Catching up--PRAISES, SNOW, HAIRCUTS, CHRISTMAS

First and foremost, I have some AMAZING news! If you remember from a post in April (click HERE to read the post) my friend, Kristi, was diagnosed with lymphoma. For the past nine months, basically since Kyler was born, she has been doing treatments, both chemo and radiation. Last Thursday, on Kyler's 9 month bday, she had some amazing news! She is cancer free!!!! It's all gone! God is so good! Her faith has totally brought her through and all of the prayers said on her behalf have truly helped her do treatments faster, more aggressively, and with fewer side effects than most people. It's so awesome and amazing to see how God has truly had His hand in this. It's hard for me to understand how people can continually turn a cold shoulder/blind eye to Christ when we have real, tangible examples of Him like how He has worked in Kristi's life! Thank you, God! And CONGRATULATIONS, Kristi!

Okay, on to my simple little life! But the life I love!

We have had only one significant snow this year and we made sure to try and enjoy it!

Pardon the pink pants on Kyler. We don't have a ton of snow playing gear for him so he had to suffice with some of his sister's stuff!!!!! :)

And Kyler's bangs were getting way too long! So, I trimmed them up! Nothing more, just so they wouldn't be poking him in the face! But it looked okay and he did great!

Here is Ky in the reindeer outfit Lisa and Jeremy let us borrow this Christmas. Brodie wore it his first Christmas and I love that Kyler got a chance to wear it too! Thanks!

We did our traditional trip to Wayne to have Christmas with my grandparents but got to do it a little earlier than usual this year. Here is my grandparents with their eight great-grandchildren!

I love how you cannot get a decent picture of all those kids. Kyler was being the biggest stinker and Leah was trying to run away! So cute!

And we added in their grandchildren. Three grandchildren were missing, but here are the other 12 of us. Apparently Kyler and I were busy looking at Grace....:)

This is still at Wayne. I love this picture of Leah and Kyler. They're so close in age I hope they become good buddies!

Christmas morning in their new outfits, ready for church!

My two handsome men!

Mama and baby girl!

I'll try to keep this more updated, but between work, house, and kids, no promises! Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Kyler is 9 months!

Here we go again! You keep getting older, you sweet, sweet boy!

I love you so much! You've really started showing your personality, which is sweet, shy, and a little on the whiny/momma's boy side. I'm okay with that right now! You are so funny and I just can't get enough of that chubby little face!

You are so physical and love to be moving around. Here is a picture of you doing your tripod thing. You get up on your hands and feet and look like you're going to bear crawl.

You love to be standing and use whatever you can to walk around the house. You usually use Mack's dog kennel as your walker, but this day you walked around the kitchen with the stool.

And here's one of those rare moments when you actually sleep! You are so sweet and cute!

This picture was taken on 12/22/2011, the day you actually turned 9 months. I love you Kyler!

At 9 months you love to crawl ALL over and even try to crawl away when I tell you to come here. You think it's so funny when I run after you and scoop you up. You just giggle and giggle!

You feed yourself. You love to eat anything and everything, and that's the norm. I'm still nursing you, but you love your solid food.

You still will NOT take a bottle, but you love the sippy cup!

You are now saying, "Mama!" I love it since Grace said dada first. I pushed Mama on you and now that's all you say!

You always want your mommy. I'm sure that will change someday.

You just seem to be growing up so fast! It's truly sad as you just keep doing more and more every day. You have four teeth right now and another one is about to pop through!

Here are the stats from the 9 month appointment:

Weight: 22lbs 13 oz--91st percentile

Length--28 3/4 inches--64th percentile

Head--18 3/8 inches--90th percentile

Oh, Kyler, next time I do this you will be a year! Makes me sad and proud at the same time!

Any similarities?

Okay, so we all know Dustin and Kyler look just like each other. But do Grace and I????

Here is a picture I found of me. I don't know exactly how old I was, but I am guessing I was somewhere near the age Grace is now. Here is my pic and then Grace. I see some similarities, which makes me happy! Of course, it's not like we're twins or anything, but it's nice to see a little bit of me in her!

Some of my favorites this past month...

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the last month with some of my favorite people!!!

Brodie and Grace at my family's Thanksgiving....

Please note how sweet they are! This was NOT posed. They were in one of the back bedrooms watching TV together and were just holding hands. LOVE this picture!

Leah and Kyler at Thanksgiving. Kyler was not so happy....

Watching the train go around and around and around....

Grace & Kyler with Santa!!!



In their box car!

Getting to spend some time with sweet cousin Lane!

Showing off how big he is standing up in his crib!

What a proud, sweet smile on his face!

Month by month

Okay, I should be working, but this seemed like more fun to me! I've been wanting to put a side by side of the kids and their ages. I'm hoping I got these pictures right. I didn't date them as well as I should have so we'll see. I wanted to see how similar they looked at each month. But, I'm missing month two in here, but we'll get the idea!!!

Grace's pictures will be on the top--Kyler on the bottom

Newborn:

One month

Three months

Four months

Five months

Six months

Seven months

I definitely see some similarities, but they are very different! I think if you put Kyler's 5 month and Grace's 7 month picture together, I can definitely see more similarities than trying to compare them when they were at the same age. But, Kyler is way bigger and was full term whereas Grace was premature.

Either way, I think they're both beautiful and love them to pieces!

Halloween 2011

Grace and Kyler have been sick, and I mean, SICK, for the last two weeks. They did not get to go to a pumpkin patch this year as a result, which was VERY disappointing! So, I'm glad they were mostly better for trick or treating!

Since they were sick, I made them take a nap before they could go out. :)

Grace is obsessed with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. So, she wanted to be Mickey! (She has chosen boy costumes the last two years in a row. She was Pablo the Penguin from the Backyardigans last year. Hopefully Kyler will want to be them some day!)

Since Kyler can't eat candy yet, we had him go as a bumblebee, which Grace was two years ago. She was 17 months old when she wore it HERE.

Mr. Kyler is only 7 months old wearing it. :) Big man!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Pumpkin 2011

Poor Grace is too sick to go to the pumpkin patch this year. This is a major disappointment since we've been looking forward to it and talking about it for a month now. :(

So, to try to make up for it a little, we got a pumpkin yesterday and carved it. That cheered her spirits a bit.

Grace and Kyler checking things out. Poor Kyler just had to observe this year. Next year buddy!

Kids by the finished product!

All lit up!

Leah's 1!!!!!

Happy Birthday Miss Leah!!!!

She turned one on October 25! Kyler and I could not attend her birthday party as he was recovering from croup, so we sent Dustin and Grace to party for us!

Grace with her new cousin, Lane

I heard Miss Leah was dainty with her cake. Don't blame her--cute cake!



Happy, Happy, Happy 1st birthday Leah! I am so sad I could not be there!