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!

Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas from Ryan, Connie and Briella!

 

What a fun Christmas! Somehow having a baby makes it that much more exciting, even though Briella is only 9 months old and doesn't really get it yet. She had a lot of fun playing with the wrapping paper. Ha ha! Oh, and the new toys once we threw the paper away.

We celebrated with Ryan's family on Christmas Eve at his sister's house. Then had our own little family thing on Christmas morning. I baked some ham from the night before and baked some eggs, too. (I was hoping to make baked french toast, but that just didn't happen...maybe next year.) We ate breakfast, read the last day of the Jesse Tree and then opened presents. After all that fun, we quickly got ready and headed out to Salt Lake to spend the rest of Christmas day with my family, including my aunt, uncle, cousins and cousins' kids. All in all it was a wonderful Christmas!

First look at the gifts under the tree.

Daddy bought Briella a rocket!

Daddy showing B her new balls.

Tissue paper! :)

Multi-tasking...holding a ball and trying to open another present.

"I love my new car!" (The look on her face just cracks me up!)

 

Happy girl.

Playing with a small piece of wrapping paper she found. Ha.

In her new hat from Grandma!

Playing with an ornament from Grandpa and Grandma's tree.

Just a funny pic of daddy and B. :)

"Hi, Briella..." "Hi, Ciara..."

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a blessed New Year to come!

9 Months Old!

Another month has flown by and Briella is growing and changing so much with each passing day!

Briella, you are such a joy to daddy and me! We can't believe you are already 9 months old! Your ninth month was full of so much fun in new experiences, as well as, in watching you change and discover more about the world around you. It seems like this month, we could see the changes so much between the beginning of the month and the end.

Life in General
The month started off with a trip to Florida! What an experience it was to travel with you! Overall, you did wonderfully through it all. Both the plane ride there and back were relatively easy even being 4+ hour flights. You even slept for a good portion of the flight home (it helped that we had the entire row for that flight...your own seat!). All the different places we went and things we saw and did, you were such a trooper and enjoyed it all, even without many naps. Although, you did fall asleep in daddy's arms at the Space Center towards the end of the day. You could just no longer stay awake. Mostly, as long as you were fed, you stayed pretty happy. I think your favorite place was Sea World. In the near future I am going to write a whole post on our trip with more details.

You moved into 6-9 month clothing and also up to size 3 diapers.

At the beginning of the month you started lifting your cute little bum off the ground. It was quite cute! Then by the end of the month, you were getting onto your hands and knees.

As well, this month you went from just learning to scoot in circles to move around to becoming an expert scooter. Scooting backwards is also another favorite way to get around, especially when you find your way to the hard wood floor. So, now between rolling and scooting you get around quite well. A picture of exciting things to come!

Finally, you have replaced "dadada" with "mamama." Ha ha. :) I don't think you know what you are saying, but it is fun that you now say "mamama" (even if it is mostly when you are whiney). A lot of other sounds have made their way into your jabbering, including multiple syllable sounds.

Your ability to see small things on the floor and focus in on them is astonishing. Dog hair, carpet fibers, etc. catch your eye and you can pick up individual dog hairs quite well.

The dogs and the cat thrill you every time you see them, especially the cat. Whenever one of them walks into the room, you get a big grin and get all excited. We help you pet them instead of pulling their hair, which is your preferred method of interacting with them. And when one of the dogs licks you, you think it's great and usually giggle.

Pulling or playing with momma's hair can keep you quite entertained. You seem delighted by it. I have to constantly teach you not to pull too hard. When my hair is down, if I lean over you while you are laying on the floor and shake my hair, you get a kick out of it.

You have learned how to blow. A few months ago you learned how to blow spit bubbles, but now you like to blow just air. Maybe you are practicing for your birthday cake. :)

New foods this month included pumpkin, apricots, raspberries, blueberries, chicken, bananas and Greek yogurt. The only thing that you didn't like was the bananas. I know, weird. Maybe you get that from your momma. I don't really like bananas either. :)

Daddy and I started teaching you signs this month. We've started with "all done," "more," "milk," and "eat." Yep, they all have to do with food. We figured that was a good place to start. You seem to enjoy watching us sign the words to you. It will be fun once you catch on and start to sign back to us.

You love clapping. This is something that you just picked up on your own. We weren't intentionally teaching it to you, but you clap when you hear music and sometimes out of excitement. And this is the first action you have learned to do on command. If we tell you to clap, then you (usually) clap for us. It also works when we say "yay." I think this is because every time we praise you for accomplishing something we say yay and clap. What a fun milestone this is! I am incredibly amazed watching you learn!

And one last thing, actually from last month. We moved you from your infant tub to a cute little inflatable duck tub that you can sit up in. Bathtime is so much more fun! You can play with your toys and splash around. I think you could play in the tub for a long time if the water didn't get cold.

Firsts

• Plane ride. And it was a long one! Go big or don't go at all I guess. Ha ha!
• First steps (with help). Daddy taught you to take steps and you caught on so quickly. I think it's just a matter of getting stronger because you have the concept down.
• Thanksgiving
• Get on hands and knees by yourself. You were in your crib after you woke from a nap and there you were on your hands and knees.
• Snort. It's so cute, you snort every now and then.

Pictures from Month 9

 

Waiting at the airport for our flight to Orlando!

 

Sitting on the balcony of the hotel with dad watching the waves.

Ready to head to the beach!

 

Feet in the waves!

 

Sleeping on the plane. :)

 

With dad on the plane. (I cannot get this picture to flip...)

 

Stylin' in my sunglasses

 

Fell asleep with dad.

 

Go Broncos!

 

So Sleepy.

 

Bath time!

 

Sitting in front of the Christmas tree.

 

9 months old!