To Do Lists

I've been really in to making lists lately - I think it's the type A personality in me that I don't get to use up anymore with out my business job. Now our house and our family is my job, and I'm loving it! I get to put all of my time an energy into running our home instead of into something I'm not really passionate about. I have a bunch of papers lying around with these lists, so I figure this would be a good place to keep them so I don't lose track of things!

My lastest list is on home updates I want to make. I spend most of my time in our house so I am constantly thinking about things I want to change, rooms I want to redo, furniture I want to buy, etc. But obviously we have a budget, so we can only do so many things at a time. This is my wish list of house updates...

1. New carpet downstairs (possibly with wood floors too)
2. Paint downstairs, fix walls (possibly use wall paper too)
3. Fix base boards downstairs
4. New TV for the bedroom
5. New couches for the family room
6. New lamp and end table for the family room
7. China hutch for the dinning room
8. New appliances for the kitchen (stainless steel microwave, dishwasher and fridge)
9. Fix garden and grass in the back yard
10. New fixtures downstairs
11. Paint and update guest bathroom (maybe make more kid friendly)
12. Paint shutters

I need to go through and figure out costs and what are our priorities... but that will be for another day. Plus I'm sure there will be things that get in the way that have to be updated - like our water heater, air conditioner and oven that all broke this year!

Swinging!

Lately we've been enjoying the amazingly warm fall weather by trying to soak up outside time as much as possible. We have a park directly behind our house, so Lucy and I usually go there a couple times a week to swing. We also usually take Ruthie and she likes to run around the playground (as long as no other kids are there) - going up and down the slides and leaping onto the different platforms. She loves it, and as long as I have a ball I have no trouble reeling her back in.

Lucy all strapped in for our walk - she loves the stroller and usually gets completely still and observant.


For the first couple pushes, Lucy's mouth is wide open with joy and excitement! She gets used to it after awhile, but I just love how excited she gets after the first push.

Up...


And back down...

7 Months

Lucy turned 7 months a couple days ago so thought I'd report on what's happening with us lately... Lucy continues to grow and develop extremely fast! She has mastered crawling, pulling up, standing while not holding on to anything (for 20 seconds or so), and is working on creeping... I think she'll be walking in no time! She still does the usually babbling (mostly screeming and grunting), nothing distinguishable yet, and she's actually been a little quieter lately (she did this when she was working on walking too... I think her brain is saying - "one skill at a time please").

She is in a bit of a transition as far as her schedule goes, some days she takes 3 naps, some days she takes 2, it all depends on how good the first two naps are and how long she last between them (some days the naps are 1.5-2hrs, some days they are more like 1hr). If she wakes from her second nap any sooner than 4pm, I know we'll need the third one that day. This all determines the number of times she eats - if there are 3 naps, she eats 5 times and if there are only 2 she eats 4 times (with solids at three of those nursings). And when I say she eats 4-5 times, I should actually say it's been 5-6 times a day because she has yet to go away from the middle of the night feeding that magically appeared when we got home from Florida last month... I thought it was vacation, I thought it was crawling, I thought it was teething... who knows! But whatever it is, it's here to stay... Lucy has been eating once around 4-5am and then keeps sleeping till about 7:30am or so. That still means she's doing an 8-10 hour stretch... so I guess I can't complain... plus I've been bringing her in to bed with me to nurse (bc I'm so sleepy) and I've been loving the extra cuddle time and the way she immediately passes out lying next to me once she's full.

Sleep continued to stink this month (carried over from last month). I'm blaming most of it on her first two teeth that appeared this month and then I think she just got used to us coming in to comfort her. Most of this month Lucy woke 3-4 times throughout the night, needing us to put her pacifier in each time. She has also been waking up mid nap about half the time needing me to put the pacifier in for her then as well.

