And now for JORDAN'S Family Christmas

Ok, I promise, this is the last installment of Christmas. I have New Years' to blog about already!!

First things first: The most beautiful girl in the world, on her way to Grandma and Grandpa Taylor's house for Christmas Eve. She is in her (gifted by Grandma) "My First Christmas" outfit :)

And here's Grandma. She spoiled Claire ROTTEN!! :) Here she is with a HUGE handfull of Skittles in her little hand. She ate them ALL. It was a great night!

And here she is with the Skittles again. We are awesome parents.

And here's our little cutie, Sam, Jenn's little boy! So adorable! And HUGE--like, he's REALLY tall. He's a few months behind Claire and way bigger! (not that that's hard, I guess, this IS Claire we're talking about!)

And my three beautiful sisters-in-law, from left to right: Jessica, Katie, and Camille!

And here's Camille with Jenn's little girl, Ava. She's getting so big!!

Ummm...we all got these socks for Christmas. They're pretty suhweeeeet!

And speaking of sweet, here is my SWEET husband. (I know what you're thinking..."gag me")

He is doing what he does best: Hanging out on the computer. Fixing stuff and whatever else he does. That's his idea of FUN!

And here's me with Jenn's other little girl, Lexi. Well, she's not that little anymore... She got a "money tree" for Christmas...cute idea!! (that's where the skittles came from--they were in the money tree pot, you know, like in lieu of "dirt")

Family picture time! This is the best we could get :)

center;">And I tried for a LONG time. I wanted to get a CUTE picture like this one of my friend, Megan's boy, Porter But alas, she would NOT cooperate!!

And now here is a taste of what Claire thought about her new little puppy toy :) Right now, whenever you ask her "what does the doggie say?" She like hyperventilates. You will see it here. It's so funny!

And here's Jenn and little Sam!

And Jessica and me. Being our usual dorky selves!

The Three Amigas! Jessica, me, and Camille

Claire just being cute. As usual.

She (and I) was very excited about the set of Baby Einstein books Camille got her!

And Claire got this super-cute hat that has a matching sweater. So fun!

And finally, Ava got one of those sit and spin toys that we all know and love from our childhood, right? This one is more hi-tec, of course, and plays music :) Claire loved it too. It's hilarious how Jessica is saying "weeee!" as she goes around and Claire is imitating her. So fun.

Such a great time!!! Thank you, Dan and Lenore, for the Best Christmas Ever! (well, until the next one, because they are ALL the best :)

'Twas the night before the night before Christmas...

(the 23rd...)

And all through the house

Not a baby was stirring (which is good because it was like 1am!)

Not even a mouse (because we don't have any here, thank you very much!)

The stockings were hung

On the piano with care (because of Claire's ability to pull on them and seriously injure herself with the stocking holders)

In hopes that we'd actually fill them with goodies this year.

(many times we really don't fill them, it's pathetic)

Janessa & Jordan were NOT nestled all snug in their beds

With visions of (NOT sugar plums..what are those anyway??) frosted sugar cookies dancing in their heads

Janessa in her favorite men's Hollister sweatshirt courtesy of her husband, and Jordan in his...beanie

Had just settled in the living room for a nice peek at the "stash"

So, we weren't supposed to GET anything for each other this year. BUT, Jordan, like the good husband he is, knows that Janessa loves it when he breaks that rule :) And he got her some stuff ANYWAY. NOW, he will forever say that I COULDN'T WAIT to open my gifts, but HEY. HE asked ME if I wanted to open them, and what was I supposed to say?? NO?

So here goes :)

*WARNING* Scary images of a makeup-free Janessa coming up... you may want to shield your eyes...

***But first: Is this not SUCH PRETTY wrapping paper? :)

The easy-find lid tupperware! YAY!

And I was very excited about this one: (Jordan knows I LOVE purple!)

Some of the boxes were really hard to open: (or maybe I'm just a dork and didn't get a knife or something...trying to rip packing tape with your bare hands might not be that easy...)

Jordan also got me a sweater from Macy's and two sweaters from his favorite store: Savers. Yep! They are cute too!

Now, since I was actually sticking to our "no presents" plan (since I already got this beauty and Jordan got a blu-ray player for himself for the same price as I got the camera...crazy!) I had gotten him NOTHING. NADA. ZILCH. BUT, he masqueraded the presents he got ME that morning, so I HAD to get him something! (even when he told me not to!)

So I headed to Walmart the night of the 23rd with my friends, Rachel & Jonathan, and Megan. Jonathan was awesome bc I needed to get a "good quality crescent wrench" and I had NO idea what that was or what "good quality" was) and so he helped me get it. And then I got him candy.

My manly man with the crescent wrenches :)

Um...I even wrapped the gum (Jordan LOVES pina colada anything!) so he'd have more than one present to unwrap haha ;)

And wrapped the Reeses...

And some candy Jordan likes but I DON'T, so it was awesome!!

