To my sweet Bryleigh Renee,
This past month was jam packed with a lot more "firsts" for you including two big ones - your first Christmas and your first STEPS!! It's so fun to see your face light up as you take tiny steps on your tip toes towards me and your dad. You know you are doing something big, and you are so excited with each and every step. (Bryleigh took her first {two} steps on 1/2/2015 with mommy and daddy both in the living room watching, when she walked from the chair to the couch after standing on her own for about 10 seconds. She's been taking a step for the past month or so, but this was definitely different. And she's continued to do it every day since. Two steps turned in to 5 or 6 pretty quickly)
We knew you'd be walking soon when you started to get brave with your walker and you no longer went in a straight line, stopping when you ran in to something. In all of your determination, you move around the walker and get it going exactly how you want it to. You are a smart, determined little girl!
Some of my other favorite things that you have started this month include LAYING in the bathtub, crawling to the office to look for daddy (even when he is not home), and when you pat us on the back when YOU are crying. Apparently you've gotten used to the fact that we pat your back when you are crying, so now you do the same to us.
You love bath time, and it's become one of my favorite parts of the day (the smell-good-snuggles after are some of my favorite moments, too!). You also LOVE italian food - pizza and lasagna to be exact. You had your first "real people" meal this month during the OU bowl game when you begged for some of mommy's pizza and ended up finishing your own piece!
One of the thoughts I've had a million times over the past year, but especially over the last month is that I could watch you sleep forever. Watching you sleep so peacefully puts me at such peace myself. I'll turn on the monitor several times after I put you down for the night and just watch. I love when you wiggle around to get yourself comfortable. Even more than all of that, I love watching you sleep while you are snuggled in my arms. It's always the highlight of my day when that happens!
Twelfth Month Stats
Wearing: Still the same here...9 months everything and 12 months (mainly because that's where our winter weather clothes start!) Still not in those 12 month pants!!
Eating: Bryleigh is eating a little bit of everything. She's had pizza and lasagna this month as far as new people food goes. She does great at eating things like cheerios, puffs, crackers, and toast. We are working to add other things so that we can start backing off the baby foods.
Sleeping: Some nights Bryleigh is in bed by 7:00 and other nights it's closer to 8:30, and she wakes up anywhere between 6:00 and 8:00. Most mornings she's up pretty early and hangs out in our bed until I/we get a little more awake! She's also still taking 2 naps a day, most days.
Teeth: 8 and working on at least 2 molars. Those are a beating! : /
Official Measurements: Bryleigh had her one year wellness visit on the Monday after her birthday on Saturday. She weighed 21 pounds 6 ounces (74th percentile), was 29 inches tall (43rd percentile), and her head is 48 cm (still off the charts...Dr. Wallace said through laughs, "Her brain is growing!"). Bryleigh got 2 nasty shots and had to get her blood drawn, all normal for the 12 month visit. She also had a TB test (which we've already had read, and it was negative). She's had a pretty nasty cough for a little over a week, so we were able to get that checked out too! The girl has a knack for picking up viruses (considering this is the 3rd or 4th she's had since Thanksgiving). God bless Texas' winter weather!
She's growing now!! Baby girl went from 9 pounds 9 ounces, 20.6 inches long to 21 pounds 6 ounces, 29 inches tall (up 10 pounds and about 13 ounces and grew 8.4 inches). Her sweet punkin head grew almost 10 cm starting at 39 cm and now measuring 48 cm.
Twelfth Month Highlights
Get ready...it was a fast and busy month with jam-packed {Christmas} fun!!
We started off the month with a QUICK trip to Conroe. My sister-in-law and I took our kiddos to the mall to get some pictures made for Mimi and Pappy...HOT MESS! Bryleigh cried, so Livi cried, so Bryleigh cried. It was a vicious circle, but the outcome was some precious pictures of our babies that Mimi and Pappy LOVED and were so surprised about. I'd say it was a success!
We kicked off the beginning of our {9} Christmases with my family - my parents and my brother's family. Brad got home on Friday to a house full of people and we went non-stop the whole weekend! Friday night we made ornaments with the kids, had a yummy breakfast on Saturday morning, and then opened a whole lot of presents!
We weren't done yet though! We went from our Christmas to lunch with my mom's family for Williams' Christmas. Our sweet family always brings gifts for baby's first Christmas on top of our normal gift exchange, so Bryleigh went home with quite the haul. We are so blessed! Did I mention there were smores?
I am ALL about making memories and traditions, so one I've been looking forward to for a while is the Elf on the Shelf. After Brad an exciting win at the Cowboys game, Brad came home and we had our new friend all ready for Bryleigh, complete with a Christmas book and a Christmas movie (another tradition we'll continue each year). We finished out the night snuggled up in front of the Christmas tree watching Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas. We named our elf Dez, because duh?! #DezKnows {if you've been bad or good! ;) } Dez hung out for the next week showing up in some fun places, but I'm really looking forward to all the shenanigans he'll get into as Bryleigh grows up!!
