Christmas 2010

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="375" caption="Brie and Tia Sarah"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="375" caption="Grandma Mary and Brie in her festive dress"][/caption]

We have been spending some days down in Delta with my mom. It's been great to get to have some quiet time with Sarah and my mom before the rest of the family showed up. But it was fun to see the whole family on Christmas day before Rachel, Zac and Sarah headed back to Phoenix.

My mom reserved the church across the street to use the gymnasium to get some of the energy out of the kids.  They ran around, broke a pinata and put on a Christmas caroling show.  Of course, I didn't get any pictures to document the fun, so you just have to believe me!

Brie's first cross-country ski

[flickr video=5277963240]

Brie's tucked away in Mat's jacket staying nice and cozy while we ski on some cross-country trails up in Ogden.



We skied around for 2 1/2 hours with her just sleeping against Mat's chest.  It was a fun day!

2 Month Check Up

Brie's Stats

Weight:  11.0 pounds - 60th percentile

Length:  23 1/2 inches - 90th percentile

Head diameter:  15 1/2 inches - 75th percentile

And she's healthy baby.  Yay!

Awesome find on Craigslist!

Last week we found 6 items for sale on Craigslist for $15.  Three swaddleme sleepsacks (one of which is the above one) and 3 regular sleepsacks.  The swaddleme sleepsacks are awesome!  No longer do I have to refold the receiving blanket a bunch of times a night after Brie has gotten herself loose.  These swaddleme blankets have velcro, so it's pretty much like we are putting her in a straight jacket!  She sleeps so well in it which helps us sleep well.  Between this and her sheep sleep machine (which was a wonderful gift), life is good at the Levine house.

Ahhh, more Brie

Brie loves floating around in the bath water.  We've found it to be much more enjoyable to bathe her with us instead of in the sink.  She did not enjoy those experiences and neither did we since she let us know she wasn't happy by crying loudly.

7 1/2 weeks

Is that all Brie is? Not quite 2 months old, yet it feels like we've had her forever and I can hardly remember life before her!









We had a busy Friday...met up with some friends from the Parkway who have a daughter that just turned a year old over Thanksgiving and then we went to our friend, Margaret's, jewelry sale.  Brie was tuckered out after such a full day and had a full 6 hour sleep stretch last night.  Yay!

girl's brunch and a playdate!

Mat was kind and made us delicious bagels...nothing beats homemade bagels!



Playing with Ava who is just a few days older than Brie.



Brie is tuckered out and Lucas is entertaining himself!  We didn't get any pictures of the food or the girls, but it was a nice get together!

I'm thankful...

for some pretty basic things like being healthy, having a healthy/beautiful baby, having a healthy husband who worked really hard and made a nice laundry room for me, and for having a wonderful family and friends to be a part of my life! Life is good!

Here are some pics from Thanksgiving dinner out at Mat's parents. All except for the first one are pictures that Mat's mom took.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Lucas giving Brie a wet willy..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_804" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Amie and Brie before dinner"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_805" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Brie before dinner"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_806" align="aligncenter" width="287" caption="Mat and Brie after dinner"][/caption]

Brie pictures...

I love this picture of Brie even though it is blurry.  I love that it shows how big her bottom is due to her cloth diaper and I love that leg warmers have come back around.  What a perfect match for a onesie and a lazy mother!  So EASY to change the diaper, no pants to pull off!  Brie's legs look so tiny in comparison to her round middle!



Ahh, and I love this picture of her sleeping in her winnie the pooh sleep sack pajamas!

Elusive Bloom

Since we've moved here, I have wanted to see Witch Hazel in bloom. It's one of my favorite leaves on a tree around here and it is unique because it blooms in November. I've kept my eyes peeled that last several falls and haven't spotted it in bloom. Lo and behold, I saw it this year at the Botanical Gardens right in town...not out in the woods!



Walking around the UNCA Botanical Garden with Mat, Brie and the Bob.

Brie

“Hi Ava.  Now I am going to eat you.”

**(stolen from an email from Mat's sister, Sara)

One

month old today!  To celebrate Brie's 1 month birthday, went for a lovely morning stroll in our neighborhood.

Yesterday we went to her month doctor's appointment.

Brie's stats

Weight: 9 pounds 6 ounces

Length: 21 3/4 inches

Brie is a long baby but in the 60th percentile for weight.  She's healthy and that is what we care about most!  She's gained over 2 1/2 pounds since her birth.  Yay!

Birthday Hike

We celebrated a beautiful fall day that also happened to be my birthday by going for a hike out at Bent Creek. We all had fun, hard to tell who had the most fun though. Mat's pretty stoked about the stroller...

The Laundry Room

Before...



After...



Really there was more work done before the "before" shot was taken, we just didn't remember to document it.  Now it is exciting times to start putting the rest of the stuff/storage back in the room in an organized manner. And Mat still has trim work to do in the room, but that's small potatoes compared to all the work he's all ready done!

