Monday, November 28, 2011

Thanksgiving

We were able to celebrate AR's first Thanksgiving with both sides of our family and had a great time doing so.  On Thanksgiving Day, we took off for Lovey and Grand Daddy's house... that is after my sister and I hit up CVS for their Black Friday deals!  We had a good time seeing my family and missed the ones who weren't with us this year.
Visiting with Lovey and JJ
One of our trail runs for the family Christmas card... the sun was messing our faces up though
Below you will see the same picture, but can you figure out what is different?

 If you noticed, I had a bottom reduction... haha.  This was too funny not to share.  I had stuff a burp cloth into my back pockets and then pulled my shirt over it, not thinking I'd be standing sideways.  Thanks to my brother in law, Chad, for fixing this for us!!


Grandchildren have the ability to get anybody they want on the floor with them!
Playing with Grand Daddy
About to fall asleep on Aunt Katie
On Friday, we headed to Mimi and Papa's house.  Now that there are three grandchildren there is always something going on! 
When your grandmother is a former music teacher you play with rhythm sticks!  Grayson was especially loving our music time!
We also had bells so we could sing along to Jingle Bells of course!
Grayson loving on Abby Ruth.
AR with her Mimi and Papa.  She is wearing one of my old sweaters with a tiger on it.

Thanks to both families for housing us and especially for the fantastic food!  We enjoyed seeing everybody and can't wait until Christmas!!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

7 Months and Much, Much More!

Let us catch up!!  We have all been out of town this past week and I'm just now getting around to getting my pictures uploaded and therefore it's time to update the blog!  Note, this is about 3 blogs in one so I apologize beforehand!

Last week, William and my dad went on a bird hunting trip to Kansas.  They left on Saturday and didn't return until Sunday morning.  Since William was gone we decided it would be a nice time to visit with some family.  On Saturday, we headed to Mimi's  house and stayed a night there.  They had to feed the college students at church so we helped with that and then headed to GA to visit with Mollie, Chad, Grayson, and Caroline.  We stayed there until Wednesday.  We had lots of fun with the cousins and the mama's were able to get some shopping and sewing done thanks to Mimi who kept all 3 a few different times! 
The three cousins having fun
AR's first "pick-up food" - puffs.  We were laughing at her b/c it looked a tooth.

While showing Mimi something on the computer I heard AR fussing a bit.  When we finally got in there we found this - Grayson trying to love on her b/c she was upset, though she probably wasn't feeling the love.
Uncle Chad was giving Grayson a horsey ride and he [Grayson] wanted "AbbRuf" to join!

Wednesday evening we headed to Lovey's with Aunt Katie for the rest of the weekend.  Katie had to leave the next day though because she got a job!  While we missed her greatly, we are so thankful that she has a new job and know that she will do great at it!  We had some more fun with Lovey and I was able to get even more sewing done! 
She was loving this mirror so much that I moved it to the living room later.  I see Katie's wedding dress back there!
Up close and personal with the mirror

Two of the shirts I've made for Abby Ruth.  The green one was one that Mollie and I both made for the girls' birthday this April!
I found these pants at a consignment sale and knew that I wanted to make a top to match them for Christmas.  Mollie and I made matching tops for the girls.
Close up of the top

I finally got around to making pants to match the giraffe shirt (for the 2nd time that is).  I have really learned a lot about sewing these past few weeks as I've attempted pants and ruffles.  I was really pleased with these and plan to make more.  Let's just hope that they fit at the same time as the shirt does :)

On Sunday we were so happy to see William!!  Glad they returned home safely!

On Sunday, AR was 7 months old, but of course I haven't gotten around to taken her picture until today.  So here is her monthly update just a few days late.
 Stats at 7 Months:
No doc. appt.
What she's up to these days:
-Sitting up on her own, only falling over once or twice during the day
-Nurses 4 times a day and eats solids 3 times
-Loving her toys
-Sleeps from about 8am-8pm, give or take
-Reaches out to be picked up now (and who can resist!)
-Rarely wears socks because they are meant to be pulled off, didn't you know?!
-Still just has two bottom teeth but they show more and more each day

Some other pics to help you catch a glimpse into our lives:
There are those two teeth!  She doesn't always show them and I was only able to catch a pic while she was upset.  I promise that I didn't upset her to take it though!
We recently returned this swing and I wanted to see what AR looked like in it as she hasn't used it in a couple months.  Her feet were hanging over, it had to be put on the highest speed (which use to send her flying), and she was trying to grab things outside of the swing the entire time.  We thoroughly enjoyed it when she did fit in it though!
Whenever we put this toy infront of her now, she just pulls it over and chews the handle!  Won't be long until she's using it as a walker though!
Somehow I totally missed this, but while sitting on the couch I looked at her and she was in her bumbo and chewing the wheels of this toy, then I looked back at her a few minutes later and this is how she was!!

