Kalia's 1st Christmas

Kalia's 1st Christmas Eve

Playing in the Snow!

So Dan took my car to work today...it is the snow car...so Kalia and I were stranded at home! So Auntie Jennifer came over, and we took Kalia out in the snow for the first time to play!

Getting ready to go out in the snow in the cute Pooh Bear winter coat Grandma and Grandpa Jane bought her.

Sitting in the snow for the first time!
Having fun...Auntie Jennifer is making sure she doesn't fall over!Laying down to make her first snow angel!

Kalia's snow angel!

Touching snow...the part you didn't see was she cried right afterwards.Auntie Jennifer and Kalia in the snow!Kalia's footprints in the snow!The three of us!

This One is for the Shepherd's!!

So it has been snowing the this week on and off and very COLD!! Jeff and Renee grew up in Seattle, but are now in Vegas, so I thought I would take some beautiful pictures of the cold snow for them. So now I have two school snow days to make up, and Dan has the day off. I know you get some snow in the mountains, but in this snow roads have been closed, people have pulled their cars over to the side of the road, and many businesses are closed. I hope you guys enjoy this! I know Kalia has enjoyed her first snow.

Kalia Visits Santa!!

So today...most of the school districts were closed due to the "Threat of Snow" the news said. We were scheduled to get snow around noon today...well let's just say it is 1:57, warm, wet, and there is still no snow. Buy anyhow, I decided today would be a great day to get Kalia's Santa pictures done. Since my friend Sharon is also a teacher, her school district was closed as well, so she came over to help me out. We headed to Kenmore to the Lake Forest Park shopping mall...they have the old Fredrick Nelson's Santa setup there and there was no wait. Waiting to see her first picture was also my mom, dad, and sister as well. To get Kalia to smile, we packed her bumble bee finger puppet and were off.

As soon as I got there I changed Kalia into her outfit, and she did an awesome job! She smiled and everything! No tears...she even played with his beard too. I brought the camera to video tape it, and I was able to get her initial reaction to Santa, however, for some reason, the camera was more full then I thought, so we weren't able to get as many pictures as I had hoped. My sister is putting her on his lap, and I am armed with a bumble bee to make her smile! Santa did ask my parents if they wanted to come up and get a picture taken with their grandchild and Santa with our camera.....I was thinking what about mommy. However, Santa said that she probably wouldn't get another chance to have pictures done with grandma and grandpa. So plan on seeing the REAL Santa pictures when they come next week, and until then, here is the video and some pictures to tide you over...they aren't the greatest, but they work. Happy Holidays everyone!!

Kalia's First Bite of Food!

Yes...I know I haven't posted Kalia's First Thanksgiving pictures....but things have been crazy! However, we have been practicing the use of spoon with Kalia, and on Wednesday, I decided to give her some rice cereal for the first time. She has been doing so good eating her drop of practice water off the spoon, that I thought she would do great with rice cereal. The doctor had recommended we don't give her cereal until 6 months...but we are almost there and everyone else has started at 4 or 5 months. Watch the video to see how it went...lets just say, she probably doesn't need to have food for a while...I don't think she will miss it.

Happy Turkey Time!! Kalia is 5 months Next Week!

Hi everyone...we have been busy the past couple of weeks. Ever since Kalia's dedication she has been growing and getting bigger everyday. She loves her Jumperoo and loves to jump around in it and spin all the toys...we will have a video soon! She loves to sit up all the time with some help...she even holds on to our fingers and pulls herself up! This week however, she has gotten even bigger. I took her to the Picture People to get her turkey pictures taken/5 month pictures take...yes she will be 5 months on the 25th. During the sitting she sat up all by herself! I was so proud of her. On Monday she worked all day long on touching her toes and was constantly grabbing them, then she rolled over to the side and was working very hard on getting on to her tummy. On Tuesday morning while I was on the phone, she turned over on her tummy all by herself, and finally today she went from her back to her tummy and then back onto her back! She is just so big!! She also has been sleeping in her crib for the past couple of nights...of course with me on the floor! She wasn't getting much sleep and was waking up every hour, then the next night every 15 minutes...so we are trying to rule out some things like...is she teething, is she ready for a crib...does she need more in her tummy at night like rice cereal? She seems to do well in her crib,and that has helped, but goodness she is a loud sleeper and she moves around in circles at night! Thank goodness for Halo Sleep Sacs...or else she would have her feet through the bars too! Anyhoo! That is an update. We have some videos we will be posting soon! Happy turkey time! Oh, I forgot, click on the link to check out the rest of the pictures from the sitting! http://smilestore.picturepeople.com/my/images?tk=418793a1-aa88-4950-ac84-6f9cc20df873

Halloween!

I bet you weren't expecting those pictures to pop up right when you loaded our webpage wanting to see how Kalia is doing, did you? :) Here's the story:

So, for those of you who don't know, I play a character named Gordo Finkenhoffer in our Church's drama production called "KidStuf"; it's where "kids bring their parents to church." The last play, Gordo was in a "try-try again-athlon" in whice he had to wear a ridiculous workout outfit. It was so ridiculous...that I decided to wear it again for Halloween :)

Ok, now what you came here to see. Below are a couple of pictures of K when Michelle brought her to my work to show her off. Super cute!

