Christmas night at Grandpa & Grammi's

There were two recurring themes at Christmas this year for Kaiya.

1) The "oooo" sound

2) Can I eat it?

Christmas morning at Nanna's

Here a couple of cute pics of Kaiya at Tony's moms. She was in heaven w/ all the bright colors. You can see her mouth is saying "Ooooooo" (prounounced more like "ew" - I don't know how to write it)-- her favorite expression during Christmas.

This is Kaiya with Tony's Uncle Dan.

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve over at Tony's Grandparents. Pictures below are of Kaiya w/ Tony's Dad & Connie, Grandma Cook, Grandpa Cook.

Checking out Grandma Cook's Christmas display

All worn out

Woof! Woof!

This is what happens when we let Kaiya crawl around in the dog's cage. This is Luna's cage, Aaron (Tony's brother) & Trudi's dog. Don't worry, we washed her hands really good when she was done exploring. She seemed to have fun -- and I thought it would make a good scrapbook page. :)

This is a family picture taken at Christmas.

December 23rd

We spent some time with our friends Austin & Kristina. The first picture is of Kaiya in the middle of Tony & Austin getting lots of attention.

This is one of my new favorite pictures of Kaiya.

Here is Kaiya w/ Uncle Andy

And they thought Money Bags would be the problem...

I'm beginning the first of many posts to get caught up on pictures from the holidays. For the record, I just want to state that our cat, Money Bags, was not the instigator during our stay in Indiana. As you can see from the pictures below, Lu Lu and Squeaky have scared him off with their intimidating presence. :)

I'm Cool...

It's quite obvious in this picture that Kaiya thinks she is hot stuff. :) This picture was taken by my friend Maurine on Friday night. We spent the evening with them and this was when we first let Kaiya and Hannah interact. Hannah would giggle at Kaiya and Kaiya definitely tried to show off for Hannah. Can't wait until they are a bit older -- they will have fun playing together.

In other news... We are taking a fun trip to Charlotte, North Carolina next month. We'll take a long weekend to see the area and see what everyone is talking about. Haven't met a person yet who didn't like North Carolina! :) I've booked everything for the trip -- Flight, Hotel & Rental Car -- used priceline for the hotel & rental car and saved a bunch of money (which always makes me happy!). Please keep praying for us as we make this trip. We are really seeking God's direction in where we go! And so much to see -- so little time to see it in.

My absence

I couldn't log in to Blogger for the longest time... I'm up and running again. Still waiting to post pictures... I managed to lose the cord that goes from the camera to the computer. So once I find that -- or buy a new one, I won't have pictures to put up. I'm going to tackle that this weekend.

Tonight I start a new class. It's supposed to go until 10 p.m. I'm getting tired just thinking about it. :) But I'm glad to be able to see friends from school that I haven't seen in awhile.

I've been on a scrapbooking spree lately. My sweet neighbor let me borrow her new books that she got for Christmas and I have been having fun getting updated. I can't even think about the $$ that is wrapped up in scrapbooking. This kid better appreciate it! :) ha ha.... So for now, everything is spread all over the dining room table. It is a mess, but I've been having a blast. Nice now that Kaiya is going to bed by 9 p.m. every night.

Speaking of Miss K, new things Kaiya is doing:

• Dancing -- she bee-bops all the time! So our new favorite phrase is "Shake, shake your booty." It can be any type of music. She got a Dora scooter for Christmas and she dances to all the noises it makes.
• Singing -- favorite song for the moment is: Ooo Eee Ooo Ahh Ahh, Ting Tang Walla Walla Bing Bang. Singing this song to her just gives her the giggles -- and then she'll try to sing it back.
• Spitty-Lips & Fart Noises -- I don't know what to say about this except for this is her favorite thing to do. She keeps her lips together and blows air out her mouth -- with spit flying everywhere. She especially likes to do it, have you do it back, then she'll do it -- this goes on until one of you tires.
• Sleeping all night -- need I say more...
• Growing -- Is she supposed to be growing so fast? :)

Pictures coming soon, I promise. And for you faithful blog readers -- maybe Captain Dirk will be in my class. Now wouldn't that be something to look forward to. :)

I'm pretty proud of this falling snow! :0) Very winter-ish. It took me forever to figure out...

New Recipe for the New Year

Well, I'm gradually getting back into the swing of things here at home. We had a great break/vacation from work and school and now the busy-ness is going to begin. I'm doing my best not to get overwhelmed with all that has to happen over the next 6 months. More on that later, in another post...