Love my baby girl!
She loves pulling her toys out of a basket.  This picture is funny b/c that blue cup is actually in midair.

Incase you were wondering how the hair was coming... or not coming!  I've always found bald babies cute though!
Another thing we've been working on was an old window for the mantel.  The window actually came from the house my daddy grew up in.  William sanded it down and stained it for me.  He also had mirrors put in and I L.O.V.E it!!  I'm going to do some other things for my mantle too, but that will have to happen after Christmas!
Before we had this picture that William had bought soon after buying this house.  Some of you may recognize it if you go to the same obgyn as me... which made it all the more reason to get it replaced, haha!
And afterwards!  I also made this wreath thanks to Pinterest.  William inserted a hook on top of the window so that I can change out wreathes throughout the year!  Didn't he do a wonderful job?!

Friday, November 11, 2011

We're Still Here (with videos too!)

Seems that time is getting harder and harder to come by these days.  I didn't know that those months where AR wasn't reaching for everything in sight, turning over, and so on would be the most time I'd have to get things done!  Now it seems she is requiring more and more attention.  Don't get me wrong I love her to the moon and back, but I find the hardest thing about being a new mama is not having time anymore.  I think I just have to get more creative and organized with my time and tasks!  Not to mention that she is totally going through major separation anxiety right now.  She's normally fine if I leave her with other people, but if I turn my back to her or she can't see me... you better hold on because the world is coming to an end!  I try to ignore it the best I can and half the time she gets distracted and starts playing, but sometimes she doesn't stop and that's the hardest!


Last weekend, my friend Jennie and her mom drove down to visit and meet AR for the first time.  Jennie's sister, cousin, and aunt were also able to meet us for lunch and we so enjoyed it.  For those who don't know, I went on summer vacation with Jennie and her family for 6 years straight I believe... so they became a second family to me.  I was so glad AR got to meet them and can't wait to do it again!


 Abby Ruth has also been battling a cold and stuffy nose for about two weeks now.  The cold seems to be gone but the congestion is just hanging on with all it's might!  So while at Buy Buy Baby I saw this "snot sucker" (mom - sorry for the language) and I told William about it.  We decided to give it a shot b/c unless there is some secret you other mamas are telling me, those suction bulb thingys just don't do squat!  I have to say, I have really liked this "tool" and use it a good bit.  It sounds gross and no, I wouldn't do it on any other child, but it's not so bad on your own and it helps get the job done!  I totally recommend it!
 So apparently I haven't uploaded videos in a good while.  I have about 7 to share with you and they go back a little over a month.  You'll see that AR is really starting to show her personality and is very interactive now!

This girl is not a fan of green beans!

She looooves playing with her daddy's hair.

She jumps even when she's not on the ground!

Laughing at mama.

Laughing with her Aunt Katie!

The one-legged jig!  (just noticed the music in the background went right along!)

Where's Daddy?

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Happy Halloween (a day late)!!

These past few days we got to celebrate our first Halloween with Abby Ruth!  On Friday, the three of us went to a party in which the theme was "things that go together".  I had a really hard time this year coming up with an outfit and I finally thought (or stole off fb) of something!  It had to be funny, current, and recognizable... which was the hard to do.  Judge for yourselves:
The po po, Stephen Garcia, and a football
How I just happened to find this shirt the day before at Goodwill, I'll never know!  I had his name and number on the back too.
Saturday, we just hung out around the house and then went to a friend's house to watch some of the game.  On Sunday, we had church and then the fall festival.  Aunt Katie was nice enough to watch AR while we helped at the festival.  I think they enjoyed their time together very much.  Finally, Halloween rolled around and we got AR all dressed up and got the candy out.  We were worn out from our 8 trick or treaters!  As you can see, we don't have a lot of children in our neighborhood.  We did however head over to see our friends Allison and Jon and show them our little penguin!


With Ms Allison
Here are just a few other pics over the past few days!
Starting to sit more and more... loves her new toy!
Looking back at mama
Reaching for mama's toes... about to come out of the bumbo on her own!