Bailey Update

I just wanted to document all the things that Bailey is doing right now. She is going to be 10 months old on Saturday and she is so smart! She can say the words Mama, Dada, Bye-Bye, Night-Night, and More. She signs "more" and "all done" and she won't do "please" on herself but if I am holding her and ask her to do it, she will rub her hand on my chest instead of her own! So sweet! (The baby sign for "please" is rubbing your hand in a circle on your chest.)
If you ask her where your nose is, she will touch your nose and sometimes her own. She will even touch the nose on a stuffed animal when I ask her where the nose is. She is doing everything but walking. Cruising like a pro and crawling over everything to get whatever she wants! Not much holds this girl back. She has even moved from one piece of furniture to the other on her feet. She is still eating pureed food that I make for her, but she has finally moved on to some finger foods and she loves it! I think she likes the independence of it. She loves pancakes (plain of course!) and has finally tried meat! I just couldn't bring myself to puree meat so we waited until she could do finger foods. I made Pioneer Woman's lasagna the other day and gave Bailey little bites of it. She loved it so much I finally put some on her tray and she devoured it!!
We love this little girl so much! She is getting smarter every day and I love to see her little brain make those connections!

Fall Fun

It has been pretty warm here lately. These pictures were Nov. 1st and it was a little over 70 degrees! Nothing like jumping in the leaves in your shorts and short-sleeved shirt!

This is my favorite pic I took that day. What a sweet face! And those big brown eyes are going to break some hearts one day!

I tried to get a similar one of Bailey, but you see how that turned out! Ha ha. She hardly closes that mouth! :)

Here's the fall slideshow:

Finally!....Soccer Pictures!

Well today is Avery's last day of soccer! She has loved it and we might do Lil' Kickers again next year. Here are some pictures that I finally got off of my MIL's camera! These were taken the first day of soccer back in August and I think Avery has already changed since then!

Pioneer Woman Book Signing

You have probably all heard of Pioneer Woman by now. If you haven't, where have you been?? Especially if you live in Oklahoma! :) Anyway, Ree Drummond is a city girl turned rancher's wife and she lives in Oklahoma with her husband and four children on a huge ranch. They have cows, wild mustangs, the works. She homeschools her kids and is really into photography and cooking. She started a blog a few years ago and has a great cooking section on it. She has really great easy recipes and a while back she began writing a cookbook. Anyway it finally was published and released last week and she has become so popular through her blog that she is now basically a celebrity! She was even on the Bonnie Hunt show a couple weeks ago talking about her cookbook. She started a book signing tour and her first stop was in Tulsa since we are right near where she lives. Well there were probably around 300 people there I would guess. My friends and I did not get there early enough and they were sold out of the books before we even got there! So they added an additional signing this past Friday and of course it was during the day so I had to take the girls with me. Thank goodness my friend Christy went with me to help out and of course to get herself a signed cookbook. :) We waited in line for about an hour and a half and the girls were really good the whole time! I held Bailey the whole time and my arm was KILLING me for the next two or three days! Anyway we finally made it to the front and she AND her husband, who she talks about on the blog all the time and refers to him as "Marlboro Man," both signed the book! I was really glad we went and I am so excited to use the cookbook. It is beautiful and has some GREAT recipes! Get yourself one or ask for one for Christmas!

http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-Woman-Cooks-Recipes-Accidental/dp/0061658197/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257215561&sr=8-1

Another Nona Original

My mom did it again. She made us another quilt! This is our "picnic quilt." Actually it's an "I SPY" picnic quilt!! All the little circles are different fabrics so we can play "I Spy" with the pictures on them or even "find two that match". It is backed with denim which I love so it's durable and will last us forever! We have already had one picnic outside with it but we have played with it a lot just in the living room! THANK YOU AGAIN NONA! WE LOVE YOU!

First Biter Biscuit

Bailey had her first biter biscuit yesterday and OH MY, was it messy! I forgot just how messy these things were! Wow. I made the mistake of giving this to her clothed and after lunch instead of after dinner when she is going straight to the tub anyway. So needless to say she had an extra bath that day! But the important thing was she enjoyed it and it kept her busy while I ate my lunch! Yay for biter biscuits, mess or not!

Here is the progression:

What?

Oh yes, I'm messy. :)

Hmm, what happens if I touch my hair?

Oh yes, then I look like this. :)

OK, bathtime! I do love bathtime. Anything to get myself into this tub!

