thanksgiving recap

Every other year, Marshall's mom's side of the family has a Thanksgiving get-together. Extravaganza is the proper term. Unfortunately, a family of 5 was unable to attend due to vomiting. My Momma and Jim were able to join the fun this year!

We attempt the traditional family pictures..

It's becoming more difficult each year with 5 kids.

It doesn't help that my mom looks at whoever is trying to make Hartley smile..

We let Caleb run loose and get into mischief like his Uncle Marshall.

And then Uncle Marshall sews him up when he gashes his head open on the trailer. :)

We drink lots of sweet tea.

Fry turkey. (and eat baked turkey.. and ham.. and pizza dip)

Hartley eats her first Thanksgiving meal and loves it!

We ride horses. And golf carts. Go carts. Jump on the trampoline. Shoot skeet.

We chase a horse down the road when it escapes.

Some of the kiddies went down the road to visit Nina, a new calf being nursed by some relatives.

Hmm.. what else happened? I think I covered everything important. Hartley came down with a cold over the weekend. Her second of the year. We're just trying to get her to rest and suck as much snot out as we can!

Hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving! If you feel like eating our leftovers, please come over.

10 months

Hartley Caroline!

You are ten months old today!

You weren't too happy to take pictures.. not to mention you fell off the wagon and bumped your head.

• You change by the week now! Always learning something new, crawling/standing, jibber-jabbering, and giggling! The past month flew by and I feel like I'm going to forget some important milestones in this post.
• Daddy says you're "crawling like a mad woman." You are pulling yourself everywhere and getting into everything! You especially enjoy standing at the window and crawling under the side table. You learned to sit down from standing in only a few days! Grandmommie and I have watched you try to stand up on your own, without anything to hold on.. but you can't get up yet. We think you might be walking by Christmas at the rate you're going!
• You've been going to the church nursery every Sunday and the workers commented two weeks in a row that you must be teething. They were right! Your third tooth popped up this month- it wasn't as uncomfortable as the first two. You have 3 more white buds on top that should start cutting soon. This hasn't affected nursing. :)
• You still nurse, 4 or 5 times a day (every 3-4 hours). We started dropping your third nap. Some days you do well and only take 2 naps, but other days we have to let you get a short nap in before dinner. You have done very well though! There are some mornings that you wake up early (before 7:30am). We're not sure if it's because of the short 3rd nap the evening before.. or your regular morning poop. Most likely it's your very full diaper. Daddy gets those!
• You love eating. Whatever we're eating we have to share with you.. because you'll get upset if we don't! In the past month you've decided you don't care for carrots or sweet potatoes. You will down some greens though! Your pincer grasp (especially in your left hand) is amazing! We actually think you're left handed, just like Daddy and Grandmommie. I think we may start baby food weaning (baby led weaning) you soon and letting you feed yourself. Your favorite snacks are Cheerios and yogurt. You drink from a sippy cup throughout the day and do a very good job holding it by yourself, although you prefer us to help you out.

• We celebrated your first Thanksgiving this week. You did great meeting Mema's side of the family! It had been over 2 months since you saw Grandmommie last and you weren't very sure of her at first. But by the end of her visit you would reach for her. You enjoyed eating turkey and dressing! You got into something (maybe a spice) and had a brief rash under your eye.
• You love clapping and "saying" yay. You especially do this during/after music. It's very cute to watch you bounce on your knees and wave your arms like your dancing. You're also waving now! You don't always do it when we ask though.. just when you want to. You know where Momma's bellybutton is, too.
• It's been interesting seeing you understand simple phrases. You know what "where is ____?" means. You look for the dogs when we ask about them. We look at pictures of family everyday, pointing out people (me pointing, you smacking) and you giving kisses when prompted. We're still working on "no." You know what it means.. you just choose not to obey.
• You enjoy being chased around the house. It's so funny to watch you pick up your crawl speed to get away. And you are a loud crawler- smacking your hands on the floor. We can tell where you are by this.. and how far you've gone. :)
• Daddy met us at the grocery store one time this month. He asked if you were always like that (happy, sociable) when we went out. Always. You enjoy all the old people and little girls that talk to you. You continue to grab at anything you can while in the shopping cart, I'm surprised you haven't fallen out yet. Most recently you've decided that squealing as high as you can is appropriate in public.

Hartley, you keep us busy. You wear us out. You make us so thankful for 8pm. You are nonstop from the time you wake up until you go to sleep. But I wouldn't trade this for anything! I can't stop smiling because you are so sweet, so silly, and so cute! We love you, Hartley Moore!

