Week after Christmas

I am a couple weeks behind on my posting. This post is for the week after Christmas. Keith, Brooke and I flew back to Pittsburgh on Sunday the 26th. My mom flew in later that night. Then my brother Ryan and his wife Kelly drove in on Monday night. We had a great week of playing cards, eating, watching movies, and playing with Brooke. My mom could not get enough of Brooke. The last time she saw Brooke was in October. Brooke loves her Grammy. I think she recognizes her voice because we talk to her on speaker phone every day. She also enjoyed her time with Ryan and Kelly. They fed her sweet potatoes for the first time. They were a big hit!
Ryan and Kelly taught us to play Penuckle. It was kind of tricky to get all the rules but once we played a few rounds, it was tons of fun.
We opened our Christmas presents from each other on Monday night. Ryan came up with the idea that we should give a speech about the gift before we gave it to the person. It was funny to hear everyone's speeches.
My mom took all of us for breakfast at Pamela's. Ryan had never been there. I think my favorite thing to order is their California French Toast, so yummy!!
On Thursday night Keith and I went to dinner to celebrate our 4-year anniversary. It was really nice of my mom and Ryan to watch Brooke for us. We enjoyed a kid-free dinner.
Another big thing happened this week; Brooke got her first two teeth. Both of the front-bottom teeth came in at the same time. She looks so cute when she does a big smile. You can barely see them poking through the gums.
I used the Baby Cook for the first time this week. I made Zuchinni, Squash, Carrots and Sweet Potatoes. I am glad to have this cooker. After each batch was done I divided them up into little plastic containers that stack in the fridge. In just a few hours, I had three weeks of baby food made.
We had a quiet evening at home for New YEar's Eve. Keith popped a bottle of Champaigne and we rang in the new year at 10 PM. Keith was on-call for NEw Year's Day and I had to get up early to take my mom to the airport at 6:30 AM.
We had a great week with our family. It went by way too fast.

Sitting on Santa's Lap

We took Brooke to see Santa with a group of our Podiatry resident friends. She was in a great mood and dressed super cute. By the time we waited in line and actually reached Santa she had fallen asleep. I woke her up to put her on Santa's lap. She was not amused and would not smile. I guess it was good that she wasn't scared. We'll see how next year goes.

Christmas in Texas

We traveled back to Texas for Christmas this year. This was the 4th airline trip for Brooke and she did great. At one point the flight attendant came by and took her to sit with the other attendants in their section at the front of the plane. We spent the whole week at Keith's parents' house in Sunnyvale, TX. We really enjoyed our time there relaxing and hanging with family. The Saturday before Christmas we met the Hurst family in Southlake for a late lunch. They were in Dallas for the Cowboys game. We had a wonderful lunch with them. Their daughter Lauren had recently taken care of a "baby" for her child development class. Her computerized baby woke her up every hour for a feeding, etc. I know she was glad to be done with that project. Even after all of that headache she was still excited to be around Brooke and Claire. She did a great job entertaining them at the restaurant.
On Thursday Mark, Shevawn and Claire came over to Keith's parents to stay. I love to watch Brooke and Claire play together. Claire is always on the move and Brooke tries to grab her. Twyla had a big blanket spread out in the family room with the boys toys from growing up. They are still a big hit! Twyla worked with Brooke on her crawling every day. Brooke was able to inch along a little bit. She doesn't quite have it figured out yet. I am kind of glad for that.
On Thursday night, Josh and Steph drove in from Phoenix. Keith was so excited for Josh to finally meet Brooke. They brought their two dogs Ajay and Charlie. So, we now had 4 dogs in the house. Crazy!
On Friday morning we went to the shooting range. I had never shot a gun before and Keith wanted me to learn. I was pretty scared of shooting a gun; but I know it was important to learn. I can't say that I loved it; but I feel much more comfortable shooting now.
We spend Christmas Eve at Keith's grandma's house. There were 8 kids ages 6 and under. IT was a zoo. Brooke enjoyed eating all the wrapping paper. She looked so cute in her matching dress and hat. By the end of the evening she was hot and tired so we stripped her down to the diaper. She loved it!
We woke up on Christmas morning to our favorite holiday song; "you gotta get up, it's Christmas Morning" Santa brought the girls a lot of great stuff. My favorite gift was a Sing-A-Ma-Jig doll from Twyla. I was definitely more entertained with it than the babies. We got to see Keith's grandparents from Oklahoma and his aunt Jean Jean. Keith got me a kindle for Christmas. It was the perfect gift. I can hold Brooke and read. Plus it has a built in light that is great for reading in the dark. I am already on my second book.
We packed everything up on Saturday night and flew back on Sunday afternoon. It is nice to be back home but we really miss being with family.

