Christmas...

What if an all knowing powerful God knew what our world would look like in 2011 when He sent his Son to earth so long ago? What if He knew how crazy we would make our lives? What if he knew how much we would shop, spend on gifts, and stress about our busy holiday schedules? What if He knew how much we would lose the meaning of Christmas?

I am thinking that He knew. And it makes me feel sad.

This year Steve and I decided to scale back on the amount of gifts we bought for other people. I had fun making some jewelry for some people so that I could say, "I am thinking about you this holiday season." And instead of spending a ton of money on toys for our kids Steve and a couple of our best guy friends built our girls bunk beds and a doll house. We played down Santa this year, we didn't make it to every Christmas party we were invited to...all in all we had a pretty relaxed holiday season.

We definitely didn't do everything right, nor am I saying that this is "the way" to do Christmas. The difference is that this year when I was at church on Christmas Eve I wasn't thinking about all the things I still needed to do, thinking about all the presents I still needed to wrap, wishing I hadn't spent so much money, or thinking that I got too wrapped up in holiday festivities.

Instead I looked around and was able to observe Christmas Eve differently. For the majority of the people that I was surrounded by during that church service were happy, joyful, giving and caught up in the meaning of loving one another. I had the thought that maybe this is a small little sliver of a glimpse of what the atmosphere in heaven will be like someday...people caught up in loving one another and celebrating Jesus. In a room charged with happy and joyful energy - all because God loved us enough to give us the great gift of his Son - it was a really, really good feeling.

Life everlasting with people living out every potential of their goodness and then some - what a beautiful gift.

Thank you Jesus.

Favorite Things

One of my favorite things...

The view of the back of Kye's head. How his little ears stick out, how soft his neck is...oh, I better go find him and kiss it right now.

Some House Pics - Finally

I didn't remember to take many "before" pictures. Before we put a bunch of stuff into rooms, before we took down wallpaper, before we started our temporary-living-until-we-can-paint-and/or-organize this.

So this is a before picture of the bathroom, but after my sister and I actually removed all the wallpaper that was in the bathroom - so not a true before picture.

And this is the "for now" after. We plan to redo or paint some of the tile, maybe update the flooring, and put in a new sink and stuff...but it's not top on the priority list. So it will look just like this, maybe slightly dirtier, if you come to visit anytime soon.

And I totally forgot to take before pics of our room. But this is an after picture. We still need to find some things to hang on some of the walls, but I love how it turned out.

This is Kye's little corner in our room. He will be transitioning to the crib after Christmas - finally!! - but you'll have to stay tuned to find out why he's still been in this little cradle so long! :) But I think the mobile that my friend Gennae helped me make looks perfect in this corner...

What?!

How is it that my sweet little baby who was just born a few days ago is already 6 months old??!! These last 6 months have just flown by and I realized the other day that I haven't even written Kye's birth story down yet. I'm bummed about that because I am sure I have forgotten a lot of the smaller details and thoughts that I had about things by now. I need to do that soon.


(Kyeson at midnight last night, hanging out with mom and dad in the living room, trying to work through some digestive issues.)

Kyeson, at 6 months and a few days, is working on sitting up. He can sit up unassisted, but not for long. He has a tendency to lean to the right...or way to far forward so that he is just folded in half with his face almost on the floor. I have not been super good at helping him along with sitting up though. I kind of wanted his "baby-ness" to last just a little bit longer. And now when he sits up for too long without falling over I get this strange urge to push him over - like helping him not sit up will keep him being a baby longer. Too bad it doesn't work that way.

I also held back a little bit on giving him solids. I probably would have been starting him just now if it wasn't for Steve. Daddy was super excited for his son to eat some real food, so he did. Like I posted a few weeks ago, Kye is a great eater so far! I am attempting to make my own baby food this time around - mostly because I want to see if it helps the transition to table food better (keeping my fingers crossed) - and so far the man-child has had sweet potatoes, butternut squash, bananas, avocados, and applesauce. I also tried green beans, but they didn't get smooth enough for a first foods try, so they are in the freezer waiting for a few more weeks.

Right now Kye is working on his first two bottom teeth. They have been making their way up for the past few weeks and if they don't show up soon...oh my goodness. Kye is handling teething better than both of his sisters, but cranky babies always make for harder days. On top of getting teeth, Kye seems to have a slight cold AND is gassier than normal (i.e. him and I have not been sleeping much this past week. When he's not like this he usually just gets up once a night). *Update!! Just as I was about to post this I checked Kye's teeth and the first one is here!!! First tooth, December 21!*


"Look at me! Weeeeeeee! I'm up so high!"


