Dare I try again??

Oh my...do I even attempt to blog again after more then 6 months? I can't even put into words everything that has happened in the last 6 months so I'll try to sum it up the best I can!!

The rest of our summer was wonderful. Jaelynn turned 1 and we had a wonderful party for her! I'm still in shock most days that we have a toddler but she is the absolute joy of our lives and I can't imagine what it would be like without her!

Shortly after Jaelynn's first birthday she started to crawl...finally! Crawling brought a new level of business to our family. If only I had known what was coming!

Summer continued on and we enjoyed the outdoors and spending time with family and friends. Jaelynn experienced her first Iowa State Fair in August. She had so much fun and was such a good girl! Although I love the llamas I don't think she shared the same enthusiasm.

In September we celebrated Kevin's birthday and started to prepare for the fall. I also had to have some testing done on my heart. I was having some odd symptoms and we just wanted to make sure everything was in good running order. I got a clean bill of health and an eye opener.

Kevin started a men's softball team in early fall and this became a new family passion. He plays on a league in the city and loves it. Jaelynn and I went to a few games but they are pretty late at night and it was starting to get cool when the season started.

As fall approached we started to prepare ourselves for winter and the busy holiday season. Wow....was it ever busy. In the midst of all this our little girl grew up even more. On October 7, 2008 Jaelynn took her first steps...and never looked back!

I joined Weight Watchers in early October, just in time for the holidays and just after receiving that much needed clean bill of health. Kevin and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary and committed to each other to change the way we live to be healthier for our daughter.

Mom and I took Jaelynn to the Covered Bridge Festival where we discovered that chocolate dipped pumpkin cheesecake is the best cure for a teething baby. We also visited the Red Rooster Barn for our first family trip to the pumpkin patch. It was cold and muddy and so much fun! Jaelynn didn't care much for carving but she like the finished product and eating the pumpkin seeds. I decided to be Martha Stewart and make Jaelynn's Halloween costume.....not bad for my first attempt! Jaelynn loved Beggars Night and Kevin enjoyed most of the candy. I was already gun ho for WW so I did my best to steer clear of the goodies.

We also decided to suck it up and take the princess in for her first hair cut. Does it count as a cut when you just do the bangs? Either way...another picture for the scrapbook...

November brought the onset of colder weather, cold season, football season and Thanksgiving! Daddy and Jaelynn are die hard Hawk fans....and I'm getting there. We spent Thanksgiving this year with my parents and family and then on Thanksgiving weekend we had another with Kev's family. My uncle, aunt and their family got to meet Jaelynn for the first time. She is such a little ham around a big crowd of people!

December was of course more cold weather, more snow, more colds and of course Christmas. We took Jaelynn out sledding around our yard for the first time and she topped the tree with our star...with Daddy's help of course. We only had to gently remind her a couple of times a day to leave the tree alone! This is the second year that we have visited Santa and the second year that she didn't scream her head off! It was nearly impossible for me to get a picture for the Christmas card this year but about 2 weeks before d-day I did! Of course I managed to get the perfect family picture on Christmas Eve. We got to spend lots of time with Grandma Fields when she was here to visit for a few weeks. Jaelynn loves her nana!

Christmas was a big hit with the princess this year. I'm pretty sure she didn't completely understand everything that was going on but she loved getting new babies, new clothes, a kitchen, colors and about a million other things that we are still working on finding spots for.

We rang in the new year at home...in bed. What can I say...we are old! All three of us came down with the flu in January but thankfully we are all okay now. Ryley turned 2 and we prepared to say hello to Cooper and good bye to John.

In the course of the last 6 months Jaelynn has gone from saying a few words that we were able to understand to repeating just about everything we say. I'm able to have a conversation with her and it blows my mind. She is sassy and full of life and love and has no fear at all. She can test my patience and then turn around and give me a kiss and smile and make all my frustration melt away.

Have I missed anything in updating you? Yes I have...about a million little things I'm sure. I'll be working on some different post that highlight some of the most adorable and funny times over the last few weeks. Jaelynn is growing up so fast...I just want to bottle this time with and make her stop growing...just for a second. But if I did that I would never get to see what is waiting for us just around the corner. With our little family there is something new every day and our love for one another just keeps growing.