Thanksgiving

We spent the first half of the Thanksgiving break visiting Nate's family in Kansas. The kids arrived with a sinus infection each and an ear infection for Lizzie, so you can imagine how they behaved like perfect angels ;-) BUT, due to the lovely power of antibiotics, they both got much happier about two days into our trip and their relatives were able to see them acting a little closer to normal.

We all got together to take a big family picture for Gigi, and Aunt Ray took some great pictures for us! We had to give Micah 6 Twizzlers before he'd cooperate for the large family shots...

We had an early Thanksgiving on Sunday and Micah and Nate enjoyed some time playing in the leaves~

Micah would never turn down dessert and he had a great time chowing down on pumpkin pie~

Back at Nate's parent's house, Lizzie found a best friend..... in the mirror~

Rockin' out~

I have NO idea what made her make this face~

Pretty standard boy stuff :)

Blogging Hiccups

Have you noticed the lack of blogs? So, Nate and I are down to one general use computer and Nate has been starting a blog and a business. Long story short, I rarely get to use the computer in the evenings and it is near impossible to use it during the day (Liz is in her swing and Micah is in a time out right now.... yay for no extra hands trying to type!). I'm hoping to get some time tonight to load up pictures from Thanksgiving, but don't hold your breath :P

Getting Carded

...and no, I'm not talking about the fact that the majority of people who don't know me still think I might be in high school :P What I AM talking about is Christmas cards.... oh yes, it's that time of the year again. In fact, you likely have about 3 days until you get your first card in the mail. You know the feeling, right? You open up the envelope, see your friend's adorable kids smiling back at you and you break out into a cold sweat. Here is your first card of the season and you haven't even ordered yours yet! Never fear, my friends! Shutterfly is my go-to site for all things photo and a fantastic place to find Christmas cards. (And birth announcements too, for that matter)

One of my favorite things that Shutterfly did this year is that you can now change the text on the card. As in "Happy Holidays" on your favorite design can now become "Merry Christmas"... Hallelujah!!

I'm particularly fond of this one~

and this one~


and about 22 others. I have NO idea how I am going to narrow it down, but I better choose one soon... I'm falling behind! I may have to go with this one~

It works since EVERY Christmas decoration I have bought this year is awash in glitter. Seriously... glitter. What happened to me? I had a girl and all of the sudden everything in the store with pink or glitter attracts me like a moth to flame... heaven help me, I'm a girly girl now.

Anyhoo.... I'm looking forward to getting my lovely cardstock cards ordered soon, although picking a final design might prove lengthy. Now for those of you not finished with Christmas shopping (I'm a freak, I know), Shutterfly also has some great options that I have used over and over and over again.... foolproof, I promise :) From photo calendars to photo books to these.

Besides, anyone that shows bloggers some love deserves some love back :) http://bit.ly/sfly2010 Anyways, go forth and check out their cards.... the designs this year are super cute and right now they are on sale so they are even more affordable than before! Happy browsing!

Loud and Clear

Some people have the mistaken perception that just because babies can't speak coherently that they are unable to communicate... So wrong. Many babies use sounds, gestures and facial expressions to convey their thoughts and opinions. Lizzie has.... Ummmm, different tactics.

For example- I opened an invitation recently for a friend's son's 1st birthday party and Lizzie told me she wanted to attend... By eating the invite. Strange perhaps, but I understood her loud and clear. (Luckily she did not consume the section of the invite containing the date and time of the party. For those concerned about my parenting skills, I was sitting there the whole time and it just took me several seconds to wrestle it out of her mouth :P )

When it came time to get a present for our little buddy, I jumped on the Amazon ap (cause that's how I roll) on my phone and began to peruse my options. I was looking at a potential present when Lizzie smacked my screen and ordered it. Ahhhh yes, one touch ordering... Gotta love it. So anyway, apparently I am raising a girl who knows what she wants and isn't afraid to eat it ;-)

9 Months Stats

We had baby girl's 9 month appointment last week and got the skinny on her most recent stats~

Weight- 16 lb 8 oz, 13%
Height- 28 1/4", 76%
Head Size- 17 1/2", 67%

sooooooo, yeah... major toothpick situation going on now :)

9 Months Old

Elizabeth is 9 months old today! I love this picture of her because she looks ever so slightly crazy ;-) At 9 months old, Lizzie is a confident stander and has even been cruising for a couple of weeks now. She is working on her balance and can stand completely unsupported for up to 20 seconds or so, and she's solid as a rock... no wobbling involved :) Her favorite activity is for us to say "Where is Lizzie?" and then exclaim "There she is!". She loves to turn the pages in books and then sample them for taste and texture ;-) She is a good eater and will pretty much take down anything I offer her. We love you baby girl!

Nate said...
OK, so I'm going to start adding in some of my own things here about Lizzie:
- She loves to come play with Micah's hair while he is getting his diaper changed which makes things interesting
- She LOVES her momma more than anyone else. I just love watching her look at Abby
- When I carry her up to her room at night she lays her head down on my shoulder as soon as we walk into her room (sometimes earlier if she is really tired)
- This one is for both kids. I love the last few moments of the day with both Micah and Lizzie. Abby gets them up in the morning, and I put them to bed. Those last few moments are some of the sweetest moments I get with the kids. It is sometimes the only time it is just me and that kid. For Micah it is usually a time of laughter, hugs, speaking truth to him and lots of kisses. For Lizzie at this point it is a time for me to speak truth to her and just cuddle with her. If my coworkers or anyone else wonders why I would rather work at 10PM instead of 7PM, now you know why :)
- Lizzie's second favorite person in the world is her bubs...it is so fun to watch her follow him around and just watch his every move.
- I love the days when Lizzie is awake when I get home from work. I get the biggest smiles that just says "I LOVE YOU DADDY!!"
- Lizzie sounds like Micah. Sometime we will hear one of the kids make a sound and Abby and I look at each other and ask "which one was that?". I know there are a ton of things I could add, but I will stop there.
Love you Lizzie Boo!

