Shortcake: Ten Months Old

(So, I completely missed the nine month post. It was on my mind, but never happened. Oh well, moving on.)

Eeeek! We have reached the double digits. Ten months feels really close to one year. How on earth is my baby almost a year old???!! The start of this month was a bit rough on our little guy, but we are happy to have our cheerful sweetheart back after over two weeks of fighting a crummy virus. We are implementing hand washing every ten minutes around here now. (Ok, maybe not, but we probably should.) That sickness coupled with two new teeth made for a sad and miserable little baby. However, our smiley guy is back and we couldn't be happier.

Shortcake still doesn't sleep through the night. We tried a bit of sleep training before Thanksgiving, but he didn't get the memo that nighttime is for sleeping. Thankfully when he is up a ten minute nursing session is all that he needs to settle down most nights, but this momma would really benefit from a full night of sleep. Maybe when he is one????

We gave him another haircut this month. This brings him up to three total. I got a little crazy in the back this time, but he can pull it off.

He is a little on the go army crawler these days. It is amazing how he gets around without getting his belly off the floor. He is definitely getting braver with his exploring and will often come and find me when I leave him behind. Time to start remembering to shut the basement door.

I would like to play with your camera, momma!

I am not positive if he has any real words yet. We have heard the start of momma, dada, and ball. But it isn't consistent enough for me to be convinced that he is really putting the words with the objects. He does have a firm grasp of many words, though, If I tell him no, he stops what he is doing and ducks his head. So sweet.

Why did you have to take it away from me?!!

I love watching him learn about his world. His sweet little hands love to open and shut things, push buttons, and of course bring every little thing in his mouth. He also has the odd habit of sticking this fingers into our mouths. Kind of funny, kind of gross.
I am so in love with this little guy. He is, as always, a tremendous blessing to us all. Stay sweet, Shortcake.

Baby's First Christmas

I nabbed this video of Shortcake's reaction to seeing the Christmas tree set up in the living room for the first time. Pure wonder and joy! Love it!

Merry First Christmas, baby!

O Christmas Tree!

For some reason this year, I am slow to decorate the house for Christmas. Maybe it is the fact that it is a new house and I am not sure where to put things. Lets face it, we really don't have much in the way of non holiday decorations up, so why add much for Christmas? We did get the tree and ornaments out in addition to our manger scene and the kids multiple manger scenes. I also attempted to hang the stockings. Lets just say that you should follow the directions when using Command Strips. Ha!

Anyway, I decided to let the girls decorate the tree on their own this year. I gave them some direction, but they mostly did it on their own. Our tree won't be gracing any magazine covers, but they love it and so do I. The joy of Christmas is still very fresh in our kids. Why not let them enjoy it?

Shortcake loved looking on as the girls worked. I have a great video of him seeing the tree after I had put it together. Maybe I will post it tomorrow.

Our Advent Plan

These days there are lots of "Advent" ideas floating around the internet. In most of these cases the term Advent is being used in a generic sense of a countdown. Advent to me means something different. The term Advent to me is preparing my heart for the coming of the King, the little baby in the manger, Jesus. The last few years we have done a few different Advent activities with the kids. Last year we had an Advent wreath and read an Advent devotion every evening in the month of December. This year I am planning on using a few different Advent calendars. One is a basic open the door calendar with a Bible passage behind each door. I also found this great Bible passage printable from Sugar Doodle.

I also want to do some sort of Christmas activity each day with the kids. In this busy time of year, I figure one of the best things I can give my kids is more of my time. Here are a few of the ideas I have found for activities.

from Haulin' with the Oats

from Crafty Morning

from Nurture Store

We will mix in these art projects with decorating and baking and I am also hoping to do some service projects in the month as well. I hope that by using these activities the kids realize that Christmas isn't just about the gifts and decorations, but about the coming of our Savior King.

The Sugar Detox Diet Rundown

So, remember when I promised I would share the results of my 2 week sugar detox? The time is now!! I had been hearing about this detox from Marta of Four Fit Sisters here and there for a while now. And frankly it didn't sound like something I could do. Cutting out sugar for two weeks is a scary thought. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I needed to do something to force a change in my eating habits. While weight really hasn't been much of an issue for me, thank you good genes, that doesn't mean that I was being healthy. As a stay at home mom, I found that I would often end up eating treats to get me through the slums of the day. Crabby morning? Better have some extra carbs with my coffee. Tired int he afternoon? Better sit down with a bag of sweet treats. Hard day and now the kids are all in bed? Better have some wine and snack. And while these on occasion may not be a big deal, they all add up. So, I did it! I signed up for Marta's 2 week sugar detox. As it turned out, this wasn't just a sugar detox. It was also gluten and dairy. Yikes! But you guys, I did it! I made it the two weeks with only a few slip ups. And you know what? I felt wonderful. Marta likes to say that you wouldn't put sugar into your gas tank on your vehicle and expect it to run, so why do we do it with our bodies?

Marta is offering one last sugar detox for the year starting next week Monday. Here is a link of where you can sign up. Marta offers great support and ideas throughout the detox and participating in a group was very helpful to me. And the support doesn't end with the sugar detox. The Four Fit Sisters website, Instagram feed, and Facebook site offer lots of great health and fitness ideas and support.

I am not still following the detox diet, but I am giving a lot more thought into what I put into my body and what I prepare for my family.

I am not receiving any compensation for this post. Just wanted to share a good thing with you, friends.

