Wheels

The wheels on my wagon have fallen off.  I feel like I've hit a whole new level of exhaustion.  I should be in bed at this moment.  Jon even insisted that I not even come down stairs to do the 10 minutes worth of work that I have to do.  I have the photos, well, most of them.  I will post them when I get the wheels back on and my head is above water again.  Does this post even make any sense???

Delay

We are visiting my parents, and the iPad is not doing my photos the justice they deserve. So, days 23-26 of the photo challenge and a Thanksgiving post will grace the blog on Sunday. Until then, have a blessed weekend.

Photo Challenge Day 22 - Seeing Patterns & Shapes

Photo Challenge Day 21 - A Bright Idea

I had SO MUCH FUN with this challenge today!  We started decking the halls around here yesterday, so all of the Christmas lights have slowly made it upstairs.  I saw an awesome idea on Pinterest, and had to give it a try.  I'm pretty happy with how these turned out.  It was fun to photograph the girls with the only light source as Christmas lights.  There is no way I could get these results with our old camera.  I put some of these in black and white, and I don't know what I like better.  Thoughts??

 

 

Photo Challenge Day 20 - Up!

My 6 month old must have know the photo assignment was Up! today.  She pulled herself up to a standing position in her crib!  I was totally shocked and had to do a double take as I was changing Cecilia.  Jon snapped a few photos of her, she was so proud.  I am so terrified.

This is a photo of our ceiling.  It is original to our 1956 house, and it is probably the thing I will miss most about this house when we move someday.  You would have to pay a fortune now a days to get your ceilings to be textured like this.  When we first moved in, Jon and I would lay on the floor and study the ceiling for what seemed like hours.

Photo Challenge Day 19 - 2 Make a Pair

My toddler is not very cooperative.  I had a brilliant idea of how I wanted today's (yesterday's) photo to turn out.  I wanted to do something "shoe" related in her room, but Cecilia did not share the same vision.  So, here's what I came up with.

 I love how she wears her "dardars" (some how that means glasses??) upside down.

Photo Challenge Day 18 - Your handwriting

This was difficult.  Mainly because I don't write anything by hand anymore.  I keep all of my lists on the iPad.  I type all correspondence via email, text, or FaceBook.  I did have one list to make though.  Next week we are headed to my folks for Thanksgiving.  It is no easy feat to load the car up with all our gear.  I usually make a list for these trips, especially when we are going to be gone for more than one night.  So, here is the start of it.  Many more items to be added, I'm sure.

Photo Challenge Day 17 - Mission: Purple

Photo Challenge Day 16 - Something from your bathroom

I painted this pot at dear old Deer Valley in 2002.  (You might remember the post about Deer Valley from my grandparent's 50th, if not, you can read all about the magic here.)  It has always resided in my bathroom, at every home I've had since then.  It holds the odds and ends that every bathroom has: finger nail clippers, zit cream, nail files, hair sheers, etc.  Most recently it has become home to the toilet paper because we have a certain someone (ahem, Cecilia) that likes to make toilet paper art. 

Lilly at Half a Year Old

She is getting SO big.  She had her 6 month appointment yesterday.  Complete with four shots, poor baby!  She has grown one dimensionally.  She has only gained one pound since her four month check up, but she has grown 1.5 inches! 

Weight: 14 lbs.  40%

Height: 26 Inches  75%

She astounded the doctor by sitting pretty for several minutes and then cruising around the room crawling/army crawling.  Dr. Jill was stunned and picked her up as if to prevent her from being mobile.  HA!  Jill predicts that she'll be walking by 9 months.  My mom has said the same thing, and since Jon walked at 9 months, I wouldn't be shocked.

Last week I relaxed slightly with the dairy free.  I had a lunch with dairy, that I was unaware of until I had finished.  I also had a few cookies made with butter.  She started to get a slight rash all over her torso, but I tried to ignore it or blame it on something else.  We attempted a milk challenge with her on Sunday night.  She did fine and did not throw up.  However, that rash got way worse, and the doc said that it looked like eczema, which most likely is from the dairy.  boo!  Unfortunately this means that I have to continue dairy free till she is at least 9 months old.  This is going to make for some very difficult holiday celebrations for me.  Ah, the things we do for our kids. 

Since she is sitting up so well now, she has learned the art of splashing in the tub.  I think she's been watching her sister for the past 6 months, because she's a pro already.

