And She's Off!

While I started 2014 with a nasty cold/virus/flu/something, Bree began her year with finally figuring out how to move forwards.

It only took three days of that before she started pulling herself up on boxes, pants legs, etc.  Her legs are still a bit wobbly but that doesn't stop her.  Watch out world--Bree is mobile!

2013

I intended to do this post 10 days ago but, well, 2014 got off to a bit of a rougher start.  But that's for another post.

The end of a year always affords some time for reflection.  Lots of people set goals for the new year, and I'm no exception.  Except I would call mine more "dreams" than "goals".  I don't know that there's that much of a difference, except maybe mine are a bit loftier.  Mine probably fall more into the realm of "world peace" than "lose 10 pounds".  But, anyway, back to the point.  One of the things that I realized/learned as I reflected on 2013 was that I could sum the year up with one word:  Healing.  2013, while not perfect at times, and certainly not easy, was a year that brought a lot of healing to me personally and to us as a family.  Bree's arrival in April brought a healing to my heart that I had not anticipated.  To be honest, I didn't know there was anything that needed healing.  But Finn's birth and subsequent diagnosis in 2009 definitely did a number on me emotionally.  Having Bree brought a peace to my heart that I didn't even know had  been missing.  People will say, "So are you done now that you have your girl?"  The answer is, "Yes."  But the reasons are very different than what they assume and honestly they aren't ones that I can explain.  I can just say that I am at peace now.  And that has been huge.

There have been other levels of healing.  They are a lot more personal than I am comfortable sharing, but they are there.  And for that I am grateful.  I am looking forward to 2014 for many different reasons, and I feel that 2013 left me in a good place to see some amazing things and make many happy memories.  Hopefully as life gets more into a rhythm as the year goes on, the blog willbe  updated on a more timely basis.  One can dream right?  Isn't that where I started this post--with the fact that I dream.  Well, I do.  And I have big dreams for the year to come.

8 Months

On her feet trying to push herself forward

**Weighs almost 15 pounds

**Nurses 6-7 times a day

**Wakes up 2 times a night to nurse (sometimes only once....I keep hoping that will stick)

**Has 2 teeth

**Can get to all fours and rock....has taken one crawl forward but mostly ends up going backward and getting really frustrated. She has resorted to getting up on her feet to try to push herself forward and still can't get there.  But she moves all over a room in her own fashion.  From seated to rolling, etc.  

**Will sit up in her crib now and wait for me

**She has completely given up on solid food.  Admittedly, this has me baffled.  I've never had a baby do this, but she just flat out refuses to eat 90% of the time.  If she cracks a smile and I slip a spoon in, she'll keep her lips tightly closed and refuse to do it again.  No food.  At all.  I broke down and started to slip some cereal/fruits/veggies into her milk in a sippy cup.  At least that way she'll get an ounce or so.

**We finally found a sippy cup that she just loves.  There was no learning curve for the hard spout sippy.  I take the sippy out and pour it into her mouth and she will drink it.  So, at least there's that.

**She has the sweetest little voice ever.  She loves to giggle and shriek and her favorite phrase is "Ah roooo" or "Ah boo".  I have started calling her My Roo.

**She can support her full weight on her legs but still needs quite a bit of work on the balance part.

**She loves toys and will pass one back and forth between her hands.

**She fully enjoys her role as "Princess Bree."

Christmas 2013

We had a nice, quiet Christmas this year.  We kep the gifts to a minimum and just enjoyed what we had and our time together.  Christmas week was the first time that I can remember Reid having an entire week off and us not having a trip planned.  It was nice to just have family time.  We were all a bit bummed when he had to go back to work this week.

We had a traditional ham Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve.  And then we had our traditional Chinese take-out on Christmas day.  It's nice to not have to cook that day.  I will admit that I'm getting nervous about that tradition as only one Chinese take-out place is open Christmas day and the last two years they have been completely empty when I have gone in.  Last year we had ticket #1 (on the receipt) and this year we were only ticket #5.  Not good for those of us who want our Chinese on Christmas.

Anyway, it was a good day.  Bree never really got the concept of opening presents, but that didn't matter.  She loved having her family around her and playing all day.  And she even gave me a Christmas present the night before by sleeping prett well and sleeping in until nearly 7:30 that morning.  Yay for sleep!

Christmas Eve Dinner

Bree with her stocking

The paper makes this fun crinkly noise.....

playing in a mess of paper

Finn's most desired present--a Jake and the Neverland Pirates Spy Glass

working on his take-apart plane with Daddy

Bree got an Elefun ball popper.......Finn loves it soooo much

This pictures makes me laugh!  This face was for something that Finn was doing.

Kai's most desired present--Mine for Gems.  He did the actual mining a few days after Christmas and had a blast with his dad doing it.  He also got a Morphibian and a Lego Star Wars set.  He has finished his Legos (he went off on his own with Reid to do it on Christmas day) and worn out the batteries on the morphibian already.

almost done mining--this took a couple of hours

the gems he got from the kit

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Getting Ready for Christmas

With Thanksgiving being on the latest possible day this year, the Christmas season was just that much shorter.  We tried to cram in as much as we could in the three and a half weeks we had between when we got home from Kansas and actual Christmas day.  It's been a good and busy month.  Here are some highlights.

Quarterly CF clinic visit--Finn's weight keeps going up and they remain happy with his size.  He cultured Staph again and continues to have a green nose and cough when off of antibiotics.  So, we are working on that.  He attempted PFT's for the first time this month but still needs some more practice to get a good number.  Overall, a quick and good visit.