My New Fave

I love these bags.

No seriously, I do. I even still love them after making 15 of these to use as treat bags for Micah's Christmas party at preschool. Did I mention that I'm organizing the party? ;-) I decided to make the bags fully lined, which doubles the construction time but they look SO cute!

and yeah, the green bags are lined with the red fabric :)

I am now totally obsessed with making these as favor bags and reusable gift bags (in bigger sizes). I am pretty much planning on making one out of every single fabric I have on hand :) I wish I had taken pictures of the others I've done, but I've already used them to wrap things! I also wish I had pics of these after I trimmed and tied all the ribbons... they're fabulous. I can't wait to make these as treat bags for Lizzie's birthday party!

So if you're looking for some reusable, cute, affordable bags, then I think I am going to start selling these soon.. let me know if you want some and we can pick out a fabric!

A Magical Evening

... and no, I am not talking about senior prom ;-) Nate and I went to the A&M/OU game in College Station this past weekend and had such a great time! We carpooled with some friends of ours and enjoyed a large late lunch at Cafe Eccel... mmmmmm, peach lemonade and strawberry tarts :) It was fun to spend some time with Joey and Jenny and not have to run straight into Kyle Field for a change.

Now, I didn't expect much from the game to start with... I mostly just wanted us to be competitive enough to make a game of it. First play of the game, OU messes up the snap and... safety!!! A&M gets the ball back and starts the drive with a HUGE run by our quarterback Tannehill and only needs a few more plays to get into the end zone for the touchdown!! WOW! I was already totally satisfied by our performance and we were only a few minutes into the first quarter. LONG story short, the Ags played well on offense and AWESOME on defense and came out with a good, solid and super exciting 33-19 win over top 10 Oklahoma!!! I mean, seriously exciting game. It included a returned kick off for a touch down (from one end zone ALLLLLL the way to the other) by A&M and three separate goal line stops by the Aggie Wrecking Crew. We're talking three separate drives concluding in first and goal situations in which we stopped OU from scoring over and over again on the 1 yard line. Dude, it was awesome. Our season tickets are in the south end zone bleachers so we saw the goal line stops, the returned kick for touchdown and SO MUCH MORE way up close and personal. Can you tell I'm still excited? Such an awesome game :)

Running Log

So, this past week we did 14 miles total! Yesterday we increased our longest walk to 7 miles and it went really well! Definitely pumped for Disney :)

Halloween

For Halloween this year, Micah was a chef and Elizabeth was a strawberry. I learned a rather important lesson this year.... NEVER choose a costume for a toddler that involves wearing a hat :P


If you do choose a costume with a hat, have your husband practice his dropping the hat on the child's head and running out of the picture skills... they will be needed. Here is a great action shot :)

You can also opt for the sneak up behind the toddler and hover the hat on top of their head approach.

Babies are a little more tolerant of Halloween headwear :)

Especially if Pa is around for entertainment~

Getting the toddler to sit next to the baby for pictures may prove problematic. Try our approach of suspending both children in the air for ease in handling~

Finally, remember that a good costume should be able to serve multiple purposes including providing teething support~

Micah went trick-or-treating for the first time this year and he's a HUGE fan :) He really got into it and was good about saying hi and thank you to each neighbor. He only went for a short time, but he got a seriously large candy haul. Nate and I are helping him to work his way through it :)

What is this "jacket" of which you speak?

Last Friday morning was rather chilly after our lovely cold front and so I pulled Micah's fleece jacket out of his closet for the first time this year and began to put it on him. As soon as it touched him, this conversation started~

Micah~ "Shirt? Blanket? Shirt, blanket..... shirt?..... blanket?...."
Me~ "It's called a jacket, buddy."
Micah~ with awe "Jacket" :)

The Monster Mash

In the past week, I have walked 12.5 miles and finished my first ever 10K!! For those not familiar with the conversion, a 10K is 6.2 miles. Going into the race, I just hoped to be able to maintain the pace I had from my five mile walk the previous Saturday, a 14:35 minute mile. Well, I think the race helped me step up my game a bit..... to a 12:45 minute mile :) And that was still walking way more than running. The best part? I felt fine the whole time! I'm so excited for the half marathon now!

Zoo-tacular

Yesterday we went to the zoo with some playgroup girls. I was... wary of the trip. It was supposed to be HOT and very humid. Not to mention the fact that I never really know exactly how Micah is going behave on any given outing. Well, it was awesome :) It was hot and humid, but most of the morning had significant cloud cover that made it feel much more bearable. Micah was in an extraordinary mood and willingly held my hand, and never ran away or had a meltdown. Devon's wagon certainly helped keep him happy ~

Liz liked being outside but had NO IDEA that we were at a zoo or that there were animals to look at~

Micah, Abby and Caroline checking out the elephants~

Abby is such a little performer!

Did I mention that Liz had no idea what was going on around her?

He was a seriously sweet boy yesterday~

He screamed "CANDY CORN!!!!" and ran to it and tried to give it a big old hug~

"A monkey!!"

This just makes me laugh~

This was the view Lillie and I had much of the morning as we chased down our boys. At one point I yelled to Micah to slow down... he went from running to slow motion shuffling his feet like a 98 yr old man. He walked that way for at least a minute and kept looking back at me and laughing... he knew he was being funny :)

We had a great day! I just wish I had gotten pictures of the other mommies and kiddos that were there.... Annalee, Aimee, Kimberly and Courtney we had a great time with you and your kids too!