Christmas Cards

We ordered Christmas cards through vistaprint this weekend. I was thinking oooh, they might be here before Thanksgiving and we can hand deliver them. Aka. Save money on postage.

Apparently, I was wrong. Three weeks. Three. For photo cards. Well, we did order 100 photo cards.

We used the "what's the cow say" method to get some smiles from Hartley. But then she hammed it up on her own.

These are mostly outtakes.. so the photo card will be a surprise!

I have no idea what got into her! She had so much fun taking pictures.

Especially when Daddy did their new balancing act!

She loves this new game with Daddy!

You want a kiss?! I save my kisses for the dogs!

She is quite possibly the silliest baby ever.

Hollering at the dogs.

Still hollering.

We've got guests coming this week for Thanksgiving. Sadly no one will be using our sleeper sofa.. that we know of yet.

I've got some mad cleaning and baking to do!!

from hold to sold!

My dear husband bought me a couch! :)

Here's the timeline of events..

Original Couch (handmedown, prior to moving in)

Craigslist Couch. Last Saturday.

Chair/Ottoman/Sassy. Tuesday.

Sibling Sofa/BigBooty. Wednesday

Hartley :)

Sleeper Sofa. Today!

It is so comfortable. Hello, strange child.

Now we definitely need some guests! And some new throw pillows. Rug. Paint. Decor.

So. Four couches. One week. One very patient husband.

Phil Collins, beware!

We have a drummer/singer on our hands. This is one of Hartley's favorite pastimes.

In case you didn't know, Marshall has always had a beat going in his head. Once again, like father like daughter.

learning

Hartley and I are both in the learning stages.

I'm learning to measure twice, buy once.

Remember the sectional that I was so excited about last week, I wasn't so excited once it was in my living room. It was huge and dark brown. (that's what she said)

Staged for craigslist

I knew immediately I made a mistake. I was telling Marshall that I was really upset with myself, almost sick to my stomach, and how would I live with myself if I made a "real" mistake- murder, adultery, etc. Guess you can say I have high morals.

But it's gone now. Craigslist is amazing. We got our money back. And Hartley misses the huge ottoman to bang on. In the meantime Hartley's chair/glider is our couch.

Wait, you ask, what happened to the old, flowery couch? We let Marshall's sister have it before we even looked at the sectional. It looks a lot better in their house!!

Trial and error. I really wanted a sectional, but I think it will have to wait until we build and can arrange the living room differently. Sigh.

As for Hartley, she's learning a lot as well!

We've been working on discipline. Sometimes I see progress, other times I want to pull my hair out.

For instance, playing with the trash can. She plays in her walker in the kitchen and happens to be in reach of the lid. She goes for it every.time. Repeatedly. I've tried distracting. Marshall makes a loud sound on the walker tray to get her attention (that doesn't really work). I've popped her hand very lightly. She just smiles and waits for us to turn around and she goes back at it again!

first pair of jeans ($5.99 from Carters.com)

Marshall gives her baths, so he's responsible for making sure she stays seated in the tub. She continuously attempts to get out of the tub. Good luck, Marshall.

Yesterday Hartley started banging on her high chair tray. Usually this is okay, since she likes to bang on everything these days, but I was trying to feed her. I had to stop her, hold down her hand, and tell her not to at least 3 or 4 times. She made really good eye contact when I did this and was hesitant the next few times she wanted to. This morning she tried it again, but I gave her the look and she acted as if she was going to start banging, but she didn't. So we're making a little progress there!

Teething. 'Nough said.

I know Hartley isn't a terrible, unruly child- I just want to nip these things in the bud. I think if I would have disciplined her when she started squirming/playing during nursing, I would have saved myself a lot of frustration.

But that's life and motherhood, learn as you go. I have already learned a lot more than the books say. Ya know, maybe I should write my own book!

Nah.

Anyway. Hartley and I went browsing for a new sleeper sofa today.

Vanna, I mean Hartley, showing us a pretty green sofa!

The Winner!! (so far)

Momma told me about this amazing new air mattress for sleeper sofas. Amazing! It looks like a regular sofa mattress, inflates in less than a minute easily, deflates as quickly. And it's MUCH more comfortable than those 3 inch regular mattresses. It even has springs inside it!

So the potential new couch ($$) is taupe, tweed-like, and perfect to dress up or down! I used my Costa Rican bargaining skillz and got a small discount.

That was me being sarcastic.

But I did mention our budget was a little less than the couch and the saleswoman offered a lower price. And no interest financing for 12 months. Hello!

So stayed tuned as we beautify our living room! And learn from our mistakes.

creepy photos

I go through our picture albums every once in a while.. just to browse..

And I get a little weirded out..

I still don't know what this is..

But this one just cracks me up.