December to Remember

Bruce and Taylor started the month off celebrating Aunt Sheila's 50th Birthday! Kaitlyn and I had a baby shower to attend for some friends of mine from Oklahoma, so we couldn't make both. Pictured below is Judy (Bruce's mom), Sheila (the birthday girl), Uncle Roger, Uncle Bill and Stacey.

Andrea, Jackie (Andrea's mom), Lindsey and I went out to Four Day Weekend Improve and dinner for Lindsey's last night out as a single gal. I felt kinda bad about our plans for Lindsey, but with the time frame, holidays and Andrea and I being new mom's it made for some challenging planning. We had a great time though.

Lindsey made a stunning Bride! Her wedding day came up so quickly. The chapel was absolutely beautiful and it was decorated for Christmas which was that much prettier. December 18th was her parents anniversary. What better way to start a marriage than to model after one that lasted so long. Jeff and Lindsey both come from parents who were still married to one another. That's rare these days and I think, and hope, that dedication they have seen will make their marriage that much stronger!


Below is a picture of us after Lindsey and Jeff's wedding. I love this picture! Great friends doesn't even do it justice --it's more like extended family. I can imagine us, years later when our kids are grown and we're all still hanging out, looking back and smiling on what a great day that was and how happy we all are.



One more exciting thing happened on Lindsey's wedding day! Kaitlyn's first tooth appeared. By the next morning -- her 2nd tooth appeared! "All she wants for Christmas was her two front teeth!" Guess that's what she told Santa and that's why she was giving him the 'thumbs up' in her picture! She turned 5 months on the 22nd. She was 24" long now and 12.5 lbs. She's learned to give the best slobbery kisses :) And LOUD -- she has alot to talk about and wants to be heard!

There's lots of creativity around our house. Taylor loves projects and Tyson is so artistic. The two of them spent some time developing a puppet show just for us! Tyson designed the characters and Taylor wrote the script! Another example of how creative Tyson can be is shown below. I told him about the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo Art Contest where each age group can win $50-$150 and the over all winner can win $500. He whipped out this drawing in about 5 min. The rules of the contest were pretty strict. The drawing had to be mounted to a board the exact size of the drawing, pencil drawings had to be spray fixed, a removable address label had to be affixed to the lower corner with their name and age and the entry form had to be attached to the back completely filled out and turned in to the Star-Telegram by 5:00 on Dec 11th. By Dec 17th, we got an email for Tyson saying he was a FINALIST!!! His drawing has been selected and he has been invited to attend a luncheon where he will find out how he placed! His drawing will also be displayed at the Stock Show -- so watch for it if you happen to go!


Kaitlyn's first Christmas and it snows Christmas Eve! Bruce headed out early that morning to the lease in Bowie and shot him a doe. He said they probably had 4 inches out there when they left. Sure does make for a pretty picture!

Christmas Eve, we ventured out to Bruce's mom's to have Christmas over there. The roads were getting a little dangerous so we took the side streets there. Normally his family all gathers at his grandmother's house that evening too, but with the weather, that was cancelled. We still stopped by though to wish Grandma a Merry Christmas before heading back home.

The snow didn't stop Santa from stopping by our house though. Santa left Taylor a bike and Kaitlyn a bouncer. She's juuusst about ready for it. If we put a pillow beneath her, she likes it for just a few minutes. She'll be going to town in it in no time though.

Kaitlyn is alot like her mother when it comes to mornings. Bruce and Taylor both like to spring from their beds early. Kaitlyn and I would rather take our time and wake up nice and slow! Even when Santa has came to visit!

Christmas morning

Stocking my mom made for Kaitlyn. Hopefully we'll have Taylor's custom made stocking ready for next Christmas -- maybe even one for Bruce!

The road conditions did prevent us from making it out to Bruce's dad's like normal Christmas morning. They had come over earlier that week to see Taylor open her presents. We made it out there the day after Christmas to celebrate with them.

The kids all had a blast having snow ball fights and building snowmen. The snow in Fort Worth wasn't quiet as good for building as in Mineral Wells.

November:The Unabridged Version

What an exciting month this has been! Kaitlyn can roll over from left to right and from front to back! She prefers kicking off with her left foot though. She's gotten really strong with her legs. She likes to push off with them and throw herself backwards if she doesn't like the position you have her in.We thought she was getting her first tooth. I thought at the baby showers when I was getting so many bibs, that those would be reserved for when she started eating baby food. Little did I realize that it'd be needed much sooner for drool!! I found a hard, white spot on her gums on the 3rd, but soon after that, it went away. I figured it was a tooth coming up, but the Dr. had some other explanation for it.

Our friends Andrea and Jim had their baby boy, Colt. He was 9 pounds 9 ounces!! What a big boy! He is almost the size of Kaitlyn.

