Adah is 13 MONTHS!

Here's my sweet Adah!  Already over a year old.  I can't believe it!  She is so much fun and like Keziah I haven't taken the time to log anything this month with the holidays and being so busy!  There are a couple things I can post about from memory:
Adah  got her 10th tooth this month (Dec. 8-top L molar).  She learned to say 'na na' (no no) and 'nigh nigh' (night night).  She says this as we are walking out of Kezzie's room at night!  She has learned many things this month.  I can't tell you how sweet and smart she is, you just have to see it for yourself.  She LOVES to dance.  She dances in circles sometimes with her left arm leading her (I will try to get video).  She has also learned how to do a somersault (tucks her head and puts her hands down and then we pull her legs over) and pretty much anything else big sister Kezzie will do.  She started copying Kezzie in the bath when Kezzie puts her face in the water to blow bubbles except Adah isn't as successful, so we have to try to discourage her sometimes!!  And Kezzie isn't always aware of the things she is doing that Adah can't do (ie: climb up the side of the banister on the outside)!  Someday she will be doing everything Kezzie does!  And they will be the best of friends and live happily ever after!  Isn't that the way it is supposed to go?  Ha Ha!  We will see!! 
Sorry this post is so short, we'll have lots to talk about next month!!

Oh Christmas Tree...

Once again, the tree fell...Bucky (our mini dachshund), has really dry skin and scratches himself on the lower branches of the tree. Something must have startled him or tickled him the wrong way and he jumped up into the Christmas tree causing it to come crashing down (for the second time this year). Austin saw him jump out of the tree and onto the couch just in time to be spared! We had a couple important ornaments break this time but nothing a little glue couldn't fix. The saddest thing is we were then forced to put the tree away early this year. We were going to at least leave it up for the rest of the week! Either way, I still got my Austin to do the traditional 'decorate-him-like-a-Christmas Tree' picture. It's so fun to see how much he has grown over the past years of doing this! It took A LOT of convincing to get him interested though! In the end he did it because he knew it would make me smile!  Awwwww!  (click here to see previous year Austin pics)

Uglum side Christmas!

Another wonderful day spent with family!  It would have been perfect if only Brady didn't have to get sick.  The poor kid was puking all through the night.  We didn't see the point in staying home and missing our family Christmas over it so we still went and chanced it!  Hopefully our immune systems are strong!  The verdict is still out! Hopefully we will be in the clear by the end of the week!  Friday night (Christmas Eve) we spent the evening at Brian's Uncle's house with a bunch of his cousins and aunts and uncles.  Thankfully his Uncle lives in New Hampton so we didn't have far to go.  We couldn't stay too late since the girls needed to go to bed but it was great to see everybody again!  It's hard to believe that almost a year has gone by since Brian's grandmother died.  It was hard not to have her there with us.
Christmas morning we got to Brian's parents' around 11:30 or so.  We ate a nice brunch and opened gifts before the kids needed to lay down for their afternoon naps.  Here are some pictures from our day:

Our Family Christmas!

What an absolutely amazing morning!  I have never felt so blessed in my life.  It was so much fun!  I just sat and looked around at the wonderful family that God has given me.  It's hard to describe how great God is but if you look at my family...there ya go!  We got to wake up at our own house and take our time opening gifts and enjoying each of them.  Adah got to take a nap in her own bed and when she woke up she was refreshed and ready for more excitement!  We spent the rest of the day at Brian's parents!  Here are some pictures from our amazing morning (it was too difficult to choose):

Austin got a Kindle, Kezzie a jewelry box, Brian showing Adah the things in her stocking, Austin with his new Iron Man 2 DVD, The tree all set up the night before, Kezzie opening her stocking, Adah is getting into how this is all done, Austin checking out his Kindle, Adah successfully opened a gift, Adah looks on while Kez opens her new cash register, Kezzie is checking out what Adah got in her stocking, another shot of the tree all set up, stockings are hung, Kezzie is looking through her binoculars Austin wrapped up for her from his toy box (so sweet), Kezzie is showing off her new book and new movie, Brian opened his special chocolates I ordered from France, and Austin is digging into his stocking.

