baby's first thanksgiving

Sorry it's been a while since the last post! we hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving and ate lots and lots of yummy food! we started our day off at mass over at st. daniel's where ryan was asked to speak about what he was thankful for. he did a wonderfullll job and we were so proud of him ;). we then went to ryan's aunt suzi's for dinner!

Francesca had many outfit changes planned for the day, but only two worked out since she was a little over stimulated... which means we also did not get our family picture taken andddd we have yet to do that. therefore our christmas cards are no where near being ready to go.. oops.

we were so excited everyone could make it home from school (hey kelly!) for a few days with the fam. although I was upstairs with the babe during dinner the food was scrumptious- as always- once I was able to eat. since I wasn't able to share what I was thankful for that night I just thought I'd share it here!

I am thankful for my mom. Without her I would have no idea how to be a mom now. Without her I wouldn't know how to love my daughter the way she loves me. Without her I would have no idea how to make anything but pasta (gol). Without her I would not have anyone to vent to about all my frustrations. Without her I would have no one to annoy and no one to be annoyed with (gol). Even though she's super far away- which we don't forget even for a second, ever- we're probably closer now than ever. love you mamma. smooches and butt pinches (gol).

I am thankful for my dad. Without him I would never understand how to not only be a friend but also a parent. Without him I wouldn't understand how to just enjoy myself. Without him I wouldn't have known what to look for in a husband. He has been a rock and a pillow throughout all of my life and I thank him for all that he has done for us and our family. We sure do know how to love because of him. love you dad.

I am thankful for Ryan. I am so grateful to have such an amazing husband and father of my precious Francesca. Without him I would not be able to love with all of my heart. Without him I would have even less patience than I do now. ha. Without him I would have no one to hug after a looonngg day. Without him I would have no idea what's going on in current events. And without him I would not have my little girl. He has been such an amazing father and we both can never wait for dad to get home after work :) love you ry.

I am thankful for my Francesca. Without this bundle of joy I would still be wrapped up in everything to do with me. Without her I would have no idea how to love  and care for someone when I haven't gotten any sleep or food or fresh air. Without her I would not be a mom today. For all of her faces and farts, spit-ups and sounds,  wiggles and hair pulls, I am thankful. She has brought light to my life and I could not imagine it without her. love you monkey.

I am thankful for my brother and sister. Without both of them I would have been so bored growing up. Without my sister I would have no one to steal borrow clothes from. Without my brother I would have had no ones name to change. We have been through many holidays together (obviously..) and this year was definitely not the same without them. I thank them for loving and caring for my monkey so much from so far away. love you nang and joe.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Love you all.

broncos vs. bears

my family is from denver. ryan's family is from chicago. therefore ryan really wants francesca to consider herself a bears fan. I, on the other hand, have always grown up watching the broncos- since my dad is a huge fan. even though I am not alwaysss caught up in what is going on in the sports world I like to consider myself a broncos fan :) both grandparents have bought their respective team gear for the babe so she has been sporting both teams... for now! also many thanks to auntie alice for the sweet broncos cheerleading uniform and to granny and papa pete for the adorrrrrable broncos jacket for Francesca's future wardrobe!

of course she has to have her own little feminine touch on the whole football gear outfits... she has to show her true side. naturally. tutu's, bows, headbands and frill. now were talkin! sorry boys!

what a sweetheart! watch out. this baby girl always has her charm on. I always catch myself staring at all of her little features that are too cute. her hands are probably my favorite feature.. of course besides her pouty lips and her longggg eyelashes! her hands have all the creases of an adult squeezed into this little peanut sized hand. ahhh. too cute. she turns your tired eyes into happy eyes whenever she looks at you. she even has to ability to take dad's attention off of the current game... now thattt is skill!

let's go tebow. go broncos!

new girlfriends

Francesca has finally met her two new best girlfriends! Renata and Mike LaBelle welcomed their sweet daughter, Lyla Rose, on November 1, 2011 and Brittany and Zach Ullrich had their precious daughter, Grace Mackenzie, on September 14, 2011! The mamma's and I had been planning on getting our three girls together for our first play date once Lyla was born and we finally accomplished that last week!

Sweet Lyla was only a week old so she sleep most of the time and once Francesca and Grace fell asleep the ladies, Josh (Rentata's little boy) and I were able to eat some lunch. Jason's Deli, by the way, is delicious... I can't believe I've never been there? weird.. We definitely wanted to get the girls side by side to get some cute pictures of this fabulous milestone! Finally, after each baby was fed and after the little diaper changing fiasco we were able to get them all together for a cute little picture session! 

Grace grabbed onto Lyla as soon as we lied them down! so sweet...
 Francesca didn't want in on any hand holding lol.

