Christmas Update

We survived Christmas!!! It was a little hectic (there were 8 people and 4 dogs here) at times but pretty low key the rest of the day. I don't have any pictures downloaded yet, i let my mom and sister take most of them so I could help Kendall unwrap presents. Here is a little timeline of our day:

~Things really started out for us on Christmas Eve. Kendall and I went down to Jason's and spent time with his family and exchanged gifts. Jason's mom, Marci, got Kendall a beautiful toy box and it fits all her old and new toys into it.

~When we got home (back to my house) my mother and I, with some help from my older sister, put together a couple of breakfast traditions for us. We ALWAYS make bubble bread, it is a yummy gooey roll that sits over night and you bake in the morning, it tastes good all day long. We also make a Sausage Strata, only a few of us like this so we don't always make it, but i really like it and found a new recipe we tried out and it was pretty good. They both have to rest overnight so its perfect Christmas breakfasts.

~Christmas morning, we all got up between 7 and 8 and got our breakfasts in the oven and got ready for church. Our church was one of a few having a church service Sunday morning it was after all Christmas morning and Jesus's birthday so the right and proper thing to do was go to church. We went at 10 and were home a few minutes after 11 and by then it was time for Kendall to nap.

~On Christmas eve when everyone was opening presents Kendall got a little overwhelmed, there was too much going on for her to focus on and she got a little scared. So while she was napping we opened all our presents and saved hers for when she woke up and Jason got there. She ended up taking a 3 hour nap so we all watched one of the movies we got.

~Finally when we all got rounded back up into the living room once she was awake, she had a lot of presents. At first she wasn't so sure about the wrapping paper, usually she loves shredding paper up. As soon as a toy was open she would get so distracted she didn't want to open anything else up. She got so many clothes (yay more laundry) and whole bunch of new toys. She has got to the point where the little baby toys are too boring but the older ones are a little to challenging, either way she still likes to play with them all but the new ones will challenge her mind a little more.

~We had planned on having an early dinner around 4 but it didn't end up being until around 6. By the time we had dinner Kendall was extremely over stimulated and tired and was cranky, when i tried to give her a nap she got herself worked up to the point of being hysterical, so i just got her up. She had a little bit of dinner and after a bath was pretty happy until she went to bed.

Over all we had a very good day and Kendall got lots of practice opening presents. I am glad we separated her presents and opened them after her nap, as it was she was already really overwhelmed and it helped that it was just her opening instead of 8 of us at 1 time. I will get the pictures from my mom and sister in the next couple days and will be posting them up to show everyone. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas.

Maybe the BEST gift ever!

Yesterday, Grandpa Gabe (Jason's Grandpa) called me and said he had a gift for Jason and I and we needed to stop by and pick it up. I didn't have a chance to stop by after work as i had other plans so we made arrangements to meet up this morning after I dropped Kendall off at daycare (its just a few blocks from his house) so it worked out for me to stop by.

I had no clue what this "gift" could be that he got us, he had said on the phone we both would be able to use it, so it got me thinking. When I got there this morning, he was waiting at the door for me. We talked for a few minutes and he showed me a couple things Jason had given him as a kid and then he handed me the gift. It was not wrapped but just in the box it came in and it was none other then a.....

I am not even kidding a little bit, I was standing there trying not to laugh as he was telling me it came with its own instructional DVD. He also wrote a little note on the box saying "Now you both can get ripped!"

We all know what they are and have seen the slightly inappropriate commercials for them, Jason has poked a little fun at them from time to time when he sees it on the TV. It has to be one of the funniest gifts I have ever received. It does not surprise me one bit cause Gabe is so random and he is a really one of the nicest guys and very funny. He is very generous, he gave Kendall her present last week and its a little Fisher Price buggy she can walk with and she loves it. He is a very proud Great Grandpa.

Maybe the Shake-Weight works....stay tuned for results.

Santa is coming :)

Words cannot describe how excited I am for Kendalls first Christmas. I already know she likes her presents, the other day she found there hiding place and was playing with them in the boxes. They are now wrapped but she keeps going back to were she found them to look for them. on Christmas day she will probably be more distracted by the wrapping paper then the actual presents.

On a more disappointing note.... Jason and I took her to get Santa pictures taken. She looked so adorable in her little dress. They were supposed to be done by the following Wednesday, which was the day I stayed home with her during her illness. I asked my mom to stop in and pick them up and when she got there the lady couldn't find them and said she would call her as soon as she did. Well a few days went by and we didn't hear anything. We had to go to town Saturday and we near the store so we stopped in and this is the story I got: " We are really sorry but somehow your pictures got deleted. There was a malfunction with the camera, yours and about 50 other pictures got deleted." Now Kendall has no Santa picture from her first Christmas. One would think they would get Santa back to fix their "malfunction" but they didn't. I cant really complain too much because they were doing this for free which a lot of people really appreciated. But 50 peoples pictures got deleted. The only opportunity I have left for her to get one is if I drive an hour to the mall. I am still undecided if we will be doing this or not.

On another happy note, my sister Prairie Princess and her Hubs are going to be here Friday night to spend the weekend with us. It will be a short visit thanks to people not passing drug tests making Pat have to work extra hard and not getting to take an extra day off. But we will enjoy the time they are here!

