santa

This past weekend we took Lily to visit Santa. Jimmy gave me a hard time as I was getting her all dressed up, making sure I knew that this was a lot of work for just 1 picture. But you have to do it for their first Christmas, right?!

She wasn't really sure what to think of him. At first I don't think she even noticed that someone else was holding her, then once she did she just looked at him for a little bit then just sat there. Unforunately we didn't get a great picture of her smiling - but we got a few to document her first visit. Enjoy!

all ready to go

complete with a visit to grandma's

7 months

On Saturday our baby turned 7 months old!


Putting away this last batch of clothes is the first time I've actually been sad in realizing how fast she really is growing up. She is learning new things every day and each stage seems more fun than the last.


This last month she has learned so much. She started eating food and loving it. We held off on feeding her any food until 6 months and she has done great. We started with rice cereal and bananas. Since then she has had sweet potatoes, carrots, avocado, apples, pears, puffs, and yogurt. Her favorites are banana and yogurt.


She still fits in some 6-9 months but is mostly wearing 9 month and 12 month clothes. She really didn't gain any weight this month, weighing in at 20 lbs 6 oz and not sure of her length, but I can definitely tell she is getting longer but not much heavier. But don't worry she still has the chubby legs and cheeks that we love to koose on!!


Other fun things she's learned this month is sitting up from her back, rolling around like crazy, standing up on things, waving, playing "piano", curling her tongue, moving in her crib, pulling up her crib bumper, and "hissing". She enjoyed her 1st thanksgiving and her 1st visit to Santa as well.

I am really looking forward to Christmas with her this year. I wrote a post last year and plan to write another post sharing some of my thoughts this Christmas but I really feel like Christmas takes on a whole new meaning once you are pregnant and/or have a child. The sacrifice God made by sending His only son to die for us is incredible, and I absolutely cannot imagine being in Mary's shoes and birthing the Savior of the World in a barn!

So that's our month in a nutshell - every day we love her more and more and I can't imagine our lives without her.

Lily -
You are the joy of our heart. Your laughter, smile, giggles, playfulness, reaching arms, chubby legs, and sweet breathe (every time I smell your breathe it reminds me of the instant you were put on my chest, it smells the same!) are some of my favorite things. Your dady and I love you so very much and we can't wait to share our lives with you and watch you continue to grow. We pray for you every single day and tell you every day how much we love you and show much Jesus loves you. May you always know the love that overflows in our hearts for you! Happy 7 months sweet sweet girl!

5 things

I got this off another blog I read and thought it was a good idea, so here goes.

You may not know that I

have 2 tatoos (and Jimmy hates tatoos)
have run 5 half marathons and 1 full marathon
played college softball, I was a pitcher
have moved 6 times in 6 years because of my jobs
play guitar

I'm really pretty knowledgeable about

tractors / farming - who would have thought
baseball
excel
everyday fashion
running

I know nothing about

how things work - my husband is completely "wired" wanting to know how things work
and I could usually care less
how to drive a stick shift
techy type stuff and how it all works
movie quotes - when people quote movies I just laugh and pretend I know what movie it's from :)
politics

And I believe

in God and that He truly blesses those that seek Him
that you should always do something you love
that marriage and children are God's greatest gifts to us on Earth
that you should always treat people with respect and kindness
that it's our responsibility to care for those less fortunate, not the government's

bye bye

Someone learned to wave bye bye last night and I caught it on video this morning after she waved bye to Jalissa when she left.

Watching them learn new things is so fun!

thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving. This year we didn't have to be anywhere until noon on Thursday and that was wonderful - it was so nice to relax in the morning, let Lily get a good nap in and then hit the road to spend time with family. First stop was at Grandma and Grandpa Smedley's for a full fledge homemade Thanksgiving feast. Esther is quite the cook and makes everything from scratch - it was so yummy! Luckily I'm not a huge Thanksgiving food fan so I don't have too much trouble passing on some things and trying to keep my plate to reasonable portions. My favorite is Esther's sweet potatoes - so so good. She makes them with sweet potatoes from her own garden and adds just enough sweetness to them to make them delicious but not too sweet. We spent majority of the afternoon catching up with family we don't see very often and had a really great time before heading back to Cedar Falls for dinner at our place with my family! Thankfully our family agreed not to do the whole Thanksgiving spread since most of us were having it somewhere else so we opted for appetizers and soup for dinner. Which made it easy for me to host! We had a small crowd this year as my sister and brother alternate families for Thanksgiving and Christmas and so they were both out of town at their in-laws this year. For dinner it was my parents, my grandma, my sister and brother in law, Jimmy, Lily and I. My mom brought the soup and rolls and my sister brought dessert and salad, and that left me with making buffalo dip and cutting up some fruit - pretty easy huh?! We enjoyed our meal then spent some time hanging out, making our plans for Black Friday shopping, playing some cards, and then cleaning up before hitting the stores.
I love (almost) everything about this time of year - the except to that would be the weather. I love that it's a time set aside to reflect on the blessings we've been given and spend time with family. I love the memories I have of Thanksgiving and Christmas growing up as a kid, and am excited to create traditions with our own family too. I love having some time off work to be with families, I love decorating the house for Chrismas just before, or after, Thanksgiving, I love shopping for the perfect gift for everyone on your list, and so much more. Unfortunately this is always such a busy time of year that it always passes too quickly but I love every minute of it.
I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving as well!

with gma grover - lily's face in this picture cracks me up!

family pic

with gma & gpa grover

thankful #26-50

My continued list of thanksgiving - 25 more...........

26. Iphones
27. The challenge of a new project
28. Finding the perfect gift for someone
29. My new leopard print wedges that I've been on the hunt for and finally found
30. An unplanned visit from my best friend this Saturday!
31. Diet Coke :)
32. Biggest Loser because as I watched it while working out last night it inspired me to run 1.5mph faster on the treadmill
33. Hobby Lobby
34. Plans for Thanksgiving that involves family - can you imagine not having anywhere to go or anyone to celebrate with - sad!
35. Christmas at Walnut volunteer opportunities - this is an upcoming event at our church that Jimmy and I are volunteering at
36.  Awesome weather
37.  Afternoon walks with Lily
38. Late night bedroom chats and giggles with Jimmy
39. Pictures to capture memories
40. Putting together our first family Christmas card
41. Wedding shower and bachelorette party planning
42. Realizing your jeans are too big and it may be time to finally buy a smaller size
43. Generous people
44. Our new small group
45. Chunky sweaters
46. Our warm fireplace 
47. Birthdays
48. Making new hairbows for Lily (and others)
49. Finding a healthy version of a favorite not so healthy food
50. My hair rollers and teasing brush

projects

I've been working on a few projects lately. Pinterest, I'll tell you just gets my wheels turning! I also went to a craft fair a few weekends ago and found so many things that were so unique and cool but were so expensive. So I figured, why not figure out how to make them myself? Now of course I'll sell them to you if you are interested in buying them but I promise they won't be at craft fair prices - it's crazy how expensive some things are!


So here's what my creativity has been up to lately.

• Tulle wreaths. This was something I saw at the craft fair and thought was so cute! They had some at a baby booth, with the intent that you would hang them in a kids room or nursery, and then I also saw them in a Christmas booth in Christmas colors with other Christmas decor. So I thought I'd give it a try and I must saw for my first one it turned out pretty good. The first one I did is in pink and black - I was thinking I'd use it for Christmas with a green bow but I don't think it looks too Christmasy so I may use it on Lily's door without the bow since her bedroom is pink and black! Thinking maybe I'll do one all pink and use the green bow for that.

• New bow hanger. Lily's bow board was overflowing. She has tons of bows and I couldn't even see some of them because of the way I had them organized on her board and there was just too many! So I made her one of the bow hangers that I sell with her initial but experimented with a little bling this time and I like it - what do you think?

• Vintage fabric bows. I've seen a variation of this bow in a number of places, including pinterest and the craft show and love them. I had bought the supplies to make these at Hobby Lobby a while back but just hadn't taken the time to do it, until now :) And I LOVE the finished product. I experimented with the number of pin wheels in a cluster and like the bunch of 3, 4, and 5 but I really like the flexibility to mix and match them. These seriously go with so many things in Lily's closet. I also think they look pretty good in big people's hair too - in fact my sister has already put in her order :)

So that's some of the creative things I've been up to lately - I love spending my time creating new things. I wish I had more time to do them, maybe someday.....:)

Let me know if you are interested in any of these things, I'd love to make them for you!