Christmas photos!

Happy Holidays! We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Brenna's first Christmas was very exciting. She really loved looking at the tree. We had lots of family at our home on Christmas Day. Brenna was overwhelmed and was very wound up by the end of the night. She enjoyed getting new toys and spending time with her Papaw, Aunt Susan and Uncle Casey, brothers and sister, and her cousin Jen and Servet. I took over one hundred photos...here are a few. Can you say photo overload in Picasa? I just randomly picked a few to post.



Brenna turned five months old on Christmas Day!


Rocking the Santa hat.


One of Papaw's favorite photos of the day.



She liked the wrapping paper.


A new book and lots of teethers.


Hanging out with her new turtle friend.


Present time!


Brenna and her brother.


Brenna with her sister.


Can I eat this?


Brenna with her Aunt Susan and Uncle Casey.

More photos just because

Brooks is guarding the tree.


He still has not moved. Maybe it is because Tiger is under the tree?

Brenna ready to go out shopping for stocking stuffers.


Sleepy Baby!


I normally don't buy things with ears on them, but this jacket is so cute on her. Thanks Jen! We love it!

A prezzy from Nana and Papaw


Opening a present with Daddy.


Brenna's visit with Santa.

Brenna says DaDa

Brenna started saying Da Da today. She has no idea what it means. It is just a new sound she can make, but it was so precious to hear. Ken is sooo excited. Every time we picked her up she would break out a chorus of dadadada. Our excitement just fueled the fire, so she spent the better part of the day practicing her new sounds. Ken is giddy. Mama doesn't think it is fair that she carried Miss Brenna for 9+ months and puked constantly for 19 weeks only to have a little girl who only wants her Daddy.

I posted video...if I can get it to upload this time. Brenna gets very grumpy when a camera is in her face, so the Dada was only cute for a minute and not quite as vigorous as usual. I stopped when I saw the meltdown coming. She does not like to be video taped.

Making homemade baby food is the easiest thing ever!

Brenna is eating cereal like a pro now. The pediatrician wants us to start her on veggies now as well. I refuse to use store bought baby food in jars because of recalls in past years and because I just have no way to really know what is in them. Not to mention how expensive those tiny jars are. Soooo....tonight I made baby food.

So far, I have made a tray of avocado, a tray of green beans, and I have butternut squash roasting in the oven. I will puree that later. It took me a total of 15 minutes to make the avocado and green beans. They both smell heavenly! I opened a jar of baby green beans (it was a shower gift) to compare them to my homemade. The color was dark and the smell and taste was very bland. I wouldn't eat that stuff! My homemade organic beans are bright green, smell like cooked fresh beans, and the taste is much stronger than the jar stuff. I am not turning back or second guessing myself on this decision. I can't wait to see how she does with them.

Brenna's first Christmas present!

Brenna got her first Christmas present by mail today. We let her have the gift early. I participate in a local mommies message board on thenest.com. We did a Secret Santa type gift exchange for the babies. It was a lot of fun to shop for gifts to send to the person we drew.

Brenna wanted nothing to do with unwrapping the gift. I really didn't expect her to help, but thought we would try for fun. The gift was three different Fisher Price teethers. Brenna loves to put EVERYTHING in her mouth, so these are perfect for her. I gave her the teethers one at a time while she was on her play mat. After she checked them out, she scooped up all three at one time and was randomly chewing away at each of them. She did the same thing when I propped her upright on the sofa. It seems she wants both hands busy while she chews on her toys. I grabbed the camera and snapped some photos!

Sending a huge thanks to Catrina and Aleck! Brenna really likes her toys.





"Uh oh! Mommy has the camera out again!"



Brenna trying out all three teethers.


She had not yet noticed that she dropped two of them.


Really checking over the doggy rattle teether.



All three in hand again. Appears this is the way she prefers it.