Sick baby :(

Kendall is sick again. This time i think its a flu bug. She did have a flu shot, i don't think it had enough time to work into her system before she got exposed to the virus. On Tuesday I had to pick up from daycare 2 hours early cause they called and said her temp was 102! I took her home and she napped good and was just fussy, she managed to eat a little but i wasn't going to force her to eat it is impossible. After she went to bed it went downhill. She slept good for a few hours and then woke up and was throwing up, which happened to be all over me. She slept better then i was thinking she would probably cause we spent the night in the rocking chair, and she managed to keep down a small bottle in the middle of the night but in the morning she threw up again. I had to stay home from work obviously i wasn't going to send her to daycare sick and they also have a rule that a child has to be kept out of school 24 hours AFTER the fever goes away.

We spent the day at home and it was pretty uneventful. She took a 3 hour nap in the morning and Jason came over to visit us in the afternoon and she just sat there in a daze and then went back to sleep after about an hour. It was nice getting to stay home in an empty house. I was able to get most of my Christmas stuff done (I still have to get something for my brother and I dont know what), I had to move back into my room (the one i share with Kendall) cause my brother will be home and needs a room to sleep in. I got all my laundry done although it is still sitting on the couch folded cause Kendall was sleeping and i couldn't get in there to put it away without her waking up. I have been living out of 2 bedrooms for the past couple of weeks so i had quite the pile of clean and dirty clothes. Last night she was feeling much better after her fever went away and she slept better. However, her fever is back this morning at about 100. I had to come into work so Jason is watching her for a few hours, I will stop in on my lunch break to see how things are going and then my sister will pick her up when she is done working at 2.

I called the Dr yesterday and they said if she wasn't better by this afternoon to call again and they will see her. Hopefully it goes away cause this bug is making her miserable and taking a toll on her little body.

Bumps and Bruises

Just taking a little snack break in the cart watching the world speed by upside down.

Last night Kendall had a little run in with the floor and got herself a little black eye, which is just red and swollen now. But last night it was the end of the world for her, she did one of those cries where they hold their breath until they are bright red and then let out this big scream. It was close to bed time so she was tired and it just went downhill after the incident.

I think I have all my Christmas shopping done, I just need to get one more small thing and I can do that here in town. Now I just need a few moments time to put some things together and I will be done. Jason and I are doing presents together for all our family this year, it is so much easier and it saves a lot of money. We are just getting each other something small cause we wanted to put a majority of our focus on Kendall. We are only getting her a few things and we decided this because EVERYONE is getting her a few things, so she will not be without anything. As much as I want to go all out and buy her tons of presents I am resisting cause she will be getting a lot of gifts and half of them she wont know what to do with. Right now we have 3 things and I want to get her 1 more but i am resisting. She doesn't know what Christmas is yet or the meaning behind it, next year we will be able to explain it to her better and she will probably understand the concept of it.

Christmas cards are in the mail today! We had a little printer malfunction so we had to go out and buy a whole new printer and we just got it yesterday. This is the first year I have done my own cards. Its looking to become a nice tradition.

I am pretty excited for Prairie Princess and her Hubs to come down and visit us for the holiday, they will be here in 10 days!!!! Its just a short visit but we are going to have so much fun. We have a game night planned and will be making lots of yummy food to eat. It is going to be a lot of fun.

I have been thinking of changing my blog a little bit. As much as I love posting about Kendall I sometimes feel I want to post a wider variety of things. I have been cooking a lot and its been some really good recipes. I would like to share those with you and just random other things that are going on. Its still in the thinking process, mostly cause i need to come up with a new name and cant think of anything. Any suggestions????

Immunizations

There was never question in my mind about getting Kendall all the necessary shots. As hard as it is to see it hurt her for a few seconds, i know she will be protected from things for much longer and will have a healthy immune system. Today I am surprising her with the second half of her flu shot (when they are little they have to give it to them in 2 doses so they can get the correct amount). I personally am for kids getting all the vaccines they need to keep diseases from spreading and also from epidemics of illnesses coming about. I guess I don't fully understand why people don't choose to have their children "pumped full of poison" as they put it. Yes the phrase sounds bad, but its not poison. If you plan on being a stay at home mom and your child is home all the time and not out in public places or with other kids i could understand not getting them. But, if your child goes to daycare, like Kendall, then i think it is 100% necessary. I chose for her to get the flu shot seeing as it is optional and everyone in my family also got one. She is around 15 other kids everyday, their parents, the teachers and the staff at the facility. That is a lot of germs to be brought into one little place where there are a bunch of kids under the age of 3 with immune systems that are not fully developed. Plus you know, if you have been kids of that age group EVERYTHING gets put in their mouth. I believe every vaccine is necessary and she will be getting all of them, not only to protect her but to protect the other kids she is around.

Cheese

This is Kendall, she likes suckers on Halloween and drooling green...

She likes playing with her "cars" and making cheesy grins when she sees the camera...

When she gets excited she claps....
and makes silly poses for the camera while her shirt is covered in drool.

She is ready for Santa to come, she is wearing her Christmas jammies with camo socks on. She probably wont know what to do with the presents she gets but she is sure going to love all the paper they come wrapped in. She is good at ripping it to shreds and eating it.

This Christmas will be so exciting since it is her first, but next year will be even more fun when she can understand and appreciate it better. She turns 10 months in 2 days!!!! Where did the time go, pretty soon I will be planning her first birthday in the middle of winter, i hope i can come up with something good.