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Monday, January 12, 2015

Kaycee is 1 year old!

Our little Kaycee turned 1 last Saturday! I feel like I've blogged a lot of pictures lately with Christmas festivities so here are some pictures that have not already been posted from her 12th month of life! 

All bundled up for a 5K - hoodie, long sleeve shirt, gloves, hat, pants, leg warmers, socks and shoes!
She loves pizza! She ate an entire slice by herself, we were super proud of her!
Watching Shaytards with dad
They are confused about who sleeps where apparently 
Discovering Max's crate
Pulled herself up in her crib all by herself! 


Standing! I helped her a little bit this time - probably shouldn't have taught her how to stand up at the bookshelf since she loves to empty it! 
Sleepy girl

She doesn't snuggle with Jake, like ever, so Jake was super excited that she just laid on him and stayed there for a good 15 minutes. She's done it multiple times since this was taken and he loves it! 
Wearing dad's hat

Eating mac and cheese - one of her favorites!
Trying to use her spoon!
On her grandpa's birthday {my dad and Jake's dad have the same birthday} she wore her "My Grandpa is the best!" onesie
She's strong - Jake couldn't get her to let go! 
Crawling around after playing with Chloe. No, we didn't get a new dog {I wish!} - we were dog sitting for a friend. Chloe loved to lay in Max's little bed even though she's a boxer and definitely not a small dog. Kaycee LOVED having her with us! 
Pig tails! 

Another shot of the pig tails
"What, I didn't do that."

Popper got her this onesie for Christmas. Yes, Kaycee does love her Pop!
Apples are a new favorite, especially when they are as big as her face!
Play date with her fiance Harrison
Crazy post bath hair! 
Fell asleep sitting up




12 month nearly naked shot 
Closest I was going to get to a picture on her birthday in her chair - she did not want to sit still! 
Some fun things from this month:

  • She is 20 pounds 2 ounches {55%}, 29 inches tall {43%} and her head circumference is 45 cm {52%}. 
  • She is amazing at pulling to stand and can pull on about anything to stand up now {walls, book shelves, dresser, legs, tables - if it's slightly steady she will use it!}
  • She has sat up by herself a few more times. I know she knows how, I just don't think she knows that she knows how. 
  • She is not a fan of formula lately - we have to really coax her to drink it. Switching to milk hopefully today. 
  • She loves water and LOVES chocolate almond milk. Those are definitely her preference for drinks. 
  • She loves every food we put in front of her. She loves to feed herself so I usually try to find things she can feed herself. I realized I hadn't been feeding her many fruits or vegetables so we've been adding lots more of those and she seems to love them! 
  • She's going through a "poop in the tub" phase and it sucks. A lot. It's probably 4 or 5 nights a week she leaves us a nice smelly gift in her little bath tub. 
  • She's getting a little vocabulary! She is great at saying hi and says it often and pretty much on command. She has said hello and hey multiple times too. She says "oggy" for Max and says it often! If she hears him, sees him, wants him or is playing with him she's saying "oggy". She has also said "bar bar" super fast like "bark bark". That is definitely something her "oggy" says a lot! 
  • She is discovering pointing at things and we love it! 
  • She LOVES her Violet dog she got for Christmas. She sleeps with it and we've caught her multiple times using it as a pillow or hugging it in her sleep. She's never liked any stuffed animals - whenever I try to get her to play with one she immediately drops it and picks up any other toy but she LOVES her Violet. It's helping her like other stuffed animals now, she is starting to play with some of her old ones that she had ignored previously. 
  • She is in 12-18 month clothes and size 3 diapers. Her size 2 white church shoes are a little tight so we retired them. I don't know what exact shoe size she is since her shoes right now are all moccasins that aren't sized - she has 5 pairs! She actually keeps them on her feet which is a huge relief! 
  • She is starting to show more interest when we turn the TV on, especially if it's Shaytards. She will sit in my lap and watch the entire YouTube video with us. 
  • At last count she had 7 or 8 teeth - they are coming in like crazy! She is very sensitive in her little mouth and doesn't let us feel often so we have to wait until we can see it when she laughs before we know it's there {unless we want to hold her down and feel which she hates}.
  • She is taking 2 naps still, 1 long in the morning and 1 shorter in the evenings.
  • Church has been better since we switched to 1:00 because she can get a nap in before church but now she wants to crawl and explore and it makes sitting quietly in Relief Society or Sacrament Meeting really tough! We spend a lot of Relief Society in the hall way each week. 
  • She is crawling SUPER fast - she has mastered the movement and can get places pretty quick! She usually stays near us and just explores the room we are in so we haven't had to do too much baby proofing. 
  • She has identified the sound of the garage opening with daddy. She's had a few days where the garage will open when Jake gets home from work and she'll immediately turn towards the noise and say "dada". It's adorable. She's also started crawling towards the hallway now so she can see him when he comes in. 
  • She started grinding her teeth last night - really hope that goes away! We think more teeth are coming and that's why she's doing it. Either way, I hate that sound! 
  • She absolutely loves other kids and loves play dates! She tends to laugh when other kids cry and we are trying to teach her not to laugh but her laugh is infectious so we end up laughing with her while we are trying to tell her it isn't nice to laugh when other people are crying. 
  • She is becoming quite the hair/necklace/earring puller. I've been just tolerating it and now I'm realizing I need to nicely be correcting her so that she doesn't think it's okay to pull other peoples hair. I will say "ouch!" when she does it to startle her a little bit and then she always cries - always. She is SO sensitive. Jake told her to stop chewing on her crib last night and she immediately started welling up. She makes the most ADORABLE sad face right before she cries, it is so heart breaking and so cute at the same time. She's definitely sensitive and doesn't like to be told she's doing something wrong. 
  • She still loves the car and is usually very quiet - she just looks out the window. She's still rear facing and I plan to keep her that way as long as possible. I can't wait for her to be forward facing but I want her to be safe too! 
I think that's everything for this month! I am going to try to keep doing monthly posts just so that I know I am blogging at least once a month and have a place to dump all the cute pictures I take of her and I can continue to document things she is doing each month but I won't be doing the pig side by side comparison pictures anymore. Crazy how much she has grown in a year {or how much that pig has shrunk}! 

