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.