Here's a fun little comparison.  Remember the look alike post for Cecilia at 6 months??  Here it is for Lilly.  You tell me who she looks like.  I think she is Jon's baby for sure.  I also did a side by side of Cecilia and Lilly at 6 months in the same spot in our house. The most noticeable difference is the hair.  It is starting to come in on Lilly.  You can't tell, but I swear it is!  They have the same beautiful brown eyes, but I think that's about it.  I LOVE THOSE GIRLS!! 

 

Photo Challenge Day 15 - Orange you glad...

Orange you glad that this little angel is 6 months old!?!?!?

So I'm cheating a little here.  I took this photo on Sunday, Lilly's 6 month birthday.  We don't have a lot of orange around here.  Pink?  Oh yes, lots of that, but orange, not so much.  I love this little outfit of her's.  I'm sad that she's just about out grown it.  That was probably the last time she will wear it.

Photo Challenge Day 14 - Something that means a lot to you.

I don't wear very much jewelry.  I used to, before I had another human attached to me for at least 50% of my day.  Little humans like to eat, pull, and break pretty jewelry, and watches tend to snag their thin skin in the process of picking them up and setting them down.  So, the only jewelry that I wear day in and day out are my wedding rings, and my baby rings.  These rings mean so much to me, for obvious reasons.  I've been wearing my wedding rings for over 7 years now, and my baby rings were added to my right hand for each of my girls' births.  The white gold one was for Cecilia, and the rose gold one was for Lilly. 

This was more difficult than I anticipated.  Rings are small in comparison to the rest of the world.  I feel like I did a decent job, but I know I could have captured them better with a macro lens.  I attempted a photo of my rings over 70 times.  That's more than any other day so far.  My favorite one is the one in the laundry basket (I like a little bling in my weekly mundane chores).

Photo Challenge Day 13 - Reflections on...

I took this photo this afternoon at my church.  There is a theme here.  The Baptismal font is reflecting both the crucifix and the large cross that hangs in the worship space.  As you enter this space, the way the font reflects back at you forces you to reflect on what your purpose is in that space.

Photo Challenge Day 12 - Wood You...

Photo Challenge Day 11 - What's Cooking?

A day late (I know!). 

However, yesterday I didn't really cook anything.  I reheated the homemade carrot soup and made egg salad sandwiches for lunch, and we went out to dinner to celebrate my brothers' graduation from Paramedic school.  Fortunately I took photos of the soup.  I also photographed the yummy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies that I made earlier in the week.  I also found a picture of the pumpkin seeds (pre-roasting) from before Halloween. 

Photo Challenge Day 10 - Power of Three

 The power of three wheels.

As only a two year old could dress.  I took this at about 4:00 this afternoon.  She had already put her pj's on and put her shoes on backward to play outside.  I love the colors! 

Photo Challenge Day 9 - Get Vertical

I didn't get the shot I really wanted to today.  It would have been the inside of the first picture.  I'll try to get it another day when I don't have two tired baby girls with me.  Still, the first image is of the outside of my church.  I particularly love the amazing deep blue sky.  The second image was my first attempt at a night photo.  I had to Photoshop it a bit to make the silhouette from the tree stand out, but it turned out pretty well.  Cecilia spotted the moon for me.  She's kind of obsessed with the sun and the moon right now.

Muffin on the Move

Lilly has gone from "perfectly content just lying around" to "motor-muffin" in about a week.  She has been sitting for just about a week now.  She is still a little wobbly and will occasionally do the face plant to swimmer position move still.  This week she has figured out how to army crawl/ scoot where ever she wants to go.  She's even starting to pull her knees up under her.  OH BOY, am I in trouble now!  Two mobile little people!  This is a whole new level of baby proofing and insanity.

She is such a happy baby!!  I know I keep saying this, but it is SO true.  She loves blowing raspberries lately.  When she does this, I have to call her my Raspberry Muffin.  She is so tactile.  She loves to touch and play with her hands.  I don't recall Cecilia doing this.  Lilly is very deliberate with hand placement and she loves to play in her saucer and intentionally make the toys move and the squeakers squeak.  In all the motoring she's been doing, she even found the little piano and was playing me a tune.

Here are some sweet pictures of her with me, her Daddy, her sister, her namesake, Ma, Pa, and with Ma and Aunt Jackie during tea time (not in that order).

I can't believe she is going to be 6 months old on Sunday!  Where has the time gone?