First Christmas

Nayeli was so adorable on Christmas. I woke her up in the morning so we could all have breakfast and open presents together and she didn't quite know what to think about being pulled from her slumber. She LOVED the chocolate chip pancakes that were waiting for her at the table. Then I got her cleaned up and dressed. She was so excited over all the gifts being opened and did a pretty good job her self. She may just be a pro by her birthday. On Christmas we opened all the presents Grandpa and Grandma Puetz sent. Austin got a tool bench, a racecar thingy-ma-bob, and a hotwheels car and truck. He loved it all. Nayeli got a little car/walker thing for her. It's Pooh brand and is pretty loud. She also got a new dolly... We named it Leah. Last but not least she got a bug that has shapes, songs and games. From the picture you get an idea of her excitement throughout the day. It was wonderful to have her and Austin playing with their toys and giggling and even sort of fighting over who got to play with what. I loved it... but don't I always. :-)



We're going to be celebrating Christmas some more with Jeremy's parents on Monday. :-)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Some Pix of Our Place

Kitchen

More Kitchen (You can see the living room too.)

Corner of Living Room with tree!

Austin's Artwork

Cowboys (One has muscles.)




Snowman and Alien Snowman


Spongebob and Larry



Tree Creatures?


Jellyfish and sideways alien snowman with muscles.


Austin told me what all of these were. (I'm just not sure about the tree creatures one because it was a while ago.) :-D

Tastes Like Chicken!

Tonight I made ground beef steak with gravy over rice and coaxed Austin into trying it. He said, "Mmm, that's good. It tastes like chicken!?" Lol. I had used chicken bouillon instead of the beef kind... so maybe that was it. It was adorable either way!!

My Sweet Princess

*Adoring Sigh* My daughter...

I have been sorting through outgrown/not grown into yet clothes tonight in the kids room, for hopes it is B.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l. when Jeremy's parents come for Christmas. Austin has been playing with toys and watching the Santa Clause 2 on ABC Family's "The 25 Days of Christmas" and Nayeli has been crawling around, playing with toys and trying to throw all of my work around the room. :-) :-P

Well, she found her dolly Lucy and I was about my own business when I looked over at her and saw her cradling baby Lucy, rocking back and forth, just gazing at her.

It was SOooo precious!! It's crazy to me to think a baby who's not even one can be like that with a little thing that looks like a baby. Girls ARE different from boys!! :-)

I love my kids!!

♥Us 2008♥

The Littles (Pix 2008 Faves)

Recap of 2008 (favorite pix2)

Recap of 2008 (favorite pix1)

My Favorite Things 2

My Favorite Things 1

Musicality

A few nights ago Jeremy and I were channel surfing and on PBS a band called the High Kings were playing. They are from Ireland, and go figure, sing Irish songs. :-) I LOVE their voices, and the songs and have been listening to them a lot over the past few days. Jeremy and the kids like them just as much and we have been enjoying the sound. Also, I read a couple books this past month that inspired me to turn on some classical music in the house when it would otherwise be quiet... I LOVE it. Austin was singing Vivaldi's "Gloria" the other day, and I didn't realize I knew it, but I sang it in choir in high school. So, we sang it together, and Nayeli sang too. :-) It's all so calming. The other night when I was starting to fall asleep I couldn't tell if I had a particular classical piece stuck in my head, or if I was making up one of my own. I wish I knew how to write music. :-P (Not quite enough yet to learn on my own though.)


It snowed for the first time yesterday. It's almost all melted now, but it's staying colder than it has been since I moved here. Just three days ago it was still 50 degrees. I'm a little excited for when there's enough snow to sled, not really excited for the cold. :-P

Happy Holidays to all of my friends and family and everyone who might read this blog. :-D

Meal Time

For the past two weeks, at least, we have been all sitting down together for 1-2 meals a day. It is sort of exciting making sure the kids are in their spots and ready before I serve them their food. We say a prayer and cheer, and Austin gets a little upset b/c we're only suppose to cheer at Claire's house. Then when I ask if that's what's wrong he says, "yeah, can we see her?" I let him know that we will eventually. (Claire lives in WI, if you don't know... she is my cousin that is Austin's age.) Austin doesn't quite tell us about his day at the dinner table yet, but we all have fun sitting around staring at eachother, chomping our food.

