Christmas in Springfield

Moxie dressed up for Christmas

Katelyn meeting her Great Grandma

Just hanging out around Oma and Opa's House

Katelyn and Mom

Great Grandma with her two great grand kids

Kyle, Katelyn, and Matt

Addison, Leaha, Ashley, and Katelyn

The Bretz Family

Last Thursday Katelyn went on her first road trip to Springfield. Katelyn loves riding in the car, so Matt and I thought that this would be easy, and boy were we right, she slept the whole three hours it takes to get there. Our car was packed to the brim with presents, clothes, and Katelyn's equipment. We spent the first two days just hanging out with Oma and Opa. We took Katelyn to meet her Great Grandma. She loved meeting her third Great Grandma. On Saturday Oma and Opa had an open house for family and friends to come and meet Katelyn. The whole three hours she slept while people passed her around to hold and love her! It was great to see so many family and friends come and meet Katelyn. On Sunday we had our Springfield Christmas. Oma made quiche, cranberry bread, and bacon. We enjoyed breakfast together. Then Opa read, The Polar Express to everyone, which is a Bretz tradition. After we exchanged gifts.  Katelyn is one spoiled little girl. She got a lot of great gifts from her Oma, Opa, Uncle Mark and Uncle Kevin. It was wonderful to celebrate Christmas in Springfield!

Visiting Santa

Yesterday Matt and I decided to take Katelyn to meet Santa again. The Santa at Macy's was a bit expensive for one picture and someone told me that at Bass ProShop it is free and you can take your own pictures! So, after work Matt met us at Bass ProShop. I had gotten there twenty minutes before him and stood in line. The line moved pretty quick, because when Matt arrived we were at the front of the line and ready for Santa. Katelyn was awesome while waiting in line. She sat in her stroller and looked around at everything going on around her.  She sat in Santa's lap and took a very cute picture! I think this will be a start to another new tradition. Next year we will have to see if she still will go to Santa and not cry!

Katelyn waiting in line for Santa

Getting ready to sit on his lap

She loves Santa

Katelyn and Santa

The Walnut Room

Uncle Mark, Katelyn, and Dad

Grammie, Katelyn and Oma

The crew standing in front of the tree in  the Walnut Room!

Family Picture

Katelyn in her snowsuit.....not to happy!

The Girls

My mom wanted to start a new tradition with Katelyn around Christmas and take her to the Walnut Room, let her pick out an ornament, and visit Santa. So we decided to go last Thursday. Grammie, Oma, Matt, Katelyn, and I headed down to the city around 11. We walked around the Kris Kringle Market. It was very packed and hard to push a stroller around the market, so after 15 mins. we decided to head over to Macy's. When we arrived in Macy's we went and got our pager, the wait was only a half hour. During the wait we went ornament shopping. Katelyn picked out (really mom picked them out) two ornaments. We were then met by Uncle Mark,  and we headed to the Walnut Room to eat. It was decorated so festive for Christmas! We had a really delicious lunch and got dessert. The Frango Mint pie was YUMMY!!! After lunch we headed downstairs to take a picture with Santa. There was no line and it was like a Disney ride to get to see Santa. We walked through his workshop and then found him at the end. The pictures did not turn out too great, but Katelyn's  first visit to Santa was a success. We can not wait to keep this tradition going every year!

Katelyn is One Month Old

I can not believe that Katelyn is already one month old. This has been the best month of our lives. Katelyn has brought us so much love and joy. We can not imagine life without her now! Over the past month a lot of things have happened. She now weighs 8 pounds 12 ounces. She is 21 1/2 inches long. She sleeps for 5-6 hours a night and now is sleeping in her nursery. Katelyn LOVES to eat, and her mom loves to feed her! When she is awake which is mostly in the evening, she grunts a lot and makes funny facial expressions. Her eyes are big, blue, and wide open when she is awake. Katelyn was born with black hair, she still has black hair but some of it is falling out.  She turns her head when she hears her mom or dad's voices. She is a very strong little girl, she lifts her head all the time when trying to look around. We have enjoyed all the love and support that we have received in the past four weeks. Katelyn is one lucky little girl.  We took some one month pictures for family and friends to enjoy!

Katelyn's First Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we went to my parent's house (Grammie and Papa's). We were surrounded by lots of family and Matt's family as well. Some of the relatives got to meet Katelyn for the first time. She was an angel all day/night. She slept for almost the whole time as everyone passed her around and held her. We ate a delicious meal thanks to my mom. We also played a game called, Truth be Told...this was a crack up. We ended the night  with watching, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving!

Katelyn's First Thanksgiving

Katelyn with her cousin Maggie

Great Grandma and Papa

Four Generations 

Grammie, Oma, and Auntie Sandy 

Grammie and Uncle Kevin

Kyle with Marley (who knows)

Teddy Bear Monthly Picture

Every month I am going to take a picture of Katelyn with her GIANT teddy bear! This will be a fun way to see how much she has grown over the months. These first pictures were taken when she was four days old. 

Napping in her bears lap!

Four Days old

Precious Little Katelyn

Carrie's Baby Shower

Katelyn's first time out of the house was to Carrie's baby shower today! Carrie's baby shower was at Biaggi's in Naperville. The food and company were great.  Katelyn was wonderful the whole time. She slept while everyone held her. She was held by a lot of different people that had not seen her yet. Katelyn can not wait to meet her new friend Cameron, when he is born in January. 

Carrie and Katelyn

Grammie and Katelyn

Carrie, Lisa, Leigh, Britt, and Katelyn

Sleeping Princess