Christmas Day

We had a fun yet uneventful Christmas this year.  It was a day of mixed feelings for me.  I really enjoyed being home to spend Christmas day but I missed my family.  I definatly didn't miss the Christmas morning rush to eat breakfast, open presents, getting ready, packing the car, and rush to Oklahoma City.  It was always stressful when it was just Duane and I so I knew it wouldn't be any easier with a baby.  We started the day by getting Brynlee up to say Merry Christmas. 

We ate breakfast.  Brynlee has oatmeal with applesauce (as usual) and we had cream cheese cherry danishes that I made a few days before.  This is a Dietrich Christmas morning tradition. 

Here are the danishes that I made.  They were awesome!  I only make these once a year so that makes them extra special. 

After breakfast we opened gifts.  Of course Brynlee had no idea what was going on but she loved trying to chew on the paper. 

Stop trying to get me to smile daddy, I just want to play with my new toys. 

I know some of you won't care about the next part but this year was a lot of firsts for us.  It was Brynlee's first Christmas, our first Christmas at home, and my first time to cook Christmas dinner.  I took pictures of what I cooked because I wanted to remember it.  It was probably one of the best dinners I have ever fixed. 

I make pork tenderloin, garlic cheese red skinned mashed potatoes, corn on the cob from the Dietrich garden, and HOMEMADE dinner rolls.  Here are some pics I took. 

Even though we were snowed in, the day turned out great!  I can't wait until Brynlee can really understand the reason we celebrate Christmas.  On Christmas day, Duane and I started talking about traditions and why we have them.  We discussed a tradition that we could start as a family since this was Brynlee's first Christmas.  This year we had the opportunity to adopt a child through Angel Tree.  It was a good feeling that day knowing that some little girl was waking up to a kitchen play set on Christmas morning.  So, we decided that each Christmas we would provide for a child in need.  We also talked about that as our kids get older and earn money, we should encourage them to also pick out a toy with their own money.  It doesn't at all compare to the gift that God gave us on this day, but we can only follow in his footsteps by giving to others and sharing his love for us.

We also started one other tradition this year.  We now have a Christmas Eve breakfast tradition.  We fix gingerbread muffins off and on through the year for breakfast.  When I saw this gingerbread man mold at Target I knew I had to have it.  We will now have a gingerbread man for breakfast on Christmas Eve.  He was delicious!

Be here tommorrow for Christmas #4.  :) 

Christmas #2

We spent the Christmas Eve Eve with Duane's family. For dinner Duane's mom made yummy chili and layered dip. It was awesome. I enjoyed the layered dip more than the chili...I was in the mood for chip and dip. Then again, when am I never in the mood for chip and dip? Um...don't answer that. We opened gifts and had our homemade danish rolls for dessert. Brynlee had so much fun with her Aunt, Uncle, and cousins. It was fun to see her watch them, wishing with all her heart she could run around with them.

Brynlee, Grammy, Kaleb, and Kyle

Pa Pa and Brynlee

Cousins! 

Kaleb and Brynlee

Kyle and  Brynlee

Mikiah and Brynlee

Catching Up

I haven't made blogging a priority lately and I am soooo behind.  Those of you who have kids know what I mean.  If you don't make something a priority, it doesn't get done.  My mom sent me an e-mail this week telling me how she and my Aunt are going through withdrawls since I haven't posted any new pictures of Brynlee.  They were tired of looking at my post with Uncle Jay and Aunt Karen.  Mom and Aunt Jo, here ya go.  I'm getting my act together, the house is clean so I can spend my spare time blogging.  Expect new posts this weekend. 

Uncle Jay and Aunt Karen come for Thanksgiving!