Dedication Part 2-More Pictures!

Here are some more pictures...Here is the table with her cake little mini brownies my sister did and yummy sugar cookies that my sister's sister-in-law did,

Here is a full length picture of Kalia with her dress on. The dress was actually the same dress I wore when I was baptised..my mom made the whole dress and sewed all the little embellishments on it. The new additions to the dress include little satin shoes I got from a friend and my mom made Kalia a bib to match her dress.

Daddy and Kalia after the dedication!

There is Kalia in her dress with her Angel doll my mom gave her....she likes chewing on it. In addition, Kalia got a lot of wonderful very precious gifts. Check back and I will have another picture of those posted soon!

Everyone who was there....except my friend Sharon who had to leave early and my friend Xenia who was kind enough to stay with the cake table. She along with my sister served all the cake and "manned" the dessert table! We appreciate everyone showing up and being there to support us and Kalia! Thank you! For those of you who couldn't make it...we missed you!

Kalia's two "Fairy Godmothers" -Dan's sister Jennifer and my sister April. It was important to us that Kalia have to strong women who will stand by her and help guide her in life. They also love Kalia so much...there isn't a thing they wouldn't do for her.

Kalia's certificate of dedication! Our friend Amy does all the artsy stuff at church and did an awesome job on the certificate...she even made in brown and pink...her bedroom colors! Amy also took all the pictures today!

Here is a picture of Kalia's yummy cake!

Kalia is Dedicated and Turns 4 Months!

Today Kalia was dedicated to God at our church. For those of you who don't understand the differnece between dedication, batismal, and christening...it is simple. Dedication is the cermony of dedicated a child to God...essentially giving the child back to God. Baptism is a ceremony in which someone chooses on their own to follow God. Although in both ceremonies a child is sprinkled with water. Later in life, if Kalia chooses, and when she is ready, she can make the choice on her own to be baptised and make a commitment on her own to follow God. Right now we are making the commitment that as parents we will help her to follow God and set a good example. As of today, Kalia is officially a child of God. In combination, Kalia also turned 4 months yesterday!! Yeah...already she is trying to sit up on her own! Here is a picture of us along with Kalia's Godmother's and her grandparents in the front of the church.

Here is the picture they had up on the screen during her dedication.

Pastor Steve and Kalia...she only cried for a second...she sees him every Sunday....I don't know what her deal was! The really cool thing is that Pastor Steve just married us three years ago in August!!

The big family up front...hey look there is our friend Tyler's sleeve in the plaid!!

The three of us after the ceremony. Kalia was such a good girl!!

We have one more entry of pictures-so check that out too!!

We Hope your Pumpkin Day is as Sweet as Ours!!!

Last week Kalia had her pictures taken with her Halloween costume. She was having such a tough day! She was crying and whining. We went and met up with her friend Sadie who got her pictures taken right before Kalia. While Kalia was crying, Sadie just kept staring at her trying to figure what her problem was....so was I. To get the few smiles we did, I had to jump up and down! My friend Angela was doing the same thing. Can you guess what she is...it is something sweet!! Even though she gave us such a hart time during her pictures she still a sweet little baby! Click on the link to see the pictures!
http://smilestore.picturepeople.com/my/images?cg=207294587118471447

SFC RockBand Night!

On Friday night we had as many of our friends from Seattle Family Church over to play RockBand! As you can see, the adults got into it just as much as the kids did! It was a great time - thanks to Michael, Elizabeth, Aaron, Caleb, Jacob, Ashley, Travis, Emily, Catherine (I think), Dianna, Madison, Tyler and Amy for making it over. We had a blast...it was the first night in a LONG time that Michelle and I stayed up past 8:30pm :)

Four Months!

Hey there! Remember us?

Sorry it's been so long since we've put up a posting last. As Kalia has gotten bigger, she's a bit more of a handful to take care of during the day, so Michelle hasn't had the time to keep our site going. With me being the only person working...yah...enough said :)

Anyway, enough of the excuses - above is a current picture of our little angel. She'll turn 4-months this Saturday! Time is flyyyyyyyyyying by. Her four month shots are tomorrow...can't wait. If they were anything like her two-month shots, she'll cry for 10 minutes, fall asleep, then be in pain all of the next day. WOO HOO!

Kalia is doing awesome. Here are a few things she's doing:

* She's starting to lean up to sit up and can stay there for a little bit on her own
* She LOVES it when you make froggy (ribbit) noises
* You can say just about anything (i.e. Hi.) to her from 7am - 10am and she will bust out laughing. You can say that same thing to her from 6pm - 8pm and she'll fall asleep.
* If you set some toys out in front of her, she'll work on grabbing them and will snag one eventually - as with everything else in sight...she'll then cram it in her mouth
* The last two nights - she slept for 10-hours straight!

I think that's it - I'm sure I'm missing something. She's growing so fast!

We promise that we'll get posts up faster from now on. We're starting to get the hang of things, so we'll make sure you stay with us as she grows up.

Until next time!