Rebecca's First Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This was obviously Rebecca's first Christmas and I think she enjoyed it pretty well. She actually took an interest in the presents and helped unwrap a few. She especially loves her new toys that talk and play songs.

Hey Buster! No, it's a hay buster.

Tis' the season for feeding hay to the cows. And tis the season for disguising poor quality hay amongst better quality hay by grinding it together like chopping veggies with some brownies. We hired a man to custom grind some hay so the cows wouldn't be able to sort out the lower quality hay. It turned out really well. Scott helped me haul hay last week and borrowed his skid steer to move them to the grinder. It has knives in the bottom and the round tub rotates to move the hay over the knives. The conveyor hauls the hay out the bottom and up the chute to make a pile. Amazing or not the grinder can grind one per minute. It has a small 500+ horsepower engine on it. Saboss!

Do I need to apologize for not including pictures of our child this week? I am sure many of you log on just to see Rebecca and not see the exciting happenings on the farm. Christmas pictures will be posted someday. Stay tuned.

Dozer

Dozer! I don't even know her!

As some of you know we have a bull named Dozer; give credit to Sarah for the creative name. Get it. We have a bull dozer. He has a story he has not told us. Not about the fun he has had and we all know that bulls have fun, but about how he lost his nose ring. Yes he had a nose ring, but tonight when I showed Sarah this picture she noticed he didn't anymore.

I am curious how many of you out there in blogger land know why bulls have nose rings.

A. To rattle against metal objects like bale rings or gates to tell his cows he's the bull

B. To be used as part of his bit when they are rode as bucking bulls
C. To keep from getting their noses in the wrong places, like you know where

D. To be tied up and led around like a pet

Send us your guess as a comment.

Ice, Ice, Baby

Ice

Ice

Baby

That pretty much sums up the last two days. Monday into Tuesday we had an ice storm. Dan stayed home from work on Tues. and we stayed huddled inside trying to stay warm - literally. We lost power for nearly 12 hours. Rebecca didn't seem to notice much, but she did seem a little more cranky at night - probably confused by it being dark at 5pm and by all the candles all over the house. The roads weren't too bad by 6pm so we decided to leave the cold house and go out to eat and do a little shopping. Just after we got back home, around 9:00 pm, the power came back on. I was so thankful because I was not looking forward to trying to sleep with Rebecca in our bed. Hope this finds all of you warm as well.

Finally!

I'm sure that is what many of you faithful viewers are thinking by now - "finally!" Well I'm glad to be finally blogging again also. The long wait has been due to a combination of being gone over the Thanksgiving holiday and computer troubles. But I think we finally have a good working computer that we can rely on for a while. So here are some updates on what we've been doing.

For Thanksgiving we traveled to Orange City to be with my family. It was the first time since last Christmas that we had all been together. Rachel was home from Nicaragua and finally got to meet Rebecca.

Whenever my family gets together we like to take a family picture - it's great to see the new additions year after year!

Since this was Rebecca's first Thanksgiving we thought we would have a little fun. Here she is with my mom's 19 pound turkey. Rebecca is only tipping the scales at 14 pounds.

Here is Rebecca looking super cute in her dress and shoes. I still can't get over how cute baby shoes are!

The most recent family update is that Rebecca has a new baby cousin. Dan's sister, Debbie and husband Greg has another baby girl on Sunday, Jessica Lynn. Here is Dan holding Jessica with big sister Allison and Debbie.

Toys

It's been a pretty quiet week around here, which has been really nice. During our quiet afternoons I've been trying to engage Rebecca a little bit more with her toys and books. But I finally gave in and decided it would be more fun to take pictures of her with her toys and books.

Rebecca's latest craze is trying to fit her whole fist into her mouth. It's pretty cute except that she makes a slobbery mess of herself. I don't know what it is about cold slobbery hands and cheeks, but I just can't deal with it. I'd take the dirtiest diaper over massive drool any day.

All Smiles

Happy Birthday Dan! Since meeting Dan, I've had to share my birthday celebrations with him since mine was 2 days ago. Normally this wouldn't be that big of a deal except that I love birthdays and Dan is a little "ho-hum" about them. He usually rains on my parade a little. This year, with our new little addition to the family, everything is different - even birthdays. I always loved a little birthday flare to make my day special, but after having Rebecca you realize quickly that everything in your life becomes secondary to everything in theirs. That's the order of things I guess and I wouldn't change it for the world!

