A year in review...

Here is 2009 at a glance...enjoy!

January
My beautiful sisters and I at my baby shower.




February
This picture was taken when I was on strict bedrest (due to pre-eclampsia).  Since I was allowed to shower, I figured one picture couldn't hurt.  :-)  Kaydence was born 11 days later.




March
March 7 at 11:18 a.m. we welcomed our beautiful daughter, Kaydence Selah into the world!
















April
Our little Easter bunny.





















May
The first smile we were able to catch on camera...a rare occasion to this day.





















June
Kaydence's 3 month pictures.















July
4th of July weekend at Summerfest...Kaydence's first music festival.




August
First solids.



September
Dedication.  The beautiful vintage dress was the same dress mommy and all her sisters wore.



October
Kaydence was Sophie the giraffe for Halloween. ;-)  Her daddy took her trick or treating.
















November
Just another day playing with mommy.




December
Our 9 month old reindeer...who walks!!!



First Christmas = History

Kaydence's first Christmas is officially crossed off the list.  Here are some pictures to commemorate the event.










































Merry Christmas!

I should be packing right now, but I had to take a quick break to do a little post.  We will be leaving for Marshfield this afternoon and I will be staying there through New Years Eve (Teirney needs to come back for work next Tuesday).  We're all excited!  This will be Kaydence's second birthday party she has attended already!  She attended her friend, Sofia's, first birthday party on Sunday and now she gets to celebrate Jesus' birth!  How incredibly blessed she is!  I can't wait to see her open her presents.

I need to mention, for those of you who are wondering why they haven't received a Christmas card from us yet, we are sending out New Years cards instead.  So no, you did not get crossed off the list or anything -- we just haven't sent them out yet. ;-)


What better way to usher us into the Holiday Spirit than a few pictures, right?  I took these last night and they didn't turn out the way I had envisioned, but they will have to do.  I'm still trying to figure out my camera, so they are a little blurry for my taste, but I'm working on it.  :-)  So with that, we wish you all a very merry Christmas!

With love,

The Christensons











Solids Strike

Kaydence is on a solids strike right now. She'll take about 3 bites of whatever we give her and then she refuses to eat anymore. Since she's such a little peanut, I feel like I need to try and get something in that little tummy of hers, so some days she gets a mini-baby buffet. I don't want to create a picky eater by just giving her things she likes all the time, so some days I just have to try a variety of things to get her to eat *something*. There is a picture below of what the table looked like after lunch today. Quite funny actually. 

I've been having fun working on my photography lately. There is lots to learn, but I find it enjoyable. So right now I'm trying to "focus" (no pun intended) on trying to get a correct exposure in the camera instead of correcting it photoshop. So here are a few of my practice shots -- these are all SOOC (straight out of camera), no editing.  A couple of them are still a little underexposed, but since these are just snapshots and not meant to be portraits, I'm not going to over analyze and pick them a part like I ordinarily would.  :-)











9 months!





I find it very hard to believe we have a 9 month old already!  She is really growing up and getting her own little personality every day.  She is now officially crawling, pulling up, and has even taken 5 step all by herself!  I am convinced we will have a walker by Christmas.  She is such a little tiny peanut though, so it's so cute to see her cruising around furniture and trying to walk.  She is starting to "run" around the ottoman now -- she tries to go really fast around it and she cracks herself up...it's adorable! 

I'm beginning to think she is starting to figure out what dada means.  This morning Teirney walked by and she said dada under her little breath...it melted my heart.  She still won't say mama.  I'm convinced it's because she gets so sick of me from being with me all day everyday.  She does this adorable thing at night when daddy comes home.  We'll be in the basement playing and she'll hear Teirney opening the door and her face just lights up, it's like she knows daddy is home.  She has amazing hearing...she'll stop what she's doing and listen intently on the door opening and wait for her daddy to come down the stairs.  When she hears him walking down the stairs she'll watch and wait until she sees him and when she does, she waves her arms and gets the biggest smile on her face.  When he gets close enough, she'll reach up her arms toward him to be held.  Oh my, it is too cute!  I love it!  She does not, however, do this to me when I leave and come home.  ::Sniff, Sniff::  Oh and when she cries, she says "dada, dada, dada" while crying.  Awww...it's so cute, but I really do hope she starts saying mama soon.  I'm starting to get a complex. ;-)

Kaydence had her 9 month appointment this week.  She is such a little peanut!  She weighs 15 lbs 2 oz (5%), 27 1/4 inches (50%).  She went down in her percentiles.  At her 6 month appointment, she was in the 10% for weight and 75% for height.  Her pedi wasn't concerned because she is more active now and she is in line with her birth weight/height percentages.  I do worry a little though because lately she hasn't been eating her solids very well.  She'll take 3 bites and then she starts complaining like she is done.  I'm hoping it's just a phase.

We are starting to give her more solid solids.  She loves anything with spaghetti sauce.  I made shells florentine the other day and she just gobbled it up (it had mushrooms, onions, cottage cheese, spinach, spaghetti sauce, and noodles in it -- she loved it!).  She LOVES cheese!  She would eat it all day long if I let her.  The pedi said she can eat whatever we're eating now.  It's really hard to believe my baby is that old already.  It will be nice though to start giving her more table food. 

We're getting geared up for the holiday season.  It's fast approaching.  I'm anxious to see Kaydence with all the boxes and paper at Christmas.  We got her a few toys, but not a ton, she doesn't know the difference and I'm sure she will enjoy the boxes much more.  I'm actually thinking about wrapping some empty boxes for her in addition to some of her toys. 

May you all be blessed this Holiday Season and may the *real* meaning of Christmas remain ever before us!

Love to you all!