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.