I finally told Ben we had to do something because waking up all through out the night was driving me nuts so we finally decided to give Lucy the paci when she went to sleep but we agreed not to give it to her again throughout the night. The first night we only had one night waking (besides the feeding) and she cried for ten minutes, I went in to lay her back down and she picked the paci up and put it in on her own. The next night she started crying a couple times but each time only lasted 5 minutes or so and she comforted her self back to sleep, until about 1am - she started fussing and I turned the monitor down to make the waiting a little more bearable and ended up falling back asleep. Not sure how long the crying lasted but when I woke up an hour later it was quiet - I felt like such a bad mom for falling asleep... but I was secretly so glad I didn't have to lie awake listening to her scream! Plus, I figure she couldn't have been crying that long, otherwise I would have woken up... right?!? Night number 3 there was no crying except for her one feeding at 4:30 am... success? maybe... we'll see how things go the rest of the week... naps have still not been great.

We have gotten into the swing of things with solid foods, Lucy eats a good amount 3 times a day and seems to really like just about anything I give her. She has now tried banana, carrots, peas, plums, prunes, avocado, pumpkin, sweet potato and pears. Her favorites are the fruits and the sweet potatoes (I think she has a sweet tooth like her mama!)

She continues to be an extremely happy and smiley baby, honestly if she didn't have to sleep alone in her crib, I doubt she'd ever cry.

On a mom front - things have been going really well as I get more and more used to this mom thing... Lucy continues to surprise me daily, but I think I've gotten used to the surprises and have become a lot more relaxed about her schedule (I think anyway... Ben can correct me if I haven't). I've joined a Bible study with other moms that have young children and it has been such a breath of fresh air to hear what other moms are struggling with and to realize I'm not the only one going through the challenges of motherhood. And physically I am finally feeling 100% myself... I fully healed from surgery when lucy was about 5 months and I'm now back to my pre-pregnancy weight (give or take a few pounds... I'll blame on the extra milk I'm still carrying around).

No doctor appt. this month, so based on our home scale, Lucy is weighing in at 17.2lbs... finally double her birth weight!

There's something different about my smile...


Take a closer look and you'll see my first two teeth!


Being a dare-devil... like always...


Notice the tongue in all these pictures - she's been much more active with showing it since her first teeth came in...


Laid back...

IU Homecoming

This was my second trip to IU - there was a lot less people this time and a lot less spandex, but I still loved it! Mom forgot to take pictures of us tailgating, but we had a blast grilling out, playing corn hole and chatting with our neighbors... everyone thought I was soooo cute.

We didn't make it in for the football game, but I was OK with that... sounded kind of boring anyway.

On our way home, we stopped by Dad's fraternity house. Here I am with Rob and Ellen... they were a lot of fun to hang out with...


My first (and mom said my last) time in a frat house!


I didn't recognize a much hairier version of dad in this picture on the wall...


Mom and dad are grooming me to be a Hoosier some day... I'm ok with that..

6 Month Videos Cont.

Here I am showing off come of my standing skills... oh yeah, and I've got some sweet tie-dye leggings on... no big deal

6 Month Videos

I'm almost ready to start cruising! Here I am going after mom's cell phone again... I took a couple steps, but I'm still pretty apprehensive about the whole one foot in front of the other thing...

What we've been up to lately

Now that Lucy has mastered crawling and pulling up, she's been trying out a new skill...

Look mom! No hands!


Lucy's been trying out standing with no hands these past couple weeks. She usually holds it for around 10-15 seconds, then it typically ends in a crash. But, she keeps on trying!




She's also been loving finding her new "friend" in all the glass/mirrors around our house...


And digging through her toys, dumping them out till the family room floor is covered!


Ruthie was not impressed...

Destruction

This doesn't typically happen... but caught Ruthie's destruction of one of Jordyn's toys on camera... I promise, normally she doesn't bother with Lucy's stuff... but this ball was too inticing

hmmm... what's that Lucy's going after?


that seems like something I might like...


woops... i guess my teeth are too sharp


mommmmm... ruthie ruined my toy....