6 Months old

Can you believe it? She is already 6 months old? The time has definitely flown. I have enjoyed every minute of being home with her; especially once we figured out her tummy issues. She has become such an animated and loud girl. We are entertained by her every day. On Friday night Keith and I were trying to watch a movie. She "talked" and made tooting noises for a good 30 minutes. Keith and I tried to take some 6 month pictures of her yesterday but she was more interested in playing with the dogs. She is not very gentle with them so they try to keep a safe distance. Sometimes Jackson will venture closer for some licking.
Here are some fun facts about Brooke at 6 months:
*She is finally in a size 2 diaper
*She is wearing 6 month clothes
*She is wearing a size 2 shoe
*She is eating baby oatmeal every day
*She sleeps 12-13 hours every night and takes 3 naps during the day
*She LOVEs people. She will go to anyone that wants to hold her.
*She can hold her own bottle
*The jumparoo is her favorite place to play
*She did her first couple crawls this week
*She can take her paci out and put it back in (sideways)
*She has been on 3 round trip airline flights
*She still loves bath time
*She drools so much that we go through 3-4 bibs a day
*She likes to be in the bumbo seat and watch people cook in the kitchen
*She loves the dogs
*She is almost able to sit up on her own

Cinnamon Pecans

One of the great things about being a McSpadden is the tradition of making Cinnamon Pecans at Christmas. Keith's grandparents have a pecan farm in Oklahoma and they put out a big crop every year. Keith's mom was nice enough to pass on the recipe. I made my first batch of pecans about a week ago. I gave some to the neighbors, mailman and friends. People are going nuts, ha, over this sweet treat. I made another batch this weekend and Brooke decided she wanted to help.
**Disclaimer - I realize that she appears to be too close to the knives on the counter. She cannot reach the knives and I was watching her the whole time.
Anyway, we had a great time making cinnamon pecans. We saved a pretty good size bowl for ourselves. Hopefully they will last until my family comes in town to visit.
I also put a couple pictures of Brooke on here after we "winterized" her car seat. SHe is much warmer now. Our temps are not supposed to be over 25 degrees for the next 10 days. Brrrrrr.......

Thanksgiving

I can't believe that Thanksgiving was a whole week ago. I am so late in posting this blog. We flew to Dallas on Wednesday before Thanksgiving. When we arrived in Dallas we were met with only one of our suitcases. Luckily it was the suitcase with all of Brooke's clothes. We reported our other bag missing. The bag clerk said the bag was still in Pittsburgh and would be on the next flight to Dallas. Hmmm...... One week later and still no bag.
Even though the trip started out kind of rough we had a great time. Mark and Shevawn were so nice to let us use their car for the drive down to Waco. They had the new baby's carseat for Brooke to use too. We drove from their house to pick up Twyla in Sunnyvale.
On our way to camping we stopped to attend the graveside service of my dear friend Rodney. He died suddenly after suffering a heart attack. He was my coworker at Encompass for the past 7 years. It was a very touching service. He was loved by everyone who knew him. I will miss him so much. I am glad to have so many great memories with him.
We got to the campsite in Waco on Wednesday night. Mark and Shevawn had already setup and organized our popup. It was the perfect size; 2 beds, a potty/shower, and a small kitchen. It definitely beats sleeping in a tent. Twyla had found a roaster box for Brooke to sleep in. It was the perfect size for her.
Our Thanksgiving meal was delicious as usual. The boys fried up 5 turkeys! The only bummer was the rain started falling right as everyone started eating. It also got really cold on Thanksgiving. Sadly, we all spent the rest of the day/night in our campers trying to stay warm. Keith went to the A&M game with Mike Rasmussen. Even though it was cold he was excited to watch the Aggies beat Texas.
The rest of the time camping was spent playing games, relaxing, eating and catching up with family and friends.
We were excited to get home and back to our beds, but sad to leave everyone in Texas. I love camping because we are away from all the hustle and hurried pace of the city. There is no schedule, you can dress comfy and good food is always around.