Liza's 1st Christmas

Jingle Bell Santa and Liza's 1st Christmas Tree

As you can see Liza's Daddy takes much better quality pictures than I do. He loves to tinker with the settings on his camera and the light to see what kind of shots he can get. He usually just posts pictures without commentary and it's my job to come behind him and fill in the blanks.

Last night we were finally getting decorations on the tree and while Liza was mildly interested in what we were doing she was much more interested in the boxes, tissue paper and storage containers. She likes to crawl over and look at the tree; so far she's not pulling on it or going after the ornaments. We found her Bumbo seat behind one of the living room chairs and we had to see if she could still sit in it.

Jingle Bell Santa and Liza didn't get along the first time we turned him on. She looked at him once, tentatively smiled and then crawled to the nearest parent for safety. We tried to show her that we liked Santa but when we moved him closer to her she put out her hands and turned away. Jingle Bell Santa went to sleep for several days and last night we tried again. She isn't 100% in love with him but I think he is growing on her. She does however keep her eye on him no matter what else she's doing. If he's turned on she is absolutely aware of where he is at all times and if her Daddy starts singing and dancing like Jingle Bell Santa she immediately turns her eyes to find out whether it's Daddy or the toy making the noise.


Liza is teething and over the last several days one of her favorite new faces is what you see below!

Good Morning

Nothing exciting here - just a typical morning! Mommy is running around trying to gather all necessary items, she is looking all over the house for my daycare book and can't find it. She calls Daddy on his cell phone (which he left in the kitchen) and then tries his office line which he doesn't answer. Fortunately, he calls back and my book is in his car so we go pick it up before going to Rita's! Meanwhile I'm enjoying my wagon wheel snack and thankful I only have to look cute for pictures.

I am about to start standing without holding onto anything. Oh I forgot to tell you I can clap and wave bye-bye. Come see me to see all my fun tricks!

Rub a Dub Dub

I found my tongue!

During Thanksgiving Liza found her tongue - now in the pictures we take she loves showing it to everyone. She has two little teeth in that big mouth of hers but we've yet to capture a picture of them because they are hiding under her tongue. I just have to say it...isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen?

Winter Storm Coming

As I've mentioned before Liza is not a fan of the morning ritual of coat, hat and gloves so we are experimenting. Today I put a one piece number on her to see how she'd react. She was certainly disgruntled less than normal so we might be getting closer to a good solution.

Aren't I cute in this pink number?

 

So adorable...

 

Why can't I get to my hands?

 

Centre friends

We were so pleased to see Centre friends who shockingly we hadn't seen in 5 1/2 years - that's just so awful of me. We can't let that happen again. On the way down, Whitney and her precious boys let us barge into their house to feed Liza and give her a break out of the car and on the way home Terri hosted a house full so we could see them, the Bentleys and Whitney and her eldest John. You all are such great friends and I hate that I'm not around to see you all more. Please make me be better about coming to KY for events. Love you all!


We tried for a group shot and as you can imagine we couldn't get the perfect picture - this is close enough for me because it has some of my most favorite people in the world in it. My Centre friends are the best. Why don't we have a girls weekend in Iowa? Ya'll up for snowshoeing and other winter activities?

Happy Birthday Grandmother Jones

In an earlier post I mentioned that both of Liza's grandmothers celebrate their birthdays in November and we were so glad to be there to tell my Mother happy birthday in person. Happy Birthday! We love you! As you'll notice Liza has learned to stick out her tongue!


My Daddy also gets a lot of praise this year because he got Mother the perfect birthday present - beautiful pottery. Even though the scavenger hunt to find it went a little awry it was all worth it in the end. Way to go!

Friends who are family

Our family has enjoyed getting to know Bev and we are so excited that she'll officially become a member of the family in April of 2009. We look forward to many more happy times with her - she's a joy to be around and we hope Christian knows how lucky he is!




