A Social Network Christmas

Christmas in Kerkhoven

Sunday we went to my childhood hometown of Kerkhoven to celebrate Christmas with my grandparents and family on my dad's side. Last year Bethany was just 2.5 months old, so this year she was into everything! She liked having it at the Civic Center because she could run around without getting into trouble. It is always fun as nostalgic to go back to my hometown and remember all the childhood memories. Grandma and Grandpa gave Bethany and Charlie very special gifts.... at Hallmark they have the recordable storybooks and they recorded them reading a story just for their great-grandkids. It is about a little princess and my grandpa sometimes said Bethany instead of she when referring to the princess in the book which was so sweet. We read it when we got home and Bethany kept running over to the book to look at it when it played their voices on each page. Thank you for the wonderful gift Grandma and Grandpa, we will cherish it always!

Bethany "helping" pass out the gifts - she is saying one of her new favorite words "oooooh"

yeah, we can share food again!

Bethany, me and Great-Grandma

We are celebrating our third Christmas on Christmas this weekend with my family at the cabin. With all the snow we are getting I hope the roads are safe for everyone this week!

13.5 months and Christmas at the Dells

Bethany is almost 14 months old! She is getting better at saying words we understand however I wish one of them were not "no" :) She loves saying "cheese" and "uh oh" and tries to do the "uh oh" thing over and over and looks at us to see what we think. She is climbing on everything! I find her on top of her little rocking chair in her room holding her book and trying to read like that... silly girl. In the tub at the cabin she tries to climb onto the seat part but because it is slippery usually slips back into the water. I'm right there, but she doesn't mind if she goes under the water for a second, she is a little fish I think! She likes climbing into the dish washer and fridge whenever they are open too. I love that she enjoys reading and grabs books all over and if she sees an open lap climbs right in or backs up and plops down and says "booK" with heavy emphasis on the "k" sound. We're still working on her picky eating habits. If we put food on her tray that isn't cheese she signs all done and shakes her head no and says no. Sometimes we get her to eat her fruit and shredded chicken, turkey or pork is good sometimes. Veggies are usually tough along with pasta and anything mixed together she won't touch. However, if you say the magic word she runs over to the fridge yelling "chhhheeese" and bangs on the door smiling from ear to ear. We've learned to spell it now along with a few other words. The other day I dropped Bethany off at Westwood and said we were working on her screaming. On cue she starts shrieking from across the room. I think it is a phase but I felt bad that she was playing nicely and heard me mention it and then I had to leave... sorry, gotta go to work, good luck with that! I told them I'd spell it from now on. She has a good friend Abe that she plays with and that day he ran over to say hi and when the screaming incident started he thought it sounded like a great game and chimed in.... whoops.

Here are some recent pics of freedom after her bath. Bethany with her beloved cheese.


Typical

Being very gentle with the tree, but we do have the decorations on the top half only :)

Last weekend we missed the big blizzard in Minneapolis because we were celebrating Christmas at the Dells with Dan's family. His sister came with her family from Chicago and we stayed at resort with Dan's parents. There were 2 units so the kids could have their naps and Monica cooked all the delicious meals. Friday evening we celebrated all the birthday's between Bethany's on Oct 28th through Emily's on Dec 20th.... 5 in total! We sang and blew out 5 sets of candle's :). Saturday was Christmas and we opened so many fun presents while it snowed and snowed outside. In total my guess is about 12 for the Dells vs. the 17 we got at home in Minnetonka. We were very excited to get a new camera and also a little netbook! The pictures below are from the new camera which is a step down from the DSLR camera's, but has a bigger lens than our current camera so hopefully we can get some great shots of Bethany. I am very happy with my mini-laptop so I can blog more, shop online and read my digital magazines/books in the evenings after Bethany goes to bed. If I don't have my work computer open I'm always trading off with Dan's computer, so it is so nice to have my own! Bethany got a mini kitchen and a bunch of play food. She is going to really enjoy it... now if we can only get her more interested in eating real food!

We went to the resort pool several times and Bethany is getting so good at jumping off the side. She also started blowing bubbles in the water when we showed her how to do it. It is fun to see her be so brave and enjoy the water like she does.

Bethany was sad to come home, I know she missed all the activity with her cousins! Thanks for all the fun Totmans and Springers! Can't wait to all be together again soon!

Running around being silly after her bath

Bethany hanging out with Papa

Family pic in front of the fireplace The 4 grandkids on the couch, it took several tries to get one this good! Maybe next year they will all be looking at the camera :)

Jacob hugging his sister Emily and cousin Bethany in front of the new tent

Recent pictures

We went to the 8th floor of Macy's with some other moms from Cross of Glory and ate lunch afterwards on the 12th floor. Bethany enjoyed all of the elf's but didn't enjoy the long lines :) We had hoped to see the puppet show too, but it was sold out and the kids probably wouldn't have made it to the next show!

