Sunday, February 3, 2013

Scared of Santa

This video is of Kinley's first visit with Santa.  She is terrified but it is so funny/cute.

Christmas in Illinois

We spent Christmas in Illinois this year.  Kinley had a great time visiting with Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Jordy, and Aunt Britt.  Our extended family also got to visit with Kinley for the first time in over a year.  Her great aunt, uncles, and 2nd/3rd cousins hadn't seen her sinceThanksgiving 2011.  That is actually really sad now that I think about it.   Anyway, we had an amazing visit. 

Kinley had SO much fun opening all her presents.  She was way more interested this time than she was at our Iowa Christmas.  Maybe it was because Grandma was helping her instead of Mommy.  :)
Needless to say she got WAY too many gifts from Grandpa & Grandma and Uncle Jord & Aunt Britt.  It was so amazing to watch her get so excited and interested in each and every package that she opened. 

Santa made a visit this year to Grandma & Grandpa's house to visit Kinley.  She had been a really good girl this year so Santa decided she deserved a visit.  Kinley was SCARED TO DEATH!  She started screaming and crying the instant that Santa entered the room.  We have a video that is hilarious.  I will post that on the next update. 

An added bonus was that it snowed for Christmas this year.  Matt and I took Kinley out to play on her new sled but she didn't enjoy it as much as we did.  It was really windy out though.  Matt and I did have a blast sledding with Jord & Britt though.  

Enjoy the pics!

Visiting with Jordyn and Great-Godmommy Connie

Waiting for Santa to come

Throw me Granpa!

Smile!

Ho Ho Ho!



AHHH - Get this Santa away from me!

Like this, Grandma?

What?  Isn't that right?

Oh, now I got it. 

Clothes, yeah

Oh boy!!!!

Oh, I can hardly wait.....

WOW!  Open it, open it!



She was captivated by the baby's pigtails.

Doing our best to get a pic - not good.  But - check out her super cute outfit!

Kinley loved my old rocking chair.

Yeah!


Not sure about this sledding thing

Pull me daddy!

 

Matt is really enjoying this

Great Grandpa Bill

4 Generations




Packed and ready to go - as long as she can wear her snowboots

Riding the suitcase!  Our fun new way to navigate the airport
Help me mommy
What's that Grandma?
Meeting baby Brooks for the 1st time - thought she would be jealous...
But, she really liked him and didn't mind me holding him.

HO! HO! HO!  I rock this hat!







 

Christmas In Iowa

     This year, Matt, Kinley, and I did a "pre" Christmas at our home in Iowa before traveling to meet the family.  Kinley really enjoyed it.  She was able to help open presents this year which was really fun.  When I say help, I mean she opened the paper a bit - then once she saw what was inside had no desire to help with paper - just wanted the toy inside.  It was cute! 

     Matt and I were really excited to give Kinley her new kitchen.  She absolutely LOVES it!  It is absolutely adorable "cook".  She is really good at stirring, "tasting" the food, and pouring drinks into cups.  We made a special playroom for her (and all her toys) and her kitchen was just the perfect toy to for the room. 

Here are a few pics of our Iowa Christmas. 














 

 

 











Saturday, December 1, 2012

1 YEAR OLD!!!

Okay, Okay, I know I am really late on this.  Sorry Kinley, Mommy loves you though. 


On October 26, 2012, Kinley turned 1 year old. Happy Birthday to our sweet baby girl!

It seems like only yesterday that we were laying in the hospital room so eagar to meet you. It has been such an incredible experience watching you grow and learn. You are the most amazing thing that has ever happened to your Daddy and me. Kinley, we love you so much more than you will ever know. Although it saddens us to lose our "baby girl", we are excited to see you grow into the sweet little girl that you are. Happy Birthday and thank you for giving us the best year of our lives.

Okay, time for updates.....

Kinley is becoming such an amazing little girl.  She has definitely developed her own personality and .... well, it is a very independent one.  She is very independent and loves to do things on her own.  She is not really a fan of letting us help her to learn to do things.  Occasionally, she will let us help but most of the time she insists on doing it herself (example, learning to use her fork/spoon).  Kinley is one of the sweetest and most loving children I know.  However, she is also one of the most stubborn children I have ever met.  Our parents just laugh at this (especially mine) because they say we were the same way.  For example, she has started throwing "fits" if she does not get her way.   When this happens, I just sit back and tell her "when you are ready to stop crying then mommy will talk to you about it."   Sometimes her "fits" only last a few minutes, but sometimes they last a LOT longer.  Usually longer when she is tired.  I have to say that it is really hard not to laugh when she is doing it. 

She LOVES playing in the cabinets so we are working hard on this not being an issue.  For a while we were constantly removing her and saying "not for Kinley".  We finally decided to give her an entire cabinet that is hers and she can do whatever she wants with it.  This has helps dramatically.  She is still a little sneaky though.  I have caught her getting in a cabinet and running down the hall to her room to play with things she shouldn't have.  SNEAKY.  I also once found her sitting in the middle of the floor surrounded by trash bags.  She had removed EVERY bad from the box and just thought she was hilarious. 

Kinley continues to love going to school.  It makes me really happy to know that she enjoys it so much.  But, it also makes me a bit sad because every morning when I drop her off, she practically jumps out of my arms and runs over to her teachers and her breakfast table.  Bitter sweet I guess. 

Kinley has officially been a full time walker since about 10.5 months.  Now, she is super fast and can practically run.  It is SO adorable to watch her go that fast for something she wants or to come to us when we pick her up at school or when Matt gets home from work.  She has mastered going up the stairs to the point that we aren't worried about going up.  In fact, she will go up and then try to close the gate at the top of the stairs behind her.  Cute.  We are still working on going down stairs.  That is a lot harder. 

Here are a few of her stats:

HC: 46.5 cm (86.64%)
Height: 29.5" (59.51%)
Weight: 21# 11.2 oz (74.55%)

Teeth: Kinley has 4 teeth.  2 top front, 2 bottom front

Clothes/Diapers:  Kinley is wearing size 3 Pampers Cruisers.  She is still in 12 month clothes although will be transitioning to 18 month soon.  She wears 18 month pajamas.  She is wearing size 4 shoes.  It is hard to find her shoes because most that come that small have soft soles and aren't meant for kids that are walking. 

Sleep:  Well, this area hasn't changed much since her 9 month update.  She continues to go to bed between 7 - 8 pm with 7:30 being the average.  She will usually sleep until 5:30-6:30 (10-11 hours).  On weekends, she is typically pretty good about getting up, eating, and then going back to bed until 7:30 or so. 

Feeding:  Kinley has become a little picky in her eating these days.  She used to eat anything that we would offer her.  Now, she will clench her mouth closed, push things away, and shake her head "no" if she doesn't want something.  She won't even eat things that used to be her favorites (fish, chicken, broccoli).  For veggies, she continues to love avocados, peas, and carrots.  She loves anything carbs (woman after my own heart unfortunately).  For meat, she will occasionally eat chicken but rarely (not even nuggets), she likes fish sticks (unfortunately), turkey, and hot dogs.  Man, that is bad.  Kinley will still pretty much eat any fruit and she loves yogurt.  We are working on using forks/spoons with eating.  She will hold them and even sometimes get food onto them, however will then pick it off and eat it with her fingers.  She is drinking whole milk from a sippy cup.  Currently, she still gets 1 bottle in the mornings.  This is really just more for us so she will go back to bed.  We are getting ready to take this away too. 

Okay, enough updates.  Enjoy these pics from Kinley's 1st Birthday session.....