Announcement!

I am going to be an Aunt again!!! Jamie and Keith announced at our Smith Christmas that they are going to be having a baby in July sometime! We are so excited and can't wait to meet baby Recker. They are going to make wonderful parents! Congratulations Keith and Jamie!

Smith Christmas!

We ended up heading to my parents on Friday afternoon. Austin's dad was bringing him to my parents' around 5 so we wanted to for sure be there by then. We pretended like this was Christmas Eve and did our normal tradition of appetizer foods (crab sticks, shrimp, etc). The next morning we woke up as if it were Christmas morning and opened gifts. Kezzie was the first up besides my mom. 6 am was way too early. I guess she was just excited to see her gifts! This meant that she was pretty much ready for a nap before anybody else even got up. Jamie woke up and informed everybody that Keith was up puking all night. So he missed out. We at a wonderful breakfast of eggs and homemade cinnamon rolls. Later in the afternoon Casey and Nate with their 3 1/2 yr old Gavin came over and we had Christmas with them. It was great to get together with them...it had been a while! Saturday night Brian went home to see some friends that were home for the holidays. We were all in bed pretty early only to wake the next morning and have to go home. Em and Adam and the boys headed home pretty early. Brian came back to meet me so we could head on to church together. It was such a good time together playing games and eating some really good food...I hate it when times like that have to end! Here is a video of our time together...

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Uglum Christmas!

We had a great Christmas with the Uglums. Grandma Troyna came for the morning and early afternoon so it was good to hang out with her a little extra! We got there around noon and ate a brunch. After we ate we opened gifts. The kids got so many awesome gifts! So did we! Austin had to go with his dad around 4, but after getting him where he needed to go I went back to Riley and Kathy's. Later that evening we had a big dinner together. We couldn't get Kezzie to go to bed in her pack-n-play so we ended up calling it a night and going home around 8ish. We were disappointed we couldn't hang out with Mat and Steph a little more than we did, but maybe some other time, or at least when our kids get older!! Here are some photos from our time together...

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Christmas Morning!

Christmas morning we got to spend it as a family of four. We haven't ever gotten to do that before. We've always been in another town, but this year it was the Uglum's turn to have us on Christmas day so we got to stay at our own house since we live in the same town. Kezzie woke up bright and early and I got breakfast going. We had cinnamon butter braid. I couldn't believe it, but I actually had to wake Austin up! It even took some persuasion to get him out of bed! He must be growing up to pick sleep over Christmas morning! Once we were all up and awake we started opening gifts. It is so much fun to give to each other!! Here are some of the photos from Christmas morning!

Grandma Troyna's House!

The night of Christmas Eve the Uglums can almost always be found at Grandma and Grandpa Troyna's house (Brian's mom's parents). We had a great time sitting around and talking and playing catch-up with a couple of the cousins. Mat and Steph were in town by that time too so we enjoyed hanging out with them and Brady. It was a pot luck style feast so Brian headed to his Grandma's with the food while Austin, Keziah and I went to our local Baptist church's candle light service. It was great to sing some Christmas carols and hear the story of Jesus' birth once again! We were home by 8:30 to put Kezzie to bed...Austin got to stay up until 10! And after putting the presents under the tree, I went to bed too! Christmas morning was so much fun! But we'll save that for another post!

13 months!

I can't believe Keziah is 13 months today. So when people ask I can't say, 'oh she just turned one'. I have to say, 'she's thirteen months'! What a big girl. I love being home with her and enjoy every minute of joy that she brings. Her laughter brightens my day! She is jabbering so much lately. It seems like she is pretending a lot and carrying on a conversation with herself. She is such a copycat too. She will try to say almost any word you say. And the sweetest thing she does is she will give you a hug and kiss if you ask for it. The best is when you don't ask for it and she just comes and gives you one (she loves her mommy!). Also if she hits you and you say 'ouch' she will give you a kiss to make up for it! Sometimes I think she hurts you on purpose so she can make you happy again. Some of Kezzie's newest, besides copying everything, is she can now sign 'baby', 'more', 'eat', 'sleep' and 'bed'. Still not choosing walking but could if she wanted to. And she has gotten another tooth-her last of the four molars (bottom left) 12/19/08

No more Santa!

