Grands and Greats

One of the biggest blessings (out of the many) of marrying into Kanyon's family is being a granddaughter to Kanyon's grandparents. They are so special to me and I am so thankful for their love and support. I don't feel like an granddaughter-in-law but their real granddaughter.

And I am so excited about Brindle being able to grow up living within a few miles of one set of grandparents and two sets of greats. And the other set of grandparents, my parents, will see her so often, she won't realize they don't live nearby ;)

Thank you, Meme and Granddad, and Mama and Papa Brown, for being so good to me and now so good to Brindle. We love you so much!

Christmas Leather

Kanyon had a ton of Christmas orders yet we only got a chance to take a picture of one of them!

And unfortunately, we didn't think about it until after dark on the night Kanyon was to deliver it. I hate taking pictures of his work inside with the flash. It always looks funky. And then I accidentally turned on the date display on the pictures. So we'll just call the quality of this photo a fail and focus on the leather, shall we?

He's got a couple jobs coming up that I'm really excited to see how they turn out!

Catch Up of Christmas

I have been working on this post for two weeks now a little at a time! I am going to attempt to go back and write about our wonderful Christmas! This was a whirlwind time but so much fun. I was so thankful I was still on maternity leave so I got to spend as much time as possible with our family and Brindle! One day, I had so much on my to-do list when we got up but decided to just spend the morning snuggling with Brindle while I watched White Christmas and drank coffee. One of my favorite Christmas memories!

A couple weeks before Christmas, Kanyon and I were so excited to have several of our college friends come to visit and meet Brindle. It was such a FUN weekend! We had 5 extra people staying with us. 7 people and a baby in our house.

We spent the weekend mostly at home. The boys did make a run up to Kanyon's parents' house for a little. That night, we all made a really yummy dinner of ribs from a hog that Kanyon shot the weekend before and venison sausage (still eating that stuff from last year...). It was so great to see everyone.

Several people have asked me how Zeb is with Brindle... he is great! He was nervous around her at first since we kept telling him "no!" every time he'd try to lick her but now that we are more relaxed, he is, too. He loves kissing her on the top of her head and letting us know when she has a dirty diaper, ha. When I find the time to give him a bath, I want to get a cute picture of her sitting with him. Who volunteers to give him a bath? Just let me know.

Brindle has been such an easy and loving baby! Her smile comes so easy and she loves being talked to. She cries only when she has a reason to - cold, tired, or hungry - and will calm down as soon as you appease her. She is super photogenic and I can always get a smile! Sometimes I just spank her for being too cute.

She met so much family over Christmas and actually slept through most of the parties. I think it was how she coped with all the new sounds and people... We had about a week of getting our nights and days mixed up after all the busy-ness to get sorted back out after the holidays. But she is sleeping like a champ at night already.

We had Kanyon's family Christmases all in one weekend. Our immediate family, then both of Kanyon's grandparent's separate Christmases. It was a lot of fun! Brindle got loved on by so much family! These pictures are a little out of order but oh well.

 Vaughn taught me how to decorate a cake!

 Isn't this the prettiest outfit!? She had three beautiful red outfits to wear throughout the Christmas season.

One of her favorite places to be!

 Our immediate family Christmas - 23 of us now, 25 with Bailey and Aimee!

It was a great time with everyone in Welch. The next day, on Christmas Eve, we flew to Houston for Brindle's first airplane ride!

She slept through the whole thing. Boring, apparently.

We had a relaxing few days in Houston with my family taking naps by the fire and getting in the hot tub. And of course, Brindle got more love from her family!

"OH holy night!"

 Relaxing with Rachel!

The next few pictures of Brindle talking to her Grandma just kill me...

We got home on the 28th and were so tired but satisfied with a very good Christmas. The best one yet!

Brindle's RSV and My Birthday

I guess I should just be resigned to the fact that I am probably not going to be someone that blogs often anymore. But in my defense, this has been a really tough week and my plans of blogging every Monday on my lunch break at my one day of work kind of got messed up.

Last Saturday, the 5th, Brindle started throwing up. By Monday morning, she also was very congested and had a couple coughs I was really not liking the sound of. So Vaughn, my mother-in-love :), and I took her to the doctor. I was so incredibly thankful to have Vaughn with me. For one, I was relieved to have someone sitting in the backseat with her in case she threw up, and two, turns out I was going to need the support. While in the interior waiting room for newborns, the nurse walking by heard her struggling with her congestion and put us in a room early. She swabbed her for RSV and she said the results were pretty quick. 

I was really upset. I immediately tried to figure out where I had not been careful enough and came up with several answers. I figured RSV was only caught by babies whose parents were not careful and let them be in contact with too many germs. I've since then found out that that is not necessarily the case and both the doctor and the literature he gave me said it is almost impossible to protect her from it because it is the season for it and its everywhere. Regardless, we have taken the doctor's advice and not let her leave the house except for the doctor's visit. We've missed several things like our local stock show and Uncle Landon's birthday and seeing our newborn cousin River but we don't mind since it is for a good reason. Breathing treatments, suctioning her nose and throat, and patting her back a lot to help her break up the congestion, along with making sure she is eating enough have been the only thing on my mind for a week now. I did make it into the office a couple times to get some things that absolutely had to get done done, but other than that, Kanyon and I have been taking care of her. And it looks like it has paid off because her congestion has reduced significantly in the last couple days after getting much worse in the middle of the week. She still has a cough but its sounding like it is her congestion breaking up in her lungs.

This picture of her taking a breathing treatment cracks me up... "I'm so done with this".

And we have been doing a lot of this and this...

 

Just napping and relaxing.

Thankfully her spirits are still her normal very happy self! I'm so thankful that she hasn't been feeling really bad enough to not smile. Her smile has kept me sane ;) 

To back it up a bit, I celebrated my 25th birthday on January 2nd! I thought the whole day that I was turning 24 until I opened my birthday card from my cousins that said "happy 25th!". I thought it was funny that they got the year wrong until I counted it up and asked Kanyon to make sure... I was not mentally prepared to be in my mid-twenties all of a sudden. I guess thats okay since I am a mom now, which is also something I always forget about myself. I had a friend the other day tell me how all of her friends are getting married and having babies and I'm like "I know! Weird!" and then I realize I am one of them. Ha!

Have I mentioned I LOVE being Brindle's mom? I do. Unfortunately, my first full day back at work, a.k.a. my first large time period away from my baby girl, was my birthday. Wah-wah. Kanyon stayed home with her (usually she will stay with her Nana, Vaughn, while I am at work) and he sent me lots of pictures and notes "from her" like "do you like my outfit?"...

We also Facetimed once and I was able to get through the day. My parents also surprised me with flowers sent to my office!

That night at church, Vaughn made a cake and everyone sang happy birthday!

The next day, Kanyon and I dropped Brindle off at her Nana and Papa's house and we headed to Lubbock for some shopping and dinner. It was so nice to get out and have a date together!

I had a great 24th 25th birthday! And thank you so much to everyone who has been praying for Brindle while she has been sick. I know that God has heard them!