Kez and I learning our way around her new MobiGo, Brian testing out his new gloves, Austin holding up his new Chickasaw pants, Kezzie opening her MobiGo, Kezzie opening Don't Wake Daddy game, Austin opening his Carnivorous Planetarium, I had to take a picture of Kezzie's Sunday School activity-it was a picture of Jesus in the manger and the sheet going over the top is wrapping paper with a bow at the top.  We put this under our tree and looked at it again today and talked about how Jesus is the greatest gift we can receive on Christmas!  Austin is showing off his new nerf football, Kezzie and Adah got a HUGE pack of new play dough, Adah's working on getting her weebles unwrapped, we wrapped up Austin's 6th grade football jersey for him since we had the option to buy it at the end of football season, Adah is waiting patiently for mommy to get her toy out of the box, daddy and Adah cuddling on the couch with the 'ball', Adah opening her new pull along phone.

What an incredible day spent together as a family.  I am so grateful for each and every one of them.  I am even more grateful that God sent His son to earth as a tiny baby, to live like we live, to grow like we all grow and to experience life like we do, so we can more easily believe in Him and our Heavenly Father and through Him have eternal life.  Can  you imagine if there was no baby Jesus?  Austin and I have really enjoyed borrowing a book from a friend that started when Advent started and ended Christmas morning.  We read a chapter each night together and it has been so much fun.  It was an adventure story based on the story of advent leading up to Jesus' birth.  What a great reminder of what Christmas is really all about!

Silly Willies!

This is the girls' favorite place to hang out when I am getting ready for my day!  Even Adah knows right where to find this sleeping wedge.  We store it under the bed and every time I get done with my shower and come into my room to dry my hair and get dressed she immediately plops herself down on the floor and looks under the bed grunting and reaching for it.  Kezzie likes to pretend it is a slide.  She will lay out pillows in front of it to pretend like they are stairs and then slide down the wedge.  She has even started doing somersaults down it.  I think what makes it so much fun for them is having it right next to our mirror closet doors where they can watch themselves in action!  But mostly the two girls just like to lay next to each other on it and roll around giggling. 

A snowy day!

It's Christmas eve and we have a lot of snow.  Kezzie and I couldn't resist it any longer!  With the temperatures up a little it was the perfect chance for us to get outside and enjoy it!  We went sledding down our snow pile, filled our bird feeders and made snow angels.  We had so much fun!  We really wanted Austin to join us but with his knife incident just a couple days ago, he isn't going to feel like playing outside for a while!

Keziah is 37 MONTHS!

I am doing quite well just to get pictures up this month with Christmas right around the corner.  I hope this will suffice until next month when I will have more time to write about her growth!  Isn't she such a cutie?!!

A little oops!

Austin had his last day of school yesterday until next year!  We have now entered into Christmas break!  Unfortunately, he won't be enjoying it too much...he cut himself pretty bad with a pocket knife last night.  Of course it had to be on the night before his first day off.  Brian and I were watching TV and he was kind of watching it while building himself a cross bow.  He was being very careful and even told me he played it out in his head where the knife would go if it slipped etc. He thought he was in the clear and instead it didn't happen like he thought it would and came right across his thumb knuckle.  It's not as bad as it could have been but we couldn't get the bleeding to stop and it looked really deep so Brian thought he better take him in for some stitches.  He ended up with just a couple.  He wanted me to take these pictures for him to remember this by!  I thought it was a good opportunity to tell you all about it!  Boys will be boys!

Bean Bag Fun!

Austin had his football bean bag upstairs tonight to watch some TV and Adah couldn't resist it!  She would climb up on it and daddy would pull her around taking her in circles.  She was giggling and having so much fun!  She got up and her hair stood on end from all the static.  Eventually we realized there was a hole in the bag and little white things were everywhere-and I mean everywhere!  Adah's head was covered!  It was fun while it lasted anyway!

Playgroup Christmas!

Today was our playgroup Christmas party.  It was at one of the mom's houses.  She told me I could come early and lay Adah down in a pack-n-play for her nap.  It worked out perfect!  Adah took a nice long nap and I was able to relax and have some adult conversation.  Kezzie and Abby always play really well together too!  We were about the only ones there but with Christmas later this week, we weren't surprised!  It was nice to have some one on one time to talk and get to know each other more.  Another mom and her daughter showed up a while later.  All three girls played so nice while the three adults talked!  There were so many cookies to decorate and when we were done we got to take some home!  It was so much fun!  Thanks April for hosting us once again!

Smith side Christmas!

