Bella's first Thanksgiving, Christmas and More!

November and December 2008 were very busy and very exciting. So far 2009 has treated us well! We found out that we have two more little nieces/nephews on the way! Congratulations to Scott and Emily who are due July 4th and Ali and Andrew who are due August 5th (or earlier if Ali get’s her way.) We also have 2 weddings coming up! As you already know, Kaitlin and Zane will be getting married June 20th of this year. We are all very excited for the festivities. We Early’s love weddings! That gives me another brother but now I am only up to six! On the other hand I will be getting my 12th sister. I have Amanda, Allison, Lissy, Kaitlin E., Caroline, Molly, Autumn, Kristian, Kaitlin S., Emily, Kelly and now Danielle! Rob and Danielle recently got engaged and are now in the hustle and bustle of the beginning stages of planning. Looks like the sisters are winning. Two babies and two weddings… does it get any better!

By the way, you don’t have to tell me how efficient I am about all of this blogging stuff. The next one might be when Bella is 1! As I tell all my friends, go look at the Farwell, Bobzien and Early Blog’s because they are updated quite often and have all of the family going-on’s. Plus- they are all really cute! As far as our little family, well we have pretty much given up any social life because we love our lazy times at home with Bella so much. She really is all of the entertainment either of us need. Since Ryan and I are at work a majority of the time, we don’t want to miss out on any more Bella time when we are off. We have just been discussing how we really need to try and see other people occasionally so we don’t completely shut ourselves off from the world.


We spent Thanksgiving with Ryan’s family. We had a wonderful time hanging out with family and eating ourselves silly. Aunt Mary and Uncle Ed came over along with their kids and grandkids. Bella got to hang out with Henry and Louis. They are such cute little boys. Henry is not quite 3 and Louis is just about a month younger than Bella. It was wonderful getting to see everyone and then we all got together again a week before Christmas to celebrate. It is always fun seeing all of the Auer family. We got together with the Sedlak family after the New Year to celebrate the holidays. Grandma Sedlak came along with most of the family that lives in town including some of Ryan’s dad’s cousins and their families. Ryan’s Aunt Kathy and Uncle Ken also came from Connecticut. Three of the kids, Kevin, Brian and Katie, came from all over to surprise their Grandma. It was good getting to hang out with them and put some more faces with names. Father Wilke, the priest who married Ryan and I, Scott and Emily and Tim and Kelly also joined us. He is always so sweet and he really enjoyed the whole thing. He was surprised at how big Bella had gotten, along with many other people. We also got to meet the newest member of the family. Jacob, Greg and Casey’s little one. What a sweetie! He has so much hair and beautiful bright blue eyes. They had the great grandchildren put on the Christmas Pageant (Bella and little Jacob were too little to play) and it was adorable. They read a child-version of the nativity story and sang some Christmas songs as Uncle Bill played the piano. The little ones ranged from playing their part to the T and spinning in circles and running away to look at the Christmas tree. I can describe it in 2 words. Too Cute! We also played Rob your Neighbor. It is a game you play with dice and often strange presents people wrap up from their house. You roll doubles you get a present and when they are gone, you steal them from other people. It was an entertaining game and I got a leg massager.


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Bella and I took a little road trip to Kirksville the first weekend in December. Ryan didn’t join us because all of the Sedlak boys including Ted met up in Philidelphia for te Army/Navy game. Sadly, Army did not win but I am pretty sure fun times were had by all. Bella and I got to celebrate Papa’s birthday and give Ellie a belated birthday gift which she really enjoyed. She watches her mom bake lots of cupcakes and we gave her a pretend cupcake kit. You can tell children learn by watching us because she knew how to frost her cupcakes. She was even kind enough to let Bella borrow the pretend stick of butter to chew on. While we were there, Bella got to open her first 2 Christmas presents. She got her stocking just in time for Christmas. Grandma made it to match Mommy and Daddy’s with a little girl twist – it is adorable ! She also got her first ornament which is so sweet. It is bright pink with a pink and green polka dot stocking on it and a big bow complete with pom-poms! Bella really enjoyed our old Santa doll and a Santa doorknob hanger that sings and jiggles. It probably helps that it plays her favorite song, Jingle Bells. She also had a very good time with her Grandma and Papa and cousins Jackson and Ellie. I love watching my parents with the grandkids. They just do one crazy thing after another to see what kind of reaction they will get!


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A few weeks after that, my folks and Molly and Caroline came to town for a Christmas house tour in Lafayette Square. This is the area of town where the movie Meet me in St. Louis was based (that home is no longer standing though) and the homes are amazing. My folks, Bella and I, Lissy, Caroline, Molly and Bev all went on the tour and it was so much fun. We have all wanted to do this forever and we finally pulled it off. The profits go to help restore the neighborhood which is always nice. We saw homes of all shapes and sizes and they were all decked out for the holidays. It was so neat to hear all of their history. I actually learned that it was where you built if you had any money at the time but once the area was all built up, they came out with furnaces and people moved out to the Central West End to build larger homes because they were easier to heat and didn’t need all of the fireplaces. Don’t get me wrong. The homes in the Central West End are gorgeous but who doesn’t want lots of beautiful fireplaces? The weekend was a great time. Friday night was very entertaining as we drove around forever looking for a decent place that had space for us all and ended up at a restaurant that was probably a little uppity for our baby and fleece jackets. From there we were going to go on a lights tour but decided to go down town and check out Macy’s windows instead. Once we found a spot and all got out of the car we realized it was freezing and we didn’t even have our stroller anyways. We decided it was time to call it a night!

