Christmas 2011

Since I'm so far behind again, I'm just posting this pic of our family from Christmas Eve. I have posted a bunch of the holidays from both the Driscoll/Froehlich side on Facebook to share with everybody. We had a great Christmas & New Years. Grandma and Grandpa Driscoll spent a couple days with us over Christmas. Santa came and brought Olivia a Leapster-she loves it! She must have been a good girl this year. Cora got some baby toys-5 month olds are easy to please! We spent Christmas Day at Heath & Kristi's with the Driscoll family and had a nice time. We all got spoiled by G & G. Olivia's favorite is her princess dress from G &G-she lives in it! We then went to G & G Froehlich's the 29th and spent the New Year there with the whole family. Again got spoiled. Olivia's favorite-her Barbie house. We rang in the New Year there & the kids celebrated with their own little party.

Cora is 5 months old!

My smily happy baby is 5 months old! Cora's personality is really coming out. She is such a cuddler, and is happy go lucky all the time. She and Olivia are really becoming quite the sisters and friends. As soon as Olivia walks up to her, Cora lights up and smiles and giggles. Olivia is really good to her-she does get a little too excited at times and gets to squeezing a little hard. But, she knows her limits. Cora is quite the talker too-I thought as much as Olivia loves to talk, Cora would be the quite one & leave it all up to big sissy, but Cora loves to hear her own voice too by squeeling and doing her cute little screams. She is also loving to such her thumb & fingers, and even tries her whole fist. She loves her paci, but I think we're going to have a thumb sucker too. She's sleeping a little better/longer since we've added rice cereal to her bottles-but still in the car seat. Hopefully soon she'll transition to the crib. Cora also holds her own bottle now-it's about 50/50 if she'll do it though. Just another sign she's getting a little older :( Looking forward though to see what our beauty is doing at 6 months.

Christmas Baking Day!!

Saturday we went to Heath & Kristi's for a fun-filled baking day! The kids had a great time decorating all the sugar cookies-although I think tasting all of the goodies was even better. Kristi had mint chips, chocolate chips, candy cane pieces, sprinkles, m & ms, red hots, colored sugar-you name it, they decorated with it!! Kristi and I also baked all afternoon until it felt like our feet were going to fall off. Christmas should be a good 10 pound gain!

Olivia & Ryan were given the "fun" job of unwrapping all the rollos & peppermint kisses. They loved it & better yet-we didn't have to do it!!
The kids finished artwork :) Yummy

Big Sis Little Sis

Family Pics

We had our family pics done in October. I was going to wait to put them on the blog b/c was going to use them for our Christmas card, but doesn't look like I'm going to get to that this year. It was a nice day for them, but a little windy. Olivia wasn't exactly cooperating either. I scheduled them for 3:30 to be sure we'd be done with her nap. But, she wouldn't go done & by the time she finally gave in, she only had about an hour to nap. But overall I thought they turned out pretty nice.

Grandma Kathee had also been in New Ulm for the weekend helping out watching the girls while we packed so we got a shot with her!

Olivia & Mary Claire

Olivia, Cora, and I went to watch Mary Claire, my friend Jodie's daughter, at her cheer competition in Brandon on Saturday. Olivia just had a ball & was in heaven watching all the girls in their neat sparkly outfits. Mary Claire, Jodie, and Greg came over to our house later that night for some chili. Olivia just had a ball with MC showing her her version of flips and somersaults. Olivia's really been into dancing/jumping around lately. The other day she was jumping off the couch while watching Tinkerbell & I repeatedly told her not to be jumping off the couch & her response was "I'm not jumping. I'm a fairy and I'm flying". Well ok- stop flying, but she insisted that b/c she wasn't a little girl and was a fairy, that she had to fly. Sometimes you just can't win with a 3 year old.

Setting up Christmas decorations and making memories

We've been busy putting up, taking down, playing with, wearing, and re-doing the decorations for Christmas in the last week. Olivia was really involved with it all, and just loved all the "new" things to play with and "help" out with. What a great time of year and fun thing to do with kids! Won't be long and Cora will have her little fingers into it too :)

Decorating Olivia's little tree with all her pink ornaments that she got when she was a baby.

