Oh Christmas Tree

The day before my 29th birthday, Lee brought home a beautiful Christmas tree. It was a bit tall for the room, but we managed. Next year, my shopping list will include more ornaments, more wooden beads, and more lights to decorate our tree. Lee has a habit of getting bigger trees every year.  Cora was terrified of the tree for the first 24 hours. After I showed her the ornaments, she connected Christmas and the tree. She really enjoyed hanging ornaments resulting in most of the ornaments being hung on the lowest branches on the tree. Somehow they eventually migrated further up the tree?

Daddy bringing the tree inside.

Cora showing off some sap on her fingers.

Decorating time!

When we tell Cora to put her hands down, she always does the opposite.

Every ornament needed a kiss.

Surprisingly, or not, there are no candy canes left on the tree.

My birthday dinner. Cora wore her dancing skirt and did a show for me at the restaurant. It was the best birthday dinner ever.

Cora took about 20 pictures of Daddy that night.

Cora didn't last long after leaving dinner. Dancing tires a little body out.

Christmas Eve was spent making sugar cookies and listening to Christmas music. We took a drive to look at Christmas lights in the evening. Lee and I got a good laugh at all the crappy lights. Canada needs to work on their light displays as a whole. There were a few gems, but not many. Cora didn't get to enjoy them because she fell asleep within minutes of being in the car.

Christmas morning was great. Cora is starting to understand Santa Claus, so she was up bright and early to see if Santa visited her. She woke up around 5:45am but laid quietly in bed until 6:00. She finally got fed up and sternly said, "Follow ME Mommy and Daddy"! We drug our tired bums out of bed and did what she said. She stared at her presents for a good minute or two. I think she was a little bit in awe that Santa truly did come and visit while she was sleeping. She got a stick horse, guitar, and stocking full of nail polish, lip gloss, bows, DVDs, and pears from the Jolly Old Man himself. The only problem we had was persuading her to keep opening her presents. She wanted to play with each toy as she opened them. I think if she would have had her way, she'd still be opening gifts right now.

Horses were a major them for both Christmas and her birthday this year.

With all that unwrapping, Cora had to stop for an early morning fruit break.

Back to the giant gift bag from Grandma Jo.

Santa's Little Helper in her incredibly cute Christmas jammies.

Snug as a bug in a rug.

Art supplies from Grandma and Grandpa B!

Her first My Little Pony from Aunt Anne. Cora told us it was "soooo pretty".

Baby Boy Blue

We had our ultrasound last week and found out we are expecting a baby BOY!! I really didn't have the "mother's intuition" that everyone seems to talk about. There haven't been hardly any differences between this pregnancy and my pregnancy with Cora. I haven't been overheating, and this baby kicks harder. That is it. Everything else is exactly the same. Fatigue has been my only complaint both times. I am even gaining weight at the same pace.

Lee and I were so excited to find out we were having a healthy baby boy. Cora did not share our excitement. In fact, she started crying. She wanted a baby sister. We explained to her during the ultrasound that she would have had to share a room with a baby sister for at least 10 years, share all of her clothes, and ALL of her toys. A baby brother means she gets her own room, has her own clothes, and only has to share SOME of her toys. She almost immediately started loving her baby brother. In fact, she now rubs my belly and sometimes give my stomach kisses. It will be a lot of fun once this little boy enters the world. I am really anxious to meet this baby, and I still have 20 weeks to go!

This first video is only 1 second long. However, if you pause it about half way through, you get a really good look at his handsome little face. He is a bit meatier than Cora was at this stage. I also truly believe he looks nothing like Cora. Cora looked remarkably similar in "real life" and her ultrasound. This makes me feel like we have already met this little boy and somewhat know what to expect. It is a little creepy having a sneak peek, but I LOVE it! And, I LOVE our little boy.



These next two are longer and show him moving around. Amazing.

A Flowery Fairy or Pepto Butterfly?

Halloween is becoming more and more fun as Cora gets older. This year, I was planning on dressing her up as Little Red Riding Hood. Lee had the bright idea of asking Cora what she wanted to be. Who actually asks their kids what they want to be? Ha! He was right. So off to the fabric shop we go. I wasn't going to give Cora full reign on her decision, because I still had to be able to create the costume. We started flipping through the different pattern books and Cora latched on to all the Flower Fairy-esque costumes. I decided I would give it a whirl and we headed home.

Either my sewing skills are improving or this was a ridiculously easy pattern because it only took me a mere day to wash, cut, and sew the costume. And, bubble hems are so easy to do and SO CUTE! Why have I waited so long?

