My husband the EMT!

I can't believe it's been over a month since we updated our blog, but since my husband has been missing in action here on the blog for quite a while, I will have to do a little bragging for him. I had been meaning to write about this a while ago, and now that classes have started up again I finally remembered! This past fall he took all the EMT courses required to certify as an EMT-Basic as part of his training to be a firefighter. He did great in all his classes and then he passed the National Registry test to officially be an EMT with flying colors! Way to go Ross!!!

Kelsey's First Christmas

Well, I have really been wanting to get out some sort of Christmas card or letter for the past few years. Especially this year with the new baby and all. But since it is January now, and that hasn't happened, this year this blog post will have to be enough. Maybe next year =)... So here are some pictures of Kelsey's first Christmas activities. She definitely loved getting to see new things and have lots of people around. She would try so hard to stay awake because she didn't want to miss out on anything! Here are a couple pictures from her first time meeting Santa:
And here she is in her "Christmas best" (what can I say? I'm a casual kind of girl!) before church on the Sunday before Christmas:

Here are a couple pictures of her modeling her first Christmas present she got to open on Christmas eve (PJs of course!) You can't really see in the first picture, but there are reindeer on her feet and she was totally loving playing with them!
In these pictures taken later you can see at least one of the reindeer, and see how much she liked to grab them!














And here she is on Christmas morning and afternoon opening presents. These series of pictures really made me laugh- I had trouble picking only a few to post!
Yes, she really was as excited as she looks in that picture! And then of course the first place every present goes...in her mouth!
"My cow is awesome!" (says Kelsey, of course!)
"Oh my goodness...what do I do with a present this big?!?" (says Kelsey again)

And of course after all of the presents and excitement of the day, her most favorite toy of all... the ribbon from one of her presents! =)





She also got to go see the city of Bethlehem (she loved the animals!), a reenactment of the Christmas story by a church near where we live. It is pretty cool!

And she got to go to Christmas in the Park in downtown San Jose- a whole strip of land decorated with Christmas trees and moving displays and such. She really seemed entertained by them!

I don't know if you can tell, but behind her right shoulder is a merry-go-round of penguins and she was really loving watching them go around!

So as you can see it was a packed first holiday season for our little girl! She is so much fun and we are so grateful to have been able to share this time of year with her for her first time. I was going to take a couple pictures of her celebrating her first New Year too...but after all the Christmas excitement, she wasn't even awake to see it..she had zonked out on her daddy on the couch. Oh well, maybe next year =)!

3 Months Old!

So Kelsey had her three month old birthday yesterday...I can't believe it has been three months already! She is growing up so fast! Right now she is even helping me type this post. (And by helping I mean she is sitting on my lap, totally entertained by the light of the computer screen, throwing herself forward towards the keyboard every two seconds because she wants to get a better look- causing me to get about two letters typed before I have to grab her and pull her back to sitting up again so she won't bonk her head on the desk...but that's about as close as she gets to helping these days!)

I thought I would post a couple of pictures in honor of her "birthday". Here she is showing off what a "stretchy baby" she is:


And here she is in her crib for the first time. She has been sleeping in a playpen bassinet by our bed, and I had stuff filling the crib up until just last week...so finally at three months she has a crib to lay in-- and play in, as you can see:


I call this one her E.T. picture:

First Photo Session

I had a request for more pictures, so here are some from Kelsey's first photo session on Saturday with her Auntie Trina. I think she actually did quite well. She made it through several outfit changes, and even after laying her in the leaves for a while (she didn't like that so much), she still calmed down a bit for more pictures. I haven't gotten to see the ones Trina took yet, but here are a few of my favorites that I took over or around Trina and Ross (who had to keep sitting her back up cuz she was constantly falling to one side or the other.)






These ones are of her in the dress she was blessed in a few weeks ago. And I just had to get some pictures of her in the fall leaves before all the colors faded away. Like I said before, she really didn't dig that, but she was a trooper! In fact, here she is waving to the camera...haha.

