A Hoppy Life: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and So Much In Between

Wow as always so much has happened since my last blog post! Our little man is growing so much and is getting smarter, more agile, more eager to move and happier everyday. I can't tell everyone enough how wonderful being a mother is and how truly happy it makes me. Sometimes I find myself crying because I just can not imagine my life without my little man! I am so lucky to have him, daddy and of course our little puppy! This has been the happiest year of my life, and I am so excited for so many more to come!

Okay enough mushy gushy stuff. Again where have I been. It's amazing how time flies when you have a baby and are working. The holiday season has come and gone and it all happened so fast. Wow! Work, typically crazy this time of year, is twice as crazy - which has me twice has busy. Max is a toddler (basically) and needs constant entertainment at home. He'll play by himself in his laugh and learn jumperoo or on his playmat, but we like to play with him, so we are very involved. He's rolling over constantly and if he had it his way he'd be crawling.. he's just not quite yet there.. but he wants to be.

We had been putting Max to bed around 9 p.m., however, he's changed that on his own. Since we've been feeding him solid foods, for over 2 months now, at night time he knows it's time to eat. We used to feed him at 8 p.m., then get him ready for bed, then put him down. He decided that 8 p.m. was too late and since then we've moved everything up about 30 minutes, so he's eating around 7:20 p.m. and then we start his night time routine thereafter. He's been in bed the past few nights around 8 p.m. or so. We've also started reading him books every night as part of his routine. We alternate who reads and the other gets his stuff ready for the next day. Max loves it! He'll try and turn around and watch you while your reading and it's super cute! In fact, right now he's in bed (in his own room, first night ever) right now! It was a good Saturday night for us!
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Okay let's jump backwards real quick here! How was our Christmas! Well it was nice. We celebrated in Sandusky on the 23rd, which was lots of fun! Kevin and Max got me a brand new D5100 digital SLR camera. It is awesome! I also received the backpack camera bag (that has a tripod and everything in it) and the best digital camera card. I'm so spoiled and happy! I'm going to be the best mommy photographer ever!! Watch for lots of pictures!

When it came time for 'Real' Christmas Day.. Mommy got sick. That's right on Christmas Eve we went to Kevin's Aunt's house, which was fun but I started to not feel good.. so we left a little early. Once home we put Max to bed and I started to feel nauseous. Next thing I know I'm throwing up, okay I threw up twice. But I felt horrible.. very very horrible! The next day, Christmas morning, I managed to get up and we opened presents and celebrated our first Christmas as a family! It was nice.. but again I felt horrible! Daddy saved the day, he let me sleep and try and recover. By noon I was feeling better but not nearly perfect! We got ready and headed over to Memaw's house. Thank goodness for family.. I informed everyone that I was sick and so I was allowed to rest and they took care of Maxie. We opened gifts and spent time together. I love our family get together's and seeing everyone... it's true you getting sappier after you have kids because just thinking about how much I love everyone could get me crying again.. the second time during this blog I think. I wish I wasn't sick, but I have promised Max never to be sick on Christmas again! He's so amazing he forgives me!

Christmas Day was huge! We had our Christmas, Memaw's Christmas and we traveled to Florida!! Wow we are crazy to travel on Christmas but you can't beat the fact that we got to fly out of the Youngstown airport on one of the few flights that they have. It's so nice and only 5 minutes from Memaw and Papa's house. So we left from there and headed to the airport. We checked in, made it through security and immediately boarded. A short 2.25 hours later we were in Florida. We got our rental car and were at my parent's Florida house by 10:15 p.m. Wow!! Again what a day! I'm disappointed to say I do not have any pictures from our house Christmas morning or from Memaw's I'm going to have to ask her to send me some.. even if I'm not in them.. as it was Max's first Christmas and so I don't want him mad at me when he's older because I have no pics!

Florida was so much fun, it was so WARM!! Ah why we don't live there I don't know but it's amazing! 70 degrees all week, Sunny and just the right amount of humidity! Ah amazing! It was so nice we spent alot of time outside, swimming, golfing, shopping, at the zoo and at the beach. We also visited our Florida Family - the Florida Crabbs - and my Uncle and Aunt that live across the golf course from my parents. While we were in Florida Max's bottom front two teeth came in a little more which made him a little uncomfortable.. but we're all good and he fought threw it. It was a busy week but again so much fun and worth all the travel and hassle!

The Florida Crabbs are great! Bradie got to carry Max around (something she's wanted to do since he was a newborn) and Kaleb is such a good young man. They are amazing kids, I hope Kevin and I do as good a job as Kerry and Derek have done! Amazing! Their parenting skills -- wow amazing! Derek even showed us how it's done, and I swear I had to blink as I thought I was looking at Papa for a second!!

As for New Years, we stayed in, ate lots of food and a spent time together as a family! Again it's been an amazing year! I am so blessed, we are so blessed and I can not wait to see what the future and the future years bring. Hopefully we'll see our little family grow and we'll see lots of career success and continued happiness!

Here are a few pictures of our little vacation. I miss the Florida Crabbs already and the Florida weather!!

Doggie loves Doggies!

Feet!! Loves Feet!

Morning time.. Max was grumpy his teeth hurt! They came in!

Sam aka the model!

Uncle John and Aunt Peg!

Happy Baby!!

At the zoo!! Checking out the animals!

Captivated!

My little ham!!

Florida Crabbs Plus Max!

All of us!

Bradie! Another little ham!

Kerry wants another!!

Bradie and her Uncle Kevin aka Jungle Gym!

Max swimming!!

He loved moving around on his tummy... he did not like going under!

Sam and Max!

Sam in the ocean!

The beach! It was a perfect day!

Beach... beautiful!

Max and Grandpa!

Max and Grandpa again!

Our little family!

Henry would like to be in our family! Another Ham!

Grandma and Grandpa Nesgoda!

If you can't tell I love my new camera.. and will be taking a ton of photos!! Max has even learned that when I say 'Smile' he smiles. Here's few pictures from today!!