Our 2010 Christmas letter

This past year definitely had its ups and downs, but we pushed on through by the grace of our good Lord!

The majority of the year consisted of grieving the loss of my mom, celebrating the birth of our handsome son, and keeping up with our 3 year old "teenager" in the house.

Our time during the winter season was spent cuddling and loving on the new baby in the house. Alivia did really well with the new baby and loved helping take care of him and making him happy.

In the spring we invited a friend from church, Pam, to come live with us. It was an adjustment having another person in the house at first, but she has been a true blessing to our family and we enjoy having her here. I especially love watching her with our kids, because she loves them so much and I know they love her too. We have had the opportunity to get to know her children and her four year old grand daughter, whom Livie loves playing with. We all have learned so much from each other and I can honestly say that this is definitely a GOD thing.

We had a very good summer which included many trips to Paul and Sally's (Grandpa and Grandma's) lake house. Both of the kids love being in and on the water. Alivia tried her hand at tubing and jet skiing this year which made me a little nervous, but she is so brave that I had to let her try. She does really well and maybe next summer she will be doing even more things that make me nervous!

Fall was spent enjoying the unusually warm weather, the beautiful changing of the leaves, and Alivia starting preschool. We also joined a class that Liv, Weston, and I could all take together. We did these classes with Livie when she was young and they have played a huge role in how we parent, how creative we have become with play, and it allows me to connect with other parents while the kids socialize.

Weston continues to get into everything that he shouldn't be getting into and he is really keeping us on our toes! His favorite thing to do is follow me around, play with his sister, rip up books, torture the dog, eat, and blow raspberries on any tummy that is within his reach. He is practicing his walking skills by taking up to 4-5 steps at a time, but has yet to master them. I don't think it will be much longer before he is having us chase him around!

Alivia is thriving and learning so much in school, it is so neat to see her writing letters and sounding out some words. She just finished up a dance class that she really enjoyed taking. My hope is to try her hand in gymnastics next. She loves reading books to Weston, helping me cook, and being creative with whatever she can find!

Alan is still working at Lino Lakes Prison as a Corrections Officer and leading worship at our church.  I am very proud to announce that Alan has completed his second bachelors degree and hopes to start a career in graphics design and media arts soon. In the mean time he is making websites for friends and perfecting his own. He is a busy guy, but that does not stop him from helping me out when he can and being a playful daddy to the kids. I am truly blessed to have such a great guy.

I am a stay at home mom trying to hold the house and family together. I found a new hobby in photography that I just love and I hope to take it to the next step in the near future. I will be taking a short class that will teach me the basics of my camera, composition, and some other things that will be helpful. I am also teaching Sunday school for the preschoolers at our church, which I enjoy doing. Alivia is in my class and often tells me that I am "the best teacher EVER!". That makes my heart melt and makes me more thankful that I able to be a stay at home mom and do these extra things that I do.

Our trust and faith in God has carried us through this year and that has been a major blessing. It is our hope that the year to come will be even better and God will be present in everything we say and do.

Many blessings to you all!

Love,
The Baertschis

To learn more about what we have been up to, please feel free to browse our previous blog postings and continue to check in with us!

Liv's first haircut!

After 3 1/2 years I finally got the guts to get Alivia's hair cut. I had asked our good friend, Kelsey, to cut her hair and I think it turned out great! No regrets here, thank goodness!

 

Liv did really well and was such a trooper.

Chunky Monkey and Livie Belle

We had so much fun with the kids this year for Halloween! The weather was beautiful and the kids were so incredibly cute. Weston dressed up as a monkey that we got from his second cousin, Evan. Alivia wanted to be a princess, so I let her pick from a few different ones; she chose Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

We had our roommates granddaughter with us as we went to our church's "Trunk or Treat" even that they held for the community.

After filling our candy buckets there, we went home and did some "Trick or Treating" around the neighborhood. Liv didn't last very long as she didn't like being outside while it was dark. Overall, it was a great day spent goofing around!

Weston 9 Months

Weston is 9 months old now and what a challenge he has been for me! He is constantly getting into trouble, bugging his sister, eating stuff that he shouldn't be, attacking the poor dog, and just being a major BOY!

Some of his favorite things to do now are play patty cake, blow raspberries on my stomach, cruise in the pink walker, and flip through books. I am really enjoying watching him look at things intensely and try to figure things out. When he is feeling really brave he stands all on his own. To me, it seems like a long period of time, but I think its only about 20 seconds or longer if he is distracted enough. He can get around pretty fast with crawling, almost too fast for this momma!

Weston now has 4 teeth on top and 2 on the bottom. He has started to refuse baby food and only wants to eat what he can feed himself. This has been a frustrating thing for me trying to find things that are ok for him to eat. So far crackers and cheerios seem to be the easiest thing to give him.

At his 9 month appointment, Weston weighed in at nearly 25 pounds and is in the 97th percentile for weight and height.

We are currently working on some sleep training in hopes to get this boy to sleep through the night and to take better naps during the day. Here's hoping!

Weston 8 months

Holy moly! We have entered destruction mode with Weston! He has grown in so many ways in such a short time. Weston started scooting and rolling around and getting into things that we weren't used to him getting into. He was across the room when Alan waved at him and Weston returned the gesture! At first we thought it was a fluke, but he kept doing it right on cue. Our happy eight month old is now sporting 4 teeth, two on top and two on bottom, with more coming in. He is also crawling some, pulling himself up, walking along the furniture, clapping, waving, and saying some words like "buh-bye, mama, and dada". I'm getting a little nervous about his new move; He acts like he wants to stand up right in the middle of the room without holding onto anything, which means that walking is not far behind. Ooooh dear!

Bob and Larry

Last Monday Alivia kept getting out of bed for random reasons. First it was that she was thirsty, then she was scared, then she had to go potty, then she wasn't tired... you get the idea. I was so tired, so I pulled out the ultimate bribe: We could go see Bob and Larry (from the VeggieTales) on Saturday if she stayed in her bed for the rest of the night. It worked! The bad part was that I pulled this bribe out on a Monday which made for a long week of Liv asking "Are they here yet?".

The day finally came, thank goodness!

 Weston was even a little amused. He was fond of petting poor Bob.

She even got to meet and hang out with a local radio personality, Beth Kidd, from LITE fm.

 

 

Liv loved watching them from afar. I caught her waving to them all while wearing one of the most genuine smiles that I have seen. It's the small things in life, I guess. 

I love being a Mom and I love being able to make my kids happy. 

Weston 6 and 7 months

Weston is working on his fourth tooth, this time it's two on top. We are slowly moving out of the gummy baby stage. I was a little sad, because teeth mean that my baby is getting older and soon won't be a baby anymore.  I think Alan is looking forward to him growing up more than I am. West isn't exactly the best sleeper and he still doesn't take a bottle, that makes things a little difficult for Alan (and anyone else for that matter) to watch and take care of Weston. 

The boy is holding onto his blue eyes still, we are hoping they stay that color because he is so handsome with those baby blues! Last I checked he was weighing in at 24 pounds and is currently wearing size 18 month clothes at the age of 7 months! He loves his big sister and keeps screeching at her; it's almost like a dinosaur sound and it cracks us up every time.

We are on our way to having a crawler and I am not sure that I am ready for that quite yet. I look around and see how much we have to do in order to baby proof the house. Alivia was a very good baby and we never had to baby proof anything (except the top of the stairs for her safety). I have a feeling I am going to be locking everything up and hiding stuff from my monster baby. He is such a boy already. Game on.