Tatum Wedding

Talk about a busy week.... we finished it off by attending the wedding of one of Kyle's good friends from high school, Leslie Robbins. It was so much fun to get dressed up, drop Katelyn off with the grandparents and enjoy some time to ourselves. We got to catch up with many of our friends we haven't seen in several months. The wedding was beautiful and the bride looked exquisite. Her dress was so beautiful, I'm kicking myself that I don't have a picture of it to post. I will have to find one from a friend. Congrats Leslie and Tim!

Circle Family Chrismtas

On Saturday we headed down the mountain and headed over to Kyle's grandparents house for Circle family Christmas. It was so wonderful to see the family and enjoy some great food, conversation, and a gift exchange. Thanks Papa and Grandma Circle for all the wonderful gifts for Katelyn.

Katelyn's becoming very mobile and she's finally figured out how to army crawl forward. She's keeping me on my toes that's for sure. Pretty soon she'll be crawling and pulling herself up on everything.

Papa Billings, Papa Circle and Brendan

4 Generations: Grandma Circle, Me, Katelyn, Jan and Nana Billings

Family Bowling Night

Another one of the Circle family traditions is to head over to the Bowling Barn in Big Bear for some good ol' family competition. Every year we try to beat Kyle's brother Brendan, and this year Kyle and his sister Leah pulled out all the stops. They tied the first game at 115 pts. to beat Brendan and then Kyle beat him in the 2nd game with a score of 165 pts. I, on the other hand, am not a very good bowler and go to enjoy the friendly banter. Katelyn had so much fun at the bowling alley watching everyone bowl. She danced to the music as we passed her around from lap to lap. It never ceases to amaze me how easy going she is. Not only did she enjoy bowling, but then we went out to dinner and she sat in her high chair playing with her toys and watching football on tv. 

All bundled up and ready to go bowling

Katelyn bowling with Auntie Leah

The gang: Kyle, Me, Brendan, Leah and Katelyn
Brendan and Leah

Christmas Dinner at The Sizzler

Every Christmas Kyle and I spend with the Circle family we always go to The Sizzler for Christmas dinner. Even though it was freezing and snowing, we all bundled up and hoped in the car to enjoy some steak and shrimp.




Another present...?
Thanks Great-Great Aunt Vickie!

Merry Christmas!!

We had to get a picture of Katelyn in front of the tree before she ripped into all her presents.

Katelyn and her Grandpa Doug

Katelyn and Grandma Jan

When we were in Boston shopping with my Mom we saw this in the window at Brookstone. My Mom remembered Kyle and I talking about how great that would be for him to use when he's working on his laptop. He was so excited when he opened it!

My Mom bought Katelyn her first Bible, so cute! She loved looking at all the pictures.

Christmas Eve

This picture was taken the afternoon when we arrived in Big Bear. Since I'm always the one behind the camera I don't have many cute pictures of Katelyn and I, so I was excited when Kyle's Mom, Jan, took this one.

On Christmas Eve Jan's Aunt Vickie and Uncle Chuck came over to visit us at the cabin. We got some pictures of Katelyn playing drums to the new Bidwell tracks, to be released soon. She was having so much fun with her grandma.

Here's Katelyn spending some time with her Great-Great-Aunt Vickie and Great-Great Uncle Chuck.

After enjoying a delicious dinner we all headed downtown to the Calvary Chapel Big Bear to attend the Christmas Eve service. Katelyn was so good during the service and even sang along as we sang Christmas carols. After church we headed home to enjoy some dessert and family stories.

Snow Bunny

We arrived safely in Big Bear yesterday afternoon and spent the afternoon and early evening relaxing. Then Kyle's parents babysat Katelyn so Kyle and I could have a movie date night. yeah! We went to go see Four Christmases. It was hilarious! This morning we all slept in, ate some delicious Boston coffee cakes (thanks Mom!) and decided to head outside and get some pictures of Katelyn in the snow. Her Grandma and Grandpa Circle bought her a cute winter coat and it kept her toasty warm outside. Check out her cute mittens, my mom bought them for her while we were in Boston, too cute! We're watching the weather, it just started to rain and we're expecting snow beginning at 5 and a severe storm around midnight. Gotta love a white Christmas, I sure do!

