Merry Christmas!!!

Love,

Kyler

Getting Our Christmas Tree

I (Ashley) have always had a real Christmas tree growing up, so that is something I have wanted to continue with my family. For as long as I can remember, the weekend after Thanksgiving we have driven up to the Volga Valley Tree Farm east of Sumner and picked out a Christmas tree. Since Erik and I have gotten married and have our own house, we have continued this tradition and this year was no exception! The Sunday after Thanksgiving we headed up to the tree farm with my parents and brother to pick out our Christmas tree. They have hand-made wreaths and garland too that you can buy. Here are some pictures from this annual event and Kyler's first Christmas tree picking excursion!

All bundled up ready to go look!

My dad and Ben with their tree!

Us with our tree!

8 Months Old!

Kyler is 8 months old today! Our little man is growing and changing every day. These past couple of days he has started making this new noise, I don't even know how to describe it, he sounds like a dinosaur or something, it's deep in his throat. Every time he does it Erik and I just have to laugh! Kyler has become much more vocal this month. He is starting to talk more and for longer periods of time. He will babble and say ah-dah-dah-ba-ba-ba-ba just while he sits on the floor and plays. He throws in a "ma-ma-ma-ma" every now and then too, but he doesn't know what he's saying yet! :)

We keep working on the food thing. He is doing really well with cereal, he is actually wanting to eat it now and is doing pretty well keeping it in his mouth. We have also tried carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, pears, and some bites of banana. He seems to like the sweet potatoes the best. I tried to give him carrots again tonight for dinner but he had no desire to eat them. He also loves to drink out of a sippy cup. His favorite thing to drink is water, we have given him diluted white grape juice too, which he also likes.

Kyler is working on crawling, but he's not there yet. He rolls over all the time and then once he gets to his belly he just wants to go. He gets frustrated VERY easily. A couple times he has gotten up on all fours for a few seconds but that's about it. Usually he ends up rolling over to his side because he is mad. He also scoots backwards whenever he tries to crawl.

Kyler's personality is really starting to come out. Tonight at the dinner table he would sit there and go "Ahhhh" really loud. Then Erik will do it back to him and he will do it again. He just kept yelling and making different noises, very loudly. It's funny because whenever I take him to the grocery store or Walmart everyone always comments how quiet and relaxed he is....if they only saw him at home! :)

Sleeping is still not going the greatest. After Thanksgiving, Kyler quit taking good naps during the day. He will sleep for like a half hour and then when he is rocked back to sleep as soon as you lay him down he wakes up-no matter how long you rock him. So....we are working on him putting himself to sleep in his crib... :)

Well that's all for this month, can't wait to see what the next month brings! Our little man may be on the move by then!

Merry Christmas!

When I get tired of eating food...I just chew on my bib! :)

Big boy!

Reading books with mommy

Daddy thought I needed some lotion to look like war paint... :)

Kyler ALWAYS tries to take his hat off. One night when I got home from the Wednesday night meal at church, I opened the van to see him like this! I laughed pretty hard.

All bundled up for probably the last walk of the year

Chillin' in the bath tub

Happy boy!

Working on crawling!

Sweet boy :)

Thanksgiving 2009

We had a great 1st Thanksgiving with Kyler! It started on Wednesday night when we drove to Des Moines to pick up Ludivine. Ludivine is from France and I met her my junior year of high school when we did an exchange program through our schools. I spent two weeks at her house in France, and then she came to Iowa and spent two weeks living with me. We have kept in tough ever since and this semester, she is studying through her French university at Georgia Tech. She wanted to come and visit me and my family while she was here in the U.S., and it worked out that she could come for Thanksgiving! It was so great to see her again and have her spend the weekend with me and my family.

On Thursday we had lots of great food! We went over to my parent's house for lunch and celebrated with my mom's side of the family. There were 25 people there!! It was crazy, but great to have all of our family together. Then, for dinner we went to Erik's parent's house and celebrated with some of his dad's side of the family. By the end of the day, we were so full, but very thankful for so many things this past year!! Below are some photos from the day!

Kyler hanging out with my cousin, Angie, and my grandma.

Ludivine, Erik, and I eating dinner.

Kyler hanging out with Grandpa.

Ludivine, Erik, Kyler, and I before dinner.

Kyler is 7 months old!