I LOVE Christmas Eve. The Candlelight service, whether we are in Sulphur Springs, Conroe, Arlington, or somewhere else, is always one of the highlights of the season for me. It's always a time spent with family, singing beautiful songs, and the sight of a candlelit room is nothing short of breathtaking. This year was extremely emotional to be holding my baby girl and realizing exactly what Mary was going through on that night.
After the Christmas Eve service at Fielder, we headed over to Poppa B's and DeDe's from Christmas with Brad's family. Bryleigh was definitely getting a hang of the whole "opening presents" thing, and she was interested in all that was going on!
We finished up Christmas Eve with a little family story time and then getting all the fun Santa presents ready. Making memories with our sweet little girl definitely made this the BEST Christmas EVER!!
Christmas was JUST getting started, even though it seemed like we'd already celebrated a lot! Christmas morning we woke up to Santa surprises for Bryleigh and a yummy breakfast. We even got to FaceTime with Tate and Olivia a little bit to see how their Christmas morning went. It was hard being in two different places, but SO thankful for technology making the distance seem a little smaller (and thankful for all the extra special time we get to spend with them).
We spent Christmas lunch with Brad's dad's parents in Aubrey and dinner with Brad's mom's family in Kennedale. There were quite a few cat naps in the car and even more smiles from our Bryleigh girl. We had a great day with so many of our family members, and Bryleigh was blessed to spend her first Christmas Day with her mommy, daddy, aunt Erin, and BOTH sets of her grandparents!! (Thanks DeDe and Poppa B for inviting Mimi and Pappy to come along with us!)
Our Christmas celebrations continued with a trip to Sulphur Springs, by way of Canton for dinner with Alan's family. They weren't able to be at Armstrong Christmas this year, so we all had dinner with MawMaw and PawPaw on Friday night before Armstrong Christmas on Saturday. Anytime PawPaw gets together with Tate is a good time. We were also able to go visit with Grandmother while we were in town. (Goodness are we blessed with an amazing family?!)
Our little family of three went out to dinner for steaks at Texas Roadhouse to celebrate New Years Eve. 2014 was definitely a fabulous year {you can read our Year in Review here} and it was so nice to just sit and remember all that God's blessed us with over the past year. We had waited so long for our Princess and we wanted to ring in the new year with her! Not to mention Hotel Hammons was open for our normal guest - my brother comes to stay with us once a month while he is working on his PhD among other reasons...this time it was for the Baylor bowl game. We rang in the New Year with some sparkling grape juice and the New York City ball drop (we couldn't hang until Central time).
New Years Day was spent cheering on the Baylor Bears as they played in the Cotton Bowl. We had a fun watch party over at our house with my parents, Brad's parents, Brad's sister and her boyfriend Luke, and my aunt and uncle. (I'm not sure how we didn't end up with pictures of Bryleigh with Brad's family, but you can be sure Bryleigh got some dessert from DeDe, some good snuggling from Aunt Erin, and some serious smiles with Luke and Poppe B!) It was a very sad ending, but I am still so proud to be a Baylor Bear!
We also had fun cheering on the Cowboys during their Wildcard win...and not so much fun during their playoff loss. Win or lose, we love the boys in Silver and Blue!!
Twelfth Month Stats
Wearing: Still the same here...9 months everything and 12 months (mainly because that's where our winter weather clothes start!) Still not in those 12 month pants!!
Eating: Bryleigh is eating a little bit of everything. She's had pizza and lasagna this month as far as new people food goes. She does great at eating things like cheerios, puffs, crackers, and toast. We are working to add other things so that we can start backing off the baby foods.
Sleeping: Some nights Bryleigh is in bed by 7:00 and other nights it's closer to 8:30, and she wakes up anywhere between 6:00 and 8:00. Most mornings she's up pretty early and hangs out in our bed until I/we get a little more awake! She's also still taking 2 naps a day, most days.
Teeth: 8 and working on at least 2 molars. Those are a beating! : /
Official Measurements: Bryleigh had her one year wellness visit on the Monday after her birthday on Saturday. She weighed 21 pounds 6 ounces (74th percentile), was 29 inches tall (43rd percentile), and her head is 48 cm (still off the charts...Dr. Wallace said through laughs, "Her brain is growing!"). Bryleigh got 2 nasty shots and had to get her blood drawn, all normal for the 12 month visit. She also had a TB test (which we've already had read, and it was negative). She's had a pretty nasty cough for a little over a week, so we were able to get that checked out too! The girl has a knack for picking up viruses (considering this is the 3rd or 4th she's had since Thanksgiving). God bless Texas' winter weather!
