November Posts

So...I finished up all of November's Posts.  I could post a link here to make it easier, but I'm tired of posting.  So...just find the all the posts by clicking on the link to "November 2011" on the right of my blog and then click on whatever post you haven't read...which would be all of them, b/c I also finished up with October's at the same time.  So, make sure you check out October as well.

Happy reading!  :)

Decorating the Christmas Tree...w/ a little help

See all the ornaments at the bottom of the tree?

This is our ornament for this year.  I got it in West Yellowstone when we were there with Shayne's family

I love the cluster of ornaments at the bottom

Decorating the window...watch what he does with the red cranberry...

It's a Santa nose, of course!

I LOVED decorating the tree this year with a fun little 3 year old that loved it was well.  He was all about putting ornaments on the tree...and of course they were right where he could see and reach.  So, most of the ornaments were at the bottom...but I loved it.  I took pics before I finished up the final touches just so I could remember how fun it was to have a tree decorated by a three year old.

Then he decorated the window with a window cling.  I loved how he used his imagination and used the cranberry for Santa's red nose.  Too cute.

I'm so excited for this Christmas season b/c I have a little munchkin three-year-old who is as excited as I am.

Whoo Hoo!!  It's Christmas Time!!

The View from my...Bathroom

So, it's gotten very cold in the last couple of days.  Very cold.  But, this makes for pretty trees when the frost has covered all the little branches.

It was particularly beautiful from the toilet in my downstairs bathroom.  Yes...this is the view from my bathroom.  It was so pretty I had to take a picture...when I was no longer sitting on the toilet, of course.  :)  Is that too much information.

Not a bad view from a bathroom...eh?

Thanksgiving Mess

So, this year we did actually Thanksgiving Day by ourselves.  The family we normally eat with, The Pugh's, had work conflicts on Thanksgiving Day and were instead eating on Saturday.

I decided to still do our own Thanksgiving meal, even though we would be going to their house on Saturday.  I took these pics to remind me that I don't really want to do that again.

I've decided it's MUCH easier to share the meal (and the clean-up) with others.  So, if it's at all possible I'm all about either going to someone else's for Thanksgiving or having them bring some of the meal to our house.  But doing the whole thing on my own...not a fan.

Look at the carnage!  My kitchen, which isn't big anyway, was a disaster!

However, the turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, corn, rolls, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin pie cheesecake was delicious.

Just not delicious enough to spend that much time creating that big of a mess, to eat for 15 minutes.

But HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

P.S.  We do have so many things to be thankful for!  We have had an incredible year.  The gratitude to our Heavenly Father for all the blessings He has given us is expressed EVERYDAY in our home.

6 Months!!

Our 6 month old Tiny eating her Wocket...this was the only photo I could get of her lying down w/ the Wocket...see following pics.

I attempted to get pics of her with her Wocket while she was lying down, like in the past, but have I mentioned how much this little girl likes to arch her back?  It's impossible to get her to hold still long enough to get a pic of her and her Wocket.

So, I sat her up w// the Wocket and she thought that was pretty interesting.  I love how she's looking down at the Wocket.

What a silly face

Look at our big 6 month old baby girl!!

She eats bananas way better with this mesh teether thing than off the spoon

Can you see the shiny banana goo all over her face?

Here's our Tiny One at 6 months.  She's near impossible now to get a picture of while lying down.  She's constantly arching her back and moving around like an inverted inch-worm.  It's pretty interesting. So, now I have to sit her up to get a pic of her with the Wocket.  She's such a pretty little girl...with the most engaging eyes and smile.  Love them!

At her 6 month appointment she was 16 lbs 2.5 oz and was 27.75" long.  That put her at about 50% for weight and over 97% for height!  Yes...our little girl is TALL!!  We're thinking she's taking after Shayne's sisters who are tall, 5'8" and 5'10".  Poor Shordy could barely reach the 25% for height and now he's got a sister who's probably gonna tower over him.  Poor kid.  Maybe she's just getting her growth spurt early?!  :)

She was just a little ahead in her fine/gross motor development skills, and was at 7 months for cognitive skills.  So, she's progressing great!

I've also found she doesn't really like to eat so much...unless she can gum a banana with this mesh teether thing.  She loves that.  She ate almost half a banana just gumming it down with it.  But mash up the banana on a plate and try and feed it to her with a spoon, and she's not a big fan.  Hoping she  moves through this phase an starts to eat like a big girl.

Anyway...here's our Tiny One at 6 months.  Such a happy sweet baby.  We've loved having her in our home the last 6 months!

Tiny's First Meal

This is her very first bite of real food...organic brown rice cereal.

She's definitely ok w/ the food thing.

Hmmm...what's this spoon?

She's decided Dad isn't doing a good enough job of feeding her, so she's helping him out.