Heading up the mountain

Kyle, Katelyn and I are heading up to Big Bear tomorrow and will be gone until the 27th. We're going to be celebrating Christmas up there with Kyle's family. Each Christmas we go up there we enjoy bowling at the Bowling Barn, eating dinner at Sizzler's, enjoying a Christmas Eve service, drinking cocoa by the fire and of course getting some skiing in. Then on December 27th we have our Christmas celebration with Kyle's extended family and a wedding on December 28th. Busy, busy week ahead, but I'm looking forward to it! We'll take lot's of pictures for the blog.

Merry Christmas!!

Full Filled Weekend of Light and Celebrations

Last Saturday we gathered together with some of our good friends at the Caston's for a Christmas celebration. We hadn't seen everyone in a couple of weeks so it was fun to catch up, enjoy pizza, decorating cookies, and a gift exchange. Everyone did such a great job buying for the person they had for the gift exchange (Thanks Patty and Cesar!). Now that Katelyn's sitting up so well on her own and starting to become more mobile, she was able to interact with Kylie and Ella. Then on Sunday Kyle and I took Katelyn to look at Christmas lights. She fell asleep during our excursion, but at least she saw some lights. Every year Kyle and I always go, I guess you could say it's our tradition. We came home, put Katelyn to bed and spent the next couple of hours putting our Christmas cards together to get them in the mail. Keep a look out you should be getting our newsletter and family photo in the next week or so.

Christmas Clock

My Nana is an amazing painter! When I was in high school and we would visit during the summer my Nana and I would paint together. She painted a "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" clock for Katelyn for Christmas. It turned out so beautifully. My Nana and Mom were able to watch her try to open it via video chat. It took Katelyn 15 minutes or so to open the present, but she had fun figuring out how to rip the paper, so she could eat it of course. =) Thanks Nana!

How Rude!

I was shopping at Target today and I had Katelyn in the Bjorn so I could push the cart. A toothbrush fell out of the cart and as I was trying to pick it up this mom and daughter walked by me. Instead of helping me the girl stepped over me and the toothbrush as she continued her conversation with her mother as they walked by. She almost kicked Katelyn in the head because she didn't slow down, stop, or even help and I was bent over trying to make sure Katelyn didn't fall out of the Bjorn while I picked up the toothbrush. I have to admit it made me more than I little bit upset.

Katelyn in her Jumparoo

My Mom bought Katelyn the Rain Forest jumparoo for Christmas and she loves playing in it. She's obsessed with sucking on the little bug that hangs from the toys! Kyle and I were impressed it only took her 2 days to figure out how to jump in it. She's so smart! At night we put on music and she jumps to the beat while we dance around. The doctor says playing music is great for the development in the right side of her brain, which is great because we're a musical family. We tried to catch some of the jumping on camera, it's a little dark, but I think you can see her.

Way to go Grandma Bachran!

My grandma in Hawaii recently had an article written about her in the Honolulu Advertiser. She looks great! Recently she was picked by AARP magazine to represent fabulous looking, healthy seniors over the age of 60. She will be on the cover of the January/February issue. You look great Grandma, we love you!

6 Month Check up

Katelyn had her 6 month check up and shots today. The doctor said she's ahead of the "development track" and it looks like she'll be crawling any day now. In the meantime she's rolling over to get wherever she's trying to go. She weighed in at 17lbs and was 25 inches long. She's a little petite for her age, but what can I say, her daddy and I are not the tallest trees in the woods. *lol* I'm just glad she's healthy! 