Tony's mom got me a great new cookbook for Christmas and I tried out one of the recipes last night. It was a winner for both Tony & I. So I thought I would post it here.

Baked Lemon Chicken

2 large chicken breasts, cut in 1/2
3 T. butter, melted
2 T. lemon juice
1/4 t. pepper
1/2 t. salt
1 garlic clove minced
1/2 c. seasoned bread crumbs (I used 3 Cheese)

1) Combine butter, lemon juice, pepper, salt, & garlic. Dip chicken in butter mixture and then coat in bread crumbs. Pour remaining butter over chicken.

2) Bake at 350 for 25 minutes (or until chicken is cooked.)


**My special notes about the recipe -- because of course I couldn't follow it exactly! :0) The recipe called for 4 chicken breasts. I only had 2 thawed out, but they were good size. So I cut them in half. So you could go either way.

Also -- I didn't have any fresh garlic -- a few shakes of garlic powder worked just fine -- although fresh would have tasted much better, I'm sure.

Before pouring remaining butter over the chicken, I sprinkled the left over breadcrumbs on top of the chicken too.

And finally -- I cooked it at 350 for 20 minutes but the chicken wasn't done. So being impatient and hungry I increased the temp to 400 for about 10 more minutes. It helped to crisp up the coating I think.

******************************

So there you have it. :) Our yummy dinner from last night. Which tasted pretty good for lunch today as well.... not quite as crispy, but still moist.

I'll blog more tomorrow. And hopefully have some Christmas pictures for you too.

Merry Christmas!!

This will be my last post for awhile. We are leaving today after work to go to Indiana and spend Christmas with our families. I hope you all have a great time with friends and family this Christmas. These are Kaiya's Christmas/9 month pictures. What a cutie! :)

By the way -- the cat dilemma is worked out. We are going to take Money Bags with us and keep him in Laura's basement until we head to my parents. Then he will go home with Tony on the 27th.

I'm definitely feeling stressed out. Tony is picking me up from work and we are leaving from here, so I was running around like a madwoman last night trying to get organized and packed. I never seem to be able to get everything done. Then this morning I shut my alarm off instead of snoozing it. So I woke up about 40 minutes before I needed to leave for work. Thankfully -- good ol' Ruthie will come through for me. She is watching Kaiya today at the house and I have given her the job of packing Kaiya's bag. And a few other jobs... :)

Time management -- something I'm still working on...

Christmas Travel Dilemma

Okay... it's come down to this. A dilemma for our holiday travel plans -- What to do with Money Bags (the cat)? When we got Money Bags, we decided to get a cat because they are easy to leave alone when you go out of town. However, our extremely social cat loves to ride in the car and go on trips with us. So... for the past 3 years, we have taken him with us. This year, my mom's house has turned into a zoo and Money Bags, being the big dominant male cat is not wanted for fear that he might eat the other cats. Shocking, I know...

No -- to be fair to my mom... she has the two dogs, Kali (Money Bags sister), a new cat Squeaky (who is very petite), and then Ruthie will bring her cat LuLu along. So it really is a zoo. And Money Bags does think he is in charge when he comes. The other part to the dilemma is that we are first going to stay with Tony's family. As I posted earlier, his mom's dog was beat by intruders a couple weeks ago. So I'm not sure what the dog would think of us bringing $bags to his house. Honestly, I'm kind of afraid Tido might eat Money Bags. And my mom said we could bring him, as long as we took him with us to Laura's and didn't just drop him off at her house for the full week.

So... here are our options:

1) Provided my neighbors are going to be in town and willing: Leave $bags at the house and have the neighbors feed him.

2) Board him at Petropolis for $10.50 per night. I would do this in a heartbeat, however, the new cat suites are all reserved. So he would have to go in the old one and it is 2.5 cubic ft. Kind of a tight space for a guy who is used to running the house.

3) Threaten Tony's mom that we won't bring Kaiya unless we can bring Money Bags, and then keep him contained in her basement away from Tido while we are there. And then once we go to my mom's house keep him contained there.

4) Convince my mom to keep him contained in one of her basement rooms while we are at Laura's.

So much thought for the beloved cat. :) I'm sure Tony will have something smart to say in response to this long post about "the cat." But I don't care. I love him...Money Bags, that is...

WARNING!!

Opening freezer while barefoot can pose great risk to your toes!!

