We start the celebration of Christmas with a vengeance! : ) We began celebrations this weekend with the 2nd annual Kern/Jaschen Christmas and Kern/Cox Christmas. Brian, Becca and Meliah spent the day with us on Saturday. We were glad to make it happen after an essentially emergency surgery for Aunt Becca and were ecstatic that she was a "trooper" and was able to travel to see us. And more ecstatic that she listened to my request that she wasn't to do ANYTHING! We had a great day and enjoyed spending time with the family! Alivia was spoiled as ever receiving wonderful gifts that she will grow to use for months to come! She received a move and crawl ball and was sitting in my arms with her butt on the floor...she actually scooted on her butt towards to the ball trying to get closer! It was incredibly cute!!
We finished the busy weekend with the Kern/Cox Christmas enjoying a few hours with Nick, Sabrina and Brylee. They gave Alivia a cute ball popper....the Elefun Popper that Brylee showed Alivia how to use. Adorable! Nick and Sabrina gave each of us a thoughtful gift remembering Angel as well and will forever be appreciated!! We enjoyed visiting with them for the evening and wish that we could do it more often! Life is so incredibly busy for everyone it's hard to have enough time but I find myself more and more telling myself that I we need to MAKE time as good friends are hard to come by.
This weekend is only the beginning to a very busy week preparing the "real thing" of Alivia's First Christmas! I have the entire week off of work this week and as much as I would love to just stay home all week with Alivia I find myself as busy as I am if I am working and will probably welcome the return to work after getting everything I want to get done (or trying to get it done would be better stated) this week.
We start the crazy week off with Alivia's 4 month check-up! 4 MONTHS!!! AHHH! It's insane to say that she is already 4 months old and continues to amaze us in the things that she learns!! The biggest thing....she rolled over today!! She is 4 months old today and she rolled over from her back to her belly...twice. She had a tiny bit of help getting started in the direction and she did the rest. Thinking it was a "fluke" we rolled her back over and she did it again! Made this Mommy cry (of course!) We of course heard that most babies roll from belly to back first so our baby girl is "original" as in most cases : ) Her smiles can make any bad day better in an instant. She continues to laugh more and more. She is getting stronger each day and sits with little assistance for short periods before toppling over.
Jay and I are convinced that we will never receive as good of a gift as we received last year when we found out we were pregnant again. Alivia is the greatest gift that we could ever ask for and are thankful for her each and every day. We are anxious for our very first Christmas as a family. We wish everyone a wonderful and safe holiday and a happy new year in the event that I am not able to post again before ringing in 2012! Be grateful for your friends and family, never take them for granted and know the good things that you have in life!
Merry Christmas with Love!
Santa Claus at Bass Pro Shop
My First Christmas -- This outfit was one of cousin Brayden's first Christmas Outfits (he would have been 6 months old at that time and it fits Alivia at almost 4 months! Ha!)
My Beautiful Girl at her First Christmas party!
It gets better...This Christmas Dress was my niece, Ashleighs, that she wore for her first Christmas...she was almost a YEAR OLD! And it fits Alivia at nearly 4 months old! She's a healthy girl! And looks as cute as her cousin did when she wore it! : ) Bittersweet that my other girl is all grown up and my little girl is growing up just as fast!! 
She kinda looks like a thug! A darn cute one I might add! ; ) 