Happy birthday again Kaycee, we love you!! 

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Kaycee's 1 year pictures

I went to Camera Shy last week and got Kaycee's 1 year pictures taken. I'm absolutely dying over how they turned out - I couldn't be happier! I don't want to flood the blog with them, but I had to post a few of my favorites of my favorite 1 year old girl!










Dear Kaycee {1 year old}

Dear Kaycee,

Yesterday was your first birthday. I cannot believe you are 1. To think I've known you for a year makes sense to me and it feels right, but to think that you are 1 year old feels weird. That makes no sense - someday when you're a mommy you'll understand though. Seriously, how have I ONLY known your little face for a year? I feel like you've been an enormous part of my life for my entire life. And I bet you have - I bet you were always with me even before I could see you and that's why you feel so familiar to me. Anyway, enough mom rambling.

Dad and I woke you up by singing "Happy Birthday" to you. We ate breakfast in our jammies - peaches, sausage & chocolate milk {your favorites right now!} and pancakes, a new thing for you to try! Dad even made you a minnie pancake - what an awesome dad you have. We spent the morning doing whatever you wanted to do - playing with toys, walking around {with our finger help}, playing with your "oggy" {Max} and reading books. You had a nap while I finished working on things for your party and then we had lunch at Costco while we picked up the last few pictures we needed for your birthday banner. We went to Walmart to buy you your first pet that's all yours {since I love Max and he's technically mine even though I think he loves you more} - a fish! It was dad's idea. We got a male beta and named him Trixin, he's red and purple and beautiful. He's currently sitting on our kitchen counter in his nice bowl with bright pink rocks, since he is after all your fish. After picking out Trixin you had another nap while dad and I finished party prep and then it was time to party!

For your party {I'll make a separate blog post with all the pictures} we had a Minnie Mouse theme. I raided Pinterest and Etsy and I'm super happy with how cute everything turned out. There was a "Happy Birthday" banner that's Minnie themed and another banner with 24 pictures of you on it - I plan to hang that one up in your room since it's so cute. We had pink lemonade with pizza and salads and 2 different kinds of cupcakes for dessert. I made the cupcakes and your smash cake and I'm actually pretty dang proud of myself - I think they looked and tasted great! Baking isn't a strong suit for me so I'm proud of myself for improving on that. Planning was a little stressful at times but I planned far enough in advance that I wasn't scrambling too bad right before your birthday. You had a lot of family come support you on your fun day and had even more family members who wanted to be there but weren't able to come. You loved seeing everyone and as always enjoyed your pizza and green beans. Cake wasn't necessarily something you ate but you loved to play with it! You got some wonderful presents and have already loved playing with them. We watched a video I made on YouTube of your first year while we ate. I loved making that video - it was very good for me to go through your pictures and realize how much you've grown and changed in your short little life.

One year. One year isn't that long, but when I think about how scary/happy/emotional your birth day was I cannot believe it was a year ago. It feels like eternity. I feel like I was pregnant SOOO long ago because I've had you to snuggle with for so long. Like I said, looking back at pictures of you growing up helped me a lot. I almost feel like it went too fast but I look back at pictures and I can remember everything. I remember where I was sitting when I took the picture or exactly what had happened right before. Someday those exact memories will fade and I'll just have the pictures to look at. I'm so glad we have technology and cameras! I think your first year would feel like it went by in minutes if I didn't have pictures to look back at all the time {and trust me, I look at pictures of you ALL the time!}. Even still, realizing some of your little phases will never come back is hard to comprehend. You're pretty much done drinking bottles so I'll never get to hold your bottle while you hold my pinky again. And that just totally made me tear up thinking about it! Things are going to change as you get bigger and there will be things I'll look back and miss. It's cliche, everybody warned me about that but I'm realizing it's true. I'd always thought I would look back and miss things that annoyed me at the time but I'm realizing I'll miss everything.