Stat Care

My little betty likes to get hair wrapped around her tosies from time to time and the day was one of them. J and I thought she was teething something fierce and we tried to comfort her as best as possible. Nothing was working, she was fussy and not sleeping at all. Today just after I left for work Jeremy realized that the only time she ever cries this much is when she is stuck in hair. It's happened two times before so that she's had the indentions from my hair on her toe(s) for up to two days after it comes off. Well, today, her toe was black. Jeremy cut the hair off and tried to get a hold of me but my cell was off. I got home and he showed me. Most of the color had come back but she has a giant blood blister bigger than her toe itself. I took her to the place for "minor" emergencies and the doc says he doesn't think her toe is going to die, but she's going on an antibiotic and needs to be seen again on Sunday. My poor princess. :-(

Drama aside...
She said light tonight.

Also, she has four teeth now. Three on the bottom and one on top. The one on top isn't one of her front teeth but her left "vampire" tooth. :-P She's adollable!

She got to open her first Christmas present yesterday and she was all kinds of excited. It's was great to watch! She got two "singing" books from my grammy and grandpa and a beautiful Christmas dress. Grammy made it all on her own. :-)

She's not walking yet, but she stands on her own a little bit more now. She pulls herself up on furniture or toys and then lets go. My little "big" girl. ;-) Love her, love her!!

Work and Leisure

I picked up an extra shift at work this week. Almost 26 hours all together, which will make for a better pay check. :-) On Saturday I have plans to take the kids to the zoo for a "Snowflake Celebration." I'm excited and I hope it's not too cold. Tomorrow is the "celebration" for the store I work in. I get done with work before the festivities begin, but I might bring the kids in.

Yesterday I took Jeremy to work then drove Austin around to look at Christmas lights. We had a lot of fun doing it. After looking around we went to the mall to walk around and play at the indoor park. Austin made a couple of little friends and we shared a Hi-C from the Pretzel Maker.

After work on Friday I'm going to have to go around and do some bill paying, and I'll probably pick up a winter jacket for myself and Nayeli. It hasn't snowed extensively yet, but it's getting windy, and soon it will be bitterly cold. I'd like to be prepared.

Work is a little more stressful around the holidays. People come to the grocery store in a hurry and get angry when they make an error on self scan. I wish they would just go through an actual lane or realize that I'm a real person and not a robot if they are going to get frustrated in my line. I try to keep a positive attitude but I'm starting to develop a phobia of older women. I miss the women I had bible study with in California. None of them treated me the way some of these ladies do.

Most of the time, Kansas has the nicest people I've ever met. These older women terrify me though. :-S The old men, on the other hand, are funny and entertaining and I am happy to help them in the self check. They are very much gentlemen and never inappropriate and just a pleasure to work with.

~The Second Half of November~

It's been somewhat of a hectic second half of the month, but there have been a lot of good times. First there was five days of celebrating Austin's birthday, then Thanksgiving and me meeting Jeremy's parents for the first time.

For Austin's birthday we went out to eat a few times, watched him open lots of presents, swam, went to Kansas City to go to the T-Rex Cafe and see Madagascar 2. We also ate cake and just hung out and tried to teach him that he's four now, instead of three.

Thanksgiving was fine. The night before Jeremy, the kids and I met his parents at IHOP. We had a late dinner and then without his parents we went to Walmart to pick up some more food for the next day. I worked Thanksgiving morning. The store was pretty dead, and yet the time went fast. We had pasta and meatballs, a traditional Italian Thanksgiving dinner. Jeremy and his parents made all the food. It was pretty good, and both the kids loved it.

