Byards' Bywords: January 2014

Snowman Footprint Paintings

Every year I usually try to make some of our Christmas presents to other people. This year I got pretty behind and just didn't have the time! Luckily I found something cute and easy on Pinterest that also involved little Audrey! We decided to make four paintings with a footprint--one for us, each set of her grandparents, and a set of her great-grandparents for Christmas. They turned out great!

I didn't have to do too much besides be the mastermind behind it all. Kyle did most of the work since he's the more artistic one.

Step One: buy canvas board (I also sent Kyle out to do that hahaha).

Step Two: paint the boards a solid color.

Step Three: Paint Audrey's foot and add to canvas.

Step Four: Wipe Audrey's foot with a wet wipe and bathe that girl!

Step Five: Splatter the canvas with white paint (for snowflakes). Paint snowman accessories and add a cute message. Let dry.

Voila! Each painting is unique in some way, even if you can't see it from the pictures. Everyone loved them!

My grandma opening their painting.

Lounging over Christmas Break

A lot of this Christmas break was spent traveling to see family and the rest of the time was just hanging out at home. Audrey got a Bumbo seat from Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas that made all of this chilling that much easier!

Reading the farming paper with Grandpa K.

Her feet came in really handy as a prop for the paper.

Daddy was also trying to help Audrey play video games, but her thumbs aren't long enough.

She looks pretty sad about that!

She settles for watching instead :)

Knittle Extended Family Christmas 2013

We went to my grandparents' home for the Knittle extended Christmas on the 26th. Mostly it was food and opening presents and watching old home videos. Here are some of the pictures we took before opening gifts:

Auntie Betsy helping Audrey (since we helped open presents at the other bazillion Christmases we went to)!

Betsy's going to be a good mommy come May/June!

Audrey with the painting she "made" for my grandparents.

Christmas Day 2013

Kyle and I decided before we were married that Christmas Day would always be spent at our house with our little family. We didn't want to have to worry about going places or being stressed out about travel and this and that on Christmas, and now that we have Audrey, I'm glad we made this decision. We have a few Christmas Day traditions that we got to introduce to Audrey and we're quickly making some new ones!

Tradition #1: Christmas Bacon

In the four years we've been married, we've ALWAYS had fancy bacon on Christmas morning for breakfast. In the past we've bought expensive bacon from the store, but the last couple of years we had our own bacon in the freezer from having a hog butchered. Kyle really peppered it up and cooked it extra crispy on Christmas Day. I have insisted on cinnamon rolls in the past, too, but this year we felt so desserted-out that we skipped cinnamon rolls.

Tradition #2: Video-taping

I'm pretty certain we've taped every Christmas except 2012 (and maybe we did tape 2012, but we can't find it). We've had a video camera the entire time we've been married, but until Audrey was born, the only time it really saw the light of day was at Christmas. I sure am glad we have it, though, and I'm glad we taped the other Christmases, because it was fun to watch and reminisce.

Tradition #3: Stockings First

I never had stockings growing up, but we have them now! Even our cats share a stocking! We usually have just put our favorite treats in the stockings, and this year was no exception. Kyle always gets a package of Andes' Mints, I always get chocolate-covered cherries, and the cats get kitty treats. We were stumped on what to do in Audrey's stocking this year, so we actually put one of her presents in instead (more on that in a second).

Tradition #4: The Four Gifts

We are really trying to raise our children to understand the true meaning of Christmas, so Kyle and I would like to not give many store-bought gifts to our children or each other for Christmas. I know from experience that as a kid, Christmas to me was all about the toys. I know as a parent you can only help that so much, but that's one of the bigger reasons why Kyle and I decided to NOT believe in Santa Claus at our house. To us, Santa represents getting presents without understanding why or necessarily earning them. We don't want there to be any question about where gifts come from and why they are given to us in our house. So, instead of an outlandish number of presents, we decided to borrow an idea from a family that we know (this will guide our gift-buying for each child and keep the presents at a minimum). This idea/guideline comes with a little rhyme that I think is just wonderful: "You get something you want, something you need, something unique, and something to read." I'm sure over the years the four items will be more expensive, but we stuck with the basics this year, since Audrey's pretty easy to please.

