December to Remember - Week 2 (Part 1)

I am finally finding a minute to lay in bed and update the blog after a crazy past few days. The weekdays were pretty normal with the exception of one important errand I ran, that I will discuss more about later. We had school, Mom 2 Mom, and tutoring. The fun really began on Friday when we headed down to Orlando for our annual Richie Family Disney Christmas Weekend. I call it annual because it is the 2nd year in a row and I have officially declared it a tradition :)

Everyone took a half day from work and we headed out at 1 pm. We checked in to our hotel, freshened up and then headed to the park. We arrived around 5ish the fun began. We watched a little show where Elsa came out and used her magic to light up the castle, did some rides, ate dinner, did some more rides, watched the fireworks, ate some cookies and hot chocolate, watched the parade and called it a night. Here are a million pictures from the night!

Blakely was very excited to go to Disney World!! 

My girls with their ears on

 We have arrived. Step 1 to getting to the park...the tram!

 Watching the Elsa show and her turning the castle into "Ice"

The babies did so great being carried around in the chest packs. We met up with Alicia and Collins and D was so happy! She was being so silly and wouldn't open her eyes! 

 Sweet girls...best friends!

Enchanted stories with Belle...Pops was selected to act out the story! LOL

Delainey loves a turkey leg just like her Daddy!

 All the boys posing with their turkey legs!

My favorite boys in the entire world!!! 

 Watching the Parade. It's my favorite part of the entire night!

 Great night at Mickey's Christmas party! McLaughlin's Party of 4! :) 

December to Remember -Week 1

I am obsessed with all things Christmas and pretty much live for the month of December. It means cold weather (Jacksonville is not cooperating too well), tons of fun christmas activities, Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party, live nativities, driving around looking at christmas lights, white elephant exchanges and everything in between. I have my calendar packed with activities for every weekend this month.
Week 1 of December started out rough since both the girls got sick. Delainey had a fever Wednesday night and has since had a runny nose and cough. Blakely woke up Friday morning with the same virus :( We are just pushing lots of nasal spray and cough drops. We did however push through the sickness and enjoyed some really fun things!

Friday morning we went to a play at the Florida Theater called The Shoemaker & Christmas Elves. It was such a cute story about how a shoemaker had no money so the elves came and made him a doll. He was able to sell it and bought more leather for shoes so the elves made more dolls. It continued going on and on until the Shoemaker finally said he could no longer accept anymore dolls; he wanted to give something back to the elves for all their help.  The message was that it is better to give then to receive.  Both Delainey & Blakely really enjoyed it and we had 2nd row seats was lovely as well! After the show we went to Mellow Mushroom to have lunch with Emily.

Friday night we headed to a live nativity at our satellite church out a Fleming Island. It was by far the best live nativity I have ever been to. This is one of our annual Christmas traditions and we usually go to one in Ponte Vedra. We tried a new one this year that our church puts on and it was amazing. It was a guided tour through the city with stops along the way to hear the story of Jesus' birth. You really felt like you were a shepherd traveling from far to Bethlehem to find baby Jesus in the stable. They also had a petting zoo and cookies & hot chocolate. We will be doing this one again next year for sure.

Saturday, we had some new kitchen appliances delivered (time for an upgrade to stainless steel instead of white) so Dave worked on installing them most of the day while Delainey played house and chef inside the boxes. One of them was called McDelainey's and we had a drive thru window! I love her imagination! :) I cleaned the house and did laundry and then off we went to my friend Alicia's parents house. They live on the Julington creek so we had a prime spot to watch the Christmas lights boat parade. Delainey had a blast playing with Collins and yelling Merry Christmas at every single boat that passed by. I am so glad we were able to go and hang out with friends!
On a side note I asked Dave to grab Blakely's hat. Boys and there lack of listening to instructions...he brought out Delainey's hat so don't mind Blakely looking all crazy in the pics below!! LOL

Sunday morning we decided to skip church so we didn't get any of the other kids sick (well really I didn't want my kids to get more sick) so we watched it live online and had a relaxing morning in bed snuggling.

That afternoon we dropped the girls off at Gammoe's so Dave & I could go see the last of the Hunger Games. It did not disappoint! After the movie we had family dinner and called it a night to end a fantastic weekend. I'm so lucky to have such awesome girls who even when they aren't feeling 100% can push through and have tons of fun!!  Week 1 of December was a success! Week 2 includes Disney so you know it's gonna be just as great!!

