Merry Christmas!

What a fun week we are having for Judah's first Christmas! We began it with meeting Pop and Granma in Asheville last weekend. After living in North Carolina almost five years, can you believe this was our first trip to Asheville and the Biltmore?! The weather was perfect and the air was filled with plenty of Christmas spirit. We had a great time exploring downtown~including delicious dinner, Sunday breakfast, and of course a candy shop (Pop's favorite part :-)

Here we go!

Wow!

Double Wow!

The Biltmore was absolutely beautiful, and I love that we experienced it with a dash of Christmas in every room. Judah seemed to enjoy every minute...especially the fact that there were Christmas trees down every hall and in every room.  The mountains, architect, decor, lights, delicious lunch, and shopping....so.much.fun.

So much fun with Granma & Pop!

 Of course the highlight of the day was Judah's face when he saw Santa. In case I haven't told you before, Judah loves everyone...apparently, even big jolly guys with white beards :-)

The remainder of the week has been filled with lots of love, laughter, and excitement....and even some early gift-opening.

Reading with Uncle Trent

 We are beyond blessed and rejoicing for having our little miracle in our arms this Christmas.

 

Merry Christmas to you all and thank you, Jesus, for your light, grace & truth!

"There was the true Light, which coming into the world, enlightens every man....And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten through the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1: 9,14

9 months old and into EVERYTHING!

Well, I guess the unattainable is the most intriguing even to adults. That is certainly the case with my 9 month old...I know, can you believe it?!..J-man is 9 months old today! Like I mentioned before, he is a very skilled "crawler and cruiser," thus he somehow manages to get to anything and everything that he is not supposed to have. For example, just last week as I was getting ready in my bathroom (something I try not to do when he is awake, but this particular day it was unavoidable), I sat him in my adjoining bedroom (in view, of course) with tons of floor space and an entire basket of toys. My child, not interested in the least, crawls all the way across the room to the humidifier, pushes up on it to stand, then proceeds to turn over the humidifier and spill all of the water...nice. He is certainly testing his limits. He sometimes looks up at me when climbing on things to see if it's okay. And when he really wants something (even when I firmly say and sign "no"), he will give me a beautiful smile and lean his head to his shoulder as if to say, "C' mon mom, I'm too cute for you to say no!"

I know we're going to have our hands full very soon..I never thought I would have to turn my head to hide laughter when disciplining my child at 8 months!

He also finds this to be the most entertaining thing to do in our large playroom full of toys. And yes, it also serves as mommy's office.

Let's just say that we've been doing a lot of baby-proofing :-)

And I think it's time to put away some of his toys. Here is what he likes to do with his play mat these days, where he used to contently rest and stare at the animals. Not so much anymore!

Despite the occasional head bumps on furniture when trying to stand, spilled water, and other minor incidents~ I LOVE Judah's adventurous spirit and exploratory nature...all boy, for sure! I feel like he is learning so much every day and he has such a thoughtful, contemplative spirit. I think this picture captures that.

His is completely mesmerized by the Christmas tree. And although my sweet boy can be a bit rowdy at times (he now thinks his crib mattress is a trampoline), he is very gentle with the tree ~barely touching it, if at all.

Speaking of "Christmas tree," I'm happy to say that that was one of his first receptive vocabulary words. If you ask, "Judah, where is the Christmas tree?," he looks toward it every time and smiles. He is also starting to make connections, which is so neat to see. For example, he will look back and forth at a picture of a Christmas tree (on a card, painting, etc.) to our real Christmas tree, then look at me and smile...so cute! In case you were wondering, his first receptive vocab word was "Allie" (our dog)...Judah finds her every time! As for expressive language, his babbling is getting more intense and well, more expressive! And yes, he says "Dada" all the time now! Not sure he's made the connection yet, but he is definitely experimenting with the "d" sound :-)

He is also more interested in the function of toys now, rather than just chewing on them! I am amazed that he will sit, listen, and repeat my modeling of sorting and stacking. He is so proud of himself and I am, too!

Hmmm, other updates? Let's see, his top two teeth broke through his gums. No pictures yet, but definitely as soon as they become visible with his smile :-) New teeth, along with jumping in his crib "trampoline" have made for some interesting times with his sleep! Thankfully, he is still getting great night-time sleep, but day-time sleep has been a bit problematic in recent weeks.

He also still LOVES to give kisses. Just yesterday, this series of pics was taken after I asked, "Judah can you give the bear a kiss?" (we had just come in from an outing...I normally don't dress my child in winter hats when we are inside :-)

He is so incredibly sweet and it melts my heart when he gives me kisses out of the blue! And he also initiates "peek-a- boo!" It took me a while to figure out what he was doing at first...one morning after a bottle-feeding, he took the burp cloth with both hands, smiled, and held it between our faces. Then, he dropped the cloth and laughed. Now, the game of "Where's Judah?"...."There he is!" is a favorite part of our mornings....and I love that he does the initiating. One of these days, we'll have to get it on video.

Judah Wells Nix, I love you so much it hurts!
Happy 9 months sweet baby!

Southern Tour Finale

Part 3 of our Southern Tour ended in Kentucky during Thanksgiving week, where Judah met met friends and family.

Judah meeting our dear friends, the Yezerski's!

Meeting the Cunningham family

Loves his Aunt Vickie!

Meeting his Great-Granddaddy

Meeting the extended family for the first time was a hit for Judah...another great hit was new food! Until Thanksgiving, Judah was a vegetarian. We finally introduced meat on Thanksgiving...with turkey, of course!

The anticipation

Wasn't too sure initially

Lovin' it in the end

Turkey and Daddy's kisses...double bonus!