This marks the first year that Austin doesn't believe in Santa Clause. At least not as the man who magically falls down the chimney bringing lots and lots of presents. I can't believe he finally came to his senses! It actually happened because he figured out the tooth fairy isn't real! The last time he lost a tooth he left the tooth fairy a note as he had done many times before and just like all the other times the tooth fairy wrote him back. However, something struck him this last time, as not right. I must have used too familiar of hand writing or something. He approached me about it and there wasn't any way I could lie to his face so I told him he was correct. It wasn't until later that day he asked me about the Easter Bunny and Santa. He was very devastated and felt really stupid for believing it. I honestly don't know how I will handle Santa with Kezzie. Watching how Austin felt and him being amazed that I have been 'lying' to him all these years, I don't know if Kezzie will ever think of Santa Clause as anything more than a jolly nice old man who gave out gifts to kids. It was heartbreaking to see Austin hurt and worst of all he was right that I had been lying to him in a sense. I'm just glad there aren't anymore secrets and we can stop pretending that Santa is watching him year round!

It's going around!

Well, we've all had it now. I guess the flu bug was just waiting to attack each one of us individually. I woke about midnight on Tuesday with a terrible stomach ache. Tuesday morning I threw up about four times. By Tuesday afternoon I was already feeling much better. It wasn't until about midnight Thursday that Austin came in our bedroom puking in his pail we cautiously set by his bedside. He missed school Thursday and spent the better part of the day in the basement away from me and Kezzie, watching TV and sleeping the day away. By friday he still wasn't up to par until the late afternoon. That's when he finally got to go out and play in all the fluffy fresh white snow (see previous post)!

Big Storm!

I cannot believe the amount of snow we got...here is a few photos of around our house. Brian could barely get the snow blower through the snow it was so deep. I don't think we have ever had to deal with this much snow since we've been married! I must say...Austin was pretty excited! The first photo is out our side door looking over our porch. Second photo is out our living room windows looking toward the street. The two bottom photos are of our driveway. You can see where Brian started to snow blow at the end of our driveway where it meets up with the unplowed alley.

The flu...

Kezzie had her first true sickness. What a horrible day we had yesterday...We went to mom and dad's after church to have Keith's birthday dinner. Dad was doing a fish fry. Luckily Emily and Adam and the boys had other plans so they weren't there. Kezzie got the flu. She threw up every 3-5 minutes from about noon until 7ish. It was misery. I felt horrible for Keith and everybody else too. While Kezzie and I were in the living room, everybody else was trying to enjoy their dinner. We ended up taking her to urgent care where they suggested anti nausea medicine and said she wasn't getting dehydrated. We had to stay the night at mom and dad's because there wasn't any way I was going to be able to get Kezzie home through an hour drive. Brian had stayed home that morning because he still wasn't feeling well so I would have had to drive. Brian came to mom and dad's to see how she was feeling and to take Austin home for school today. I am home now as Kezzie hasn't thrown up since this morning. I just pray none of the rest of us get it...

A critter??

Well, we came home from Keith's party and after putting Kezzie to bed we watched a little TV. I was feeling very tired and decided to go to bed about 10:30 while Brian decided to stay up. On the weekends we like to let the dogs stay up with us to cuddle and since I went to bed, they came with me. Brian kept coming in to make sure they were in bed with me because he was sure he kept hearing them up walking around. Finally about 11:45 he came in one last time and decided he was going to put the dogs away. It was at this time that he told me about his concern..."Something is in our house." I immediately panicked and got out of bed to check it out. As we stood still in the kitchen we could hear claws tip toeing around above us. It (whatever it was) was apparently in the kitchen ceiling. A while before coming in to wake me up, Brian said he heard a loud thud. This was apparently the animal falling into the ceiling from the attic. We listened as the animal made its way to the cold air intake register and we watched without a plan as the animal tried to escape. All we could see was its little claws poking out the vent area. If we had been prepared and if we had known what we were dealing with we would have removed the vent plate and captured him, but instead he gave up and went searching for other escapes, thus resulting in Brian and I staying up into the wee hours just listening for where he was going to go next. I wish I had a happy ending or at least an interesting one, but all I can say is it is still a mystery. Our guess is that it was a squirrel and our hope is that he found his own way out. He has yet to disturb us again though! Now all we have to do is figure out how he got in in the first place!