What a blessed weekend we all had together! Our family does every other year with our husband's family on the day of Christmas and this year was it.  So we all agreed on the weekend before Christmas to celebrate.  So Friday night we all stayed the night and the next morning woke up as if it was Christmas day!  The night before we all got our kids to bed and then it was time to relax...Emily brought some white wine and Moscato de Asti and we got out some board games to play. I don't know how late we were all up but it was definitely late enough.  After we were all done with the fun and games we filled the tree with gifts and got out our party supplies-after all we were celebrating a birthday!  We blew up A LOT of green and red balloons and laid out some noise makers.  The kids loved it all.  We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus the next day at lunch time!  Here are some pictures from our special couple of days (ok, not just some, A LOT!).

 

(click images to enlarge)

Mom was up early and made us a butter braid and egg casserole.  Mom's are the best!  Not to mention the lunch we had later on! 

Mom got a curio cabinet for one of her gifts from dad which created a lot of fun with the box.  I really wanted to take the box home but there just isn't room anywhere for it.  Adah just had so much fun climbing through it.  She had plenty of room to sit up and hang out.  I was even able to get in it with her!

A few gifts that I can remember for each of us are: I got a bunch of baking stuff and a couple of manger /Jim Shore ornaments to add to my collection, Brian got a box of cards (he got a card in that box that was worth more than the box itself) and a nice Hawks sweatshirt, all three kids got ornaments that had their names on them along with a gift that had their name on it-Kezzie a backpack, Adah a dolly, Austin a necklace.  There were many many more awesome gifts from every one but I can't name them all!  

Unfortunately, even though all of us stayed (except Emily and Adam's family) Austin had to leave for the night to go be with his dad around 4:00.  We stayed until Sunday and went to church the next morning!  What a great time we had!  Thanks mom (and dad) for all the hard work you put into feeding and housing us all for the weekend!

Family Pictures!

We decided to get family pictures taken this year by a professional photographer!  I love her work, she always does such a great job!  Thanks Ashley for the great work you do and how well you worked with my three kiddos!  Everyone please take a peak and leave a comment too.  If I get 25 comments in one week then I get a surprise and if I get 50 comments I get an even better one, so help me out!  I would love to hear what you have to say too!  Here is the link: http://ashleyschrage.blogspot.com/2010/12/whole-family.html

And if you want to view the full gallery of photos, follow this link:  http://www.ashleyschragephotography.com/, click on client viewing at the bottom right, then personal galleries, and then Uglum family.
the email address is: mybabadj@yahoo.com
the password is: AKA3

Let me know your favorites by emailing me to help me have an easier time choosing!  I would really appreciate it!  It's going to be pretty tough!

Humbled by my Christmas tree!

First of all, I have been pouting and complaining about how bad I want a new Christmas tree for a long time.  Every time I am at the store I am looking for a new one and obsessing over the prices.  This was all in an effort to avoid having to put up the Christmas tree I have had to put up every year for way too long.  It was a tree given to me by my grandma Smith and who knows how many years she put it up for.  I was determined to NOT have to put that tree up and avoided it for a long time.  Finally, I resolved myself to Brian not agreeing to a new tree, sucked it up and retrieved it from storage (11/30).  To my surprise, I fell in love with my tree all over again.  I knew it was God working on my heart and Him teaching me to let my husband be a leader.  It was like God reached into that box and arranged the branches before I even put it up because when I set it up I seriously didn't have to rearrange or primp any of the branches!  I took care to center the base and get it set up perfectly so I could be as happy with it as possible and in the end it was like a new tree I was seeing for the first time anyway!  Unfortunately, the devil was working against me and just a couple of days ago (12/12) Austin was retrieving a ball out from under the tree and just the slight brush of his back made it come crashing down to the floor.  Thankfully it didn't fall down on him (or anybody else) and only a few bulbs broke while all the others fell to the floor.  So, not knowing what to do with it, I left the tree unlit, propped up against the corner between the stairs and wall and ignored the huge project in front of me...until today (12/14)!  I got a plan of how to fix the problem (there have been too many holes drilled into the post of the tree).  I ended up putting a toilet paper roll around the post and wrapped it with duct tape and set it back up.  It was still a little un-sturdy so I put duct tape around it AND the stand.  I don't think it is going anywhere!  But, unfortunately we are going to have to find a different solution for next year.  Upon un-decorating the tree so I could 'fix' the post, I also decided to move it more into the living room area. I had to rearrange some furniture but I am so much happier with this set-up then before!  It was a blessing in disguise that the tree fell because now it is safer AND it is in a better place (it's also in front of a window so people outside can see our pretty lights too)!  I never took a picture of it going up in the not-so-favored spot it was in before (the same as all the other years), but here is a picture of it in its new spot!  God has a funny way of working everything out for good!  Who would have thought I would be humbled by my Christmas tree?! 

