Wrap up/Catch up

Obviously I have been taking a hiatus from blogging and could write a novel if I were to catch up on everything from Sept. through Dec. but I thought the best way to end this year and start next year is to do a year in review. And by a year in review, I mean (mostly) Kiley's year in review because let's be honest we all know Chad I haven't had too many exciting accomplishments this year: ) 

I seriously can't believe this was only a year ago. This was the first time Kiley sat up on her own. Look how little she looks. She had also just cut her first 2 teeth. Still the only two that are all the way in. She JUST NOW cut her 2nd 2 teeth and no they aren't her two front teeth-they are the ones next to her two front teeth. So in about a month she will be a toddler with fangs! SWEET!

February was a month of hibernation for us and we didn't do much. Kiley had her 1/2 birthday and was cracking us up with her chattiness

March was about the same. Not much happening but Kiley started giving me a break and sleeping (sporadically) through the night. She also started scooting.

April we celebrated a beautiful Easter and my dad visited us for a long weekend, and taught Kiley how to play the harmonica; ) Kiley also started crawling (just a few days after my dad was here darnit) and life has been an endless game of chase and cleanup ever since.

May Chad celebrated his 30th birthday. I threw him 3 parties so he owes me big time for my 30th! Ha Chad and I celebrated 2 years of old married life, and Kiley started weaning by getting formula at daycare. Looking back I don't know why that was so hard for me (pride maybe?). Life is so much easier without breast feeding.  I sort of feel like me again.

June was a super busy month. We went to a friends wedding, went to the cabin, I had a much needed mommy weekend and Kiley had her first trip to urgent care.

July was spent enjoying summer to it's fullest, since the year before we were pretty much on house arrest and couldn't go too far from home in case Kiley came early (ha. early. ha ha). Lots of trips to the cabin, and working on the house. Kiley also started walking/falling a lot.

August was birthday month. Kiley turned 1, I turned 27 and both of Chad's parents and our niece also had birthdays. Kiley had a lot of fun at her "You are my sunshine" themed party but was a little overwhelmed and I think had more fun at Kenzie's pool party. Towards the end of the month Kiley started drinking solely from a cup which was so much easier than I thought. I thought maybe taking the binky away would be just as simple. WRONG!

September was another full month which included a Labor day trip to the Oregon Coast which was more fun and more beautiful than I expected. Kiley started at a new daycare. It was a rough few weeks getting used to new teachers and being on only 1 nap a day but we made and Kiley now loves it there. She goes running in every morning and doesn't even look back at me. We also had my dad and brother over for a weekend which was full of fun and moments I will treasure forever like watching Uncle Tim read Goodnight Moon to Kiley who was totally smitten with him the whole time. Priceless.

October of course was Halloween and Kiley was (obviously) the cutest scarecrow you ever did see. We also traveled down to Las Vegas to visit 3 of my best friends who bought me a plane ticket for my birthday, and to meet (finally) my friend Sarah's newbutactuallynotsonew baby Olivia. They wore matching outfits, matching too-cool-for-school shades, bathed together, played at the park. Kiley loved every minute with them and I probably loved it more than they will ever know. I tear up every time I think about how much I miss them. *clearing throat*

Chad and I also ran our first 1/2 marathon. Chad kicked "A" and did it in 2 hours and 16 minutes and ran the whole time. I however didn't do as good as I wanted to. My goal was to run the whole time but around mile 10 my body gave up on me and I struggled the rest of the the 3 miles and came in at 2 hours 24 minutes. 

November didn't slow down much. I look at the picture of Kiley running around in her cheetah print dress from Auntie Peri and think "OMG my baby is a TODDLER!" A running, talking, pig-tail wearing, fall-asleep-in-random-places toddler! She even gave up her binky this month-so it's official. Toddler. After having Thanksgiving with Chad's family we did another plane ride down to Reno for Thanksgiving weekend to see my family, some of whom I haven't seen in over 5 years! I have a few family members who just recently started having health problems so I was very glad to see them and check in.

December we started remodeling our bedroom. I can't believe we have lived here for 4 years and never touched the nasty green in there, and also can't believe we took on another project when we haven't finished any of the other projects we've started. *sigh* 

Kiley has been talking up a storm and sings songs like itsy bitsy spider and ring around the rosy. She also goes up to our Santa pics and ornaments and says "ho ho ho". She says about 20 words including Mama, Dada, Shadow, hello, bye bye, night night, nana (banana), no, yeah, mook (milk), more, chi-chis (peaches), baby, book, and ball. She loves Elmo, cars, dancing and recently baby dolls. She puts them in the laundry hamper and covers them with a blanket and tells them night night or pushes them around like a stroller. She is also starting to point at animals and tell me what they say "moo" and "meow" and "woof". She blows me away with how much she knows. She eats well with a spoon (as long as there are no veggies on there) and loves fruit and yogurt. 

We are looking forward to our normal mad-dash Christmas filled with lots of family and food and then we have a wedding to go to on New Years Eve, which will be our first night away from Kiley (together)! *gasp* I've kind of got first date style butterflies. It will be like we are 25 again!

Merry Christmas to all of you that read this and didn't give up reading after not seeing anything new in 4 months.