Our New Dining Room

One of my favorite presents this year were some great additions to my unfinished dining room. As most of you know, Mikey and I love entertaining, so this room is very important to us. The dining room has been the only room in the house with out much in it since we moved in. We have been looking for the perfect curtains and accents, but hadn't found anything. Mom & Dad surprised me this Christmas with a bunch of fun stuff to complete my ideal dining room. I love all of it. Our table, chairs and china cabinet are more traditional, and as most of you know, I have very modern taste. We found the perfect modern accents to complete our perfect room.

Here are some pictures. We added silver dupioni silk curtains and stainless steel curtain rods on all six windows. We recovered the two extra chairs and put a runner in the middle of the table. We also got some super cute chargers and preset the table for decoration. It all came out so beautiful. I am so happy with it.

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!! We had such a wonderful day. Mom, Dad, and Mycah all came up on Christmas Eve. We went to 6pm Mass and took Kiley to church for the first time. She was such a good girl. She loved all of the singing and Father blessed her for the first time during communion. We woke up bright and early on Christmas morning. Santa brought us a lot of fun stuff. We ate French Toast for breakfast and then opened presents. Mom cooked an amazing Christmas Dinner, Prime Rib (my favorite). We had such a special holiday. Kiley definitely got spoiled on her first Christmas. Here are a few pictures (mostly of Kiley).

The 3 of us before we went to church (our first family Christmas picture).

Our Christmas Tree and all of our beautifully wrapped presents on Christmas Eve.

Kiley is able to support her own head. I put her in her Bumbo to sit up by herself. If you look closely, you can see her little socks that say My first Christmas.

This is another one of her Christmas outfits that she is wearing while she is taking another one of her naps.

Mycah and Mikey playing the WII, yes, Mycah is wearing Uggs with PJs. The Uggs were one of her favorite Christmas Presents.

The table set for our Christmas Dinner. We used the China and the Crystal.

Daddie put Kiley in her Christmas Stocking. It made for a super cute picture. She will be so big next Christmas and it will be fun to look back and tell her that she fit into her stocking on her first Christmas.

This last picture is just a super cute shot of her that I thought I would throw in. She is so adorable. She looks like she is thinking pretty hard. She is getting so big and growing out of clothes on a daily basis. She changes so much every day!

6 Weeks!!

Kiley is 6 weeks old today. I can't believe 6 weeks has already gone by. What a blur! I had my 6 week checkup today and everything went well. Kiley is getting bigger and more alert every day. I have been trying to get Kiley acquainted with her crib. I was putting her clothes away today and set her in her crib. Here is a video of her watching her mobile.

Kiley and Daddie having some play time in Kiley's room. She is starting to smile and Daddie is good at getting her to smile. She is wearing her little Christmas Onesie that Aunt Hilary got for her! Caris came to visit for the Cowboy Game. Caris was born 9 days after Kiley. Here is a picture of Kiley in her bouncer. She is getting so big and almost takes up the whole thing. I remember the first few pictures I posted of her, she looked so small.

Bittersweet

Today was Bittersweet for me. Mikey and Kiley came to work with me to pack up my things. Today is officially my last day of maternity leave. I have mixed feelings. I am sad to leave everyone at work. They are all so great and I will miss them very much. On the other hand, I cannot imagine going back to work on Monday. Kiley is still so young and little and I know that the best thing for me and our family is for me to stay home with Kiley. I am so blessed to have this opportunity and will cherish every moment. Kiley changes so much every day, I love spending every waking moment with her.

She was such a good girl. She was asleep when we first got there. I went to go meet with HR and Mikey stayed with Kiley and packed up my office. When I got back, she was wide awake with a dirty diaper. Mikey entertained her until I got back and she didn't cry one bit. I had to change her on the cart that we were using to move all my stuff =). Once she had a clean diaper, she was bright eyed and full of smiles. Everyone loved her! As you can see, she was very interested in seeing everyone. I think she remembers all of their voices from meetings when she was in my tummy. Elois is on the far left, she was on my team, Birgit is in the middle, she is our HR Rep, and Peter on the right was my boss. I am so glad everyone got to meet her!

Santa Baby

Today Kiley got to go to Daddie's work and meet Santa!! Northwestern does this every year. All of the agent's and staff's children get to come up to the office and meet Santa. Santa gives each child 2 gifts. One to keep and then we donate one to a child in need. This was our first year to attend and it was so much fun. There was tons of food, carollers singing in the lobby, a guy making balloon animals and of course Santa! Kiley fell asleep in the car on the way to Mikey's office and slept through the whole adventure. She was a very good girl. At least we have pictures for her to see!!

