6 months

It is amazing how much this little one has changed...even just in the past month. She has quite the personality and is just so stinkin' much fun!

She loves to babble/talk/blow spit bubbles/grunt like she's filling her diaper (even though she isn't). She can be quite loud when she wants to be.

She loves to grab her toes...and many times will pop that big toe right in her mouth! 

She has the best disposition & is rarely fussy. If she's upset, there's a reason - aka messy diaper/hungry/tired.

She's better about being around strangers...for the most part. She still sometimes gets upset if there's too many people around her that she doesn't know. Like in my older daughter's classroom when all the girls were crowding around her. Kinda freaked her out & she started wailing.

She loves to try and grab everything...my hair, my Coke, my water bottle, my necklace, whatever. She still hasn't quite figured out how to get those hands to work how she wants but she sure is trying. 

She got her first tooth just 2 days after turning 6 months old. She has mastered rolling over & seems very eager to crawl. She is a very observant baby & loves to watch & study everything. 

She loves her mobile & little music/aquarium thingy in her crib. She loves to be sung to. She also loves stuffed animals so we were sure to ask Santa for a Fozzie Bear puppet for Christmas :)

She loves to lift her legs way up & slam them down when she's in her crib. Her big sister used to do the same thing. And now she can wiggle around a bit which means finding her in her crib like this...

I decided to get one of those breatheable bumper pads because she was getting her legs caught in the crib slats. So far I'm really happy with it. It's a lot less bulky than a regular bumper & very easy to wash.

She's a spitter-upper but thankfully {for the most part} she's not as bad as her big sister was. Now there was a super spitter upper!

She weighs just over 17lbs and for the most part wears 6-9 month clothes although some are a little big on her & some of her 3-6 month clothes still fit. Just depends on the maker of the clothes.

So far her favorite baby food is bananas...just like her daddy :)

I wish time would slow down just a bit. We're just having so much fun with her :)

our weekend - the good, the bad & the ugly

First of all, before I get into our weekend I wanted to comment on a reader's comment. Shannon had asked about my daughter's first communion dress that I made last year. To see the finished dress you can go to this post Shannon :)

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Now, on to our weekend. Saturday we decided to head to the mall downtown to see Santa, do a little shopping, grab lunch & then see the new Muppet Movie.

We had to wait a bit to see Santa. Cause, ya know, he's a very popular fellow this time of year. As we were waiting in line I realized that Addie had cut her first tooth. Woo hoo! Just a day after she turned 6 months old :) 

Anyway, our visit with the big man was very uneventful...as in, no screaming for Addie :) 

She was more interested in looking at the fur on his red jacket...and at the lady behind the camera who was squeezing a squeaker toy :)

One seriously big Christmas tree!

A view from the 4th floor at night...

We also made sure to stop at Macy's & mail our letters to Santa in the 'special' mail box :)

The Muppet Movie was cute. Not what I expected, not like the 'old days' but still cute. 

Then Sunday hit...

and at about 3am we had our first casualty. Ben got sick. Then Olivia got up that morning feeling sick. We all felt super cruddy but Ben & Olivia got hit the hardest.

We stayed in pjs all day. Emergency buckets strewn about the house. Unfortunately mom is never allowed to be sick so I had to run out to the store to get stuff for homemade chicken soup. Boy, that sure hit the spot!

I've already had to disinfect all of the bathrooms & change out the toothbrushes. I'll probably do that again tomorrow.

By nighttime the extreme symptoms had ceased. Thankfully everyone is feeling better today. The kids stayed home from school today and only have 4 more days til winter break. 

Hard to believe Christmas is in less than 2 weeks!!!!

I still haven't mailed any Christmas cards (or even begun to pull that together). I haven't gotten any teacher gifts, or class treat bags, mailed out the gifts to the grandparents. 

This will be a busy week!

December Daily sneak

I'm currently working on my December Daily. I have about half of the album completed and I'm working on the filling the first few days with pics.

I should have more to share tomorrow. Right now I'm enjoying some family time. We came home from church and had a wonderful breakfast/lunch.

Pancakes. Bacon. Eggs. Yum! The only thing missing was maybe some biscuits & gravy. Double yum!

The kids are making presents :) and we're going to finish start decorating the tree. It's been up for a week with lights on it but no decorations. So we need to fix that!

And in the midst of all this my washing machine broke so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my handy husband can fix it. Cause a new one is not in the budget right now! It's 10+ yrs old and this is the first time we've ever had an issue with it.

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I also have an etsy shop update. Finally. Whew!! The shop is open! I will be listing items for the next week and updating here. Currently I have a few December Daily/Christmas Album kits in the shop.

