Christmas Cheer

I love Christmas time! I love the decorations, the "holiday cheer" and just the emphasis on family and being together and loving each other. We started our Christmas season the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Although Josh was feeling puny, he put up our 2 huge trees and decorated the house and the outside. It is a Danford family tradition that the baby of the family gets to put the angel on top of the tree. Here is baby Alexa doing the honors this year.

Of course big sister didn't want to miss out on it either :)

It was so funny to me, I remember when we were decorating for Christmas last year I was about 12 weeks pregnant and was having horrible morning sickness. Josh, my mom and Avery did most of the decorating. This year we had a 5 month old watching the festivities. What a difference a year makes!

Speaking of our sweet 5 month old! Josh's cousin does a picture magnet for his grandparents every year, and needed a picture of Alexa. I threw a bow on her and snapped some pictures after work one night. Jonnilin edited them for me and here is our gorgeous chunky girl!

 Thursday December 12th was the only day we could pencil in a visit to Santa with our busy schedules :) We were there are 10am and the girls were the first ones of the day to sit on his lap.

 They did great! Avery was so excited to see him and wasn't shy at all. Alexa did awesome too! She got a handful of beard when we sat her on his lap, but after that she sat sweetly and we even were able to get a few smiles.

 Here is Avery telling him that she is almost 4.

 

And having a heart to heart about her Christmas list.

I don't even want to talk about how much she has grown since last year! She is wearing the same dress and you can see how much taller she is!

Here is Avery's gingerbread house. She decorated it so well! I did the white icing work and the fondant door, everything else was her creation.

This was before church this past week. She looked so cute in her Christmas ensemble.

My sweet girls.

Avery's Christmas program at school was on Friday. Josh was able to leave work to attend and my mom came too. It was so cute the Pre-K kid reenacted the nativity. The younger classes sang all the Christmas songs. Here she is after the program looking like a 12 year old! :(

Thanksgiving 2013

I had to work this year for Thanksgiving, but we were able to celebrate Thanksgiving with two very special groups before Turkey day.

 The first celebration was at Avery's school. They do a Thanksgiving feast, completed with turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing, rolls and dessert. I was able to stay the morning after dropping her off to help cook. We stayed for the feast and Avery had a great time with her friends Elizabeth, Lainey and Emerson. She also enjoyed seeing her sister and me as well.

 The week before Thanksgiving we has a feast with our church neighborhood group. I had place setting for 16 people.

 We totally filled it up! It was awesome to have everyone together to eat, and visit and enjoy time together. We have an awesome church family and it is such a blessing to spend time with them on Wednesdays to study, talk and grow together.

And here is the kids' table! 10 kids between all of us. They are a crazy when they get together! Ms. Brenda babysat for us, God bless her!

 

Thanksgiving day, I had to work, but Josh took the girls to his grandma's house for their tradition Italian thanksgiving. Fried turkey, meatballs and red gravy and braciolone. I hated to miss it, but would rather work Thanksgiving and be off for Christmas.

Alexa Claire:5 months old!

Alexa Claire, you are 5 months old!

 You are wearing  3-6 month clothes perfectly

Still in size 3 diapers.

I am not sure how much you weigh, but you are a roly poly!

 

 We are STILL working on your sleep schedule.

You are such a cat napper! You can take 4 short naps throughout the day. You poor thing, you always fall asleep in the car seat while Mommy is bringing Avery to school and during our errands through out the day.

You start getting fussy around 5:30 every night. Then it is bath time with sissy, you nurse then you are in bed around 6:30. After that you are up at random times through out the night. You like to nurse every time you wake up too!

 You have been busy this month! We took our first vacation at the beginning of  November. You did pretty well in the car, except you got bored at the end. The portable DVD player was a Godsend!

You didn't sleep very well in the pack n play, but at least mommy got to nap during the day :)

 You started sitting up unassisted this month! You are still very wobbly, but you can stay up for a while. You LOVE the excersaucer and Johnny jumper. You can happily  play in those for a long time.

Teething is in full force! You haven't cut any teeth yet, but you are chewing on everything! Ice, cucumbers, carrots, apple slices, our fingers! I just pray it doesn't hurt you too bad :(

 

Alexa Claire, we love you so much! I love to see your happy little face every morning in your crib. Your face lights up every time you see your sister and she is so in love with you. Your personality is starting to come out more, you are pretty easy going, but I can see a temper/stubborn streak in you. You are such a blessing to your family and although I am a little sleep deprived, I love waking up at night to cuddle and nurse you. We thank God everyday for adding you to our family. Happy 5 months baby girl!