After slaving away all day, I asked Cora to try it on. NOPE. No go. She was NOT trying on the dress. Uhhh, OK. Fast forward to the next day. She still won't try it on. Two weeks later...nope. She wants nothing to do with this dress. Really?? At this point, I don't even know if it fits. Why is my child so stubborn? Oh yeah. Because she is my child. A whole new post could be devoted to that topic. Finally, Oct 31st arrives and Cora still has not tried on her costume. She had a Halloween party at school that day and was supposed to bring her costume with her. I really didn't think they would get it on her, so Lee and I devised a battle strategy. Lee would hold her down while I put the dress on her. Then we would throw her in the car and drop her off at daycare for them to deal with all the backlash. Sounded like a good plan to us. The first part goes as smooth as possible. Cora is in her dress. Not 0.32 seconds after putting the costume on, she realized it is a little girl's dream dress. Hot pink, tulle, flowers, butterflies, you name it. She loved the dress. Lee and I stood there baffled while she pranced around. Could she really not tell what it was while hanging on the hanger? Oh, for Pete's sake. Turns out at daycare, nobody could touch HER dress. She was so proud of it. How do Lee and I not have a full head of gray hair? I have to say though, it made me feel darn good about how much she ended up loving the dress. Until....

Until she wouldn't take it off. We were getting ready for her to go trick or treating and she needed warmer clothes on underneath the costume. But, she wouldn't take the dress off. No amount of negotiating would work. Back to the battle plan. Lee held her down while I took off the dress and tears streamed from her eyes. It wasn't five minutes later that she had the dress back on with warmer clothes and all was well again. Good gosh. Lee and Cora headed out for their tradition of trick or treating together while I, along with a bunch of my friends that came over, handed out candy. Lee and Cora came home with a basket full of candy to dump out, so they could reload. Eva wanted to go out for a little bit, so I joined in as well. The night was going pretty well, until Cora started saying, "stupid kids". There was one kid, not being naughty in the least, wearing a scary costume. It frightened Cora and this was how she responded. I told her stupid wasn't a nice word and to use "silly" instead. It worked well until she said, "Stupid kids!!!" instead of "Trick or Treat"! That was the end of Cora's 2011 Halloween. At least she looked ridiculously cute. ;)

I almost forgot about the pumpkin carving! Cora had a blast carving a pumpkin with Daddy. She asked that he look like Jack after Jack Pumpkinhead (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_to_Oz). Lee did a really good job. Cora was impressed as well.

A Cozy Colorado Cabin

At the end of September, we drove to Leadville, Colorado for Cora's first trip to Carol and Larry's cabin. The cabin was amazing. The last time I had been there, the bedroom addition was just being started. Everything was finished this trip and it turned out absolutely beautiful. The cabin is a true cabin. Small, cozy, and full of happy people. The cabin is located on private land with a bunch of trout ponds. As you can imagine, Lee is one happy guy out there. We ate lots of great food (surprise?), paddled around in the canoe, sat by the warm fire, enjoyed the sun, and just had a lovely time.

Cora was Aunt Carol's right hand gal. She loved helping tend the fire.

George is great with Cora. She loves Georgie. It is amazing how much these two dogs put up with.

Cora and Grandma Jo reading. Cora was pretty much glued to Grandma this trip. Cora is starting to recognize family members, making trips like these that much better.

Grandma also came bearing gifts! Cora loves this animal magnet board.

Piggy back time!

Carol and Mary Jo out in the canoe. The lake the cabin on is called Home Lake. Isn't the area beautiful! There really isn't an ugly spot in Colorado.

The front of the cabin.

Lee caught some trout to eat for appetizers one night. Even after the fish were dead, Cora still thought they were great playmates.

What's a trip to the cabin without some bumps and bruises? What looked like a piddly fall turned out to cut her forehead in three places. OUCH! As you can see in the pictures, she was proud of her cuts.

Grandma brought bat wings for Cora. She loves her wing collection!

Dinner time!! Cora loves spaghetti (another trait she inherited from Aunt Anne). Notice she is digging in already. :)

Gearing up for a canoe ride.

Family photo op.

Reggie came too. Despite getting smelly in his old age, he is still our sidekick. He loves sleeping in boats.

Cora helped Daddy paddle. This made my job easy!

We had a picnic with the aspens on afternoon. Isn't it beautiful?!?

Georgie. 

Cora's new apron from Aunt Carol and Uncle Larry. She loves it! Can you tell?

Somehow, Cora roped the ENTIRE family into watching Pinocchio with her. 

To be totally honest, I don't love looking at these pictures because I want to go back soooo bad. We had a hard time saying goodbye. It was an incredibly quick trip, but one of the best decision we have made in a long time. Soon enough though, we'll be back.

I think I'll end this blog entry with a couple of videos. The first one is of Cora loving on dead fish. The second one is of Lee catching a trout.