First Christmas

We made it through our first Christmas as a family with all the traveling and had a blast with family and friends. We've been taking lots of pictures lately so we'll keep the words to a minimum and focus on pictures!This is Cassidy for her 5 month photo shoot. We can't believe how much she's grown and changed in 5 months. Finally a smile for the monthly shot. (Her onesie says, "Dear santa, I've been good all year, just ask my mommy." As someone pointed out it wasn't even a whole year. Speaking of lots of pictures, I got a new camera for Christmas and have taken lots of pictures and some video already, which is why we'll be posting more later this week. Brian took a picture Christmas morning as we opened the new camera, he said the old camera was sad.
Cassidy got a new winter hat for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa Gerken. Her hat looks very similar to her Uncle Brett's. Here they are showing off their hats while checking some important info on the laptop.
Christmas Eve morning we headed to Gigi's (Brian's grandma's) for breakfast and gifts. Gigi was excited to finally get to spend some time with Cassidy while she was awake.
Brett got an Xbox and this nifty headset for it for Christmas. He was kind enough to show Cassidy how it works. She'll be playing video games before we know it.
A family shot all dressed up before we head out for Christmas Eve mass.
That's what you get for not smiling for the camera.
Cassidy enjoyed the paper and tissue paper much better than any gifts she got. This is how she helped us open her gifts.
Cassidy and Brian got a new bedtime book written by Brian's favorite band, They Might Be Giants. It included a CD too.
Monday before Christmas we headed to Dixon for our annual cookie baking/decorating event. Cassidy got to join in on the fun and decorated this adorable yellow star for her daddy. We sent it to work for him later that day and he loved it. It was quite a messy project, but she had fun.

Well that's it for now, we'll post more pictures soon including many with her new toys. Our house is full of toys that light up and make noise now and Cassidy loves it!