Welcome Home

Burke gave us a little scare while we were in the hospital causing him to get transferred to the Children’s Hospital of Orange County.  His 1 week birthday was spent in the hospital but we still celebrated in style. 

One Week Old

I'm a fighter!

Our little man is a fighter and took all of the tests in stride.  He only cried for a second when they did the spinal tap, he slept through both MRI’s, and barely flinched with each blood draw.   With every passing day more and more wires or tubes were removed and he continued to eat and eat.  After ten exhausting days and many tests he was cleared to go home.  This was a huge step and one of our family’s happiest days.  We had a welcome home party where we got to celebrate his one week birthday properly with a cupcake and a song.  We were all home, happy and healthy!  There is nothing better to celebrate.        

Going Home!

      

Welcome Home!  Happy Birthday Baby Burke!

B-Boy has Arrived!!

Burke James Belitz was born on January 22^nd at 11:09am.  He was a healthy 7lbs 12 oz. and 20.5 inches long.  He is a very sweet and happy baby who loves it when you sit and talk to him.  He rarely fusses so when he cries we jump to see what it wrong.   He looks more and more like his big sister every day.  He got the dominate “Woody” chin from his mother and curly brown hair and laid back attitude from his father.  And we still have not decided who he got his big hands and feet from.  Brynn is a fantastic big sister and loves to hold and sing to him to calm him down.  We are truly blessed and love being a family of four.    

Christmas in California

We celebrated our first Christmas in California this year.  Actually, this was the first Christmas we did not celebrate in Sioux Falls and the first Christmas I did not wake up in my parents’ house.  Let’s just say this was a Christmas of firsts. 

Christmas 2013 - 36 weeks pregnant

We made the most of Christmas and tried to get into the holiday spirit without snow on the ground and 75-80 degree days.  We started the week off with a boat ride to see all the boats and houses decorated with Christmas lights.  Christmas Eve was spent with close family and friends.  We had a great time and Ashley and Mom were great hostesses.  To try and add to the nostalgia of a California Christmas we had to have the fake fire going in the background all night. 

Keeping warm by the fire

Merry Christmas

Christmas Day was spent with the five of us.  We opened presents, had a surf and turf meal (in true California style), and spent the day playing with toys and watching movies.  We had to take a Christmas Day break half way through the day to spend a few minutes enjoying the sun by the pool as it was sunny and 85 degrees outside. 

Opening gifts

We continue to open presents.  Or should I say Brynn continues to open presents.  Just like at her birthday, she likes to open each gift one at a time and play with them before moving on.  So far there has not been a favorite present.  The train has given her hours of fun and I think we have assembled and reassemble it into different configurations a half a dozen times.  She got some new boots and a Sofia the First music player so we have also been getting daily performances by Miss Brynn.  

First performance of the day

Christmas Program

What a difference a year makes.  I was sitting at Brynn’s Christmas program this year trying to take it all in and realizing she is now a little girl.  She has developed in so many ways and her personality just shines.  I kept remembering back to last year’s program and thinking how she was just a baby back then. 

This year she sang along with the songs, got to play the bells and was thrilled to see us in the audience.  The funniest part was when some of the kids were pushing and shoving around her and she would just turn her back and ignore them and continue on with the song.  She is just a little performer…..more to come on that.  

Holiday Baking

I completed my usual holiday baking this past weekend.  This year was no exception to last year even though I claimed I was going to cut back.  However, the one big difference this year was that I had two elves to help me out.  One loved to stir and taste everything, while the other kept putting the ingredients together.  Can you pick out which elf is which? 

Stir Stir

Don't mind the cookie on my face!

In the end we made cookies, bread, dipped pretzels, party mix, and puppy chow.  Come on over if you are hungry or have a sweet tooth.  We have enough baked goods to feed an army.    

Break for a photo op!

Helping grandma with the tray of goodies!

Tis the Season

I cannot believe “it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas” and it is not even Thanksgiving.  Everywhere I look it is red and twinkling.  I hope Southern California can keep the spirit alive for us this year as we will not be able to travel home for a white Christmas this year.  So far it does not seem to faze Brynn as she runs towards the Christmas trees and twinkling lights. 

Halloween 2013

Halloween was an improvement from last year (see our post from Halloween 2012).  We spaced out all of the activities over multiple days to help Brynn ease into the holiday.  It all started with Trick or Treat Mickey a week and a half ago.  She got used to wearing a costume and identifying all of the creepy Halloween decorations.  This year we did pumpkins in stages.  Day 1 – she painted a pumpkins.  This was a huge hit.  Brynn was hard at work making her pumpkins look perfect!  Day 2 – was carving a pumpkin.  Daddy had to assist and we kept the carving very simple so we were not carving for hours while Brynn played in the other room. 

Needs to be just right.

Jack-o-lantern

We also broke the Halloween treat making for school up and the cookie decorating into different days.  Once again, it worked like a dream.  Brynn was excited to help each time and I was not getting pulled into 500 directions while trying to hurry up and finish.     

By the time Halloween day came around she was ready.  They had a pajama party at school where they watched a movie and Brynn got to bring in treats for her friends.  She loves sharing with her friends, especially when she helped make them.  After school we headed home to eat and get her costume on.  The anticipation by then was killing her.  She ate all of her dinner as quickly as possible and got her costume on.  Ears and all.  Next on the list was trick or treating.  A neighbor stopped by and made Brynn a huge treat bag full of goodies she was excited.  But unfortunately for us, Brynn was then ready to hang out at home.  She thought we were done trick or treating.  She did not understand that you can go to multiple houses.  We thought the next best step was to go to her school Harvest Festival.  Here they had games, treats and bounce houses for the kids.  She had a blast.  The last stops of the evening were to a couple of friends’ homes where Brynn was happy to get a treat and play and have fun in familiar places.  Maybe by next year she will understand the amount of candy you can get by trick or treating all over the neighborhood.

Happy Halloween!