Esme!

We have a BEAUTIFUL brand new niece!! Miss Esme was born on New Years Eve! She was supposed to be born on Christmas, but she wanted to spend a little more time cooking so she could spend future birthdays with a little glitz and glam and sparkle! She's the sweetest little thing you've ever seen and we couldn't be more thrilled for Jillian's new cousin!

Here's mama and Esme

Here's Esme with her favorite aunt (I may be her only aunt, but I'm definitely sure I'm her favorite!)

Pretty blue eyes and loads of gorgeous hair - just like her mama!

Here's Esme meeting her favorite uncle!!!

She's enthralled!

Daddy's girl!

Here's the new mom and dad - looking good!

She stayed awake for almost our whole visit! She was super excited to meet us, and the feeling was definitely mutual!

Hey pretty girl!

Well I guess we wore her out a little bit....Welcome to the world Esme!

January Jillian

You may have been wondering what Jillian has been up to this month. Well, she's been VERY busy. She's settling in at her new school and loves it!! (#daycaredrama....) We are so very thankful for her new daycare and feel a lot better sending her there. The teachers there are doing an amazing job taking care of our little sweet pea. Plus they think they looks like the Gerber baby - and of course we agree :)

Here's what she's been up to:

Solids! She's been on carrots for 1.5 weeks now....big time! Here is her "before" picture.

Annnnd the "after" picture....!

She's been modeling for her future alma mater :)

She's also been practicing smiling, and she totally nails it!

She's been reading books with Grandma!

And she went to her very first princess party!!

(I don't think this is the last princess party she'll be attending!)

She's been hanging out with her Aunt Jen and she got fitted for her very first TIARA! A monumental day in every girls life! (Plus check out Aunt Jen's yellow canary diamond ring!)

She's been hanging out with Papa too of course

And she's been snuggling with her favorite grandmas!

And of course she's been busy being a "royal" cutie! Haha get it?!

She tried on her first tiara with her buddy Christina

And she's been laughing up a storm with Uncle Mike! Her laugh makes my heart happy :)

Jillian's dodgeball season

Jillian had a successful first dodgeball season! Clearly she was the best on the team - she didn't get hit by one ball all season!! Is that what sports fans call a "no hitter"?! Here she is with the team and her beautiful cousin Laura celebrating a victorious season!

Office Par-TAY

Oooh working from home...it's so isolating and quiet and hard to stay motivated and and and and....JUST KIDDING. It's freaking awesome and I love every second of it! I'm LUCKY to work from home everyday and I am soooo thankful for it! Seriously, I thank my lucky stars that I get to work from home.....phew it's the best.

A few times a year, my "coworkers" and I get together for an office party at my house. We work for the day together and have a blast! Plus the day usually starts out with DONUTS....here we are at our Office Christmas Party:

Here's my buddy Kaitlyn, affectionately known to my family as "my-little-buddy-who-won-the-free-trip-to-Europe".....seriously she did win a free trip to Europe and I'm still totally jealous!!

And here's my buddy Julie (we celebrated her birthday too!), she's affectionately known to my family as "the-lady-that-got-me-this-job" - she's a saint and SO MUCH FUN!

And of course Jillian isn't one to miss out on a party!

It's so fun to get to together, dress up, go out to lunch, and catch up. (And by dress up, I mean we all get out of our yoga pants and throw on jeans. We're getting crazy! Woop woop!)

5 months....seriously?!

Adventures in solids...

It's just beginning!! Yesterday we started with some carrots and it went terribly... But today she seemed ok with them and didn't violently reject them like she did yesterday!! Success!

Visitors!

Jillian had some very special visitors last weekend  - Grandma & Grandpa!!! She was so excited to see them, just see the look on her face!

Jillian immediately put Grandpa to work by building her new toy

Jillian's cousin Kristen got her this fun entertainer for our shower, and it's just perfect for her now! Thanks Kristen!!

Then Jillian got a special treat and got some rice cereal from Grandma (you can tell Grandma is highly experienced in this area...Mommy & Daddy get cereal everywhere, but Grandma barely spilled a drop!)

Jillian with Grandma and Grandpa before our dinner outing in her fancy new outfit from her cousins Taylor & Jason!

Jillian LOVES Grandma & Grandpa! And the feeling is mutual!! Thanks for coming!! :)