What I'm Thankful For...

Hi all. This is Suz. I thought I would finally join my cute hubby in this world of "baby blogginess" as he calls it. I don't have much to say about myself, but I can for sure go on and on about our sweet baby girl. I thought I would start by listing some things I am thankful for- considering it is Thanksgiving time and all.

1. My sweet little bug- the most darling baby in the world!

1. (I have to have a tie for the top spot of course!) My sweet husband- who is the best daddy in the world!
3. The time I get to spend just watching my little bug and my hubby talk and interact and play and cuddle and sleep together. (You can see Kelsey talking to her daddy in the third pic from Ross' last post.)


Okay, so now for the not so serious things-- even though they are things I am seriously thankful for!
4. Disposable diapers- our little girl is a serious diaper filling factory!
5. Footed sleepers- it is getting cold and our wiggly, wiggly baby (she gets it from her daddy) can never keep socks or covers on her at night
6. Showers- When I get a second to take one =)! Even though I almost always get to listen to a screaming baby.
7. A car seat base that stays in my car so we can easily snap the car seat in and out with her already in it- though it barely all fits in my tiny car.
8. T-shirts, sweatpants, and sweatshirts- the wardrobe of choice for this new mom! (Not that it wasn't my wardrobe of choice when I was childless too...haha!)
9. Ice cream! Seriously, I never craved it when I was pregnant, but ever since I have been "unpregnant" I seem to always be in the mood!
10. Bananas- They are such a good source of nutrition and pretty filling too! Unfortunately, I couldn't stand them when I was pregnant...but now I love them again! Yay! Ross hates them and they are one of my favorite foods. They are especially good with whipped cream on them... though I guess that takes away my argument that they are good for you.

I better stop at ten things since they are getting so random anyway. Obviously our lives revolve around the babes these days! I am just so thankful to be blessed with such a beautiful, sweet daughter and a wonderful husband who is a great father for our little girl.

How do I...

Make my blog wide? Seems like everyone else is running their text out to the end of the screen, but my stuff is crammed into this little column.

Rambling, baby pics, etc.

Did you want to see our baby? Of course you did. **cackles, tents fingers**


I don't have anything to say. Which should come as no surprise. I just have some time so I thought I would write a few words. Kelsey is doing great; the little girl has finally started putting on some weight; but at almost 24 inches and 9 lbs 3 oz, she's in the 75th percentile for height, and the 10th percentile for weight. So tall and skinny like her parents. No surprise there. In fact, when we would go in to the doctor concerned about her being so small (about 2 weeks ago she was 7-13 and 22) the nurses would just say "Well look at you two! OF course she's skinny and tall!"

School is well; I went on a ride along with Santa Clara Fire on Sunday. I was nervous before hand; I hadn't gone on a ride along before and didn't know what to expect; would I like it? Would I be scared? Would something gross me out? Would I forget everything I had learned? The answers are Yes, No, No, and No. In fact, I was complimented on my knowledge and ability to work under pressure by the crew. Yes, I did just toot my own horn. Don't like it? Too bad. My blog, my post, my rules. It was, no joke, he most fun I have had in I don't know how long. And I mean go-kart fun, not play with the baby fun. Totally different. I would rather spend a day with a crew than go racing all day, or really, do pretty much any activity. The down time can be boring, no doubt; we went about 6 hours without a call for a while, but then spent about 2 more on 3 calls that were really awesome. I feel bad for the people that are hurt/sick/injured in some way, but the thrill of driving through the city, lights and sirens, wondering what challenge you are going to face, is really quite the rush. I now understand why Kevin takes every single call back he can get; I would take em too! I want nothing more than to be a firefighter for SantaClara. I'll be applying to the volunteer reserves come April. I decided to sit out this round of hiring since we had just had Kelsey. A good move methinks.