Gearing Up For Christmas

Doesn't this time of year make you feel truly blessed. We all have so much to be thankful and grateful for. The Lord is an amazing God who delivers us our needs. Even through some hard times we all have Him, family and friends. One good thing about the bad economy is that it makes people appreciate what they do have and not what they want. It reminds people that this is Jesus' birthday and not ours. I am so excited for Bryggen to have her first Christmas and yes I am sure I have gone overboard. But what a great tradition we get to start with our children raising them to celebrate the birth of Christ. I can't wait to talk more about what we do during this season.
Our day to day activities have changed. Bryggen and I moved back sooner than planned and the whole family is now here throughout the holidays. Bryggen goes to school now. Its for 3 hours a couple of times a week. She loves it and plays so much. I love it even more. She is on a great sleep schedule. Except as I type she is taking a late nap that will through her bedtime off completely. She sleeps through the night with an occasional wake up. She naps some what regularly. She's been fussy because she is sick for the first time. She has an ear infection with a torn ear drum, a cold and a respiratory viral infection. She is on medicine which she loves and is doing better. I am 98% through shopping and ready for The Day to get here- 9 days left.

Leading Up To Thanksgiving Day

We made a visit to see Mike at work this week. Bryggen decided she was better at Mike's job than he was. It was so cute. She even cut off his computer being up there like that. And yes that is a highlighter in her mouth. Too funny.

Here are the Slocumb Grandkids- all five. Braden, Emery, Brock, Bryggen and Wilson eating and playing at Brick Oven. This weekend was the fist time all five have been together. They have a lot of fun.

Bryggen climbed the stairs in our house. It was scary to say the least but she made it and was proud of herself.

Bryggen and I are still in Auburn but Mike returned to DC for a week. We had a lot of fun during Thanksgiving and the Iron Bowl but I will post more pics later.

Mommy's Busy Bee

Above she is all tangled up in her toys. She couldn't get enough in her lap at once.
And below is Bryggen doing her morning routine while I do my morning routine. As I get ready for the day, so does she. She loves the cabinets and all of mommies stuff so I let her play with it all. I do watch her though, she will climb all of the way in the cabinet and won't be able to get out. It is so cute.

Bryggen is such a busy baby. As you will recall, Bryggen got her first 2 teeth at 8 months. It seemed like she would not get any more as that was it for 2 months. Well, she is making up for it. This month she has gotten in 5 more teeth. It has been a busy month and somewhat of a cranky month. She has been such a tough little cookie. And now she has a mouth full. You will also remember that she's been pulling herself up for some time and walking across the couch. Now she is starting to let go. She has done so about 6 or so times. She's still real wabbly but she is getting the hang of it. She's doing great eatting real food. In fact, she refuses baby food now. She still takes her bottle but only wants our food to eat. That has caused a challenge in figuring out how much and how many bottles she should have. After talking to Jennifer, I realized I need to start cutting out bottles and instead feed her real food since she wants it anyways. So, that is my plan. I'm starting that this week. She will only have 2-3 bottles if necessary and the rest food. I hope it goes well. I am hopeful because she does great with her sippy cup so she should do well without that many bottles. Her sleep habits are still crazy. I believe she still has an extreme attachment to me which is something we are working on. She will start "mommies day out" in Jan. which will help but we are going to work on more time apart when we are home for the holidays. We are excited about coming home for the holidays. We will be in town this weekend through Thanksgiving and then back the week of Christmas. Oh how I love the holidays!! We have so much to be thankful for. Our Lord has provided so much for us this year and I can't imagine it getting any better. I know He has a lot in store for us this coming year and I hope I can be the child He wants me to be. I can't wait to see you all next week.

NYC weekend

Our trip to NYC was so much fun. Obviously Bryggen had a great time too. It was perfect weather there all weekend. More pics up on Facebook.

At our hotel, The Plaza. It was so great. We loved it and it is right across the street from Central Park.

Out shopping.

At Uncle Jacks Steakhouse with Mommy and Daddy. Having a blast!

Here with Mommy at dinner. Hamming it up.

Getting ready- excuse the mess.

First day in NYC. It was chilly but Bryggen was so happy.

Mommy and Bryggen at Rockerfeller.

Fall 2009

Auburn v. Ole Miss game. She actually had a better time than her face gives off.