Pumpkin Patch

Recently we went to Carmichael's pumpkin patch. We have to go every year--it's a tradition to get pictures on all the pumpkins now! Well of course we chose a very windy and cold day, so for a lot of the pictures the girls had their jackets on! Also since we have Bailey this year, but she cannot stand up on her own yet, Avery was trying to hold on to her most of the time. It was hilarious! I don't think we had any pictures where both girls were looking at the camera at the same time and smiling. Oh well. They're cute anyway. There were so many funny ones I did a separate slideshow of the "outtakes" so enjoy!

OK watch this first one and think, "Oh, what cute girls! They had such a fun time at the pumpkin patch!"

Now watch this one and get a better idea of what kind of day we REALLY had! :)

Fall Festival

Avery playing a game where you try to shoot the target with suction cup darts.

I'm not really sure what this was but kind of like a go cart that you pedal. I think Craig liked it more than Avery!

First time to have her face painted. It was a cute rainbow but she had it gone even before bathtime!

Jumping--her favorite!

Last weekend, our church had their Fall Festival. The inflatables are always Avery's favorites but I did manage to get her to play some games as well. She had a lot of fun and enjoyed racking up some yummy candy, too!

A Visit to Aunt Staci's

(slideshow still not working. Just click on this link to see the slideshow from Picasa's site)

On October 8th, my mom, the girls, and I took a trip to visit my sister Staci. She lives in Centreville, Virginia which is just outside of Washington DC. It was a quick plane trip to DFW, then a 3 hour flight to Virginia. The girls were SO good! I couldn't have asked for better travelers! We had lots of fun with Aunt Staci and took two trips to DC. The second time we took the metro which was kind of fun and way less stressful than trying to drive to DC and find a parking garage which is what we did the first time. All of the sights were great and we did A LOT of walking! Once again though the girls were troopers and took naps in the car/strollers/on Mommy...whatever it took. They whined less than I did! (I had blisters on my feet after walking at least 5 miles that first trip...seriously...we calculated it and we walked at least 5 miles!) Thanks for letting us bunk with you Aunt Staci and sharing all of your wonderful organic food! Avery had a blast and learned how to play on Aunt Staci's iphone. Nona was a huge help with the girls as always and I could not have traveled there without her! A couple of times, we were RUNNING to our gate so we didn't miss the plane and once when my mom was holding Avery so she could run faster, Avery yelled, "RUN NONA RUN!" It was so hilarious! See captions on the pictures for more descriptions. And sorry, there are a TON!

Ephesians 4:32

When I was little and my sisters and I would argue, my mom would bust out in this song! I thought it was corny then, but I'm glad I learned it and I recently taught it to Avery. She is such a fast learner and we sing this all the time now! What a great way to learn bible verses--through song! This morning I started teaching her John 3:16 (unfortunately I don't have a song for that) but by tonight she was already saying the whole verse with a tiny bit of prompting from me! I am so proud of her and I can't wait to see what God has in store for her life!

Sandbox

Yippee for our handy Daddy! He got a new circular saw for his birthday and was very excited to try it out on his latest project. Avery LOVES sandboxes and we decided she needed one of her own. Craig added boards to the sides underneath the tower on her swingset and filled it with sand. (He is still going to add a few more bags.) He even gave her a seat in the corner! He is getting to be quite the handy husband and always does things himself! If he doesn't know how, he figures it out and learns and I am so proud of him for that. Avery loves her sandbox and I know she will have a lot of fun in it!!

Raise Your Arms! and a Mess

do not ask me what this is, but she did this fist in the air thing right when I snapped the picture and we were cracking up! It's like she was saying, "Yes to mess!"

she will even do it for Avery!

Craig taught Bailey to raise her arms to be tickled a few days ago. It's really cute and I love that I have evidence now that she understands what we are saying to her! She will even do it if we are not raising our arms so I know she's not just copying us. She signs "more" and "all done" for me when I ask her, too! Also in this post (because it was all on the same night) are some really messy pictures of Bailey. It's hard to make it out in the pictures, but she had peas all in her hair and all over her and the highchair! This was the messiest I think she has ever been! She was rubbing it all in her hair and we just let her. It was so funny!

Mommy's Helper

Bailey is already learning how to help with chores around the house!! I love her happiness these days and her smiles and giggles. I love how she "pats" everything and is a lot more snuggly with me than Avery was as a baby. She is a MESS and gets into everything she's not supposed to, but we are diligently trying to train her the way we did with Avery and I know she is going to be just as sweet and just as much of a joy! It might take a little longer to get there, but we will!!

