How Many X-mas Outfits Can One Little Girl Have?

We sure had fun dressing up Lucy in all her Christmas outfits. Here she is surrounded by her Christmas presents in her dress from Aunt Jody. She is fascinated by bright colors and crinkling sounds, so she was just the right age to get into the whole opening of presents.Lucy loves to play "big girl standing up" with her dad (and her Uncle Eric, and her Aunt Kristin, and anyone else that is so inclined to play it with her).
Even when she is just chilling out doing some tummy time, she has to be styling with a Christmas bow to match her outfit.

Lucy loved wearing her red Christmas sweater and hat from Aunt Leslie. She was a trooper hanging out in her stroller during our last minute Christmas shopping.

Lucy perched on her big present from Grammy and Puppy.

I insisted that Lucy be allowed to open all her presents, rather than us doing it for her. Thus, it took us 4 days to get through them all since her naps, feeding, etc. kept distracting her from the task at hand. It was a lot of work to open all those gifts!

Chrismukah Party

Little Lucy was a hit at the wonderful and scrumptious Chrismuka party hosted by our friends Craig and Laurie. She was having so much fun she didn't want to go to bed, so here she is wide awake at 10:00pm - she still had some smiling and snuggling to do, I guess...She even wore her Christmas outfit for us. Good choice, Lucy girl! Thanks to auntie Kristin for the outfit.
Here she is hanging out in her giraffe sleeper on a lazy Saturday morning. It is sometimes hard to remember in this holiday season that the most fun (and often the best memories) are spent just hanging out and goofing off.

Lucy Starts Solids

This is a picture of Lucy a couple of weeks ago when we got a new mini jogging stroller. Don't be misled by her look of utter joy with her new wheels. We are lucky if she makes it 10 minutes without fussing in her stroller. She much prefers to be carried by mom and dad. Isn't that just par for the course. You wait to buy a new stroller and then the kid doesn't even want to go in it. So we started Lucy on rice cereal and oatmeal. She isn't a big fan of either and typically most of the cereal ends up all over her face rather than in her mouth. However, she is getting better at eating. It was pretty funny to see her expression when we first gave her the cereal. She looked so confused.
I love this shot because it shows what a little half-pint she is. What a little munchkin in such a big highchair! The yellow booties were lovely crocheted by Grammy Pederson. Before Lucy was born Grammy was eagerly anticipating her arrival and decided to start creating something for her and by the morning she had crocheted this adorable little booties.

Lucy Visits Santa

We brought Lucy to visit Santa at his shack in downtown Baltimore. I think we were more excited about it than her, and she was more enthralled with the fuzzy Santa suit.

A Pederson tradition was to give Kim and Kristin a Christmas ornament every year. This year, Kim and I initiated the same tradition with Lucy, and here she is with her first ornament. Hopefully someday she will put this on her tree along the many she receives throughout her life.

Kristin's Preggers!!!

I am so excited to tell the world that Kristin and Eric are pregnant!! She is 14 weeks and her little sweetheart is now the size of a lemon. Don and I are just thrilled and can't wait for Lucy to have a little playmate that she can grow up and be best friends with. The pictures below are from mid-October when they told us they were expecting. They didn't want us to "officially" announce it until just recently. It was so cute how they told us. I am totally obsessed with these cupcakes that are from a place in Chicago called Sweet Mandie B's. For those of you that were at our Chicago shower, you were able to sample the heavenly decadence of a Sweet Mandie B cupcake. Anyways, when Kristin and Eric came for a visit in October she pulled out a dozen of these cupcakes. I was just overjoyed to indulge in this delicious desert. But then as I looked closer I saw there was a message written on the cupcakes...

How cute that they wrote Baby Flores, 6/08. I don't know what I was more excited for the news or to eat these cupcakes (I swear they put crack in those things).

Kristin wanted me to share my emotional response to her news...When she told me I obviously started crying not just because she was pregnant but because I was so happy for her to feel the joy of being a mom. The funny thing about being pregnant for the first time is that it is impossible to even imagine the depth of love and complete sense of joy that your new baby brings to your life. It is so exciting for me to think about how even though they are happy in their relationship now, the amount of happiness they are soon to experience far supersedes even their wildest imagination. God is so good!!

Guess who's 5 months old?

Lucy turned five months old on Wednesday. She weighs in at 13 lbs 3 oz and is 27 inches long (she is going to be a tall one). All her clothes are big in the waist, but significantly short in the length, which looks kind of funny. At five months some kids start sucking on their hand/thumb. Not our Lucy! She much prefers to be a toe sucker. She loves to suck on her toes so much that if I try to pull her leg away to change her diaper, she starts crying. Wouldn't it be nice to be this flexible as adults? The picture on the right was on Wednesday when we went with our friends Paula, Rob, and their son, Gibson, to a babies night at a local restaurant. It was a fun way to celebrate Lucy's 5 months in this world.

This past week she has started sticking her tongue out and she does it constantly. She is a sassy little girl already :)

Christmas Time is Here!

Last week we had a lot fun decorating for Christmas. I just love putting up Christmas decorations, which I am sure is something I get from my parents. Growing up my parents always were a little excessive with the whole decorating experience (well that is only if you consider having three Christmas trees and a gozillion wreaths excessive). My parents had this tradition of giving us an ornament every year that had a special significance for that specific year. For example, the year I "played" softball (insert "sat the bench" for "played"), they got me a softball glove ornament. When we went to Disney World it was a Minnie Mouse ornament to remember the trip. When my sister and I moved out of my parent's house we were able to take the ornaments with us for our own respective tress. I love pulling the ornaments out every year because it allows me to reminisce about different childhood memories. I just love this tradition and it is something that Don and I hope to pass on to Lucy as well. Don and I are so lucky to have been raised with a legacy of strong family traditions. They bring a festivity and a such sense of comfort to the Christmas season. Last Saturday night we had our friends Craig and Laurie over for a Christmas dinner. Kailey was decked out in her Christmas sweater.

Kailey, Payton, and Stella (Craig and Laurie's dog) all cuddled together on the couch! Payton and Stella are the best of buddies!!