"Sometimes, life's challenges are tough to deal with. You will succeed if you focus your thoughts on how to overcome the challenge."
Christmas
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Alivia's First Thanksgiving
So here we are following the first of the holidays! It never ceases to amaze me how quickly time goes...a 1/4 of the way through December already and Alivia is nearing 4 months!
What's gone on since our last post? Our weekends continue to be as crazy as they were pre-Alivia so it's hard to keep track of it all. We had a Kern family get-together on 11/12 where Alivia was able to meet her Aunts/Uncles/Cousins from the Kern side, many for the first time. The following weekend we traveled to Aunt Becca and Uncle Brian's house to stay for a night while Aunt Becca had a scope done. We played with Meliah on Friday until they got home from the procedure. We then continued to Villisca to see Great Grandma and Great Grandpa for a short visit. They love to see her and Great Grandpa even got to hold her at his own request! : ) After our visit we traveled even more down to Nana and Papa's house for the night and Mommy and Daddy left Saturday while Liv had an overnight with Nana, Papa, and Ashleigh while we went to a concert with Brandon, Jenny, and Allison where we met up with Katie & Erika on Saturday night then the Baptism class on Sunday to prepare for Liv's baptism that we are planning in January. We were very anxious to pick her up on Sunday and get home after yet another looong weekend for peanut! : ( She has become quite the trooper in being shuffled all over...she is learning the ways of our hectic lifestyle!
We ended our weekends on the run in November this past weekend with the Thanksgiving holiday. Alivia's first Thanksgiving went well and she was able to meet more family that she has not gotten to meet yet and see others that haven't seen her in awhile. We had dinner at Great Aunt Martha's on Thursday afternoon where she got to finally meet her Great Grandma Seibert and other Aunts/Uncles/Cousins from the Seibert side. We spent the evening at home until Mommy went Black Friday shopping with Sabrina that night after Liv went to bed. The following morning we packed up and headed to Great Grandma's house where we had dinner with Nana, Papa, Ashleigh, Aunt Amber, Uncle Chris, Aunt Heather, Uncle Chad and Alexander. We got there early enough to watch the first Hawkeye vs. Nebraska game but unfortunately was not in the Hawkeye's favor this year. After a long weekend, we were all happy to be home on Sunday and more than ready to stay there for awhile (or at least a couple of weeks until it's time to travel again!) We ended the first Thanksgiving weekend with putting up the Christmas tree and lights. Alivia loves to watch the lights!! : ) Mommy can't wait to start putting her gifts under the tree!!
This past weekend was Mommy's company Christmas party and Liv stayed the night with Aunt Jenny, Uncle Brandon, and cousin Brady! And Brady was extremely excited!! : ) (I think Aunt Jenny might have been a little bit too!) ; ) We picked up Liv on Sunday and Jenny had her all dressed up in Brady's first Christmas outfit and brought this Mom to tears! It was absolutely adorable! Sunday was cold and rainy and ended up being an R&R snuggle day for the family.
Alivia's milestones since our last post: She has currently taken a liking to sitting in a bumbo chair. Jay and I started pulling her up to a sitting position and since we have done that she no longer wants to lay down. She wants to be active and gets frustrated when she can't figure out how to do it! She does very well in the bumbo chair. Another one is her rolling to her side last Saturday to see a toy that she wanted to look at. This enacts that we get out of the habit of leaving her laying on her changing table or couch because I don't foresee it being too long before she gets herself all the way over! She continues to chat with anyone that will listen and loves to be talked to.
With that, we are gearing up for Alivia's first Christmas. While we know it won't be the excitement for her that it will be next year so her Mommy and Daddy will have to be excited enough for her! As with most holidays it will entail a lot of running around and traveling but we are most excited to wake up Christmas morning as a family and see the exciting things that Santa brings her and most of all to wake up in our house and enjoy Christmas morning together!
I'd like to think that I will get another post together before the holidays but at the rate that I am going I am not sure there will be one so I end this post wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas with lots of love!!
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
FINALLY! Pictures -- October
Monday, November 7, 2011
Since 10/23....
Jay and my 3rd wedding anniversary was on 10/25 which we celebrated a week early with a date night to Rodney Carrington show. We celebrated again the weekend prior to our anniversary with an ISU game with Ashleigh while Alivia stayed with Nana for the day. I am not sure who was more excited...Ashleigh or Nana...but it was a good day nonetheless. We went to the game with Amber, Chris, Jenny, Brandon, Matt, Allison and Brady...to which was the first football game for both Ashleigh and Brady. A fun day! We wrapped up our annivesary celebration on the night of our anniversary with a quiet dinner out as a family. The 3 of us went to Olive Garden and enjoyed dinner together. : )
(I have come to realize that our weekends have not changed much since prior-Alivia! We still seem to have stuff going and going all the time on the weekends!) The weekend following was a pretty low-key weekend at home. We did our own little photo shoot of Alivia in her Halloween costume as Jay raked up the leaves in the yard. Then Alivia's cousin Brady, Aunt Jenny & Uncle Brandon + April, Eric & Daphne Swayne came over to watch the ISU game Saturday evening. Wrapped up that weekend with a lazy day watching racing (Jay is overjoyed that Alivia "enjoys" watching racing)! The following weekend was our first overnight stay without our little girl. This goes without saying that Mommy was heartbroken and anxious the entire week preparing to drop our girl off for not just one night, but two! But she was in good hands with Nana and Papa and of course her cousin Ashleigh! We dropped her off Friday night with Nana and went to the ISU game with the crew. It was a very fun day but didn't go without lots of text messages and asking about Alivia throughout the entire weekend!
Then we ended the weekend with sickness for the entire Kern household. Jay and I woke up with runny noses and coughs then picked up our girl with the same thing. Mommy and Alivia went to the doctor on Monday (where we found out, although a cold, Alivia has gained a whole pound (plus a little) in 20 days...up to 14 lbs, 5 oz!!) and spent the rest of the day snuggling...Daddy wasn't feeling as bad as the girls apparently because he went to work and bowling...Mommy skipped them both. We are on the downhill slide to recovery but these colds are hanging on tough and won't give it a rest. I would be sick 10 times over if Alivia was feeling better...but as I have heard, the joys of daycare...when you go in and every single child in the room is hacking, including your own. It's pretty inevitable that they are going to catch the cold!
:(
So with that...I think I have summed up the activities that have occurred for the Kern family. We continue to get into the routine of things and finding our places in the roles of life! : ) Alivia continues to astound us on how big she gets, how much she learns, and how much she adores her family!! We are approaching the first of the holidays, as mentioned before, starting with a Kern family reunion/Thanksgiving this weekend where Alivia will meet most of her Aunts/Uncles/Cousins from that side for the first time and wrap up with a visit from "cousin" Mia. Then a trip to see Aunt Becca & Uncle Brian next week with a stop by Nana and Papa's and Great Grandma and Great Grandpa's over the weekend + baptism class at Jay's church to start planning Alivia's baptism...then the First Thanksgiving Day will quickly approach after that! Wow, time flies when you're having fun!!
A POST DEDICATED SOLELY TO UPDATED PICTURES COMING SOON!!