Happy New Year!

Hey loved ones!  2011 just flew by!  We had a nice low key Christmas with Mike's Dad.  I was scheduled to work Christmas night but got to stay home since it wasn't busy.  Lucky me!  Let's see...what's new since I last posted.  Well, Kaylen got sick for the first time.  That wasn't fun.  Up all night with a crying baby who wouldn't sleep more than 30 minutes at a time.  I am sure most of you remember going through this with your children.  It's a little traumatic on mom & dad the first time!  Poor Kaylen.  She had a fever for 5 days, runny nose, and just didn't have her usual energy.  Of course she gave me and Aunt Barb her cold, then I got a stomach bug!  So glad we have a healthy family right now.  Knock on wood.  Enjoy some Christmas pics.  We went to Aunt Barb's on Dec 23rd and enjoyed a family Christmas there.  We got to hang out with Steve, Tiffany, Tony, Taylor, Cyndi & Sharee.


This is a pic from the night of my annual Hoag Anesthesia Christmas Party.

 Kaylen didn't care for the Minnie ears on her head......

Pics from Barb's  Christmas get together

 Here are pics from Christmas.....

 Barb got her a xylophone.....she loves the music!!

 But she would rather just eat the mallot....

 Our happy girl!

Here is Kaylen's 10 month old pic.  She is crawling so fast now.  If you leave the room, she follows you.  She can now crawl up the step and find you!  Her balance is so much better.  She cruises the furniture and can now take one step going from the coffee table to the couch!  Just waiting for her to be brave enough to take more steps!  She will walk if holding your hands.  She can wave goodbye now, or sometimes she just waves at you.  She is such a blessing.  It is so much fun to see her grow!

Here is a video of Kaylen playing.......



And one of her and her new xylophone that Barb gave her......



Here is Kaylen playing



Here is cousin Taylor feeding Kaylen



One more video....this is at Aunt Barb's on Dec 23rd... this is for my family in Texas!

Turkey and smashed potatoes

Hey loved ones!  Happy Thanksgiving!  No crazy Black Friday shopping for us today.  We found the good deals online with free shipping!  No crowds!  We had a lovely Thanksgiving at home with Mike's Dad.  Mike cooked a great turkey in the Big Easy.  So we decided it was time for Kaylen to have her first turkey dinner.  Although she mostly choked on the turkey, I think she enjoyed it.  She enjoyed some mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes too.  Here is a video for ya.




Here is another video of Kaylen clapping......




I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and hugged your loved ones!  We love you all!

Moving Right Along

Hey friends and family!  We are moving right along!  It's gonna be Thanksgiving this week and Christmas will be here before you know it.  Kaylen turned 9 months on the 15th!  She is still cruising the furniture and now she can stand alone without holding on!  No steps yet but soon enough.  She is really observing the world these days.  She wants to touch everything, and put it in her mouth.  She loves our phones, remotes and pens.  She also has learned to clap her hands.  And we are teaching her to wave goodbye.  We had her 9 month appt and her pediatrician was very impressed with her social skills.  KJ will stare you down with her serious face until she decides she likes you, but then she smile and laugh with you.  She is now 20 pounds (75th %), 29.5 inches (97th %).  She had another couple of shots but she barely cried.  She is such a good baby.

We went to  a friend of mine's daughters second birthday.  It was at a My Gym which was really fun for the older kids.  KJ enjoyed interacting with the other kids, once she warmed up.  We put her in the tub of balls but she wasn't too sure about it when she started sinking!

We also got to visit with Mike's cousin Crystal.  She used to live in SoCal but now lives in Georgia.  She has two daughters, Aubrey and Reese.  Reese was born exactly one month after Kaylen.  It was fun to get them together.  We went to a park next to the Rose Bowl and had a blast swinging on the swings.  We wished they lived closer.  Hopefully they will move back one day. 

Here is a fun pic of Kaylen not holding on to anything.  And she loves to put socks in her mouth.  Silly girl!

Now for some videos!

This first one is of Kaylen and her crazy tongue!



This one is of her cruising the couch.  She is much faster now but its what I have.




And this last one is her laughing hysterically at Daddy!  I love it!  The first few seconds are dark but then I turned on the flash.

Cruising!

