Christmas is a week away!!

One week until Santa! We have an entire wall in our bedroom that is stacked with gifts ready to be wrapped and placed under the tree for Makena. It's so ridiculous. But we just can't stop buying her things! Okay, I can't stop. I keep finding all these great deals that I can't pass up. I just got her a Little People toy house and car for under $20, and normally the house alone is close to $40. I think I may save that for her birthday though, since it's for ages 1 and up. ;)

And her party! Her first birthday party!! It's almost a month away, and we have the place picked out and need to send out invites and start planning!!!! I'm so excited for Christmas, but I'm equally excited for it to be over so that I can focus on her party.

Last week we were invited along to a photo shoot with Ian and Colin. Makena wore the cutest dress, thanks to Catriona!










Such great photos!! Makena is truly the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. She's honestly getting even more beautiful each day. Sometimes I can't handle it. It's overwhelming how much I love her and how wonderful she is.

It's crazy to us how much she walks now. I haven't seen her crawl in a while! People stop us all the time to comment on how advanced she is for her age. We were at Target today and I let her walk around in the toy aisles, and she and a little boy were playing with this toy vacuum and taking turns spinning the middle. Every time it played music they would both dance. And by dance I mean that little up and down bounce that all babies do. lol. The boys parents asked how old she was, and I said almost 11 months. And they said their son was 16 months old. He was still wobbly on his feet and slower, but then again Makena isn't very cautious or afraid. She reached to pull the toy down off the shelf (it was on the bottom shelf, but it was in a box that was taller than she is) and it fell into her lap as she sat down/fell. The dad rushed over to help her, and I told him it was okay, and sure enough she just stood back up and started playing again.

She has learned so many little things...

She can clap her hands now, and make an actual clap sound!
She waves bye.
She can almost blow a kiss. (Well, she puts her finger in her mouth and says "Mmm!" and that's all...lol)
She lifts her hands up when she wants to be picked up.
She holds phones up to her ear as if she's talking to someone.
She can put the rings on her toy.
She can stack her blocks.
She can throw a ball.
She can turn pages of her board books.
She can pick up the duck and/or hippo bath toys when you ask for them.
She can even put her dirty clothes in the laundry basket!



Tomorrow my mom is coming over to keep her occupied while I attempt to clean up this messy house and sew my Christmas pajamas.