We've all ready used the washer and dryer and it's fantastic!  We love it!  We've started using the cloth diapers and it's a bit of an adjustment, but hopefully, I'll get the hang of it.  Because we got the one size fits all she has a huge bum right now.  She's almost gone up a whole size in pants, just from changing from disposable to cloth diapers!  I'll have to get some pics of her in the diapers posted...

3 and a half decades

Wowsers! When I was little I thought people in their 20s were old! Now I'm ancient because I am definitely past my 20s. But it's been a great life so far. And today, as I type, our washer and dryer are being installed. Very exciting times at the Levine household. Not only for me, but Mat as well, he will finally get his life back. I think he's pretty stoked about that! Once the nice Lowes delivery gentlemen are gone I will go out and take a picture to post of the lovely appliances. I will also show everyone the awesome work that Mat has done in order to change our back porch into a laundry room. It's been a LONG summer project for him!

Brie is 3 weeks today

Brie is 3 weeks old.  She hasn't really changed too much...she still just eats, sleeps and poops.  Mat and I are amazed at how often and how much she eats.  We knew she'd eat and sleep a lot, but she eats even more than we thought!  She does a lot of grunting and noise making even while eating and wonder if she'll continue to do that throughout the duration of her nursing life.  We'll see.





Yesterday, we hiked out to Douglas Falls after releasing my salamander back into the wild.  (Note: we did not plan on being Team Brown, it just happened that we grabbed brown items to wear and different shades of brown at that!)  Brie is in this picture, she just is tucked into the Moby wrap and we didn't want to disturb her.  She's still getting used to hanging out in the Moby wrap and I wouldn't say she loves it quite yet.



I had been using the salamander this summer at my creature feature table and at my evening programs.  I think he was pretty stoked to be back in a stream and his natural habitat.  :-)

A Lovely Week

My mom came to visit for a week. It was wonderful to have her and it went by so quickly. Mom stayed busy baking, cooking, cleaning up the kitchen, and burping and changing Brie's diapers. Most of my days are spent with nursing Brie and the days fly by! I imagine at some point she'll nurse less often...and depending on the day and/or the time of day she does nurse less frequently.




Mom survived living with Maddy for a week.  One afternoon while Mat and his dad were working on putting up sheetrock in the laundry room, my mom watched Brie while I took a nap.  Maddy barked at the front door to be let in, so mom let her in and Maddy was hanging out in the front room with mom and Brie.  I kind of work up from my nap to hear mom telling Maddy that she sure stinks and do all dogs stink so much.  I went back to sleep and woke up a bit later and came out to the front room and mom asked me if Maddy normally stinks so much and I couldn't smell anything, so I just said  that dogs do smell a little bit, but I couldn't really smell her.  Then I sat down and caught a whiff of something terribly bad, so I checked Brie to make sure she hadn't pooped her diaper and then looked at Maddy and saw the signs of her having rolled in something up by her neck.  Turns out Maddy had left the yard and gone and rolled in some cow manure.  We kicked Maddy out of the house until Mat was finished with his hard day of work and he took her down to Sara's to give her a bath.

Brie's first hike

We took Brie and my mom up Craggy Pinnacle for Brie's first hike on Saturday.  It was a beautiful fall day that we shared with many other visitors to the Parkway.

It was a wee bit breezy out in the open.  Brie is not necessarily enjoying the view, but she did enjoy the walking portion of the hike.

Grandparent photo opportunity with Brie.  Mat's parents came over to visit on Sunday.

Our favorite subject...

We had a home visit from our doctor today and Brie is continuing her upward swing on weight gain. Yay! Breastfeeding does seem to be working. I'm kind of getting the hang of it and it's reassuring to know that Brie isn't starving. :-)

After a family dinner out at Mat's parents' house.

In the hospital getting her hearing test.  She passed.  She looks very tech savvy.

In the hospital hanging out.

She's singing or letting us know she really appreciates that we changed her diaper.  :-)

Brie...

is 6 days old and we think she is the most beautiful baby in the world! We went in for weight check and she's doing great. She lost some weight in her first few days of life and now she's been regaining it, so she is up to 6 pounds 11 ounces.  Right now she's an eating/sleeping/pooping machine.

We've enjoyed being back home from the hospital, but we definitely enjoyed and appreciated the care we received there. All the nurses and staff were amazing and so helpful and kind.



Mat's Uncle Jerry and girlfriend, Marilyn, have been in town for the past few days visiting.  These pictures are from Gram Marcia's 90th birthday dinner celebration.  It's been great seeing them.   I'm still getting adjusted to the breastfeeding gig, so when it's time to feed, I go into another room to nurse, which is about every hour or so.   Hopefully soon it will be like second nature!

Auntie Sara and Grandpa Ron and Brie

Great Gram Marcia and Brie

Marilyn and Brie

If you want to see more pictures of Brie, click here.