It's Beginning to Look A Lot....

like Christmas! I just love this time of year. Like a lot of American households we spend Friday morning after Thanksgiving setting up our Christmas tree and decorations. This year presents many more challenges with an 18 month old in the house. Keely had oodles of fun helping decorate the tree and is having so much more testing our patience trying to take the ornaments off (especially the candy canes). The house always feels so much more cozy this time of year and makes me remember how grateful I am to be here with my wonderful family. What can I say, I'm a sucker for the Christmas spirit!

Brayden's first glimpse of the tree.

Look at the big tree!

Helping Daddy.

Did I mention she LOVES the candy canes?

Our Christmas Tree

More Thanksgiving!

Since we had everyone together and never know when the next time will be we made sure to get a family picture of the whole Hillard family. Considering this was the end of the day and we did not have a very good napper that day, I thought we got some pretty good pictures.

Top Brent, Keely, Damian, Cheryl, Dad, Shonda, Jaccob, Brad

Middle Lorena, Brayden, Domilyse, Mom, Simon, Teresa

Bottom Patricia, Lydia

Mee-Maw and Paw-Paw with all the Grandkids

The Duncan's. Poor Keely was D.O.N.E. and Brayden was ready for bed too.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebrating with the ENTIRE Hillard crew. Teresa and new hubby Brad came in from Oklahoma, and the Armijo's came up from Carlsbad. Needless to say we had a packed house but a wonderful time with family. Keely enjoyed some mashed potatoes and turkey. She also had a BLAST with her cousin's Simon and Domilyse. They follow her around like Patricia and I used to follow Lydia around when she was 1. So interesting to see things come in full circle.

Aunt Teresa, Uncle Brad, and Lydia checking out Brayden for the first time.

Keely tried out marsh mellows before they went on the sweet potatoes.

Keely flying with Uncle Damian

Mee-Maw and Brayden

Patricia addressing graduation announcements while Keely and Simon "help."

Hope you all enjoyed your Turkey, we sure did! Happy Thanksgiving :)

Brayden and Keely

This happy boy likes to stick his tongue out at his Mama.

Handsome smile

I call this look "This is for the birds Mom!"

Growing so fast.

Someone forgot to tell Keely she's a big girl now.

Breaking out the winter hat.

She actually kept the hat on for more than 2 seconds!

Mom: "Keely what are you up too?"

She had some kind of objection, still not sure what it was though.

Happy Birthday Pop Pop!

Today is Pop Pop's (Brent's Dad) birthday. Since he's in Virginia we can't celebrate together but we wanted to let him know that we love him and thinking of him. We've loved having Brent's parents get to come and spend so much time with Keely. She knows who her Nana and Pop Pop are! Here is a little video for you Pop Pop, We love you!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

MIA

Yes, I know it has been a while. Well, as you can guess life is a bit busy lately in the Duncan house. Mainly, a toddler and a new baby...enough said right? So I apologize for not being better about updating the blog lately, but I'm going to try to make a better effort. So here's some moments from the past few weeks. Starting off with a few baking sessions Keely and I had. It was so cold it actually snowed for about a second. Cold weather gives me an itch to bake. We made cookies, pudding, and yummy chocolate chip pumpkin bread (recipe on Chow City). We also have a guest in our house that Keely is having a blast with. We're watching my parents dog, Boots, for a few days while my Dad is in the hospital. I mentioned before that my Dad had been sick, and it turned out that it was a little more serious than we thought. Thankfully, he is doing great and everything is going to be just fine. But in the meantime we have Boots and Keely is in heaven. She enjoys chasing him around the house and letting him give her kisses. Brayden is doing great and growing like a weed. We have his 2 month appointment on Dec. 8th and I'm sure that we'll hear we have at least a 13 lb baby. He is HUGE. But healthy. I love watching him take in his surroundings and smile when we talk to him. It's so amazing how much changes in such little time. Tomorrow he will be 7 weeks old already. I wish so bad I could slow down time to hold on to this moment (with the exception of the sleepless nights) but I guess that's what pictures and video camera are for.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Brayden and Paw-Paw

Brayden finally met Paw-Paw! At 6 weeks old we finally were able to get these two together. My Dad has been sick for quiet some time now. When I was in labor, he was at the ER. But finally, Paw-Paw is better and so I took Brayden over to meet him. Precious!

Smiles

Sweet smiles from a sweet boy...

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy Halloween

My how so much has changed from this time last year. Last year we had just moved into our home and had one little girl. This was her then...
and this is her now. Let me just tell you how much easier it was to set up the photo last year. This year Miss Keely was not digging the photo session, AT ALL. But somehow we managed to get a few photos. Miss Keely was a little witch for Halloween. We also took her trick-or-treating for the first time. Nothing crazy, just a few houses around our block. Mostly wanted Keely to see the kids in the neighborhood. She had fun walking around and was even brave at the scary houses. She wasn't a big fan of wearing her hat, but she did sport it around for a little while. When we were done we sat on the front porch and she helped Dad pass out candy. She sure did make everyone stop in their tracks thinking she was a pretty cute witch. Brayden was our cute little pumpkin. He stayed alert enough for some pictures and then crashed in the snuggie as we walked around the neighborhood. A great Halloween experience in the Duncan house. Hope you all enjoyed your Halloween as well!

Brayden's 1st Halloween

Striking a pose

Ready to get some candy

Brayden, Mee-Maw, and Keely