Tent Fun

Bailey has been able to play a little more with Avery lately. Avery CAN'T WAIT for Bailey to be a little older so she can play more with her instead of around her. Bailey does like to crawl into the tent and they have played in here a lot lately. Avery will go get a bunch of toys that are safe for Bailey and they will stay in there for quite a while together! It makes me so happy to see the way they love each other so much!

Tulsa Fair '09

(for some reason I am having problems embedding the slideshow that I normally do. Just click on the picture above--it's a link to the Picasa site where I make the slideshows. You can click on the word "slideshow" there and see it bigger anyway. Hopefully I can get it fixed soon.)

The fair is so much fun to go to with Avery! She loves everything and it's really not that fun to go without her! Last year was her first year and I promise you she has talked about it off and on since last year. This girl does not forget a thing. So it finally came back around and Grandma graciously watched Bailey while we went for a fun evening together. The only bummer was they weren't selling wristbands for the kiddie rides like last year so we had to use tickets for each ride which made it way more expensive and we didn't get to ride very many things. Mommy got to ride everything with Avery this year because last year I was pregnant and missed out on the rides. (Don't worry, we don't ride anything more scary than the ferris wheel!)
Avery LOVED the Just for Kids building and we did, too. They had a huge sandbox, areas with legos and blocks, areas with ride on toys and tricycles, craft areas for make-and-takes, and even more things that we didn't get around to. We stuffed ourselves with lots of bad for you food, but all in all had a great night together!

Blanket Sledding

I really love winter. I can't wait for freezing cold temperatures, blankets, fires, and what else--snow which leads to playing in it and sledding! But until then, Avery had a great idea to go sledding in our long entryway today and she took Bailey on the first ride after which they both got to be pulled by Mommy. Too bad no one else was here to video me pulling the both of them! It was a workout!

Full of Energy

Bailey is full of energy. She never stops and never ceases to amaze us with her new talents! Her latest one is pulling up. I caught her standing up in her crib for the first time the other day and ran to get the camera. She is so strong and look at those cute little thighs! She is even taking a couple of steps down the couch. Not full blown cruising yet but on the way. I really wouldn't be surprised if she walks early!

Visit to Texas

Last weekend we went down to Texas for my 10 year high school reunion. It was fun to see some people from way back when and the funny thing was--everyone was exactly the same! Seriously. Exactly.
Anyway, the girls and I stayed the following week and had lots of fun with Nona and Pop. Avery just LOVES to go down there and when we do, she has her list of things she must do. When we first get there, she runs around spending 10 seconds on everything like just to make sure it's all still there and the same. She has to feed the horses with Pop and then the fish in the pond. She has to ride her little "bike" all around the house even though she's getting way too big for it. It's really like a ride on toy for an 18 month old or something! She has to play with all the toys in the toy box, play with Nona's old jewelry in a jewelry box that my mom keeps for her, play with the bag of buttons that my mom has, watch Mickey Mouse in Nona's bed, and the list goes on. Those are a few of her "musts." This time Bailey was old enough to crawl around and explore everything at Nona's. I know she will grow to love it just as much as Avery! They had lots of fun outside thanks to an old walker that my grandparents had and brought over for Bailey to use. I know those things are pretty much outlawed these days but it was really great and Bailey loved it! Since I forgot the stroller, she had something to sit in when we played outside. My mom is so great and takes care of us wonderfully while we are there. Avery of course is glued to her side practically the whole time and Nona must be the one to do everything for her like bathtime, playing, and reading books. It's nice for me :) Anyway, here are lots of pictures to enjoy.

The girls eating at the bar (where Avery loves to eat).

Avery climbing on the fence and looking at the horses.

Nona pulling the girls in the wagon down the LONG driveway. See the top of Bailey's head? This old wagon doesn't have seatbelts like the new-fangled ones so Bailey has to sit in the floor of it! Otherwise she would topple right out!

Avery's "Original Big Wheel". Pop drove all the way to Louisiana to get this for her because the stores around them didn't have it. The box said "Original Big Wheel" and that's exactly what Avery calls it. So funny.

Bailey enjoying her walker. Look at this chunker. I have had several people tell me lately that she is small for her age. WHATEVER! Today she had on a pair of 12 month pants and other than being a tad long, they fit her JUST FINE! She is only 8 1/2 months old!

It rained a lot while we were there, so this day we played in the garage for a long time. Nona, Avery, and Bailey made a train and Nona pulled them around in circles over and over. It was hilarious.

Bailey found Aunt Staci's old pom-poms and of course thought they were so fun to play with.

Tasting the wagon--what else? Everything goes straight to the mouth.

