PHOTOS!

The sixth month shoot, Disneyland on Christmas Eve, Christmas morning with PAPER!, and new toys!

I am 6 Months Old!

The paper says so!

"ZOMG! Is that paper?!??!!?"

A triumphant squeek is muffled behind a piece of paper...

"It's mine! All mine!"

"Darn. I think I got a paper cut when Daddy took away the
paper."

"I'll smile anyway, the show must go on!"

---

"Come here Lucy, this won't hurt a bit. Angus showed me
how."

"Darn it, another one got away."

---

"We are very advanced. Look at us stand. Don't you wish
your were hot like us?"

---

Christmas Eve at
Disneyland

With Mommy and Daddy at the front of Disneyland.

"Grandpa, don't you know that this is not my good
side?"

"Pop Pop and I have the same hair.

Mommy says that he is where my award winning dimples come
from."

In front of Pooh's honey pots

"This doesn't taste like Honey... or mommy."

"Pop Pop says the camera likes me."

Main Street on Christmas Eve

"Yes, these are my ears."

It says so on the back.

---

Christmas Morning

"It looked like this when I got here, I swear."

"ZOMG!!! Paper. Overload. Can. Not. Handle. The.
EXCITEMENT!!!"

---

Alton's New Teething
Toy

"Hmmm. Nobody's looking."

"It has a fuller flavor than my Pooh teething ring."

---

Mommy's New Toy

"Mommy's wearing me!"

"Mommy is wearing me in the rain, and I am holding the
umbrella."

My favorite toy from Christmas.

Alton and the Jumperooooooooooo

A Big thank you to Aunt Janice and the rest of the Ohio gang for the Toys R Us gift certificate. Mommy and Daddy put it to good use!

I miss my home being a haven!

So with the arrival of Christmas and half the contents of a Toys r Us now taking up residence in our living room, there are piles of stuff EVERYWHERE!
Not coincidentally, Travis and I have been squabbling more.
On top of that, Alton is sick with a virus that gave him a fever of 104. We went to the emergency room with that one.
Finally, he is cutting his first tooth as well which means he wakes up crying. Oh, and because of the teething and the fact that he is congested at night means that we have to drive him around for 1/2 an hour to get him to sleep and then Travis carries in his Britax Marathon car seat where he sleeps until he wakes up screaming. :( I have rocked him to sleep every night for the past three nights, but he always wakes up 45 minutes later. Poor baby.

I promise that soon I will post never before seen pictures of his 6 month photo session and Christmas morning.

Oh, and while the house is a mess, I am still reading my daily devotional and vacuuming at least the living room. So there is hope for me to return to my routine soon.

Happy day to all of my readers. :)

Making My Home a Haven I've lost track of which day

So I was super busy last week, so I did not stick to my new routine, but I did manage a quick pick-up everyday so that the living room stayed nice. Today's task was to clean bedrooms and I did. Alton is asleep, or I would take and post after photos.

One of the babies from my Playgroup board died. The mom hasn't said specifically how she died, but from what we can piece together, her daughter had to be sedated for an MRI, and even though she came out of anesthesia, she died at home later that day. I have heard that is something to look out for when someone so young is sedated. It freaks me out and the board has been pretty much deserted today, as if posting on the board is going to put our babies at danger as well. I did not know Tina in real life, but we are both nursing mothers and she was one of the first people I came to recognise on the board. I can not imagine losing your child and then having to wait for your milk to dry up. :(

Onto more cheery thoughts. I got my to do list done today:
Do two loads of laundry
Make Lunch for Travis
Vacuum living room, bedrooms, and office
Clean bedrooms
Returns and exchanges at Stride Rite and Gymboree
Fold all the clean laundry

We are having our home group over for a white elephant gift exchange and potluck. It should be a good time!

Making My Home a Haven Day 4

I thought I should clean my bathrooms today and guess what today's task is?

I will post photos later.

Today's to do list:
Pack Travis's lunch
Clean Up Kitchen Table
Clean up dining room table
LAUNDRY
Go to Target and return/exchange
Clean the bathrooms

Is anyone reading today?

Making My Home a Haven Day Three

Yesterday's task was tidy the laundry area.

