PAGES

Family Update

Thursday, January 30, 2014
I haven't been in the blogging mood lately due to an extra fussy teething baby. So I thought I'd do a quick post to update you guys!

Vivian- She's almost 10 months!! I can't believe how fast time goes (but I totally do believe it.. I mean don't mothers know that better than anyone else?!) She's getting really fast at crawling and is starting to pull herself up on everything. She even started cruising along the couch! She can wave, clap, and do this thing we call "the ET finger" where she points at someone then holds her little finger out until that person touches her finger with theirs (& its so cute it kills me!). She's babbling (bababababa!) but no real words are forming yet, although when she's really upset and Kevin has her she'll make a "mamama" sound until I take her, but I don't know if thats on purpose or not! She's regressed in her night time sleeping since the holidays ended (obviously she isn't ready for the party season to be over!) and sometimes she is up every hour for the first 4 hours then every 2/3 after that. Last night she slept for 4 hours straight and I woke up feeling way too refreshed, it was sad. She's starting to get her first (and second!) tooth, so its been a pretty crabby week in the Sommer house. She's still got her blue eyes and they're getting lighter. And her platinum blonde hair is starting to get longer! She's usually a happy baby but when she's not, getting out of the house it still the best way to clam her down.



Kevin- Oh what a hard working man my husband is! He's working 6 days a week for a fitness equipment store and teaching Crossfit classes. I'm super excited to finally be able to tell everyone that he officially has his own gym- Crossfit Rally Point! Its been in the works for quite some time, but with all the insurance paperwork and finding a name that Crossfit approved it took a lot longer than we wanted. But we're one step closer to getting things where we want them to be! They're running it out of the back of the fitness equipment store (Boise Fitness Equipment) and soon the store and the gym will be moving into a giant and pretty awesome space just down the road. I'm so excited for Kevin and all of the great people we get to train with because they deserve a nice BIG space for all of the muscle building and just plain awesomeness that goes on there. I hope to get certified to teach Crossfit and Crossfit Kids to help Kevin and the others out with the gym!




Me- Oh gosh..! Well I'm doing good, trying to remember to breath and center myself when we're going on hour 2 of crying with the baby. I taught myself to knit a month ago and I restarted the same scarf close to 100 times haha, but I was determined to make a nice one without holes. I do my best to make it into the gym 3/4 days a week and have been doing yoga at the house on the days I don't make it in. I've also been going to a hot yoga class a few times a week when I can get Kevin's mom to watch Vivian, and I love it. Its so mentally challenging and really forces you to listen to your body. Most of my days are spent playing with Vivian on the floor or rocking her to sleep because her mouth hurts too bad to put her self to sleep. I've also been trying to be more mindful, and get into the habit of practicing equanimity when I feel myself start to become overwhelmed/stressed/sad/frustrated crazy and I feel like I'm slowly starting to gain control of my mind. I started meditation at night when I'm about to go to sleep and I would like to do it more throughout the day. I can't wait for it to warm up a little bit here (I know my Alaska family and friends are rolling their eyes.. haha) because I really want to spend more time outside.







So there you have it- hopefully this can hold you over until that tooth makes its appearance!

Vivian's First Christmas!

Saturday, January 4, 2014

They're not kidding when they say the Christmas becomes a million times more fun when you have children! (And our little love bug isn't even old enough to really know whats going on.. haha!) We spent Christmas eve at Kevin's Aunt Marilyn's house with his family. We had amazing stew and stayed super late laughing and talking.
When you first wake up on Christmas morning with a baby you don't even care that she was up every two hours because all you can do is be excited to put her in her Christmas dress! I kept telling her "Merry Christmas Vivian!" and she kept looking at me like I had lost my mind. 

We woke up and I put her in front of the tree so I could take some pictures of her beautiful sleepy head in front of the lights and I put on a DVD with the old Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer cartoon (you totally know which one I'm talking about!). At first it was just me and Vivian in the living room playing with her toys in our jammies. Then our my excited chatter finally drove Kevin out of bed and into the kitchen where he whipped up the fluffiest chocolate chip pancakes. 


Our family came over and we did the whole gift exchange deal. While Vivian didn't get as excited about ripping open a present as I thought she would, she did eat a small piece of wrapping paper when I wasn't looking.. Then we had a yummy roast for dinner and Vivian ate way too much potato!
After Kevin's family had gone home to sleep off the food and fun we Facetimed my Family in Alaska and Vivian got to open up a few more presents from my dad, step mom, and sister. At this point she was tired and so over the festivities but she was the sweetest and kept waving to them. 
Kevin and I haven't really gotten Vivian any toys since she's been born, and after this Christmas I don't think we'll need to for a long, long time. The girl is spoiled! She's the first grandchild for Kevin's parents and my dad so I guess it was expected!


 Every day I listen to the news and all of the bad things that happen and it makes me worry a lot but there is just something about the holiday season that never fails to make me all warm and soft on the inside and makes me think of all the good there is still in the world.
I felt so grateful this year and so loved. The amount of love and support that our family and friends have given us blows me away! This has been the best year yet.

This Christmas marked one of Vivian's last "first holidays". While that makes me all motherly and kind of sad that my baby is growing out of being a baby way too fast for my liking.. it makes me excited for all that still is ahead of us. 

Our First Christmas Party

  Notice the post isn't titled "Ugly Sweater Party", despite my desire to have our first USP I found out that party planning is crazy demanding (add hauling around a teething 8 month old, AND the Christmas season..) so I didn't get everything done that I had wanted to. So our party was just a *Christmas Sweater party since everyone except two people (obviously the stars of the show!) were wearing ugly sweaters haha. 
(Sorry for the lack of pictures but I had my hands full with serving mimosas, holding my baby, and shoving doughnut holes into my mouth.) 

  For food I made my double chocolate chip cookies, french toast bake, ham & egg cups, and some crackers with cheese and salami. We started everything off with mimosas while the hot chocolate was brewing in the crock pot. And since it was our cousins Birthday (Happy Birthday Danny!!!) I had made a doughnut tower that I put candles in and we all sang him happy birthday.                                        




  I had our usual Christmas decorations up, but I had this extra string of lights that I was unsure what to do with. I randomly got the idea to hang it on the wall in the kitchen/dinning room to add a little bit of holiday cheer in there. I really like how it came out, and it was probably my favorite part of the party. When I was cleaning up last night Kevin and I decided it'll stick around till after the new year :)


  Overal I'd say it was a success, our last two guests didn't leave until 11pm! Hosting is a lot of work and I was exhausted at the end of the night, but I'm definitely excited for this to be our new tradition. I loved getting to spend more time with our friends and family than we usually would get to and that's what this season is all about, right?!


 
Designed with ♥ by Nudge Media Design