A Birthday Celebration

On Saturday night our family went out to dinner to celebrate Kyle's mom's birthday. Every year it's a tradition to go to The Summit House in Orange. Delicious food, amazing atmosphere, especially around the holidays... what more can you ask for?! Katelyn got to take her first limo ride and she was enamored with the lights on the limo ceiling. She had so much fun bouncing from lap to lap during dinner visiting with her grandparents, great-grandparents, aunt and uncle. She only began looking for Mama when she was ready to take a cat nap on my shoulder. Dinner lasted 3 1/2 hours and she was the perfect angel through all of it. We are so blessed to have such a good natured little girl. Happy 5-0 Jan!! We love you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA JAN!!

We love you!!!

Busy Bee's

Here are some pictures from the fun things we've been up to lately.

We went out to dinner with Great-Papa and Grandma Circle after Kyle put up their Christmas lights. Katelyn couldn't decide what she wanted to order so she settled on eating the menu. She's so cute sitting in her high chair at the restaurant.

Back at the house after dinner. Katelyn was in such a good mood, I had to take some pictures.

Kyle's Mom watching Katelyn for a whole afternoon so that I could have some "Me" time. The weather was beautiful and I had a wonderful time walking around Fashion Island Mall finishing up some Christmas shopping and drinking coffee on a bench while people watching. There's something about the holidays that makes people nicer than other times of the year, I think. I had so many people walk by and wish me a Merry Christmas! Thanks Grandma Jan for watching Katelyn so I could enjoy a day to myself.

Kyle's Nana Billings came over to visit with Katelyn and so I could help her import pictures into her Christmas newsletter. Thanks for lunch Nana!

Katelyn's enjoying our weekly walks. She naps in the stroller as I walk. Here she is all ready to go.

Christmas Traditions

My MOPs mentor mom emailed our group a couple days ago wishing us a happy holidays and mentioned Christmas traditions that she and her husband started when they had their family. It was such a great email and reminded me of some of the traditions we had in my home growing up. On Christmas Eve we would always light a couple candles, read Luke 2 and then I would buy a new children's book about Christmas each year and I would read it to my family. I've known that I wanted to be a teacher since I was 11 so I would practice my reading skills each year. Then we would open 1 present before bed. 

When Kyle and I got married we began new traditions as we spend one Christmas with his family and one with mine. When we spend Christmas with Kyle's family we go up to the family cabin in Big Bear and on Christmas Eve we go bowling and eat out at Sizzler's. Then on Christmas Day we go skiing and then come home and open presents. With my family we still open 1 present on Christmas Eve and have a big family dinner.

My mentor mom's email got me thinking about new traditions that Kyle and I could begin now that we have a family of our own. We are beginning with #9. 

Here are some of her suggestions:

1) Have your children help pick out a gift that they can give to any number of organizations that help, the poor and needy.

2) We made an ornament each year out of the photo of my kids sitting with Santa at the mall. Since I have 2 kids I made 2 each year so that when they move out some day they will each have their own set . The kids love looking at the past years as you hang them on the tree each year--- and so do I! .(you can get those ornament frames or just laminate . Be sure to put date on the back)

3) On Christmas eve (after they go to bed) take one of your husbands shoes and dip the sole in flour and make tracks from the fireplace (or window or door)toward the gifts. Young ones think it is Santa’s snowy boots.

4) We have a manger where we can add straw to the baby Jesus bed. The kids tell something that they did which was nice or helpful to someone and then they put a piece of straw down. Then on Christmas morning when we actually put the baby Jesus in his bed it has been
made nice a soft for him to lie in. (this way they learn that loving others is how we show love to Jesus.) Another way is to hang a stocking with Jesus’ name on it and the nice things they do can be written on a piece of paper and then put in His stocking.

5)Christmas morning the kids were told to call us from their beds when they woke up then we would come and gather everyone in one bedroom to read in the Bible, Luke chapter 2 verses 1-20. And say a prayer of thanks. This started off the day celebrating what was really important before they were distracted by all the presents . And yes we still do this.

