My Favorite 6 Month Old

The babe is six months old.  A half a year already!  She's pretty fun:)  Usually.

She just started cereal about a week ago.  We give it to her right before bed in hopes of her sleeping all night.  And I'd say it definitely helps, but so far she just can't quite make it to what we think is an acceptable hour of waking up!  If she goes all night with no feeding, then she'll probably start making her presence known around 6:30-7:00.  It's just not quite enough sleep for her (who am I kidding- it's not quite enough for ME!) and when she wakes up that early it kind of throws her off and she tends to be a little extra tired and/or cranky for the day.  Whereas if she has a little middle of the night snack she'll sleep until 8:00 or so.  We'll just keep working on it I guess!

She's also officially sitting up!  She can do it unassisted but is pretty unstable still and doesn't last a real long time.  But if she's sitting at her little piano she can sit for a long time playing the piano and just looking at the great big world around her.  She thinks she's pretty hot stuff too:)

Aaaaand it might not be too much longer before she's crawling.  Ho hum.  I hope she holds off on that for a while longer!  At least until after Christmas so I can have one nice peaceful year of Christmas decorations.  I would much rather her just sit and look at all the pretty shiny things than try to tear them down and eat them.  But this girl does planks quite regularly.  Sometimes getting up on her hands and knees and sometimes her hands and toes.  So it's just a matter of time before she figures it out and takes off.  Aye yi yi...  Bring on the baby gates and plastic outlet covers!

What a goofy girl!

And Now For The Rest Of October

I have to say, this October was way better than last October.  Last year I was on the couch all month trying to get through all the nausea that came with being pregnant.  This year we had a beautiful fall (my favorite season) that I could enjoy with my baby.

One of my favorite things about fall, and really one of my favorite things in general, is harvest.  I had been back to visit Illinois a lot so I didn't feel like I could really justify another road trip just to ride in the combine.  So I decided that if my cousin who was expecting a baby had said baby before harvest was over, I would go.  And she came through for me!  Off we went- just me and Summer.  I was pretty excited to take her on her first combine ride.  I'm pretty sure she was just as excited:)

She did like it... that corn is pretty mesmerizing to watch!  She watched for quite a while and then took a nap while I continued watching.  And talking to my brother.  Way back in the day when we were both single, we would talk for hours.  Even after I moved out of my parents house, we had about the same hours at our jobs and it was common for us to call each other on our morning commute.  Then he got married, I moved away, life changed and so on and so forth.  So to have the chance to just sit and talk again was pretty special to me.

And of course we had to meet little baby Archer!

One weekend we took a little date to a corn maze.  It wasn't the most challenging maze since the corn really didn't grow this year...

Then we came home and carved pumpkins!

And while I sure don't like all the gory stuff of Halloween, I have to say it was really fun to dress up the babe!  (She was a gumball machine, not a clown.)  Oh- and to have trick or treaters!  I've never had them in my life and I was really excited!  But our candy ran out about halfway through:(  So then we shut all our lights off and creepily sat in our bedroom while we watched everyone walk by in their costumes!

Happy October, everyone!

Mmmmm...... Fingers!!

Hi.  This is Summer.  I just want to tell you all about one of my favorite things.  Cause when you got something good, you just gotta share it, ya know??  I.  LOVE.  FINGERS.  They're just so good!!

Sometimes just my thumb is all I need.

But sometimes I'd rather have 3...

or 4.  (Scuze the hair by the way... my daddy had some fun before he put me to be the night before when mommy wasn't home and I woke up like this!)

Sometimes I just can't get enough and I stuff both my hands in my mouth!  8 fingers all at once!  Nom nom nom.

And SOMEtimes when I've had enough of my own, I start in on other people's!

 I JUST LOVE FINGERS!!!!  Have a nice day:)

A Full And Fabulously Fun Fall

We've had a busy fall, but we've sure enjoyed it!  A few weeks ago, when street fair was in town, we took a break from all the deep fried goodness one night and opted for a picnic in the park.  We had quiche, zucchini chocolate chip bread, and peaches.  Not a very picnic-y meal, but tasty nonetheless. We had a grand ole time enjoying the nice weather and each other's company.

Summer wasn't really into the family selfie thing.

We also headed to Chuck-E-Cheese and the zoo with Danny's family one Saturday.

It was a beautiful day and the ostrich was very friendly.  And he likes pretzels.  But don't tell the zookeepers.

This past weekend we went camping at St. Mary's Lake in Ohio.  Summer loves to be outside, so she did great!  One afternoon she sat by the fire in her bumbo for over an hour just happy as could be!

But all the outside time must have worn her out because she who typically sleeps in 30 minute increments, (no joke- it's very rare to go much longer than that) slept for TWO AND A HALF HOURS both days during her naptime!!  I was hoping she'd keep it up once we got home but so far that hasn't been the case:(

We had one cool and cloudy day, but other than that we had nice weather for some yard games 

And some playground time.

It was a great time, but I was ready to come home and eat a meal that didn't involve a little cast iron square!

And the good news is, there's more fabulous fall fun yet to come!  Stay tuned...

Street Fair Junkie

Guys, it happened.  I think I've turned into one of those "WooHoo Street Fair!!!!" types of people. Last year when it came I was six weeks pregnant and not feeling so hot.  My thoughts were something along the lines of "Meh, take it or leave it.  Whatever."  This year?  It's a whole nother story!!

I had said that I could see myself becoming a junkie, but had not yet admitted that I was.  The deciding factor?  I won the mouse game!  I picked a cow for my prize:)  He has found his home in Summer's room and while there's a good chance he'll one day end up in the goodwill pile, I'm secretly hoping he becomes on of her favorites.