Jeremy's parents seemed to like the kids. It was wonderful having some new faces around for them to interact with. :-) Hopefully we'll get to see them again around Christmas time.

HAPPY 4th B-DAY BUGGY!

:-D

It's my baby's birthday and I'm so glad I've got him. He's an amazing little person and lights up my life, and the lives of so many others. :-)

He got to have a pretty busy birthday weekend and I think he's about all birthday-ed out. ;-)

I could have bought a used car with how much money people spent on him this birthday. Next year I think I might have to give people maximum limits. I am grateful though to have people who care and thank you to all the family members who sent things and gave Austin some special b-day fun.

Here are a couple of pictures on Austin's special day!

The fun starts opening a birthday card full of stickers from Grandma and Grandpa Cookie!

Already wore out, the day before his birthday he napped on the way to fun in Kansas City.

We parked at Dorothy #4 for Austin's 4th birthday. :-D
Lucky me, he's been really into The Wizard of Oz for the past two weeks, so we was up in arms when we marched down the yellow brick road.

We took him to the T-Rex Cafe which had life-size anamatronic dinosoars, amongst other things. He really wasn't too sure about it, but when Jeremy and I showed him a fish tank with "Dory" fish he cracked a smile. The night only got better!

A birthday sundae for the birthday boy!

In the movie theater before seeing Madagascar 2.

Austin's beautiful eyes while playing with a balloon meant for him on his birthday.
(It really is his b-day in this pic.)

:-D

A Li'l News on the Li'l One

Nayeli is still working on her teeth. She's actually been a bit miserable for the past week. It seems that on top of the three that are still growing taller, she has at least one more trying to break through, maybe two. All of her teeth are on the bottom so far and she's got an adorable toothy smile now.

She is soooo cute when she sings. She'll sing Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey... she's not quite to goodbye, and the heys are a little rough, but she copys the na na na's perfectly. We're working on fa la la la la, la la la la and do a ditty ditty dum ditty do. Austin's good at the last one.

As peanuty as she is clothes that are for babys to 12 months are fitting her alright. She'll be 10 months in about a week. :-)

She and Austin play together very well and she gets closer to standing on her own every day!

A lovely l-l-lazy day!

Today has been very relaxing so far. That is, post work for me. I came home and got to lay down and take a nap for two hours. Then I got up with the kids, made grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup and ate. We all, Jeremy included, cuddled and the couch and listened to music and sang and tickled each other. Austin colored two very wonderful pictures, and built with blocks. (Jeremy tried to build too but Austin knew how he wanted to do it himself. Since Jeremy left for work, almost an hour ago, Nayeli finished her nap, Austin tapped a balloon around the apartment and I got to go online. Now it's time for some more quality time with the kiddos. :-D What a lovely day!

An Early Autumn Afternoon

Today after work I had a dentist appointment to make sure my dry socket is doing what it's suppose to be doing. It is, so that was good news. When I got home I woke the kids up and we grabbed a couple things to snack on and headed out the door for a walk. We took the path we take to get to the park that's further away, but we found a picnic table nestled in some trees and ate our snack there. Then we back tracked to the park that's right out back.

Nayeli really enjoyed the swing today and was full of giggles. I found that if I just gave her a couple of good pushes I could run and go down the slide, or across the bridge with Austin and then just go back and push Nayeli again. I had a lot of fun with the kids. I hope that had as much fun with me!

I found some branch/twig type things that look a little like bamboo shoots and I'm hoping Jeremy will give me the okay to frame the mirror in our bedroom with them. I'm really excited if he agrees that it's okay.

I'm so glad we had a warmer day today. It's been really cloudy and cold the past few days and I think we all needed the fresh air we got. I went a little picture happy on our outing and I thought I'd share a few. Enjoy!!