10 months

Our sweet little Ilyana is now 10 months old! I can't believe how time flies. Ilyana has been getting bigger, stronger, and smarter every day. She pulls up to stand and cruise on everything possible and has been working on standing by herself for short periods of time, usually when she doesn't realize that she's doing it! This month she also learned how to climb up stairs (with our supervision of course), now if we could just teach her that crawling down the stairs is not an option like she seems to think... She has also become very interested in books recently. She loves to look at her books (and scatter them all over the living room in the process) and be read to. Her favorite book right now is "The Pout Pout Fish", and yes, I have it memorized at this point. She also loves to drum on objects so we're trying to take advantage of this and teach her how to give high-fives! She is still an awesome sleeper and eater. We figured out this month that she seems to have some issues with certain forms of dairy. She does fine with formula, but both cheese and yogurt make her super grumpy (I'm guessing her tummy hurts or some other form of unpleasantness that she can't express). Currently we're just staying away from any sort of dairy (besides formula) until we have a chance to talk to her pediatrician at her next appointment in February. Other than that she does great with food though! She loves fruit, shredded meat, steamed veggies, most anything that we give her. We're so excited to celebrate Ilyana's first Christmas later this week so keep an eye out for pictures!

Ilyana loves: standing and "walking", eating, bath time, her baby doll, mommy and daddy, Super Why, looking at pictures, reading books.

Ilyana doesn't like: being told "no", invasions of personal space, riding in the car for long periods of time.

Christmas Card 2015

Merry Christmas! I hope you are enjoying this (so far) relatively snow-free holiday season as much as we are! 2015 has been an exciting year in the Marzen household. In February we welcomed our beautiful daughter, Ilyana into our lives. She has been such a fun bundle of joy to have around! She is currently learning how to walk and is truly hoping to get her two front teeth for Christmas. 

This May we moved into our beautiful new home and also celebrated Jake graduating from Mt. Mercy College. Jake worked extremely hard and not only graduated Summa Cum Laude, which is a huge accomplishment in itself, but also graduated with the honor of the "top computer scientist" award. 

Moving day selfie!

At the beginning of June, Jake started working full time at Rockwell Collins as a software engineer. We both agree that it is such a relief to have him only working 8-5 instead of working full time along with a crazy class schedule! Also in June, Jake and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary; this has definitely been the best (and most busy) year of our marriage so far! Near the end of June we received the exciting news that we were expecting another little bundle of joy this coming March. We found out in October that this little bundle would be a boy! We are so excited to meet Mr. Ryker Paul!

All in all, this year has been jam packed with large and exciting events; none of which we would trade for a moment of peace and sanity! We look forward to celebrating this Christmas season and can't wait to see everything that 2016 brings.