Here are a few pictures to keep you updated. Rebecca is smiling all the time now and almost on command. Just make sure she is in a good mood, usually after eating, and give her a big smile and she will smile right back!

This past weekend we drove up to Orange City to visit my parents. This was Rebecca's first road trip and she did really well in the car. Both on the way there and on the way back she slept soundly. It messed up her sleep schedule a little, but she got back on track soon enough. We had a great visit and Grandpa loved sitting and reading to his two youngest grandkids.

Thanks to two of my fellow ISU grads - Jen and Beth, Rebecca is decked out in her ISU gear ready to cheer on the Cyclones to another win. She makes a pretty cute fan!

Li'l Chicken

Can't get much cuter than that! Since Trick-or-treating isn't on our "to do" list, I almost forgot that my sister had given me this costume. My mom is actually the one that got it for my sister's kids. So thanks Grandma Pontier for this super cute look!

Mommy's little chicken!

Just for Fun

Here are some adorable pictures of Rebecca just because I love to capture precious moment of her on camera. And here's what Rebecca must be thinking about it all.

Just hanging out in my swing. Can someone please get me the remote?

Mom has been working really hard at getting me to smile - sometimes I cooperate.

I can sleep just about anywhere and any time.

This is my new big toy except I have no idea how to use it. My feet don't touch the bottom and my arms don't even reach the toys. I think mom just likes to spin me around and laugh at me.

Stop with the pictures already would you!?!

Just a note to all my fans: I'm almost 2 months old now. I weigh 11 pounds and 7 ounces. I'm 21 inches long. And I only cried a little when I got my shots...ok...I cried a lot, with a little screaming.

Lazy Days

I haven't been completely lazy since being on maternity leave, but I do enjoy the quiet afternoons to scrapbook or watch a movie or blog. But my favorite thing to do is settle in on the couch with Rebecca and enjoy a good book.

Tummy time is not Rebecca's favorite time of the day, but I love to see how strong she is getting and how much she can turn and hold her head up. She likes to be on her boppy pillow more than just flat on the floor. What beautiful eyes!

Hairy Days

I know the saying goes, "Blondes have more fun." Well I would like to suggest that babies with hair have more fun too. Or at least moms of babies with hair have more fun - especially at bath time.On a different note. Here is a beautiful rose Dan picked from our back yard. Two years ago I got a free (after mail-in rebate) rose bush from Menards and have been patiently waiting for some great roses. It was worth the wait.

Covenant Blessings

This past weekend was very busy, but joyous at the same time. My family all came to visit and see Rebecca for the first time. My parents and brother Jon came from Orange City, my brother David and Andrea came from Chicago, and my sister Grace and Doug and their five kids came from Minnesota. We had a full house, but could have squeezed in one more important person - my younger sister Rachel, but we will have to wait until Thankgiving for her to fly home from Nicaragua. We love and miss you Rachel!

On Saturday we had a baby shower for Rebecca with family and friends. Us ladies had a great time opening presents and decorating/personalizing onesies, bibs, and burp clothes for Rebecca.

The men stayed busy on the farm ATVing, seeing the cows and calves, and enjoying the big machinary. My nephews even got to ride in the combine.

The main event for the weekend was Rebecca's baptism at our church on Sunday night. My dad, who is a minister and also baptized me, was able to baptize Rebecca. It was a significant family time, but more importantly a time to signify that Rebecca is a member of God's covenant and one of his children.

The baptismal gown that Rebecca is wearing was made by my dad's grandmother. It is 61 years old, wore by my father and myself. Rebecca is 15th child to wear it. What an amazing family tradition to show that our God is a God to us and our children after us and throughout all generations.
The Pontier family (except for Rachel of course).The De Vries family.

English proverb

No pictures today. If I were to post one it were be of me in deep thought; like I always am.

Do you agree with this English proverb?

-The absent are always wrong.-

To me it depends much on the situation. At first I agreed with it completely thinking that if you don't appear at a meeting to voice your opinion then you are choosing to keep quiet and allow others to be right. Though I also believe in the saying, "it is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open your mouth and remove all doubt" Sammuel Clemmens (Mark Twain).

What do you think?

1 Month Already!

Rebecca is already a month old! It's hard to believe that she been in our arms that long. All the feedings, dirty diapers, baths, changes of clothes, naps, and sleepless nights just all blend together and fly by (sort of).

