Christmas and More

Well Christmas is over for us, but we're still in the middle of our celebrating. Here's a quick update with what we did over the holiday weekend. I'll be back with more for her birthday.


This was last Friday. I thought it would be fun to get some shots of Bethany and I, but she didn't think it was so fun. I thought this picture turned out funny.

Daddy found a way to entertain Bethany for a minute. He put one her favorite kitchen toys on her head.
Christmas with my side of the family on Saturday. Here's Kailyn and Amanda.
Shane and Kiersten. Ashley playing with Bethany.
Bethany at Gran's house on Christmas eve. She has a Christmas bow on her head. I wouldn't dress her in a bow that big. She loves that top. One of her favorite toys that she got.

Bethany with another present, her own cell phone. Now if she could only figure out how to shut the lid and get her fingers out at the same time.

Bethany and Grandpa on Christmas day.

Bethany with a stuffed Minnie doll. She really likes it. I think it has something to do with the fact that she has a good sized nose for Bethany to grab.

Amanda and I on Christmas.

Counting Down to Christmas

We've been getting ready for Christmas around our house. I've still got a few more things to do so I'm glad I've still got a couple of days. Bethany's personality is developing more and more. She really likes to imitate people, and lately, she has discovered she has a tongue. Last night I thought I would try to see if she would stick her tongue out if I stuck mine out. She kept looking at me, then reached for my tongue. I wondered what she would do if I let her touch it, so I licked her. She thought that was the funniest thing. We laughed about that for a good five minutes.

She keeps getting into the Christmas tree. Even though we have a gate up and keep the ottoman in front of it, she still manages to find a way to get there. Right now her tactic is to run, head first, into the gate. That gets it to move some which gives her a closer reach to the ornaments. Usually I'm sad to take down the Christmas decorations, but this year I think I'll be relieved. She likes our singing snowman too. I naively thought she would maybe just watch it and listen to the singing. Nope. She really likes it. The thing she likes the most is the bell on top of the snowman's head. That goes right in the mouth. So now the snowman is on top of the table. She still managed to get it down one day. She can barely reach the top of that table, but she still did it. So everyday I make sure if far enough away from the edge that Bethany can't reach it. As you can tell there really isn't a dull moment around our house.

Here's some pictures of her hijinks.

Bethany with her Great-Grandma.

Grandma got Bethany a sled, so her and daddy have been practicing for sledding.
I can't wait to see what she thinks of the snow.

This kept her busy for five minutes one day when she decided to empty her diaper bag. This is the container that holds the plastic bags to throw away diapers.


We finally got to see Santa today. Bethany didn't cry or anything, but she wasn't thrilled either. At least we got her to smile for the picture.

Baby Milestones

Bethany has reached some important milestones in the past couple of days. Not anything like a new tooth or her first step, but these were things we knew we bound to come one of these days. We're also getting her ready for her birthday and teaching her how to "blow". We still have to work with the actual candles. She's getting good at blowing though. And she loves to clap whenever we say, "YEA!!" She sometimes forgets to blow out and just starts clapping right away when I ask her to blow. There's never a dull day at our house.

Bethany is under the impression that her mission in life is to make sure everything ends up on the floor. Notice the books on the floor.
Bethany and mommy in our Cowboys gear. Bethany woke up from her nap on Sunday just in time to see the Cowboys come from behind and win. We cheered. Well, I did, and she just looked at me.

She has been working for quite a while to get the door open on the entertainment center. She finally figured out how to open them and keep them open.
She was very pleased with herself.
Another baby milestone. She found the toilet paper in the bathroom.

Thanksgiving and More

We have been very busy for the past couple of weeks and I'm just now sitting down to do an update. However, since it's been awhile, I've got lots of pictures. I'll let them do the talking.

Bethany and Carly at Grandma and Grandpa B's for Thanksgiving.

Carly and Bethany with their Grandma-Great.

Bethany and I at the Santa Claus parade in Peoria. She liked all the marching bands, and we stayed relatively warm. I think Bethany was the warmest out of all of us.

Thanksgiving with the K side of the family. Here's Amanda, Ally (Melanie's youngest), Taylor (Melanie's oldest), Brenda, and Bethany. Don't you love the socializing look Bethany has on her face?

Bethany and cousin Kelly.

Matt, Kristin, Bethany, and Jake.

Bethany with Jake. I love her I'm trying to escape look.
Bethany with Matt and another trying to escape look. The boys had to be convinced to hold Bethany. More like, she was thrown at them, and they had to hold her or drop her.
Bethany with her Great Grandpa and Grandma.
Bethany was "helping" us put up the Christmas decorations.
Here's a picture of the newest thing. She can pull herself up to standing. She taken a few steps, but she's not really holding on and walking around yet.
And now that she can pull herself up, there's a whole new world for her to explore.
Bethany enjoying the Christmas tree. She enjoys it so much, we had to put a gate up around it. I could handle her playing with the ornaments, but when she started pulling on branches and the string of lights, that was it.
Daddy's always looking for new ways to carry Bethany. This is her, 'I must have that camera reach/grin'. She can see her teeth pretty well. She has six now. We discovered the last two on Thanksgiving day.

More Fun

I just had to share these two cute pictures with you.

Her hair is now long enough to make fun shapes in the bathtub.

She got the box of Cheerios and dumped some out for herself. Doesn't she look pleased?

What We've Been Up To

It seems like we've had a busy couple of weeks. Bethany is continuing to find new things to get into. She likes our bookshelf, and she's apparently a fan of Jane Austen. She's pretty advanced for her age. She moved from board books to novels. Okay, maybe not quite. She got her fourth tooth last weekend. And, I'm continually trying to find new things to feed her because she loves to feed herself.

Bethany and Daddy taking a little ride. She thought it was great.

She got hold of my phone, and loved playing with it. She thought she was getting by with something, but I was keeping a close eye on her.

After bath time. You can see how thick her hair is starting to get.
Last weekend we went to visit Tim, Jaime, and Jaxon. Bethany and Jaxon were a lot more interactive this trip. This is the first meeting since they've both been able to crawl around. It seemed like they thought of each other as toys.
They both wanted to play with the same toy. I love the looks from both of them. Don't they just look like they're saying, "No, we're not doing anything."
They couldn't figure out why that other person was keeping the toy from them.
Finally Jaxon was just like, "Okay Bethany you can hold it, but I'm going to chew on it." The funny thing was that there were two of these toys. Go figure.
Bethany and mommy. She must her complexion from her dad because I'm paler than her. Maybe I need to eat as many carrots and sweet potatoes as she does. That will give me a nice orangey glow.