Uncle Keith's 30th

We celebrated Keith's 30th birthday with an ugly sweater party. Jamie headed that one up and invited over 50 people. With lots of food and beer to be drank, it was a good time for everybody! We didn't stay long since Brian was fighting a virus and Kezzie needed to go to bed, but from what we were told, it was a blast! We did manage to capture a photo of the birthday boy himself with his favorite (an only) niece before heading for home and onto our next adventure (see next post)!

Snow Day!

Yesterday Austin had his first snow day of the year... Although it is a little more stressful when he's around it's fun to hang out with him and watch him interact with Kezzie. I am finding that with such an age difference it is really hard to entertain both of them at the same time without Austin getting bored or Kezzie just getting in the way. Hopefully in another year Kezzie will be able to join in and 'help' in game play and other things that Austin enjoys. Austin always gets excited when he has a day off. I'm not sure why since he still has the same rules as any other week day (limited TV, no video games, etc.), but he really enjoys being home. He spent most of the morning outside building a fort until he got a bunch of snow down his boot. Once he came in he spent his time reading and making a card for his dad. Later in the day he called a friend who lives a couple blocks away and he walked up to our house (why didn't we think of this earlier in the day!?). They spent the better part of the afternoon playing outside together until they got too cold and came in until it was time for his friend to go home. I love thinking about the memories that are being made for him as he gets older! He's such a great kid!

Kezzie's new schedule...

At a little over a year old Kezzie has once again changed up life a bit! She is now nursing only three times a day but still takes two daytime naps. Our day looks a little like this now:
Between 6:30/7:30-Wake (Kezzie signs 'milk' before I even lift her out of the crib!)
Between 6:30/7:30-Breast Milk
8:30-Breakfast (usually rice cereal mixed with BM and fruit, cheerios, or toast)
9:00-Nap Time
10/11-Wake (small snack if it's closer to 10)
11:30-Lunch (usually a meat, veggie, bread, and fruit. I offer whole milk which she hates so I usually end up giving her water sometimes with a little juice mixed in)
1:15-Breast Milk
1:30-Nap Time
3:00 (sometimes as late as 4)-Wake (snack of cheese fish crackers, raisins, dried blueberries, string cheese, apple, yogurt, or puffs along with a drink of water or milk)
5:00-Rice cereal (mixed with BM and fruit) if supper isn't ready and she's really hungry.
5:30-Supper (if she had rice cereal she usually doesn't eat very much with us but sits in the high chair at the table with us).
7:00-Bath Time (every other night)
7:15/7:45-Breast Milk
7:30/8-Bed Time (depending on when she woke from her afternoon nap)

Kezzie is walking???

Ok, so the hot discussion in our house is what is really considered walking? Is it when they take their first couple steps or is it when they never go back to crawling again? Well, if we are talking about Kezzie's first steps, they happened about a week before her first birthday when she took about 3-4 steps toward the garbage to throw her dirty diaper away (one of her favorite 'chores' to do!) But, if we are talking about several consecutive steps as being considered walking, Kezzie is up to 7 steps in a row (12/8/08). I know that isn't considered full blown walking yet, but she is learning her ability more and more and is definitely on her way to seeing things on a higher level. I've noticed where she will stand up more often rather than sit and do something. And if you put your hand out she will grab it and start to walk rather than get back down to crawl. And if she's in the right mood she will let you take a few steps back and proudly walk toward you. I know she can do it, but she's still not confident enough yet. I'm gonna wager that in the next week or two she will be a walker and I will have some video to share with you!

Friends!!

