Merry Christmas!!

We hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas. I know for some of our friends the past few days have been tough due to many different circumstances, but please know that you have been in our thoughts and prayers.

The past few days have felt like a whirlwind at times and it is nice to be able to relax a little now. I was so thankful to have the entire week off last week in order to get things done and prepare for Christmas. December has been such a busy month, with concerts, parties, and school that we really haven't had a chance to relax. Becca, Joe, and I went shopping last Monday and she did really well. She thought it was hilarious when Joe pushed her in the stroller around the stores...not really sure why, but at least she was laughing, not crying. She also found it humorous to drop her cup and toys out of her stroller!

We spent Christmas Eve at Grammy and Papa Tiefel's house. It has been a tradition that we always have breakfast before we open our gifts. This is one of my favorite traditions with our family. I love eating the Christmas breakfast of eggs, mush, fruit, and other goodies. One of my favorite memories of Christmas is waking up, gathering around the kitchen table and listening to dad read the Bible and tell us about Jesus's birth. It helped keep the focus on the true meaning of Christmas. Now the tradition has been passed down to Christor who reads the story before we open presents.

Becca opened her first Christmas present here. I don't really think she understood she was supposed to keep unwrapping the gift because the good stuff was inside the package! She was more interested in playing with the tags or wrapping paper than finding out what the surprise was. I think we could have gotten her a box or paper for Christmas this year and she would have been content. We had a lot of fun watching Tyler get into the paper, Ava open her gifts, and Becca enjoy her books. As soon as she saw the books she would want to open them and point to the pictures. I love the fact that she will sit and turn the pages in the books and talk to herself. We say that she is telling us the story. I hope she continues her love of books! She loves the stuffed Tiger that she got from Uncle Hooney and the musical cow Grammy and Papa got her as well.

It was also fun to watch Becca, Ava, and Tyler interact. Here are some fun pictures. Becca was trying to poke Tyler, as well as grab his ears, and give him a kiss. So cute!

After Christmas with the Tiefel family, we went to Christmas Eve service at our church. Joe had his high school brass quintet playing so he went early. Becca as usual enjoyed the music, but Joe eventually took her outside of the sanctuary because she was getting a little loud! :) She was wanting her voice to be heard as well. He said he was outside with all of the other dads and grandparents with little ones. This is Becca in her Christmas dress before we left.

Christmas morning was fun. Joe and I have been talking about what traditions we want to start with our family. We haven't completely decided and it is hard because Becca is still so young, but we tried this year. I'm sure we will keep adding new traditions as she gets older. We woke up, fixed breakfast and gathered around (Becca in her high chair) and took turns reading from Luke 2. Then we all ate breakfast together as a family. After breakfast we opened gifts. Becca did a little better opening gifts. She was still more interested in the bows and paper. I also kept switching out the gifts so that she would keep opening them. She received some fun gifts! Here are some fun pictures.

After we had our family time, we spent the rest of Christmas day at Mamaw and Papaw Allen's house. We enjoy spending time with all of our family. We had a lot of fun and it was a blessed time. We laughed a lot, due to a fun board game which I'll tell you about in another post, and ate a lot of great food! We were all stuffed! Becca received her first laptop as well as a panda bear that she loved to give kisses. After all of the festivities the past day, she finally decided a nap was in order. It was a truly blessed two days and we continue to thank the Lord for all He has done for us this year and how he has blessed our family. I am so thankful that He gives us strength to get through each day! Merry Christmas! :)

Footprints

My friend and art teacher at Hoover had a surprise for me last week. I guess last April, when I brought Becca into school one day, Ann and Marci put her little feet in clay and made footprints for me. Even though I said to keep her away from the art supplies, they thought it would be fun to get her feet dirty! :) She fired it and glazed it and brought it in for me last week. It is so precious. You can see each little toe print and the date is on the back as well. Joe and I love it! It is amazing how much she has grown since then. Sometimes I don't realize it since I see her everyday. This is something we will treasure always!!

Laundry baskets....

