Christmas Lights on the Square

The week before Christmas my family went to dinner to celebrate Ryan's birthday. After that we all went up to the square to take in the lights. I have a feeling this will become a family tradition.Harlan loves all the lights.

 

Woo Pig Sooie!

 Aunt LuLu and Uncle Spencer

 Uncle JD and Allison

 Mommy and Harlan, my little reindeer!

 The lights really are magical! 

6 Months

December 19 has always been a special day and now its doubly special. December 19 was my mom's birthday and now it is Harlan's 1/2 birthday. I think that its not a coincidence and a very special way Harlan will always be connected to her now.

So we celebrated this Dec. 19 with Harlan turning 6 months old. So, so, so hard to believe. He is now closer to a year old than he is a newborn. Tear

Our little man is now 16 lbs and 14 oz (on Dec. 20) and getting taller. We are still in 6 month size clothes but are about to outgrow those legs. Soon we will be going into 9 month. He is also still in size 2 diapers.

Harlan is still only consuming breast milk. Now that he has hit the 6-month mark we plan on introducing some solids. Wish us luck! We will continue with breast milk and I will continue nursing. I absolutely love that time we have together. He eats when he wakes up in the morning, around 7 a.m., 4-5 times at daycare, once when he gets home and another 1-2 times after that before he goes to bed around 8 p.m. He pretty much sleeps through the night and we love that!

This month Harlan started acting shy. It is really pretty cute. If you smile at him, he will smile back, giggle a little and then turn his head like he's bashful. It is so easy to make him laugh and his little giggle makes my day.

We still can't sit up on our own but we are just days away from crawling. This month he started getting up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth like he wants to go somewhere. There have been a few times he has picked up his knees but he hasn't quite figured it out yet. Every time he does that, the camera gets whipped out and I'm ready to catch the moment. I guess we will master the whole sitting up thing later.

He has also started playing with his toys now. It is fun to watch him discover new things about each of them. His favorite is Mortimer the Moose.

Some highlights from this month include meeting our new best friend Tate,

Playing in our very first snow,

and celebrating Daddy's 33rd Birthday.

The 6th month was full of holidays, celebration and new tricks. Harlan is growing so quickly and it makes my heart so happy and so sad all at the same time. We love you HL! 

Our Own Baby Jesus

Harlan was born at just about the right time which means he was the perfect age to make his acting debut as.........Baby Jesus!

Our church asked us if we would play Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus in the youth Christmas play. It was a lot of fun, and even better that none of us had any lines. We came out at the end and the kids brought "Jesus" lots of gifts.

Harlan did great! We fed him right before we went out so he was pretty content. When we walked out, there was a collective "awwww" because nobody knew we were in it. Harlan was very entertained by the lights and looking out into the crowd at everybody.

Who knew our little man would be a star at such a young age!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving and FOOD FOOD FOOD. We had a great holiday this year spending time with both of our families and of course our little one.

We started off with dinner at my parents house on Wednesday night. My grandmother came to spend the week with us and it was great to spend time with her. Harlan is her third great grandson and she loved playing with him all week. 

There were 10 of us there for dinner that night and that is just about the perfect size. We all hung out all day and ate and ate and ate. We had enough food for at least 20 people.

 JD and Allison

 If you can't tell, Harlan loves putting fingers (his or anybody else's) in his mouth. 

 Our First Thanksgiving as a family of 3

We spent Thanksgiving Day at the Pettigrew house. I was bad and only took the camera out once. Here is Harlan with his great uncle Chad and Uncle Devin. Chad was the baby hog that day for sure. 

We love that both of our families are so close and we get to spend holidays with both of them. Harlan had a great first Thankgiving and next year, he will actually get to eat some of the feast!