Rebecca is growing and changing every day. We don't have a home scale, but she is getting heavier and her cute baby thighs are getting nice and chubby :) She is sleeping in her own room now and letting us sleep more, which is a blessing. She now will sleep 3-4 hours between feedings. Other things that are changing is she is awake a lot more durung the day and less content to just sit in her bouncy seat or swingby herself. She insists on a little more attention which means I get a little less done each day. (Although I am getting pretty good at typing with one hand :)

Sleeping beauty.

One month old.

Bath time fun - she is starting to enjoy bath time a little more. She didn't scream at all this time!

A Few Firsts

Rebecca is growing and changing every day. Yesterday she had a few firsts of many I'm sure. After getting her all dressed for church, I fed her and put her in her car seat ready to go. A minute later she made a funny noise and when I checked on her she had majorly spit up everywhere - her first time really spitting up. She was soaked through and so was the car seat. Dan and I made it a team effort to get her changed and the car seat cleaned up. This is a great example of why families with young children are often late to church!

The other first happened last night. As some of you may know, newborns fill their diapers often, but they are usually pretty small amounts and not to messy. Last night I picked Rebecca up and she had leaked through her diaper for the first time and her back was soaked. I'm going to blame this one on the diaper though. I've been trying different diaper brands in order to find good quality at a decent price. This brand is cheap, but feels like cardboard and obviously can't handle leaks very well.

Here are some more pictures just for fun :)

This last picture is in Rebecca's room right over her crib. I got wooden letters to spell her name and decorated the letters with fabric. Pretty nice uh?

In other news, Dan and I got a new digital camera to take even better pictures of Rebecca, but this morning while trying to install the software onto our computer I realized our computer has too old of an operating system for our nifty new camera. I guess a new computer is next on the list to upgrade :)

Birth Announcement

For the past few days I've been working on Rebecca's birth announcement. It took me at least 30 tries to get that photo of her. And the picture of her feet was also not that easy to get - she likes to curl her toes. Anyway, I played around with Photo Draw and came up with this. I'm pretty impressed with how professional it looks (if I may brag a little :). I will send out copies in the mail, but I just couldn't resist showing it off first.

The Bouncy Seat

A friend of mine picked up this vibrating bouncy seat at a garage sale for me this past summer. What a $5 well spent! (Thanks Beth!) Rebecca spends most of her morning and afternoon naps in it. It has made for some great photo opportunities.

This is the first and only time I've ever caught Rebecca with her thumb in her mouth. Most of the time she tries to stick her whole fist in there with little success.

A few days ago I was working in the kitchen and could hear Rebecca fussing and grunting, but didn't want to leave what I was doing. She quieted down quickly and when I checked on her I found this. I guess she was able to find a comfortable position on her own. Resting peacefully. She almost always had her tongue out while sleeping.

Every now and then she enjoys her Soothie. She is even pretty good and holding in it her month.

Just a side note. Today, September 10, was my official due date for Rebecca, but we can't even imagine the last 11 days without her!

More of Rebecca

For those of you who would like to know, here is a short version of Rebecca's birth story. I really had an uneventful pregnancy and was hoping for an "easy" birth also, but at my 38 week appointment we found out that Rebecca had flipped and was now breech. In talking with our doctors we decided to try an external version where the doctor manually turns to baby by pushing on it from the outside. It was an uncomfortable procedure, but successful. This was on Tues. August 28. I did have some bleeding and the doctors decided I had best stay over night to make sure that the bleeding stopped and my water didn't break. The next day we finally got checked out of the hospital around 4pm. The doctors did not want me to go back to work so we thought we would just wait until our little one decided she was ready. But at 6am the next morning the doctor called and said he had double checked some of my labs and thought is was necessary for me to come back in. We returned to the hospital and I was induced at 9:30 am. Mentally and physically we got ourselves ready to have this baby. I labored until 1am on Friday and was still stuck at 5 cm dilated. The doctors thought it would be safest for the baby to do a C-section. So at 2:16am Rebecca Grace was born.

Here is Dan cutting the cord.

Rebecca weighed in at 7 pounds and 11.8 ounces.

Our first family photo.

Rebecca's first bath.

Although she did have a rough start to life and was bruised up, you'ld never know it by this picture - she's a sleeping beauty.