Too cold to blog!

It is honestly too cold to type. I was driving home tonight and it said -9 in my car. I was driving Charlie to daycare this morning and he started to cry a little and I told him he better stop or his tears would just freeze to his little face!

To compensate for not having much to write tonight, I'll add a lot of pictures for you to enjoy. I'm so exhausted tonight, I don't think I could come up with much to say anyway. I was running my mouth (as usual Brian would say) last week to several people about how great of a sleeper Charlie was. "We can put him down at 8 and shut the door and not open the door again until 7 AM. Don't we have the best baby? Blah blah blah" Yep, I cursed us. The last 3 nights Charlie has gotten up in the middle of the night (Monday and Tuesday night at 4:45 and Wed at 2:30) just ready to play and kick up his heels. Needless to say, I'm not going to talk anymore about his sleep patterns!

One other quick Charlie story. Here is a conversation I had with him.

Me: Charlie, say Mama.

Charlie: da

Me: No Charlie, say Mama.

Charlie: DA

Me: No honey, say MAMA

Charlie: DADA

Me: Charlie, that's yucky (I have no shame). Say MAMA

Charlie: DADADADADA (laughing hysterically at me)

Yeah, it's sweet. REAL sweet.

Every night when Charlie is done with dinner, Sasha basically attacks Charlie's lap and the sides of his highchair (before I take him out) looking for any morsels that may have fallen out of his hands. Charlie thinks this is hilarious and thinks Sasha is just trying to tickle him. I'll have to get video of it soon because he just giggles and giggles.

On Saturday we had dinner at my friend Leah's house. Leah is due Feb 15th but we think that baby is getting anxious to be here and will probably make his/her debut sooner than that. Leah came to visit us in the hospital after Charlie was born. What a difference a year makes!

2010

2011

Charlie is holding his bottle by himself and while I still like to hold him, Charlie likes to chill with Daddy and Sasha.

Charlie has become a big camera ham. He scrunches his face and breathes funny through his teeth and nose somehow which looks and sounds weird...but cute!

Lastly, some pictures my Dad just sent from Christmas in SD. The camera must have been on the wrong setting because some look a little odd but you get the idea.

So excited for more presents...

Hmm. No more presents?

I guess I'll go after the dogs' presents then.

With Grandma and Grandpa

Grandma always has a SUPER happy grin when Charlie is around.

Happy 2011!

Happy New Year to everyone! I can’t believe it’s 2011. I feel like I just got used to writing checks that say 2010. 2010 was a blur with a lot of exciting happenings for the Kippley family. The year started off with my justification of ordering a 5 lb bag of conversation hearts in January. Apparently I had a sugar fixation while I was pregnant and I wasn’t afraid of indulging. I became slightly crazy around January 5th when they still didn’t have conversation hearts in the store. I even tried to get Brian to browbeat the candy buyer at Target to do a special early delivery to the EP Target. No dice. So I ordered from a candy website. One might think it would be impossible to get through a 5 lb bag of just conversation hearts before Valentine’s Day. They were gone before we even checked into the hospital! I’m surprised when they cut the cord, sugar didn’t fall out! The fun in 2010 continued when Brian and I tried to celebrate our 3rd anniversary and ended up in the hospital being induced! 2 days later (yes, I still say I was in labor for 48 hours) we were blessed by the birth of Charles David Kippley. We celebrated Valentine’s Day having breakfast at McDonald’s at Abbott Hospital and later that morning bringing Charlie home to meet Sasha and Stella who were way more interested in seeing Brian and I than meeting Charlie. We shortly followed that excitement with births of more friends, lots of fun play dates on maternity leave, going back to work, quitting CHR and starting at AMS, trips to the Lake this summer and Charlie’s first boat ride, and our first trip away from Charlie when Brian and I went to Mexico in October.

He has just grown so much in the past year, I can't believe it.

Charlie really enjoys pushing his walker....

right into the dog bed!

As usual, I’m already way over thinking Charlie’s birthday and driving Brian crazy with invitation mock ups and decoration ideas. You’d think I was planning our wedding all over again. But I’m pretty excited to celebrate his 1st birthday and hopefully leave the baby germs and ear infections behind us!! Yeah right! Brian is also finishing up his last 2 classes and will be graduating in March. We are so excited and I’m so proud of him for getting through school along with working full time and having a newborn (and lord knows he didn’t give up any softball either!)

This is Charlie's new look. He purses his lips like he tasted something sour. It's so funny and I'm not sure why he does it but he crawls around with his lips just puckered up for a kiss.

More crazy hair - I've given up on a "style". We're wash and go at this point.