Who needs expensive toys when you have a laundry basket???? Joe and I were folding laundry and putting it away last night. Since Becca doesn't sit still now, I decided to set her on the bed. She thought it would be fun to throw all of the clothes out of the laundry basket so I decided just to sit her in the basket. She found an empty wipes package and thought it was great fun to sit in the laundry basket and play with the package. Why do we buy all of the expensive electronic toys when kids seem content with boxes, cups, laundry baskets?? :) I had to watch her very carefully however because she learned that she could throw the package over the basket and then lean over making the basket fall on the side and get the package. She would then push herself back up again.

Becca is also starting early with wanting an iphone. She loves Joe's phone and whenever he has it reaches for it and almost whines until she gets to hold it. She loves "The Wheels on the Bus" app as well as "Baa Baa Black Sheep." She will sit still for at least 5 minutes and push the animations on "The Wheels on the Bus." When the fish goes "pop, pop" she says "pop, pop." Great fun!

Becca also has started figuring out how to put the shapes in one of her toys. Before she would just shake it, but now she is understanding that the shapes go in certain places. Of course with much help, the other day she was excited when she put one in and it fell through!

Christmas decorations

Over Thanksgiving weekend we put up our Christmas tree and other decorations. Thankfully so far Becca hasn't really seemed too interested in the Christmas tree (of course this could be due to the fact that I have it blocked off for the most part). She does however, love the decorations in which she can push the button and they snowmen move and the reindeer sings. Joe taught her how to push the button and she shakes her little bootie to the music and claps along. We hear the same Christmas carols many times!

We've hung up our stockings that were knitted by a friend of Judy Bolinger's. Joe and I have had our stockings since we were first married and then Judy gave us Becca's when she was born. What fun it is to see three stockings up this year.

Becca has also been hard at work painting and making dinner for us the past two weeks! :) Cheryl, her daycare provider, graciously makes dinner for all of the families of the children every Tuesday in December. It is such a blessing not to have to come home and make dinner. I love how she gets all of the kids involved. They make centerpieces by painting and glueing as well as help prepare the meal. Both meals have been delicious and I love the creativity. Obviously Becca just watches for the most part, but Cheryl has gotten her involved with painting. Here is an example of Becca's artwork.

Squealing with Joy

One of the band parents took this picture of Becca at our Marching Band Banquet. It is one of my favorites. She would hear the high school students yelling for each other and cheering when they received an award so Becca thought she would join in on the fun. I had a hard time keeping a straight face when they would cheer and then little Becca would squeal with delight and clap her hands. So cute! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful for this year and every year. Wonderful family, jobs, a great church family and friends, a cozy house, the freedom to worship Jesus, and much more. We are so thankful for Becca. I'm thankful that she is a healthy little girl with a sweet gentle spirit.

We spent Thanksgiving this year at Mamaw and Papaw Allen's house. Becca had a lot of fun. She enjoyed visiting with them and her cousin Anna. She is such a good eater and ate all of her Thanksgiving meal (turkey, green beans, potatoes, roll). After lunch both Becca and Joe decided it was time for a nap.

Becca has always liked bouncing up and down, but this week she has also started rocking back and forth. Fortunately for Becca, maybe not for Joe, Mamaw and Papaw had a bouncy horse that rocked back and forth as well as went up and down. She loved it!! She wouldn't let Joe stop. We took her out of it and she kept crawling back, pulling up, and looking at us like..."come on folks, I want to ride some more!" We had a great day!

Lots of bumps and falls

Becca has been cruising around the house a lot. She is becoming increasingly brave as she tries to hang on to the table and move to the couch or chair. Unfortunately we have had many falls as she attempts this. Some worse than others. She makes me so nervous and Joe and I have learned that her reaction to her fall sometimes depends upon our facial expressions.

She has learned the wonderful art of plopping down on her bottom and then crawling to get to the next spot. She loves to scoot her learning table across the room and at times stands by herself without leaning on it. This weekend she has tried to take steps on her own, but hasn't been brave enough to let go of mommy or the table completely. Two days ago in the morning, I came in her room and found her standing up chewing on the crib. This is the first time she has really seemed interested in doing this. However, the past two mornings and after naps she is standing up bouncing and ready for me to pick her up! She also has learned to raise her hands and say "Touch down." Okay...it sounds more like Ta da, but when Joe and I say Touch down she raises her hands as well! :) She really likes to play ball as well. She raises it up and throws it across the room and loves to chase after it.