Friday until Saturday we visited a good friend of mine that lives in Cedar Rapids. She is on her last week of maternity leave so I wanted to take time to visit her before she had to go back to work. It was so great to see her in her new role of life and doing a great job at it. Hunter is growing like a weed and so much fun. He smiled at me a couple times! Kezzie thought he was cute too and tried to share with him but also wanted him to share his paci. She had a good time playing with the baby toys. Saturday she hung out with the daddys and Hunter while the mommys went to lunch and a movie. It was a much needed time away! I enjoyed eating at Panara Bread and sitting in peace at the movie...I am so thankful for friends like Kristin!

Excitement!!

The biggest excitement that has happened around here is we got new appliances. I'm sure out of the four of us, I am the only one that would even respond with this as being exciting, but I have been waiting a long time for this!! They were very necessary as most of our old ones were just about to crash! Our dishwasher still worked great, however we wanted them all to be stainless steel so we got a new dishwasher too. As for our fridge (it has a loud ringing sound), it is now an extra storage place for drinks and meat and sits in our garage, and our stove is getting sold at the store we bought our appliances from. They wouldn't resell our dishwasher so that is in our garage if you know anyone who might want it. There is an organization that takes appliances for flood victims and that's where it's going if I don't find anybody that wants it before I can get it there. Anyway, I just had to share my excitement with everyone!

First Snow!

Austin dug a little hole in the snow and is putting snow balls around it to make a fort. Kezzie was enjoying hanging out in it and watching him work!

Here is Kezzie and Austin sitting in his fort. I can tell he is enjoying her more everyday. It was actually his idea to put her on his lap and take a picture...I used to have to make threats to get a picture like this!
Kezzie looks so cold and helpless with no hands and feet. She would just sit there and stick her arm out toward where she wanted to go. And although you can't really tell by looking at her, she really loved being outside with the snow! It will be a fun winter!

Kezzie's One Year Professional Pics

These are Kezzie's one year professional pictures we had taken at Zahasky's Photography in Cresco, IA. I think they did a pretty good job aside from Kezzie being crabby from teething!

Random Cute Photos!

This is the look we see a lot because she is always trying to concentrate on something. You can just see the wheels turning in her head! Kezzie is such a good girl. Unlike a lot of kids, she actually likes wearing her outdoor gear and will often take it out of the diaper bad and give it to me to put on her. She looked so cute here I couldn't resist a picture!

Here is Kezzie exploring what she can find in the diaper bag. She found her snack catcher and there just so happens to be some snacks in it. This is the look of 'uh oh, I'm caught!'

One Year Pics

If you want to, you can check out Kezzie's one year pictures. Just click on 'enter main site' and then 'clients' at the top and enter in 'keziah' for the password. Just a warning...she had a really bad picture day. We managed to get a few good ones but we definitely could have gotten a better smile out of her on a different day. It must have been those teeth coming through again!

Here is the link:
http://www.zahaskyphotography.com

Let me know what you think and which are your favorites! I have to pick by next week!

Keziah's First Birthday Party!

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What an awesome party we had for Keziah! There were so many family members that came and a few friends. It was great to see everybody and really nice of them to come. We ate a great meal (pulled BBQ beef sandwiches, deviled eggs, seven layered salad, snicker salad and cheesy hash browns), opened gifts and watched in wonder as Kezzie and her cousins played. We appreciated all the gifts she got. I'd like to be able to tell someone in secret that she loves their gift the best but honestly she has played with them all equally. She is having a blast with all her new toys/movies/books. She got quite a few stuffed monkeys (since monkeys are her favorite), some Baby Einstein movies, several books, a walker, a little people bus and plane and several other things. She is not bored around here that's for sure! Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate her first year of life with us...it was such a special time for our family!

Keziah is ONE Today!

It brings me to tears to think about this last year and all the ways Kezzie has brought joy to our lives. And as Thanksgiving approaches, I am reminded even more of all the things I have to be thankful for. It is amazing how this last year has sped by. She has made me a better person and a better mom. She has taught me so much! She is such a blessing and so much fun to be around. I can't believe I have been a stay-at-home mom for over a year now. Even though it has its hard moments...I love it so much and am so thankful for the days I get to spend with her, teaching her and loving her and getting to know her! What a gift she is. Happy One Year Birthday Keziah!

