6 months

Lily is 6 months old today - half a year already!


Once again I feel like she has grown so much this past month. Not only in her development but her personality too! She definitely keeps us on our toes as she reachs for everything, we often say "she's always in your business", she is now sitting up totally on her own and really likes to sit up when she plays, she reachs to be held and whines until you do so:), she has started crying when I leave the room :(, she was dedicated at church, she grabs for everything and will wiggle her way out of your arms to get to it, she's been doing lots and lots of rolling over to get things, she's drinking out of her camelback and just recently a sippy cup, and she's started to eat big girl food - we gave her rice cereal for the first time last night and gave her bananas this morning with her rice cereal. We also broke her of the habit of her sleeping in our bed. Not sure if I had mentioned this previously but we found her sleeping in our bed consistently after I had let her a few times when she had a cold and Jimmy was out of town (amazing how quickly something becomes habit). So we did a revised version of letting her cry it out about a week ago and so far so good! She cried for over an hour the first night but the last few nights have been little to no crying and she's sleeping entirely through the night without a feeding or needing her paci put back in or anything - it's wonderful for us all!


Her weight this month was 20 lbs 5 oz and heigh is 28 inches. She's near the top of the charts on both height and weight!


Aside from those things she continues to be such a good, happy baby. Her eyes light up when she recognizes someone she knows, her little arms stretching up for you to pick her up is just priceless, and her baby babble and giggles is such a sweet sweet sound.


It's unbelievable how fast they grow but each milestone is so much fun to witness. I love to watch her discover new things, play with her daddy, wiggle, stretch and squarm until she can reach something, and the way she snuggles up when she's sleepy. She is such a joy and a blessing to us and there's not a day that goes by that I don't thank God for a healthy, beautiful baby.


We love you to pieces baby girl - happy 6 month birthday!

sitting up like a big girl - like the new style of bow i made?!

smiles!

silly grin - this has been a common face lately

boo

checking out the blanket

lookin' like her daddy

thankful #1-25

In light of the upcoming holidays I thought I would help prepare my heart for this season by writing a series of thankful blogs. My plan is to write 25 things I'm thankful for for the two weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. I'm going to omit the common ones because I feel like those are no brainers. We all know how much I love and am so very thankful for my husband, my baby girl, my family and my in-laws. I want to challenge my brain to think about the other things I'm thankful for, so here's my list of thanksfulness for this week:

1. My morning iced coffee.
2. My part time job that allows me to work from home.
3. Baby babble and laughter - is there a sweeter sound?
4. My Women's Bible study.
5. A new friendship.
6. The beauty of a first snow - now you can melt :)
7. Homemade applesauce.
8. The memories created while making homemade applesauce.
9. Movie dates with my mom.
10. A fun night babysitting my niece and nephew.
11. Pinterest.
12. Tomato soup and grilled cheese on a cold and rainy day.
13. Our 2 "nannies" who are so good with Lily and love her bunches.
14. A comfy couch with lots of blankets to snuggle up in at the end of the day.
15. Mid day naps.
16. Watching Lily discover something new.
17. A healthy body that allows me to run.
18. Crockpot dinners that make dinner time a little easier.
19. A new winter coat.
20. Jimmy being home for the last few weeks and no more work trips scheduled for the near future!
21. New receipes that we both like.
22. Lily's sleep schedule and sleeping through the entire night without a feeding or having to get up to put her paci back in!!
23. The anticipation of Black Friday - do you know Target opens at 12am this year?!
24. A childless stroll through Target with a peppermint mocha in hand.
25. Bath and Body Works candles burning all day.

family pictures

My good friend Bailey King has a photography business and was so good about squeezing us in last minute for a mini family photo shoot because I needed a few updated pics for our Christmas card. I had her come to our house because I wanted them to be casual and homey and they turned out great. I think she even commented at one point "are you ok with that crockpot being in the background?" :)


The only disappointment I had was that I had made a "Merry Christmas" banner for us to hold up in some of the shots for something fun and different - well guess who forgot to get the banner out?! I was so annoyed with myself!


I can't post all the good ones because that will take away the element of surprise on the Christmas card but here's a sneak peak!


Thanks so much Bailey - you are so talented and it's been fun to watch this passion of yours grow and turn into a business! We appreciate your flexibility with our crazy family!

applesauce

Last weekend my sister, mom and I spent the afternoon making homemade applesauce with my grandma. Last year we did apple buter and this year we decided to switch it up and do applesauce. I LOVE applesauce so I was really excited. We don't eat much apple butter - not that we don't like it - we just don't eat much bread so I knew applesauce would go much quicker at our house. My parents went to an apple orchard a few weekends ago and brought back tons of apples so that's what we used for our applesauce. The whole process was actually pretty easy - we peeled and sliced the apples, added a little water, a little sugar and let that come to a boil and simmer for a while. The boiling and simmering makes the apples breakdown and become the consistency of applesauce. From there we let it cool off and then put it in our containers. We got about 30 containers of applesauce out of 1.5 buschels of apples. So divided among us we got quite a few containers and I must admit we've already eaten 3 at our house - yummy yummy!

the apples boiling

getting them in containers

sister jacinda

grandma and mom

a month of firsts & giggles

first taste of melon

first solo road trip with mommy to see these guys

sitting up all by myself

first time eating a puff thanks to her friend lily



first swing ride



and double swing ride with friend lily

first halloween

a special day

Yesterday was a special day for us. Yesterday was Lily's dedication ceremony and celebration. As parents Jimmy and I want nothing more for Lily than for her to love Jesus with her whole heart and to be raised in a Christ centered home. He and I believe that as individuals we would fail miserably as parents but with God and the support of our family and friends we will not fail and God promises that He will fill in the gaps where we fall short. Yesterday Pastor Ed said something that really stuck, he said "our children are the most valuable thing the Lord gives us and today you are choosing to give them back to Him." That is exactly what yesterday meant to us.