Fun Fall pictures

I finally downloaded all of our marching band and fall pictures onto the computer to put on the blog. We had a busy, but fun fall. As I was looking through all of the pictures I had forgotten about some of them. As I was loading all of the new pictures, I was reminiscing and looking through the pictures we have taken of Becca the past 10 months. I can't believe how much she has grown. Joe commented the other day it is amazing how much she has learned and how God programs us. He said she just knows what to do. She has started "cruising" along the table. We didn't teach her this, she just figured it out. How amazing and wonderful.

Here are a few fun pictures of our fall....

One of the band parents took this picture. It was from a marching band competition in which it was extremely cold. I was sitting in the truck trying to keep Becca warm and feed her cereal at the same time (not so much fun). Becca decided she was much more interested in making faces at the band students and parents passing by.

The next picture is really of Becca's first experience in the leaves. She wasn't sure if she liked them or not. She eventually warmed up to them and wanted to eat them.

Christopher's birthday was Nov. 9 and we all celebrated the following weekend. Becca had a lot of fun with her cousins and with Great Grandma Tiefel. I can't believe that Christor is 17 already. He will be graduating in another year. I remember when he was born and when he used to come visit me at college. Now he will be going to college soon. Everytime I realize how quickly the years go it makes me stop and evaluate my priorities and what I spend my time on.

Halloween pics

I don't have all of our Halloween pictures yet, but here are a few cute ones. We didn't really take Becca trick-or-treating....one because she is a little young and two because Joe was at a marching band competition. However, Friday night after band practice the band had a Halloween party that we went to. We came to part of their practice and Becca just sat and watched as they marched around the gym since it was raining outside. The kids were allowed to dress up in their costumes as well. I was worried that she might be scared by some of them, but she really wasn't. It was really hard to get a picture of her smiling though. I think part of it was that it was past her bedtime and the other part was she was in this big fluffy bumblebee costume! She was too cute. I think that I had more fun dressing her up than she did in her costume. Anyway...here are a few pictures and I will post more as I get them loaded!

Things are changing so quickly!

Our last blog was about Becca finally starting to crawl forward. Since that blog (actually a couple of days later) she started pulling up on the tables, couch, and even our legs. It seems as soon as she learns one skill, many others follow. She loves pushing her baby stroller around and trying to walk across the living room. We have had many bumps and bruises the past couple of weeks, but she is getting stronger every day!
She has learned how to play peek-a-boo by herself. She will either raise her shirt up and cover her face or she uses a blanket that is near her. I love seeing her huge smile after we say "Peek-a-boo, I see you!." She just thinks that is hilarious.




Becca also has an increasing interest in her books. She will sit and look through the pictures and babble for a little bit. She also enjoys emptying them out of her basket and off of the bookcase. She loves her new Elmo book. We are so grateful to one of the band parents, Jen Morris, for giving us a bagful of books! Becca loves all of the books that Jen picked out for us and we have much fun reading them.




Books have been fun, but Becca does not like her toothbrush. Since she is eating mostly table food, we decided it would be good to try and brush her teeth. She doesn't agree. She closes her mouth and will not open it when she sees the dreaded toothbrush coming towards her. So....I thought we would try letting her play with it after dinner one night. She slowly warmed up to it, but as soon as I tried to stick it in her mouth she was not having that! Hopefully she will warm-up to it soon!

We have a crawler!

Last night Becca actually crawled forward for the first time. She has been traveling backwards for quite sometime, but last night she took her first venture forward. We were so excited for her. I, as a mom, kept worrying that she was nearing 9 months and still not crawling. Especially when you hear of other babies that are crawling earlier, but as all of the books say each baby is different and they develop at their own rate. She was so happy last night and today she is still trying to understand that she really can move somewhere to get her toys. Now, Joe and I have to keep everything picked up and truly baby-proof the house! What fun. I can't tell you how excited both of us were. It just made my heart happy. I love seeing her milestones and seeing her experience new things.