Friday a package of frozen chicken falling from the freezer broke my little toe. I even iced it up real good on Friday night -- but the damage was already done. By Saturday I was lovely shades of black and blue. Don't worry -- I was able to go to work today. :) ha ha... I'm just limping a bit in shoes. Poor Rachel...

This is the life...

Tony and I have decided that this is the life! Kaiya has mastered the no-hand-feed. She loves to run her fingers through her hair or mama's hair while she is eating, and she figured out how to do this while eating with both hands. :)

Time for a post!

I've had a busy week at work -- nice for a change! :) As a result, I've been less diligent about posting on the blog. I took a couple cute pics this weekend that I thought I would post. We went to the mall on Saturday and Kaiya is getting much more interested in her surroundings. I was standing near a family and the little kids had balloons tied to their stroller. Kaiya noticed their balloons and started kicking her little legs and sqeaking. A definite sign that our shopping trip would go much smoother if I could find a balloon for her. :) Thankfully the balloons were being given out just around the corner. She was so delighted with her balloon. And played with it for quite awhile when we got home too. In this first picture, she got the string stuck between her toes, so wherever Kaiya went, the balloon followed. She thought it was the greatest thing!

This picture is great. Tony's dad gave Kaiya a doll that came with a hair net. I snuck it on her head -- Tony & I think Kaiya has a promising future as "The Lunch Lady."

Little Cindy Lou Who

Today I begin my practicum hours. Yesterday I went to the site and met with my practicum supervisor. I'm good to start my hours whenever I want and it's pretty laid back. I just show up whenever to do them. So... I have the day off of work today to do them. After a quick e-mail check I'll be heading out. I'm really looking forward to this -- it will grow me as a counselor.

Last night I took Kaiya to get her Christmas and 9 month pictures. They turned out super good. Like usual, I ordered way too many of them. They come back December 19th.

I took one of my own in her Santa suit with the infamous Grinch. I thought it was pretty cute. :)

Our Weekend

Well, what a very interesting few days we have had. Starting on Thursday with the ice/snow storm that came through. I was able to leave work at noon on Thursday and then went home as the freezing rain came down. The rain continued until 2 a.m. and then changed to snow. So... by the time the snow started we already had about 2 inches of ice covering everything. Friday was a snow day for both Tony & I. We stayed in all day, but took Kaiya out in the yard to see her first snow. She had limited mobility in her snowsuit, but she was curious about it. Saturday was a big day. I was taking the bus (www.megabus.com) to Chicago to see some friends. The ride there was great and Kaiya was really good on the bus. Enjoyed the afternoon with my friends and then around 5 I started feeling terrible. It was the full blown flu by 7 p.m. and I was in Chicago with Kaiya. :) My sweet friends took care of Kaiya (and me) all night while I was in bed. Tony booked me a flight home the next morning, as the 5 hour bus ride was not sounding too good w/ the flu and baby. :) Got back to St. Louis at noon and then headed home to bed. I spent most of yesterday in bed and I'm home from work today. Kaiya is at the sitter's so I can rest. Not the best weekend I've had... but it could have been worse.

Worse would actually be Tony's mom's situation. Last week her house was burglarized. They took everything of value -- and all the presents under the tree! And she had most of her shopping done and under the tree. They beat up the dog and trashed the place. Anyway... here is the video from the tv newstation that came to interview her. She's doing better now, but how scary!!

http://www.wndu.com/news/headlines/4807361.html

Finally, here are the Kaiya pics from the snow. And one of her standing up on the chair. She is much more interested in standing up on things, than she is on crawling around. Wonder when we will have a walker? She can hold onto the couch and get from one end to another end by holding on. So it could get crazy around here in the next couple of months!

It isn't quite as clear as I hoped, but on this picture with me holding Kaiya, the moon is in the sky. It was about 4:30 p.m. when we took the picture... I just thought the sky was so pretty.

Boot Camp

Well, the time is long overdue. Time for me to get my butt in shape. :) Rebekah's wedding has given me the motivation to get started. Main reason #1: the dress

The dress is gorgeous. I tried it on and love it. However... as you can see -- it is not very forgiving through the middle. :) So my goal is to get into the size dress I would have worn pre-baby. And to help me do it... drumroll, please...

I'm not expecting rockin' abs quite like those... but hopefully it will help me out. I ordered it this morning. The nice thing about it is that the workouts can be broken into 10 minute segments for when I only have a short amount of time on my hands. (Which is most of the time.) Anyway... I'll let you know how it goes after I get it.

