Tessa is TEN months old!

Tess turned 10 months old on Christmas day. I still think the best Christmas present we got as a family was having Tess join our family this year, although I can't believe that she is almost a year old already. She is getting more and more personality every day. She just keeps us smiling! This is her cute little Christmas dress that Nanny bought for her- I loved it!!!
Look at that little cheeser grin. She has started to recognize when we are going to take her picture and she will scrunch up her face like this to smile for the camera. It is so dang cute!!!

Her brothers are still as enchanted as ever with their baby sister.

The bath tub is one of Tessa's favorite places to be. She loves to splash and play in the tub!

This was her first official present on Christmas Eve that she opened. She wasn't sure what to think of Christmas. She loved the paper and the treats but she hated the tree. She never once made her way to the tree to touch it and in fact would pull her hand away if we tried to make her touch it. Silly girl!

She finally got the hang of things after a few minutes....

She wasn't quite sure what to make of Santa Clause, at least she didn't cry but she DID grab his beard.

It was SO fun to have some girly wrapping paper (and toys) at our house this year!

As I guessed she loved the paper and the wrapping "stuff" more than the actual presents :)

Yum... doesn't that paper look delicious?

Once again- her cheesy little grin as she poses for the camera

Tessa and Nanny checking out her new doll that laughs

I still can't believe that she is getting SO big! She is so much fun- every day she gets cuter and cuter because of her special little personality. She does the funniest things. I was telling Ed how it's so weird that every little thing that a baby does is so cute. We can sit and watch her for hours because of the silly little faces she makes or the cute noises or her movements. I don't think I stopped to enjoy my other children quite as much and it makes me kind of sad. I know how fast they grow up so I am desperately trying to hold onto each and every moment of her life. She still refuses to crawl! We have tried and tried to work with her but she still gets up on all fours, rocks back and fourth and then flops forward, rolls to her back and digs her heels in and scoots backwards. It works... I guess. We sure hope she figures it out soon so her bald spot in the back of her hair can finally fill in! She claps all the time when we say "yay", she blows us kisses (when she wants to), she waves hi and bye bye and she has recently started playing peek-a-boo but she covers her ears instead of her eyes. It is so cute!!! She also has started pointing to and touching everything with her middle finger on her right hand. I don't know why she has chosen that particular finger but it's pretty funny to watch her play with a toy or touch one of the boys with her middle finger. She still sleeps tons! I have never had a baby who likes to sleep quite as much as her. The other day she took a nap from 9:3o to 3:15 and she has days like that quite often. She also sleeps 12-14 hours at night. All the sleep may be what makes her such a happy baby. She is one of the happiest little babies I've ever met. There is no way that someone can be sad or angry around her because she will give you the biggest smile and it will melt your heart- seriously! She still LOVES food- all kinds of food but she is still eating mostly baby food not table food yet. I've tried and tried plain table food but she prefers baby food and I'm happy to feed her still so it's okay with me. She also has her two bottom teeth now- or as we like to refer to them as her little razor blades. It seriously hurts when she bites!!! Also, her hair is getting out-of-control crazy so the only thing I can do is put it up every day. She used to be able to wear cute headbands and flowers and bows but her hair is a little too crazy for that right now. It just sticks straight up around the headband... one day hopefully she can wear them again. I know it's crazy to keep track of every little thing that she does but I don't want to forget anything- sorry you all have to listen to me ramble, although I guess you can skip all this if you don't care!!

Christmas Day

This picture was actually on Christmas Eve. Our tradition is to open new pajamas on Christmas Eve. I just loved this picture of all my kids lined up ready to rip open a present. This was actually Tess's very first time opening anything!
The stockings on Christmas morning. There's always lots of fun surprises in our stockings.

I think Daddy looks tired!

A picture of the BOMB that went off in our family room! I think we were only about half-way through here... yikes!

I knew Tess's favorite thing would be the wrapping paper!

It's so cute... It's like Where is Waldo? but instead it's Where is Tess?

This was Christmas up at Nanny and Papa's house. We got spoiled as usual. I am so excited I got the Willow Tree Nativity set. I can't wait to put it up next year!

This is kind of a picture of some of the family. I could kick myself- we were actually ALL finally together as a family and I didn't get even one picture. I think we were having too much fun laughing and playing games.

Every year I stress myself out about Christmas; Did I buy enough for the kids? will everyone like what I got them? Then there's the parties and the wrapping and the shipping and the baking and then it's all over in an hour on Christmas morning. But I know that none of that stuff really matters. What really matters is why we celebrate Christmas. Christ is the real reason for Christmas and I am thankful to have a testimony of His birth and Atonement. Once I get past all the holiday stressers I enjoy the holidays and am so thankful to have an awesome family to spend time with! Merry Christmas~

Christmas Eve

Every year we spend Christmas Eve with Ed's family. We do white elephant gift exchanges, let the kids run and play, eat lots of food and Santa even comes for a visit! I think Tegen thinks he's too big to sit on Santa's lap... what do you think?
At least this year he didn't personally ask Santa for an I-pod touch (although it made his list again this year).

Talen LOVES it when Santa stops by for a visit. He gets SO excited!!!

This was Tessa's first experience with Santa and she didn't even cry. I was impressed. She pretty much just looked at him like what is on your face? And I'm pretty she grabbed the beard a couple of times.

There were several rounds of Lightening.

This was the kids White Elephant Gift Exchange....

