We didn't do a gender reveal party when we found out the sex of Reaghan. We just did it the "new" old fashioned way by having the ultrasound technician tell us right there during the ultrasound if our baby was a boy or a girl and then told our families in a cute way... balloons for my family and a cake for Mark's family. With Lilly my mother and sister-in-law really wanted to throw us a Gender Reveal party so we agreed and it was actually really fun to find out all together. My sister-in-law had Party City put the pink balloons in a box so no one at the party knew the gender until we opened it and it was an exciting way to find out with everyone.

So when my sister Erin finally got pregnant through IVF after 7 long years of infertility, I knew I wanted to throw her every type of baby related party possible to celebrate every step of the pregnancy!

ACTUALLY, I decided I would throw them this party as soon as they decided they were going to go through the IVF process. Before they even knew they were pregnant I found a "Baseball or Bows" banner for sale on facebook yardsale. I decided to buy it in an act of faith that they would be able to conceive, and praise the Lord they did! I am so thankful for the Lord's faithfulness and graciousness to answer our prayers that has nothing to do with my feeble acts of faith.

The baseball theme was an easy choice because Erin's husband, Adam, played baseball all through high school and college and is currently a youth baseball coach. My sister Sara and I planned a whole baseball themed party and had so much fun decorating and putting it all together that I had to share some pictures from the party!










































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Last week we had a blizzard blow through coastal, VA! Like a legit snowstorm blizzard. Crazy enough we had a big snow the exact same time last year, and we thought that was a lot of snow! We had maybe 6 inches or so and truly, thats a big snow for this area, but it was nothing compared to this year! We got 12 inches this time around! It was crazy, and then it stuck around for a good week because the temps here were below freezing for several days. I never remember having this much snow for this long when I was kid, I would've loved it just like Reaghan loves it! She got to go out and play in it several days... it's not quite as much fun as a parent haha am I right?!

I mean, don't get me wrong. I had fun playing out in the snow with her and watching her love it, but it takes us a good 30 minutes to get all bundled up, I'm exhausted before I even get out there! and then there is all the laundry afterwards. I'm totally on board with it for the first 24, maaayyybbee 48 hours. But after that... The snow can go! I was definitely getting cabin fever by day 4 of being stuck at home because the roads were so bad.

I finally did run to the store on the aforementioned day 4 and somehow in my excitement of getting out of the house and going to Sam's club all by myself... I lost my wallet somewhere between walking out of the doors of the store and getting in my car. AND whats worse? I didn't even realize it until the next day. *facepalm* ugh. Trying to get everything in there replaced has not been fun.

But back to the Snow day! I had every intention of getting on plan with some healthy eating to counteract all the holiday treats the week of the snow storm.... but c'mon... Snow means hot chocolate and all the comfort foods! Like homemade donuts.

Milestones
She is semi walking! She can take 5-6 steps before she loses her balance. She prefers to crawl because its faster. She can say "hi" and has started repeating words when asked too like mama and dada and nin nin. {Aunt Erin} She learned how to climb the stairs. {mama's anxiety levels have been waayyy up this month as I've caught her halfway up the stairs more than I'd like to admit.} She's learning to follow simple commands like come here and sit still and "mama have it". Even though she doesn't like to sit still.




Sibling Love
This past month I've noticed the girls actually start to play together, instead of Reaghan just tolerating Lilly grabbing for all of her toys she'll try to include Lilly in her play and tell her what to do. Lilly has started mimicking what Reaghan does... they both got baby dolls for the bath for Christmas with washcloths and Lilly will try to wash her baby with the wash cloth like Reaghan does. 



Special Events/Outings
She celebrated her first Christmas! She loved opening all the presents, but mostly the presents she wasn't supposed to open. The ones we gave her to open were somehow less interesting to her. She celebrated her first New Years and stayed up really late for her but didn't make it til midnight ;) She experienced her first snow... she wasn't overly impressed but she did like watching big sissy play in it. 


Time to slow down this month and enjoy Lilly's last month of babyhood before she graduated to full on toddler. She's well on her way! 

{{{Long post alert with lots of pictures! If you're totally bored then just skip to my summary thoughts at the end!}}}