But at the same time, each new phase you enter is so exciting. I can't think of any moment in my life I'd rather be in than the one I am in now - with you as you are now, with dad and Max and this house and everything exactly the way it is now and I think that's how life should be. That you should always want life and things to be how they are now, even if you miss things from before. Does that make sense? Do I miss being able to travel and be spontaneous with dad from before you were born? Yes! Does that mean I want to go back to that and have life without you? No freaking way sister! Do I miss you being a brand new snuggly little pink ball of fabric and your snuggles? Yes! Would I trade that for your hugs and learning to give kisses right now? No way! And someday, I'll miss this but wouldn't trade it for where you are at that point. I'm just trying to enjoy each moment because it all changes fast {again, SO cliche!} and just be present and enjoy YOU as you are in this moment.

I'm so proud of the little lady you are becoming. You are the friendliest, happiest little girl I've ever known. And yes, I'm biased but still - you make friends EVERYWHERE! We have lots of situations that go something like this: let's say we're standing in the checkout line at Smith's and I'm off in lala land thinking about the total of the groceries or whatever. I hear a little giggle and look down and you're grinning ear to ear. I look behind us and there is a kindergartner or a baby or an old man or a business woman or a teenager or WHOEVER that is smiling back at you. You make EVERYONE smile! You make friends with the person who is ringing up our groceries and laugh with the bagger. You smile at the butcher while we are picking our dad's steak and he's restocking the selection. You bring SO much joy to this world, especially me and dad's world. You make your little doggy so happy - he's figured out how to open the {slightly broken} door to your room by pushing on it and he comes to check on you {and leaves the door open as a result}. You make your aunts and uncles and grandparents so happy - everyone cannot get enough of you! You love to entertain - when everyone is watching you, you'll talk and as they laugh, you light up at the reaction you are able to bring. That's such an amazing talent and skill to have, babe. Don't ever lose your ability to bring others happiness. So many things in this world make others hurt, sad or lonely and you have the power and know how, seemingly naturally, to bring others happiness. You are going to be such an amazing force for good in this world with that talent that Heavenly Father has blessed you with.

You love to say hi {see, friendly!} and have said hi before when no one is in the room with you or when you're looking at a seemingly blank space. I know that you can see more than I can and it's always in those moments that I sit and wonder about who you're talking to that the Spirit floods our home. You bring the Spirit with you so easily {maybe not during Sacrament meeting, but at home, yes!} and you still love to look at pictures of Jesus. I made you a picture book for Christmas with pictures of Christ and the prophets in it and you always look SO happy when you see President Monson's face. You almost always look at his picture in the hallway when we go to throw away garbage in the garage. You have such an amazing Spirit baby girl, thank you for bringing that to our home and to our family.

And lastly, thank you for letting me celebrate my 1 year anniversary of being a mom. I've always wanted to be a mom, ever since I was little I couldn't wait to be a mom. If I had known it was this amazing, I think it would have made waiting for you that much harder so in ways I'm glad I didn't realize how amazing it would be. Thank you for letting me kiss you when you don't want any more kisses or for letting me smell your hair after the bath, for letting me take pictures of you eating with macaroni and cheese in your hair and chocolate milk on your chin. Thank you for letting me learn how to do this mom thing with you - it is not easy but it is the most rewarding job there is. I wouldn't trade a single moment of it. I'm so grateful I get to stay home with you and spend so much of your day by your side. It isn't easy financially - we've had to make a lot of sacrifices but it is very worth it - you are worth it.

I hope you had an amazing birthday, you sure seemed to love it! I cannot wait to celebrate 99 more birthdays with you - I promise to make each one as special as I can. I kept telling dad yesterday it seemed weird to me that life was happening normally for other people - it felt like a national holiday to me!

I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
My baby you'll be.

I love you Kaycee. Happy birthday sweetheart.

Love,
Mom

Friday, January 9, 2015

New Years 2015

This year for New Years we were invited to 2 different parties, 1 at 6:00 and 1 at 8:00 so we figured we'd make a stop at each and then go home and get Kaycee to bed and bring in the New Years just Jake and me. I rented 4 Redbox movies so we'd have a good selection to chose from. 

We went to Jake's aunt and uncles house first and had taco bar with his Jody, Teresa, Tandy and Becca plus Jake's parents and brothers. It was really fun and good to see everybody. It was also Jake's moms birthday so Kaycee got to see grandma on her birthday! 

By the time we were done eating it was 8:00 so time to run to the next party before Kaycee was ready for bed! We were bummed we didn't get to stay and play games since it is always fun playing games with that side of Jake's family. We drove just up the street to my Uncle Bryan's house and planned on staying until Kaycee got fussy and then we'd leave. 

Except she never got fussy! 

We ended up staying until midnight talking with my aunts and uncles and just relaxing. There weren't anywhere near as many people as when we went over there on Christmas Adam so it was much more relaxing. We talked about football and family and life and it was great fun! And Kaycee made it to midnight! 

Practicing crawling on their floor

Pulling to stand on everything!
Midnight!
At midnight Jake and I each kissed one of Kaycee's cheeks and then we kissed each other. It was so fun ringing in the New Year with other people. 15 is my favorite number of all time so you know this is going to be the best year EVER!! Happy New Years!