Overall, we had a wonderful time in Kentucky. Despite a few items left in a restaurant and a broken handle on our stroller (thanks Southwest!), we returned home rested and healthy...and most importantly THANKFUL. What a beautiful time of year to remember all of the things we are grateful for. This time last year, we were still waiting on our referral and had never seen a picture of our sweet baby's face. In fact, we didn't even know if we would have a baby by this Thanksgiving.
I could have never imagined the amazing gift of Judah Wells Nix. We are honored and humbled to be the parents of this angel.  As I rocked precious Judah to sleep and placed him in his crib on Thanksgiving night, I sobbed tears of joy, gratitude, and amazement. "I thank my God every time I remember you..."

An Unexpected First

Promise to post about Thanksgiving soon, but this morning I'm just too excited about December! And the Nix's favorite month kicked off with a weekend of snow! That's right, we got a couple of inches yesterday and it was just beautiful. Of course, it was Judah's first so we bundled him up and took him out for a bit. He seemed to be mesmerized, and he was brave and touched and tasted it!

We experienced a similar snow here last December. Here I am holding on to a street light in our neighborhood...random??

December 2009

This year's December snow was much better, as I experienced it holding on to my little man instead :-)

HAPPY DECEMBER!

On the Move

Our little man is on the go, and it is wearing this mama out! These days, he prefers to get around by CRAWLING...

Finally got those pearly whites I've been trying to capture :-)

and CRUISING...

 

I am so proud of him and you will see from the video below that he is proud of himself as well :-)

8 is Great!

Hi everyone, Judah speaking...I'm 8 months old today & I'm lovin' life!

I weigh exactly 20 pounds (my mom says I am getting really heavy :-) and I'm not sure exactly how long I am but I do know that I am really tall (90th percentile, whatever that means). A few weeks ago, two white things popped up from my bottom gums. My mom calls them "teeth"....I think that's what she's been unsuccessfully trying to take a picture of (she's even pulled down my bottom lip), but I keep hiding them from her ;-) They feel pretty weird, but I"m not complaining because I think they help me eat.  Speaking of eating, I'm enjoying all sorts of things now.  I am really thankful that my mom decided to mix different foods together and add a little cinnamon to my life. Oatmeal is my favorite thing to eat for breakfast, and I also really like butternut squash, pears, and sweet potatoes for lunch and dinner. I'm not a huge fan of avocados, but I begrudgingly eat them anyway because it seems to make mom happy. Today, I had mangoes for the first time and I LOVED them. I guess I should mention that mom makes my food and she is a pretty good cook :-) We'll see how she does with a more advanced menu, though, because so far she just seems to be mashing things up. Also, I am loving eating "puffs" with my fingers, and I totally had finger foods mastered the first time mom and dad introduced them to me. Mom says the puffs consist of organic greens such as kale and broccoli, but I don't believe her because it pretty much tastes like cardboard...I just like picking up things and putting them in my mouth. She says now that I'm 8 months old, I get to try new foods such as yogurt and more finger foods like blueberries and tofu. Oh, and I think I overheard her tell someone that my first meat is going to be turkey on Thanksgiving day...can't wait to gobble it up :-)

I really love being around people, and I especially like the company of little people that are close to my age. I just started saying "hi" to people by waving and smiling. That's pretty cool because they always smile and wave back. I also give kisses to the people I love...mom especially loves my kisses and I think she cried last week when I pulled her head to mine and gave her a big sloppy one right on the mouth when I woke up from my nap...they seemed to be happy tears, though, so I keep doing it. I also talk a lot but no one seems to understand what I'm saying.

I can now go from sitting to crawling position. My mom says I can't technically "crawl" yet but I'm perfectly content with slithering and rolling because I can definitely get to where I want to go! My other favorite activities include reading (especially books that have "flaps" to lift and peek under), banging things together to make "music," jumping, trying to pull up on everything imaginable, and playing in the water in the bath tub as long as my mom and dad will allow! Oh, and I LOVE music. My parents enjoy a pretty wide range, so I listen to all genres. Classical and Christmas music (yes, mom begins listening to that a little early) are my faves these days, but I really like Rap/Hip-Hop, too.

 Being 8 months old is pretty awesome so far and I think life can only get better!

Southern Tour, Part 2

Part 2 of our tour commenced a couple of weekends ago in Cartersville, Georgia....known to some as Colliersville :-) This is the hometown of my BFF, Nancy Collier Traywick.

We were once college roomies, and I love that we still find time to see each other at least a few times per year even though we live states apart. While Nancy lives in a town in Alabama that I won't call by name...let's just say that it begins with an AU and ends with a burn...her parents still live in Cartersville and that is where the fall reunion of sorts took place. Like I've mentioned before, our sons are just 4 weeks apart so it was great to hang out and watch Judah and Braylen play. Saturday, we had an amazing lunch with Nancy's family (thanks Meme and O!) at Barnsley Gardens. Notice Judah has graduated to a high chair now...such a big boy :-)

Following the lunch, we decided to try our own little fall photo shoot with the boys. Although chilly, it was a very beautiful day. Here I am loving on my little man in preparation for the photo shoot.

Some of my favorite shots of the day...

Happy Judah!

Pensive Judah

Sad the lighting isn't so great for this one...we were battling one fierce sun that day...

but love this one of the boys.

During the shoot, there was an entertaining game of paci tug-o-war.

Braylen won.

Judah got him back later by smacking him to the ground. 

They made up in the end. 

Later that evening despite an Alabama loss to LSU, Nancy was still trying to convince the boys to attend The University of Alabama. The title of this book (Judah's new favorite) is "I Want to Go to Alabama."

Roll Tide Anyway!

Stay-tuned for Part 3 of our tour. We're headed to the Music City and the Bluegrass State next week!