Danford Family Vacation 2013

In the beginning of November the Danford clan took a trip to Gatlinburg. I have been wanting to visit since before Josh and I got married. We have been planning this trip for over and year. We got a great deal on the cabin and everyone was in!

It was a 13 hour drive with 2 kids! There were lots of potty stops and thank the Lord for portable DVD players! This was at our breakfast stop at Cracker Barrel.

 The cabin was BEAUTIFUL, the views were AMAZING, but the drive up to the cabin was TERRIFYING! There were hairpin turns and ridiculously steep roads. But we all made it up in one piece and were ready to relax!

 Leslie, Joey and Lydia came up to visit when we got there. It was so nice to be able to spend some time with them, drink some moonshine :) and watch the Saints game. They left Monday morning and we relaxed all day. We went out to eat at the Old Mill restaurant that afternoon. On Tuesday it SNOWED! It was so exciting! There wasn't very much and didn't stick to the wet ground, but it was a fun experience for all of us.

 We made a friend on our porch. The kids named him Pete and my brother Josh fed him Doritos. Thankfully nobody contracted rabies during our trip.

 It was so cold outside, that we spend a lot of time just cuddling and relaxing. I don't think anyone got cabin fever too badly.

 These girls enjoyed hanging out with each other.

 One of our big outings was to Cade's Cove. It was so picturesque. We did the driving tour and got to see the old churches and cemeteries.

 Look at that view!

 Our little family.

 We got to see plenty of deer. The bears and turkeys were no where to be seen though.

 We got to go inside the old houses. It's amazing that they are still standing.

 The kids in one of the outbuildings.

 Our last day there we went to WonderWorks. Avery had a wonderful time (so did the grownups!)

When we checked out of the cabin, we drove about 2 hours to Leslie and Bo's house. We spend two days there and relaxed the whole time. It was so nice! Avery and Lydia were BFF's and Leslie spoiled Alexa the whole time. Josh got to play XBOX and I got to catch up on some reading. It was so nice to be to recuperate from vacation.

We also took family pictures on the balcony of our cabin.

Here is our "official LeBlanc photo for 2013"

Alexa Claire 4 months old!

Alexa Claire you are 4 months old!

You weigh 14 pounds 14 ounces (75%)

You are 25 1/4 inches long (88%)

Your 4 month check up went great, except for the shots :(

 

We had a little bump in your schedule this month.

You were waking up so much!!!

Momma was not ready for crying it out,

so there have been lots of late night nursing and cuddling sessions.

You have also been eating 3 ounces every 2-3 hours.

 

 

You started playing in your excersaucer this month and the johnny jumper.

 You rolled over from your belly to your back this month on October 14.

You also celebrated Halloween this month and went to the pumpkin patch for the first time.

 

 

You are such a sweet addition to our family.

We love you so much! 

Alexa's Baby Dedication

October 27th, we dedicated Alexa to the Lord.

I am so happy that we have such a loving and supportive church to raise her up.

Jeff spoke a great word over her and we had all of our parents and Corey and Jessica there to be a part of it. It is amazing watching Avery grow in her knowledge of God and His love, I can't wait to teach Alexa and watch her grow. 

We told Avery about the dedication and explained to her that we were giving Alexa to the Lord.

For some reason, she had an image of the Lion King in her head. She kept asking us if we were going to raise her up for the Lord. Everyone thought it was so funny, so after Jeff did her dedication, we raised her up :)

Halloween 2013

 We had a great Halloween!

Avery finally decided on Lalaloopsy. It was a close race between her, Hello Kitty and Ariel.

I love how colorful her costume is.

 Alexa had some pajamas that look like one of the characters.

I found this crocheted wig on Etsy. They turned out so cute!

 Josh had Ashley DePalma paint his face. It came out awesome.

Halloween night we invited everyone from church and our neighborhood over to the house.

It was actually our 7th year hosting Halloween.

We had a great turn out, but it was so rainy! We made it to about 5 houses in between rain showers.

Some of the braver older kids went throughout the neighborhood,

 but we mostly hung out in the garage.