Happy New Year!

Sand Has Nutritional Value, Right?

Since Ty's hometown is on the central coast, we decided to show Kaylynn what Pismo Beach was all about.

Daddy and his special girl

Chilling on the pier with my girl.

It was very chilly and windy outside, so we couldn't put her feet in the water, but we did let her explore in the sand...and by explore, I mean eat.

I cringed at first and then figured, well, every kid eats sand, right? She really didn't seem to mind and kept on putting it in her mouth.

While visiting the central coast, I insisted that we stop by Buellton for some of Anderson's world famous pea soup. I must admit, it was rather tasty and even KK enjoyed it (lucky for her, it was pureed).

Oh how I love the Central Coast.

Dear Lottery God,

Please let me win the Millionaire Raffle on January 4th so that we may move to the beach. Thank you!

Sincerely,

Kirsten

Keeping Up

Over this past week, I feel like Kaylynn has grown so much! Here is what little miss KK can do:

-Clap her hands

-Stand all by herself (and then fall on her bum)

-Pull herself up and stand up in her crib and learning table

-Crawl like a mad woman!

-Call for "mama" and/or "dada" (and did so ALL night on Christmas Eve while she wasn't feeling well)

-Pinch her fingers (not sure that is a "trick" but she constantly has her thumb and pointer finger pinched together...not sure what that is about)

-Hold the bottle between her feet and feed herself (figured this out in the car ride home...now if we could only get a picture of it!)

-Another tooth!!! I think its the second left of the front tooth (either that or she is going to have big front teeth). The two front teeth are about to pop through and she is making sure that we are aware of how bad it hurts. :)

and...

-Throw temper tantrums! Aren't we lucky.

Lonna will be amazed at how much she has changed when she gets her back in January!

Next Up:

Finger Foods (hopefully...still not much progress from the crackers and pureed fruits/veggies) and couch surfing.

Stay tuned

Four Christmases

This holiday was absolutely crazy busy! We were all over California visiting with family and Kaylynn was lucky enough to get four Christmases!!!

Christmas #1
Who: My dad and stepmom
Location: Calabasas, CA
Loot:

Every one's gotta have a popper!

Christmas #2
Who: Ty's dad and stepmom
Location: Los Osos, CA
Loot:

Christmas #3
Who: My mom
Location: Yucca Valley, CA
Loot:

Our new tradition...sprinkling reindeer food out front on Christmas Eve (thanks Lonna!)

Christmas #4
Who: Mommy & Daddy/Aunt Shelly, Uncle Tom, Nick & Noah
Location: Phoenix, AZ/Warsaw, Poland
Loot:

Kaylynn was ridiculously spoiled this year for Christmas and we have more toys than we know what to do with. It's crazy to think she will be turning 1 in just a few weeks. My mom asked me what I wanted for Kaylynn's birthday and I said "diapers!!!" We have plenty of toys, that's for sure, and dang, diapers are getting expensive! I actually thought about celebrating her 1/2 birthday in July so that it's not so close to Christmas, but I wasn't sure if that was very realistic. Perhaps when she gets older.

We spent many hours driving over the past week, and although it was nice seeing everyone, it sure was exhausting! Kaylynn was very sick (and still is), so that just added to the stress. We might opt to stay home for Christmas next year and hope that everyone will come visit us (hint hint)!

All I Want for Christmas is a Canon Rebel

Ok, so we are still in California visiting family, but I had to sneak in a quick post. For Christmas this year, Santa got us a new camera!!! We are SO excited about it, but we have no clue how to use it. We want to take a photography class so that we can use the manual modes and "make" pictures as opposed to "take" pictures (in the words of the tutorial cd).

Kaylynn has been terribly sick this entire week. First it started with an ear infection in both ears and pink eye, now it's turned to a terrible barking cough and fever. Poor girl can't sleep at night so two times last night I had to turn on the hot shower, steam up the bathroom and sit in there with her, hoping that the congestion would break up. So needless to say, I'm exhausted!!

Once we get home and settled, I'll post some updates about all of our Christmases.

Grandma & Grandpa

Kaylynn just loves grandma & grandpa!

Savannah and Murphy (who just had surgery) also love Kaylynn (and all the food she drops on the floor!)

Fun in Calabasas

We are spending a couple days at my dad's house in Calabasas. The weather here is amazing, and unusually warm. Since it was such a nice day yesterday, we took Kaylynn to the park. Of course she had lots of fun, and, as usual, her favorite part was the swings!

Swinging with Daddy

Tire Swing

Big Girl Swing

She also had fun on all the slides...

...driving the car...

...and teeter totter.

We love the park!