Hey everyone!  Another month has flown by!  KJ is officially on the move.  She can crawl around pretty fast now.  She can pull up on anything and now she is cruising the furniture!  She has more balance every day.  I see her contemplating letting go of the furniture but then she chickens out.  I am sure walking is just right around the corner.  We got a leather coffee table to make things easier.  She loves it. 

KJ was 8 months old on Oct 15th.  And now she will be 9 months in a couple of weeks!  Here are some pics.

And then she grabbed a pen to play with...........oops!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well Mindy finally got to come visit us on Oct 24th.  KJ & Mindy became the best of friends.  There was a lot of laughing, giggling, tickling, snuggling, smooching and fun times.  Oh and lots of picture taking.  Mindy's the best!

Mindy will be giving me all the photos taken this past week but here are a few to tease you.

 Here is another adorable photo of KJ

Now we all know how much I love Halloween.  Of course my daughter has to have good costumes!  Two of them in fact.  Aunt Barb got her a pink leopard costume and I had to put her in a beaver costume!  We took lots of pics even though it was hard to get her to look at the camera or smile sometimes.  Thanks Mindy for the awesome pics!

So on Sunday Oct 30th, Mike, Mindy, Barb and I went to Belmont Shore to walk around and see the doggie parade.  There are like 500 dogs in costumes.  Mindy was in heaven.    Here is our favorite dog,  happy as can be, letting everyone take his pic.

We even had a couple of strangers wanting to take KJ's picture of her in the pink leopard outfit.  Kinda strange but kinda cute. 

On Halloween, we celebrated Mike's birthday.  We went to the LB Aquarium and then had lunch at the YardHouse.  They brought him a chocolate souffle with a candle and KJ helped him blow it out.....well sort of.

Here is a video of KJ when she first started pulling up on the couch.




Here is one of her eating a teething biscuit for the first time



And my favorite video this month....Mindy feeding KJ....they had a lot of fun

Getting around

Hey friends and family!  Guess I didn't make another post in September.  Wow how time is flying by!  Well Mike had to go on a business trip to the central coast so it was just KJ and me for a couple of days.  Daddy was surprised when he came back because KJ was moving around so much more!  We need to do some serious baby proofing!  She can definitely army crawl now.  She likes to get on all fours then put one arm forward then one leg, then she falls.  She also figured out how to go back to a sitting position from her belly!  She is moving all around the living room.  She also likes to stand up and hold onto the rail of her crib or the coffee table. She is able to put one foot in front of the other and walk with us holding onto her.  I have a couple of videos for ya at the end.  Oh yeah, KJ has four teeth now!


Here are a couple of cute pics.........

KJ loves Daddy's XBox remote control.....she loves the TV remote control too!

I love this onesie....its from our friends Marco & Stephanie....from their East Coast trip which included Portand Maine.....its says "I'm a keepah!"  with a lobster on it.   Gotta love it!

So some of you may know already, but my friend Janet is having her second boy this month and my friend Kim is having twin girls probably early November.  So Janet, Courtney and I threw Kim a baby shower.  Usually you don't have a second kid baby shower but since its twins, we know she would need more stuff!  I have to show you Janet's incredible cake making skills.  Kim's twins are named Sydney & Kensey.

I am not nearly as talented as Janet, but I made Kim a diaper cake.  I know Mindy was very disappointed that a diaper cake did not involve any real cake to eat.  But Janet's cake was delicious!  Chocolate cake with cookies and cream filling and the top layer was yellow cake with fudge filling!



Here is my diaper cake...............

Well Mike & I enjoyed a nice dinner out with our friends Marco & Stephanie this past Friday.  This was only the third time we have had a date night together since KJ was born.  We had a lovely dinner and KJ did well for Aunt Barb at her house.  Thanks Aunt Barb!  Now that baseball season is over, she is taking her vacation.  So Aunt Cyndi is helping us with child care on the days that I work.  And hopefully Aunt Mindy will be coming to visit at the end of the month!

Now for video time................


Here is KJ eating butternut squash for the first time.  She was eating with her mouth open which is not her norm.  But she really likes it now!





Here is KJ trying to crawl............



This one is only a couple of days later.  She started doing the army crawl to get to her toys.