I'm Crushing...

...on these babies. My MIL got them for me at Target this past weekend and they are soooooooo comfy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Another Season Gone By

Saturday was our last game of the 2009 football season. It was a great game but didn't have the best outcome. We lost by one point, 29-28. The other team kicked a field goal with a minute or less on the clock. I think that one of the players said it best when he said that it would just give the team fuel for the off-season. But for now our family is enjoying having daddy home again most evenings. We are looking forward to starting some fun new holiday traditions in our family.

Card Outtakes

For some reason, this year I have felt there is plenty of time to pull together a Christmas card. Its like Christmas is so far away to me. I don't know if it is because the weather isn't very Christmassy or what. I just have not been motivated. But today I decided was the day. Spur of the moment you know. We did an impromptu photo shoot at our house courtesy of my index finger and the timer on my dad's camera. B loves to get his photo taken. He is always cheesing but for some reason he was distracted in a lot of the pictures we got. It could have been the massive amount of tickling daddy gave him before we started or the antsy dog sitting on the other side of daddy. Who knows. I think that we got a winner though. Now it just needs to make it onto a card and into every one's hands before Christmas. Here are some outtakes for you all to enjoy.

Any babies on your list this year?

There are several babies on our Christmas gift list this year. The following are a couple of items that I whipped up last week. I saw the following baby legs on a blog somewhere (can't remember) and they were sooooo easy to do and adorable to boot. It's too bad the lettuce ruffle edge is more girl than neutral. But you don't even have to have to have a serger to do it and it only took me maybe 10-15 min tops for 3 pair. I just cut knee socks above the heel and then pulled the material tight when I sewed the cut edge with a zig-zag stitch. Soooo easy! There are other tutorials out there with you making a cuff from the foot part of the sock but this one seemed the easiest and cutest.





The giraffes were kind of a hybrid of my own design and something I saw online. I sketched out a pattern and used some fabric and ribbon I had on hand. If anyone would like to know how I did those I can let you know. They are pretty basic taggy animals. I'm working on some patterns for other animals as well.

Snap, Crackle, Puke

What?...That's not the saying? Today I decided to conduct a little finger foods experiment with B. Since I am borderline nervous about giving B anything that isn't fed with a spoon I am surprised I even attempted this experiment today. Anyways, I threw caution to the wind and spread about 5 or 6 rice krispy (I guess you would call them kernels?) on his high chair tray after he finished with his baby food. I figured they were smaller than the puffs and less likely to be a choking hazard. Well, he pushed them around for a while and some got stuck to the food already on his hands. I ended up holding one up for him to see if he was interested in putting it in his mouth. Of course he was. Well, it stuck to his bottom lip and he did a mini freak-out trying to swat it off. I gave him a sec to compose himself and push some more around on the tray and thought I would try again. Big mistake. I put one in his mouth and he grimaced and it looked like he didn't know what to do. Then he started gagging. By this time I could feel myself start to panic a little. I started flipping through my mental file for the time I learned the baby Heimlich years ago. Where was that?! He gagged again, and again...and then threw up all over his bib. At last he got it up. By that time, I had taken the tray off and was ready to haul him out of the chair. We then looked each other in the eye and made a pact to not try anymore solid food...ever again. I told him he could look forward to a life of pureed cheeseburgers and spaghetti. Problem solved, right? :-)

Egad!

Today, I saw part of my future pass before my eyes. I took B to his first open flu clinic. I went at the beginning since I thought that we would get in quick and there wouldn't be a line. There was a line but it went pretty quick since there were around 6-7 nurses giving shots. Since I had a little time, I took in my surroundings and observed the lil'uns filing through the line with their parents. You could tell that the older ones were acting brave but were pretty quite because they knew what was coming. The younger ones were either super nervous or oblivious to where they were. A couple had lovies gripped tightly in their arms, comforting them. As the line through the hallway made its way closer to the area where the shots were given, I could hear kids screaming their lungs out. It sounded like some medieval torture chamber. (Maybe that is a bit dramatic...)
Anyways, as I came to the doorway I noticed a bunch of rope sitting in a tub on the floor. I jokingly said something about tying kids up to the mom behind me. As I got closer to the shot area I got a good view of parents holding their crying and squirming kids down for the shots. I thought to myself that would be me in a couple of years. I hated to see those kids so scared and frantic. I don't know if I will be able to take it when it is B's turn. For now though, he takes those shots like a champ. He doesn't even make a sound. In the future we may not be hitting up those clinics though.

GC Wins Again!

Yesterday was our last regular season game and Senior Day. It was a great game against a tough opponent (LaGrange) and the guys pulled it off with a 28-21 win. Their season has also been extended by a week since they were invited to play in the NCCAA Victory Bowl which will be next weekend. GC will be hosting Geneva since we finished in the rankings as #1. Yayyyyy!
Here is a pic of Jeff, B, and Jesse(Jeff's youngest brother) after the game. His old college roommate, Derek, was also at the game with some recruits (for some reason I did not take very many pictures).

Some of What I Have Been Up To...

Last week I was busy sewing and prepping for more sewing projects most evenings. I didn't really complete a whole lot of projects but I did get some baby gifts done. Somehow I missed getting a picture of the third onesie I made, it was a pink hippo shape. My personal fave was the guitar...

All By Myself!

...well almost. B is pretty much sitting by himself now. He can sit by himself for longer periods of time but still falls over every now and then. He is eating about 7 different kinds of baby food now (about a 4 oz. jar a meal) and his latest stats (taken last week) were: 24 lb 4 oz and 28 1/2 in. He is currently in 18-24 months depending on the type of clothing. No crawling yet but he is inching his way backwards when he wants a toy in front of him. We are still working on that. He is starting to really get into bathtime now. He chases one of his bathtoys around his little tub and splashes the water. I don't have to be so much of a contortionist when I give him a bath now either. The slippery lil guy still needs a little support but not as much as he used to.

Shout Out To My Tig"hers"

*He doesn't look so tough with those ears on does he? :-)

The other day, when I was cleaning out the garage, I found my tiger ears from back in the day. Way back...when I was in some sort of shape and played college volleyball at ONU. Anyways, as college volleyball is starting to head towards conference tourneys and post season play, I just wanted to give my coach and the current gals a shout out for another great season. And I especially wanted to recognize my coach, who has recently celebrated her 700th win. Yeh, that is right...700 "W"s. Amazing. She is 5th in active NAIA volleyball college coaches. Great job Coach! Congratulations!

Is Our Little Guy Going To Start....Crawling?

I don't know...how much time do you give him? Right now we are getting a little backward motion but nothing in the forward direction. We are totally up on our hands with arms extended but no knees yet.