Judging by the picture, I think we're off to a good start!

Later on, Danny won the fish game!  He has taken up residence in a flower vase on our kitchen counter and still remains nameless.

And his shirt?  Let's just say that the ribs from Divine BBQ were real tasty:)

Here's to the fair!

My Long Lost Cousin

After we got home from Alabama, we unpacked, did laundry, and repacked!  We headed out to Illinois to see my dearest cousin and her family.  I hadn't seen them in 3 1/2 years!  That is just far, far too long for my preferences.  We spent Saturday just catching up and holding each other's babies. Kristi, it was REALLY REALLY good to see you again:)

Sadly, this is the only kid picture I got.  She has two other sweet girls, too!

After that, we had a great evening with my family.  It was perfect fall weather and three of us decided on our own that we should have a wiener roast.  When we started talking and realized that everyone else had the same thought, that's just what we did!  It was a gorgeous evening and we had a great time just sitting around the fire and relaxing.  I just love my family!

Sweet Home Alabama

I have a great hubby.  Plain and simple.  He picked up on the fact that I miss Alabama and it had been way to long since we last visited.  So for my birthday last weekend he planned a trip down!

First things first though, we needed a birthday cake!  I made my favorite chocolate cake and he decorated it:)  I was actually just going to frost it all one color (because colored frosting is more fun than white), but when he got home from work and saw my little box of cake decorating supplies, he was inspired! 

And I admit, once I saw him decorating, I thought it sounded fun too.  So I did the green and he did the rest:)

We headed south on Thursday, which was my actual birthday, and since we crossed time zones, I got to celebrate for 25 hours instead of 24!

Friday we spent some time at the preschool, doing a small baking activity and hanging out with some pretty cute kiddos.

I also got to introduce Summer to Devin.  He's in 7th grade now.  I'm just not sure how that happened!  Whatever happened to my crazy, scrawny, white haired preschooler?  He was pretty sweet with her though.  We took him out to lunch and later walked around a pet store to kill some time.  He carried her seat around and talked to her all about the different fish.  Then later when we were taking him home he sat right by her and held her hand while she fell asleep.

She was ready to eat some Mexican food!

The rest of the weekend was spent just spending some good quality time with everyone down there.  Games, fellowship, good food, and cute kids.

Oh, and this was taken soon after she rolled from back to tummy for the first time!

Thanks for such a great birthday, honey.  You're the best!

3 Months!!

Oh me oh my.  Our little punkin' is three months old!  The first couple months didn't seem to go very fast just because she was so fussy.  But now that she's getting better, it's way more fun, it's going a lot faster, and it's feeling hard to believe that three months has come and gone.

Right now she loves her playmat and her swing.  I can lay her on her mat for an hour sometimes before she starts to fuss.  She's almost always super happy and smiley in the mornings.  She doesn't roll over yet, but she rolls onto her side and kind of rolls around on her back.  Enough so that a lot of times she does a 180 in her crib each night.  She's still not a huge fan of tummy time.  She'll do it, and she's not bad at it, but she gets tired pretty quick from it.  She's becoming quite the little babbler!  Talking to the reflection in the mirror on her playmat is a favorite hobby.  So is going outside.  She looooves to be outside.  Sometimes when the evening fussies hit, that's the best solution is to go outside for a walk or something.  

Sleeping through the night has yet to happen.  I tell her a lot of times when I put her to bed that she should sleep for a really long time, all night long.  But she never obeys!  Occasionally she'll do a 7 hour stretch.  Once she did 8 after a particularly busy day with not enough naps.  5 or 6 hours isn't too uncommon, but then again, neither is waking up 4 or 5 times in need of a paci.  She's very inconsistent with her sleep.  I'm looking very forward to the day when she does 10 hours at a time!

I took the picture above a day after her three month mark.  Below is the reality of the actual day:)

And just because I think this picture is really cute...

An Unplanned Reunion

Last weekend I went to IL because I had some family coming in from out of town.  Danny had a lot going on with work and a cousin getting baptized so he stayed home.  What started out as an aunt and uncle from Phoenix coming for a visit ended up being family and friends representing six different states and two countries!  I don't think anyone could have planned it better if they tried.  My mom's side of the family is fairly spread out and that many people being together just doesn't happen anymore.  It was such a special evening!

We had a delicious garbage can supper!

There's never been this many second cousins on that side together before!

The newest babies in the next generation- born in May, June, and July.

We even had special guests from Lithuania!  These two came to the states with a program to earn money for school a couple summers ago and ended up living with people in Roanoke while they were here.  He stayed with my aunt and uncle and she stayed right next door with my uncle's parents.  That summer was the beginning of them falling in love and this summer they got married.  And took their honeymoon to Roanoke!!  It's just that great of a place;)

While I was there I got to transport some pretty fun girls:)

I also just happened to be there for a dear friend's going away party before she moves to Haiti.  It was a great night being with a lot of my old friends that I miss so much.  Good thing I had Danny to come home to or I might have just stayed!

It was a busy weekend, but refreshing to be with everyone again.  But it was good to come back too.

The Lakes

My second year at the lakes has come and gone and it was a dandy of a week!

Lots of boating

Let it be known that I SKIED.  Trust me.  It's a big deal.

Cute kiddos

Crazy kiddos

Getting better at tummy time!

Mini golf

Family picture- I think it's the first one we've taken where I'm not in a hospital gown!

Experiment- what happens when we don't comb her hair after bath time?

Result- hair must be combed down when wet!  No amount of brushing or combing will keep it down if hair is dry.