Happy New Year and Christmas with Nana and Papa

This past week was another fun filled week. We were back at home (sort of) for the week and Kris and Linda also returned home from Germany. Soren has been especially cheerful in the mornings, waking us up with cooing instead of cries (he does the crying at night still). He has also been laughing at us and LOVES the baby Einstein playmat. I also learned that Team Stayput will continue next year under the new name, Team Goody, and I should be able to continue on with them into 2009.

We spent Monday doing lots of laundry, and I felt like it took all week to be even remotely caught up. It was Soren's 3 month birthday, so we had to start the morning with a photo shoot.




We HAD to go to Costco because we were out of milk for Keira and I, as well as other items from being gone all last week. I went on a run, and we also went up to 12Oaks to do some size exchanges from Christmas. Keira, Soren, and I all coordinated in our Gap Crazy Stripe outfits.
Tuesday was a pretty busy day with lots of driving. We went out to the outlet mall in Howell to do some returns since I had bought multiple sizes for Soren for his crazy stripe suit. I did not run because I ran yesterday, and Ryan had made plans to go mountain biking with Kent at Maybury and then needed to go to pick up Kris and Linda from the airport. Biking was a total bust for them. It was too icy to get to the trailhead through the traditional path, and then once they got to part of the trail, it was pretty much a mess. They did hill repeats on the starting hill from the old race course. That was about all the could find that was worth riding before bailing and heading into Northville to warm up at Town and Country Cyclery, our favorite bike shop.
I realized I have a ton of bath pictures of Keira, and not many at all of Soren!
Below we are maxing out the weight limit on the pack n play. I am surprised we didn't break it. Keira is on the changing pad portion, and Soren is in the bassinet. I don't know the weight limit for the pad (Keira exceeds the length of it), but Soren is at the limit for the bassinet.
In the meantime, I traveled to the east side of town to go to the Mall at Partridge Creek. This is an outdoor mall, so it was pretty chilly, and we were glad we brought blankets for the stroller. It was quite the haul, but I went there in search of specific sizes that I needed to exchange for Soren. He can be hard to shop for since he has a very long body and short legs, so some things he needs a size up, others he is OK. We got our exchanges taken care of quickly, and then Keira wanted to play in their playarea. She wanted to take her coat and shoes off, because that is what she does at the indoor malls. She was also a little nervous because the fruits and veggies made crunching noises when you played on them. We couldn't stay long because it was pretty cold and Soren needed to eat. We dashed into Parisian, which is the BEST store for nursing moms, every one I have ever been in has a nice area to nurse and change children. Once we were all done with feeding and changing, it had become dark (since it gets dark here super early still), and the Christmas lights were all on. It was very pretty, and both kids enjoyed the trees. There was also a big fireplace set up for warming, which was nice because it was down in the 20s by the time we left. Ryan also picked up Kris and Linda while we were gone. When I told him how much fun we had, we both had wished we had planned things a little different so that we could have all headed over there. It was an unusual shopping day because both Howell and Partridge Creek are off of the same road, just about 60 miles apart from each other, and since we went home in between them, it just made them seem even further apart (even though Google would have you pass our exit on the way from one to the other because it is faster to take the freeways).





Wednesday was New Year's Eve. We got up leisurely and went out to lunch at On the Border. Keira had her standard lunch of chips, rice, and beans that she loves whenever we eat Mexican food. Afterwards, we went over to Best Buy to investigate ways to play Ryan's new iTouch in the Mazda. (We returned Kris and Linda's Edge with the SYNC system that was letting us just plug it in and use voice commands, very very cool!) The disappointing thing is that we pretty much already have one of the better FM transmitters from my nano, and those just don't work well around here. We got tape adapter instead to use in the truck, which works really well. The only other options would be to get an mp3 jack installed in the car or get a new car with SYNC, and neither of those are really options for us right now. That car has got to last us a long time still!

Keira took a long nap this afternoon! We were waiting and waiting for her to wake up to leave.
After naps, we went over to Kris and Linda's house for Christmas and New Years Eve celebrations. Keira and Soren opened their presents from Nana and Papa, and they had a few surprises for us to open too! Keira was very excited about her new train and bus, as well as her new dresses. She helped Soren open his presents too, and liked his drum. He also got a beautiful ornament for his first Christmas.












Everyone had a sleepover there for New Year's Eve. It was nice because we played games until the ball dropped and were able to put Keira and Soren to bed at their normal time. Keira slept in a twin bed on a box spring for the first time over there, even though she wanted to nap in the pack n play afterward. We had a huge breakfast of waffles, sausage, and fruit in the morning once we all got up on New Year's Day. I met up with Jessica and ran 6 miles in Northville on Hines. It was so nice to get out and run! I had not run this far in a LONG time, maybe even since before I was pregnant, I am not sure. I know I would not have run this far if Jessica had not asked me to. I also was able to use my new Garmin for the first time, and it works super well, a major improvement over my old one. Ryan spent the afternoon watching football, and then once I returned to Kris and Linda's, we had prime rib for dinner. We made it back to our house in time to get Keira and Soren into bed.
New Year's day, playing with the new train!
Soren is already trying to watch TV! Oh No!
On Friday, we started the morning off at Kindermusik. Lisa had called us to let us know that there would be a free class today, so we met up with her, Dominic, Emily, and Brooklyn for the class. It was a small class, probably due to the proximity to the holiday, but it was fun having the majority of the kids there know each other. Soren even got involved since he can hold things now. We did a few errands and were able to use one of our gift cards we received for dinner at Ruby Tuesdays.






