Blair is 11 months

Blair,

You are 11 months.  It's so hard to believe that in under one month we will be celebrating your first birthday!!

We are guessing you are around 18 pounds and 27 inches.  You are in size 6-9 month clothes, size 3 shoes, and size 2 diapers.

You go to bed at night around 730-8 and are usually up for the day between 630-730.  There have been nights you sleep all night and others we are up a couple times, but you have been doing good sleeping through the night.  Mommy is very happy about this!

You love to feed yourself.  You eat pretty much whatever mommy and daddy have for meals, but your favorites so far are chicken and meatloaf.  The other night we had meatloaf and you kept wanting more!  You still take bottles when you are with grandma, but we'll be moving to all sippy cups soon.

You are such a curious little girl.  You are into everything and trying to figure out things.  It's so fun to watch you find something new or learn a new skill.  You walk all over the place, but know that you can get places faster crawling, so when mommy or daddy comes to get you you take off crawling.

We have done lots of things this past month, we went to another wedding, we went to the festival of lights in Peoria, we had your first thanksgiving, put up the Christmas tree, went to see Santa, played in the snow, and had lots of fun!

We love you so much Blair.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

10 months

Blair,

You are 10 months old. It's so hard to believe in just 2 short months we will celebrate your 1st birthday!

You are 17 lbs and 26.25 inches long. You are still our little peanut. 

You are still breastfed, take bottles during the week. You love dinner time when we all sit at the table and have dinner together. You love to eat whatever mommy and daddy are having. Your favorite things so far are ground beef and beans. You have a jar of puréed as well as whatever else you get in your mouth. You do really well using a sippy cup so hopefully that makes the transition from the bottle easier. 

This month you got 3 teeth!  Now you have 5. 

You are in size 6-9 month clothes, size 3 shoes, and size 2 diapers. 

We've had a busy month and next month will be wen busier. You were baptized and had a family celebration. You had your first Halloween and dressed up as a black cat. 

One of the biggest things that happened is you have started to walk in your own. You are growing up so fast!

Ranch Chicken

A new favorite recipe for our house is Ranch Chicken.  This was given to us by a family member in our wedding cook book, but we had never tried it until a few weeks ago.  It's very easy and we could probably have this once a week and I'd be happy!

Ranch Chicken
3/4 Cup crushed cornflakes (I use crushed rice krispies)
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 envelope dry ranch dressing mix
8 boneless skinless chicekn breast halves (Approximatley 2 lbs.)
1/2 cup butter, melted

In shallow bowl, combine crushed cornflakes, parmesan cheese, and dry ranch dressing mix.  Dip chicken in melted butter then roll in the cornflake mixture.  Place in greased 9x13x2 baking dish.  Bake uncovered 45 minutes or until juices run clear.

It's so moist and yummy!  Blair LOVES it- last night she just keep reaching for more.  We have also coated pork chops in this and it's good too.

No pictures, but I wanted to share this super easy meal.

A month Collage

I'm hoping to get back in a blogging mode, so to start a collage I made of Blair from the day she was born until her 9th month.

I cannot believe she'll be 10 months next week!

I've been in a blogging rut, just don't know what to share or topics to begin with.  On top of that life has been crazy!  I know it will only get worse with the holidays, but I hope to keep up better than just once a month.

Blair is 9 months

Blair,

Today you are 9 months old!  I can't believe that in less than 90 days we will be celebrating your 1st birthday!!!

As far as weight and height, I think you are around 18-20 lbs, and I have no idea on height.  You are in a size 2 diaper, Size 6-9 month clothes, and a size 2 or 3 shoe.

You are still nursing, but love your solids!  You eat solids at least 2 times a day, and take bottles while with Grandma.  You still only have 2 teeth, but I think more are on the way.  You love feeding yourself and usually eat at least a few bites of whatever we are having for dinner or lunch.

