One YEAR Old!

I cannot believe that I am writing Briella's one year post (and a few weeks late, as usual)! This past year was perhaps the quickest year of my life!

Briella, my dear sweet baby girl, you are now one year old! Wow, you are growing so quickly and it is such a joy for us to watch you grow and learn and to see more and more of your personality! We love you!

Life in General
When this month started you were still half army crawling and half hands and knees crawling. Well, within just a few days you left the army crawling behind and haven't looked back! You are so quick, getting wherever you want. It's so much harder to keep up with you now!

As quickly as things changed with crawling, they also changed with pulling yourself up. Mostly pulling up to your knees and some to your feet at the beginning, quickly progressed to pulling yourself to your feet all the time. This includes standing in your crib once you wake up, waiting for momma or daddy to come get you.

Opening and shutting (not all the way) doors is something that you really like doing and you can actually sit there for quite a while closing the door then crawling over to it and opening it back up then crawling back to shut it and on and on. I find it quite entertaining to watch you. :)

You pretty much eat whatever now, which means you have tried a lot of different things. We still don't feed you what we eat a lot of the time simply because it lacks the nutrition we want you to get. (I know, a double standard, huh? Ha ha) Some people even made fun of me because I made you a "healthy" first birthday cake. Oh well. I tasted it and it was pretty yummy actually, just simply sweetened with bananas and apple juice. Mmmmm.

You've started to kind of give kisses and hugs. You will lean in (sometimes, you know, if you feel like it) for me to give you a kiss or a hug. So much fun!

We (momma and you) took a trip to California on an airplane just the two of us. I, admittedly, was quite nervous to make the trip, but it was great! And you did pretty good. I'm just glad the flights weren't any longer because 2 hours was about the longest you wanted to sit still. :) It was a great help that daddy was flying out that same time to go to Alaska, so he helped getting through security and on the way back the Long Beach Airport is so small that it was quite simple to get through and those working security were very helpful as well. And I am so glad we went because we had so much fun with the Taylors!

After our California trip where you got to ride in a sit up carseat for the first time, we bought you a new carseat so you can sit up instead of lay down. And even though you still have to be facing backwards, you really, really enjoy being able to see out the windows better!

At your 12 month check up, which was a week after your birthday, you weighed 18 lbs 6 oz and length was 27.5 in. Still in the 10th percentile. :)

Firsts

• Valentine's Day - We made heart-shaped cauliflower crust pizzas. Yum!
• Trip on an airplane with just momma.
• Time swinging. You LOVED it!
• Time going down a slide. You were a bit indifferent about it.
• Riding in a sit up carseat. First in California and then once we got home we bought you your own.

Pictures from Month 12

Happy Valentine's Day! (in her dress from Grandma Karla)

At the airport waiting for our flight to California (Daddy was on his way to Alaska and his gate was only a short distance away, so it worked out wonderfully to hang out together in the airport (and for his help through security.))

The beach!

Just chillin' in the sand.

Having a blast playing in the sand!

Swinging for the first time!

Playing in the laundry basket.

Big girl standing up in her crib waiting for momma to come get her.

"Oooooo, look what I found! All sorts of fun stuff." :)

And playing with it all on the floor.

Sleeping beauty.

Relaxing in her high chair. Ha ha.

Petting the kitty. She loves the kitty!

Not the best picture, but one of Briella's favorite things is to crawl to the big window and look outside.

Helping daddy fill the tub.

Walking with the push toy!

"I am one!"

P.S. A separate birthday party post coming soon. :)

11 Months Old!

Sweet Briella turned 11 months old on February 12th. Wow! Time flies!

Life in General

My beautiful Briella, you have started doing some of the cutest things! One of my favorites is how you play peek-a-boo. This is something that you picked up mostly on your own. Of course we played boo with you hiding behind walls and items, etc. But, mostly on your own, you started putting your hands over your eyes and then you take them off really quicky and expect us to say boo. So cute! Sometimes you also just turn your head so you can't see us and then quickly turn it back waiting for our "boo."

Grandma Karla taught you to show your muscles. When we ask (and you are in the mood to play along) "where are your muscles?" you make fists and flex and grunt showing us your muscles. Ha ha ha! I love it!

You are learning to give kisses. This is another favorite. Sometimes you just let me kiss you over and over and other times you lean forward when I ask for a kiss. Sweet baby kisses! (even if some of them are slobbery and open mouthed...ha ha)

You have started making this funny scrunchy face and it totally cracks me up! Not sure where it came from or why you do it, but it makes me smile.

