8th Month Photographs

The girl is crawling!  Now I get why most Moms have that frazzled look on their faces most of the time.  Her little fingers are quite skilled at picking up the smallest crumbs of dirt, little strings and other things mommy does not want in her mouth.  

  About 1 week after she started moving, she figured out how to pull herself up.  Things are progressing too fast!  I thought these milestones would be slower in coming to give Mom time to cope.

London is full of smiles and laughter!  She is always trying to catch the eye of people passing by so that she can wave to them and flash them a shy smile.  All the old ladies love her!  I have never in my life talked to so many strangers.

Just in time for Christmas, her two front teeth popped out.  (Why does that stupid song keep running through my head?)  So now she is up to eating two meals a day with us. 

Christmas Day 2011

Jesse wanted London to experience a Christmas food tradition he had growing up, so he made her a German pancake on Christmas morning.  It came out so beautiful and yummy.

Then there were more presents waiting to be unwrapped under the tree from Mommy and Daddy. 

We went to church that morning so that London could know that we were really celebrating Jesus's birth and not her.  After the service, we headed over to the Simpsons for a huge family gathering and gift exchange with all the cousins, aunts and uncles.

  In the evening, we celebrated with more amazing food: twice baked potatoes, grilled parmesan asparagus, and beef tenderloin with Gorgonzola sauce.  So yum! (My mouth is watering now as I type)

We had a wonderful holiday with all our family!
Merry Christmas and a great New Year to all! 

Christmas Eve 2011

This Christmas had a whole new energy and excitement as we introduced our daughter to all our family traditions.

Master Chef Jesse fries up the world famous Wyzga perogies for our Christmas Eve celebration.  We had spent the previous day making the farmers cheese and bacon sauerkraut perogies from scratch. 

The Wyzga family is all smiles before the perogie binge begins.  (Somehow Rose ate the most this year)

Now London can claim Polish heritage...

It didn't take London long to catch on to what little packages under the tree mean.

London opens her gift of Tegu blocks from Chad and Tarrah.

London's favorite Christmas present 

Best Present Ever!! 

Tobbles from Brandon & Charity

Christmas Tree Day

Christmas season couldn't come soon enough, so we headed out to Pine Valley Farm with the Wyzgas the day after Thanksgiving.

 London loved exploring all the trees in her new all terrain stroller! 

Jesse commented that this year we had to make "adult Christmas cookies" instead of our usual frosted sugar cookies.  So he picked out an intense double chocolate cookie with white chocolate chips recipe and I chose to make coconut snowballs for the after party.

 We tried to get her to put the ornaments on the tree.  Mostly, they just ended up in her mouth.

Of course, we were committed to our tree, even though this little grinch tried to take our ornaments down 24/7

Her favorite catch was the little fireman jinglebell to the right.

Pictures from the 7th Month

 London and Daddy love storytime before bed.  She can even turn the pages now.

Thanksgiving

 We are so lucky to live near both of London's Grandparents.  However, this has made holidays quite stressful as we bounce from house to house trying to hold down two Thanksgiving Dinners.  So with sad hearts, we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving with only one family this year.  Here we are at the Wyzga's house minus Brandon and Charity who have also decided to only to celebrate with one family each year.    

 Next year will be the Simpson's turn to have us for the whole day.  

The food was excellent.  I made my stuffing recipe that I reserve only for Thanksgiving dinner and Jesse pitched in with his garlic mashed potatoes.  Chad even helped out and made sweet potato crunch.  Dad gave the turkey a good rub down with bourbon and herbs and Mom took care of the rest of the meal.  Butler's Orchard made the pecan pie.  

 London was jealous of my very colorful plate, so Jesse let her try some new dishes with prohibited ingredients like butter and salt heavily added.  Apparently, it tastes much better than her rice cereal.

There was no question to what we were both most thankful for:

Our baby London

6 Month Photo Recap

Favorite song this month: "I Like To Move It" from Madagascar

Favorite phrase these days: "hi dada" or "dadadadadadada"

Favorite toy: Any tag. If there is a tag on it, she will find it.

New moves: London just started exploring the world by scooting backwards

 First Snowfall!

First Halloween.  We didn't even go out.  The kitty outfit was just an excuse for Mommy to take more pictures of her baby.