Bayer: 8 months old

Our little Bay Bay is getting so big! He's our comfort, fun, and joy. I am so grateful & blessed with such a fun and handsome little boy. Bayer started crawling on the 22nd of February, he also got 5 more teeth in this past week--poor little guy. Bayer has a total of 7 teeth! He loves his teething ring, he holds it for about 6 hours at a time. He likes to find objects and hold them the majority of the day.

He has been sleep trained for the nighttime routine, but we're still working on nap time. He loves his daddy because he is the one who rough houses with him. He sits at dinner with Brandon and I in his high chair and has started to put food into his mouth on his own! YAY!

Bayer tries to stand up on objects and he thinks he's pretty cool while doing so. He loves wheels, meaning his mom loves wheels too. He loves blueberries, strawberries, bread, graham crackers, and oranges. He loves easy mac too.

One of my favorite things about Bayer is to watch his face when we walk outside. The florida sun is bright and he loves it! He get this square face smile.

I love to look at all his pictures and see how much he's changed. It reminds me of how much we've grown as parents and how much our lives have changed. We are so in love with my little guy it hurts!! (gritting teeth)

Gasparilla 5k!

Gasparilla was SOO much fun! I'm really proud of Jenny and I. We both had kids less than a year ago! We ran underneath 3o minutes which was our goal. I pushed Jenny the first half and the second half I tried to keep up with her! We're going to try and run one race a month until our next pregnancies, any readers feel free to join us on our next one. There were 15,000 people who entered into the 5k alone! So we were dodging and twisting through people like snakes for the entire race. Next time I would prefer a smaller race for sure.

I am going to run a 5k (3.1 miles) underneath 23:00 minutes by February 2011!

Plaid-muffs

I call the older one Muffin and the little one Mufflet. Aren't they scrumptious!?

Utah visit

Brandon let Bayer and I go to Utah and visit my sister Anne and her husband Stephen and their five children. My brother Bart met up with us and we were able to go snowboarding with Stephen. It was so awesome to see a couple of friends there too.

All I want for Christmas is my two front bottom teeth!

Christmas, Christmas, Christmas! Where to begin...

This Christmas break has been a blast having family near, I've been able to go on a couple of runs, getting my buns back into shape! We've played tennis with Brandon's little brothers a lot and it's been A BLAST! (Shout out to Jordan, we make the best team ever.)

(my Nikeplus mini)

We were able to go see Santa this year because we have a little one! We were able to go see Santa with my parents and the Kennedy's and have some yummy lunch at CPK afterwards.

This year we joined forces on Christmas eve, my in-laws and my brother in-laws came over and participated in our reenactment of the Nativity with smiles and all. Which is hard for a 23, 18, and 16 yr old. Heather's in-laws came over as well and my little brother was home for Christmas. Bayer was baby Jesus for the first time, he was a rockstar performer. Brandon couldn't get work off and couldn't get home till 10:30...:( It was the saddest part of my Christmas Eve.

Brandon has been studying his booty off for exams for grad school, working his tail off without complaint. I can't say how much I appreciate all he does for our little family. He's the hardest working man, right next to my dad. Somehow he finds time to hang out with Bayer and I, and make the most of his time.

I'll end with the fact that I had to speak about Christmas traditions in my ward for the Christmas program. I am so glad our new Bishop asked me to speak about Christmas traditions that bring me closer to Christ. What a great topic. I had the chance to reminisce about my childhood, family, and what Christmas really meant to me, throwing me into the true Christmas spirit. I spoke about Christmas' at my Gpa & Gma Dickson's home when we lived in Washington, which is hard because I feel like I should be there right now because they're not doing so well. Another tradition I mentioned was Christmas music, gave John Denver shout out, admitted my secret love of the "Christmas Shoes" song---sappppppy. Thirdly, my mom's ability to make our home so amazing growing up, decking the halls at our home around Christmas time. Lastly, reacting the Nativity at home and watching our Stakes performance of the Nativity.

Our Tampa Stake Nativity held each year.

Bayer cleaned up as far as gifts go this year. The McClain's were A LITTLE excited to have grandchild! Bayer has every toy that makes a noise or lights up at your local Target sitting in his little nursery. I can't wait for next year when he understands Christmas a bit more. BAYER GOT HIS TWO BOTTOM TEETH FOR CHRISTMAS!

Christmas card photo shoot

Heather took these amazing photos for us a couple weekends ago. Merry Christmas!

Turkey Bowl!!

Thanksgiving was super awesome this year for one reason....I WASN'T PREGNANT! I could eat, cook, stand, and play in our ward's annual Turkey Bowl this year! So Brandon's brothers have played the last couple of years, lets just say the McClains dominated!!!!! Check out Brandon's face......

...best catch ever. I mean it, I've never seen a winning touchdown catch that amazing.

My mom was visiting my brother Dan and his family this year, so I decided I was going to take on Thanksgiving with LOTS of help from my mil and husband of course. I was super stressed and exhausted by the time we sat down to eat, so i forgot to take pics! Argh! The food was surprisingly pretty darn good. I did overcook the turkey a tad, but there's only room to improve, right? We made a lot of sauces, turkey glaze, ham glaze, and turkey gravy, and homemade cranberry sauce (thanks to Lisa). I didn't make it exactly like my moms version, because i want to have my own spin on Thanksgiving.

We have so much to be thankful for this year. Brandon and I are so indebted to our Heavenly Father for sending us such a sweet little boy. Bayer makes us so happy, children literally are miracles!