Blakely's 8 Month Update

Height: about 28 1/2 inches
Weight: about 16 lbs 8 ounces
Head Circumference: about 17 inches
Vision: You are starting to have some interest in the TV. When Delainey is watching a kid's show you will turn to see what the noise is coming from....which could just be the sound, but you seem interested.
Movement: You are still immobile :) I think the biggest part you are trying to figure out is how to get from sitting position to crawling position. I am putting you in crawling position so you can work out your arm muscles. The pincher grip is officially good. You can grab puffs or any small think between your thumb and pointer and put it in your mouth now. I love to watch your serious concentration face when you are eating puffs. Still no sign language yet, but Mom is still working on it.
Eating Habits/New Foods: Still eating every 3 ounces, but I think I have had a decrease in my milk supply with all the new food and sleeping through the night so who knows how much you get each feeding. We have increased your food intake to 2-3 meals a day and if Mom skips one you let me know! For breakfast I have been doing an apple rice cereal or fruit puree. Lunch is usually a pouch or puree of some sort of mixed fruit/veggies. Dinner is whatever we are eating pureed or a puree I made that involves meat or noodles. You loved the sweet potatoes, turkey, gravy, and mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving! Your favorite is still puffs though!  It is time for round 2 of making baby food since most of your pouches are gone! Bring on the thicker foods.
Sleeping Patterns: You are still sleeping through the night with an occasional bad night when you were sick and congested. You still take a morning nap around 10-11 and an afternoon nap about 2-3. Sometimes you will take an extra late nap too around 5:30 just depending on how long your naps were earlier in the day. Bed time is around 8.
Sounds/Words: You say Dada now! Still more of Mama, but you definitely say Dada and severe other 2 syllable sounds that don't really mean anything. You really only cry when you are hungry or tired. You grunt continuously when you want more of something...like puffs. You laugh at Sis a lot and love making sounds at your toys.
New discoveries/accomplishments:
-You said Dada
-Your pincher grip is great now!
-You are loving new foods and since having sweeter ones, you are over green beans and other veggies
-You went on your first cruise!
-You celebrated your first Thanksgiving!
-You rode on your first horse...in the chest pack of course at Jack's birthday
-You experienced your first trip of Black Friday shopping with Mom
-You met Dash the Elf for the first time!
Places you went/Adventures: The fun continued this month. Of course the best thing we did was the Disney Cruise and you were such a little gem, just went with the flow all weekend long. You went to Jack's birthday party and rode on a horse, celebrated Thanksgiving, did tons of Christmas shopping for your cousins as well at our Angel tree girl, watched FSU football, watched your sis perform in her Thanksgiving parade and just spent time with the Family!
Clothes: You are mostly in 6-9 month clothes with a few of them being 12 months. They are a little big, but they definitely are doable. Most leggings and jeans are 12 months. We are in 9 month sleepers now. Still a size 3 diaper. We are still waiting for the cold weather to break out all our cute winter clothing!
Sister updates: There is nothing better than sitting you in your room with toys and watching you on the monitor while Delainey comes in and plays with you. She really is so sweet to you and I rarely ever have to get onto her about being nice to you. Occasionally she will pull your leg if she wants to be held and I'm holding you. She tells you while eating, 'watch me sis, this is how you chew." You are such a curious girl. You just sit back and observe everything she is doing and I know one day you are just going to take off running with her!
Weekly Pictures:

Elf on the Shelf - 1st Catastrophe

I am sure everyone in the entire world has heard of the Elf on the Shelf by now. Any fun holiday tradition and I of course jumpon board. We are now in our 3rd year of doing the Elf on the Shelf and it has taken on a whole new meaning this year.

First of all we named our elf Dash and she didn't really pay too much attention to him the 1st year. Last year, he brought her a book and a piece of candy each morning, so she wasn't too concerned with what sort of mischief he was getting into. This year...she cares. She asks questions about why he is doing what he is. How does he fly back to Santa at night. Why doesn't he talk to me. Who is making my presents then if he is here. And she sure doesn't like him to play with her toys. That is what led to our first catastrophe today. 

Dash built a castle out of blocks and trapped himself inside. Delainey called it a jail because his arms were sticking through the windows lol. Well she just had to free him from jail. So when I wasn't looking she took him out of jail. I of course made a big ordeal about how he lost his magic since she touched him and now he can't tell Santa what presents you want. She was a little concerned about the present issue so I am implementing a plan tonight to get his magic back. 

I have made a poem to leave next to Dash with a bag of magic dust to sprinkle over him to help him recover. I am just mixing some salt and sprinkles together to put on him and leave him for the day. After tomorrow he will be back in action! I will let you all know how it goes tomorrow morning!!

Here is the poem I  wrote. 

Here is the bag tag I stapled on top of the Magic Dust bag.