Christmas Traditions

Tradition: the handing down of belief, statements, legends, and information from generation to generation

Since Lance and I have been married we haven't really started any of our own Christmas traditions together, I had some growing up as well as him and we have done some of each others but I think it's time we decide what traditions we want to continue in our family and some new ones we want to begin to carry! So I decided to write all of our traditions that our families started and then some possible new ones and go from there!

Christmas last year in Cali!

Old Traditions

Tradition #1: We always got an ornament every year since I was born and the year Lance and I got married my parents boxed up my ornaments and gave them to me to decorate our first tree..(I think I like this one for Bowden.)

My newest ornament that Lance got me from his trip to El Salvador

Tradition #2: We decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving...(I think we will keep that one...you have to decorate the tree sometime might as well be then :)

Tradition #3 Lance always got Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve and then on Christmas Day everyone would wear them and take pictures...I think that's cute and since we have been married they still do it (I think there was only 1 year we didn't get jammies and it was a big deal!)

Tradition #4 Our family would go to breakfast on Christmas Eve morning and then to the Candlelight service that night.....(Candlelight service is a definite keeper)

Tradition #5 Growing up us kids would get one "big" present that was the ultimate present and our dad would hide it and put the the first clue in our stocking and it would lead to more clues and then eventually to our present. I'm pretty sure we did this til we were in high school, then we got too smart for my dad's clues. (Maybe when Bowden is older we can do this)

New Traditions 

Tradition # 6 Get the kids a new Christmas book each year and read it to them and then read the the real Christmas story on Christmas Eve or Christmas day (We will definitely read the Christmas story)

Tradition #7 3 Gifts- I read this in a blog that a family does 3 gifts only, to represent the 3 wise men and another family I heard does 3 gifts: a "Want, Need, and a Surprise" I like this maybe combining the 2 ideas. Then kids won't get to greedy and it keeps it simple. (I'm not sure we will do this one but it's a good idea.)

Tradition #8 This blog has some creative traditions to do like sprinkle magic reindeer food on the lawn so santa knows where to lead the reindeer (magic food is oats and glitter) that's a cute idea

Tradition #9 This site also has some great traditions like having a baking party and delivering the cookies to local fire station or hospital. 

Tradition #10 Baking a cake to celebrate Jesus' birthday (I love this one)

So many great traditions out there, it's hard to choose! I know that this time of the year gets really busy and sometimes it's easy to loose sight of the real reason we celebrate Christmas. Lance and I went to the ice display a couple weeks ago and it's all decked out in Christmas but our favorite part was the last scene and it was an ice sculpture of the nativity scene and it was beautiful and it made my heart happy to see it! 

Then last night Lance got us tickets to see the Radio City Rockettes Christmas Spectacular for our anniversary and the show was amazing but the best part was the end, they told/sang the Christmas story and at the end people were clapping and saying "Amen". I loved it! All that to say, is we love traditions and will probably do most of these and maybe add more but the one tradition that we will carry on is making sure we celebrate Jesus' birthday and not forgetting that this is what Christmas is all about!

I don't care what people say "Jesus really IS the REASON for the SEASON"

Schedule Training

It's been a month since my last post and for a good reason I have been working on putting Bowden on a schedule and folks it's been a success! At 3 months Bowden is sleeping thru the night at 10 1/2 hours and with 5 feedings during the day! Thanks to Baby Wise and my sister in-law I finally got Bowden on a good schedule that works for our family. So I wanted to blog mostly for future purposes, so that someday when we decide to have another child (yes I said when :) I can look back and see what we did, in case I forget..which these days I forget a lot lol.

First off I wish that for the first 4 weeks I wouldn't have stressed so much about a schedule because for one, all they do is sleep and there's not much you can do about that. But then again when your not getting much sleep you feel the need to try something! But at that time I put Baby wise into affect: eat, wake time, sleep. Sounds pretty easy except the wake time was a lil challenging. At 6 weeks Bowden started sleeping 6-7 hours at night so I knew then that he could go awhile without a feeding.

Next pick what time I want to start the schedule, I started at 8am, so regardless his last feeding I would wake him up at 8am feed him and get him ready for the day, trying to keep him awake for atleast an hour. So the schedule for that day was 3hr feedings 8am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm, 8pm, and last one between 10-11. Then he would usually wake up between 5-6am so I would feed put him right back down and then wake him up at 8am all over again the next day. Eventually he started sleeping through the 5-6am feeding so then that feeding was cut out. By 9 weeks he was sleeping 9 hours and 10 weeks 10hrs. So these last couple weeks I started cutting out the last feeding of the day. At 10 weeks I started moving up his 11pm feeding by 15 min and sometimes he was so tired he moved it up himself. This week, 13 weeks we were able to cut out the last feeding, I would feed him at 8pm and then a cluster feeding at 9 but as a few days ago we cut that feeding. So now his last feeding is anywhere between 8-9pm, 8 if he is really fussy. So far its going good, he goes about 10 1/2 hrs, so now he is waking up between 7-7:30am but he is now starting to go longer between feedings so I am usually back on track to feed him at 11am. Next goal is to move him to 4hour feedings, and the way its looking he will probably move himself. They say not to do 4hr feedings until they are sleeping thru the night, they don't act very hungry or you have to wake them up to feed and are at 5 feedings, so I'm not going to rush it. 

But yes this schedule worked for us and I would do it again!  Some things to remember, growth spurts, they last a couple days, but usually he would go right back to his schedule. 

Next, a sound machine, I noticed that during naps it was hard for him to fall asleep unless he was in his swing so we bought him this cute lil giraffe 

it plays 4 different sounds and has a timer, plus it latches onto anything so you can travel with it! It works so good, we love it! 

Lastly, it was a lil tiring at first because I would want to just sleep thru his feeding if he was still sleeping but I couldn't I had to be disciplined and then I would reward myself by taking a nap when he napped....which you definitely have to do otherwise it's hard to function!

Okay that's it, that was my homework assignment that I think deserves an A, thank you Baby wise and Lacey Ainsworth aka "the baby whisperer!"

This month Lance and I celebrate 4 years of being married! 

It's crazy how fast it's gone by! Since Lance was going to El Salvador for a missions trip on our actual anniversary we decided to have a family date the night before and I rather enjoyed it, life is definitely different now but I wouldn't change a thing. 

 We went to the Gaylord's Ice Display! Of course Bowden is too little to remember but it wasn't really for him lol I love Christmas and we tried to go last year but it was too warm on the day we went so they cancelled it.

 It was 5 degrees in there so they give you these jackets to wear, don't worry we had Bowden all bundled up.

Our favorite scene was the nativity scene

For my anniversary gift we are going to see the Rockettes Christmas Show and I'm sooo excited!!! Happy Anniversary Babe I love you more and more each day!!!!