You go down for the night around 8 and are usually up once in the night to eat and then we have to wake you up most mornings to get dressed.  You aren't much of a morning person- just like mommy & daddy.

You are MOBILE!!!  You crawl every where, pull up to everything, will stand alone next to something without holding on, or even in the middle of the room.  You are getting so strong.  You are also a climber- you have figured out steps, how to climb into your car seat, and try to climb up into the chair or on the couch.  We have so much fun watching you explore.

You love to see Kuba play and just laugh like its the funniest thing ever.

You are "talking"- your favorite thing is to say "Hi DaDa!" We are working on MaMa, but you usually just laugh at us when we say it to you.  You jabber all day long, but when we are home and Daddy isn't you just say dadadada over and over until he's home.  When you see him you squeal and crawl toward him- it melts our hearts.

You love to play, and be on the go.  You are such a good baby, and we have had so much fun this fall doing fun activities.

Reflections....

Yesterday, we went back to my hometown, to see my parents and brothers and the rest of our family.  We had family pictures taken for the first time in a long time!

Going back to the place I grew up and all of the things I remember can be hard sometime.  While at my parents house, Blair and I were up in my old room.  It's kind of hard to go up there because that was my bedroom for 20+years.  Much of it is the same, however things have changed.  There are still some of "my things" hanging on the wall, even though I've been gone for almost 4 years now.

Being in that room, I remember having my friend Liz over and playing with our Barbies or cabbage patch dolls.  I stood in there with Blair and reminisced about all of the old memories.
I admit, my room wasn't the cleanest growing up.  There would be days I would decide to clean my room, I'd open the windows and turn on my radio and clean, and clean, and clean.

The Christmas mornings, waking up and going to the other bedrooms to see who was awake.

The sleep-overs with friends- we would stay up too late talking and playing games.

The year I decided to paint my room blue with clouds.

The year I decided that my dad wasn't moving fast enough on ripping out a wall, so I did it myself.

The day I opened my closet to find that the old plaster ceiling had fallen in.

The newspaper clippings from high school.

The high school year books.

The countless pictures of my childhood.

All stored in four walls, memories that I will never forget.  memories I get to share with Blair when she goes to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Lots more great memories in the town, sadly many things in the town have changed that just make me sad that I have to rely on my memory to see/do them again.

What I want Wednesday

Ok so this is not to sound needy, but I have seen some things recently, that I'd love to have in my house if money were no object and there weren't other things to take care of.  So without further ado,

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A pair of Frey Boots.  They are gorgeous boots and they have lots of different options, but the price tag- around $350.00!  So not even anywhere close to a possible in my budget!

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A new pair of running shoes.  These are Nike Free Run's and I think they are pretty cute- and they look like my old Reebok's that I had that made my shin splints disappear!  Not to bad for just around a $75 bucks.

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A week or heck even a few days in Jamaica with Jeff and Blair.  Yes, I would take her with us, we loved Jamaica the first time we visited, and we will be going back in the future.

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A home that looks like this at the holidays- I absolutely love this tree!  Yes its over the top, but I think its gorgeous!!!  And yes, we are a Christmas family and I can't wait to get our decorations us and spend Blair's First Christmas with her! (PS-if anybody is awesome at decorating and wants to help- I'll take it ;))

September 21, 2013

Last weekend, we packed up and headed to the Chicago suburbs for our very good friend's wedding!  Jeff was the Best Man and I was a bridesmaid.

Jeff and I took off work Friday and headed to Naperville in the early afternoon to celebrate Tim & Lindsay's wedding weekend!  We had a great weekend!

Friday evening we had rehearsal dinner and rehearsal.  Blair was so good during the dinner and the rehearsal she slept :)

Saturday was a busy day of girls getting ready.  Blair spent the time with the bridesmaids in the morning.  In the afternoon we were fortunate to have our friends Amber and Maggie keep Blair and take her with them to the ceremony and the reception.  I will say I think she may have been a little spoiled :)  Tim & Lindsay's wedding was gorgeous and we were all so honored to be a part of their special day!!

