In the bath and to Grandma's

Wet and cold! Too big for his baby bathtub, we have moved to bathing solo. Laying down in the tub make for better kicking!
Wyatt and I took a trip this past weekend, he stayed at my Mom and Dad's and I went on to St. Louis with my friend Katie. Rikki's 30th birthday party was this weekend and we couldn't miss it! Here is Rikki and Keller (co-birthday celebrant) at a bar in St. Charles. Yes, that is a giant pretzel "30". Wyatt was very good for the grandparents and he got to see a bunch of Edwards' while he was there!

6 months of joy!

Wyatt is now 6 months old and we have had so much fun with him! Unfortunately his 6 month birthday saw Wyatt fighting a fever and runny nose. Thursday night he did not sleep at all and Lindy stayed up all night rocking a very sad and fussy Wyatt - and she spent Friday at home with him. He is better today (Saturday) and back to his old self. He has been sitting up really good for a while and Derek thought he was trying to crawl the other day.

We all were worn out from New Year's and watching the Cotton Bowl. I am not very good at taking pictures at our parties. This year was the 5th annual D&L Holt New Year's party - we have gotten MUCH tamer in the last five years, but the next morning hasn't gotten any easier. Notice that Dixie has taken her chance for snuggle time with Derek.

We have started Wyatt on baby food and he likes it! Derek and I loved the faces he made the first time he ate bananas. I love having his highchair out. At first I put him in it and he played with toys while I washed dishes or cooked dinner - thanks Eric and Krissie for it!

Whoa! This is the best picture of the faces he was making - it takes a talented Mommy to feed while looking through the screen of a digital camera!

Being a quick learner, Wyatt can't hardly wait between bites for the next spoonful and knows where the good stuff come from. This is sweet potatoes (no nasty faces).

A Christmas present - "When I get teeth, feed me beef" Wyatt did get his first two teeth two days after Christmas - I tried to get a picture but couldn't get his tongue out of the way.

The Belt Family

One of my Ag teacher friends (who is now busy raising her two adorable kids) just jumped on the blogging bandwagon. Jessi and I started teaching at the same time and I was friends with her husband Travis in college. I miss seeing her at meetings and contest, but now I can check out how her family is growing!

http://tjbelt.blogspot.com/

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas is over, and it is time to get everything back to normal. I have been cleaning on the house, Derek is trying to figure out what to do with his cows in all of this snow we keep getting - 6-8" last week while we were in Tipton and another 4-5" yesterday. Too bad Wyatt is not old enough to go sledding yet!

Merry Christmas!
Aunt Julie helping Wyatt unwrap his gift from her. It took two adults to unbox a infant toy!
The Edwards' were sitting around shooting the bull and all started laughing at a funny story - well this startled Wyatt and made him cry a bit. My Aunt JoEllen is holding him and we are all still cackling at Wyatt!
Grandpa Tom, Wyatt and Maverick.
The Edwards Ladies - Lindy, Jeanne and Stacey. My Mom decided she wanted Wyatt to call her "Ma" - not grandma. :)

The Holt Grandchildren - back - Clayton, Derek, Jesse and G-ma Vesta. front - Keri, Janae, and Devin.

Our niece Emma is showing me how to read Wyatt's new book - Pat the Bunny. I had given one to her when she was born and now Wyatt has his own!

A Holt family tradition - when you receive a gift of new gloves, you are to put them on and proceed to act like you are picking your nose!

Wyatt is sharing his crib with his cousin Alyssa. How cute is this!

Token cat picture - Booker has taken a liking to the tree skirt under out Christmas tree - Dixie likes to chew on the branches (that are plastic).

Lydia Grace Baoxing Kemper

My friend Andrea's sister and brother-on-law just adopted a little girl from China. They are in China over Christmas picking her up and completing the paperwork to bring her back to the US. She is adorable and Teresa is doing a great job journaling their experience. I know a few people who have adopted already and their stories are so uplifting.

Here is their blogspot: http://lydia-our-treasure.blogspot.com/

Ice Storm

Whew! What a week! We got about 2" of ice and the electricity was out nearly everywhere on Tuesday. Wyatt and I stayed at the house as long as we could and then packed up and went to Derek's parents house - they have a wood-burning stove and a hot-water heater that runs off propane. Their electricity came on Tuesday night and has been on most of the time since then - our house is still out. Here are some pictures...

These trees were dropping limbs left and right, I was afraid to pull the car out of the garage to leave and have a branch land on me. There is our new garage, just in time!

A good picture to show just how much ice had accumulated on items.

Our antennae broke in half, the skinny evergreen is leaning with the weight of the ice and the tree is also dropping limbs, one was laying on the power line coming into our house - yikes!

The drive up to Derek's Mom and Dad's house. We had to do a little "off-roading" to dodge the broken branches and hanging limbs.

Another picture of all the ice the built up. The precipitation came down like rain and then froze when sticking to stuff.

First snow at 5 months!

Wyatt is 5 months old! At his doctor's appointment on 12-7, he weighed 18 lbs. 5 oz. and was 28 inches long! He is watching everything go on now - even the cats when they walk by. He is so smiley too, grinning at everyone who talks to him.

First significant snowfall of the year was this past week, Dixie is sitting on our kitchen table looking out the picture window. What a beautiful view!

Here are some of our cattle grazing in the pasture by our house. It was still spitting sleet and snow today - you can see it on their backs. US Hwy 71 is in the background, we have watched many people stop to scrape their windshields the past two days. Just a few miles up the road is Northwest Missouri State University - who played football on ESPN2 on Saturday. We watched the game on TV and saw the Bearcats win one to make it back to the National Championship!

Wyatt already got a Christmas present, it is this activity center where he can stand up in it. It has a lot of moving parts that Wyatt tries to chew on (no teeth yet). Derek put it together and did a great job - and with no help from Lindy.

So much stimulation, so little time.