Kye's new trick, which somehow makes our Christmas tree look really small.


This is what Steve likes to call "Our expressions upon finding that Trynie has her first boyfriend" picture.


"What? I can stand? Look at me! I can staaannndd!!!"

And that is how the most loved boy ever is doing.

It's Already Happening

I can't believe this. Keep in mind, my girls are 5 1/2 and almost 4...they have their first "star" obsession.

They can't seem to get enough of Taylor Swift.

I think that Tryn has always liked Taylor Swift songs. She listened to some when she was younger, but I thought she had forgotten about the songs. Well, Taylor has a Christmas song on the radio right now and the other day, just before the song started, they announced who was singing the song. A few minutes in Tryn said, "Mom, I really like Taylor Swift."

So Steve, being the great dad that he is, put the song on a compilation cd of Christmas songs for the girls to play in their room. Since yesterday evening the only song I have heard, played on repeat obsessively, in this house is Last Christmas, Taylor Swift version.

This was our conversation at lunch today.

Tryn: Mom, I really love Taylor Swift's songs.

Berlin: Me too.

Me: Why?

Tryn: She just has the most fun songs.

...a little bit of silence...

Tryn: Mom, is Taylor Swift in this world? (Her way of asking if something is real or not, like a cartoon or someone who actually lives in this world.)

Me: Yes, she is.

Berlin: Can we see her sometime?

Me: I don't know...

Tryn: Where does she live?

Me: Down in Nashville I think, down where Rollie and Cait live.

Tryn: Well, someday I am going to go down to Nashville and I am going to tell Taylor Swift that she has the best songs ever.

Oh, geez.

Update...

I can't believe it's December.

I can't believe it's 23 days left until Christmas.

I have a lot of things to do.

I always have a lot of things to do these days. Who knew owning a house was so much work? ;) Haha! I know the answer: Everyone who owns one!! I am actually not minding the work at all. 1, it keeps me busy. 2, I love doing creative things like transforming a whole room. I recently discovered Pinterest and have a whole new world of DIY (do it yourself) projects to tempt me. There is something so satisfying in making something, when the other option is buying something that I don't like quite as much or I just plain can't afford. I'm having a ton of fun owning our first home. I will post some pictures soon. I promise. I keep meaning to all the time...but I have a lot of things to do.

Kye is growing like crazy and is going to be popping his first tooth any day. I wouldn't be surprised at all if it was here by the end of the weekend. He is handling teething much better than both of his sisters did, but that doesn't mean he doesn't want to be held pretty much all the time right now. If we are holding him he is pretty happy and snugly though, which is nice.

Kye also had his first taste of rice cereal today and he LOVED it. He ate it like a champ. No gagging or choking, just ate it like he as been eating food all along. I only made about 1 tbls of the cereal and he got just mad when it was all gone, so I had to make him more. Why is he growing so fast?! He is 6 months next weekend - a whole half year old. Crazy.

Tryn loves school as much as ever. I'm so glad, after all her excitement for school to start that she didn't end up hating it. She really, really, really loves it and even wishes that she could go on the weekend days too. She's always bummed that she has to have two whole days off from school every week. :) She has some friends at school that she talks about all the time - it's so cute! One of her best friends is Lauren, who she sits by on the bus everyday but doesn't get to sit by in class. One day I asked her what Lauren looked like and she said, "Well...she has really pretty curly hair...she has lips that are bigger than mine...she has brown eyes...she has a pretty coat...hm. Oh, and her skin is darker than mine." I'm so proud of her for so many reasons.

Berlin. I would say that Berlin is as bright and bouncy as ever and is still a party waiting for people :) We finally finished painting the girls room and setting it up and now one of Berlin's favorite things to do is go in her room, shut the door, turn on a cd of Disney songs, and sing at the top of her lungs. She has a great ear for a 3 year old too! She has recently transitioned to Pull-Up-less nights and is doing great. She probably could have done it quite some time ago, but I was too nervous to try and do it while we were packing up and moving over the summer and before that didn't want to deal with it in our lack of laundry room area in our other house in case it didn't go well. So far so good - I think we can be done buying Pull-Ups for the next couple of years!

Oh, and I am allergic to my Christmas tree. Really allergic. Like I decorated the tree and made a wreath on Sunday and have had large red extremely itchy bumps and welts all over my forearms and one of my eyelids is bright pink. I look diseased. I promise I'm not.

That's all for now :)