Lots of Catching Up to Do

I realize I've been pretty slack about keeping up with my blog. There just never seem to be enough hours in the day, and before I know it I've lost weeks. Tylie is growing up so fast, and I'm not doing her any justice by keeping her sweetness to myself. Therefore, here are a few of my favorite and most recent pictures of her.

Five months old already! (Of course, this was almost a month ago, I just never got around to posting it...and the lighting didn't really work great...I need a studio!)

Bundled up for a walk on our unbelievable snow day. She loved looking around at the beautiful scenery.

Sitting up all by herself in the tub (sink) the other night. I swear she just wakes up some days and decides she wants to do new things, and then she does them!

This is when I propped her in front of the sliding glass door during a snow storm so she could watch the flakes fall. She enjoyed it quite a bit.

This was her first feeding from a spoon. It was a few weeks ago, and it was so much fun! She's been watching us eat for a while, so we decided to let her have a go at it. She loved it! She kept grabbing my hand and pulling it toward her mouth, and then she would open up wide and chomp down repeatedly. It was really funny, and so grown up!

A Christmas Day Miracle!!! (only a few months late)

When they predicted it, we scoffed. When they cancelled school an hour early, we laughed out loud. And then it came...and came....and came....

Tylie and I went for a walk in the morning to enjoy the sight, and we're lucky we did. It wasn't more than a couple hours later that it was almost completely gone! Brent and I never thought that Tylie's first snow would be here in sunny South Carolina!

dobronamjernost

In celebration of Keshia's mission call (and in mourning for her leaving us to return home to Idaho) Keesh, Brent, and I spent the morning making sauteed bread puffs. I found the recipe online when I was searching for Croatian food, and the site said that they made these bread puffs fresh for visitors to wish them good will. They were delicious! Tasted a lot like cinnamon-and-sugar toast and french toast. We figure if these are the kinds of things she'll have to eat while she's out, she's in good shape!

When we were done, and after one last game of Hand and Foot, Tylie and I drove Keshia to the airport and said goodbye. It was a sad moment!

Dobronamjernost Keeshie, for everything exciting coming up in your life. Pohvala on your call to Slovenia/Croatia...you'll be a čudesan missionary! We are definitely going to miss you around here...

Christmas 2009

I love when it's time to begin Christmas festivities. When we were putting up our tree this year, Tylie got to help! She added her very own first ornament, given to her by Grandpa Duke. She loved it!

We went to our ward Christmas party a couple weeks ago. Lots of food and friends, a great musical program, and of course a visit by Santa Claus. Tylie got really tired half way through the musical program, so we searched high and low to track down Santa (sitting outside in his car because he was burning up in his heavy outfit) and got a picture early so we could take her home and put her to bed. She wasn't scared of him or anything! I guess that will probably come later, though, when she's a year or two...

This is Tylie's very first Christmas present! It came from Grandpa Duke, and he wanted us to open it early, so she dug in. She was, of course, fascinated with the wrapping paper, and not so much with the dress....she'll look darn cute in it though!

Christmas morning, getting ready to open presents. Wow, can you tell she's spoiled? Two sets of grandparents, an aunt and uncle, mom and dad, great grandma, and friends all made sure she had plenty to do!

Cute face!

All of us opening presents. Thanks everyone!

The aftermath. This is one kind of mess I actually enjoy a little bit....
Tylie after resting a little bit this morning. Such a sweetheart!

Crafting fun...

Keshia and I have been getting our craft on lately. We made these wicked-cool Christmas pillow cases for my brother Michael and his mission companion...had a lot of fun doing it, and feel pretty proud about how they turned out. He's in Switzerland, so we crafted a Swiss flag for them:

I also needed to get a stocking made for our new addition, Tylie. I found pattern I liked, picked out fabric, and completed the project over a stretch of three days. Here's the finished product, and a picture of all our random stockings hanging together....we're just one happy, mismatched family this year!

Ahhh...I love Chrismas vacation when I actually have time to work on these kinds of things. I could craft all day long!

4 Months Old!!

Tylie is four months old now! Wow, how time flies. She still lights up every day of our lives, especially now that she's constantly smiling, giggling, and exerting all of her energy to learn new things. She is a mellow, happy baby, and we're so lucky to have her! Here are a couple of my favorite pics.

More Milestones

So we're all sitting around watching television on Tuesday night, and Tylie makes this really cute coo/giggle sound. We all look at each other, and then smile because we know she's beginning to work on her laughing. (And Brent said that while Keshia and I were in Virginia over the weekend, Tylie had giggled for him a little bit...so her very first giggle was November 7). Then, I start tickling her, and she is laughing out of control....when did all of this develop?!? She's growing up so fast! I'm afraid she's going to be acting like a teenager by the time she's 6 years old! She lights up my life every single day, and I feel continually blessed to have her in our family.