Christmas

The Christmas holiday has come and gone. The end of the season is such a bittersweet time for me. I have so much anticipation for Christmas and look forward to it for so long. I also love the excitement and hope that comes with a new year. The festivities all month long are so wonderful! I especially loved experiencing Christmas as a mother. Everything changes when you have children. Instead of experiencing things for myself, I'd almost rather watch Kayla experience them. The joy that she brought into our home this Christmas certainly didn't disappoint! It was full of "Ooohs" and "Ahhhs" from our sweet little girl. We took lots of photos, so let's get to them!

Kayla was all dressed up in her Christmas outfit for our Ward Thankful Christmas party. She has a little Christmas bell that we found in our decor and she loves it! I tied it short so she could wear it as a necklace and she loves bouncing around with it on. She also loves chewing on it.....and everything else she finds.

Mommy and Kayla in our Christmas outfits!

The Magic of Christmas

 We made Christmas cookies this year! I love sugar cookies, especially soft ones, and Brett was a trooper to help me decorate them all. We took the cookies to both of our places of work to share the yumminess. I also made homemade bread loaves and hot fudge sauce to give out as gifts to our many wonderful friends here in the RGV.

Brett brought home these funny Shrek ears after the cast of the Shrek Musical came on his morning show. They looked so funny on Kayla! Oh, and she loves the empty ice cube trays. :)

We had originally planned on going home for Christmas, but a lot of things didn't work out to let that happen. Gratefully, my Dad decided to come down and spend it with us. We were so excited and happy to have Grandpa Kelly here with us for all the Christmas festivities! Kayla was a bit hesitant but she warmed up to Grandpa pretty quickly. 

Picking up Grandpa from the Airport

The day my dad came, we did a bit of last minute shopping, which was crazy! Afterwards, we came home and had a yummy salmon dinner and then headed out to Hidalgo to check out the Christmas lights with Dad. 

Cinderella, Prince Charming and their castle!

Hooray for Action 4 News!

I love this!

On Christmas Eve, Brett had to work the afternoon, so we just barbecued up some burgers for lunch. It was such a beautiful day that we decided to eat out on the patio. 

On the evening on Christmas Eve, Dad, Kayla, and I walked around the neighborhood looking at all the Christmas lights. Kayla loved them. She really is such a precious and happy child. We watched the MoTab Christmas Concert on PBS that evening. It was so wonderful and really brought the spirit of Christmas.

We had Christmas nachos for dinner!

 I actually had to work the overnight shift that night, so I headed to work as Brett headed home. Soon after he got home, Santa arrived! :) I got home a little after 7:00 am Christmas morning and Kayla was awake and waiting for me! I nursed her and then the fun began! We were all very spoiled this year. Brett and I decided we were going to cut back and set a tighter budget this year.....that didn't really happen. Seeing Kayla loving all her gifts and playing with them after made it all worth it though.

 Here's a short video of her coming out to see her presents. 

We all received some wonderful gifts! Here are pictures of a few of the gifts.

Dad got a new suit for Haley's wedding from Santa!

 Kayla got this little scooter from Santa. Its so cute. It plays lots of different songs. She loves scooting around on it. She was pointing to it excitedly when we brought her out to show her the gifts. She's been riding it ever since!

Grandpa gave Kayla an Elmo book and doll.
Brett does the best Elmo impersonation though!

Brett got new scriptures from Heather and Dad

Grandma Betsy gave Kayla this cute guitar

Grandma Jean and Grandpa Tom gave Kayla the Little Mermaid

Brett modeling some of Kayla's new clothes :)

The aftermath!

Brett got me this beautiful painting of the Savior!!

We made a delicious Christmas dinner after I took a nap. We ate dinner outside again. It was so perfect! Kayla was asleep when we first started dinner, but joined us later. She loved the ham, potatoes, rolls, and yams.

We gave Kayla a Christmas bath complete with bubbles.
This is her with the Santa beard we made. :)

Brett headed back to work that evening around 8:00 while Dad and I watched a Christmas movie. I again headed to work the overnight shift right before Brett got home. It was a wonderful holiday and we were so so blessed. Until next year, Merry Christmas!

Santa's Lap.....

'Tis the Season to sit on Santa's Lap! Kayla had 2 chances to meet the jolly old fella this year. She wasn't a fan either time.  She has developed a high pitched scream recently. That was the sound the whole ward heard at our Ward Christmas party last week. 

