New pictures up

Nate uploaded two months worth of pictures at our gallery. Both August and September 2007 are up and boy are there a lot of them. Whoever said that you don't take as many pictures of your second child as you do your first apparently hasn't met me yet. I tend to go a little crazy with the picture taking. But who can blame me when I have such cute kids. :)

Sorry for needing to know the username and password. I am happy to give it out again to those who have forgotten it or to give it to those who need it for the first time (as long as I know you). Leave me a comment or send me an email and I'll get it out to you.

And on a side note, we get to see the house tomorrow if we can get going to our SEND appointment early enough. The inside too. We'll bring the camera and hope to have pictures soon!

She laughs and pics of the girls

At bath time* tonight Becca and I were playing with Ally before I put her in her tub, tickling her belly and trying her make her smile. When I tickled Ally's neck I swear I heard some giggles from her. It was so cute and we tried to do it again for Daddy, but no dice.

You know you're concentrating when you have to stick your tongue out.

Couldn't resist a picture of Becca...and our other guest at dinner tonight.

Sisters...aren't Becca's pigtails (or tail since you can only see one) cute?

A smile

I had Ally playing propped on the couch with the Boppy pillow the other day and finally caught a smile on camera.

I don't think it does justice to real life, but it's hard to catch them right now. My favorite is when I'm nursing her in the evening. She starts nursing, falls asleep, wakes up awhile later and is all wide-eyes and smiles for about 10 minutes, then she nurses some more and falls asleep. It's so sweet. (By the way, that all takes place over the course of about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. :)--she likes her cuddle/nursing time).

Yard stick shelf and Scrabble wall message board

I went on Craftster tonight while nursing Ally to see if I could find some ideas for making curtains for our new house. Of course, I didn't find anything I was actually looking for, but I did find these two crafts:

Yard stick shelf--A very simple, inexpensive, easy to put up shelf that could hold pictures or very small, light objects.

Scrabble Wall Art/Message Board--This is just too cool. I don't know if I'd ever do something this big, but if I could find some random Scrabble pieces, it might be a cool thing to have in the kitchen. Maybe even use them on the fridge.

Window coverings

This is one of the things on my mind lately. I'd really like to make all the window coverings for our new house. I know that will take awhile and that I really don't have much time to do such a thing. Plus, I don't want to make them until I know how I want to decorate each room. So I think many of the windows will be sporting sheets or towels for awhile.

Here is one link for a tutorial for some simple, but nice looking, fabric shades. I think that's something I'd like to have in at least the bedrooms. Anyone have any other suggestions or links for making your own window coverings?

Okay...

You could spend a lot of time on Facebook.

A lot of time that I don't have.

I caved in

And joined Facebook. I feel kind of like I'm in college again for some reasons. Maybe because Facebook feels like such a social like thing to do and I haven't really done that sort of things since college, and especially not lately. I hope I don't sound like I'm complaining....cause I wouldn't give up my two beautiful little girls for all the Friday nights out in the world.

So, if I haven't added you as a friend yet, let me know. Come help me have a social life! ;)

Slingin' It

I'm addicted to my baby carriers right now. Today, I wore three out of the four that I own. I never thought I'd own more than two, but here I am. I actually had two more, but I passed them on to others before purchasing my two most recent ones. I am happy to say that all of mine are a bit different, so I have a justification for each one.

Ergo--This is my favorite baby carrier ever for children older than four months (though, I use it with Ally right now even without the infant insert and she is only 11 weeks old). It places most of the weight on my hips. I like it for long walks and used it today to take Ally with me while I watched Becca play at the playground with friends. Ally fell asleep almost instantly when I put her in it today.

Moby--My most recent purchase, the Moby Wrap is a great buy--$35 plus shipping. I usually use it at least twice a day. It is a lot of fabric, but after three or four tries, you can get it on in just a little more time than a pouch. I like it because Ally can lay against me, it's cotton and breathable, and I can cover up her little head and arms almost completely to shield her from light and cold. Ally often falls asleep quickly in this too and will usually sleep for a long time. She also likes to look up at me and smile before she gets really sleepy. As for comfort, I can spread out the fabric, so it doesn't dig into my shoulders and back. It's quite a comfortable wrap. She slept in it once today.

Hotsling--This one is my favorite hip wearing pouch. I used it with Becca at the store once she could ride in the hip carry position. It's small enough to fit in a purse or diaper bag. I don't think it's that comfortable for using with a baby that can't be carried on your hip. The KKAFP is much more cozy for that purpose.

Kangaroo Korner Adjustable Fleece Pouch--This is my sling I use at church and when I need to quick toss her in something while I make a meal. The material is soft and cozy and comfortable across my back and shoulder. It took me a little while to get used to putting her into it, but she does well in the cradle hold right now. I used it while helping my friend Jamie make lunch (we had friends come by for lunch) and to help Ally take a little cat nap before feeding her for the last time before bed. She sometimes makes a fuss when I first put her in, but quickly calms down and eventually falls asleep.