Ours is is the garage, so it is hard to make it "pretty".

But it does look better than it did.

To do list (done)

Fold and put away diapers

Unload dishwasher and clean up breakfast dishes.

Pack Travis' lunch

Do Borders Cafe secret shop

Banking

Got it all done!

Making My Home a Haven Day Two

I did all my tasks for the day.

I did my morning routine, had a quiet time, did the task of the day, and did my to do list.
Today's to do list is as follows:

Pick up Travis's dry cleaning (The thing my husband asked me to do today)
Fold and assemble cloth diapers
Unload the dishwasher and dish rack
Tidy, dust and vacuum the living room (which was the task of the day)
Pack Diaper bag for Disneyland!

Everything is done and I was able to get it all done while Alton had his morning nap. :)

The before shots....

The Afters...

Making My Home a Haven

So today for the first time, Alton played quietly with his toys while I cleaned his room and closet. (Really his room is just a huge closet since his crib is still in our room.) I was able to sort through his outgrown clothes and tidy some things away. I was so excited that he was able to sit and play all by himself and I realized that I might be able to get things done around the house now. :)

Maggie, (the link to her blog is on the right) posted a link to a Christian woman's website that is trying to help women make their homes havens for their families. Since our house was generally in good shape pre-Alton, I was very happy to see a guide to return to my previous housekeeping standards. I miss coming home to a tidy house. Travis hasn't said anything and he is very helpful, but I know he misses coming home to a clean house with dinner started.

On the blog there are day by day challenges and though I am starting a few days behind everyone else, I am still starting. Day one's challenges were to spend time with the Lord and make a morning routine to-do list. I have been meaning to do this for quite some time, but never got around to it. Here is my list:

1. Wake up and pray.
2. Shower and dress.
3. Read my on-line devotional.
4. Breast Feed Alton
5. Make breakfast for my family
6. Eat Family breakfast and discuss plans for the day.

The final task for day one:
3. Do Something! (5 -15 minutes)Each day I'm going to be giving you a simple organizational task to complete in your home. And today we're going to start at the very beginning - a very good place to start!Put on an apron, light a candle, and turn on some uplifting music. Then go to your front door and pretend you are a first-time visitor to your home. Walk in and take a look around. What is your immediate impression of your home? Is it calm and clean or cluttered and chaotic? Take five to fifteen minutes to clean, de-clutter, and beautify your entry area. Do a quick pick up if there are items out of place, mop or vacuum the floor, shake the rug, spot clean the walls, and rearrange things.

I did clean up my entry hall. We had all the bins from the Christmas decor out and about and the coat tree was overflowing. I pruned the coat tree and as soon as Travis got home, we put the bins back out in the garage.

Is anyone reading? Feel free to post a comment or drop me an e-mail so I know. :)

A Boy and His Banana

Alton makes the funniest noises when he is hungry and eating.

I'm afraid he might hyperventilate some day!

Which Jane Austen Character are you?

Which Jane Austen Character are You? (For Females) Long Quiz!!! created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Marianne Dashwood Most girls can relate with Marianne on a more personal level than some of Austen's other characters. She represents the emotional longings and struggles that seem to attack and bless us at the same time. Loyal to a fault, passionate for experience and life, and a bit over-emotional, Marianne matures and grows (making her so beloved). Marianne Dashwood 88% Emma Woodhouse 81% Elizabeth Bennet 63% Charlotte Lucas 47% Lady Catherine 41% Jane Bennet 38% Elinor Dashwood 31%

New Alton Photos: UCLA Football and First Trip to the park

At the Rose Bowl

Sitting in his own seat

He looks so tiny in his seat

My handsome men

---

Alton's First Trip to the park

He loved the swing

walking the dogs that are not pictured

On the slide

GQ Baby

I just really like this one even though neither of them are
looking at me.

The end

Five Months Old!

Alton is five months old today!

So I thought I would take a picture of him smiling with this
sign, so that I would know exactly how old he is.

But the sign is made of paper.

And therefore,

must be

eaten and destroyed!

---

Today was a banner day for Alton. He decided he was ready for
solid food.

