Bradley - [3 Months]

Bradley is 3 months old! He:

• weighs about 15 pounds
• wants to eat ALL THE TIME
• is wearing 3-6 month and even some 6-9 month clothes
• is in a size 3 diaper
• is happy and smiley and starting to coo
• likes to eat his hands
• can hold his head up pretty well

Christmas Wrap-Up

Looking through my pictures, I realized I missed posting about a few things Christmas... so here is a Christmas wrap-up post!

I love how my neighbor gifts turned out this year! My dad sliced the wood, my mom's friend Suzanne did the calligraphy, and I traced the calligraphy onto the wood and added the glitter and snowflakes :-) Kind of wishing I had made one for myself!

We watched lots of Christmas movies. I think the favorites were Santa Clause and Home Alone - two classics from when Matt and I were growing up :-)

 I did a little baking... brownie stuffed cookies for a cookie exchange and reindeer cupcakes for Kylee's class party. They both turned out pretty well if I do say so myself :-) The brownie cookies are a new favorite at my house! Matt and Kylee also added to the holiday treats by making chocolate covered pretzels... those didn't last very long so they are planning on making more this next week! Uh oh, I'd better figure out pretty quickly how to exercise some self control!

And finally, our Christmas card (and text insert)! I love my tradition of making these with my friend Mandy.

This has been an eventful year for our family and we feel so blessed.

Bradley joined our family on September 28^th, and we are all in love. He is sweet and happy. He likes to stretch and grunt. He has a full head of dark hair (which we love!), is a great eater, and sleeps well in his crib.

Tyler (2) had a big year. He started walking, no longer takes a bottle, and sleeps in his “big boy bed”. He loves dancing when listening to music and singing songs with hand motions. Tyler thinks the world of his sister and wants to do everything she is doing (including playing with whatever toy she happens to be playing with). He is stubborn, throws fits when it is time to leave the park/grandma’s/nursery/etc, and refuses to eat if he doesn’t like the way the food looks… but he makes up for all of that when he is sweet, freely giving kisses and making us smile.

Kylee (7) finished kindergarten in the spring and is loving first grade! She continues to excel in school and especially loves to read. She still enjoys playing with Legos, listening to music, and wants to play with a friend every day after school. She will tell you she wants to be a police officer or a “cooker” (chef) when she grows up. Kylee played her first season of soccer this fall and loved it. She also lost her first tooth this fall, which was a pretty big deal for her!

I continue to work part time (from home) for Boise State as a project manager and am grateful for the flexibility my job allows. Matt started with the City of Boise this spring and is loving being a patrol officer. He already has some pretty interesting stories!

With Matt’s new job, he wasn’t really able to take time off, but we did manage to get in a few trips as a family this year. We went to McCall for the Winter Carnival, enjoyed a summer trip to Lagoon, spent the 4^th of July in Inkom, and went camping in Garden Valley. We loved all of these little adventures.

Details of our trips, along with all our other family comings and goings can be found on our blog – kimberlyandmatt.blogspot.com.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Merry Christmas 2015!

We were royally spoiled this Christmas. Thanks to all our family who helped make it such a special day!

And I have to share pictures of this cutie... happy first Christmas Bradley!

Trimming the Tree

I have always loved decorating for Christmas, but this year was especially fun. Kylee and Tyler did the bulk of the tree decorating. There are sections of the tree with lots of ornaments and other sections with hardly any... but I decided to leave it that way. Their smiles say it all!

Santa's Village

We were really excited to be able to ride the train to Santa's Village again this year. Kylee especially loves the train ride. A big thanks to Mike and Cindy for taking us and making it such a special afternoon!

Paramount Elementary Christmas Program

When Kylee came home from school one day saying she needed to practice her part for the school Christmas program, I didn't realize she would be one of only a handful of kids in the 1st-3rd grade with a speaking part! It was only one line, but it was still pretty fun to be able to watch her. If you just want to see her speaking, skip way ahead... her line is just before the final song... but the program is pretty cute if you want to watch the whole thing :-)

Gingerbread Houses 2015

I know I've said this before, but I love our Christmas traditions. Here are a few pictures to document this year's gingerbread house making.

