Holiday Fun and January

Since moving to Tennessee, I seem to be a failure at keeping up the blog.  Now that I think of it, perhaps that should have been a New Year's resolution...oh well.  What we've been up to...first of all, we celebrated my niece's first birthday on November 30th and the following weekend, so that was a fun week.  Here's pic of the birthday girl.

December was a very busy month for us.  Jeremy and I both turned 30, which means we have to check that 30-39 box now (ugh!), and we had a joint party to celebrate the occasion.  We received several tacky cards, but lots of nice gifts...and a few not nice gifts.  :)

My gift basket with a nice variety of medicines for old people

Jeremy got some prunes

Jeremy's gift from my parents - this was given to my Dad on his 40th birthday, and they revamped it for Jeremy.

For Christmas this year, we all got a cold.  It started with Cora a couple of days before Christmas, then Jeremy and I followed in the next couple of days.  On Christmas morning, we got a rare treat for this area - a white Christmas (4 inches)!  Unfortunately, none of us were feeling well enough to be out playing in the snow, but we did enjoy the view from inside.

Cora in her new rocking chair Nana and Papaw gave her

Christmas Snow at Grandma and Grandpa's

The girls coming to see the snow

Cora showing her teeth, playing with her new toys

We had another big snow early in January, and this time it was 8 inches!! We were snowed in for a few days...they aren't really prepared to deal with that much snow around here. Unfortunately, Cora was sick for this snow too (Roseola virus this time...), so she wasn't really able to get out and enjoy it. However, Jeremy and I did go out one afternoon and had a blast!

Cora's few minutes in the snow

Daddy really wanted to put her on the sled, but it did not go well - here she was skeptical, but it ended in tears

You might be a redneck if...

Ready for some fun in the snow!

Beautiful shot of deer in the snow behind Jeremy's parents' house

Other happenings over the last month, Cora's mouth has been filling up with teeth!  She seems to be getting 2 at a time these days.  We're up to 12 now - the 4th molar finally just finished cutting through, so I'm hoping that we'll get a break for a few weeks at least.  We also said "bye-bye" to the pacifier.  Cora had gone 5 days and nights without her paci, and had adjusted pretty well when she got sick with Roseola.  We had a terrible night - the first night after her fever had broken - when Cora just did not want to go to sleep.  She pitched an absolute fit.  We ended up letting her play a little longer and tried to get her to go to sleep again without any luck.  She ended up staying up until almost 10 (normal bedtime is 8), and she still melted down when we tried to get her to go to bed.  As a desperate last attempt, I went in and got her pacifier.  She went to sleep almost immediately after getting her pacifier.  We had a couple of rough days and nights after the fever was gone, but the virus was just really hard on her.  We've tried getting rid of the pacifier again, but it's been kind of hit and miss.  Thankfully, she does only use it when she's going to sleep.

I am just amazed at how much Cora is learning and growing!  Her vocabulary continues to grow.  She says "uh-oh" now, but a lot of times it's "uh-uh-oh."  She loves to say "no."  Particularly when she was sick, that was her answer to everything.  She didn't want me to hold her, she didn't want down, she didn't want to read a book, she wasn't hungry...I'm exhausted just thinking about it.  She also says "Papaw", "Puff", and "Banana" and she can identify her head, shoulders, toes, eyes, nose, ears, and belly.  During meal times, Cora has started lifting her shirt and looking at her belly as if to see if it's full.  :)  Our good eater is no longer so easy to please.  She more or less refuses any grownup foods (other than bread) until I can force a bite in her mouth, and then she realizes that it tastes pretty good!  A couple of her favorites are baked beans, barbecue, hash browns (with ketchup), and chicken nuggets (also with ketchup).  She does love sweets - she really enjoyed that part of Christmas!

At her 15 month appointment (December 17th), she was 20 lbs, 4.5 oz. and 30.5 inches tall.  She's still a little small for her age, but that's been the case all of her life.  She just grew out of her last pair of 6-12 month pants.  Her 12 month clothes are fitting really well right now.  She can wear her 18 month tops, but you can forget about the 18 month pants.  I'm thinking she may be able to wear those next winter!  She is just a bundle of energy these days, running around the house almost constantly.  I'm getting my exercise these days!  I am thankful she is getting really good at walking, and we are having fewer and fewer accidents and injuries.

I'll try to get some fun videos posted soon!  Also, if you would like to see more pictures, you can check out my facebook albums:

December:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2506073&id=12924167&l=ccff966b87

January
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2509130&id=12924167&l=d14d8bac40