Major updates!

I have been working overtime trying to play catch-up in the posting department...so check it out!  I have back dated stuff to the middle of November!  Plus I have added some new videos at the bottom!  I really wanted to get caught up so I can get behind again when Christmas comes!  Thanks for keeping up with our family!  It's so much fun living The Ug Life!!

A very lazy weekend!!

As you can see, we spent a lot of time doing nothing this weekend!  Friday night Brian took Austin to his basketball practice.  That ended about 7pm.  After putting the girls to bed Austin and I headed to the grocery store for some much needed groceries.  When we came out of there it was raining/sleeting pretty hard.  I knew then that it was not going to be good!  We ended up getting rain into Saturday morning which turned into a heavy snow that lasted until Saturday evening.  We were definitely home bound.  It only got worse when the wind started to blow because then drifts were created.  Our alley was completely snowed over so we were unable to get out of our driveway.  A huge plow even got stuck in our alley while trying to plow it and decided after 20 minutes of getting unstuck that he wasn't about to come back and try again.  We were finally plowed out sometime before we woke up this morning and Brian was able to go to work.  On saturday the weather was decent before it started getting windy so Austin and Keziah were able to work off some energy outside.  I think they spent close to 1.5 hours playing!  There is one picture of Austin pulling Keziah with a rope on the sled coming down our sidewalk out front of our house.  That was pretty funny to watch from the comfort of my recliner!  I know we got outside some last winter, but Keziah is really enjoying the snow this year!  And the snow was perfect for snowballs!  I went out for just a little bit but came in when it got dark and made some hot cocoa for us all!
Adah loves it when daddy takes her over to the mantle and grabs a stocking.  She hugs it like it's a blankie, they are so soft!  She also found a little nook to hang out in next to the couch and window sill.  She wedged herself in there and just looked out the window.  Our neighbor across the street has Christmas lights on outside and she likes to look at them!  And I just couldn't resist taking a picture of that cute little butt crack!  Every time she bent over you could see it!  At some point we played a different version of hide and seek (we hid an object to find) and we also played a game of charades for kids (which Kezzie loved)!  It was a great weekend even though by Sunday night we were all going a little stir crazy (and to top it off, school for Austin got canceled today!).  We are just going to look forward to next weekend even more (we are celebrating Christmas with my side of the family)!!

My walking wonder!

(10/21/10) Here is Adah at the first glimpse of learning to walk.  She is successfully standing all on her own!  I think it was that same day that she took her very first step forward.  It may have only been one or two but it was the beginning of what she is doing today! 

Sometime between then and now she has become a really good walker.  She started out with only a few steps at a time and did this for a while.  She would resort to crawling after 3-4 steps.
Here she is on 11-5-10.

Then she went onto walking between things.  We would challenge her to walk longer distances between Brian and I and eventually she started doing it all the time!  She is getting really good at stepping over obstacles and keeping her balance in the process!  I even caught her standing all by herself from the middle of the room earlier this week! And she is a pro at kneeling down to pick something up and standing back up with it in her hands.  Her little legs are getting so strong!  I think she is sleeping better because of all the activity too!  Here she is just last week (12/10/10).  I finally got around to getting her on video!

My monkey!

Here is my little monkey.  She LOVES to climb everything.  I don't even have pictures for all the things she tries (usually successfully) to climb!  She is definitely not afraid of falling.  Her favorite place to climb is onto the couch.  She is still too little to do this from the floor so she usually has to use either the window sill or the basket of books.  Once she is up there she flops around giggling or stands up and walks the length of the couch before plopping down on her belly (supervised, of course).  Her other favorite place to climb is the rocker.  She likes to push that around to places she wants to get up to.  One common place she pushes it over to is our shelf with a lot of pictures on it.  She holds onto the back and rocks herself as if she is surfing.
There are a few other places pictured that I can find her throughout the day.  Her recently discovered one is behind the toy box on the window sill.  She will hang out there for quite some time before either climbing out or whining to be rescued!  There is usually one of those leap frog musical tables right next to the toy box and she typically has to climb onto that first before getting behind the toy box to sit on the window sill!

Happy Holidays!!

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