More Teeth!

I can hardly keep up anymore. Over the weekend Kezzie got two more molars. Friday I found the top left one and Saturday I found the bottom right one. She hasn't been herself lately, but she's still been in a pretty good mood. She only wakes up in the night to complain about it and then goes back to sleep. I give her tylenol before bed and rub some orajel on them all. I think that helps. Her appetite has pretty much been cut in half though. She'll be back to her old self before we know it!

Keziah Milestones!

Kezzie is becoming quite the chatter box...even though she only knows a few words, her brain tells her she can talk. She looks at us and I swear she is telling us a story! Here are some of the things she is mastering these days!
10/28 Says 'hi'
10/30 Says 'Ah-tin' for Austin
10/31 Mooos like a cow
10/31 Makes an elephant noise
10/31 Growls like a lion
10/31 Says 'hot' and uses it appropriately most of the time!
10/31 Plays Peek-a-boo
10/31 Gives us a movie and signs 'movie' when she wants to watch one!
11/1 Says 'baby'
11/1 Says 'bye'
11/2 Says 'Papa' for grandpa
11/8 Points to eyes, nose and sticks out tongue when asked where these things are. She also points to my teeth when I ask her to point to her teeth.
11/10 Says 'hup' for cup
11/21 Says 'appa' for apple

Other signs she has known for a while: drink, milk, bath, play, hello/good-bye,

Christmas Spirit!

Austin and I spent some time together decorating the tree last night. He always enjoys doing it. I hope it never gets old to him! This is the tree in the process and then the final product.

When we were almost done and had one last box of ornaments to put on, Austin felt it should be Christmas tradition to make a human decorated Christmas tree. So he did like he did last year (see photo of him in maroon sweatshirt-Christmas 2007). He hung ornaments from all places possible! He's such a goof! A little side note: Wow he's gotten big in the last year!

And while I was putting on the finishing touches Austin was off by himself taking funny pictures for me to later find. I guess this is supposed to be a big green booger! Have I ever mentioned how much I love this kid and his humor!

Grinders!

Keziah has a molar (bottom right)...I can't believe it! She has quite the mouthful of teeth. This brings us up to #9! I was giving her a bath and she smiled really big at me, and there it was. I thought she had something in her mouth! She acted strange all weekend and Brian and I actually thought she might have a touch of the flu, but I'm sure it was the tooth! Before we know it she's going to be eating steak for dinner!

Family!

This last weekend we took some time to spend with family. We had a get together with my mom's side of the family at my parent's house. And it just so happened that my dad's brother and wife and their four kids were in town too so we got to see them on Sunday. Since so much was going on at mom and dad's, we decided to pack up our things and go for the weekend. Upon getting Kezzie packed she discovered this back pack hanging on a hook in her closet. It was my back pack from when I was in kindergarten (I actually have a picture somewhere of me with it on, waiting for the bus). It was my favorite thing! I decided to use it to put Kezzie's clothes in since she was loving it so much. She kept hugging it! But with the clothes in it she couldn't lift it or carry it anymore so she just sat down on the floor with it in her lap, holding it! It's as big as she is!

Here are some random photos from our get together on Saturday!

This is Aspen and Kezzie. There are several of them together. Aspen will turn one the second week in December. Kezzie and Aspen are less than 3 weeks apart. I think they are going to enjoy growing up together! Aspen is one of my cousin Kim's daughters.

Yes, Aspen can already walk...Kezzie has some catching up to do! It's so funny how different kids develope!

Kezzie is very interested in baby Bennett! Ethan is growing up so fast. Doesn't he look like such a little man?!

Kezzie is sharing or showing her toy to baby Bennett. And Aunt Jamie snuggles in for a nice snap shot with Miss. Cutie Pie Kezzie!

This is the best picture! Bennett is so sweet and cuddly. I love every time I get to see him! This is my Uncle Perry. Ethan jumped in there at the last second to be a part of the photo! Kezzie really took to my uncle. Maybe he looks a little like my dad...