Christ is Born Advent

One of my favorite Christmas memories from growing up is the Christmas advent calendar we did every year. It was a big piece of felt with pockets for each day in December. Every pocket held a piece of the nativity (i.e. the stable, the angel, Mary, Joseph, Jesus, animals, etc) that we then put up on the felt to make a complete nativity scene. It was a fun way to count down to Christmas. I have been wanting to make an advent calendar for my home, and after lots of looking, I decided to make one with pictures and scriptures of Christ. I invited Beki to make one with me and we had lots of fun planning and constructing our advent. Our hubbies helped out too! Here's what we did:

• I found a list of scriptures on line that followed the life of Christ.
• I then found pictures on lds.org that went with each scripture (you can download the pictures there for free for personal use!)
• Next, I re-sized each picture to 3x3 to fit on the 3" wood squares I had purchased.
• Beki was then able to add the scripture on to each picture (you can access these pictures/scriptures here if you'd like!)
• Bryce printed the pictures for us, and then we mod podged them onto the wood squares. We mod podged scrapbook paper onto the other side of the pictures. I ended up spraying the squares with an acrylic sealant because the mod podge seemed to dry a little tacky and the squares were sticking together a bit.

• Matt cut down some pine boards for us and then attached each board with small strips of wood on the back. He also sanded the wood for us so we could paint it.
• Beki and I painted the boards, added the vinyl lettering, and added nails for each of the squares to hang on (Matt drilled all the holes in the squares for us!).

Here is our finished product. I love LOVE it! And Kylee has really been enjoying it so far too. Every day she asks to turn the square and we have loved reading the scripture stories as a family. I hope she (and Tyler and Bradley) will look back on this (new) tradition with fondness as I look back on the nativity of my youth!

:

Cute Kids

I know I'm partial, but I think these are some pretty cute kids.

Bradley - [2 Months]

Bradley turned 2 months on November 28th. Here are a few updates:

• He sleeps a lot. A LOT. I try to keep him awake for stretches during the day, but he likes to sleep! I am just glad he sleeps well at night.
• When I say he sleeps well at night, I mean he doesn't have big stretches of being awake at night. He is still waking up every 3 hours or so at night to eat, though.
• Bradley is 13 pounds (66%) and 23.1" (51%). His head circumference is 39 cm (42%)... so overall, pretty average in size for a two-month-old.
• Bradley wears size 2 diapers and I feel like his 0-3 month clothes are starting to get a little small.  Time to pull out the 3-6 month clothes!
• He has started smiling a bit. We love his smiles.
• Is just getting cuter and cuter. We love our little Mr. B.

Kylee's 7th Birthday

Kylee is seven! I remember celebrating her 3rd birthday when Matt and I were just engaged. Here is a picture of cute 3-year-old Kylee:

And here is Kylee now... 

We celebrated a lot! We had two parties the weekend before her birthday. We celebrated with some friends Saturday morning at Piggy Pigs Pottery, followed by a family dinner and movie night that evening. For some reason, I missed getting pictures at the family party, but so many people came - Kylee felt loved. She was definitely spoiled!

Then, a couple days before her birthday, we went to dinner at one of her favorite restaurants - Red Robin!

Kylee went back to her mom's house the evening of her birthday, but Matt made Kylee a special birthday breakfast. She loves pancakes!

Here are a few things about our big 7-year-old:

• Kylee loves, loves, loves Legos, specifically Legos Friends. It is probably her favorite "toy". She likes making the different sets, and then plays with the sets. She doesn't do a lot of breaking down and rebuilding.
• She has become an excellent reader and enjoys reading chapter books. She is also really good at reading scriptures!
• Kylee loves playing with friends, and would like to have a friend over after school every day if she could.
• She is the best big sister. She plays so well with Tyler and always wants to hold Bradley. I love that I can rely on Kylee to help entertain Tyler when I am busy.
• She is becoming a pretty good piano player, and I enjoy helping her practice every day.
• She loves soccer. LOVES soccer. She can't wait to start up again soon.
• Kylee wants to be a chef or a police officer when she grows up.
• Kylee really is one of the nicest kids I know. She is SO good. We really hit the jackpot with her.

Tyler is Two!

Happy happy birthday to Tyler! I can't believe it was just two years ago that Tyler joined our family. He has brought us so much happiness, laughter, frustration, and joy over the past couple years. We celebrated his birthday this weekend (and Kylee's) with a family birthday party and dinner at Red Robin.

Want to see what our little cutie has been up to lately? Get ready for photo overload!

