Home For the Holidays

What a week! On Tuesday, Dec. 22nd, we loaded everything up and headed to Northwest Iowa to start our Christmas. We spent a few days in Spencer with Andy's family and a few days in Sheldon with Kelly's family. Not only did we have our Christmas events, but also 22 inches of snow! It was definitely a white and crazy Christmas. Marie's first Christmas was eventful, exciting, and exhausting to say the least. We are back in DesMoines as of Tuesday, the 29th. Time to unpack and relax for the rest of the break. Here are some photos of the week:

All of Grandma Van Beek's Grandkids

Sitting in front of the tree at Grandma & Grandpa Mueting's house.

And here is how our little MarieB is spending her evening - sound asleep in her own bed :)

SANTA TIME

We took the plunge and went to see Santa on Saturday. There were several places to go, but we chose to visit Bass Pro Shops because we heard their winter wonderland was quite special. The Santa is even featured in an article at www.desmoinesregister.com.

Limited standing in line + happy baby = happy mom & dad! When it was Marie's turn, she sat on Santa's lap (real beard, good guy), took a picture, and then he was talking to her and she grabbed his beard and gave a hug...very sweet. Several "awwwws" were heard from the other parents waiting. All in all a good experience. Here is a picture from the day. No smile, but still adorable.

Snow Day

Iowa was hit with a huge blizzard this week leaving us all trapped in our house. No school, no test, no daycare...just fun family time and lots and lots of shoveling! Here are some pictures of our snow day adventures:

Who is this masked man? Andy was sinking into the snow it was so high.

One of our many trips outside to shovel.

Our little girlie sitting by the tree.

A bath had to be interjected in the middle of cookie decorating due to an explosive
you know what....

This is how Charlie spent the day.

Mommy and Marie decorating her first cookie.

Marie was definitely wanting a taste of that frosting...
Finished product - delicious!!! All in all this was a very fulfilling snow day. It was nice knowing that we had nowhere that we had to be and we could relax with some family time.
Happy Holidays everyone!!!

Marie's First Thanksgiving

This past week was spent between Spencer and Sheldon visiting family and friends. Marie had a very busy Thanksgiving being held, giggled with, being held, getting rocked to sleep, being held, and playing with cousins, oh, and being held! It was great to be home for awhile and see our family.

Cousin Alissa showing Marie pictures

Alissa & Abby feeding Marie a bottle. I think maybe Andy & I fed her one or 2 bottles the whole time...

Thanksgiving Family Picture - Char was exhausted from a good day of hunting.

Marie and Grandpa

Christmas in November

I was trying to get them to look at the camera, but Dad was more interesting.

Charlie wants to make sure Marie doesn't get away...

Dad & Marie studying on a Sunday morning.

Our tradition is to decorate for Christmas the weekend before Thanksgiving...that way when we get back home after visiting family for Turkey Day, our house is all ready for Christmas. This post has a wide array of pictures of us decorating, playing, and studying. Enjoy!

Say Cheese!

Marie had her first photo shoot on Saturday afternoon. She did so well!! It was hard to choose only a few poses because they were all really good. Here is a preview. Enjoy!

I love this picture...you can tell she was a little sleepy at this point.

Look at that smile - too cute.

5 months old!

"I can't believe I am 5 months old already!!"
Marie is officially 5 months old already and she has really changed in the recent days. She is eating baby food (she LOVES sweet potatoes) and sitting up all by herself! She talks and squeals ALL the time and she is trying really hard to blow zerbits with her tongue and lips. (FYI, some people refer to that noise as raspberries, growing up, my family used zerbits)
Life is busy but so much fun with Marie in it. We feel very blessed to have her. Just the other night Andy was holding her while she was sleeping and we both commented on how we can't believe she is this old already! We want time to slow down so we don't miss anything...

"so...this is what grass feels like."

Double Whammy

Well...we made it 5 months, but Marie officially has had an ear infection. She was doing great last week - sleeping through the night, happy, eating veggies, even sitting up all by herself. Then on Friday afternoon I got a call to get her from daycare as she had a 101.5 temp and she had thrown up. She and I spent the next 2 hours at Urgent Care waiting to see a doctor. Her fever broke with the help of Tylenol and she even ate a little bit while we were waiting. She fell asleep and slept through the exam. I then received the news of ear infection, not in one ear, but BOTH! Poor girlie had been dealing with that all week but she never acted like it. We laid low all weekend and Monday too. We are also back on the nebulizer and the dreaded albuterol medicine which gives her insomnia. We hope to be better soon as we are all VERY excited to go home for Thanksgiving and see our families!

Fall Fun

Here are some pictures of Marie enjoying the fall leaves and cool weather. What you can't see is Charlie digging at the leaves like crazy as if he thought we were going to leave her in the pile and he had to rescue her! Unfortunately with the weather and her bronchiolitis, we didn't get to a pumpkin patch, so we created our own.

Our Jack O' Lantern Girl

Friday night was Marie's first Halloween Party at her daycare. All her friends were there in their costumes. She spent most of the night with her eyes wide open and staring at all the costumes and bright lights. It was nice for us to meet the other parents, too. Yes there is a bow in her hair and yes, I had to use tape....but doesn't she look cute? Enjoy the pictures!

No more nebulizer!

We had a check up for Marie yesterday and her lungs are clear! We can be done with the nebulizer unless we feel her cough is returning. She had definitely had enough of that machine and the treatments were getting difficult to complete without her pulling it away from her face. In other news, she finally slept through the night again! We are so happy to have her back to her old self - just in time for her daycare Halloween party this Friday night!

New Toy, New Tricks

Grandpa & Grandma found a new toy and Marie is having so much fun with it. When the lion roars, she gets all excited, rolls over, and balances on her tummy!

mmmm cereal

Marie is such a big girl now she is starting to eat rice cereal! Although a messy eater, she definitely enjoys it!

Good news...

Marie is starting to get better! Her cough has definitely lessened, but her sleeping is not improving. Her medicine, albuterol, causes her to be restless and agitated, especially during the night. She is waking up 3-4 times in this whiney-cry, yet she is still kind of asleep....very odd. Last week was rough, but we are hopeful that this week we can catch up on some things and get Marie better. On a lighter note, Marie experienced her first snow! She loves looking outside no matter what is going on out there, but I definitely think she is going to take after her mommy and love the snow and winter months. Charlie seemed less than thrilled, but a warm blanket on a couch seemed to cheer him up.

Poor Marie...

Marie has had about a month of congestion and sleepless nights. We thought it was allergies, common cold, or just getting used to the cool fall weather. The past 4 nights she has not slept much at all and would cough, cough, cough until she would throw up. Daddy was always checking her chest with his stethoscope but they were always clear so we didn't go to the doctor right away.

We finally took her to the doctor today and she has bronchiolitis. It is like a common cold in your bronchioles. She more than likely caught a little bug and it went straight to her lungs. She is on nebulizer treatments 3 times a day with albuterol. She is such a good girl and sits still for them so far. She doesn't like the mask, but she is dealing well so far. She is fine to go to daycare but she will have to get one treatment while there during the day.

Pray for a quick recovery so she (and mommy & daddy) can sleep through the night!!!

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin' on the table

SHE DID IT! Marie rolled over to her stomach on Sunday, Oct. 4th at supper time. We set her on the table while we were eating and she rolled right over! She had been working so hard at it at home and daycare. We are sooo happy it happened at home so we could both see it happen. What a big girl she is getting to be....