half-day on Wednesday, we set off for Frisco to see Grandpa and Grammy. It was Blake's first big trip in her new car seat! But, like her other seat, after about 4ish hours in it, she had had enough! If I had my way, I would squish Texas to make everyone closer together.
Grammy and Grandpa put Blake to bed that night so Tim and I could go see Bleu Edmondson (love him!) at Hank's with Tim's brother Juan and some friends. Great concert!!

Here is our cutie pie in her Christmas Eve outfit. Yes, it's Polo and yes, Tim picked it out. ha ha! We attempted at wearing her cute new shoes for Christmas Eve mass, and they stayed on her part of the time...
A small blizzard blew in that day. (I know if you're used to snow it was nothing, but for me, it was a blizzard!) Mass at 5:00 was so crowded as everyone was trying to go before the roads got worse. P.S. We are still working on Blake's inside voice! We always try to sit in the back of church and luckily we were forced to stand by the door it was so crowded.

Then we celebrated Christmas at Tim's Grandma Petra's. Let's just say that there was lots of good Mexican food and lots of family! We had to leave before gifts because of the roads, Blake's overdue bedtime, and partial meltdown.
Christmas morning Blake went to scope out the tree and did notice that many more presents appeared than were there before. Can we say spoiled??
Blake was showered with gifts from grandparents, great-grandparents, family friends, aunts, uncles, and her mom and dad! We saved our gifts to open on Christmas day. Then that night we had a little Christmas party with friends and played an "As-seen-on-TV" white elephant game. Thanks for whoever brought what I received. ha ha.

All in all, a great Christmas, but also tiring!!! I am glad to have a week off to settle back in, do laundry, unpack, and organize all our new stuff. Thank you to everyone for all our gifts and memories.

9 Month Check Up

Well, I am off from teaching for 2 weeks (yay!) but am not feeling so great. Hopefully I feel better before we go to Frisco to visit Tim's family. So sorry, but no picture today! Blake had her 9 month well check this morning, and I was looking forward to her first visit with no shots, but she ended up getting her seasonal flu booster and the H1N1 shot, which she'll get a booster for in 30 days. Blake has gained 2 pounds and grown 2 inches since her 6 mo. checkup, which puts her at 30 inches long (97%) and 19 pounds 4 ounces (80%). I prepared myself for the fussiness and slight fever Blake usually gets from shots... but knock on wood- so far she's so happy! My little monkey is crawling all over the house these days, pulling up on everything, "walking" down the couch using her hands, and getting into any and everything! And I wouldn't want it any other way!

9 months

Oh.My.Gosh! Really 9 months already??
Today's conversation went something like this...
"Mom, don't you know by know I'm not going to sit still???"
"How about we read this book instead?"
"Ok, I'll stay in the chair! WOO HOO!"

Blake is such a busy child! (I think every mother of a young child says that...) But she really is. She is crawling now, and really fast at that! She loves to look at the Christmas tree and pull the ornaments off! So only the top 3/4 of our tree is decorated. And just today as we were all three sitting in the living room, I looked over at Blake who was STANDING, holding onto the couch with one hand while waving the other hand around. I can't believe my baby is standing! Slow down life!!!!
Blake still wears size 12 month clothes, size 3 diapers, and weighs about 19 pounds. She has 5 teeth, with the 6th one about to poke through any second now. We go for her 9 month check up on the 21st, so I will update with more specifics then.

All I Want for Christmas...

is never to see Santa again! ha ha.

Needless to say, Blake did not enjoy meeting Santa this weekend. So, you can think I'm terrible if you want to, but I really wanted to have Blake's picture taken with Santa (and hopefully will every year). And really all kids have the crying-in-Santa's-lap pictures and then later the happy-to-tell-Santa-what-they-want pictures, right? I know I've seen my brother's, sister's and my own!

We tried to get used to Santa first, and Blake spent some time just looking at him and not knowing what to think. I really thought she was going to do okay. But just as soon as we stepped back to get out of the frame, she starting SCREAMING and CRYING! Poor baby! The photographer actually asked us if we wanted to take the other couple of frames so we could have one to pick from. Yeah right, ha ha! We just said we'd take it, scooped Blake up and checked that off the lists of things to do. Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving Break

Some of the things I did on my first Thanksgiving break
by Blake.