Kyler turned 7 months old today!  He had his 6 month checkup a few weeks ago and weighed 18lbs 2oz and was 27 inches long, which is right at the 50th percentile for weight and just over the 50th percentile for his height.  He has definitely changed over the past month.  I was looking at pictures to put up on the blog and noticed how much his sitting has improved!  He is sitting up like a champ now and will sit and play on the floor for quite a while now.  I still usually put a pillow behind him though because he occasionally gets distracted by trying to reach for a toy that is too far behind him and he ends up face-planting on the floor. :)  The other thing he is doing is rolling over all the time!  I mentioned last month that he was only rolling over sometimes, well he does it all the time now, but only to his left side.  He rolls all the way over onto his right side, but then stops and won't go over onto his tummy.  He hasn't quite figured out how to get up onto his knees yet, he pushes himself up really far with his arms and has even scooted himself backwards a few times, but he can't get his belly off the floor yet, maybe by next month!  He still doesn't like to eat cereal very much, but we have been trying some carrots and tonight he seemed to like them the most, every other time he has taken one bite and then closed his mouth to any more spoonfuls.  I have been making my own baby food, so that has been something fun to do.  I think we are going to try peas next.  He has also liked drinking out of a sippy cup.  I have just put a little water in it-nothing too exciting-but he has liked it.  I think he is working on some teeth too; he has been drooling A LOT and chewing on everything constantly.  Plus, his nights went from okay to bad, so hopefully they pop through soon so we can go back to getting some more sleep! :)  Here are some pictures from the last month!

Sucking on his toes...wish I was that flexible!

He started out here...

and ended up here!!

Chillin' with dad

Look how far up I am!

Hanging out with Lauren!

All dressed up with his friends! (Madi Hoffert, Ayden Williams, and Denver Nelson)

Our little pumpkin!

I don't know if you can tell...but Erik put Kyler's toys inside his sleeper... :)

Sitting up big!

Our little panther!!

Chilln' with the pumpkins!  He was more interested in them than looking at me!

HI!!!

6 Months Old!!

Kyler is 6 months old today!!  It's hard to believe that half a year has passed since he was born.  Kyler has been doing well!  Over the past month he has really started to understand that his hands are attached to his body.  He is reaching out to grab toys, your face, and anything else he sees that he wants all the time-it has been fun to watch him start to learn this skill.  The other thing he loves doing right now is putting his feet in his mouth.  It's crazy how flexible he is that he is able to do that, but he can and he does it a lot (even in the bath tub!) :).  We are working on sitting, he hasn't quite mastered that yet, but he does pretty well if he sits in the middle of a boppy pillow, he will play with his toys for a little while.  The other thing he wants to do all the time is stand!  He only rolls over sometimes, I think he's going to skip the crawling stage and go strait to walking-we will see!  We have also been trying some cereal.  We tried it once a couple weeks ago for the first time, and have been doing it more the past few days.  Kyler is not sure he likes it...maybe he will do better with the fruits and veggies?  Here are some pictures from the past month, enjoy!

I am 6 months old today!!

I'm not so sure about this cereal business...

Go Panthers!!

All bundled up for a walk.

We may be seeing the end of our days in the swing... :)

Riding on Dad's shoulders!

:)

Hanging with Mom!

Hmmmm....he LOVES to stick out his tongue! (Thanks Dad! :)

Tummy time

5 Months Old!

Kyler turned 5 months old on Saturday!!  He still loves to be outside, we usually go on a walk every day in the afternoon.  Kyler has started to laugh, which is really funny; the best way to get him to laugh is when he is really tired and Erik tickles him.  I think he is working on getting some teeth, we haven't seen any yet, but he is drooling a lot and chewing on his fingers all the time.  He can sit propped up but still falls over without any support.  He kicks his legs and wants to be on the move all the time.  Once he figures out how to go, there will be no stopping him!!  He has also started playing with his feet-he even tries to put them into his mouth.  We are sure enjoying time with our growing, changing little boy!  Here are some  pictures of the things we have been doing in the last month.

Kyler in his stroller getting ready to go on a walk.

Sitting in his new booster seat that Grandma Deb got him.  (I liked this picture because it looks like he's reading a book) :)

Big boy! :)

Happy baby! :)

Chillin' in the bathtub

Sleeping in our bed...he likes this WAY too much!

Celebrating Erik's birthday (notice the look on Kyler's face as he looks at the cake...) :)

Playing in his saucer.

Smile! :)