Life as of late.

Nothing new or exciting has really been happening. We're still anxiously waiting to hear back from grad schools. And I've decided that grad school applications are ridiculous and it makes me want to puke. They charge way too much money and take way too long to get back to you. It's really annoying. And that's about all that's really been going on for us.
Mr. E is seriously growing by the second. Over the past 3 1/2 weeks he's figured out something new everyday. Over Christmas he learned "so big." Now he's on to army crawling, with the occasional actual crawl, pulling himself up, walking (assisted of course), clapping, hitting his head while clapping, doing a froggy swimming motion, eating more finger foods, holding his own cracker, screaming if we're eating and he's not, NOT sleeping through the night, playing and interacting with us, and not wanting to sit still...at all. It's been so fun to see him grow and progress. But does he really have to grow up so fast?!

He loves to help me bake

Loves standing now

And to crawl-ish

He's also turned into a little cuddler, and by cuddler I mean he'll rest his head on our shoulder, or bunny boo, for 3-8 seconds


And I thought this was cute. He woke up from his nap and I noticed he had a little hand print on his cheek where he must have been laying on it.


Every Christmas my mom's sister sends her family these awesome boxes filled with goodies. And my mom was nice enough to give me her leftover box so I could transform it into a toy box for Mr.E. Well, after 3 weeks of just staring at it, I FINALLY bought the necessities to finish it. And I'm quite proud of it if I do say so myself :)




Oh, I guess I should add that this was just a plain wood box. I added the hinges, and covered the lid and inside with fabric.
Hope everyone is enjoying their January..it's almost over!! What? How did that happen? Can you believe I'm already planning Mr.E's FIRST BIRTHDAY!!! Ahhhh! I'm freaking out.
Oh, and we finally got some snow!

Edit

Remember when I was rejoicing at the fact that Mr.E was sleeping through the night? Well I jinxed the hell out of that. Ever since I posted that, he's been waking up 2-3 times before 3 am and then after 3 am he continues to wake up crying every hour until 7:30am comes around. It's totally awesome. I feel like zombie mom all day long and dread going to bed because I know I'll be awake in just a couple hours or less. I'm hoping this is teething so I know an "end" is near and he'll go back to sleeping a 5 hour stretch and then a 7 hr stretch. Fingers crossed a little toothy pokes through soon!

Christmas, it really is the most wonderful time of the year

Am I the only one sad to see this time of the year go? It went by way too fast.
This year we were fortunate enough to fly out to CA to spend Christmas with my parents. My sister (sadly) could not be there and we missed her terribly. It was a very nice, relaxing, warm (75 degrees), 10 days there. And it ended way too soon. Our trip was filled with hikes, movies, Christmas sight seeing, food, family, and more food. Can we rewind to 2 weeks ago?
Mr. E's first Christmas was a good one. He got a couple of new toys, clothes and BINKIES! Man, i never thought I'd be so happy for binkies. I'm so excited for him to get older and to really get into it. But at the same time...can he just stay my little baby?
Here are a few highlights from this wonderful Christmas season...are you ready for picture overload?! I'm warning you, there are a lot!

Cute cousins making hand and foot print ornaments




We met up with one of my best friends and Mr. E's future best friend

My mom's house always looks amazing during Christmas. Although I was sad she got rid of her giant tree, her 2 new trees were still just as beautiful.





I found these little "beauties" hanging on one of them. If you look really hard you can see that that's me inside those little ornaments.


We went to Claim Jumper Christmas eve for dinner and that place never dissapoints. Oh and my phone is in Mr. E's hand's 50% of the time...it starts young.


Here's our little guy in his Christmas jammies, playing with one of the Christmas trees.





Christmas morning...



And lastly, the presents. Mr.E had no idea what to do with them so we had to help him out, and like most babies, I think he enjoyed the wrapping paper more than the actual present itself.





One of my good friends from way, way, way back (5th grade) got married. Her reception was beautiful. She was stunning and just glowed. Ah, newly wed couples... :)



And I was able to enjoy the evening with not only my family, but 2 of my best friends from highschool. It was a sweet, sweet reunion.

On the 31st Mr. E hit the big 9 months and I just can't believe it. He is growing up so fast. It really hit me at how old he was getting when I realized that the next time my parents see him it'll be for his FIRST BIRTHDAY!! What the?! How the?! When the?! This can't be.
9 months has been good to us though. He's still not crawling, which I'm okay with. But he did recently (knock on wood) start sleeping through the night. HALLELUJAH! He's still my happy, little mama's boy. He babbles, throws his arms in the air (so big), rocks on his knees, makes funny noises with his hand and mouth, says mama and dada, laughs (at dad not me), and is such a joy to have around. We seriously just adore this kid.
Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years. Here's to a great 2012