My mommy had the week off from school and my daddy had a couple extra days off, too, so we spent a lot of time together! We had lots of family in town to celebrate Thanksgiving, and I had so much fun. I like getting to explore new things now that I can crawl everywhere. I'm getting really fast! Here's some pictures from the last week.
I read the newspaper,
did some laundry,
did a little hot-tubbin',
had lunch with my cousin Santiago,
spent some time jumping around,
and got to see lots of family! Here I am with my Great-Grandpa Hollis and Great-Grandma Dorothy.

Movers & Shakers

Cousin Santiago brought his jumper with him this visit and after watching him have so much fun in it, Blake decided she would jump, too. (Sorry the video is sideways!) I think we're going to need to get a jumper for our house!


Also, I guess I'll go ahead and say Blake is a crawler now. She still falls every once in awhile, but she's pretty good at crawling! She's fast too.

Update

Doesn't a face like this just brighten your day? It does mine! I don't have a lot to talk about today, but I just thought I would put a couple cute pictures up. These were taken last week when Tim's parents were here. Grammy got to babysit Blake all week while I worked and Grandpa came in Thursday night through the weekend. Big thanks to them! Blake had lots of fun with her grandparents! Here she is sitting by Grammy.
And bonus... Blake got lots of new bows, and has enough hair to wear them without a headband or anything. I think she looks like such a big girl!
Blake has been a little fussy due to teething lately. It's her top front right tooth coming in. I keep looking to see if it's all the way through yet, and this morning when I looked I got a surprise! Two new teeth are through! The top front right one I knew about, and another tooth on the top next to the top left front tooth. This morning we were playing, and Blake starting making her "I'm-getting-tired" noises, and the next thing I knew she just layed her head down and went to sleep. Did I mention I'm home from school again today??? No complaints from me!!! I took yesterday off as a personal day to pretend that I'm a stay-at-home mom, and today the sitter's daughter is sick, so I am home again.

8 Months

Today's conversation went something like this...

"Mom, I'm way too busy to sit still!"
"Really? You wouldn't rather watch me crawl?""Mama, I'm outta here!" then as she spots the camera case nearby and grabs it....
"Oooooooh! pretty!""Nnnnummummuummmmuuummm" (Check out the eyebrows!!! ha ha)

Blake Michelle is 8 months old today. We think she is the prettiest little girl ever, with the spunkiest personality. She is quite entertaining!
At 8 months, she is wearing mostly 12 month size clothing, (for the length only... she is still fitting in size 9 month stuff but the pants are so short!) and is in size 3 diapers. Blake can roll and scoot to get anywhere she wants to go. She is just about crawling, being able to rock back and forth and move her legs or arms forward and then falling. As soon as she gets both arms and legs going at the same time, there will be no stopping her.
Blake now has 3 1/2 teeth (ha ha), really 4. Her two bottom front teeth are in, along with the top left front tooth. Her top right front tooth is just peeking through this week (so count that as the 1/2!) She is chewing/gnawing on everything she can get her hands on more than ever: toys, fingers, Daddy's watch, and even a TV tray leg!
Blake can pull up to her knees, and from the crawling position, she can just about push backwards into sitting position. She can say "da-da," "ma-ma" and other consonant sounds like "na, ba...." She loves to jump, blow bubbles and raspberries, make gargling noises, snort and crinkle her nose, pull on long hair, give hugs and kisses, be outside, dogs, peek-a-boo, sing along as others sing, and listen to music (especially music videos on CMT). Blake is a really good eater, and is starting to grab for the spoon to feed herself. I'm sure there is so much more, but I'll try to update more in the coming days. That's Blake in a nutshell so far!

26

Didn't I get the best present this year?? I have a beautiful, energetic, funny daughter who lights up my life! Happy 26th Birthday to me! Tim and Blake gave me a wonderful birthday (and weekend). We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast (we had our celebration dinner last night) and will be going out to Clear Springs Cafe with my parents tonight. I received a sweet card from Tim and Blake, the Snow White DVD (because I'm building a Disney DVD collection for Blake to enjoy one day!), some new clothes and a new baseball cap. I cleaned up pretty good!

Also, Blake gave me a wonderful present all by herself!! As of Friday, she can now say (or rather babble over and over) "ma-ma". I love it!

Trick or Treat

... Give me something good to eat! How about a cute little candy corn?

Blake enjoyed her first Halloween today! We also mixed in a few errands, and a little birthday stuff for me. We went to Oscar's for breakfast, and ran a few errands once Blake woke up from her morning nap, including a new battery for my car. Yay!! We did a little shopping, Blake got her first pair of Ugg(like) boots - they are definitely not brand name, but they are definitely so cute! So now her feet are set for the winter. We also went to Luigi's for my birthday dinner (which we had to have tonight because it isn't open on Sundays and my birthday is tomorrow). Texas Tech also beat Kansas today!! All in all- a great day!

