Tis' the Season!

We had a blast this year kicking off the Christmas season decorating our house! I baked this yummy apple pie:

Last night we enjoyed the pie while we watched Fred Claus with a beautiful fire going! There is just something so magical about the warmth, joy and love that the Christmas season brings! I love this time of year so much! Anyway, here are pictures from this morning before leaving for Church with Blakely in her beautiful smocked Christmas dress that Aunt Alli made! SO ADORABLE!

Here are a few of just the decorations:

Our living room

Dining room (white tree looks SO much prettier in person)

Also in Dining room

And one more pretty picture of Blakely:

Alright everyone-have a great first week of DECEMBER! =)

Watch Me Grow-6 Months Old

This one is my favorite!

Alright! We are feeling so much better today! Today we had a nap for 4 hours straight & sleeping better through the night! Here are her stats for this month checkup:

Weight: 17 pounds, 9 oz (75%)

Length: 26.5 inches (75%)

Head Measurement: 16.5 inches

Diaper Size: Still squeezing into 2's trying to get these used up from that same box! 

Clothes Size: anything between 9 months-12 months

Naps/Sleeping: Except when we are sick-wakes 7 am, nap #1: 9-10, nap #2: 12-3, nap #3: 5:30-6:30, bed time: 7:30

Eats: 7 oz at 7am, 8 oz formula + 1 combined container of baby food (2 different foods) at both 11am & 3pm, then 7 more oz at 7:00pm.

We have currently tried the following foods: peas, green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes & squash

All have been a huge success!

Likes:

1) Jumperoo!

2) Reaching and chewing everything, especially her elephant toy

3) Carrots are the favorite so far!

4) Zizi-SO much more aware these days of Zizi.  She loves it when Zi comes up to her with a toy in her mouth and Blakely grabs the arm of the toy-she thinks it is hysterical!

5) Watching dad do ANYTHING

6) The sparkly Christmas tree

7) Baths! LOVES baths-she cooos when you take her into the bathroom! so funny!

8) Shopping-wherever! She loves to look at everything

9) Being held

Dislikes:

1) Changing her clothes

2) Going down for a nap

3) Eating when she is tired-you can forget about it!

4) Changing her clothes

5) Did I mention changing her clothes!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, thankfulness, gratitude

Such simple words & such a hard concept to master.  Today exactly 2 days after Thanksgiving, I am left realizing the importance of being thankful. I hate to admit, this is a mental area that constantly needs re-focusing every day, about 20 times a day.  You know, I wake up to SCREAMING at 5:30 thinking "ahhh Blakely it isn't tiiiiime to eat yet-great, just great! If you eat now then the WHOLE day is off"-Then I stumble out of bed get her fed (off schedule) and do my devotion, which this month conveniently has been about thanksgiving, thankfulness, gratitude and scripture backing it each and every day.  So, I then refocus and realized okay, how can I see this situation differently...thank you God that I have a baby that is healthy. I have a baby that cries perfectly telling me that she needs something and I have the ability to comfort her.  Thank you God that I am able to WALK to her room, pick her up, and care for her. Thank you that I am one of the few people that gets to stay at home and care for my baby-what a privilege!

Then one minute passes and my coffee spills, as I clean up the mess I realize the condition of my house, the terribly awful mess that is now suffocating my OCD self.  Stuff everywhere-ahhh how frustrating-"I juuuuuust cleaned this" I think! I start the down-hill spiral of complaining again- "no matter how much I clean, it is always messy" So I clean and consistently get more and more angry.  I then glance back to my devotion book and think "how can I view this situation differently?" Okay Kate, at least you have a warm home, a safe, beautiful, warm home in a wonderful location.  At least you have a family that helps create this mess... At least you have the legs and hands and ability to clean up your beautiful house.

Later as I dress out of my pj's into my clothes for the day, I am displeased with pretty much everything in my closet...Still about 10 pounds away from my ideal weight-bad thoughts fill my mind.  I get so down on myself for lack of self control when eating and exercising! I then almost immediately hear a commercial claiming some ridiculous statistic of malnourished beings.  SO many people live without the money to buy food & here I am complaining about a couple of pounds...