In preparation for yesterday our church has you go through a little "Faith at Home" class. During the class they share statistics about how much time in days and hours you have with your child before they leave your home (that is if they leave when they are 18 :)) vs how much time they spend with friends, at school, in activities, at the church, etc. and it was truly unbelievable how little time you really have. The idea was that you need to spend that time wisely and teach them from an early age the things you want them to believe and know as truths. So they had us write down what those beliefs and truths were that we wanted them to take with them when they leave us. The things Jimmy and I wrote were:

• That Jesus loves you and is always there for you.
• That we love you and are always there for you.
• That you need to always be kind, humble, respectful and honest and to live with integrity.
• That we are proud of you.

On the other side of that card they asked us to write a short letter to Lily about why we chose to dedicate her and what it means to us. We wrote:
Lily May - we love you and are choosing to dedicate you today because we committ to raising you in a Christian home. We want you to always know that Jesus loves you. We committ that our family will be centered on our faith and hope you will see and understand the importance and can apply that to your life one day too. We love you!

The then they had us choose 1 of 4 verses as our blessing to our child. When choosing the Bible verse we were promising to pray this blessing over our child every day. The blessing we chose is:
"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:14,16

Then all of this went into a frame. The blessing is what is showing and the card with the beliefs and our letter is slid in the back. I thought this was such a neat idea and something that Lily will hopefully always keep with her to remember this special day.

Our promise to her is that she will grow up in a home surronded in our love but also the love of Christ, and our hope for her is that someday she will choose to love Christ on her own.

The card I wrote to Lily sums up my thoughts on the day for her and my committment as her parent. Obviously she can't read this today but someday she will read these words and understand the importance of this committment we made to her. I wrote:
Lily May - Today your dad and I dedicate you to the Lord. Today we declare that we will teach you about Jesus and that you will be raised in a home centered on our faith in Him. We love you so very much and can't imagine anyone loving you more but the Bible tells us that God does. May you grow to know Jesus and love Him just like we do - that is our daily prayer for your life precious girl. As your parens we promise to pray for you daily and love you unconditionally. I love you!

Being a parent changes your heart in so many ways. As I looked at the love surronding Lily yesterday I was so blown away. Some people don't have anyone they can count on for support in raising their child and we have so so many people in our lives that love us and love Lily. She is one blessed little girl and we are so very thankful for the blessing of her and the grace of God in choosing us to be her parents!

in her special outfit ready to go - this is the dress my sister's and i all wore when we were baptized, the braclet jimmy and i bought her for the day, and the blanket was made by her great grandma smedley

checking out mom's bag

us with pastor ed

blurry but the only pic we got of us all on stage

pastor ed & lily

playing with daddy

great grandma davis

great grandpa and grandma smedley

great grandpa and grandma dieken

Silly me forgot to take pictures of her with grandparents and her aunts and uncles that made it!

pinterest

My new obsession is pinterest. Do you have it? Seriously amazing. I had heard the buzz about it but wasn't sure what it was all about until I was in Springfield and staying with a friend who has it and showed me how to use it. There is some seriously fun ideas on there from style to DIY projects to foods to try - and I love them all! 

I've only been on pinterest for a little over a week and already tackled 3 little projects that I found on there. So I thought I would share them with you.

#1 Paper towel holder as a braclet stand - how clever and simple! I don't know how you organized your braclets but before this I had them piled in a basket and would have to sort through them every time I wanted to wear one. Hence why I wear a watch every day and a braclet maybe 50% of the time. So easy and handy.

#2 Ribbon organization ideas. Since I make hair bows I have lots of ribbon. Before finding these ideas I had my ribbon semi organized in wicker baskets but whenever i needed to find one it was always a tangle of other ribbon and rarely would I be able to keep it neat. Now look at it! Using a pants hanger that cost about 5 bucks and a few cheap storage containers - maybe 10 bucks total I have a much more organized ribbon collection. Not to mention how easy it will be to dispense the ribbon when I need it - love it!

#3 Homemade baby wipes. I hadn't really ever thought of making our own baby wipes honestly and the verdict is still out on whether or not I like them but I think it's a great idea and so easy! I took step by step pictures but you cut a paper towel roll in half, place 2 cups of water, 2 tbsp baby wash and 1 tbsp of baby oil in a container, mix it up, place your half roll in the container with the solution, turn it upside down to let the solution absorb into the paper towels, then remove the cardboard center of the paper towl roll to have it dispensable - and that's it! To me the wipes seem a little too wet and Lily's bum has seemed a little red since I started using them a few days ago so I'm not quite sure if I like them yet but I think it's a great idea and would love to continue using them if I make a few modifications.

cut paper towel roll and container

baby wash, baby oil and water solution

papertowel in solution

tip over to let absorb

take out center to create dispenser

So there's my pinterest projects thus far, I have a long to-do list and wish list compiling itself on my pinterest boards that I can't wait to dig into. I'll keep you updated on future projects. In fact, we are using a "Merry Christmas" banner for our family pictures this afternoon that I made after seeing an inspiring photo on pinterest. Fun stuff!