Christmas Day 2010

We spent Christmas Day with my parents. Actually we went up on December 22 after work and stayed until December 26. Chesney must have been good this year because she got lots of great gifts. I love it when she gets gifts that I have never seen in the stores myself...and if you know me, I do a fair amount of shopping so I see a lot of stuff ; )

Chesney with her cousin Bradyn.

Lovely ladies in red!

Chesney's 1st Christmas

We celebrated our little family Christmas on Monday, December 20. We only got Chesney a few things because we knew the days ahead would bring lots of gifts.

She was most excited about the boxes, Christmas tree, and ribbon.

(Such a sweet little face that I could snuggle her all day long!)

Santa got Chesney a cell phone and an elephant chair. We are thinking the chair will be used for years to come.We are just so blessed to have this special girl to spend the holidays with this year.

Merry Christmas

From our home to yours...

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

9 Months Old

Where has this time gone, and how did our baby get so big?!? You are developing such a cute personality as you grow, and we just love you to pieces.

I thought taking pictures of you would get easier as you got older and could sit better. But I guess I didn't realize you would be grabbing everything.

Here is what you are up to at 9 months:

• Weight: 19 pounds 10 ounces (67th percentile)
• Length: 27.5 inches (54th percentile)
• Clothes: You are wearing 6-12 months clothes.
• Shoes: You wear a size 2 shoe. We hardly put shoes on you because you can kick them off faster than we can put them on you.
• Diapers: Size 3 Pampers and Bumgenius cloth diapers when we can
• Food: You are a good eater. You like the orange stuff a little more than the green still bt will eat almost any vege. You decided this month that you don't like bananas. We will have to try them in the future again. You have tried carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, squash, mashed potatoes, pears, applesauce, prunes, banana, cereal, avocado, peaches. New foods this month: kiwi and pancakes. I still make all of your food (except cereal), and you eat two cubes of vege and two cubes of fruit for lunch and dinner. You eat two cubes of fruit with your cereal at breakfast. And we recently started giving you a mid afternoon snack of either kiwi or yougart and puffs. In the last week you have learned how to pick the puffs up with your fingers and put them in your mouth. You nurse in the morning, and have a 4 oz bottle with each meal almost always breastmilk. You usually only have one bottle of formula a day which is 6 oz at bedtime. You drink water with your meals, and you are pretty good at drinking out of a cup. You like to bounce your cup on your tray or check out the bottom of it which leads to spills...oh well.
• Development: You have mastered the sitting and can even pull yourself up on your knees if you are sitting close to something that you can hold on to. You still rock on your knees and can crawl backwards. Very little movement forward. You will stand while holding onto toys or furniture for long periods of time. One of your favorite things to do is bounce and dance while you stand or sit. You just started to wave bye-bye. You love to give kisses (they are pretty sloppy but we don't mind).
• Words: None 
• Sleep: You are such a great sleeper. You go to bed at about 7:15 every night and wake up between 6:15 and 6:45 am. You take a 1 to 2 hour nap in the morning and a 30 minute to one hour nap in the afternoon (sometimes two afternoon naps). You wake up on your belly most mornings. When you wake up in the morning you just babble for a while. When we come get you, you push yourself up on your arms, smile, and rock back and forth. You are the happiest person in the morning!
• Teeth: You got your first tooth on December 17. Your right lower central incisor.
• What I love about you: You love to talk and smile. And dancing is your new thing. You are constantly bouncing when we hold you or when you stand. You have said da-da and ma-ma a few times but all were pure accidents. You definitely know who we are you just can't get the words out yet. We love spending every minute with you!

Great Grandpa Visit

Today we visited Great Grandpa so we could give him a picture of Chesney for his growing photo collection. Chesney got a sled ornament from Great Grandpa. These are so special because Great Grandpa and Great Grandma hand-made and painted them years ago. It is so nice to have a little piece of them to hang on the Christmas tree.

Chesney loved looking out his window, and since he had the screens on, she had even more fun rubbing her fingers over the screens.

We are so lucky to have such a wonderful Great Grandpa for Chesney, and we know that Great Grandma was looking down smiling that day too!

This Just In...Chesney's first tooth

During Chesney's bath tonight we found a little surprise...

Her 1st tooth!

It is pretty hard to see in the picture, but it's the bottom right central incisor. It is a sharp little guy too!

Here is the no longer toothless princess.

I guess it's time to break out the tooth brush. She loves to watch me brush my teeth so hopefully she will enjoy getting her tooth brushed.

Cousins

We made a trip up to visit Grammy and Grampy last weekend for a little bonding time and to make some Christmas treats.
The only part you can't see in the picture above is Chesney tapping her right hand on the couch while she eats. She like to tap her hand on the high chair too while she eats.

On Saturday night we got some surprise visitors...COUSINS! Bradyn and Brynna (with Chad and Mandi too) came to spend the night. Chesney was headed to bed when they arrived, but she was ready to play the next day.

I just love how she can play (and I use that term very loosely) with her cousins now. It is so fun to see them together.

This picture just makes me smile. Three cute little love bugs!

Happy Thanksgiving

We are so thankful this year to have such wonderful family and friends. And most of all, we are so thankful to have a baby to fill our arms this Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

8 Months Old

You are 8 months old today! Last year at this time we had just found out we were having a baby girl! This Thanksgiving I am so thankful to have my arms filled by you!

Here is what you are up to at 8 months:

• Weight: 18 pounds 4 ounces
  
• Length: 27 inches
  
• Clothes: You are wearing 6-12 months clothes now.
  
• Shoes: You wear a size 2 shoe, but we still struggle to keep shoes on you.
  
• Diapers: Size 3 Pampers and Bumgenius cloth diapers when we can
  
• Food: You are a good eater. You like the orange stuff a little more than the green and veges better than fruits. You have tried carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, squash, mashed potatoes, pears, applesauce, prunes, banana, cereal, avocado, peaches. I still make all of your food (except cereal), and you eat two cubes of vege and two cubes of fruit for lunch and dinner. You eat one cube of applesauce with your cereal at breakfast. You nurse in the morning, and then have a two bottles during the day and one at bedtime. You usually only have one bottle of formula a day. You drink water with your meals, and you are getting better at drinking out of a cup. You can lift it up to your mouth now. We do have a lot of accidents and wet clothes but that's how you learn.
  
• Development: You are getting pretty good at sitting but you often see something and lean for it and then tip over. You can pull yourself up on your play table and love to stand at it playing. You are starting to get onto your knees and rock back and forth, but no crawling yet.
• Words: None
• Sleep: You are still a great sleeper. You go to bed at about 7:15 every night and wake up between 6:30 and 7:00 am. You take a 1 to 1.5 hour nap in the morning and a 30 minute to one hour nap in the afternoon. You sleep in your sleepsack at night now and have no problems with it.
  
• Teeth: None yet
• What I love about you: You are such an easy going baby. You just love to smile! Your new thing is talking non-stop. We can't understand any of it but still you babble on like we do. I think you have thrown a couple da-das out but it's hard to tell in the babbling mess we call talking. You also love to sit in a chair and scream. We will talk to you, and you will scream back. You are just so playful and fun!

The newest trick you have is balancing things on your thumbs. You try to balance everything, even heavy rattles and toys. You usually talk while you are doing it too.


Chesney you are such a blessing. Daddy and I love you so much! We are so so so thankful to have you in our lives!

Family Pictures 2010

We recently had our 2010 family pictures taken, and I am in love!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Love the facial expression on this one.

 My two love bugs!

 

 

 

 My all time favorite picture!  How do you fit all that cuteness in a photo!?!