On Saturday, Ryan cooked a fabulous breakast on our new griddle (one of our Christmas presents to ourselves). We had whole grain pancakes, chicken sausage, and turkey bacon, so it was even fairly healthy. It required a trip to the grocery store that morning, but it was worth the wait! In the afternoon, I was able to squeeze a run in right before Ryan went road biking with Kent. This was a much better choice than moutain biking. They rode 18 miles on Hines Drive, starting near Northville Downs. It was super cold, but clear at least.

Here are some shots of cuteness in our room:
This shot was taken on accident( why it is so off center), but I thought it turned out really cute!

Soren can sit pretty well on our couch now. It is pretty soft, so he can sink in a bit.
We also got Keira's big girl bed set up to some degree in her room. When she was first born, there was a twin bed in her room with the crib, so there wasn't much that needed to be done to her room (aside from clean it) to get the bed to fit. We had forgotten, however, that we had returned the box spring from the bed to Kris and Linda, and it was not in our storage unit like we had assumed when Ryan and Kris went to go get it. So for now, she is just in a mattress on the floor. She was really excited about it, and was jumping on it a bunch. It is lower by far than her current crib converted to a toddler bed, so we weren't worried about her falling out. She was excited about her new sheets and blankets, but she still wanted to sleep with her small blanket from her crib. She will lay down with her head on the pillow, but when I checked on her in the night, she was turned around with her head at the foot of the bed. She still thinks of her toddler bed as hers, though, so we need to work on that. We also need to convert it back to a crib and change out the sheets with Soren's new bedding to help distinguish it has his. He has been waking up a lot at night lately, so we are unsure of when we will make the move for him, since we don't want to have Keira waking in the night too.
Sunday was an interesting Sunday. Being the first Sunday of the new year, we switched from morning church to afternoons. This was a bit rough for us. Getting ready was a lot easier, though, because we had a ton of time. Keira gave Soren lots of toys to play with while he sat outside the bathroom waiting for his turn to get cleaned up.
Keira, brushing her hair (putting lots of rats in it, really)
You can see her flipping her hair in the mirror with the brush.
We got ready OK, but as we were getting ready to leave, Keira was starting to meltdown because it was nearing her naptime. She was loud as usual during sacrament, and Ryan had to take her out while I was gone feeding Soren. It was crazy in Primary, getting everyone where they needed to be since everyone's classes changed, even Keira's. She is still in nursery, but they chose to divide it differently than last year, into Senior and Junior. She is in the senior nursery with the children that will be with her next year as a Sunbeam. We have a lot of new younger children entering, and it was determined to be safer for them and more fun for the older ones if they were divided by age. According to Haley, Keira did great in nursery, which was awesome considering how tired she was.

We also began the task of putting away the Christmas decorations (which is why the blog is a day late). The above photo is of our newest nutcracker, a chimney sweep. It wasn't out for long, so I wanted to at least take a photo of it before everything was packed up. We made a decent dent in everything, but still have a lot of work to do to return our home to a clean, organzied state. We are currently in that really messy state of being in progress with boxes everywhere.

Today was my first day with both Keira and Soren together with no one else in a LONG time. Ryan went back to work, so we got back into our normal morning routine, however I spent some time on the phone with two friends in Ohio who's new babies were spitting/throwing up like Keira and Soren do, offering advice and consolation that although extremely annoying (and messy), it doesn't always mean that something is wrong. It was great to catch up with both of them and hear how they were doing with their families. Hopefully I was helpful and their babies will continue to grow and develop properly, and that I will be able to meet them soon. We hit the mall to pick up my jeans that I had hemmed (free alterations were included), and played at the playarea for a while.
The lollypop is one of Keira's favorite things to play on. It is also one of her favorite treats.

Soren has been doing really well with his tummy time. We have a picture of Keira that looks super similar to this at the same age. I will have to see if I can find it.This evening, once Ryan got home, we worked on the kids room. Ryan picked up the box spring and we set up Keira's bed (although we still need to get the rest of the pillows from storage), and also converted the toddler bed back into a crib. Soren did test it out for a few minutes, but we still put him to bed in our room. Hopefully he will sleep better soon so we can put him in their for good. The room still needs a ton of work, because we need to organize the toys in it as well as get a handle on the clothes that have been outgrown.
Keira bouncing on her new bed while we were trying to get everything situated. Hopefully she won't fall off!
Soren's new bedding
Keira's bed all made up (minus more pillows). The quilt was made for Ryan by his grandmother when he was born. Keira prefered it folded down, and probably will just sleep on top of all the bedding for now.
Here she is tucked in, tucked in with her favorite little blanket, on top of the sheets and blankets. The big blanket on her bed is the same knit, but she likes the little one for now.

Hopefully I won't have anything bad to report in the next post about the new bed, since it is her first night in it. We will just be getting back into our old groove this week. Hopefully we can include some bike riding and running for both Ryan and I, and get the house back into shape.