My cute tulip on Halloween. She's so happy here hanging with her Mimi. We visited all of her grandparents that day. She didn't like her costume but you couldn't tell here. We went to the Auburn downtown trick or treat and visited with our friends. Bryggen had a blast.

Here's her little Halloween dress and leggings her Mimi (my mom) gave her. How cute!

Back in DC

Watching Fox News a little too close

Looking at herself through the mirrored nightstand.

Helping dada change out the showerhead.

Lets Catch Up

Gosh have we been busy. We just arrived back in DC after a month home. Sad to leave but we had a wonderful time as you can see from all of Bryggen's pics. We went to a couple of football games, went to St. Thomas and hung out in Auburn. Bryggen has been growing so much during this time too. She has two teeth, is pulling herself up wanting to walk, plays all of the time and has started on big people food. She is such a sweet little girl. She gives hugs and kisses. She is still really attached to me, but it is sweet. She was the best travel buddy we could have asked for. We took our friend Megan to St. Thomas with us to help us out with Bryggen. Bryggen loves Mae Mae and had a blast hanging out with her. After our trip we returned home for a bit. She had to go to the doctor for a bacterial infection that was so painful for this poor baby. While we were there we had her 9 month check up. Can you believe she turned 9 months on the 29th? I can't. Anyways, she weighs 20 1/2 pounds. She is average weight for her age. They didn't do her height but I did it and its around 27-28 inches. Then we drove back to DC. Bryggen was awesome in the car. She only became cranky during the last hour, it was an eleven hour drive and we made it in one day. She's been a great little princess!!

Long Time No See

Its been a long time since we've posted. We've been super busy so I will load pics up later. We returned home, Auburn, the first weekend in September. We went to the football game and visited family and friends. We had birthday parties and lots of fun getting together with everyone. We went on a trip to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands even though we were supposed to go to Costa Rica. We returned Sunday; actually early Monday morning and have been hanging out since. We will be here in Auburn til Thursday then are headed back to DC. I will load pics at that time since I left the cord in DC.
We've been having so much fun here at home and have been so grateful for the long visit.

Strawberry Hat

Fall weather calls for fall clothes. DC is experiencing a cold front this week keeping the temperatures down. So we opted for a cute strawberry hat to wear.

Bryggen Playing

Bryggen is such a happy baby. She plays with everyone. Of course, we'll work on that when she's old enough. But she doesn't meet a stranger and she always has a smile on her face.

She's cutting a tooth for sure now. We see and feel it. Its the bottom right tooth. She's done well with that one so I hope and pray the others are the same.

Big Girl Bryggen!

Bryggen is just growing so much. She's hitting so many milestones this month and she's about to be 8 months old. We were in Auburn for Brittany's wedding, the post below, and were able to visit our family and friends. We had a visit from Graam when we returned and now we're back to the old schedule. Bryggen is crawling as she did for Graam while she was here. And today she pulled herself up in her crib. Just wish I could get her to sleep in there. Of course, we are going to move the crib down before trying again tonight. But she's such a big girl. She's teething more and more but none have cut the skin yet. She had a hard night Sunday night from the pain. But she looks better today. I hope so. It breaks my heart to have her hurting. As we speak, my princess is busy crawling around the floor and playing in so many things. We have a link to her 7 month pics on facebook if anyone wants to check them out. Hope to see you guys soon.

Britt and Cody's Wedding

Here we are at the wedding reception. It was the perfect wedding. The ceremony was beautiful and the reception was fun. The couple were so cute and funny at times.

Bryggen Can Crawl Now

After trying and trying and after a few moves here and there; Bryggen finally did it today!!! Yay!

On a different note; we will update everyone on our home visit, my cousins wedding, our trip back to DC with Graam here visiting. Too busy now. Lots going on.

Its all about Bryggen- Part 2

Bryggen has been so busy from sitting up now to attempting to crawl to blabbing words like baba, dada, nani(she says when she's mad) and finally mama. She's also found herself in the mirror and will laugh and kiss herself. She gives mama kisses too. She's very attached to me right now but I expected this phase. She has hair coming in too. She has a tooth trying to cut in but its in the early stages. She hates diaper changes now but I think she's just too busy to stop. She likes magazines but mostly so she can tear the pages. We're still having sleep issues but I'm not stressing anymore. We're headed home Friday and cant wait!! We'll be away from Mike for a week but we're excited to get home!

Its all about Bryggen