Weekend away

This weekend was the first time that Becca spent the night away from home without mommy and daddy. I think it affected us more than her though. Joe and I were supposed to have a marching band competition yesterday in Martinsville and wouldn't be getting back until 2am so we decided it would be best for Becca to go stay and Grammy's and Papaw's house. However the competition ended up being canceled, but we still had rehearsal all day so I ended up leaving her there. She had a great time playing with Uncle Hooney, seeing her cousins, and playing with Grammy and Papaw. She had a great time but also did show her temperamental side while she was there. Mom kept saying what a ham she was. Becca is such a people person. I think she will smile at almost anyone. She also really studies people whom she has never met before. I'm thankful right now that she is comfortable around almost anyone.
Becca had a lot of fun rocking in the little chair as well as pulling on Ava's hair! I was worried she wouldn't sleep through the night because she was in a new place, but she did fabulous! Mom said she went to bed around 8 and slept until 6:30. Joe and I had a hard time coming home with no Becca there. It is amazing to me that just a year ago this precious little girl wasn't here and it was just the two of us and now we can't imagine our lives without her. I had a hard time walking by her bedroom and not seeing her there.

Two weeks worth of events!

Okay...so it's time to update our blog. We have been so busy the past two weeks that I haven't had a chance to sit down (or I've been too tired) and write about Becca's new adventures. First off, she is much better. She was still a little sluggish after her fever broke, but is now back to her old self. While she was sick, she got so used to me holding her that even when she was feeling better she did not want to be put down. We had to try and break this! So, I had to let her sit on the floor and cry, or scream it out. Here is a picture of her after her little fit.Becca has attended two more band competitions since our last post. She has done really well at both of them. The last weekend of September though she showed her dramatic side. I felt really bad because I got her leg caught as I was pulling her out of her stroller and she definitely let everyone at the competition know about it! I haven't really heard her scream that loudly before. However, when I would walk away from the band and all of the parents she would calm down and as soon as I walked back and someone came up to her she started crying and screaming again. I think we have a little drama queen on our hands! It made me feel horrible about catching her leg in the stroller. It was quite red and I felt horrible that I caused her pain!
We had a band shirt made for Becca that she wears at all of the comps. It says CHS Band on the front and Becca #1 Fan on the back. Here is a picture of her sporting her CHS gear!

The ISSMA District competition at Lawrence North was really cold. I'm really glad I bundled her up. I really didn't realize how cold it was though until we were outside in the wind. She didn't have any problem keeping warm though with all of the band moms surrounding her . We also found some band gloves to put on her hands to keep them warm. This made me realize that I really need to get her a winter coat. I was trying to wait as long as possible though. Some of the pictures below were taken by the band moms hanging around. A lot of the smiles are because they were dangling her dolly in front of her and making silly faces! One of the moms said that I should charge admission and it could go towards her college fund! Even though it was cold she was great at the competition. However, in the car she gets a little restless on the ride to the competition and back. So..we have to play the CD that Aunt Meghan gave us. The band staff knows "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Aiken the Drum" really well by now. :) We even played the CD through the walkie talkies so all of the parents could hear! I think Aiken the Drum is hilarious and can't helping laughing the entire time. Becca loves the CD and calms down as soon as it is playing!



Besides band competitions there have been other fun events as well. It has been long overdue, but we finally put her highchair together. She loves it and it is great for me when I'm trying to get dinner together. Gone are the days when I could lay her on the floor in the living room and come back and she would still be in the same spot. She now moves around so much I really have to watch her. She still isn't crawling forward, she decided she would like to crawl backwards. One evening I left the room really quickly and when I came back she was in the hallway pounding on the wood floor.



Besides the hallway she is exploring other areas as well. She got herself caught between the chair and a wall last Sunday as well as under her exersaucer. We have also been experimenting with new foods. She really likes to feed herself bananas, wheat bread, peas and carrots. She did try cheese, but I think she is still sensitive to dairy. We still of course rely on Puffs and Cheerios as well! I can't believe she is almost 9 months. We are really enjoying this age. She is so fun and such a "ham." Everytime I go to take a picture she sees the flash and gets a big grin on her face. She also has started crinkling her nose. She and Joe were going back and forth crinkling their noses at each other the other day. Some say that is a mommy face because of pictures when I was little. She is so silly! Here are some more fun pictures.