Christmas with MY Family.

Ok, we're doing a post for each of the families. Don't be alarmed when you see like NO pictures at my parents house...sorry guys, I kinda forgot about taking pictures after getting there and eating all that delicious food...

But FIRST: Check out the awesome apron my Mom made me!! Fof, I LOVE it, and have used it a LOT this year... and yes, Heather, I know it's "frufru" and that I am to blame (I helped my Mom pick out the fabric, pattern, etc. and according to her, I "made" her make one for all of the girls in the family...whatever, there was NO forcing here...).

So here we are at my parents' house. Yes, such a great picture. But when you don't have that many... My mom, Claire, me, and Laurencita.

And here is a great one of Lauren and Claire...what is Lauren so afraid of? :) Getting her picture taken, I'm sure...and she not even a teenager with braces yet!

And finally, here's Claire opening her very first Christmas present!

That Hawaiian counting book...she LOVES it. She loves to pull every single little loose piece out of it and get them lost! Don't worry, Mommy has found them all.

Jordan and me with Grandma Fern...yeah, this is the best picture we had :)

And cousin, Kiera, is taking Claire somewhere here...hmm...

And here's my honey (pictured with Jay and Claire) in a nice little Santa hat! Great look for you, babe!

And here's what we got my parents for Christmas. As you can see, there are MANY picture frames that still need to be filled!

Thanks Mom and Dad for a great Christmas!!

More Claire Updates...she just keeps on doing new stuff!

Since I'm obsessed with documenting every step of Claire's childhood, so that when she asks what she was 'like' I can refer her to the blog instead of telling her the exact same one-liner my mom always told me when I asked ("you liked to hide under blankets." All she's got on me. That's ALL.).

Anyway, at 11.5 months old, Claire is doing some really fun things:

1. We have been testing out utensils with her! The other night it was so cute. My mother-in-law, Lenore, was helping her eat by giving her a little fork. Claire tried to get some of the food from her tray with it, but is still not quite there, so Lenore would take the fork, put a little piece of food on it, and give it back to her. Then Claire would pass it back to her for a refill. Ha!

2. Claire is pretty much obsessed with "doggies." She now knows exactly what we mean when we say that word, and she promptly starts hyperventilating at the sound of it! Haha. She'll even stop crying when Jordan or I talk about the doggie and make little barking noises. Lenore and Dan have a dog named Tess and Claire has a love-hate relationship with her. She will get so excited at the sight of Tess, but then freak out when tess comes near. BUT, in a little while when she gets used to her, Claire will go after the "doggie" :)

3. Claire is ALMOST walking. The most steps she's taken is 6 at a time. It has been really exciting to see her walk! It's funny because she can totally do it, but it's all about the confidence, and she's not quite there yet. The most we've gotten her to walk has been by offering her an ornament or one of Tess' disgusting toys :) high in the air, and then she'll have a little more motivation to walk. *update...she's taking even MORE steps since I wrote this post...walking soon!!

4. So, Jordan is convinced that Claire says her own version of "tree." Every time he points to the tree and/or says "Christmas tree" to her, she says "ka." Apparently, this is her word for "tree."

5. Claire loves it when I let her bite my finger. She thinks it's really funny when I scream in pain. And her teeth are like little RAZORS!! I don't know why I endure this pain for her entertainment.

6. Um. So, this may be a little "graphic" but it was pretty funny so I'll try to tell it in the most ungraphic way possible. So, I am really nervous about weaning Claire from breastfeeding. She's WAY too attached to it. In fact, this morning, I'm laying on my bed as she crawls around trying to throw herself off of it, I'm sure... and I just barely nursed her. Guess it wasn't enough. She grabbed my shirt, pulled it up and buries her little face into my chest, latching on. It was like bobbing for apples. She'd do it, then come up for air, and then go down again. Until I got control of the situation. Weaning here we come...I'm scared.

7. Claire will look down at her belly or point to her belly when you ask her about her belly button :) She isn't pulling up her shirt or anything yet (probably because a lot of times she's got a onesie on...try that!)

8. When you tell her "clap your hands" she does it! It's really cute :) I'm working on the infamous "gimme 5" right now...

9. When ask her "Can Mama have a kiss?" and pucker up, she'll put put her lips up to yours. It's so adorable!! Jordan taught her that one ;)

10. One of Claire's favorite toys: bras. I think it's the texture of the bras and the wire? She'll put it in her mouth and crawl around with it like a little puppy. So funny. (and yes, I own a pink and yellow bra... it came in a two-pack at Costco...)

11. Claire sleeps like this, pretty much all the time. With her little bum in the air. I sometimes go in to "check on her" but it's really just to see how cute she sleeps, if I'm really being honest here!

(although I did find her like this during a nap the other day :)

12. Ok, I know I've already blogged my brains out about Claire and the tub, but I just can't help myself. Could you?? I mean, look at this face...