She's growing now!! Baby girl went from 9 pounds 9 ounces, 20.6 inches long to 21 pounds 6 ounces, 29 inches tall (up 10 pounds and about 13 ounces and grew 8.4 inches). Her sweet punkin head grew almost 10 cm starting at 39 cm and now measuring 48 cm.
Twelfth Month Highlights
Get ready...it was a fast and busy month with jam-packed {Christmas} fun!!
We started off the month with a QUICK trip to Conroe. My sister-in-law and I took our kiddos to the mall to get some pictures made for Mimi and Pappy...HOT MESS! Bryleigh cried, so Livi cried, so Bryleigh cried. It was a vicious circle, but the outcome was some precious pictures of our babies that Mimi and Pappy LOVED and were so surprised about. I'd say it was a success!
We kicked off the beginning of our {9} Christmases with my family - my parents and my brother's family. Brad got home on Friday to a house full of people and we went non-stop the whole weekend! Friday night we made ornaments with the kids, had a yummy breakfast on Saturday morning, and then opened a whole lot of presents!
We weren't done yet though! We went from our Christmas to lunch with my mom's family for Williams' Christmas. Our sweet family always brings gifts for baby's first Christmas on top of our normal gift exchange, so Bryleigh went home with quite the haul. We are so blessed! Did I mention there were smores?
I am ALL about making memories and traditions, so one I've been looking forward to for a while is the Elf on the Shelf. After Brad an exciting win at the Cowboys game, Brad came home and we had our new friend all ready for Bryleigh, complete with a Christmas book and a Christmas movie (another tradition we'll continue each year). We finished out the night snuggled up in front of the Christmas tree watching Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas. We named our elf Dez, because duh?! #DezKnows {if you've been bad or good! ;) } Dez hung out for the next week showing up in some fun places, but I'm really looking forward to all the shenanigans he'll get into as Bryleigh grows up!!
 |
| Christmas week with our "Best Gift Ever" - must have been exhausting, cause there was LOTS of laying around! |
After the Christmas Eve service at Fielder, we headed over to Poppa B's and DeDe's from Christmas with Brad's family. Bryleigh was definitely getting a hang of the whole "opening presents" thing, and she was interested in all that was going on!
We finished up Christmas Eve with a little family story time and then getting all the fun Santa presents ready. Making memories with our sweet little girl definitely made this the BEST Christmas EVER!!
Christmas was JUST getting started, even though it seemed like we'd already celebrated a lot! Christmas morning we woke up to Santa surprises for Bryleigh and a yummy breakfast. We even got to FaceTime with Tate and Olivia a little bit to see how their Christmas morning went. It was hard being in two different places, but SO thankful for technology making the distance seem a little smaller (and thankful for all the extra special time we get to spend with them).
We spent Christmas lunch with Brad's dad's parents in Aubrey and dinner with Brad's mom's family in Kennedale. There were quite a few cat naps in the car and even more smiles from our Bryleigh girl. We had a great day with so many of our family members, and Bryleigh was blessed to spend her first Christmas Day with her mommy, daddy, aunt Erin, and BOTH sets of her grandparents!! (Thanks DeDe and Poppa B for inviting Mimi and Pappy to come along with us!)
Our Christmas celebrations continued with a trip to Sulphur Springs, by way of Canton for dinner with Alan's family. They weren't able to be at Armstrong Christmas this year, so we all had dinner with MawMaw and PawPaw on Friday night before Armstrong Christmas on Saturday. Anytime PawPaw gets together with Tate is a good time. We were also able to go visit with Grandmother while we were in town. (Goodness are we blessed with an amazing family?!)
Our little family of three went out to dinner for steaks at Texas Roadhouse to celebrate New Years Eve. 2014 was definitely a fabulous year {you can read our Year in Review here} and it was so nice to just sit and remember all that God's blessed us with over the past year. We had waited so long for our Princess and we wanted to ring in the new year with her! Not to mention Hotel Hammons was open for our normal guest - my brother comes to stay with us once a month while he is working on his PhD among other reasons...this time it was for the Baylor bowl game. We rang in the New Year with some sparkling grape juice and the New York City ball drop (we couldn't hang until Central time).
New Years Day was spent cheering on the Baylor Bears as they played in the Cotton Bowl. We had a fun watch party over at our house with my parents, Brad's parents, Brad's sister and her boyfriend Luke, and my aunt and uncle. (I'm not sure how we didn't end up with pictures of Bryleigh with Brad's family, but you can be sure Bryleigh got some dessert from DeDe, some good snuggling from Aunt Erin, and some serious smiles with Luke and Poppe B!) It was a very sad ending, but I am still so proud to be a Baylor Bear!
We also had fun cheering on the Cowboys during their Wildcard win...and not so much fun during their playoff loss. Win or lose, we love the boys in Silver and Blue!!
We spent one last night snuggling our "baby" girl on her first birthday eve after daddy got in from his week in North Carolina...always making memories with our sweet girl!
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