We went back to Kirksville for Christmas this year and it truly was PERFECT! My parents enjoy almost anything you can celebrate and made a point as we were growing up to make celebrations fun. I think Christmas is their favorite though (I personally believe it is because they got engaged on Christmas Eve!) As long as I can remember, they have done everything in their power to make Christmas a magical and memorable time for all of us. Seriously, I think they start planning in January. This year might have topped them all because I had so much to be thankful for. My baby girl celebrated her first Christmas and had a blast doing it – or should I say we had a blast. I love our little family and the whole thing was PRECIOUS! After the scare with my Dad’s stroke, he is doing so well and working hard to stay healthy and let other people help him for a change. My parents seem so happy and in-love! My whole family was back for Christmas and we always have fun together whether it is playing games, watching movies, but mostly just chit-chatting and watching the little guy’s play. The grandbabies are all so adorable and hilarious. I love seeing all of their little personalities develop (all though these personalities are actually pretty big) and seeing them starting to form bonds that will last a lifetime. It was great to be home. I love our house. It is always so warm and welcoming and makes me feel like a kid again. The decorations were beautiful and since Bella has a fondness for Christmas trees, Grandma and Papa’s tree was like a dream come true. Everything was like a dream. We ate till we were ready to pop each day three plus times a day. Everyone stayed healthy and had fun! Midnight Mass was as wonderful as always (even if they didn’t sing my song “Light in the Stable”) Christmas day was the best. We slept in a bit and then woke up and waited on the Farwell’s and Andy, Autumn and Briley to show up. Bella loved the first 20 minutes of presents and then took a nap on Daddy for a bit. Christmas morning was great with the child-like joy and chaos of opening the presents followed by breakfast casserole, hot chocolate and Sunny-D in champagne flutes (we are classy). Next up was a lazy day of sitting around in our “Christmas Pajamas” (yep, Mom and Dad still give everyone Christmas Pajamas which we all make fun of but secretly really love.) We still play with all of the new toys like the W-ii and ladder ball, nap, watch Christmas movies, eat and talk. The evening was capped off with a very yummy Christmas dinner and all that goes with that. We traded our gifts for our family gift exchange which is always entertaining. I don’t think Andrew agree’s but I feel that Andy purchased one of the most unexpected yet funny gifts for him. I door mat for his home or office that say’s “Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit, look who’s here!” I loved it but Andrew might have been more happy with socks. After all was said and done, Ali gave my parents their last gift. She had been working so hard on a DVD she compiled with pictures of Christmas’ gone by clear from when my parents were babies. She had some of our what Ryan likes to call “Crappy Christmas songs” on there which brought back wonderful memories and then ended the whole the thing with “Thank God for Kids”, one of my absolute favorites and had pictures of Christmas’s with all of the grandkids. Ali even worked through Christmas day to include pictures from this year so Carson and Bella could make the cut. This was my favorite Christmas yet. Mom and Dad – Thanks for making everything so special and building all those memories over the years.


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After Christmas we went to Columbia for my cousin Abby’s wedding. Her new husband is named Justin and I am happy for both of them. They were pretty sweet and both of them really seemed to enjoy their special day. Also, it gave us a chance to see some of my Dad’s family around the holidays. We saw our cousins and got to talk a little bit. Bella had a date with her boyfriend, Chase. They got all dressed up for each other. Bella was a little rowdy and sassy in her red dress and had fun playing on the floor with all of the big kids. I always say that I think she probably should have been number three. She is such an easy baby, goes with the flow and loves being in the mist of lots of kids. She always thouroughly enjoys being at Julie’s house on Tuesday and Wednesday because she loves seeing Lea, Kyla and her little buddy Claire. She also likes it when cousin Liv comes to Mama and Papa’s on her days there because she gets to follow her around and learn all sorts of cool things. When she is with her Early cousins, she doesn’t even know who to follow around. Jackson, Ellie and Briley stop and tell her she’s cute or “no, no Bella” and Carson and her just sit in the mist of it all enjoying the action.

Ryan and I both took most of the two weeks off between Christmas and New Years. It was AMAZING!!!! I am thankful that we both have jobs right now with the way the economy is and all but neither of us wanted to go back to work. We really need to win the lottery. It was wonderful being able to be together with the three of us so much. Bella loved it too! Her “happy time” is in the afternoon and we normally miss it but not for these two weeks. During our days we all goofed around and at night we typically ate great and watched a couple of movies. We were very exciting for the New Year. We felt like being lazy and that is just what we did. Bella tried to stay up but was in bed by about 10:45. Ryan fell asleep on the couch around 10:30 because Kaitlin and I decided to ring in the New Year watching Enchanted. Next Year we will be more festive!