Photo By Amber Langhoff

8 Months!

Blair,

Today you are 8 months old!!!

You are such a joy in our lives and becoming quite the awnry little girl ;)

We aren't for sure how much you weigh, but based on our scale around 17-18 pounds. You are in size 6-9 month tops and dresses, 6 month bottoms, and size 1 or 2 shoes.  You are in size 2 diapers.  You go down for the night between 7-7:30 and are typically up to eat around 2-3 then back to sleep until 6-6:30.  You have slept through the night a few times, but you do not do that every night.

You take 3 bottles during the day with Grandma and nurse when you are with mommy.  You are eating 2 solid meals a day- and you love when you are in your highchair to eat!  You have tried lots of new foods recently and only a few of them you aren't a fan of- one being Puffs.  You have started to feed yourself some things like cheerios and green beans if we put them on your tray.

Last month you were a crawling/scooting machine and this month you still are, but you are more of a "walk along anything you can" girl now!  You pull yourself up to anything and everything that you can, and you stand up if there is anything around you to help you get up.  You are a climber too- you have crawled into your boucey seat- so Mommy and Daddy had to take that away.

You have 2 teeth- your bottom fronts.  The first one came through on August 17th and the 2nd came through on the 29th!

You love bath time and move around the tub and splash and squeal- it's so fun!  You also love your water toys.

You really love on Kuba now and will follow him wherever he goes, although he's not a big fan of you touching him.  It's so cute to watch because you will touch him and he'll move a little bit so you move and then it just repeats until he gets tired of it and walks away.  You just laugh when he walks away!

In the last month, we celebrated Daddy's 30th Birthday, Mommy's 28th Birthday, and Labor Day!  It was a busy month!  We had so much fun celebrating with you in our lives.

We love you to the moon and back baby girl!

Love,

Mommy & Daddy

The last weeks of August

I've taken a little blog Vaca- much needed and I was able to get caught up on everything that was needed.

Since I blogged last we have:
-Attended the Farm Progress Show
Jeff, Brian, Abbi, and I all went down to the Farm Progress Show on Thursday.  We were able to look at all kids of new ag equipment and get lots of goodies.  Jeff & Abbi had never been and I think they had a good time and we saw lots of neat things.  It was warm, but not too hot.  Blair stayed with Grandma because it would have been too much for her and it's not exactly the most baby friendly place to go.

Brian Checking out the new Gleaner.

-Celebrated Jeff's 30th Birthday

We had a party at our house- I"ll get pictures from it uploaded soon hopefully!  We had friends and family and enjoyed the evening outside celebrating him!

-Met Sadie & John Luke from Duck Dynasty :)  On the way home from work a local radio station was having a trivia contest.  I just happened to have a good guess and got through on the phone lines and I was right!  YAY!  We love to watch Ducky Dynasty so we were pretty excited!

Funny story about Blair's feet!  In the Line for the Meet & Greet, I had Blair in her carrier.  I had Sadie & John Luke sign our tickets for the game.  It was also Blair's first baseball game.  John Luke said oh I thought you were going to ask me to sign your baby, he said he always wanted to do that.  I saw sure you can sign her and he was really taken aback.  Well needless to say he signed our baby and then told us to wait a minute because he wanted to take a picture of her and her signed foot with his phone.  So now, John Luke has a picture of Blair! :)  We had a good time and Blair enjoyed her first baseball game...asleep for most of it.

-Celebrated my birthday and Labor Day

Blair and Grandpa before the Thresherman's Parade

Nap time before the parade recovering from a late evening at Daddy's birthday party!

-Enjoyed time as a family!  Out little monster is so mobile now!  It is so fun- she will follow you through the house crawling, we have 1 step in our house and she has mastered that, and she has taken a liking to touching Kuba (not sure he is a fan of that!).

Such a ham!