9 Months Old

I can't believe my baby is nine months old! Time has flown! I've loved every phase of her life so far, each one has more clearly defined her personality. She is a happy girl, always smiling. She has a variety of smiles: her classic happy one, a flirtatious one she does for strangers, a mischievous one she does when she bites me or pulls Luci's hair, a pleased smile-this one tells me there's something in her mouth that shouldn't be, and an excited smile-always accompanied by loud squeals and flapping arms.
Clara now has seven teeth! She's still nursing, but that might be coming to an end soon. She bites me a lot, and whenever I get after her she laughs. It's hard not to laugh when she does, probably worsening the situation.
Recently Clara has become a cuddler. She went through a phase where she would never relax her head on my shoulder, no matter how tired she was! Now she'll rest her head on my shoulder and pat my back . . . so sweet!
Clara doesn't crawl, she scoots everywhere on her bum. She's getting faster and faster at it every day. Her favorite place to scoot to is the kitchen. She loves finding all kinds of crumbs on the floor in there. The other day I looked down just in time to see her pop a piece of meat in her mouth that had fallen there the night before. Gross!
Her favorite thing to play with is my laptop. She loves sticking her little finger under the keys and popping them off. Right now it has four keys missing, making it really hard to type. A few minutes ago I set my computer on the floor to grab something from the kitchen. I was only gone a couple of seconds when I heard that familiar clicking noise the keys make when they're being popped off. I ran back over to stop her and tripped over Luci's backpack. Ugh! Luckily I made it back before she permanently broke anymore keys.
I love my Clara so much! I look forward to the next nine months!

Here's a little blast from the past.

Brand New

One Month

Two Months

Three MonthsFour Months

Five Months
Six Months
Seven Months
Eight Months

and now . . . Nine Months

Check out my mad photoshop skills! Not really, I just clicked one button. I'd love to get good at it though, it's fun!

Luci has been dying for it to snow since September. Last year we got a ton of snow, starting in October. This year we didn't get our first snow fall until December 1st, and that was only a scuff. Yesterday morning it snowed again and Luci begged me to take her out to build a snowman. There still wasn't much snow to work with, but we had fun trying.


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Here's our snowman. Don't be deceived by the picture, it's only about three inches tall

Room Reveal

I'm finally posting pictures of my room! If you can't remember, back in September I got some money for my birthday and I decided to decorate my room with it. I bought a new comforter set, made curtains for the window, painted canvases to go above our bed, spray painted picture frames we already had black, hung curtains over our bathroom entry way, rearranged a little furniture, and bought a small plant.

Before:
I forgot to take official before photos, but found this one I took when I was trying to sell my old comforter set. (FYI, no one bought it. I guess I can't blame them).


After:

I found the small black shelf at the goodwill for $2, got the flowers for $3, and used a vase we already had. Since the vanity portion of our bathroom doesn't have a door, I've been wanting to hang curtains over the entry way. We had some plum colored curtains hanging in our office/guest room that matched my comforter perfectly so I took them down and hung them over the entry way.
Kirk and I both made night stands in high school. We got lucky because we both stained them the same shade which ended up matching our bed perfect. Before my renovation, Kirk's was being used in Luci's room, and mine was against a different wall (where the dresser now is).
I never got around to making a dust ruffle for the bed. Maybe one day. The green one I had on seems to work fine.



Here's a close-up of the canvases I painted. That was my first time ever painting on canvas and I really enjoyed it! I need a lot of practice though! I originally hung them further apart, but the pictures didn't line up so I moved them closer together. Next time I'll space them the distance apart I want them hung while I'm painting them.

I wanted draped curtains but didn't have a ton of fabric and had to cover the cheap white curtain rods I already had, so this is what I came up with.


Here are the curtains I stole from our other bedroom. I loved that I could use something I already had lying (or hanging) around the house.

There's where the dresser is now. It's a functional piece, but not a great focal point so it works a lot better over there.

I made this a while ago, but never posted a picture of it. I got the shelf at the good will for $1.50 a year ago. I bought screw hooks at Walmart for $1 and screwed them in the bottom. It works great as a necklace holder!

So that's it. It's been nice having a room that I like. If you never make your bed, you should get a new bedspread! It's been the cure for my bed making problem. Now that I have something I like, I want to make it look nice. That goes for my whole room too. I'm better at keeping it clean. Now for the other rooms.

Here are a few other pictures from lately.


This is my favorite tree in Pennsylvania. Most of the trees look like the ones you see in the back ground, tall and dense. I love the solitude of this tree.

My girls! Love them! Especially right now, because they're both sleeping.

On Saturday Luci and I put the Christmas decorations up. It was fun spending time with her.


When I got out the stockings Luci squealed "Oh, boots!". I explained to her that they were stockings, but she must not have understood because a few minutes later I found her like this.

Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving! I have so much to be grateful for: a hard working husband who loves me, two healthy daughters that keep me smiling, a car that works well, a warm home to live in, good health, a fridge full of food, contacts and glasses (I'd be blind without them), the Book of Mormon, the gift of the Holy Ghost, laughter, exercise, lots of blankets, a closet full of clothes, repentance, forgiveness, a living Prophet, my wonderful parents, tons of siblings, loving in-laws, great friends who make living away from family doable, a washer and dryer. . . .the more I write, the more I think of! Yesterday I read President Monson's talk from conference, "The Divine Gift of Gratitude". I love this talk! It has motivated me to make gratitude a dominant part of my life.