Kayla at the ward party

Since Brett was working during the ward party, we decided to take Kayla to see Santa at Bass Pro Shops and try again when Brett could be there. That Santa village was legit! We arrived to find the biggest setup I've ever seen for a Santa. First we took a spin on the carousel make up of north pole animals. There were reindeer, polar bears, you name it. It was really cool! Kayla had just woken up from her nap during the car ride, so she wasn't too happy about any of it, unfortunately.

After the carousel ride, we wandered around Santa's village. They had a huge train set, elves, snowmen, lots of trees, you name it! It was a huge set up.

Brett was explaining to Kayla what snow is. :)

Kayla, Mommy, and the reindeer

When we walked up to Santa, he asked if Brett was 'that guy from the news'. I guess Santa really has been watching Brett. Good thing he's been pretty nice this year! haha!

Yeah, it wasn't any better with me there holding her. 

Afterwards, we wandered around Bass Pro Shops for fun before we headed home. Ironically, Kayla wasn't scared of the giant fish or stuffed bear or moose. Just Santa struck fear into her heart. I really was impressed with Santa and the best part was that the whole thing was free! They even gave us a photo to take home. 

Merry Christmas from our screaming baby. :)

Kayla 11 Months

Our sweet girl at 11 months

Today, Kayla hit the 11 month mark. She is becoming such a funny girl. I find myself thinking how cool and awesome she is all the time. She makes Brett and I laugh all the time! 

Kayla has started giving us kisses all the time. We ask her to give us a kiss and she plants a big, wet one on our cheeks. She makes a little sound like "mwah" when she does it.

She also blows kisses, but when I taught her, she decided it was better to do it off the back of her hand rather than her palm. Its still so precious. She blows us kisses whenever any of us are leaving the house. 

Kayla started saying "Hi" and waving to people everywhere we go. She's a friendly baby for sure!

She just started saying "Bye" when we tell her to.

She LOVES Brett. She follows him everywhere with her eyes, says Dad all the time and gets so so excited when he gets home from work. She definitely prefers bath-time with Daddy.

Kayla has become really good at feeding herself. We just put most anything we're eating on her tray and she chomps on it with her few little teeth. She gets pretty fussy when we try to feed her things by spoon now.

Kayla cut a couple new teeth this month. She now has 5 teeth. Teething is rough for all of us, as it throws off her sleep schedule for at least a week each time a tooth comes in. Oy! I think I got more sleep when she was a newborn than now with her teeth coming in. 

She gets really excited really easily and when she does she breathes very rapidly and makes a funny face. Each time she does this, I can't help but laugh out loud! 

Kayla took her first independent steps tonight actually. She has been standing alone for a few weeks now, but usually when it comes to taking a step, she gets timid and drops down to her knees, but today twice, she took a few steps.

She is into EVERYTHING. She loves discovering what's in my cupboards so we did a bit of rearranging. 

I love watching her learn. She's figured out that she'll fall off the couch and bed if she gets close to the edge so she just sits there and looks off the edge, patiently waiting for us to help her down. 

Kayla had a pretty high fever for a few days, followed by an awful rash, so I took her to the doctor just to assure that she was ok. She weighed in at 19 lbs 5 oz. just above the 25th percentile for weight.

She has been enjoying the Christmas holiday by eating holiday bows and redecorating the bottom row of the tree over and over again. :) Whenever she sees Christmas lights, she says "Oooooh".

One of the best things about being a mother is seeing Kayla bring joy to others. We have friends and neighbors that love her sweet little spirit. When she waves and smiles at others, I see them light up. I'm grateful that her friendly little self brings a smile to so many faces. 

I just love spending every day with this precious little baby! I'm so grateful for her and all the lessons she's taught me so far. 

We went to watch Brett at the Hidalgo Lights Parade where he was working.
They told him to bring Kayla out there and hold her during his live shots.

Here's a pic of Kayla being featured, once again, on the news. :)
At one point, she waved to the camera. Precious!

Bed head! Her hair is so blonde and fine that it usually looks like she doesn't have any, but......tada!
Here's proof she's not bald. :)

After our ward Christmas Party with her goody bag from Santa, which Momma enjoyed :)

She was saying "Ooooh!'

She loves the Christmas tree!

In our Christmas outfits!

Taking these photos gets more challenging each month! Good thing this was her last monthly photo before the big ONE! It takes distractions, crazy dancing and funny noises to get a good photo without her destroying the numbers. :) She tried picking up the number and handing it to Brett like, "I think you left this in my chair" haha!

Distraction #1: The bottle of lotion

The startled look when we hurriedly took it away to try and get a good photo. :)