Year one of implementation:

Something Audrey wants...new cute bibs! We splurged a little on this set.

The something she needs is a bank savings account. Obviously no picture of that (a note describing this was in her stocking).

Something unique...kitty bank! And thanks to her grandparents, Audrey is already Miss Moneybags!

Something to read! This makes a total of 9 Curious George stories on her shelf!

Audrey with her presents from us.

Tradition #5: Couple Presents

Kyle and I usually just decide on a spending limit for each other and try to stick to it. Here's what he got:

Batman toiletry set and...a machete.

Yeah...no idea why he really wanted a machete. But he did, and I found one at Harbor Freight for like $5. He hooked it on to his belt and wore it around for awhile after he opened it. I wrapped it in an enormous box, and Kyle spent all of December trying to shake it and guess what was inside.

He's so happy!

The machete is now under our bed as part of our "home protection system", which also includes a baseball bat in our closet.

Kyle got me the DVD/blu-ray Little Mermaid combo set. No pictures of that since I was controlling the camera.

Tradition #6: Movies and Naptime

We always have time for a Christmas nap on Christmas Day. Since we're not planning on going anywhere, we can sleep all day if we'd like! And we did! Audrey spent a total of about 5 hours awake on Christmas Day (chalk it up to all the traveling), so we pounced on that chance to sleep like ugly on an ape. We also watch movies on Christmas :)

Oh, and!

To top it all off, Audrey had her first laugh on Christmas Day this year. She laughed three times while I was singing "Rudolf" to her and twice while Kyle was throwing her in the air (got it on tape!). Best Christmas present EVER!

Snow Baby

I probably ought to be doing these updates in order, but I'm in love with the pictures I took this afternoon of the snow and in the snow! We had church cancelled, so we slept in as long as Audrey would allow us (lately that's been until about 10 AM, but today it was 9 AM). We read scriptures then watched Monsters University together. We watched Monsters, Inc. last night, and Audrey loved the colors on the TV. We then went outside to shovel/play/walk around, took showers and napped, ate a crock pot roast (YUM!) and I am now excitedly awaiting Downton Abbey at 9:00 tonight!

Oh yeah, and NO SCHOOL TOMORROW! Hurray!

Poor Audrey could barely move any of her limbs in her snowsuit! It was just like on A Christmas Story!

Although it fit perfectly, poor Audrey could barely move in her snowsuit and she gets hot so easily, so after I dressed her I handed her outside to Kyle who was already shoveling so I could dress in my coat and boots. Audrey liked the snowsuit when I was putting her in it, and every time I'd tuck an arm or a leg in, she'd give me a little giggle. However, she quickly discovered that it was impossible for her to lift her fist to her mouth to suck on her hand, so she immediately disliked being in the snowsuit.

Cute little pink bear snowsuit...garage sale find for $1!

I have to admit, I think the other part that Audrey really disliked was having a scarf over her mouth. I gave her one of Kyle's less pill-y and fuzzy ones, because I knew she'd just suck on it. She got very upset with having a scarf cover her face, but it made for some good pictures! The blurs are the snowflakes :)

I love the wet drops on Audrey's eyelashes!

I took Audrey around to show her the trees with all the snow on them, when suddenly we were attacked by snow! Kyle took advantage of my turned back and lobbed two snowballs at us!

Kyle retreating.

I wanted to get a good picture of Audrey in the snow, and although she can hold her head up by herself, pretty much all she could do in the suit was this:


Snow is getting on her face and she HATES IT.

I'm so glad I got this picture!

We investigated how deep the snow was in the front, too. At this point, we'd been outside only about 10 minutes, but Audrey cried through most of it, so her tears are starting to get cold.