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!

Camping-August 2013

Blair's First Camping Trip!