A Christmas Outfit or FOUR

Merry Christmas House on Strathmore followers!  We had an incredible holiday on the Eastern Shore and saw aunts, cousins, and friends during our 4-day trip.  Charlie, as you'd expect, was completely showered with presents and has already caused his mother to have some minor anxiety attacks about where to put all these toys!   John and I have always loved visiting my parent's house, because in addition to catching up with family and friends it really feels like we're "getting away" and that's probably mostly due to the incredible hosting job Mom & Dad always do! 

Christmas is definitely not over for us as we'll be celebrating with Papa John & Yvette tomorrow and John's sisters on Friday--let the egg nog, Christmas music, and excessive eating continue!

If you are interested in seeing pictures from our Christmas on the shore,  click here!

As Christmas approached we starting losing count of all the adorable outfits Charlie was receiving from his grandparents, aunts, and cousins!  Here are shots of him wearing 4 of those outfits!

Candy House: A Kemp Family Tradition

As a kid my sister and I couldn't wait to "make the candy house," which was probably my favorite christmas tradition.  The tradition comes from my Pop-Pop's side (Mom's father) and has now found it's way to Strathmore Avenue.  John and I have done our own candy house each year we've been together and each year they seem to get better.  The real secret to success is in the batter that serves as the foundation for the candy and this year it was P-E-R-F-E-C-T!  For those interested in doing a candy house of your own the steps are pretty simple:

1. Build your house from cardboard and duct tape
2. Have your candy all picked out and ready to decorate because as soon as the base goes on you need to hop on the decorating right away.
3. Mix up the batter, the starting point is 6 egg whites and about 2 bags of powdered sugar but depending on how much you need you have to just keep adding some of both components until the batter is the right level of stickiness!

Not that its a competition but before I share pictures of House on Strathmore's candy house you can check out my mom's and aunt's house below for this year!

Aunt Kitty's candy house!

Mom and Dad's candy house!

Now for our house! Of course we documented the process with plenty of action shots! You can be the judge of which household wins for 2011!

Last neighborhood walk of 2011

We are fortunate to live in one of the best neighborhoods in Baltimore, Lauraville, that has amongst its many many strengths Great Sidewalks! Since moving to the neighborhood 3 + years ago we've been walking the neighborhood streets daily to make sure Chelsea gets plenty of exercise and the past 2 months Charlie and I have been getting out and about.  However, sadly, today I think marked our final neighborhood walk of 2011.  This is due both to my return to work, which gradually begins next week, and the dropping temps.  Its hard to believe that when we get back out on the sidewalks in March he'll be going on 6 months, WHOA.

Here are some pics from our walk today! 

 

The boy seriously can't stop smiling!

Just one of the great views we get of downtown on our walks, Lauraville has one of highest elevations in the city!

 Like I said great sidewalks and a goregous moon tonight!

Garrett Heights Elementary and Middle is just a block away and has a fantastic playground that I'm sure we'll be visiting plenty in a few years!

Getting in the holiday spirit

I absolutely love the holidays (like just about everyone else I know) and while Charlie may be a little too young to have any clue as to what's happening it feels a little more special this year!  We got our tree the first weekend of December from the good ole' Home Depot, which has never disappointed us.  We went with a Douglas Fir, here's CPL making the final decision!

  

We got right on the decorating and with the exception of a few more outside lights that Papa Laur still has to conquer we're in full on holiday mode over here.  Chelsea is always a great sport when it comes to posing in front of the tree and this year is no exception!

 

 I decided with the addition of the bambino we needed to step up our stocking game so I purchased new stockings for everyone (except the pup) from Land of Nod and I'm super happy with them!  If anyone has seen cute/affordable puppy stockings let me know, I'm on the look out!

Charlie, like his momma, LOVES santa hats!

Next on the agenda is constructing and decorating the annual candy house.  I'll be sure to post pictures of the final product :)

Growing out of things already

Tomorrow, Charlie will be 8 weeks and he's already growing out of some of the things we used most in those first few weeks.  I have said before that babies come with a lot of stuff, but what's even more surprising (and a bit overwhelming) is the short time period they actually use all that "stuff."  Here are a few of the items we're already transitioning to the basement!

Fisher Price Newborn Rock and Play Sleeper--this served as our bassinet and was perfect for us because it didn't take up much space, folds up really easily, and Charlie slept great in it from the beginning.  We moved it into his nursery at about 4 weeks but kept him sleeping in it.  This was to both help us get used to not having him in our room and so we could get some sound sleep--CPL is quite a loud sleeper!  We transitioned Charlie to his crib this past weekend with some, to be expected, trepidation.  I was worried he wasn't going to sleep well since he's used to being in cozy environments with an incline and the crib of course didn't offer either of these.  But, he's doing just fine and slept for NINE hours Wednesday night--yes I was one of 'those moms' and woke up no less than 5 times to make sure he was still breathing.

Avent 4 oz. Bottles--we officially boxed up all the 4 oz. bottles this week and are now onto 9 oz. only.  He eats about 5-6 oz. each feeding.  We have been happy with the Avent bottles so far and I'm looking forward to when he's using sippy cups because the bottles themselves can be transitioned to sippy cups.





Ergo Infant Insert--I really like our Ergo but was not really happy with the infant insert.  I thought it was really bulky and seem to smother Charlie.  We used the Ergo a lot on our recent trip to Missouri, since we didn't bring a stroller along on the trip.  While the packaging says you can use the infant insert until they are 5 or 6 months old, we've already had Charlie in the carrier without it and he's just fine.