Aunt Karen Uncle Jay

For Thanksgiving Duane's sister, brother-in-law, and their 4 kids came into town. The entire week was very busy but we had a blast. They hadn't seen Brynlee yet so we were really excited for them to visit. I took my older nieces shopping one day, we went to the aquarium, and played lots of wii fit and shawn white snowboarding. Thanksgiving night we brought all the kids back to our house for a sleepover. It was weird driving home in a suburban with 5 kids. We sang Christmas carols all the way home. I loved every minute of it. When we got to our house we all realized no one had eaten dinner. We were all so stuffed from our late thanksgiving lunch that we weren't hungry until 8:00. So we scrambled around finding everyone something to eat. My niece Bekah made nachos...well tried to anyway. She ended up dumping 1/2 of them into our hot over. LOVE YOU BEKAH!! :) The house got really smokey and I was fearfully praying that the smoke detectors wouldn't go off. (Brynlee was asleep) We stayed up until 1 playing the wii. Well, I think Duane went to bed at 12, I stayed up to get everyone to bed. After they went home Duane and I kept talking about how well behaved our nieces and nephew are. They are so polite. For example, my 7 year old niece Lilah asked me this at breakfast, "Aunt Kim, I am full, may I be excused?" Awesome huh? Those are questions you just don't hear anymore. We had a great week with them and wish we lived closer. Oh and Brynlee loved them being here too. She was well entertained, as they were with her. :)

Fun at the aquarium:

Thanks for visiting us for Thanksgiving. We had a blast! We hope to see you soon. Love and miss you guys!

7 Months

When I think about this past month, all I can think about is how much fun I am having. The more time I spend with you the more I love being your mom. I can honestly say that right now motherhood is pretty easy. I know there will come a day when I might not be able to say that so I am going to cherish these moments. Thank you baby girl for making us a family. Here is what you have been up to this month:

• you wear size 2 diapers, 3-6 month clothes, and weigh 15 lbs.
• you kick your legs like crazy when you get excited
• you LOVE your excersaucer

• when we change your diaper you bang your feet on the changing pad and laugh
• you are defiantly into textures, you love scratch everything: the plastic on your exercauser, daddy's jacket, your sheets, your bumper pads, your clothes, and the wall next to the changing table.
• You started to cut your two top middle teeth on your 7 month birthday
• You are into squealing again. Sometimes it sounds like we live with a bird. You also like to squeal in the store. I was at Target with you the other day and you squealed really loud the entire time we were there.
• you got your first cold this month :( (now you are working on your 2nd)

Happy Birthday Precious Girl! Daddy and I love you bunches!

Happy Halloween

Our Halloween was pretty uneventful. We went out to eat and shopping for a new TV stand for our new TV. Not much to tell but I took some cute pictures.

6 Months

6 months old...I can't believe it. Words can't describe how much I am loving being your mom. It seems like each month I am amazed by how fun you are, only to find out the next month it only gets better. You are learning to sit up now which is fun. We practice every day. You can hold your own for about 10 -20 seconds before you topple over. Of course I am there to catch you. I was even able to snap a few pictures the other day of you sitting up.

You love to stand too. When we say big girl stand, you smile and laugh. Raising you hand above you head always makes you laugh. You weigh about 14 lbs and are still small. I hope now that we have started baby food you will start gaining more. I am a little obsessed about not wanting you to be so small but I give you all the breast milk, formula, and baby food that you want so you must be getting exactly what you need. Here is the baby food you have had so far: carrots, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, peas, green beans, applesauce, pears, banana, and apple/blueberry. Oh, and oatmeal, you LOVE your oatmeal in the morning. So far your favorite veggie is carrots. You take one bite and your mouth is open ready for the next. You look like a little bird. You don't like green veggies that much but will eat them. At least you don't spit them out. I am also grateful to who ever invented the mesh feeder. You spent 30 minutes one day working on a banana while I ate lunch.

You take 2-2 hour naps every day and sleep 11 hours at night. You are definantly a kid who needs her sleep. If you take a short nap in the afternoon you will have a rough evening. You get so tired you don't know what to do with yourself. But, thankfully that doesn't happen very often. You are usually asleep by 8:30 and sleep until 7:30.

You are super curious about everything. It doesn't matter where you are, you constantly reach for anything and everything you can grab. My cell phone is a huge favorite. The blender also gets dirty every morning while I feed you oatmeal. You put you fingers in your mouth while I am feeding you and then grab the blender handle. I have tried to move it away but you just spend you time trying to grab it and grunting. So, I just gave up and let you get it dirty. One of you favorite things is to hear your daddy talk. If he is talking to me, you will stare at him the entire time...just like this.

Your acid reflux seems to be getting better. I am so thankful! Spitting up all over you and me was getting REALLY old. You can even whistle. Well, by accident but you can whistle!

Here are two sweet pictures of your face.

Happy 6 month (aka 1/2 birthday) my sweet girl.