2 of them sold before I could post about the kits so you have to be quick! You can 'like' my facebook page to get updates - click on the link in my sidebar ----------->>>

I'm also working on some fun holiday pillows and some December Daily/Christmas embellishment kits. So stay tuned... 

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Oh, and one final thing...I updated my playlist to Christmas music. I don't have it autostart cause I find that annoying when you go to someone's blog and music starts blasting and you can't find where to turn it off! It's on the sidebar ------>>>
Just click the play button and it'll start :)

the perfect tree

Every year, just after Thanksgiving, we head out to find the perfect Christmas tree.

Only this year we got to take the kids out & cut down our own tree. The last time we did that the kids were 1 & 3...so they didn't remember what the experience was like. 

We headed up to Green Bluff & after driving by the 3 farms that had trees we settled on Hansen's Orchard. We set out in the field of trees to search for the perfect one.

Stop to take some family pics. Make a ton of crazy, silly noises to get the baby to look up from what must have been a fascinating tree branch on the ground...!

Let me tell ya, pushing a stroller through bumpy terrain...not easy! It kinda made me smile to think that I'll have a little toddler running around here next year :)

Anyway, we eventually found our tree. Ben 'helped' daddy cut it down while the girls documented the experience :)

Gosh this girl is just like me. And after it was cut down & they were wrapping it I realized just how big the tree was. 

Um, yeah, I almost thought we were going to have to put the tree in the front room because it has higher ceilings but ended up cutting about a foot off the trunk to make it fit in the family room!

And before heading out we enjoyed some yummy hot chocolate & candy canes :)

As always, after getting our tree we went out to eat. This year we decided to stop at Frank's Diner which is a train car turned restaurant. 

So neat. And the food....yummy! 

We all unanimously decided that our new tradition will be to go there every year after getting our tree.

Now to finish decorating the tree & the rest of the house!

I'll be back later today or first thing tomorrow morning with an etsy shop update!

thankful

I have much to be thankful for this year. Especially for this little turkey!

This little one has us laughing at her cuteness each and every day :)

We have my dad & step-mom in town this year for Thanksgiving so it was nice to be able to cook for someone other than the 4 of us...well, technically 5 of us but Addie didn't eat turkey this year ;)

I brined the turkey again this year which made for a very juicy turkey. Yum. I didn't get too many pics cause, um, I was hungry. 

I tried a couple new recipes this year which all turned out great. Like these bacon wrapped smokies...

Super yummy. Definitely will be making those on Christmas. I followed the recipe except for freezing the smokies (not sure what that step was for??) and I used turkey smokies (you couldn't tell the difference with the bacon & the sweet sauce).

I also made some Texas Roadhouse style cinnamon butter. That was a definite hit. No one used the regular butter for the biscuits. I'll share the recipes for the biscuits & butter in a separate post. Mmm....I think I need another one!

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Oh, and the Breaking Dawn premiere last week. One word. Awesome. 

Such a great movie. I can't wait to go see it again! They did such a good job with this one. Even Kristin Stewart who I don't particularly like was good. Can't wait to go see it again.

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When we came out of the movies it was snowing...and continued to snow off and on all weekend.

I could not get the kids to stay in the house. They played out in the snow for hours.

It all melted on Tuesday. But I'm sure it will soon be back!

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My hot water heater went out on Tuesday...you know, 2 days before Thanksgiving. That was good timing. Thankfully we got someone out on Wednesday to fix it and {keeping fingers crossed} it's been ok since.

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I hope you all had a wonderful turkey day with lots of friends, family & thankfulness. I'm not a black Friday shopper so we slept in a little, stayed in pjs, and enjoyed each others company :) Our company is heading home tomorrow so we'll probably head out for our tree this weekend!

11.11.11 and other weekend happenings

First of all, thank you to all the men, women and families who serve and have served. We couldn't live without you!!!

How did you spend Veteran's Day?? Addie & daddy spent time watching war movies :)

We had company in town...my very, very good friend Becky that I've known for over half my life. Whew, we're old! hehe

So we took her to the mall downtown for some pizza at Rock City Grill. But before that my wonderful hubby helped some ladies with a flat tire. What a man :)

Then onto food! Black & white pizza please!! And some yummy chocolates for the girls & covered apples for the boys :)

We headed back home & watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 2.

Saturday morning we woke up to a bit of snow (cue squeals of excitement!) That afternoon we headed out to see Puss In Boots at the movies. Much better than I thought it would be.


And wouldn't you know it, when we came out of the movie theater it was snowing again!!! 

This time there were some decent flakes. So my kids promptly came home & made snowmen in the dark!

I think all of this snow might have been our fault. A certain little someone was wearing her Christmas pjs...

And now the snow is gone, it's back to the same 'ol same 'ol routine...until the next batch of snow blows in!