Christmas

We had a great time over Christmas with family.  We spent Christmas day with the Koolhaas side and the next day with my side.  It was very busy with all the kids together but so much fun to see them all play with each other.  Kara loved to play with the box and wrapping paper of course but she is enjoying the new toys now at home!  

On Saturday  Tom and I were able to leave Kara with Grandma so we could go wine tasting with Jay, Melanie, and Danny which was a really fun outing.   That night Tom and I went out to dinner together to celebrate out 3rd anniversary while Beppe watched her.  We thought we better take advantage of the free babysitting!  This was the first "date" Tom and I went on since before Kara was born!  It's funny how much a kid changes your life! 

 It was a very busy weekend and once again we are glad to be home and have things back to normal!  Unfortunately Kara has come down with a cold and we discovered she also has her first ear infection at a Doctor visit this morning.  She had to get the flu shot and the Dr checked her ears and noticed the beginning signs of a double ear infection.  So I was happy we caught that on time before she's completely miserable.  Here are some pictures of our Christmas celebrations.

The Koolhaas cousins, poor David wasn't so happy to take the picture!

The Bylsma cousins

Merry Christmas!

Have a very Merry Christmas!!

Mya and Kara got to spend some time together this past weekend. 

They are sooo cute together! 

Our Little Elf getting into all the presents!

Almost Christmas!

I can't believe Christmas is almost here.  This is my absolute favorite time of year and it seems like it's coming and going way too fast!   Last year I was pregnant at this time and I remember thinking then that next Christmas we would have a new addition to our family and that it couldn't come fast enough.  Now that time is here and we have a beautiful little girl to share Christmas with. We are sooo grateful for that!  She definitely is the best gift ever!  

On another note, Kara has been doing great.  She's keeping me very busy and is really getting into everything.  She is also very noisy.  She loves to scream when she wants attention.....a piercing scream.  It drives Daddy crazy!  The worst is when she does it in the store.  I used to be that person that would get so annoyed by that, well now I have one of my own!  When she's not screaming she loves to say "ba ba ba...".  This we love, except when it's 5am but we still can't help and smile when we hear that.  Here are some pictures from today.  We did some Christmas shopping so of course she had to wear some Christmas clothes and then I met up with some friends for lunch.  

The pictures below is Kara and Brayden.  This is who she gets to play with while I'm at work.  I think she loves to watch Brayden and doesn't let him out of her sight!

 

And Christmas begins....

So I set up for Christmas in the house this past week and it's been such a joy to have a 6 month old trying to get into everything. She wasn't too interested in things until late yesterday and now she books it to the Christmas tree to grab the lights. She's not crawling but manages to roll very quickly when she's on a mission. Here are some fun pictures of new adventures!

Picking out our Christmas tree, Tom didn't appreciate me taking the camera along!

Her cute outfit for church this morning.....thanks Beppe!

Thanksgiving

This past week we were able to go up north for Thanksgiving. We had a great time with family and we pretty much got to see everyone. Kara got to see all of her Grandparents and Great Parents all in one day so we thought that was pretty special. She was the only baby around so she got lots of attention. Now we get to break her of that cause now that we are home, Mommy doesn't have time to play with her all day!!

Kara has started doing some new things again. She gives kisses now which is so adorable. She opens her mouth wide and covers your lips! She also just started to get on all fours and is ready to move forward. So we'll see if she can figure it out and get her knees under her to crawl. Things happen so fast! I better enjoy these quieter days before she's into everything!

Four Generations

Derek and Tiff's Wedding

My good friend and cousin got married this weekend. It was a beautiful wedding and we had a great time. Tiffany was the last of our friends to get married which is so crazy to think about. Now it's all about who's going to have the next baby!

Go UCLA

Well Daddy was so proud that Kara could help him support the UCLA Bruins last night for the basketball game, unfortunately they lost. Thanks Adri for the adorable outfit, Tom loves it! With Danny now around to watch the game with Tom, we were better off just leaving the room!

On the other hand, Kara has had a little bit of a rough week. She got her 2nd tooth and we don't know if that was making her fussy but she just wasn't herself. She also threw up a few times and was just not eating great. We think we are on the right track now and hopefully whatever it was is gone. I think the hardest part is having to leave her to go to work when you know all she wants is her Mommy!

Isn't she so talented?!

An Eventful Week

We've had an exciting last few days! Kara just started to sit up on her own...yea!! We just have to watch it with her because she gets excited and falls back but she's getting the hang of it pretty quick. She also is getting her first tooth. We woke up the other morning and saw a little white on the bottom and she's not even fussy, thank goodness!!

Her favorite spot to roll to is the fake tree by the tv. She loves to put her feet on the pot and watch the leaves shake above her!

Another favorite past time is having her sit by the sliding door and watch Bruin. Except last week she managed to get out of the bumbo so we can't do that anymore!

Pake and Beppe's House
Last week we went up north and hung out at Beppe and Pake's house for a few days. Pake got show her the cows.

Happy Halloween

I've never been so into Fall and Halloween as this year. Having a kid changes everything! We went to the pumpkin patch in Visalia with our Bible study the other night. We know Kara is a little young for realizing what those big orange things are but it made for some fun pictures!

The Harvest Party

Last night we went to the 4th annual Harvest Party that some of our close friends throw. Well this year was by far the funnest since we had Kara to dress up this year. There were probably about 50 kids all dressed up and all of the costumes were so adorable. As you can see Kara was a bumble bee. She was not crazy about this outfit, considering it was about 85 degrees yesterday and there was no way this girl was able to roll around in it. But she sure looked cute!! I was nice and didn't leave it on her very long. We had a great time and enjoyed some caramel apples at the end......even Kara got a taste!

Kara and Brock....well broccoli!

There weren't too many big kids to hold the babies so I stuck Kara in the bumbo. It was hilarious!

The boys enjoyed a horse ride around the dairy.

She's a Roller!

Kara thinks it's so great now that she can roll all over the house now. I leave her in one spot and she just rolls right where she thinks she needs to go. I find her in the oddest places and wonder how in the world did she get there so fast?!

She tends to get stuck in a lot of places too!

Kara and Mya got to play with eachother yesterday. They are so cute together!

Cutie

Such a cutie pie! As you can see I LOVE to take pictures of her. Surpisingly she does really well for now!

Last week Kara got to spend some time with her friends, Addison and Ella. They are both about 3 months older then Kara.

Kara also got to see her cousins at Alison's birthday party. Here's a picture of Willemina and Kara. Kara's catching up to her!