Getting Ready for Christmas

We put our tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Jolie loves to look at it!

She went to visit Santa at the mall, but was not impressed.  She is very uncertain of strangers right now, even nice ones that bring presents. 

Jolie has a couple of Christmas outfits that I love, and I am making sure to get lots of wear out of them this month!  This is my favorite one, and it's even better because her little friend, Aubree, has it too!

Aren't they cute?? Hard to get a picture of, but very cute!

 
Most of the pictures we took looked like this.  The girls just couldn't keep their hands off each other!

We have our first of six family Christmas celebrations this weekend.  You'll be seeing lots of Christmas pictures from us!

Ten Months

Jolie turned ten months last week.  I cannot believe that we are approaching her first birthday!  It has been the fastest ten months of my life!

Jolie happened to be ten months on Mommy's birthday :)

Jolie definitely keeps us laughing right now!  She gets sillier everyday.  She loves to laugh and make others laugh!  She has enjoyed fake coughing/laughing for months, but has recently started using her fake laugh as a tool to get the attention of strangers.  Jolie will often "laugh" while we are in line to check out at the store or at a restaurant until someone around her makes eye contact with her...then she turns on the charm and flirts.  Jolie's new favorite things to say are "wassat?" (what's that/) and "whosat?" (who's that?)  She points at things and people and says "Wassat? Wassat?" over and over.  She especially loves pictures and we can't go down the hall without looking and pointing at the pictures and asking who they all are.  Jolie also says "uh uh" (uh oh) while dropping her cup or toys.  This has become one of her favorite mealtime games. 

She is still a great eater and is eating mostly finger foods.  She loves most fruit, especially bananas, blueberries, and pears.  Her favorite food is vanilla wafers!  When we get the box out of the cabinet she starts dancing in her chair and squealing with excitement.  It's pretty cute! 

Jolie crawls everywhere and is getting very fast.  She loves to be chased and giggles as she hurries away from us.  She gets into EVERYTHING and loves to try to go places she is not allowed.  She wants to get in the bathroom so badly and gets mad when we shut the door and spoil her fun.  She pulls up on all our furniture and can cruise along the edge of the couch or her crib. 

Cole and I are so excited about her first Christmas!

Nine Months

Jolie is a big nine months now! 

 

People often say, "Where did your baby go?  She looks like a little girl!"  Jolie is most definitely still a baby and I want to keep her that way as long as I can!  She is starting to look like a little girl with her long hair and her little body slimming down though.  At her nine month check-up, Jolie weighed 18 lbs 4 oz  (45th percentile) and was 28 3/4 inches long (80th.) We are realizing that Jolie inherited her mommy and daddy's allergies, poor girl!  We made our first trip to the doctor for something other than a check-up recently due to her snotty little nose.  A week later, at her check-up she had her first ear infection.  The last couple of weeks she's been very clingy and having trouble napping since she hasn't felt her best.  Jolie is finally starting to feel like herself again and is sleeping better.  We are all happy about that!  She now has six teeth, and you are really starting to see them when she smiles. 

Jolie is crawling all over the place.  She is fast and tries to get into everything! I absolutely love it when she crawls into my lap to sit with me.  Jolie is also pulling up on anything she can and once I've seen her let go and stand by herself briefly. 

One day Jolie had a blast chasing the Roomba.  Please excuse her unsnapped onesie and lack of pants.

 

Jolie can say "dada," "mama," "yay," and sometimes will say "bye bye" and "shhh."  I'm not sure she knows what any of those mean, but she will repeat us when we say them.

We are having lots of fun trying new foods now.  Jolie is getting better at feeding herself, and it is one of the cutest things.  She looks so big sitting in her highchair eating.  Some of her favorite new foods are Gerber meat sticks (she will NOT eat pureed meat), crackers, yogurt.  She still loves all fruit too.  Jolie likes veggies...just not enough to put them in her mouth.  She eats them well when I feed them to her, but just stares at them on her tray. 

She's just perfect :)

Happy Halloween!

Jolie had a very fun first Halloween!  On Sunday evening, we went to the church Funival where we got to hang out with lots of Jolie's favorite people.

 

What a cute little cow!

 

Jolie is very blessed with lots of little friends at church.  Jolie got to see her buddy Jaxon.

 Jolie with sweet Harper

 

Jolie and little Aubree

Jolie also got to see her grandparents!

Uncle Jason and Aunt Rachel

I love this one!

Jolie LOVES Katie!  We told Katie that we need her every time we take Jolie's picture.  Jo always has a huge smile for Katie!

Jolie also always smiles for her cousins!  Here she is with Marlee and Lilly (and Aunt Rachel.) Beau was around somewhere, but we never got a picture.

 

The little cow on actual Halloween 

In cow position

 

Jolie trick-or-treated at her grandparents' houses.

 



 

Cole had a football game, so that was our next stop...in costume, of course!

 

Later, Jolie tried on Mommy's first Halloween costume.  She is missing the little witch hat, but still pretty cute!

 

 

Pumpkin Patch

Fall is my very favorite time of year, and going to pick out a pumpkin is one of my favortie fall things to do!  Despite her serious expressions, Jolie had fun at the pumpkin patch too. 

She inspected the pumpkins to help us find the perfect one.

September

September is always a busy month for us with football in full swing.  Jolie and I settled into a new routine once Cole started back to school the end of August.  Most of our morning started like this...

 

Jolie likes to spend a little time on her laptop while Mommy gets her breakfast ready.

 

Jolie was ready for another game!

I love this dress on her.  It was one of my first girly purchases before Jolie was born.

Poor Cole stays exhausted this time of year.  He fell asleep playing with Jolie one Saturday afternoon when he got in from work!

One pretty evening, we went to Chisolm park to play and feed the ducks. 

 

This was the most amazing, bright rainbow I've ever seen.  It was a double rainbow, and you could see both ends. 

This was on Cole's birthday.  Can you tell that she loves her daddy?

Jolie likes to meet with the QBs to give a little feedback after the games.   I love seeing her in the huddle with her daddy. 

I am so thankful that Jo LOVES going to football games!  I was worried that they would be hard on her since we are out so late at games and they are so loud, but she has the best time every Friday night!  We have lots of fun cheering for the Cards together!