Gentle touches to cousin Charlie

look at my teeth!

"Cheese"

It's brisk baby

I love my rocking chair that Morfar had as a little boy

The Alamo

a room with a balcony, fun to roam around in

Ready to go exploring

Christmas Cards

I've been procrastinating doing my Christmas cards this year! We used Shutterfly last year and it was the first time we did a photo greeting card. It was fun to use one of the pictures Linnea took for our card. This year we haven't taken many family pictures so I think it might end up being another one of just Bethany! Shutterfly has some cute cards again this year so I need to find a few favorite pictures and get to work. Honestly, I love getting photo cards in the mail... it is fun to see friends and family that we don't see often enough when I run through the kitchen during my day. This year we also did a lot of greeting cards of Bethany for family from Shutterfly. It's the same price as cards from a store, but everyone ALWAYS oo's and ahh's about how fun it is to have a personalized card. And, I usually see those cards out (how can you toss a personalized card with a picture of my sweet baby?)

If you haven't done your cards yet this year - here are the links I've been perusing... can't wait to get your Christmas Cards!

· holiday cards http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards
· greeting cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/5x7-folded-greeting-cards
· Christmas photo cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards

13 months

We are having so much fun with Bethany. She loves the cold air when it hits her face outside, it is quite funny when she looks at us at laughs at her breath in the air... I don't think she'll think it is funny in March when it is still cold! We try to keep the doors closed to rooms in the house we'd prefer her to stay out of. We've found her splashing in the toilet, or depositing things in there too often. When our bedroom door is open she likes to run in there and turn around to see if we'll follow her. Either way she'll try to grab things off the dresser like Dan's phone, any remotes, his work badge etc. We pretend to "chase" her down the hallway as she tries to escape which sends her into fits of laughter. Her words are not completely clear yet, but she says cheese, socks, book, mommy, daddy, eat, milk, bottle and night-night. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few words... When we read her animal book and get to the bear, tiger or lion she roars. She also tries to cluck like a hen or make a fish face for those animals. We have started to spell things so she doesn't understand us, otherwise when we say something about dinner or food she runs over to her high-chair. She could be playing contently and then I say something about her bottle and she gets up and runs to the fridge and wants to be held. Sometimes if I say goodbye, she'll go get her coat and hat and bring them to me and start waving. Or if I ask if she needs a bath she will walk over to the bathroom and start banging on the door. She likes to open and shut doors if they are ajar and we aren't concerned with her going up and down the steps anymore- we made it through without a baby gate!

Charlie came over on Saturday because Brent was sick and Amber had to work. Bethany played really well with him and kept patting him on the head gently. He is doing so well at crawling and if he could keep up with her he was happy. They were being silly on Sunday afternoon laughing at each other’s noises. Charlie would happily scream and then Bethany would join in. She’d run around shaking her head and he’d laugh at her hysterically – it was so cute. We put their highchairs next to each other so it was easy for me to feed them but Bethany kept stealing blueberries off Charlie’s tray! He didn’t seem to mind, but liked it when she shared a cracker with him. Her favorite food is cheese. She also likes fruit and sometimes bread (she’d do well in Paris). Anything else is hit or miss, so we take advantage of it when she likes something. Shredded chicken or turkey works sometimes and carrots once in awhile too. Hopefully the picky stage won’t last long J
A few weeks ago Dan and Bethany came along with me on a work trip to San Antonio. Bethany really enjoyed running around the hotel room and onto the balcony. She didn’t enjoy her bed though which made for some long nights with her in bed with one of us… during the day she and Dan did some sight-seeing and swam in the hotel pool. She did incredibly well on the flights again! We just booked another trip to Phoenix in February which will be fun because we have a lot of family and friends there. I work 3 days, and then we’ll extend through the weekend and two days the next week. We are looking forward to seeing Nate and Lindsey and their kids – it has been a few years since we saw them, was it in Singapore? Ian and Courtney may also come up from Tucson while we’re there and then we’ll try to spend some time with my family too.
I’ll try to be a little better about posting! December is always busy with Christmas - we’ll be at the Wisconsin Dells with the Totman’s and Springer’s in a few weeks and then with my family over Christmas at the cabin. The good news is that I am almost done Christmas shopping! I really dislike shopping, but I love it when I find good deals and with a lot of retailers discounting merchandise early and offering free shipping we were able to get a lot done online over Thanksgiving – yea!