The Adult White Elephant Gift Exchange gets funnier and cruder every year. This was a Red Neck Briefcase that Damon is sporting...

We got a lobster.... that was still ALIVE!!!

I think the funniest thing this year was the Mankini wheel. It was seriously hilarious. It had all the men in the family's faces so you could turn the wheel to see what each man would look like with a "mankini". There were even some famous faces on there- like Barack Obama. It was SO funny!!!

Ah.... the mullet and the spiked wig. LOVE it!

I didn't get pictures of every funny white elephant on here, although there were some good ones. The elephant mask made another appearance (don't ask), and there were tampon angel tree ornaments and more. It was another hilarious night. Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with next year! Next it was off to get the kiddo's to bed so Santa could come hide our presents.

Random family pictures

These are just some different shots of the family taken during the holidays. Are my kids cute or what? I'm just sayin'....
She is such a happy baby!

I love this picture!

We babysat our nephews and niece for the night. I'm thinking Tess was done with pictures at this point ha ha! But she absolutely loves her cousin Alyssa. They had fun playing together. I think Tess was just happy to have another girl in the house for a couple of days.

This looks says it all.... I wonder how much sugar he had up to that point?

Ugly Holiday Sweater Party!

We went to a friend's house for a Christmas Party- an Ugly Holiday Sweater Party- in fact. It was an entire night full of side aching laughter. The white elephant gifts were hysterical. We gave a pair of MaxiFoam Slippers all decorated up and Evan actually wore them. It was too funny!
This was a fun game where you had partners (our spouses) and you had to take a pair of nylons and several balloons. The object was to blow the balloons up, stuff them in the leg openings and get them on your head as "reindeer antlers" the fastest. Somehow I ended up as the only girl to have antlers. It was pretty funny though!

This was first and second place for Ugly Sweater.... cute right? I'm thinking they should wear them all the time!!

Wow.... I have no words.....

What a fun night! Lots of good food and laughter with good friends!

Tessa is NINE months old!!!

We love this little girl so much! She has completely captivated our hearts. Look at these eyes- they are still the strangest color. They are a mix of greenish/brownish with a blue outer rim. We are still waiting to see the true color of her eyes.
She is such a smiley happy baby. She literally lights up when she grins. She makes everyone around her happy when she flashes one of those toothless little grins. What an angel!

These are four of her biggest fans....

I loved this picture. The boys were playing on the laptop and little Missy May was right there with them. Thankfully they are pretty patient with her and they let her get away with a lot. I wonder how long it will continue?

At nine months she is getting so big and so fun!! She now has long crazy hair and can no longer wear her cute little headbands with giant flowers and bows on them BUT... I do get to play with her hair and put it in little piggie tails and pony tails. I love it- but I'm not sure she loves it so much. I can't wait until she can wear the headbands again when her hair is a little bit longer. I wish I knew how much she weighs but I'm guessing she weighs around 17 pounds. She has the chunkiest little thighs with rolls on them. I love it! I've never had a baby keep rolls on them for so long. Everyone makes fun of her fat little legs but they are SO cute!!!! She rolls all over the house now and scoots all over on her back but the little stinker refuses to crawl. She gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth but won't actually crawl. I'm desperately trying to keep her little but she is stubbornly growing up and I can't do anything to stop it! She finally cut one bottom tooth. It took forever to pop through her gums because we thought it was going to come a couple of months ago. She still loves food and is not picky at all!! The new foods I introduced this month were- beef and noodles, blueberries, mango's, pineapple, strawberries, Lima beans, cauliflower, mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables. She will pretty much eat anything you put in front of her-which could be contributing to the thighs :) Her newest trick is waving hi and bye bye- it's so cute! She also does the funniest thing- when she says mama it's always when she's whining or crying and she says dada when she's happy. I'm not sure what that says about me but it's still cute. I think it's because she knows I will come rescue her when she's not happy. She is also becoming very vocal. She likes to squeal and yell and make lots of noise just to hear herself which makes for a very LONG sacrament meeting at church. I say this every month but I seriously can't believe how fast time flies. Tessa is the most precious, sweetest little angel ever and we are still so grateful to have her in our lives!

Thanksgiving Breakfast...

Ed comes from a family of 9 children which means- 9 in-laws and quite a few grand kids . It gets hard for everyone to be around for the holidays while trying to accommodate in-law families too so last year we decided to do a Thanksgiving breakfast instead of dinner. We had it at our house again this year. Everyone brings something to contribute to the breakfast and the best part- the men did the cooking! It's so fun- I am very blessed to have awesome in-laws!!!
Ha ha- we were comparing babies and Aunt Triska decided to lay down next to them :)

We had four babies born in 8 months this year. I am so happy that Tessa will have cousins her age to play with... even if they are all boys!

We had a delicious, fabulous dinner at my parents house and had a great time playing games and laughing. I felt so blessed this Thanksgiving as I have MUCH to be thankful for! I am so very thankful for my family- they are the best! I am grateful I have a warm home and food to eat. And with this crazy economy I am extremely grateful that Ed and I both have great jobs. I asked each child what they are thankful for and Tegen said our home, Tray said food and Talen said his mom and dad. Wow! I am impressed that they didn't say the Wii and all their toys. Maybe, just maybe, we are doing something right as parents. Next it was on to Black Friday shopping and putting up the holiday decorations... bring on Christmas!!!