Food and eating has become a whole new adventure. Last month when we started trying finger foods, you weren't really into it at all. You would let me feed you a puff or two, but that is about all. That has completely changed. You love feeding yourself "real" food and not just being fed purees. Your absolute favorite food is CHEESE...you LOVE cheese. That was the food that motivated you to start feeding yourself and you haven't looked back. In fact, you will shove fistfuls of cheese in your mouth. I have to watch you carefully. Needless to say you have tried many new foods this past month. Aside from cheese you have eaten cottage cheese, avocado, eggs, little homemade "pancakes," bananas (you like banana chunks, but despise mashed bananas), and now you will eat plain Greek yogurt and you actually like it.

Pulling yourself up to your knees happened for the first time this month. And then you learned to pull to your feet still with your hands lowered so you were in a downward dog position (so, not standing just learning to get to your feet). Then on the day you turned 11 months old, you pulled yourself up to standing for the first time! Yippee!

Your crawling is a mix between the army crawling you have been doing and a real on your hands and knees crawl. You still favor the army crawl because you are quicker that way. So, you will take a few real crawls and then plop back down and army crawl. I'm sure in no time you will be crawling full time.

We (momma and you) took our first trip to Salt Lake just the two of us. You did great in the car and we didn't have to stop the whole way. Momma was happy about that. Visiting friends and family was a fun way to spend the week while daddy was out of town working. Along with family, we were able to spend an afternoon with Dana and Jason and another afternoon with Missy and Zeke, two of momma's closest friends. It was good for momma's soul. :)

Firsts (I think I mentioned most above, but I'm putting them here, too)

• Crawling
• Pulling to your knees
• Pulling to your feet, standing
• Trip to Salt Lake, just you and momma
• Feeding yourself
• Time momma accidentally hurt you. :( I was buckling you in your changing pad and your hand got in the way and I clipped your little palm in the buckle. You cried so hard and it made me cry. I felt so bad!

Pictures from Month 11

 

Happy in her high chair.

She loves digging through and pulling out all her toys.

I know it's kind of  a shadowy picture, but I liked the close up shot anyway.

I know, I know she's crying, but some people don't believe me that she cries or gets fussy, so here's the proof. :)

Eating a cracker.

Look, no hands!

 

Standing!

The following are from my phone and aren't the greatest quality, but oh well.

It's Pebbles. :)

Surrounded by toys.

Her scrunchy face.

Avocado facial!

Happy New Year!

Yes, I realize that it is January 25th. So, once again, I'm just slow at posting, but I wanted to anyway. :)

This year for Christmas, we decided rather than giving gifts to the adults in the family we would make memories together instead. Afterall, who even really remembers what they get each year and since we all have more than we need, for our families it made sense to do something together rather than give gifts.

For our memory making with Ryan's family we spent the New Year with ALL of Ryan's family at a cabin in Altamont for two fun-filled days and nights. What fun! And, actually, it was sunnier and warmer up there (which really only means that it made it above 0 degrees... But the sun makes it feel much warmer, right?) than in town!

Each family was in charge of making one meal for everyone and that worked out great. Lots (and lots!) of yummy food was eaten by all!

The days were filled with lounging around, playing video games, watching football, playing outside, playing board games and just hanging out with each other. I really should have taken more pictures!

The only downside was that Briella did not sleep well at all, which means Ryan and I didn't either, but that's ok. We had lots of help during the day, so at least I got to take a nap at one point. :)

All the pictures were taken while playing an XBox Kinect Disney Dance game with the nieces. :)

Ryan on his knees "dancing" with Briella.

Ryan, Briella, Jennalee and Aryka dancing.

Yeah, fun!

Ryan taking a break..it's hard work. :)

Ambrie, Aryka, Jennalee, Ahlyvia and Jayla dancing.

Ha ha ha, her expression just cracks me up!

What a great way to start 2013!

Later in the spring, we will be doing the same thing with my side of the family. I'm not sure where or what yet, but I am looking forward to it!

And I, for one, am hoping to make this an annual tradition, because I found it a much better gift than presents!

Happy 2013 to all!

10 Months Old!

Once again I am slow in getting this posted. :) Briella turned 10 months old on January 12th...hard to believe!

Sweetest Briella, you are now 10 months old and are changing so much! You are such a sweet, beautiful girl and we love you beyond words!

Life in General
You had your 9 month appointment on December 17th and you are doing well, still small but healthy. You weighed in at 16 lbs 7 oz and are 26 inches long.

Eating is such a fun time, watching you try new things and the faces you make. This month you started saying, "num, num, num" while you eat. Ha ha. This is something you started doing all on your own!

Another (not so fun) trick is that you now like to spit food back out. Well, not really spit, but more like squish it back out between your closed lips. Probably feels pretty cool. :) This isn't something we want to encourage, but sometimes it's hard to hide the smiles on our faces. Although, the more you do it, the easier it is to not find it so cute.