Olivia hopping around with our Christmas stockings on Digging into the ornaments while baby sissy watches
Decorating the tree with Daddy
This picture is just priceless to me-Olivia is so beautiful
Cora loved to see all the lights. Her eyes just lit up and you could see such a twinkle in them.
And to finish it all off-Olivia got to put the star on

November 2011 This & That

Olivia and Bella making Grandma her birthday card with all my scrapbook stuff
Olivia decorating herself & Cora with pretty pink flowers

Cora in her cute little diaper

Olivia hamming it up with Cora-she LOVES hugging on her

Cora's 1st Thanksgiving-Driscoll side

For Thanksgiving this year, we went to G & G Froehlich's first on Wednesday and stayed through Friday after the Hawks game. We then drove the 7 hours back to G & G Driscoll's to spend Friday-Sunday with them. It was a busy weekend-the girls did great with all the traveling. Cora sleeps so well on trips, and Olivia watches her movies and actually sleeps on drives now, so that's a bonus. We are very thankful for our families and all they do. It's always great to get together and see the kids having fun.
The kids had pulled out Grandma's old costume wig for Cora to wear.

Cora's 4 months old!

Cora is 4 months old! She has been such an easy baby and just happy all the time. She's definitely our cuddly baby too. Olivia was very active at this age, and hasn't stopped! I'm thinking Cora will be my little snuggle bunny for quite some time. Olivia is just loving her and really looks after her. When Olivia goes up to Cora, Cora's face just lights up and she giggles and squeals at her-it's so cute :) Her laugh just lights us all up. There's not a better sound in the world. Cora has also found her hands-she sucks on her fingers all the time! I think we may be getting a thumb sucker. But it's so funny to watch her try to put her hands together as she watches them move all over. She's also starting to recognize her name and is very alert. She still takes her naps and sleeps in her carseat. Ever since she was a month old, she was sleeping better in her car seat, so that's the way it's been. She loves being snuggled in. I've tried laying her in her crib, but she's not comfortable that way. It makes it real easy for traveling though w/o having to take the pack-n-play but I'm sure real soon we're going to have to get her trained to like her crib.
I took Cora in for her 4 month well-being check and shots. She weighs 12.8 pounds and is 24.5 inches long. She's the same weight as Olivia at that age, but 3 pounds lighter. This puts her in the 25th percentile for wt & 55th for length.

Cora's 1st Thanksgiving-Froehlich Side

The kids building a tree fort with Grandpa Lee's tools

Grandma Kathee and I took Olivia, Kaden, and Chloe down to the theater to see Santa. Olivia asked for a barbie house and lots of barbies.
Cora, Jack, and Olivia watching the Hawks embarass themselves by Nebraska

Grandpa Lee with one of the nice walleye that they caught.

Olivia fingerpainting

Olivia fingerpainting in the smock my mom made me years ago. Olivia loved it!

Cora's Baptism

Cora was baptized into the Holy Spirit Church November 13th. We chose Justin & Jessica to be her Godparents and are thankful for them taking the role. Making the occasion even more special is that Cora is wearing my baptismal dress. It looked beautiful on her. We also used the afghan that Great Grandma Froehlich crocheted for Olivia when she was a baby.

Grandma Driscoll's 60th Birthday

Happy 60th Birthday Grandma Driscoll! Grandpa D did a pretty good job and threw a surprise birthday party for her at Callaway's. We used Cora's baptism as a good excuse for them to come to Sioux Falls so there was no question as to why they were making another trip. (Although by Saturday afternoon I think she started to figure it out.) The room was filled with lots of family and friends & a good time was had by all. Grandma scored with lots of wine & nice presents. I couldn't find my camera that night and haven't gotten copies of Grandma's yet so don't have any pics of the party to post. The 2 below are at Cora's baptismal celebration with the cake I made her. Happy Birthday Mom/Grandma! It was a fun weekend!

Olivia, Bella, and Anna helping Grandma blow out her candles.