Where have we been?

I'm taking a break from blogging for a while. A lot going on, and I'm not inspired to write/blog.

Happy 2010!

I can't believe it's almost of the middle of January already. Wow, time is flying by. And, I don't seem to have much of it these days....time, that is. So, here is what has been going on in a very condensed form. For more pics, see my facebook page.

We have had several family parties over Cowboys games, as they are now in the playoffs. Kent got his own jersey from his Texas grandparents for Christmas. So he has been looking like the avid Cowboys fan. His Aunt Amanda enjoys playing with him whenever she can.

We celebrated Christmas with Kyle's family last weekend. Kent enjoyed his new toy cell phone in this picture. Anything that makes sound and music he absolutely loves.

To celebrate Christmas with our Texas family, we enjoyed a delicious brunch at Billy & Paula's. Even Kent made the picture this year. Grandmother Rhodes wasn't feeling very well that day, so she wasn't there. But she was missed. We love you and hope you get to feeling better soon!

On New Year's Day we got together with the Hastings family at Brett & Amanda's house. It was a lot of fun to catch up with this great group of people who are like family. Hastings, we love y'all and look forward to the next time we are together!

Happy 2010, everyone! I need to go, Kent is calling (or should I say fussing) my name!

Christmas 2009

We just got back from a fun trip to visit our Ohio family for Christmas. As you can imagine, there are a TON of pictures capturing little Kent's first Christmas, which I'm not going to take the time to upload to blogger. So if you are my friend on facebook, that is what I would recommend looking at for more pics.

Here is a picture at my Grandma Teeter's house of all of us Collins/Rhodes together for a family pic. It was so fun hanging out with mom, dad, Kristen, Tim & Julie. Kent did all kinds of fun tricks for them, and was a joy to be around.


Here is a picture of Great-Grandpa & Great-Grandma Teeters with us and Kent on Christmas Eve. It is a tradition for my grandparents to come over for a special Christmas Eve dinner every year at my parent's house. Over the years mom has prepared some delicious meals, which are fun memories to talk about to this day. This year she made a roast turkey, Grandpa Collins' sausage dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans, homemade rolls, and baked alaska for dessert. Yum!

Here are all of the "kids" (as my parents would say) on Christmas morning, with the addition of Kent. Don't we look cute in our new pajamas from my mom? (another tradition: mom buys us all new pajamas on Christmas Eve, which we open in a gift. This way, the pictures of us on Christmas morning actually look good instead of us being in old ratty pajamas).

A Rhodes Family picture in front of the tree on Christmas Eve. Kent kind of has a smile, which is the best we can do for now. Our camera flashes are just too slow for this fast guy.

Aunt Julie & Uncle Tim being the proud aunt & uncle on Christmas Eve. They had such a fun time with little Kent, along with Aunt Kristen.

What a blessing it was to be able to travel to Ohio for Christmas. We didn't get snow on Christmas day (but Dallas did...weird!), but did get some snow a few days later, which was beautiful.

Hope everyone else out there had a blessed Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Wow, I can't believe it's the 21st of December already! Where did the month of December go? I look at our calendar over the past few weeks of various holiday events with friends and family, and can't help but enjoy this time of the year in the midst of all of the craziness.

Paula added a link to this blog in her post today (www.paularhodes.com), so she motivated me to update a post on my own blog as well.

This month our little Kent turned 6 months old. Time really is flying by fast watching him grow up. I really am enjoying him more & more now that he is awake & happier for longer stretches of time. He loves to do all kinds of tricks...sucks on his toes, rolls over both ways, is almost sitting up (right now sitting by being propped), makes a spitting noise with his mouth, and smiles/laughs at Pepper the dog. I don't know what it is about Pepper, but Kent will smile/laugh the most at our dog!

This past month I weaned Kent from breastfeeding, which became more & more difficult while I was working. My goal was to make it 6 months, which I did. The combination of working, Kent having a bottle at the daycare most days, Kent getting a bad cold/stuffy nose, and his mommy's milk supply decreasing just made it easier to wean. He is doing great on the cheap formula from Target, which I'm thankful for, and is pretty much over his reflux issues....thank you God! He has been eating rice cereal for the past few weeks, and just this past Saturday we started him on vegetables. He loves his carrots so far and much prefers to eat them over his rice cereal.

He is still sleeping well at night, sleeping around 10 hours at night during the week, and 11-12 hours at night on weekends. The reason he doesn't sleep as well during the week is because he doesn't get good naps at the daycare and the daycare doesn't follow babywise, but we have found a system that seems to work as best it can in the current situation. I'm just glad he sleeps through the night & to have some type of routine to follow that works for me and for Kent.

I'm thinking Kent is starting to cut his first tooth, so we'll see how that goes over the coming weeks/months.

Here is a picture from the North Davis church Christmas musical. Kent was asked to be baby Jesus, and I was asked to be mother Mary. Here we are in our costumes the day of the musical. Kent did well for the practice, but not so hot during the actual performance. It was his naptime and he cried/fussed the whole time. I ended up using a pacifier on stage to get him to be quiet, which everyone at church found rather humorous! Many people commented "I don't think Mary had a pacifer" after the show, but I believe pacifiers were created to be used at this day in time. So it was pretty fun to be a part of that show.

That's about our life in a nutshell right now. I'm hoping to be able to blog more after the holidays when things will hopefully slow down some. Probably the best way to stay in touch with our lives is to be our friend on facebook, as pictures are easier to upload to that website than blogger.

Many blessings to everyone for a Merry Christmas!

November 2009 Ohio Grandparents Visit

Mom and dad came to visit from Ohio this past weekend. Actually, mom flew in last week on Tuesday to spend a few days with Kent by herself while I went to work. She enjoyed every minute with her little grandson. Here are a few pics from our time together.

Dad flew down on Friday and enjoyed the weekend with us. The weather was great, and we all just enjoyed watching Kent do all of his "tricks." He turns 5 months old tomorrow, crazy! Right now, he can put his feet in his mouth & curl up in a ball when laying on his back. He can also reach out & grab toys that are put in front of him. So he is getting more into toys & small rattles now. And, of course, everything has to go straight into his mouth where he drools all over it.

Here is a pic of Kent in his Sunday school class at church. I finally got around to bringing my camera to church and snapped a quick pic for the mems. It will be fun someday when Kent & all of his friends (Kyle, Addison, Nate, & Mackenzie) are older and we can look back at this picture. Such a sweet group of babies!

Here is documentation of Kent's trick of putting his foot in his mouth. Very talented, huh? :)

I'm thankful that mom & dad are taking the time to see Kent as he develops throughout his first year. What a blessing when they come to visit.