And she's even fine getting out...always happy to get wrapped up in her towel :) Look at those teeth!! (no WONDER she's been up in the night so much!)

We Are Freaks.

Yep. Freaks. In a matter of 2 days, we redecorated the living room. The thing is, we were already planning on putting up a couple of galleries with our new family pictures. And for the last three years, I've been dying to paint the fireplace wall a gray blue color, and Jordan has resisted (since the wall is 18 feet HIGH! I mean, who wouldn't, right?).

Then, the navy blue curtains I made a while back, have gotten bleached in the sun, so I'd been meaning to change them (with something LINED this time!), but there was a problem... Even the 108" curtains are too short. SO, we had to make a cornice. Custom. Jordan is a saint. He did it all (well, I helped on the easy parts :)

First, here is a picture of the progress. The only one I have. Seriously. Sorry. We used the Valspar one-coat paint from Lowe's (Jordan said he'll NEVER go back to any other--we used less than a gallon of paint on this wall and ONLY ONE COAT.)

My honey doing the painting! NOW. The reason we are FREAKS, is because we decided to do this last Wednesday. We needed it done by Saturday morning because I had a baby shower here on Saturday at noon. SO, Jordan did all the painting on Thursday and then on Friday, we had to do the curtains. (and that was AFTER 10pm because we had my family's Christmas party that night!) That took a LONG time. In fact, for the 3rd time in my life (first since college!) I pulled an all-nighter!!! AH! It was crazy. We were rushing to get this done!!

And then once we got it done, we had to clean up. YOu should have seen the mess!! Our AWESOME friends, Rachel and Jonathan came over on Saturday morning and helped us clean up. Jonathan steams ALL of the curtains. He was awesome! Rachel helped clean up the tools and vacuum and mop! They are the BEST!!!!

Ok, and now here is the outcome:

Like how the stockings are hung on the piano? Haha...that's another project...we couldn't put them on the actual stocking hooks because Claire can pull them down :)

Here are the galleries:

And the curtains:

I'm going to make some pillows out of the same fabric I used for the cornice (the thingie on the top of the curtains) but ran out of time! (and my sewing machine is acting up)

And here is the crowning jewel of the room. Haha--actually I'm showing this because I was really impressed with my taping job! Pretty good huh?? *the key is to use your nail to press down the tape on the edge you'll be painting over so NO paint gets through! Then you'll never have the bleeding paint issue!

Claire at 11 Months

It's that time again to give a nice little update on our little monkey.

1. She loves going up...and now DOWN the stairs! Didn't know she could go down until the other day. I saw her doing it and thought to myself: "um...never seen that before. Is our child a genius? We never taught her that! Then...I talked to Jordan. "I've been teaching her that for a couple of weeks now!" he said." Whatever. I will teach him to be teaching her things behind my back!! JK. :)

2. Claire LOVES treats. Chocolate, candy, cookies, etc. AND as you can tell from a previous post, her Mama gives them to her ALL THE TIME! She should be shot for such poor mothering, but...well, I guess people don't want her dead. Anyway, In this picture below, Claire has an ENTIRELY WRAPPED Hershey's Kiss in her mouth (can't blame her, it's the white chocolate-oreo one! BEST ones, besides the white chocolate peppermint!) and is greedily grabbing as many kisses as she could get into her miniature hands! Classic smile. LOVE it.

3. Claire says "mama" all the time. I'm still not sure if she knows that I AM Mama, or maybe she thinks the "milk supply" is Mama. Nevertheless, she knows that word is associated with me! I am LUCKY btw. She does NOT say Dada yet!! I'm trying to teach her, you know, to be nice and all... (sorry Honey)

But look how she loves her Daddy :) awww...

5. Claire has been walking for some time now. ASSISTED. That's the key word :) But at least now, we can walk with her holding just ONE of her hands. She grabs on for dear life, to be sure, but it's progress!! She also stands on her own now too! And she loves pushing her little cart-thingie around... (disregard my dumb commentary...)

6. Claire can do the motion for "bye bye." It's sooooooooooooo cute. She simply opens and closes her little hand (only the right hand btw.). We used to have to do the motion with our hands first and then she'd imitate, but now she does it when we say the words! So cute! Jordan says she's started "nodding" her head. I don't know about that....

7. She's a little ham. Think I've mentioned that. But she now throws TANTRUMS. I used to be able to take things away from her and it was no big deal. NOW she arches her back, cries, etc. etc. It's fun.

8. Claire has now officially shifted to a one nap schedule. Yes, the wonderful days of 2 naps are over. The best part was Mommy going back to bed when Claire did 2 hours after she woke up. Now, she goes down at 11 and sleeps til 2pm.

9. Claire has a mouth FULL of teeth. Seriously. Every time I think a "teething period" is over, out pops a new one! We've gone through 3 BOTTLES of Motrin. I feel like a drug pusher! Seriously! I don't know why people make this HUGE FUSS about sleep schedules because seriously, they get disrupted every other week by teething, so why bother?