Laughing--I love this little sweetie. She's really funny sometimes.

Sisters going for a ride!

Here is a video of my mom pulling Avery around really fast on her original big wheel. Listen to what Avery says at the end. I laughed and laughed. :)

Sponge Roller Update....The Morning After

Wow did these sponge rollers ever work!!! This girl looked like little orphan Annie minus the red hair. These were the tightest curls ever!! Here's what she looked like right after we took them out: AFRO! She kind of made a face in the mirror and said, "I don't like it, Mommy." Hmm, I didn't either. :)

But we got out the blow dryer and pulled the curls down a little bit. I thought it looked a lot better! {Please ignore the spots on my mirror! Well, Avery's mirror. :) }

I think I will go back and get the medium rollers instead of the tiny ones. But as I predicted, by lunchtime, most of the curls had fallen out. It's just the hair we were given! But it still might work out for a Sunday morning every now and then! She is such a doll.

First Sponge Rollers

OK, who out there wore sponge rollers in their hair every Saturday night? So you could have tons of curls for church Sunday morning?? Who had to sit there still as a statue for what seemed like forever (actually like 15 minutes) while your mom rolled your entire head on these things? Well, I DID! So Avery is joining the ranks. I found these sponge rollers at a random grocery store and decided to try them out on her. It totally brought back memories and tomorrow we'll see how curly she is! The question is: How long will the curls last? She's like me and her hair practically holds no curl at all so we will see...

Craft Hope - Sock Monkey Firefighter

I have been meaning to blog about this for a while...I found a blog that does crafts/sewing projects for charities. It's really cool and you can read all about it at http://www.crafthope.com/. They always post a project for crafty people to do and then you mail your project to this one lady and she organizes everything and sends it all where it needs to go. Once they had people make baby blankets, booties, etc. and sent them to kids in India. Another time they had people make any kind of doll they wanted and had them sent to kids in an orphanage. So this project I finally made it in on. They had people make sock monkeys and they are sending them to a preschool burn camp in California. They said if you could make the monkey into a firefighter, that would be great, so here is my project. I think this is a great way to give back a little and have fun doing something I love in the process! I can't wait to see what the next project is...you can join in and read all about the past projects and even see some pictures of the kids receiving their gifts at http://www.crafthope.com/. Check it out and join the crafting and giving!! (Problem is, Avery watched me make this little guy and is dying for a sock monkey of her own!! Oh well, it was a really quick project!)

Soccer

Avery has started soccer this fall at Soccer City. She's doing the Lil' Kickers program and she loves it! It's really more of a soccer class than regular soccer. They meet once a week for 50 minutes and the coaches play soccer related games with them and teach them soccer skills in fun ways. It's non-competitive for now which I like. I have some pictures, but they are on Craig's mom's camera so I will have to get them from her and then upload some. She has a jersey and everything! It's really great the way the coaches encourage them and teach them skills even though the kids think they're just playing and having fun. This seems right up Avery's alley to me and she loves running around and kicking the ball into the goal! She's pretty good in my opinion and I hope she is more athletic than me! Pictures of my soccer sweetie to come.

Mickey Mouse

OK I have to document this before I forget. First of all, aren't these pictures cute? The girls were playing together under the table in the kitchen and I had to snap a shot. But the real subject of this post are the ears. Avery's ears...I mean Mickey's ears. It is safe for me to say that Avery LOVES Mickey Mouse. For some reason about a year ago, she found this Mickey Mouse doll that she had had for a while and never cared about. She got kind of attached to him when we moved from our old house to our new last September. Then she watched a little bit of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse at Nona's house which was a treat because we don't have cable. And somehow she got hooked. She talks about Mickey Mouse a lot. In fact, she assigned us all characters. I will give you the list.

Mickey Mouse - Avery

Minnie Mouse - me (Mommy)

Pluto - Daddy

Goofy - Bailey

Donald Duck - Nona

Pete - Pop

Tootles - Grandma

Willy the Giant - Grandpa

Daisy Duck - Aunt Staci

the Professor - Aunt Jenna

The funny thing is she NEVER forgets who any of us are! If we forget she will quickly correct us. I have no idea why we all are who we are, but in her head, it makes sense and she calls us by these names OFTEN! If I call her "goofy" sometimes meaning "silly" she says, "No, I'm Mickey." It's hilarious. Actually after several months of this, I'm kind of sick of it, but I play along like a good mother should! :) When she's older, she'll probably roll her eyes when I tell her this story, but I have to document it so I won't forget to tell her! I love you, Mickey!!