Thanksgiving pictures

Here are a few pictures that were taken on Thanksgiving. As you can see, Kaiya was worn out! :)

This picture was taken on Sunday evening. Shortly after Aunt Bekah left. Kaiya was zonked.

This week has gone well, so far. We have had unusually warm weather... 70 degree days make it difficult to get into the holiday spirit! However, it did make it very nice to get the Christmas lights put up (Thanks Dad for all the help with that! Christmas lights fall under the category of "yard work" to Tony! ha ha...) So, the warm temps will only last until Wednesday and then the real winter weather will arrive. This coming weekend Kaiya and I are heading to Chicago to visit a few of my college friends. We are going to ride the bus (I'll let you know how that goes) and are leaving at 7 a.m. Sat and then getting back around 4 p.m. on Sunday. I'm looking forward to the trip and being able to catch up on life and introduce Kaiya. :)

Last night I decided it was time to trim Kaiya's hair. Nervously I took off about a 1/2 inch on the top. The kid has a ton of hair right there on the top front. I could have taken more, but I was kind of scared. I debated saving it -- isn't that what you do with the first haircut? But Tony laughed when I told him I felt like I should save it -- and told me he's looked at his first hair like once in his life. So... it went in the trash can. I think maybe I'll save her first "real" haircut. When there is more to save. It seems like the right thing to do. But the umbilical cord definitely hit the trash can -- there wasn't much hesitating on that one. Her belly button is proof enough that she was once attached to me. :)

Fall Leaves

I've been meaning to bring our pictures from the weekend to work so that I can post them on the blog. I forgot two days in a row. :) There's always tomorrow. We had a fun weekend with Rebekah and Ruthie (when she wasn't working). Bekah was a HUGE help in getting me organized. We tackled the scariest room in the house (the office area). It has basically looked like a tornado ran through the room for as long as I can remember. I am so glad to have it organized and feel so much better when I pass through the room. Cause that's the catch -- I have to pass it all the time as it is an open room that we walk through to get back to the bathrooms or bedroom. You can imagine my anxiety when company says they have to use the bathroom. :) ha ha... Anyway... it's clean now.

What else... we went to Sam's to price food for Bekah's wedding. Still nailing a date down, but it's looking like Friday, May 25. I'm helping her cater it. Basically just appetizers -- definitely something that we can handle. I love stuff like that. She has a lot of great ideas and it is all very do-able. I'm excited about the chance to save her money.

On Saturday we also raked leaves in the backyard. It was a family affair with Bekah, Ziggy, Tony, Kaiya and I all out there working hard. Took some fun pictures in the leaves (which will be posted when I remember my usb cord for the computer). We were SO tired when finished... the back yard is huge!! And Tony took a huge chunk of time out of his schedule to help with it. And for those of you who know how much Tony hates yardwork, you know what a gift that was to me. My two favorite quotes from him for the day -- "maybe if we leave a small layer it will stunt the grass growth next spring." That's Tony... always looking ahead to the future. And the second quote: "When we move we are either living in a forest (because it is natural to have leaves on the forest floor) or not having neighbors." (Because truly, the main reason we were raking the leaves is because our neighbor is a lawn-mowing nazi. He mows his grass constantly -- always making us look like slackers. So of course, he had all their leaves raked 2 weeks ago. I told Tony we had to rake them before they all blew over into the neighbors yard.) I think Tony would have been secretly delighted if they had blown into the neighbors yard. :) After all -- our neighbor has a riding lawn mower w/ a mulcher so it's an easy task for him.

Anyway... pictures are coming.

Other exciting mama news is that I am about to ask Santa for a night of uninterrupted sleep. This parent stuff is exhausting and I am nearing a breaking point with K waking up in the night and wee hours of the morning. So... the new plan is this (thanks to Jen for the suggestion): When Kaiya wakes up in the middle of the night, leave her in the crib while heating a formula bottle, then take it in and feed her in the dark w/out talking, burp her and then put her down right away. We did pretty well with it. I took care of the bottle and burp, then Tony put her down. We have been making the mistake of bringing her into our room when she cries in the middle of the night and then I nurse her and we both fall asleep in our bed. So no wonder she cries in the middle of the night. It's mama at her complete disposal -- meanwhile I am sleep deprived. :) So hopefully this plan will help break the bad habit that we created. Time will tell! And I'm pretty determined.