This little girl just gets cuter by the day.

I made her a baked apple.  She made a mess and refused to taste it.

Decorating the tree on a day where Kai was home due to extreme cold.

Snuggles with daddy

Photo bombers!

See 2 teeth in there?  Her bottom left central incisor appeared on December 3rd and quickly sprung up.

Sooooooo close to crawling.  She can move around a room quite well through a series of rolling, shifting her weight from her hands to her bum, etc.  If she wants to get somewhere, she can.

And the Christmas tree was a favorite spot!

The ward Christmas party was a lot of fun. Finn ran screaming down the hall that he didn't want to see Santa.  Kai sat on Santa's lap and told him that he wanted "Mining for Gems" for Christmas.

Some warmer days meant a trip to the park.  Unless you're Finn.  Then it means two trips to the park.

Bree discoverd the fun of pulling out the grass.

Finn helped me make Christmas goodies to take to our friends.  I gave him a mallet and candy canes.....

And he had fun!

Sprinkles on the chocolate covered marshmallows

Plates of goodies to take to friends.  We made 6 double batches of ginger-molasses cookies, as well as chocolate covered marshmallows, peppermint bark, and some buckeyes (chocolate covered peanut butter balls--not pictured).

The frost on the tress was beautiful for several days!

The week of Christmas Reid had off from work.  So, we went over to the new Bass Pro Shop one morning.  The kids loved the fish tank.

In Santa's village Kai got to try his hand at duck shooting.  We chose not to see Santa, as we did that at the ward Christmas party but the line wasn't long.

A look at the main aisle of the store

So much getting ready.  We were finally ready for the big day!

7 Months

It all just goes too fast!

**Takes 3 naps a day usually (2 long, 1 short)
**eats 2-3 "solid" meals (loose term for trying food) per day
**weighs approximately 14.2-14.4 pounds

**nurses sometimes 6 but mostly 7 times a day (2 of those are at night)

**her first tooth broke through on November 15 (her bottom right central incisor)
**is becoming more and more of a Momma's girl
**can successfully turn herself in circles through a process of shifting weight to her hands and scooting her bum
**can almost get up onto all fours (one leg gets caught at an angle and she can't quite get it turned) and rocks back and forth
**has the sweetest little voice and vocalizations--it sounds more like she's humming than anything else
**adores her brothers
**loves it when Momma plays pattycake
**discovered the game "Where's Bree?" on our trip to Kansas.  She pulls her blanket over her head, we say "Where's Bree?" and she pulls it back down with a big smile while we exclaim, "There she is!"  She LOVES it.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year we planned a road trip to Kansas to spend some time with family.  We got a late start the morning of Tuesday the 26th.  I ended up running Bree to urgent care that morning just to make sure she didn't have an ear infection (she was running a low-grade fever for two nights) and then Kai's easily excitable stomach just got so excited for the trip.  We finally got going nearly at lunch time and so we did what Lightning McQueen would call "gas-n-go".  We ate snacks in the car, got lunch from a drive-thru, and basically just went as fast as we could.  We made the journey in 9 hours!  (Last year it took me about 10 1/2 hours, just to give you a comparison.)  We had a great 3 day visit and then on Saturday the 30th we headed back.  The return journey was a similar story of gas-n-go with pretty similar results--about 9 1/2 hours.  It was a good fun trip.  The boys love their cousins and we love visitng family, which makes for a great trip.

After 8 hours of so in the car.  They were tired but had been really good travelers.  I was sitting in the middle next to Bree.

Playing in the back yard on Thanksgiving day.  It was cold!

Bree getting ready for her first Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Dinner--it was delicious.  Bree even took some bites of turkey and roll.

The day after Thanksgiving we went to the local gymnastic center's open gym time.  The boys LOVED it.  I tried to get a picture of everyone but as you can see, they were in constant motion.

Kai enjoyed laying around in the foam pit for about a half an hour at least.  Silly kid.

The gym had a large bouncehouse with slide set-up on the floor and Finn and Isaac just couldn't get enough of it.

Kristi and I took all 4 boys in her van.  This is how Finn had to ride to get there.  He was a good sport.

That night we made gingerbread houses.  It was one of Finn's highlights.  They both had a great time.

Heading home.  I remembered to take a picture when the sun was up this time.  :)

My travel buddy drinking some juice from a sippy cup.

For lunch on the way back we stopped at a Sonic that had some outdoor seating and a play area.  It was in the 60's and so this was great.  We got fast food, ate quickly, and Bree had some alone time in the van to nurse.  Win-win-win!

Friday night we tried to take some pictures of the little girls together.  They have matching dresses and bows so we dressed them up and tried to get some good pictures.  While we didn't get any actual good poses, we have some great pictures showing the girls' personalities and their interactions.  They are pricelss pictures even if they aren't necessarily ones you would hang on a wall.  This one where Bree is pullng Maci's hair is hilarious to me.  (Bree loves pulling hair--it's comforting to her for some reason!)

Maci wasn't amused with the hair tug.

Since Maci can walk and crawl it was hard to get her to stay still.  Bree was hard to keep interested, so we threw in some toys.  This one of Bree's was a big hit.

Almost a good picture.  If only Bree would have stayed in her spot!

Too cute.  This was our attempt at a second photshoot on Saturday morning.

My baby girl is getting so big.

All of the cousins piled up on the couch for one last picture before we left.