Long time family friends, Judi and Dick, who are close enough to count as family celebrated with us this year and they were all over the place - walking dogs, slicing ham, mixing drinks, helping with recycling and loving on Liza. Thank you so much for coming to be with us and we can't wait to do it again soon.

Thanksgiving Tradition

I can't recall how it started but many years ago our family began bowling on Thanksgiving Day. Even though I never bowled well I kept going. When Bair joined our family I talked really big about how well I could bowl - not sure what came over me. When he went with us the first time I think I put more in the gutter than down the lane. Bair didn't want to go bowling this year and in a way I was thankful because I didn't want to watch him run up the score while mine went in the gutter. Somehow someway teams were picked and Marilyn, Daddy and I were on one team - if you haven't guessed it we were the left-overs - no one wanted our scores to bring them down. We had so much, I bowled my first strike and even broke 100. I'm not holding my breath because I don't think it will happen again but it was a whole lot of fun.

My cousin's children are having a lot of fun together.

One of the best moments was watching my Daddy concentrate on his form and in mid-stride toss the ball backwards. I think it was because he thinks wearing his hat backwards is still cool. Notice all the different color bowling balls...we thought one of each weight might improve our chances.

Liza's first Thanksgiving

The Bair family traveled to North Carolina for Liza's first Thanksgiving. As usual Liza was an angel for the 14 hours in the car. She is such a good baby and brings so much joy to us. We arrived in Montreat late Wednesday night and all settled in quickly. Thanksgiving morning was beautiful in the mountains and Bair took Liza on a long stroller ride because she loves to be outdoors and it isn't warm enough to do that in Iowa anymore. We were surrounded by the love of family and friends and the love and care they gave Liza was so kind and gentle. Liza says thanks to all of you!

I shouldn't have expected anything else with my Mother and others preparing the food; we enjoyed such a feast.

I was teasing a friend about the number of desserts she was making for her family Thanksgiving; after looking at this picture I realized I should have kept my mouth shut because my family enjoyed a few of their own.

While we were fortunate to be with so many family and friends we connected with those who weren't around by phone and webcam. Here we are visiting with my cousin Scott and are all trying to cram around the webcam.

This year Thanksgiving fell on our wedding anniversary and thanks to family friends Judi and Dick we celebrated with a champagne toast. It was so special for us to be in the place we were married to celebrate our 9th anniversary. Thank you to all for being there with us.

Christmas Warm Up

We've been told by so many that children Liza's age are more excited with the boxes and papers than the gifts. She certainly proved that adage true this morning as we were opening her new shoes!

What's in this box?

I really want to see what's in there!

Yeah that was so much fun! What's next?

I"m still really cute

The temperature is dropping and last night I think it got down to 18 chilly degrees. When it is this cold, getting ready in the morning requires a few extra steps and thankfully Chris stopped by to start the van and to help get Liza bundled up. What a Dad! Before he arrived Liza and I had our morning photo shoot so here are some fun shots for you.

Good morning!

This necklace looks really tasty!

Just as I thought - very yummy!

Let's move on to Mommy's shoe string...

Wait a minute where did that shoe string go?

I think I hear some noise outside...it's my Daddy! I don't understand why he won't come inside. I keep banging on the door to get his attention and I can hear him talking to me but he's still on the other side. Do you think I need to move?

Glad Mommy helped me move out of the way because Daddy gave me a big hug!

All bundled up and ready for the trip to Rita's. Happy Tuesday everyone.

Happy Birthday Grandmother Bair!

Both of my Grandmothers have November birthdays so I'll try and be very cute this month so Mommy and Daddy will post lots of pictures of me. I know you would rather see more of me than some silly old birthday gift.

I am coming to get that camera...

That's not fair...you can't lift the camera above my head when I get over here.

I think I'll give you a funny face rather than a smilely face.

I just can't resist - here's a smile - do you think I have a tooth in there?