• Tyler doesn't really talk much (as in he doesn't say very many words yet), but he does love to "sing". He especially likes songs with hand motions (The Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Popcorn Popping, etc).

• He also likes to dance!

• Tyler loves the iPad. And honestly, I am happy to let him have it (so much so that I thought about doing an entire post just on this topic). I do try to limit it, but it lets me take a shower, make dinner, or even blog :-) And you know what? He actually learns stuff when he watches the iPad. A couple of his favorite channels on YouTube are the Mother Goose Club and Pancake Manor. These channels are full of nursery rhymes, songs about colors/shapes, songs about animals and animal sounds, etc. I think watching some of these has spurred his love of music and dancing. His most recent YouTube love is Peppa Pig - he will watch those episodes over and over! Daniel Tiger is his favorite show on Netflix/Hulu, and I love it! Each show has a theme, such as sharing or "using your words" or trying new foods or calming down when you're angry, and has a little jingle to help you remember what you've learned. I will sing those jingles every now and then when Tyler needs a little reminder about something. Tyler also likes playing games - the Wombi games are some of his favorites (Wombi Ice Cream, Wombi Toys, and Wombi Detective). I think the Wombi Toys game taught him about matching because one part of it requires you to sort legos into the appropriate color bins. It prompted me to play other sorting games with him, like having him put the Go-Fish cards in stacks according to color. His favorite color is blue. He is becoming a little smarty pants. 

• Tyler also likes my phone, but I never let him play with it since he has been known to send text messages, call people, etc. :-) He did manage to get my phone a few times and take some selfies though (you can take pictures without unlocking the phone).

• His favorite food is pizza, but he also likes berries (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries), macaroni, chicken nuggets, popcorn, cereal, granola bars, soup (mushroom, cheddar broccoli) and anything sweet. Tyler hates getting his hands dirty, so always wants to eat with a fork or spoon. He has only gained about a pound in the last 6 months and weighs in around 24 pounds. He is tall and skinny making it hard to find pants that fit him. Not many pants at this age have the adjustable waist band, so he has still been wearing 12-18 month pants up until recently when I was tired of it looking like he was wearing capris. Now his pants just always fall down :-) We finally transitioned him off a bottle. He was only getting them when he went to bed, but I knew he didn't need them anymore. I just took them away one day, and he didn't complain at all. He does still like milk at bed, though, so he gets it in a sippy cup.

• Tyler thinks stickers are the greatest thing ever. He also likes to color and play with play dough. I just ordered a paint with water book - I know he'll love that too!

• He recently transitioned to a "big boy bed"... mostly because we needed the crib for Bradley! Tyler does well sleeping in it for naps and at night, but we still struggle with him getting out of bed a dozen times when we first put him down (even after several weeks). It's SO frustrating! 

• Tyler likes playing at the park. No, let me rephrase that... he LOVES playing at the park. I feel like I should take him every day. He would love it and it would be nice for him to get some energy out. Unfortunately, I don't take him super often because I have to deal with his fit throwing when it's time to leave. He has become quite the fit thrower and I don't know what to do about it! He throws fits whenever it's time to leave somewhere he wants to stay (the park, grandma's, etc). It's embarrassing and frustrating. I may have been known to bribe him with M&M's when it's time to leave. I do have hope, though. I remember Kylee used to throw fits when it was time to leave grandma's house, and now she's a little angel :-)

• Tyler loves his dad. One of his favorite songs is "I'm so Glad When Daddy Comes Home." He also thinks it's pretty cool to wear daddy's gloves, daddy's hat, daddy's shoes, etc.

• Tyler also loves Kylee. She is his best friend. He wants to do anything she is doing and have any toy she is playing with :-) He also loves riding in the "cars" at the grocery store!

• Tyler recently went to his first movie... he did really well for the first hour. After that? Well, let's just say I'm glad we were at the dollar theater and there weren't a lot of people there!

• Balls are some of Tyler's favorite toys. He always wants to kick, throw, or shoot a ball. I just have to remind him, when he tries to throw other toys, that "we only throw balls."

• Tyler thinks our new fish are pretty cool.

• Tyler gives the best hugs and kisses. He gives them out freely. He also gives kisses when he knows he has done something wrong. It is his way of saying he is sorry.

• Tyler still loves reading books. He especially loves the Pigeon books by Mo Willems.

I sure love this boy of mine. He is my best buddy and keeps me company during the day. I am looking forward to lots more learning and playing with him.