And I may have snuck in  a video of them interacting for my mom (and now all of you) to see.. hah.. 

minnie mouse

baby girls first Halloween was a fun day for the family! Mamma, Nana and baby decided it was probably best to celebrate her first Halloween all weekend, so we first put her little Minnie Mouse outfit on her on Friday while we were running random errands... we had to show her off! All the people at Joann's, Michael's and Ulta thought she was just darrrrling- who wouldn't! Initially I was going to get her a mermaid outfit. I saw this adorable little girl on Pinterest (which everyone needs to get addicted to) with this crocheted mermaid fin and crocheted shell bra- aadorrrableee. I had to have it. But after much consideration and etsy browsing I came across two other options- Minnie Mouse or a Giraffe. You can see how hard it was for me considering how much Francesca looveesss everything Giraffe and how my family looovess everything Disney. I sent out a mass text to Ryan and the Duran clan asking opinions. Ryan said he didn't care-of course, Nini Nang wanted the Giraffe-naturally, Duncle Joe was undecided-naturally, Papa said Minnie-immediately- and Nana sweetly said Minnie Mouse. Sooo I finally bit the bullet and decided on Minnie. And might I add what a great decision that was! She was too cute.

See... I told you-- adorrrrable! so the crocheted outfit came with the skirt, hat and shoes (which were way too big). since it was too cold in this state we added some black tights and a black long sleeved onsie. Oh, and the skirt also came with a tail!!! bahhh she loved chewing on it!

A few more of her halloween month/week outfits included some onsies that said "auntie gives the best candy" Nini couldn't find one that said "nini", one that said "grandma's creepy crawler" even though she can't crawl yet... one that was the face of a black cat- thank you brooke and of course her happy halloween onsie with a pumpkin and an orange tutu! She loved halloween! We can't wait until we can go trick or treating next year! yay!

creepy crawler under the sea

baby girl loooves tutus! (thanks duncle..)

naked baby

you know how your pants sometimes just really bug you? they're too tight or start ridin up your butt. how sometimes it just feels good to ditch them? well Francesca knows how that feels and loves having what we like to call "naked baby time!" when she's being super fussy and nothing can calm her down- take off her clothes and she's back to being the happiest baby on the block again!

which also means my little pumpkin loves bath time! that's also why I thought she would enjoy her christening, but since the water wasn't to her temperature liking... not so much! 

Nana, my mom, has told me several times that it's probably not the best habit to get her used to, considering the not so great situations that could put us in when she's older! but she just loves it so much :)

christening

Francesca Amelia Kerr was baptized into the Catholic Church on Sunday October 30, 2011. She surprised us by sleeping through the entire mass, which was before the actual baptism, something she hardly ever does anymore... Mamma is always in the back of the church with the little girl bouncin around!

Once the actual baptism started she was wide awake kickin' and screamin'! I'm pretty sure it had to do with the fact that Dad didn't encourage her to finish her bottle right before mass, but who knows! We decided to ask Anthony aka.. Joe to be Francesca's godfather and Meghan (Ryan's first younger sister) to be the godmother. Of course both accepted without hesitation. We are so blessed to have such a large family on both of our sides to encourage Francesca to make wonderful life decision and to guide her throughout her life. Our little girl is already growing so fast and will be learning so much throughout the next chapters in her big life!

sweet babe in all lace

the water was freeeeezing



a few favorites

a lot has happened over the past three months, so for now I'm just going to give everyone a quick update. at around two months Francesca started to sleep through the night (thank goodness!) she started out going six hours straight and kind of built it up over time to about nine hours. that is until we tried moving her from her snug bassinet to her gigantic crib! she did not like that very much at all and decided that she needed to wake up two times during the night again (dang it). we did finally got her back to going nine hours again!

she is smiling like craaaazy! one of our favorite pictures was on the day of  Nick and Priscilla's wedding when we decided to take a congratulatory picture to send our love to them  on their special day...

she also absolutely loves her baby einstein activity mat- loves activities! there is always a ton of kicking, hitting rattles and discs and pulling on her friend, Octi the Octopus. just about everything goes into her mouth these days- Genevieve (who is her best giraffe friend ever- many thanks to nini nang), her pillow pal bear (see video below!), all of her comfy cozy blankets- especially the trim on her fuzzy white one (thanks Tranga) and her fuzzy brown one (gracias tor), her winky prayer lamb (cheers mr & mrs gibson!), all the gadgets she can pull into her mouth from her mat and of course mom and dads hands, hair and necklaces!

look at those chunky monkey legs!

our sweet blessing

as all of you know, we welcomed our precious little blessing, Francesca Amelia Kerr to life on July 29, 2011 at 10:24pm and weighing in at 6lbs1oz  19in long (a little bugger).

my whole pregnancy was pretty much as to be expected... had some morning sickness in the beginning, was very tired throughout the whole thing and had a little swell in my feet towards the end (im sure my dr thought I was crazy- she didn't think they were hardly swollen, but I didn't even recognize them!). the labor process, on the other hand, was quite eventful and not what I expected at all. lets just say we were on the "labor and delivery" floor for 29 minutes before we were holding our little girl in our arms. yeah, that fast. none of the pain, the screaming bad words, the hyperventilating  or thoughts of not being able to get my meds mattered... she was finally here!

I dreamt about this day for a while now... what she would look like, what her little voice sounded like, what kind of personality she would have... and there we were finally starting our journey into parenthood. we feel so blessed to be given this precious gift and as hard as it can be at times it is the ultimate reward to see her little gummy grin.