Ally with her pre-sleeping stare in the KKAFP

Alexandra Grace's Baptism

"For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,
for my hope is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my salvation and my glory;
my mighty rock, my refuge is God."--Psalm 62:5-7

Ally was baptized this past Sunday, October the 14th. Above is the passage we choose for her baptism. We will use this passage to pray for her and if you are praying for her too as she grows in her faith and her understanding of what a means to be a citizen of God's kingdom and a follower of Jesus, we invite you also to use this in your prayers.

We chose the passage based on the meaning of her name--"defender of mankind". We thought this passage strongly conveyed that God in Christ is the ultimate defender of his people. We pray that for all her life, Ally may look to Christ to stand in her defense and would also be his ambassador to those around her.

Two of Ally's great-grandmothers and my parents joined with our spiritual family at Redeemer to witness this special day on which the sign and seal of baptism was placed on our covenant child. We pray that she would show herself to be a covenant keeper and experience all the blessings that we receive through Christ our Savior.

With Ally's great-grandma--Beppa (my mom's mom)

With Ally's other great-grandma--Gramie (my dad's mom)

Another attempt at a family photo

Finished

I just finally finished Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, the multiple biography on Abraham Lincoln and his cabinet. If you are at all interested in Lincoln, or even if you aren't, I highly recommend this book. It's quite long, but so interesting and written in a way that it's more of a story. If I had been presented with good biographies like this on in history classes instead of boring textbooks, I might have found history to be a more captivating subject.

Okay, I just love this photo. It captures her long eyelashes perfectly.

Alexandra Grace--10 weeks old

edited to add pictures
House update-getting closer

We ended up stopping by the house after church this past Sunday since my parents and both of my grandmas were in town for Alexandra's baptism.

They made a retaining wall of sorts using railway type logs or whatever you call them. And the front steps are done. We though that they were going to put in a cement retaining wall, but we think we are happier with this because if we ever decide to replace it with bricks, it will be somewhat easier to remove than the cement would have been. You just have to picture it with nice green grass and some planters up by the house.
Many of the lights are also up. There is a light on the ceiling of the porch and a motion sensor light by the back door. From what we could see through the windows, most of the indoor lights are up too. We picked them out, and it looks like the guy we were working with made a few changes, but we think they are for the better (we had asked him to make changes and give us advice on what would look best). I'm hoping to get there sometime in the next two weeks during the week to get inside.

Front porch with new porch light on ceiling

View through back door window into kitchen--notice the new floors


View through window into living room (or dining room, depending on how we decide to use the room). Straight ahead are the stairs to the second floor and a little alcove at the bottom. Also the hallway to the bathroom and another room (either a bedroom or our living room).

The pictures don't show the wall color all too well. It's a little more sand colored than it looks.

As you can see (maybe) in the pictures, the hard floors have all been put in and the walls are painted too. It's looking so nice!

Ally cooing

Here's a promised video for y'all. Ally's cooing and moving around a little bit in it. Not much, but it's the best I could get right now. Enjoy. :)


Ally is 2 months and 4 days old in this video.

2 months old

Ally is just a little over 2 months old now. She is delighting us with her bright smiles (which I have yet to catch on camera) and her increased verbal communication (a.k.a. cooing...more than just crying). I love watching her preparing to "say" something to us. She gets this certain look on her face and puts so much effort into the smallest sound. It's cute.

Ally likes to suck on her fist for comfort. She does so during the night, I think, and often when she is in the Moby Wrap just before falling asleep. Most nights, she can go from 5-7 hours without eating. She's done this on her own, mostly. She is still sleeping in bed with us, between me and a guardrail. And she sleeps on her tummy most of the time.

We're on round two of colds around here. It sure is different having two kids to pass sicknesses back and forth. It hasn't affected her eating yet, and is affecting her sleep a little bit. I slept with her in a chair for part of the night on Sunday in order to keep her nose draining.

Naps have been tricky. With Becca around too, it's been hard to get and keep her down for naps. She takes the best naps in the sling and that's just how we do things for now. Sometimes I try to rock her to sleep and lay her on the bed in the morning, but she doesn't sleep for more than a half an hour that way. I figure it will get easier once she is down to two naps a day and has established a little better routine...I hope it will, at least.

At her doctor's appt. today, Ally weighed 11 pounds and 9-10 ounces. She was 23 inches long. 75th percentile for each. We also noted that she has started tracking things and will turn her head to look at us or a book. She's not that interested yet in holding a ring or rattle. Sometimes she'll reach for things, but not too often. She mostly prefers to look at our faces and hear our voices. She likes to hear Becca talk to her and smiles at Becca.

More Books

I added three more books read to my list: Harry Potter books 4, 5, and 6. I'm rereading them all with the new perspective of the last one in mind, and now I'll finish it off by reading that one too.

A friend wondered how I find time to read with Becca and Ally around. I forgot to mention that I don't watch TV, and I think that makes a big difference in the amount of time I have to read. We don't have cable, and the few fuzzy channels we do have don't tempt me. Our TV is in our room where we occasionally use it to watch one of the two Netflix movies we get a month, though, we have more frequently been watching those on the computer in the living room.

I don't have anything against TV in general, nor against people who watch it. I just think my time is better spent in other ways. I have found that when I do have access to many channels, I am drawn in way too often and for too long. I have a hard time tearing myself away from it and so does Nate.

New Video

Over at Becca's blog. I'll get one up that includes Ally too in a little while.