Friday, November 30, 2012

Emily's Shower

A few weeks ago, Luke's Mom & I hosted a baby shower for my sister-in-law Emily. We had been planning it for quite some time and then I came down with the stomach flu right before the shower and didn't even think I was going to make it...but I did. Emily is due in January and looks so cute with her little baby bump.

Emily & all her gifts!
We had a great crowd at the shower and Emily got so many great gifts for their new baby girl. I'm so excited for Matt & Emily to start their family and for Molly to have a new little cousin. The other neat thing is that my other sister-in-law Amanda is due to have her second baby just weeks after Emily, with our baby due just weeks after theirs. Three new little ones in a matter of 2-3 months! It's going to be baby chaos the next time we all get together, but it will be so much fun!

After we found out we we're having a boy, I put all my girlie baby fabric to good use for Matt & Emily's little girl!
Swaddlers, burp clothes & cute little baby booties I made for the new little Miss Miller.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Getting Closer

As I approach week 26, I'm reminding myself just how close it's getting to our baby boy's arrival. I have been working on clearing out the guest room/office to turn into his room, but I have lots of sewing projects I want to finish before I can clean out too much stuff. Although I've been making tons of blankets and bump clothes, this is my most recent completed project:


It's a car seat cover for the infant car seat to keep the baby all snuggled up warm. I hadn't ever made one before and didn't have a pattern, but I figured it out and I'm really happy with how it turned out. It's lined with fleece and the little flap opens & closes so you can peek in on the baby. One project checked off the to-do list!

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Thanksgiving

Although it was our year to spend Thanksgiving in Montana, we decided to stay in Missouri. Among many things, like having a new baby on the way, the cows, all the traveling we did this summer, etc. it just seemed really overwhelming to think about traveling for the holidays this year. So, instead of making the long haul to Montana we took a 2 hour drive to see Luke's family. We spent Thanksgiving day at Grandma Thelma's house and she cooked us quite the feast!
Molly with her Great Grandma Thelma & Grandma Debbie.
 I explained Thanksgiving to Molly, since I don't think she really understood it last year. I told her what I was most thankful for this year and then asked her what she was most thankful for. She never ceases to amaze me-she told me she is most thankful for cake and big daddy deer. Guess her Dad has made quite the impression with all his hunting this year and apparently she really loves cake!
Big hugs for Uncle Matt.
So thankful for little Miss Molly and all the joy she brings to our family!
 We hope everyone back in Montana had a great Thanksgiving. We we're sure thinking about you all and missing you.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Great Weather

These pictures were taken today-November 18th! Can you believe how green our yard is? Our yard wasn't this green all summer long and now it just looks great and is growing like crazy. This means more mowing for me, but it also means our cattle can finally get a taste of fresh grass this year-so I guess it's a good trade-off. We played outside today-drew on the sidewalk with chalk, played in the sandbox, fed the cats & cows, and swung in the swing.
Kelly & the cat enjoying the nice sunshine.

It was WAY too warm for Molly to be wearing mittens, but we had gone through her winter wear earlier today to see what still fit, and she was determined to wear her mittens.



Big Bed

Since the first of November, Molly has been sleeping in a twin bed! She is very proud of it. We just have the mattress & box spring on the floor so that she doesn't have far to fall if she rolls out, but she is doing just great in it. It takes more coaxing to get her to go to sleep, but she knows she isn't supposed to get out of the bed and has adjusted really well.

The deal with getting a "big girl" bed was that she couldn't use her "na-na" a.k.a. pacifier anymore. She had still been using it in the crib when she napped or went to bed for the night but now it is a thing of the past! Thank goodness! She only asked for it a time or two and hasn't made a fuss about it at all. Our little girl is growing up! Now, if we could just get the hang of potty-training!

Saturday, November 3, 2012

November Already

Where did October go? Apparently we were busy, because it just flew by. There were a few highlights that I didn't mention on the blog earlier. October is really a month of birthdays: both my grandparents on my Mom's side, my Mom, Luke and several other friends and family members. Molly is really getting into "parties" whether or not it's much of a party. She can sing Happy Birthday and made sure Daddy had a white cake. Not sure why-but she was determined he needed a white cake.

Luke's 31st B-day
Also, I flew to Seattle for the weekend for our annual girls' trip. Since none of us had a baby or got married this year (it's been awhile since that happened!), we decided to go visit Lynmarie and check out her new house.

Lynmarie's house.
Besides the usual chatting & catching up, we spent time wedding dress shopping (for Lynmarie), seeing the sights of the big city, eating out & we even went to a movie (haven't done that in a LONG time).
Pike's Place Market where we bought some gigantic apples!
I was able to get a direct flight from St. Louis to Seattle so it was pretty easy traveling compared to the usual layovers and kid wrestling that tend to occur with our travels. Luke took over Mommy duty for a few days so I was able to go on the trip. He did great & I think him and Molly had some quality bonding time-and they both survived so that's the main thing!

Friday, November 2, 2012

Carving Pumpkins

 Molly & Luke picked out some awesome pumpkins from the Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival this year and we got them carved just in time for Halloween. Molly had picked out just the perfect pumpkin and was really into drawing a face on it and watching Luke carve it. She didn't really want to touch the insides though-she said it was slime.
Slime! (The one time Molly touched it)

The final result-our masterpieces:

Daddy pumpkin, Baby pumpkin, Mommy pumpkin.
Lighting them up outside.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Happy Halloween!

We (as in I) wasn't feeling too creative when it came to Halloween this year, so we came up with a couple of easy costume options and let Molly decide. My Mom sent us a devil costume that belonged to my brother at one time and Molly eventually tried it on, calling it a dragon. That didn't last long and she wanted nothing more to do with it.
Dragon, devil, whatever.

We figured she could pull off the cowgirl look just by going through her closet, so that's what we tried next. She agreed to it but refused to wear the hat or carry the stick horse once we started trick or treating.

I bribed her with juice so I could get just one picture!
So, off we went trick or treating and Molly was very excited and determined to get candy in her bucket. We started at the "Safe Stop" where local businesses set up tables in the community building. Molly was really shy at first and pretty intimidated. After this stop we headed to the nursing home and this is where she really figured out how to trick or treat. By the time we left she would walk up to just about anyone and hold out her bucket and then wave goodbye. Not much was said, but she got the goods. We ended the night with a bucket full of candy-among other various treats and had a fun time!!

Coaching Molly through the Safe Stop.