I walk out to the mailbox and see bills-uuuuuugh-water-how is it double last month??? I don't want to dish out that kind of money on WATER! Then I see this donation card for missionaries overseas supporting those with NO water and immediately thank God for Clint's amazing job that pays for that water.  I thank God for our clean water and toilets that we don't even think twice about.  More than 1/2 the world doesn't even have clean water-much less toilets.  It is the simple, everyday things that I just seem to always take for-granted! We are so blessed-may every complaint turn into an acknowledgement of God's provision.

I pray that these revelations will become second hand to me one day & that those complaints will come out thanksgiving! For through that thanksgiving, God you are glorified-and after all isn't that our whole purpose here on earth?

Happy Turkey Day & 1/2 Birthday, Blakely!

Blakely with Uncle Gray-Gray and Lucy

With her Kaki

HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND 1/2 Birthday to my sweet little girl! We had the best Thanksgiving, even though poor Blakely is sick with a yucky nose-drippy cold thing.  Didn't we JUST go through this exactly one month ago?!? She did good though, considering.  Clint took her to Mimi and Grans early this morning and then he joined me at my Mom's later! 

We went to the Dr. for Blakely's 6 month check-up on Tuesday and she got sick the next day (just like last time....) I'm really starting to wonder about all of those shots. Surely they are not causing her to get sick...I will soon put up pics of her in her 6 month onesie. I just don't want to do it quite yet with her feeling so crummy.  She is doing great other than this week of yuckiness!

Craft Day Monday

I have this plan to do a fun craft every week on Monday.  I'm not really starting this weekly plan until Blakely is lots older but today we had some fun with our first ever 'craft-day Monday' We had a blast today painting Blakely's first piece of art.  In honor of Thanksgiving, we thought we would give finger painting a try.  Finger painting with a 6 month old...hmmm... See for yourself how it all turned out! =)

Oh what fun!

TA-DA! 

We were aiming to get some hand print turkeys.... we got some hand prints & lots of paint, everywhere! We ran to the tub after this event! =)

Daddy's Home!!!

So happy to announce that Clint is finally back home! We had such a wonderful weekend! Here is a pic of Daddy and his two girls:

You will have to excuse the terrible mess! Blakely has been a different baby since Clint came home.  Seriously, she is so much happier-not sure if this is a coincidence or because she can sense that I am happier? Who knows! She is LOVING carrots & starting to hate her rice & oatmeal! I am glad though that she is liking those veggies! 

We decided that we cannot wait any longer for Christmas to go up SO when Dad gets home from his claim duty we are gonna badger him to get the trees down from the attic.  I'm about to bake a delicious apple pie and we will start up the fire (even though it's quite hot outside...) and play us some elf while listening to Christmas tunes. =) I love love love Christmas & after visiting the in-laws this weekend and seeing their house decorated, I just can't wait!!! So, stay tuned for pictures of the house and the fam "decking the halls!"

Here are a few other pictures of Dad with little dude!

Happy Hump Day!

Look what we picked up at the store today:

It's a miniature juicy suit! If you know me at all-you had to see this one coming! I love my juicy couture everything & when I saw this one hanging on the rack I just couldn't resist!

I am thrilled to announce that Dad will be back home on Friday! The time has slipped away this time.  I guess that's one thing you can say about having a child-she keeps me occupied. =) We are so excited though-just in time for Thanksgiving & putting up CHRISTMAS! I cannot wait for all the holidays to start-family, friends, and food-what fun! Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays-weird I know...I just love cooking with my Mom, seeing everyone, soaking in every minute.  Then that night around 1:00 AM Mom, Alli & I all get started Christmas shopping.  We have been doing this for about 6 years now & I look forward to that anticipated shopping more than any other day (aside from Christmas eve & Christmas day...oh and my Birthday!!!) There is something so magical about the smells, laughter, and sights all around! Pure joy!

Well, we go to the Dr. next Tuesday for Blakely's six month check up.  I am excited to see what the scale says now-can't get ours to work...She has now started green beans & appearing to love them! She started oatmeal too this week. She didn't so much like it at first, but then after a couple of days & me making it runnier-likes it lots! Zizi is loving all this new food too-there is never a feeding session that Zizi is not right there to clean up the mess.  As it turns out, Zizi LOVES peas, green beans, rice, oatmeal and formula! Yuck-guess she will eat anything!

