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Snow Day!!!

What a weekend for snow! How fun!! Last time I remember it snowing like this, was 1996 and I spent most of the day helping Dad shovel out the driveway (this was before he had a snow blower). Well, we decided to brave the cold and wind to take Kira out to experience her first snow day.

Here she is with Daddy getting ready to go out...

"Baby it's cold outside..."
The lovely family....(Tom's got his hand over her mouth b/c it was really windy)


Playing inside...

Little cutie pie...


Christmas is coming up this week! Can't believe it's almost here. Here's a rundown of where we'll be...

Christmas Eve: Sherf family (Tom's Dad's side)

Christmas Day: Dehart family and Maro family

Dec. 26: Yoder family

Dec. 27: Hymn sing (I am running this as a senior sponsored event in my church)

Dec. 31: New Year's Eve party at Dehart's (I doubt I'll make it til midnight)

Jan. 1: Wallin Christmas

The rest of the year: recover from all the parties

Pictures to follow!!

Thanksgiving Madness

Well, thanksgiving has come and gone and it has been another year of great family gatherings! The thanksgiving celebration started the Sunday before thanksgiving with the Maros at a country club. The Maros normally have their party at the Grandparents house but Tom's grandmother has been sick so the decision was made to ease her burden and have dinner out with everyone.

The happy couple....

Grandmom Maro. Kira was getting a little tired of being out at this point, hence the lower lip.

She is thinking, "no more pictures! Take me home!!"

The ladies of the Maro family.

Thanksgiving day morning, I took Kira out to Philly for the parade with Tom's mom and step dad. She really seemed to enjoy herself. A good time had by all. The proud grammy.
Later that day...we drove over to see Tom's Dad and family. Unfortunately, this was the only picture I took that night. This is Tom's step-mom holding Kira.
The next day, we drove over to my parents house for the Wallin family gathering.
Then, on Saturday we celebrated thanksgiving with the Dehart family. The Dehart's are Tom's step-father's side of the family. Every year they get together at a bowling alley and then meet afterwards at the Dehart house for desert and fellowship.
The Dehart cousins all together for a shot.

Finally, on Sunday, Mom graciously allowed me to use her house to host the end of the season choir party. Family is wonderful isn't it? Can't wait for Christmas to do it all over again! Plus, at Christmas, we will see the Yoders (my mom's side) who haven't seen Kira yet.

The grass withers and the flowers fade...

But the word of the Lord endures forever! That may sound morbid to you but I think of that verse in relation to growing older and Kira's growth since she's been born.

All these pictures by the way are complements of our talented neighbor and friend, Sarah Zimmerman. Sarah is going to photography school next year and graciously spent FOUR HOURS last night uploading and editing all the pictures she has taken of Kira over the last four months.

Looking at her pictures just reminds me how fast time flies. These two below were taken when Kira was only one week old.

I thought she was so tiny then and she pretty much slept all the time, except when eating!

Fast forward almost four months and we now have an alert, active, adorable (any other "a" words?) little girl that has brought us more joy than we ever thought possible. I just love spending my days playing with her and watching her grow day by day.

She has turned into quite a ham in the bathtub!

As Thanksgiving approaches, we are often led to turn our thoughts to the things that we are thankful for. Of course, the big blessing we got this year was Kira (not only that, but I lived to tell about it!). But it is not just at Thanksgiving that I feel thankfulness for her, it has been every single day since I brought her home.

We have a busy week ahead...tomorrow choir sings in church for the three services, then it's off to thanksgiving dinner with Tom's mom's family. Thanksgiving day is spent with Tom's Dad and family, black friday with my family, Saturday with Tom's step-father's family and final choir party on the following Sunday. It will be pretty much a week of parties and turkey. I feel tired just thinking about it! :)

Vising Grammy D. today...

Sorry it's blurry, took the pic with my phone b/c of course I forgot my camera today!!

More Halloween pics

She had just woken up from a nap so she still looks dazed in these pictures to me...

And NO! Of course we did not take her trick or treating! I just dressed her up in her outfit and walked her around school and in chapel for Tom and the students to see.

Halloween and other stuff

So, it's been a while since I posted anything...mainly because I have been having issues with her sleep still which basically means I am not sleeping either. She sleeps alright at night but still hasn't been really taking naps during the day. Today I tried swaddling her for her naps and it seemed to help her sleep a little longer without waking up. The other thing I discovered lately is that she has a severe reaction to peanuts. I had been given a container of trail mix with peanuts and chocolate a week ago and I was chomping away on it day after day, all the while wondering why she was projectile vomiting and very fussy. I even took her to the doctor who asked me if I had been eating peanuts lately or if I had been overly consuming dairy! Anyway, hopefully we got this figured out b/c since then, I have given up all dairy and peanuts and she seems to be getting better.

Now, I know there are some that boycott Halloween but we had this little bumblebee outfit for Kira that was just too cute! On Friday I dressed her up in it and walked her up to the office for all of Tom's coworkers to see. I think she was probably wondering, "What am i wearing?! This thing is hot!!"

Sunday I was over Mom's house as usual and we spent a little time making faces at her and trying to take a picture at just the right moment during one of her smiles! HA!

I haven't taken her out in the jogging stroller until recently. Now she seems to be big enough that she doesn't slide down in the seat when I sit her in it. Today was nice enough, I took her out for a walk. Tomorrow is supposed to be even nicer so I will probably take the stroller with me to church.