New foods this month include turkey, chicken, corn, chunky oatmeal and puffs. You really aren't too keen on the chunkier foods. You'll tolerate a couple puffs, but that is about all. And the chunkier oatmeal is a definite no-go. We'll just try again in a few weeks.

You have also started snorting every now again. Too cute!

Crawling is just around the corner! You are currently working on mastering the army crawl, as well as, getting up on your hand and knees a lot and sometimes up on your hands and feet (looks kind of like the downward dog pose in Yoga. :)).

You've also started pulling yourself up to the shelves to get your books and you pull them off yourself . As well, you have started pulling up on and tipping over your toy bin to get to the toys inside. Sometimes you pull them all out just for the fun of it and other times you only pull a few out and play with them.

We (you and momma) took a little road trip to Glenwood Springs to see Tara (and Aaron and Autumn and Larry and Arla) and to meet baby Abby! That is the furthest that momma has travelled with you by herself and you did wonderfully. You slept most of the way both directions and when you weren't sleeping, you just played and talked to yourself until you got hungry and then we'd stop. What a wonderful time we had spending time with them! I'm really glad we got to go see them before they take off for Hawaii! (And I'm really excited that the next time we'll see them will have to be in Hawaii!)

Firsts

• Snow! You weren't quite sure what to think about how it felt on your hands.
• Christmas! What a fun time as our new little family of 3!
• New Year and all family (on daddy's side) vacation! We spent it up at cabin at LC Ranch with all of daddy's side of the family. It was a ton of fun, although, you didn't sleep well at all.

Pictures from Month 10

I just love all her expressions, so a lot of these pictures are just to capture those sweet faces. :)
 

Love my zebra!

Sweet face.

Christmas morning!

Ha ha ha!

"Um, what?"

 All the pictures with the Broncos headband are during the Broncos playoff game of which we will not ever speak of again. Sigh.

Love these legwarmers! (And the look on her face!) Go Broncos!

With cousin Ashton.

Love being with Daddy!

 

Just chillin' in my high chair.

Such a happy girl!

All bundled up in the carseat before heading out into the frigid winter air.

"Look at what I can do Momma!"

 

Fun with my new bouncing balls toy.

New talent....getting both legs into one leg of my pajamas while sleeping. Ha ha. (When I unzipped the sleepsack, this is what I saw.)

 



Creating a New Year

I am excited for 2013! And in all honesty, I'm kind of glad that 2012 is over. While it gave us our greatest blessing in the birth of Briella, other than that 2012 was a hard year. I don't want to seem overly dramatic, but adjusting to being a mom along with being a wife (that was harder for me than I ever would have imagined), adjusting to Ryan's new position at work which required a lot of travel, and just some blah moments, I am ready to move onto a new year! And I am determined to make 2013 great!

I don't really do too well with resolutions and goals that usually come with the new year, but I did read a couple of ideas that I really liked to help things to be different in 2013. The first was to pick one word that you would like to describe the upcoming year - just one word. That seems simple enough! I had thought of a few words, one of which was "intentional," but that seems sort of cliche to me because I have "tried to be intentional" before. I like intentional, I just wanted something different. As I continued to ponder my word for 2013, I came up with "create." I want to create my (and our family's) 2013. I don't want to just take what life throws at me. Yes, things will happen that I can't change, but I CAN change and control how I respond. I want to do more with what I'm given.

• I want to create memories together as a family,
• I want to create a better marriage,
• I want to create stronger relationships with friends and family,
• I want to create the best of every situation even if I don't like it (for example Ryan having to travel (sad) gives me an opportunity go visit friends and family (happy)),
• I want to create a peaceful, joyful, loving atmosphere in our home,
• I want to create opportunities to serve others.

The second idea, I found here. This idea really appealed to me as well as the above idea. Actually, I think they go very well together. This helped me to narrow down those things which are most important and will help me to create the life I desire. :) In case you didn't read the link above, the idea is to fill in this blank up to five times: "Time Spent _____________ is not a waste."

I chose:

• Time spent with God is not a waste.
• Time spent investing in our marriage is not a waste.
• Time spent interacting with Briella is not a waste.
• Time spent making our house a home is not a waste.
• Time spent with family and friends is not a waste.

After I came up with those five things, I spent some time coming up with simple ideas on how I could work on these things. Hopefully, this will help me to actually create the best possible 2013.

What are your goals for the new year, or what one word would you pick, or how would you fill in the blank above, or what other ideas do you use at the beginning of each year? I would love to know. :)

Here's to a wonderful new year! Happy 2013!