I am daily amazed at the mental growth of B these days.  She is totally bored out of her mind with everything I give her. She just doesn't care much about her jumper, jumperoo, swing (HATES it), exersaucer, books, or any gadgets! Just about the only thing she likes is new people, being outside, and kissing her face while singing/talking constantly.  One word for this-EXHAUSTING! So, I went out today and did it. I bought My Baby Can Read...Yep, I know all the controversy about it & I don't care. I have been wanting to do the program from the time I found out I was pregnant, and guess what? Day one was a success! She loved it. It was the first time in such a long time she was content. It's not all TV by the way-most of it is me using flash cards & books showing her things.  The TV part is only a couple of minutes. I'll let you know later on how she progresses!

Alright, well it's 10:50 & right on cue I hear that little bundle of joy screaming-we still aren't quite back to sleeping through the night...Every night I think 'this is it, we're gonna make it' & NOPE...10 times nope! Off to put the paci in & turn on sleepie the sheepie.

Night Night-PRAY FOR ME! =)

Peas...

Today was our first day trying peas.  Success!!! See for yourself:

Don't you just want to eat her right up? Ahhh-she is so adorable-I mean look at that smile! =)

She is so happy these days! We are really seeing her personality show! I cannot believe we are almost at the half birthday mark! crazy!!!

Another 2 weeks...

Clint arrived in Connecticut around 5:00 this afternoon-which means, we are on our own for another two week long stretch!  Today seemed harder than the last time, not sure why but there were some tears with this one.  Maybe it was because we had such a fun weekend.  I guess that old saying that 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' is true!

We got to go eat pizza at Davenports in Mountain Brook on Friday night.  We took Blakely-which turned out to be quite an ordeal.  She was sleeping like a little angel in the car on the way, and then as soon as we walked in the hostess dropped a pan making a huge 'bAAAAng'.  We were NOT happy after that woke us up, to say the least.  Dining out will never be the same, I am quickly figuring out! Life is a funny adventure after you have kids.  We looked around the tiny restaurant to see who was about to kill us and our screaming baby only to find that almost every single couple in the place had children around the same age.  What a relief-we knew they understood! We finally sat down at our table and she calmed down after some time! Funny enough-we had such a great time just laughing at the situation.  Oh and did I mention that I spilled an entire glass of water all over the table and floor? Yep, I guess I was just frazzled from all the commotion. (well partially that and mainly that I am and will always be such a clutz!) So then Saturday we got to get out and visit Mimi and Gran.  I tried to get some good pictures but things just didn't work out.  So, no pictures for today.  We had a great time though.

We got out and found some really great Christmas presents for the little one! =) I cannot wait for Christmas! It is so fun to think up fun traditions for the upcoming years and imagine her waking up to Santa.  That excitement will be so much fun to witness! I am holding back this year and as much as it is killing me, I am waiting to put up our tree and decorations until after Thanksgiving.  I am trying to enjoy every second of fall and this wonderful blessed season! I don't want to rush any of it! HINCE my blog background change!

We aren't up to much in the upcoming week-I'm gonna try to finish up those few Christmas outfits for B & maybe try to figure out fondant! Fondant is something that I had intentions of mastering this past year but never quite got around to it.  I just love watching Cake Boss & wish I could be even half that talented! The bad thing about baking, especially in an empty house, is the aftermath of the dessert! I wish I knew lots of people I could donate my experiments to! I love to bake, it is such therapy to me-as is eating-emotional eating that is--not a good combination =)

Alright, wow-that is a long post! It's been a while since I have rambled on here! Guess that is what an absence of pictures will do!

Til' next time, God Bless you all!

Sweet Little Ladybug

       We tried to get some good shots of little Blakely in her ladybug costume on Sunday, but she wasn't really in the mood.  We went over to the Botanical Gardens and wasn't expecting it to be totally crowded! We only really stayed for about 10 minutes.  So, although you can't tell that she had on an adorable ladybug costume in this pic-she does! =) 

      We are loving the cooler weather! Blakely just cooos when we walk outside.  She watches and studies everything these days.  Her latest obsession-the bowl of fake apples on the kitchen counter. You see, I feed her in her bumbo seat on top of the counter & while her food is heating up-she gets locked onto those apples!

That's it for today!