Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas to Everyone...a few days late!! :) We had an absolutely wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to a fabulous 2013 ahead. It is hard to believe we are on our way to saying good bye to 2012...it has been such a fast year. I guess when you spend most of your days trying to figure out how to take care of a child for the first time, the hours of each day seem to pass by faster and faster! Juan, Elena, and I got to spend Christmas Eve together in California, MO with Juan's parents and sister. We had a wonderful day eating great food, opening presents, and making stockings. Elena was not feeling that great as she was coming down with a cold and cough, so by the time evening rolled around, it was time to bring her home to get some rest. Santa was coming and we wanted her to feel well for Christmas Day. When Elena woke up on Christmas Day, she appeared to be feeling a bit better, so we made our way to St. Louis to visit my parents and sisters. Again, we opened presents, had great food, and watched our regular Christmas cartoons...Charlie Brown Christmas and Garfield Christmas. It was wonderful to spend time with everyone. By the end of the day, Elena was getting crabby again, so we tried to get her down to sleep, but she had a hard time falling asleep, so we needed to do some "old school" rocking and laying in bed together in order to get her asleep...it worked! :) I must admit, it was nice laying in bed with our girl...she is a good snuggler and is SO warm!! Other than our Christmas traveling, we have been just spending as much time as possible at home. We spend most of our days playing with Elena and cleaning up after her. We read TONS of books everyday and are TRYING to get her to drink from a sippy cup...She seriously won't have ANYTHING to do with any of the cups we offer her. She still wants her bottle. This is going to be a challenge. I know she will grow out of the bottle phase, but I am hoping things will start to change soon. We have been working with a sippy cup for months, but she has never shown any kind of interest. Any tips from you moms out there is definitely appreciated! Elena is getting more adventurous with foods, though. She is enjoying yogurt, bologna and other lunch meats, hot dogs, pizza, spaghetti and meat sauce, and all her regular baby foods too. We are still giving her baby food at times just to make sure she is getting all those nutrients. Elena has enjoyed all her Christmas goodies too...she learned she likes spice cookies and cream cheese cookies...YUM!! So, as we come to another end to another year, Juan and I wish you all a blessed and prosperous 2013. We are forever thankful to everyone who has helped us in any way over this last year as we stumbled our way through as first time parents while trying to juggle the rest of life at the same time. All the prayers, thoughts, well-wishes, meals, visits, etc...it is all SO appreciated. Thank you for supporting our little family! :)

A few Christmas pictures...SO many more, but this is just a start :)