A New Year!

It is hard to believe it is 2009. Last year was a pretty exciting year for our family! Kaylee was born, I stopped working at the Credit Union to stay home as a full time mom (which I love!), we had fun vacations with our family, had a few medical issues that are all doing great, I got braces on & off, bought more houses, sold more houses, finally finished projects around the house, Carson turned 3, I finally dropped some extra weight I had been wanting to loose for quite some time, we bought a VAN, Nick and I celebrated 8 years of marriage, and it was all fun!! There were definitely some stressful times, hard times, and challenging times, but I think everyone has those days, and those weeks, and maybe even months. But those challenges in our lives are what creates the kind of person we are, right? So we learn, we work harder, and we try to enjoy life!

So this is how we have enjoyed life lately....this first week of New Years hasn't been too eventful, which has been really nice. It is too cold and snowy to try and travel anywhere during the day, so we have mostly been chillin' at home and enjoying some of the new Christmas toys we got. I am always amazed on how willing Carson is to help me clean and cook. And it seems like Kaylee is following in his footsteps. This is what happened when I started unloading the dishwasher a few days ago....
Kaylee loves to stand by the dishwasher when it is open, and she is now "Helping" by handing all the utensils to Carson. He loves to put them away for me. (Now I don't guarantee how clean they stay during this process, so if you come and eat dinner at my house, you might want to bring your own utensils!) :)

I think I might have it made if Kaylee is as good as Carson when it comes to helping! Yesterday we cleaned the two upstairs bathrooms, and Carson practically washed the counter and toilet himself! He is getting pretty good at it!

Kaylee is starting to discover new foods, including bread, gerber's version of Cheetos, and CRACKERS! I have never been a big fan of giving crackers to babies, mainly because they are such a big mess to clean up...but she loves them!! These pictures were taken at Grandma Karen's and Papa Bears house when we were there for New Years. We had a good time!

Kaylee is 11 Months old now, and will be 1 on the 30th of this month!! It is weird that it has been one year almost! I can't imagine our lives without her! We love her to pieces, and she has been a really good baby!! Her latest "GAME" is dropping something on the floor, waits for us to give it back to her, and she drops it again on the floor. She giggles and thinks it is pretty hysterical. She mainly does it with a sippy cup, or her bottle. It is amusing, for like the first 10 times, then it is just annoying for the rest of us! :)

She is also all over the place. Crawling that is...but she will stand up to everything, and even stand alone for a few seconds until she realizes she standing....so along with finding her new mobility, there are bound to be some battle scars.....case in point:

Poor little girl....she was in the bathroom while Nick was taking a shower (Carson and I were at the grocery store) and was standing up to the toilet (lid closed) and tried to reach out to the bathtub, not realizing how far away it was, and fell nose first into the edge of the tub. Her little nose bled, her eyes are a little black, the edge of her nose is red, and her little bridge is bruised! Then she has a scrape on the side of her face (from her own fingernails). She looks like someone did quite a number on her! I hope it will heal soon. I want to take some pictures of her for her 1 Year Birthday announcements. Anyone with little kids probably have the same types of pictures of their little one...bruised faces and all! Life is tough when you are learning to walk!

So here's to a New Year! Let's make it a good one!