Tori, Tyson and Taylor helped me put up my Christmas decorations the 1st weekend in November. I had to get them up early because, as you'll read, our weekends following were pretty packed! We have 4 trees at the house (I have one more I may put up) Three of the bedrooms have 4ft trees in them. Kaitlyn's is pink. I need to put the "Texas" tree as Taylor calls it in our room. Then the living room has the big tree of course. I got most of the outside lights hung and plugged into the "set your lights to music" device. I still need to get a few lights out side done and the infamous inflatable snowman out too!

Deer season is in full force. Bruce has been burning up the highway between here and his lease. He's gotten one 10 point so far.

Taylor went with him once. He really enjoyed her going with him and spending quality time together. I think Taylor really enjoyed riding the 4-wheeler he got this season. He was proud of her pulling a deer she named Spike back to camp with the 4-wheeler too. Bruce said Taylor was saying "Come on Spike!" "Put your tongue back in your mouth Spike!"

Bruce, Jim and Jeff all went to Lake Whitney for a few days for Jeff's "Bachelor Party." They booked a guided fishing trip and were able to hunt on some public land.

Lindsey and Jeff's wedding is 16 days away! She had a shower on the 14th and we had her one on the 21st. Her wedding has come together so easy it seems. 3 months to plan a wedding isn't much time, but she has it all together!

After Lindsey's 1st shower on the 14th, Kaitlyn and I made a bee-line for Downtown Dallas so Kaitlyn could meet Lauren and David for the 1st time! They were in for her Aunt Pam's wedding, which I was hoping to go to, but I didn't realize it was the same time as Lindsey's shower. Seeing Lauren and David, and Lauren's family was great! They moved to Houston in August. I really miss her being close. Can't wait for David to move her back closer *wink wink*. We really should have taken some pictures while we were there. There just isn't enough time!

After the 2nd shower, we went to Lindsey's for lunch and to visit with Andrea and her kids and Lindsey's mom and aunt. On our way back home, Kaitlyn and I met up with my friend Jonathan, who I used to lifeguard with, from Oklahoma for dinner. Bruce and Jonathan used to go to school together as well. Jonathan and his wife Lindsay are expecting their 1st baby soon too. She is having a baby shower in Euless on Dec 5th that we will go to.

I was really looking forward to my week off at Thanksgiving. I don't know how it happens, but every day of that week we had something going on. Tuesday the 24th was Kaitlyn's 4 month check up. She weighed in at 11 pounds 8 ounces and was 23 inches long.

She's really holding her head up well and she can make the motions for crawling, she just doesn't get very far yet..it's only a matter of time! The dr. told us we could start solids now. I have in my mind that I'm going to make her baby food. I tried making rice cereal. I almost have it flakey enough, but we went ahead and bought a box which should last a while I think.

We delivered two cakes I'd made for a friend at work in Grand Prairie that evening. Wednesday we headed to Mineral Wells for my dentist appointment and so I could get my green bean casserole and sweet potato casserole made before mom needed in the kitchen. I also made a yummy banana pudding. I used a recipe from the Magnolia Bakery in New York City that I visited when I went for New Year's Eve one year.

I gave Kaitlyn her first bite of rice cereal that evening while everyone played poker at mom and dad's. She took it pretty well!

Thanksgiving day we ate at my parents. I smeared a little bit of mashed potato on my finger for Kaitlyn to taste. After lunch, we headed back to Fort Worth to Bruce's mom's to visit with his family for a while.

Bruce's dad and step-mom have been married 25 years and were renewing their wedding vows at the Church on Sunday. I had to bake cakes for the small reception following so I wanted to bake them in Mineral Wells so I didn't have to travel as far with them.
Their ceremony was very nice. Bruce Sr had arranged everything as a surprise to Lisa.

(pics to come)

Bruce's mom and step-dad also celebrated their 25th anniversary at the 1st part of the month by taking a trip to Tennessee.

So here we are to December already. Kaitlyn and I woke up to SNOW this morning!!! I, against my better judgement, had to take her out to see her very 1st snow! Just uncovered her long enough to snap the pictures.

I think I will start one of my New Year's Resolutions early. I'm going to try and NOT be so busy. I look forward to spending the evening watching Kaitlyn and spending every moment of quality time with her I can. I told Bruce that over Christmas break, I hoped that we didn't have as much running back and forth to do. Most important, it cuts into my time with Kaitlyn and it really messes up our schedules!

Kaitlyn said she had her Christmas wish list all made out so she needed to go visit Mr. Claus - so we did!

I'm not sure if you can tell in this picture, but she's giving a thumbs up! Couldn't have staged that if we wanted to!

PS .. I love when she giggles!