6 months

Oh, sweet Emma girl, how are you already half a year old? I still can't get over how much you've grown and changed in just 6 months. It's a good thing you're cute because you still haven't grown into the whole sleeping-through-the-night thing. I really had no clue I could function (barely!) on such a short amount of sleep. You sure do make up for it with squeals and giggles and big grins all day long.


You got to spend some time with Nana, Aunt Kates, and Jackson this month. Jackson sure taught you everything he knows (being 3 1/2 weeks older and all) because as soon as he left you started grabbing everything in sight and sitting up all by yourself. Nothing is out of your reach anymore. If you want it, you are going to get it.

At 6 months, Emma:

~you drool all.the.time
~you roll over and scoot all around
~you are starting to hold and play with your toys
~you can sit up
~you love to eat (so far: rice cereal, apples, peas, and squash)
~you can scream at the top of your lungs to show that you are happy or upset, although you usually do this when you are happy!
~you go to sleep between 7:30 and 8:00 every night
~you usually wake up 3 or 4 times during the night
~you like the swing at the park
~you don't have any teeth yet
~you adore Mason

And he adores you. When he saw us taking pictures of you, he went and got cow and giraffe so they could all get in on the action. The best part was when he said, "smile at the camera, cow."

We love you so much Emma. You definitely make our days (and nights) more exciting. It is such a joy to watch you and Mason interacting together. We are so very blessed.
xoxo,

mommy

off to work

"I'm workin' mama!" I hear those words coming from Mason's mouth all day long. Especially when I ask him to do something that he doesn't want to do. "I can't...I'm workin' mama!"

This is his latest working attire. Everytime he puts the safety glasses on he says "just like daddy." I'm not sure when he actually saw daddy wearing safety glasses, but I believe him. The kid has a crazy memory.

He stopped working on his giraffe bike so I could take a few pictures. And this is what happens when I ask him to show me his teeth. (Which he calls T by the way. As in I need to go brush my T).

the cleanest baseboards

I went to sleep last night thinking about the major cleaning party that would be happening in my kitchen today.

After two weeks of canning 150 pounds of tomatoes and a full day of all things chicken (I cooked four whole chickens, canned 20 jars of chicken broth, and have 30 cups of cubed/shredded chicken in my freezer) you could say that my kitchen needed a little love.

Well, after the worst night of sleep ever (thank you emma and mason) I jumped right in ...after baked oatmeal and coffee of course. I cleaned everything from top to bottom. And then it happened...

right after I washed all the baseboards and door and window trim...

I came up with the brilliant idea to give all that clean wood a fresh coat of paint. You know because it might be years before I got around to cleaning them again. Ha! It was like "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" on crack. I blame the lack of sleep.

In other news:

a) I found my camera
b) Mason told me this morning to "use my words"
c)we dug up pounds and pounds of potatoes
and
d) Emma girl has started sitting up. It's a much better view all the way up there.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Did anyone else's to-do list get a little out of hand?

splash

Just a little bathtime fun!

little bits

Little bits of life from this week:

My mom, sister and nephew came to visit last weekend. We had a blast together.

My sister and I passed each other in the darkness of the living room and kitchen during the wee hours of the morning taking care of babies who don't sleep through the night. They made up for it with smiles and giggles. And Jackson is quite the snuggler. My kids should take lessons. Mason was a complete goofball showing off for Aunt Kates and Nana.

We wanted tiramisu. We thought the extra coffee would help balance out the sleepless nights. The sugar too. Our super gourmet local grocery store (ha!) didn't have lady fingers. Don't worry, we made our own:) It turned out great. I may have had leftovers for breakfast the day after they left.

I tore the house apart looking for our other camera that has pictures of all three kiddos together on our little trip down to the family property (hello fall...the leaves are starting to change) and the football game. I have no idea where it is.

We attended a chicken plucking party and butchered 12 of our roosters (along with about 50 more that weren't ours). A friend and I ended up with 5 gallons of fresh milk that we gladly turned into fresh mozzarella.

Also, I signed my life away this week at school when I applied to the National Board Certification program. As if I don't have enough on my plate right now. It's a wonderful professional development program and our district offers many benefits for getting certified. It's also an insane amount of work (portfolio, video taping my teaching, taking a bunch of tests). It doesn't sound too overwhelming until I talk to other teachers who have gone through the process and hear that no one in our district (that I know of) has passed the test the first time around.

We are working our way through 150 pounds of tomatoes. Crazytown.

Emma is chowing down on the rice cereal.

And Mason has a new bedtime routine that involves reading stories to Emma. Love it!

today's harvest

Well actually it was yesterday's harvest, but I didn't have time to finish this post. Just a little something that we picked from the garden and greenhouse. We turned that cabbage into a wonderful cabbage and kielbasa crockpot meal. Rounded out with chipotle cheddar biscuts, dinner was simple and delicious. I'm still deciding what to do with those turnips, but I think it's going to involve sweet potatotes and chicken. Not pictured: the basil that we need to make into another batch of pesto and all the beets that are now sitting pickled, on the counter in pretty pint jars.

Also not pictured: the mess in my kitchen. Both kiddos seem to either be teething/ have allergies/ or there is a cold swarming around our house because the runny noses and watery eyes and trail of kleenex are never-ending. We'll see what today brings. Probably more snuggles, books, and warm baths. Probably not a clean kitchen:)