Twas the night before Christmas...

Although we have all (Curtis, McKenna, &I) been unbelievably sick and miserable this whole week, we have had a wonderful Christma Eve today. The day started with the three of us sleeping in until about 10:3o this morning, We then got ready for the day and went to my parents house to meet Santa and get pictures with him. We have a good family friend who is now a professional Santa Claus, and the closest thing to the real Santa I have ever met. It was a lot of fun getting family pictures taken with him, and taking pictures of McKenna on his lap. She has just recently found her hands and really figured out how to use them. Once she found Santa's beard, she wasn't about to let go of it. Good thing it is the real deal or he would have had a lot of disappointed little kids, and a lot of explaining to do.

My family has this Christmas tradition that every Christmas eve we have a big family feast of all you can eat Nacho's. It's kind of a long boring story about how that came about. Lets just say I LOVE that tradition, and it didn't disappoint this year. So following our visit with Santa, we had our usual big Nacho feast. It was wonderful.

As soon as we were done with dinner and said our goodbyes, we came home and took a long, nearly 3 hour nap as a family...my favorite thing in the world! So far, it has been an absolutely perfect day (with the exception of being super sick), and we are excited to celebrate Christmas tomorrow. We are grateful for our Savior who is the real reason we celebrate this wonderful holiday and for his birth and life. We are grateful for our beautiful daughter who is joining our family this year, and are excited for many more Christmas' to come.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!

Autumn Nelson

We have a new niece on my side as of this morning, and we are SO excited. Autumn Mary-Hazel Nelson makes the 11th grandbaby on my side of the family. My sister said that she was born around 10:30 this morning after only 3 hours of labor from start to finish, and that she is absolutely beautiful. She is small, weighing only 7 lbs 1 oz and is 19 inches long. We haven't ventured out to meet her yet because we have been sick, but we are so excited for Emma and Andy, and can't wait to see how big brother Calvin handles the new addition. Congratulations you guys!

Cooing

As I mentioned before we went to the doctor a couple of days ago for McKenna's 2 month check up, where she also received all her immunization shots. She was measured at the doctor, like they always do, and here are her stats from when she was born until now:

At Birth -

weight 7 lbs 14 oz; height 19 inches

They kept telling us that she was a very average baby.

Now, at her 2 month checkup -

weight 11 lbs 14 oz - 50th to 75th percentile

height 23 1/2 inches - 75th percentile

Head circumfrance 40 cm - 75th percentile

One of the questions our pediatrician asked us was whether McKenna was cooing or not yet. We told him that she did little ones here and there, but not very often. He told us to watch for that because that is a big developmental sign. I don't know if she heard that and that was all the encouragement she needed or what, but that night she started cooing and babbling like crazy and hasn't stopped since. When we talk to her, she'll get a big smile on her face, kick her legs excitedly and just start babbling like we can understand every word she's saying. It has been so much fun watching her grow and learn new things. She is already so smart and expressive, and we have so much fun with her. Our baby is anything but average.