After dinner, we went over to Greg and Tori's house for the boys to watch the UT game, since Greg is a Longhorn. The little girls enjoyed playing together while the mommy's enjoyed a little wine, talking and playing with the babies. Isn't Geneva a cute strawberry?? We had a total of FIVE kids trick or treat.... sad! But we did see lots more on our "trick or treat walk" around the neighborhood. We just took the girls out for a stroll to see all the neighborhood happenings. Blake was "dishausted!"

Lately

Cute as a button!
Look who's starting to pull up. Blake can grab onto my clothing while I'm sitting next to her (or whoever is) and pull herself up. She can get herself up high enough to get onto her knees from the sitting position.

Blake also currently has 3 teeth! One top tooth made its first appearance today joining the bottom two already poking through. And yes, she loves her daddoo! She can pick it up herself and put it in her own mouth!

Sharing is Caring

Look at these cutie pies! Blake and her friend Geneva had a good time playing together this weekend. It was the first time that they could both sit up by themselves while playing. Geneva started out with a big UT bow on a headband on her cute little head, but Blake snatched it off right away. Maybe because of the color??Blake:"What are you talking about? It wasn't me!" Geneva:"That wasn't very nice Blake!"
They continued playing... pretty much every toy Geneva picked up and was playing with, Blake would reach for and take from her. We're really going to have to work on that! Blake will have to learn the importance of sharing with her friends.

While the babies played, the adults had a full day of college football. Grammy, Grandpa, Tori and Greg (Geneva's parents), and Rene all came over to watch with Tim and me. (Blake and I snuck off for a little bit for an afternoon nap). Both babies were glad that their daddies' teams won so they were both in good moods!

Here's the best seat in the house for watching the games!

Messy

We recently tried whole grain mixed cereal because I thought it would be good for Blake to have whole grains as long as she's eating cereal. She loves single grain rice cereal and single grain oatmeal, so I thought we would transition into whole grain. Well Blake had other thoughts. While I was feeding her the cereal, or trying to, she hit the spoon and the cereal splattered onto the highchair tray. So Blake being as curious as can be, immediately went for it.
So I made the best of the situation and dumped the rest of the cereal out too. Blake had alot of fun smearing the cereal all around, on the tray, her face... a little might have even made it to her tummy.

When Blake doesn't like a food, she either refuses to open her mouth for the spoon, and turns her head away, or she makes a yucky face and pushes the food out with her tongue making gagging noises. Very dramatic! So at least the cereal made a fun toy!

Swine Flu

We think Blake might be getting swine flu. She's showing some symptoms.... What do you think?





















Ha ha! Isn't Pappaw funny?? He came up with this idea when I was over picking her up yesterday. It made me laugh!

7 Months

Blake Michelle is 7 months old today. Sorry that it's been awhile since you've heard from us. I was sick last week and didn't make it around to blogging. We had a quick, but fun weekend with my sister Katie and nephew Santiago who were in town for her 10 year high school reunion. And yay!! Texas Tech finally found a quarterback (in my book, it's Taylor who??), so hopefully we can keep winning now....
But back to Miss Blake!
I have been really excited about Blake's first Halloween. I'm not especially big into the holiday itself, but I'm excited to start traditions as our family of three! So today we set off to the pumpkin patch at St. Luke's for some picture taking. (In future years, I know she will have fun running around, playing and picking out pumpkins like the other kids there). It was a drizzly, dreary day, but it was dry enough for our short adventure. Blake didn't know what to think of all the pumpkins!
She is really into feeling different textures, especially if she can scratch it. Today she really wanted to touch the hay!
Blake attracted some fans as her photo shoot was taking place. One sweet little girl kept asking us questions about her, and liked touching her bow! Isn't she cute all decked out in Halloween attire?

Blake continues to be a very happy baby! She is full of smiles and laughter, unless she really needs you to know something otherwise. She is snorting alot these days, and scrunches her nose up when she smiles. Blake is pretty generous with her hugs and kisses once you've earned them. She also loves to touch faces and pull on hair. Crawling is still being practiced... she can get up to her knees, rock back and forth a little, and then fall. It will be very soon I'm sure. She is also good at grasping things and bringing them to her mouth, especially her daddoo! And she's a really good eater (which she comes by naturally from both her mom and dad! sorry Blake!), and she has two bottom teeth in so far.