6) Read a story called The Three Trees to your kids. ( Barnes and Noble has one by Angela Hunt for around $11 and it has illustrations but you can find the story online also)

7) Let the kids pick a Christmas card (that you have received) each night and pray for that family.

8) Have a birthday party for Jesus. Bake a cake, invite your children’s friends and tell them the only gift they have to bring is some canned food for the homeless or a toy (to donate to ie: Toys For
Tots)

9) Lastly , this is not so much Christmas but all year. Starting when my children were babies (but you can start any age) my husband and I as we read our bible would write notes in the margins to our child (one bible for each of our children). We didn’t do it every day and we took turns writing in each childs. Sometimes it pertained to that passage and sometimes it just said “you did such and such today , I love you so much” There are certain bibles that have more
space on the side like The Quest Study Bible. We never showed it to our daughter until she graduated from high school then we gave it to her to go off to college with. She texted me late one night to tell me how much she needed what she was reading from us that night, that
it “reminded me of who I am and that God is always with me.”

Turning over a new leaf

I know it's not the New Year yet, but I'm making a new resolution. It's time to get serious about loosing the baby weight. I only have a few pounds left to loose and I'm working on getting motivated. Today was day 1 of my "new leaf." My friend Jessica and I went walking with our kids today. It was so beautiful out and it felt great to exercise. In fact, I felt a boost of energy for the rest of the day. We decided we're going to start walking on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and then I'm going to try to walk one additional day during the week. Wish me luck.... gotta stay motivated!

"Christmas, Christmas time is here..."

I love Christmas time! When I was growing up my mom pulled out all the stops at Christmas time. Our house was always so beautifully decorated. Kyle and I pulled out all of our decorations yesterday and we spent last night and today decorating the apartment. I took some pictures of our tree and some of my favorite decorations. I'm addicted to snowmen and so you'll notice our house has lots of snowman ornaments up. I didn't put up as many decorations this year as I usually do because Katelyn is scooting all over the living room now and I didn't want her putting the decorations in her mouth. I can't wait to get some pictures of her next to the tree. Merry Christmas everyone!

Thank You Grandma!

My Mom began working on a quilt for Katelyn while I was pregnant. She is an amazing quilter and I couldn't wait till it was finished. The quilt looks amazing! My Mom hand stitched all the squares and rectangles with a leafy floral design. Katelyn loves all the colors and likes to run her fingers along the stitching. Thanks Mom, the quilt looks amazing. In fact I might "borrow" it till Katelyn is old enough to appreciate it. Just kidding! 

Keeping busy

I know I haven't blogged in a couple of days. Sorry! Katelyn and I have been keeping busy with our last MOPs for this semester and Christmas shopping it feels like the days fly by in a blur. Then yesterday I picked up the book The Shack and began reading and I couldn't put it down. I'm trying to find different ways to relax at least for an hour while Katelyn naps everyday. If you haven't read it, this book is AMAZING!! I'm almost finished with the book and it's really forced me to look at God as Papa and understand more about his relationship with me. People aren't kidding when they say that when you have a baby you begin to understand the fervency of God's love for us, but I feel there's so much more about God I need to learn and understand. If you are looking for a good book to curl up I highly recommend this one. If you've read it I'd love to chat with you about what you thought.

On the home front Katelyn is on her way to crawling already. At 5 1/2 months she really is a smart cookie. For the past several days she's been pushing up on her hands and knees and then pushing herself backwards. Then Monday she figured out how to rock back and forth on her hands and knees. Today Kyle and I witnessed her take her first 2 "crawls" forward. Yikes! She's figuring out how to go forward. She's so excited that all she wants to do is hang out on her tummy! We're so proud of her! Pretty soon we're going to be baby proofing our house. I caught some of her new "moves" on camera today. Enjoy!

Love,
Alissa
xoxo