He stole my banana. He stole my banana and smiled while he was
eating it.

He has had a strong pincher grasp for weeks. He sits up well in his high chair, he's lost his tongue thrust, he has been showing interest in food for about a month, and he handles a spoon well.

So mommy and daddy decided to give him some pureed sweet
potatoes for his after milk dinner.

His first taste.

A little later.

He still loves the camera, even if sweet potatoes are weird.

By the end, he was feeding himself and doing an okay job at
it.

Looks like the practice with the spoon last week was not in
vain.

8 Random Things About My Kitchen

I have been tagged by Andrea to post 8
random things about my kitchen.

1. We have the loudest 70's lime green and yellow daisy wall paper. Shown here:

My mother in law swore when we moved in that she would change it and paint the kitchen whatever color I wanted, and that has not happened yet.

2. As you can see in this photo, I love Classic Pooh. I have towels, I have trivets, I even had a cookie jar that looked just like the Pooh his nose in the honey pot trivet up above, but Travis broke it. Twice. Sadly, it is time for a new cookie jar.

3. I love all things Americana. I got the giant apple serving piece that is on the wall at Apple Farm in SLO. Once I have painted my kitchen the colors I want to, my kitchen will have an Americana theme.

4. We have two full sized refrigerators in our kitchen. Our house came with one and a family friend gave us their practically brand new one when they were moving. They gave it to us right before Thanksgiving, and because we had so much food and drink to store for Thanksgiving for 20 people, it came in handy. We keep them both plugged in because we need the freezer space for meat from Costco. Someday, I will just buy a separate freezer and let go of one of the
fridges. But for now we have our everyday fridge and the "entertaining" fridge.

5. We have a trash compactor. While this is not normally noteworthy, it is always a drama when he have Trav's family over because we keep the dogs' kibble in two small trashcans with a lid and our recycling in a trash can with a lid. Travis's uncle and cousin James have not learned in the two years that we have been living here that trash does not go into the recycling or dog food.

6. I have red appliances. Travis bought me a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer after I hounded him for years while we were dating. So when we got married, I registered for and received all of the matching appliances.

7. I am anal about my Tupperware storage. Everyone I know has a drawer with all of their ziplock containers just thrown in willy nilly. All of mine is neatly stacked with the corresponding lids stacked on top. I can always instantly grab the properly sized container for leftovers.

8. Travis and I are a toast eating people. We always have peanut butter and jelly toast with breakfast and we are never without at least three different types of spreadable fruit in the cupboard and fridge. We currently have Strawberry, boysenberry, raspberry, and blackberry jam in the cupboard.

I tag Maggie, Kayt, and Samantha to post about their kitchens.

Pumpkin Patch!

I never posted the pictures from the pumpkin patch.

I made a mistake when dressing Alton for the pumpkin patch. I wanted some uber cute photos of him smiling surrounded by pumpkins in his cute little Gymboree dachshund overalls. Well, said overalls came with a little stuffed dachshund for him him to chew on. So I ended up with pictures of Alton chewing the dachshund while surrounded by pumpkins.

Progress!

I actually started Alton's scrap book tonight. Maritza, Amber, Roxann, and Rebecca from home group came over and we scraped, scraped, scraped. I planned two sets of facing pages and actually committed to paper with adhesive one set of facing pages.

I am a hoarder. I buy pretty scrap booking paper and don't use it because if I use it, it will be gone. I know, I have an illness. But tonight I actually used some paper that I have been hoarding for years.

Anyway, I am quite pleased that I was able to get some pages done. Our current plan is to try to do it once a month and hopefully, Alton's birth will be documented before his first birthday.

Oh, my computer died. So Travis brings his laptop home every night and I only have Internet access when he is home. I am getting a lot more done around the house funnily enough.

And last but not least in the update, a confession. I have started working out and I leave my baby in gym child care. I know that takes away from my "hippie" mom status (with all of the breast feeding, cloth diapering, and organic food buying that I do.) But I need to work out, because I saw myself in the mirror and the news was not good. I have been doing yoga and pilates. Downward Dog is awful and don't even get me started on The Hundred. Someday it will stop hurting right?