Feliz Navidad

So last night we had all my moms side of the family over to our house for a Christmas party. We had YUMMY soup and bread bowls, hot chocolate, and homemade cinnamon rolls. Each family exchanged gifts. We got a beautiful picture of Christ, a nerf gun, and bracelets for Berlyn and I. My grandma gave us an ornament of the Quetzal bird from Guatemala. (She gets all the grandkids a new ornament every year for Christmas so by they time they are my age and married they will have a tree full). She also gave Bear a Guatemalan tie and sling-shot. She gave Berlyn two Guatemalan dolls and I got a Guatemalan purse and necklace. Then we skyped my grandparents so they could watch our program. Each family sang a Christmas song. Our family sang "Feliz Navidad" with Bear playing the guitar. I love my family. As my Grandma said last night, "There is no greater joy than family." Merry Christmas!

My mom even found a cute little sombrero for Berlyn. :)

Gingerbread House 2011

So Bear wanted to make a gingerbread house this year. We made it ALL from scratch. It took about 2 hours to get the measurements right for the model before we started baking. The gingerbread alone took about 5 hours to get everything made...then it took about another 17 hours (all from about 9:30pm to 1am) to get everything put together and decorated. PHEW! That was a lot of work, but it paid off. We think it looks pretty darn good. It is a gingerbread model of Bear's parent's house in Utah.

This will be one of our family traditions with our kids. Of course this will probably be the best looking one until all our kids are older, but still it will be a fun bonding time for all of us. I can't wait!

 Berlyn was very fascinated by the house. She wouldn't stop staring.

 Front. Like the porch?

Like our homemade trees? Skill right there...

 Sun room and garage.

 Basketball hoop and car.

 Backyard.

 Homemade tree again, trampoline, and firewood. Look at the porch and stairs. Impressive huh?

 Chimney.

 Why hello Santa. A little stuck?

Berlyn and the gingerbread house. :)

Three Months

On November 30, Berlyn turned 3 months! Wow that felt like it went fast. Here is an update.

• As you probably already knew, Berlyn had her first laugh (see previous post for video).
• She rolled over a few more times.
• She can hold her head up while on her stomach.
• She does little push-ups with her arms while on her stomach.
• She now weighs over 12 pounds (not sure by how much, we go to the doctor again at the beginning of January)
• She is talking (cooing), squealing, and gurgling at us ALL the time. 
• She loves her mommy and now recognizes my face and daddy's face.
• She sleeps in her own crib and in her own room now.
• The longest she has slept without eating is 11 hours (does not do this all the time though).
• She has found her hands. She loves playing with them. 
• She can now grab objects you put in front of her hands, but will not reach for them yet.
• She has been able to hold her head up since about 1.5 months.
• She is still eating every 2-3 hours (probably because we are nursing).
• Her hair is still growing and growing. No bald spot yet. It is starting to come in lighter...blonde in the front. We can do twists and put her hair in a ponytail.

Look at our chunky monkey! We love her!

Berlyn's First Laugh

So after family pictures on Sunday we all went to my parents house for dinner (ham, corn, scallop potatoes, and homemade french bread. mmmmm). After dinner we were all sitting around the dining room table and Uncle Talor just starts doing his Donald Duck noises and all of a sudden she starts cracking up and couldn't stop. Bear hurried and got it on video. It was so funny we were all dying laughing. Towards the end it started to scare her, she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She was pretty tired. She crashed right afterwards. AH we love her!

Family Pictures 2011

This past Sunday we had our family pictures taken by our long time friend Marci. She took ours last year as well. She does a great job. The lighting and location were perfect.

Now for picture overload....

These look amazing. I love my family!

Thanksgiving 2011

Berlyn's First Thanksgiving. This year we were with Bear's family. They all came down from Utah. Bear's siblings met Berlyn for the first time. They decided to start driving tuesday night and got to our house early Wednesday morning. CRAZY! They were all exhausted and pretty much passed out on the floor as soon as they got here. Bear's siblings were so excited to meet Berlyn. Only Bear's parents had seen her before when they came down for Berlyn's baby blessing at the beginning of October. So it had already been over a month since his parents saw her last. And man is she a lot bigger now. I think she weighed almost 9 pounds for her blessing, and now she is probably almost 13 pounds...maybe more. She is a chunk, but a cute one. They just kept passing her around and could not get enough of her...I don't blame them.
Well that Wednesday night we went to Bear's sister Brittany's engagement party at Aunt Marci's house. Brittany is marrying Rodolfo from Argentina. They are cute together.

Thursday, Thanksgiving, Bear ran the Turkey trot. He ran a best time in his Prefontaine tank and shorts and mustache.

While Bear was gone, baby and I went to the PACKED Walmart to get the ingredients we needed to make stuffing and candied yams to take for dinner. Bear got home a little bit after us and we made the stuffing and candied yams and quickly ran out the door to meet everyone at Grandma Crismon's house for Thanksgiving dinner. We had a great time. Lots of mashed potatoes, rolls, stuffing, candied yams, turkey, salad, olives, green bean casserole, and of course PIE, pumpkin, blueberry and apple. YUM! Even though I shouldn't have, I had a little bit of stuffing and mashed potatoes and pie.....and let's just say baby has been a little cranky since :/ oops... We stayed over there pretty much all night.

Friday we didn't really see his family at all. They came over that night just to see Berlyn. They had a busy day out and about. We all gathered in our front room listening to Bear, Lexa, and Brody play some music. Then it turned into just Bear ha he sure is like his dad...he loves to be the center of attention around his family...and they think he is soooo funny it's hilarious. Bear was trying to make up a song about Rodolfo, but it wasn't working out so great....but since then he has mastered a song they need to hear :)

Saturday, Bear and Grandpa Fred went on a long bike ride, 50 miles while the girls went to the Chandler mall to see Aunt Erica while she was working. We had a fun time. This was a great weekend. Glad the Behrmann's came down. We love spending time with them.

Here are a few photos....baby was sleeping, it was late. Uncles Brett and Brody are missing from these pictures, but there is Rodolfo, Lexa, Brittany, Berlyn, Michelle, Shelby and Fred.

 so they all pretended they were sleeping too...

Almost there!

So I only have ONE more pound to lose to be at my pre-pregnancy weight! ONE! Let me type it again....ONE! whoo hoo!!! AND at the beginning of the week before last, I FINALLY fit into my regular jeans again! LIFE IS GOOD!

ALSO...Berlyn's hair is long enough to put into a ponytail. haha Let's hope it stays that way!

I wish I would have gotten her whole face in there, but oh well... still cute.