Sometimes I feel like I don't deserve all of the blessings I have, especially when I see others with much harder lives than mine. A family on my mind and in my prayers a lot lately is my Aunt Merri, Uncle Reed and their children. Reed has cancer and is in constant pain. His sickness has made it impossible to work resulting in the loss of his law firm and possible foreclosure of their home. They are a wonderful family and are handling these hard circumstances well. A friend of theirs has set up a blog in their honor where people can donate money to help them out. If you have any money to spare, they can definitely use it. Please keep them in your prayers too!

Life

Lately I've been thinking a lot about life-it can be so hard and confusing sometimes. The other I was struggling to feel peace in my life and this song came into my head.

Where Can I Turn for Peace?

Where can I turn for peace? Where is my solace
When other sources cease to make me whole?
When with a wounded heart, anger or malice,
I draw myself apart, Searching my soul?

Where, when my aching grows, Where when I languish,
Where, in my need to know,where can I run?
Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish?
Who, who can understand? He, only One.

He answers privately, Reaches my reaching
In my Gethsemane, Savior and Friend.
Gentle the peace he finds for my beseeching.
Constant he is and kind, Love without end.

It was just what I needed to hear at that moment. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ! I know he understands us personally. I also know that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. Life is hard, but with their help we can make it through it. I look forward to the day when I can kneel at my Savior's feet and thank him for suffering for me, for being their for me in my darkest hours, and for loving me always. I look forward to the day when I can hug my Father in Heaven and tell him how much I've missed him. I know they live!

Halloween

We had a lot of fun this Halloween season with tons of fun activities. We got invited to our first grown-up costume party. I haven't dressed up for a few years because I always wait until the last minute, then can't think of anything. Well, I still waited until the last minute but was still able to think of something quick and cheap.

In case you can't tell, I'm a black widow and Kirk is my dinner-a tasty fly. I ran to the Goodwill and got a big pair of black pants for 29 cents to make my legs. I didn't have stuffing, but discovered a good use for the heaping pile of plastic grocery sacks we have. For Kirk's costume we used Luci's fairy wings. She was not too happy about this and sure made a stink out of it! .

For family night we had our friends down stairs over to make "haunted" ginger bread houses. It was a lot of fun. I think we all ate twice as much frosting and candy as we used on our houses.

That's a giant marshmallow in Luci's mouth.


My house didn't really look haunted in the end. Oh well.

Kirk made a dragula. Leave it to him to be the most creative.

Trick or Treat night here was on the 28th. Our town always designates which day the kids go trick or treating so it doesn't fall on the same night as a football game. We took Luci and Clara around with some neighbor friends. A lot of the people in our complex don't have kids and didn't realize it was trick or treat night. The first three doors we knocked on they opened the door only to tell us they didn't have candy. Most of the people who did have kids where out taking their own kids trick or treating so there were slim pickings that night. We ended up finding a group of kids who were older and faster than our group and could tell us which apartments had candy. All in all they still got plenty of candy.






On Friday night we had a chili potluck and trunk or treat with our ward. I'm the activities chairman and was in charge of it, so I was a little nervous it wouldn't turn out. We combined it with the other ward in our town and had a great turn out. I wish I would have taken pictures, but I was too busy running around making sure things ran smoothly.

This year we got invited to two pumpkin carving parties. Once again I forgot to bring our camera and didn't get around to taking a picture of them until they were rotting. The first one is Dora. The second one was a face that Luci dictated to Kirk as he carved it: Mean Eyebrows, pigtails, a triangle nose, and smile. The last one was my attempt to carve Clara's face. I gave it six teeth just like Clara (they've already rotted away in this picture) and a dimple. It really was quite hideous and definitely did not look like Clara!


On Sunday we had our traditional Halloween dinner. This year we made witches fingers with blood, mummy pizzas, goblin spit drink, and bat wing salad.

It took me forever to slice long strips of cheese for the mummy pizzas. Afterward Kirk told me that I could have just used string cheese. duh! I'll remember that for next year.

Luci doesn't usually like to dip her bread sticks in marinara sauce, but for some reason calling it blood made it really appetizing for her.

This is our goblin spit drink. It's really avocado milk, a yummy Brazilian drink made with milk avocado and sugar.

And we didn't forget about Clara. Here is her scary dinner. it didn't take much to make that look scary. She barely touched it. She still isn't a fan of baby food.

That about wraps up October for us. By the time Halloween came around we had done so many festivities that it felt like it was already over.

7 months

Ahh, my baby is 7 months old! She already has six teeth with more soon to come (making nursing quite uncomfortable)! This last week she rolled from her back to her stomach for the first time. I was so proud! She's been getting physical therapy once a week since she was 3 months old, and this is one skill we've been focusing on for the past few months. It made me so happy seeing her overcome her fear. I beam every time I see her do it, especially seeing how proud she is of her new skill!

I sure love my daughters! It has been a lot of fun having two girls in a row. Ever since I found i was having another girl I started looking for matching outfits. Turns out they don't make baby clothes that match size 3-4. Luckily, Grandma Dana found these cute matching vests.



Halloween Preview






Last year Luci's friend Finn (who she claims she is going to marry when she grows up) was a pirate for Halloween. She was dying to be one too, so after Halloween I found this girl pirate costume on clearance for this year. Fortunately, she still likes it!


Another cute picture of Luci. She looks so grown up!