Bella is now 8 months old and changing everyday in every way. I don’t even know where to begin. She spent almost all of November and December “trying” to crawl. Everyone that saw her said “She is almost there, she’ll be crawling any day now!” and we waited. Finally a little before break she started to make some progress. By the end of the break she was all over the house. She likes to adventure into new areas and play with all of the cool new things she has found like outlets, cords, the carbon monoxide detector, trash cans of all shapes and sizes, the salad spinner, remotes, empty boxes, her desitin, my makeup and vents and grates are a favorite. Wait till she starts dropping things down them. Her favorite spots to relax are the dirty rugs in front of the doors, bathrooms, the kitchen floor, the fridge and under our feet. Safety is obviously a big concern for her. She is really enjoying her Christmas presents. She thinks her Raggedy Ann doll’s are hilarious and some of her other favorites are a singing purse (we have memorized the song) and the top of her leapfrog table. All of the other toys she experiments with for awhile and comes back later and they are all new! She still likes her exercauser but not when we leave the room. She feels too confined I guess. She is enjoying bath time and is now sitting in the tub like a big girl. She likes to pull up and eat the side of the tub as well. Not very safe considering it is cast-iron. Tim, Kelly and Olivia gave her a boat with some toys and she likes it. I also give her some bubbles to play with and she finds those very interesting. Today she got a ride in her shopping cart because she was too little to reach the handles to push it. She was smiling and giggeling as she flew around the room, with the help of Daddy, like Cole Trickle. Ryan loves Days of Thunder.

Just in the past day or two she has figured out how to pull up to her feet on the couch and shelves. She even tried to use Mama and Papa’s DVD stand (didn’t work out very well). She typically ends up falling on her head and screaming but she just keeps on going. She must get that from her daddy!

While watching movies over our break, we happened upon a funny little discovery. Bella likes opera. I don’t know where this sophistication comes from. Ryan and I were watching the Will Ferrell movie Step Brothers as she was starting to wind down for the night. At the end, Will Ferrell sings a song by Andrea Bocelli (I think that is right) called “Time to Say Goodbye” and out of no where Bella stops wrestling with me on the couch and turns and looks at the tv in a trance. As soon as there is a break in the movie, she starts to play again and once the singing starts she is back in a trance. We went back and she did it again. Of course we downloaded the song and she sort of went into her trance. The next day, Scott came over to help Ryan in the basement and he got to see it. The funniest part is that her and Jake Utterback have a uniting tie because their birthdays are on the same day. When we were at their house for the annual Thanksgiving party Jake started to play that song. I asked Amy what it was and she said that it was some opera song that Jake loves and he plays it all of the time. I remembered that when we heard it in the movie so Ryan called Jake. Just the other day Jake sent Ryan an email with a link to this guy singing this song to Elmo only he sang “Time to say Goodnight” to Elmo as he put him to bed. We showed it to Bella and it happened again. When the man would sing, Bella would stop and stare and then would Elmo would sing she would giggle. Really, who doesn’t love Elmo? He is adorable. You have to check it out because it is pretty cute. She also loves the song Jingle Bell’s (I think because it has one of her nicknames in it “Bell’s” or “Jingle Bell’s” for Christmas). Everytime you sing it, she smiles when you get to the word “bell’s”. Her other nickname is “Hell’s Bell’s”. This is when she is being wild and rowdy.

Oh yes - Congratulations to the newest home owners, Andy and Autumn! I can’t imagine how excited you two are considering how long you all have been waiting to have a house. Viva and Briley are going to love the space. So long to “festivals” Andy – you have work to do! I think we will be visiting you in May for a wedding so do you think you can have all your projects wrapped up by then because we wouldn’t want to stay anywhere that wasn’t completely finished! Just kidding!!! But really, have fun with your new home. You all deserve it.

As far as our house, Ryan has been working sooooo hard. He likes his projects (not really but if it needs to be done, he does it and does it right.) At this point, he has torn most of the walls out of the basement and we will have Helitech out this month to install drain tiles and a sump-pump system. Once that is done, we will get to finish the basement out again. Ryan is really making sure it is done right this time. I have included some pictures so you can see the change. If you thought it was a dungeon before with the very dark gray paint, it really is a dungeon right now. The finished product will be much better than before though. We also have someone coming out to fix some of our upstairs windows. Whoever gets this house next should be very thankful to Ryan. He will make sure everything is right. As far as us, our next house will probably be almost new. As much as I love the charm of older homes, I don’t think it is worth Ryan’s headaches.
Well, I know there is more but since I just wrote a novel, I will let you go this time. Hopefully I will talk to you sooner rather than later. I have to go and get ready so Mommy and Daddy can go out tonight. Aunt Lissy has volunteered to come over and watch our little munchkin tonight as she does laundry so we can go meet up with some old friends. We will see how long we last out on the town. Who knows what those two will be up to? Probably a photo shoot and prank phone calls because that is what they do best. Whatever they do, I know they will have fun!