Happy Fall!

With this heat wave we've been having, I was worried I wasn't going to be able to wear my cute hoodie... fortunately it cooled off a bit today!


I even had this cute tee underneath that one of mom's old biking friends sent me (thanks Porter!)


We've also had a friend this week during the day... I really like her, she's a lot more fun than mom...

Dedication Day

This past weekend, we dedicated Lucy at Grace. It was an amazing and special thing, Ben and I were both so thankful to be surrounded by family and friends who love Lucy so much.

From before Lucy was born, Ben and I have prayed that she would have a desire to know Jesus and learn to love him with all of her heart. This weekend was a chance for us to stand in front of our church to commit to doing our best at leading her in this direction. Cindy Parkman, the pastor of childrens ministry, emphasized that it will be much more about what Ben and I DO as parents, rather than what we say, which was a good reminder for me to focus on my relationship with Christ first... and then worry about being a good mom second. It can be easy to switch up that order when I want so much for everything to be perfect for my little baby girl.

Both of our families came to the service to watch Lucy get dedicated. It was amazing to have all of our loved ones, under one roof, worshiping together (something I don't think has happened since the wedding?!?!) - Ben and I both felt humbled that our precious little angel could do so much (bringing everyone together) without even knowing it.

As a reminder to ourselves... here is what Ben and I committed to that day:
1. We acknowledge that Lucy is a gift of God's love and grace to our family
2. We intend to prepare her for a lifelong relationship with Jesus Christ
3. We commit to model a compelled life that reveals God to this world and to Lucy

A few pics from the evening:

On stage with the other families


Praying for Lucy




Celebration back at our house!


So much love for such a tiny little girl!


Foot in Mimi's pocket


Love...

Pumpkin Patch!

We took Lucy to her first pumpkin patch this weekend - complete with a hay ride, picking out a pumpkin and mom and dad got some home made apple pie and ice cream!




My first hay ride!


Picking out a pumpkin... this one looks good...


Oh wait... what about this one


Nah, I think I'll stick with this one... it's perfect for holding me up!


We always have an awesome time hanging out as a family, but this day was extra nice! The weather was perfect, Lucy was in a good mood, and we weren't rushing to be anywhere at any specific time. I really enjoy our little family...

More great pictures and great friends

We traveled out to Cincinnati to visit Katie and Brent one last time before they move to Grand Cayman. We are so excited for Katie and Brent, but will miss them a lot! Even though they live 2 hours away now, we still visit with them on a regular basis, so we'll miss getting to see them as often. Fortunately, as soon as we heard the news, we booked a trip to visit them, so it won't be long before we get to see them again - in the Caymans! But unfortunately, that might be the last time we get to see them for over a year... sad.

We spent the day hanging out, eating at La Rosa's, watching the IU/Michigan football game, and going to Katie and Brent's going away party. Katie also just got a new camera so she got a ton of great shots of Lucy... so excited to have 2 good friends who can take awesome shots of the baby.

Eating at La Rosa's


Hey... that's not ruthie...


But, I'll still let him lick my face...


Wanting to explore...


Love this picture of her eyes!


And this one too!


Lucy was a little sleepy because she didn't nap that well so we didn't get many of her smiling, but Katie still got some great shots! Can't wait for her to take some good ones in the Caymans!

Haubstadt

A few weekends ago we traveled down to visit Kristy and see her new home (I'm a bit late getting these pictures up... been extra tired as Lucy's first teeth come in). We had a wonderful time visiting with Kristy, catching up, touring around Haubstadt, eating at Indiana's oldest restaurant - The Log Inn (family style, all you can eat fried chicken and sides... let's just say it was Ben's dream come true) and visiting with Rhonda, Nate and one of Lucy's future bf's - Matt.

A few highlights from the trip:

Getting ready to head out on the town


Snuggle time with my first baby


Play date with Matt! Trying to get them both to look at the camera...


Nope, not yet...


Almost...


There we go!