Randomness

Greetings! I thought that today would be a great day for some ramblings. This is what is going on and on my mind this morning.
*Peachy had a few days off of school at the end of October. So did my niece and nephews across the state. We loaded up the car and drove the three hours to see them. My kids ADORE their older cousins and it is well placed adoration. Even though there is an age gap (my nephews are 11 and 10 and my niece is 8.5) they are so thoughtful and attentive to their cousins. It helps that they also love to create and explore. Two things right up my kids' alley. We spent the days hanging out while their parents were at work. On Halloween we did projects, made caramel corn, watched a movie, and finished up with trick or treating. We are so excited that we live close enough for great experiences like this now.

One of my nephews mentioned that he had read the book Swiss Family Robinson and would like to see the movie. I checked on Netflix and we were in luck. They helped Cream cover her head during the scary parts.

One project involved making pumpkins out of egg cartons. The great thing about older kids is that you give them the idea and they take it from there.

I won the cool aunt award for letting them eat caramel corn straight off the cooling paper for lunch.

*Peachy lost her first tooth a couple of weeks ago. It was getting pretty wiggly and she got it out herself one day while sitting on the couch. The new one is already all the way through and she has another loose one next door. Her smile will sure look different when those big teeth come in.

*This little guy is having a rough go of it lately. He has gotten the stomach flu and a cold and is working on his upper teeth. All of these things are making it hard to get him to go to sleep and stay asleep. Poor guy. He is however a rolling machine these days, no crawling yet, but still very mobile.

*The Mr was out of town for business last week so I tackled the disaster toy area. It is much better now. I have a few more little things I want to do and then I will share the results. Unfortunately I couldn't find any fun thrifted items, so I ended up with this storage cube, but it works well and looks nice.

*I am having a blast creating again. I really just need that as a part of my life. The ideas have been flowing fast lately. Faster than I have time. But I am still getting some of creativity on. I will be opening the Etsy shop again today or tomorrow. I am just waiting for the right conditions to photograph.

*I joined a detox eating group and am on my last few days. I will share more next week, but it is going very well. I am amazed at the results and plan on continuing in a modified form. Amazing how changing your body fuel changes your everything!

*It took a severe turn toward winter here. Remember that light dusting I spoke of on Monday? Well we got more overnight and Peachy ended up having the day off. Then today on the way to school it was COLD! Time to haul out the lined leggings for sure.

I started typing this in the morning and it is now 4 pm. No wonder I find it hard to blog anymore! Hope your weeks are all going well! Take care, friends.

Gallery Art Pads

Recently while I Pinterest, I saw an awesome gallery wall in one of the room ideas I pinned. After clicking through to the blog post I found out about Me and My Big Idea Gallery Art Pads. (You can buy them through their site, or I ordered mine through JoAnn.com.) They are a large pad filled with various size prints that can be trimmed and framed or used in another way. I loved them all and when I was trying to decide which pad to order I couldn't. I liked them all. 

So, I used a coupon and ordered them all. Ha! The great thing is, I am sure I will use many of them throughout our house, but I also plan on giving them as gifts. That is what I did with these three prints. I looked through all of the pads and selected three prints that I knew my friend would enjoy.

 I framed them with frames I purchased at Kohls. I love how they turned out, and so did my friend.

First Snowy Day

We woke up this morning to snow on the ground. The girls were very excited. Cream kept on telling us what the snow was all on. While I know that the snow will get old soon, I have to admit there is something magical about waking up to snow.

Even the birds seemed to be enjoying at as I spied many of them perching on the branches about our yard. A benefit to early snow is that the temperature allows for comfortable play in it.

I sent the girls out after lunch and over an hour later they are still out enjoying it. Another benefit we received is that we didn't get all that they were predicting.

I am all for a good snowstorm, but would rather ease into our friend old man winter.

Toy and Art Area Dreaming

I am finding that furniture, arrangements, and organization that worked in our old home, just don't work as well in our new home. I loved the kids' space I had created in the downstairs of our first home.

The Expedit shelving and bins from IKEA were perfect for storing the toys and the area around it worked well as a play area. I am not thrilled with how the Expedit is working for us in our new home. I think part of the problem is that it isn't tucked away on a lower level. We have it in a part of our upstairs living area, so it is always right there. Mess and all! Another issue is that I am using the area for all of the art supplies now as well. We used to have them split up a bit between levels.

Hmm, I wonder why this area has itself firmly planted in my target . . . YIKES

In order to get some ideas of what we could do with the area to make it more user friendly as well as pleasing to the eye, I turned to my good friend Pinterest. (Don't laugh. That site has gotten me through many a sticky situation.) Here are a few of the ideas that caught my eye.

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1) Toy Bags: One of the toughest things to organize are all of the little toys that go together, but don't need an entire bin. My old solution was to put them all into one bin and call it a day. Obviously this has many shortfalls. I love the idea of making bags for them. I like that you can see what is in these bags, too.

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2) Shelves and Bins: Isn't this toy area just adorable? I like the idea of using bins to coral some toys, but putting others out on display.

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3) Art Supply Storage: I need a way to contain the explosion of art supplies. We make use of them everyday, so they need to be accessible. Also having them be able to be moved around would be a plus.

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4) Art Display: I would love to find a place to display the kids' art work. It would be a bonus if they could change it up themselves.

Pinterest to the rescue again. Now if only it would also come to my house to implement the ideas. Is there an App for that?

Apple Orchard

Trees just didn't fair well in our old area, so in the fall you would head to the pumpkin patch to get your dose of fun.

However, where we live now, there are lots and lots of trees.

So this year we headed to the apple orchard for a fun fall afternoon.

I went with another friend and between the two of us we had six kids.

Those kids were so excited and had such a great time.

We practically had to drag them away.

Can't wait to go again!