Kiley is all bundled up and ready to go!


Kiley and Daddie in his office.


A pretty picture on the board in the conference room where the party was.


Santa and all of the kids.


Kiley, Mommy, Robin & Caris. Caris was born 9 days after Kiley!!


We saved the best for last...Kiley's first picture with Santa!!

O Christmas Tree

It is really starting to feel like Christmas now. We have been a little preoccupied with our new addition. She keeps us pretty busy. Last weekend, we also got our Christmas Tree. Mom stayed with Kiley while Mikey and I went to pick it out. We think we picked out a great one this year. Mikey was glad that I wasn't pregnant anymore and could actually help carry it! It is the perfect size and fullness. It took me and Kiley a couple days to decorate it, but we finished and it is beautiful. It even has presents under it now. I have finished all of our shopping and our wrapping.
On Saturday of this past weekend, we celebrated Christmas with the Bairds since they left for Florida on Sunday. They really surprised us this year with our gift. We had about 5 presents to unwrap and they had a specific order. We had no clue what they were up to. We opened the first gift together and it was a WII!! We were so surprised and so excited. We had wanted one, but knew we wouldn't spend the money ourselves. They also got us all of the extra stuff to go along with it. We played all day Saturday and Sunday. It is so much fun. We will definitely have to have some WII parties! Kiley got some money for her college fund. It is crazy to think how much her college will be, probably more than a house costs. We definitely need to start saving now! Thanks so much for a wonderful start to Christmas Grammy and Grampy!

Christmas Cookies!

Last weekend (yes, I am a little behind), we introduced Kiley to a Christmas Tradition that we have been doing for years with the Kroh's. All of the girls get together and bake Christmas cookies. This year, we did it at our house. Here are some pictures! I realized that there aren't any pictures of Mom. She must have been taking all of the pictures. She worked hard in the kitchen too. Also, shout out to Tricia, we missed you! I hope you got some of our yummy cookies.

Melissa, Cheri and Mycah working hard on their Christmas Treats.

Kiley supervised from her swing. She is wearing her Christmas Onesie that Aunt Tamra got her. She was such a good girl all day. It looks like she is hungry smelling all of the baking cookies.

Cheri teaching Jordyn how to use the cookie cutters. Jordyn made Christmas Trees, Bells and Gingerbread Boys.

This is a picture of me using my expensive mixer that we got for the wedding. I had to prove to Mikey that I did use it =). It was awesome. It does all of the hard work.

1 Month Onesie Picture

Here is her one month old onesie picture that I promised. I can't believe how much she has changed. The onesie is still super big, but she has changed so much in her face! The left is her newborn picture on the right is her one month old picture.

Kiley is 1 Month Old!!

Kiley is 1 month old today! We can't believe how much she has grown. She is making eye contact with us and trying to use her sweet little voice to talk to us. (By talk I mean little coo's and ahhh's.) She has been such a good girl. We are so lucky and blessed to have her. We love her so much. Here are some pictures that we took of her after her bath today. I promise to post her "onesie" picture tomorrow!

First Night Out

Tonight was our first night out after becomming parents. We went to the Northwestern Mutual Christmas Party. I am rather proud of myself and felt that I did really well leaving my precious angel for an entire evening. She had been awake since 11am this morning. This was a good thing and a bad thing. I was worried about why she couldn't go to sleep all day, but I knew that once she did fall asleep, she would sleep really good. She was wide awake when we left, but not crying, so that was good. We even had time for a family picture. Mom and Mycah stayed with her. They fed her two whole bottles, (again, Miss Piglet) and she finally fell asleep and is still sleeping. Of course we talked about her all night, but it was still fun to get out and enjoy eachother.

Kiley's First Bottle!!

Last night Kiley took her first big girl bottle. Mikey and I have his company Christmas Party on Friday and we needed to make sure she would take a bottle before we left her with Mom to feed her. She was hesitant at first and I had to trick her with the real deal, but then she took to the bottle like a champ. She downed all of it in no time. She ate over 3 ounces and then still wanted more, so I am going to have to get busy and stock up before tomorrow night! We have a little miss piglet on our hands. She is a growing girl.

Pajama Party

I guess Mikey and I were a little jealous of Kiley and all of her cute little onesie outfits with feet that keep her warm. We were at Target the other day and found onesies for ourselves and we couldn't resist. At book club last night Mikey and I were telling the girls about this and they could not believe it, so I thought I would post a picture of our last pajama party! I know you are getting quite a laugh out of our silly picture, but don't knock it until you try it. They are so warm and comfortable. They will keep us warm all winter long!