The rice cereal didn't appeal for her for very long so I tried some bananas.  She had tasted them before when I had been eating one, so I figured it was safe.  She liked the taste of the banana better, but wasn't so sure about the texture of smashed bananas.

This is what she does all the time...she arches her back  for everything.  While she's on the floor, when you're holding her, in her bouncy chair, in the bumbo (obviously), in her swing...you name it she arches to get out of it.  Or just to show how excited/mad she is about something.  In this case I think she was excited to be eating.

I love that little face

I love how she looks you right in the face...she such a little communicator with her eyes as she looks right into yours.

Our Tiny One had her first taste of food (from a spoon not a rice wafer) a day before she turned 6 months.  She's always been a very good eater, so I'm anticipating she'll be a good solid food eater.

Dad fed her her first bites of brown rice cereal and she did pretty good.  She was all about handling the spoon though...kept grabbing it and pulling to her mouth, which made for some messes.  She wasn't very interested in the rice cereal for long, so I busted out the bananas.  She'd had small bites of it a couple of weeks earlier when I had been eating one so I knew she could handle them.  She liked the taste of the banana better, but wasn't so sure about the texture.  I'm hoping she's not a texture baby, b/c Shordy is, and it can be a pain in the behind.

Anyway...over all she did great with the food thing.  We'll see how it goes from here, but she's moved onto her next big thing...eating real food.

Now, I get to deal with the repercussion of solid food...solid poopy, stinky diapers.  Yeah for me.  :)

Sittin' Pretty

Sittin' up all by herself...so proud!

She tipped over onto Bo...but he's such a good dog he didn't even care.  He did give her a "kiss" though.  She loved it...she LOVES her dogs.

Shordy building his "house" with Dad

Gummin' another rice wafer...yum!

I love her big pretty blue eyes.

She's not even 6 months yet but she's sitting up all by herself and she's doing it pretty darn well.  She still tips over, but in this case she had her Bo-dog to catch her so it was all good.  She loves her dogs and does whatever she can to get a hold of them and then eat them...it's pretty funny.

Anyway, I gave her another rice wafer to gum on while she was sittin' up watching Shordy and Dad play with blocks.  Which by the way, they were building houses and then demolishing them.

Our little baby girl is growing up so fast...sitting up and eating now.  I swear it was just the other day when she was all curled up like a little tiny peanut and slept most of the time.  Man...it goes too fast.  I miss my tiny new baby, but I'm loving the personality and sweet little girl she is turning into.

First Taste

Eating her first rice wafer w/ Uncle Jared

Do you like the rice-goo on her nose?  She was loving the thing

So, Tiny hasn't had her first official meal yet, but she's been so interested in your food when you are eating I thought I would give her something to try out.

So...while we were at Kaye & Jared's during Shayne's nursing clinicals, I gave her a rice puff wafer thing.  It pretty much dissolves as soon as it hits your mouth...it's specifically for new eaters.

I gave it to her while Jared was holding her and Kaye and I were making dinner and feeding the other kids.  She LOVED it!  She attacked it! She had that thing gummed to nothingness in no time at all...and I'm pretty sure she had rice-goo all over Jared's arm.  But he's so good w/ babies he didn't even care.

Anyway...I'm thinking she's gonna be a good food eater seeing how well she devoured this rice wafer.  Can't wait for her official meal.

Playin' w/ Malia

So, Shayne had to do some ICU clinical hours at Providence Hospital in Anchorage, so we went and spent about 4 days with the Tuia's while he was doing his clinical.  It snowed a ton while we were there, so one day Malia, Shordy, Jared, and his nephews went outside to play and shovel snow.

I thought it was fun how Shordy and Malia were playing.  They get along pretty dang good, and they really do love each other.

I forgot to rotate some of the pics again...that so bugs me, but oh well.  Anyway...I just liked watching them play and then to see the rosy nose and cheeks after playing outside.

Good times!!

Snow Angels

Eating snow...it tastes good don't ya know?

Snow angel.  I forgot to flip the pic before I posted...darn it all.

I love the fact that Shordy can get around in the snow so much better this year.  I can actually take him out and he can entertain himself, instead of me always picking him up b/c he can't walk in the snow.

He loved making snow-angels, except it was hard for him to get back up.  :)  He spent LOTS of time eating the snow.  Thankfully it was fresh, so it was still clean.

We refilled bird feeders, and he played on the side of the house with his sand/beach toys, which are also great for snow.  :)

We then had a snowball fight and he thought that was great fun.  Tiny was taking her 2 hour nap so we were able to spend some good time outside.  It was fun.  I went in and made some hot chocolate afterwards, but Shordy didn't like the idea of drinking something warm.  I'm sure he'll "warm" up to the idea eventually.  I think you have to to live in Alaska.  :)

I hope it stays this  nice this winter.  Usually it's too cold to go outside and enjoy the snow.  I'm not holding my breath.