Buckle Up, Please. The Roads Are No Longer Safe

I was taking some pics off of my point-and-shoot camera (FINALLY), and found some funny videos of Nora "driving" a jeep that my in-laws bought for her a month or so ago. They found this little car on Craig's List, spruced it up, decorated it with a few girly stickers, and surprised Nora with her very own ride. Although, Liam will probably be behind the wheel much more than her, especially with this girl's awful driving skills!

This is when Nora first sees the car and tried driving it for the first time:


This is a bit later when we took her outside to give it a try:


This little girl is adored by her grandparents! And she adores them in return! We love you Granna and Geegaw

I'm A Bad Blogger......BUT, I Think You Might Forgive Me

.....after you see this!

We are leaving New Orleans first thing this morning. I have wanted to sit down so many times to blog about our two week visit down here. In fact, I did sit down and write half of an entry before getting called away to care for one of the kiddos. I'll just say that this trip has been super fun, super sanctifying, and super busy! We have had a wonderful time. I SO love my family.

I have much to write about which I will do once we get settled down back at home, but until then.....

Are you ready?

Are you sure?

You might want to take a seat for this one.




Just to fill you in. This is a video we did for my sister Emily who lives in NYC. She couldn't be with us on Thanksgiving, so we gave her a little shoutout! This is me, my Momma, and my baby sister, Hillary....oh, with Nora in the background some.

P.S. We call her Connie because that is what my grandmother called her by accident one year at Thanksgiving. We don't know a Connie. Too funny!

P.P.S. Emily is a "pesca-tarian" which is a vegetarian that eats seafood. That's what I am talking about at the beginning.

Have I mentioned that I LOVE my family!?

Liam Piper: 6 Month Stats

Where to begin? Where to begin?

We have had so much going on and many things I would like to blog about, but time is escaping me in the midst of the busyness of this week! We had some sickness last week (Liam with congestion and Nora with a double ear infection), but we are definitely on the up and up. We had family pictures with THE Lillian Prince over the weekend. So much fun. And, I am currently planning out my plans to plan to pack (confused yet?) for our TWO WEEK TRIP TO NEW ORLEANS! I am so excited that we will be going home for a two week trip to visit with my family and friends. We leave in just two days!!!! YEAH!

Anyway, more on that to come. Right now, I want to give you the latest news of my growing little buddy man, Liam. We went to his 6-month check-up yesterday and here are his stats:

Weight: 18 lbs., 2 oz. (60th percentile)
Height: 26 3/4 inches (70th percentile)
Head Circumference: 17 7/8 inches(?) (anyway, 75th percentile)

We have a big ole boy on our hands. He is currently the size that Nora was at one year old. And, have I mentioned, that this boy is a MANIAC? He is so out of control, and we are loving every minute of it. He is a mover, and this is a whole new world to us. As you know, Nora is our cautious, careful, slow to do anything little girl. Liam is rolling everywhere, determined to get to whatever it is at the moment, just into it all (and he is not even crawling yet!) Yikes! I know things will be pretty hairy once he figures that out.

He is of the sweetest disposition and just loves to smile, coo, and be cuddled. He gives kisses all the time. He has his two central lower teeth, and Dr. G. said that his four top teeth are all trying to come down, so we should have a REALLY fun next few months with that happening (ahem, sarcasm). As I mentioned, he has been congested this past week, but things are getting better.

Liam loves to eat. We have just recently added a third feeding of solids, so he now has a breakfast, lunch & dinner meal. He nurses every three hours still, with his first feeding usually around 8 am and his last around 8 pm, with the dreamfeed still occurring around 10:30 pm. I don't think he needs the late night dreamfeed anymore, but I am planning to wait until we get back from New Orleans to drop it. With the time change from DST and the time change we'll experience being down in Louisiana, I just want to help my little guy out as much as possible, so we'll make that feeding adjustment once we return and things settle down.

We are now at three naps a day....morning, midday, and afternoon. Depending on how his naps go, he MAY still take an early evening nap, but typically he doesn't. Bedtime is around 8:30 and he usually wakes between 7:45-8:00 am. I am blessed! We are sleeping through the night with the exception of him waking and stirring, losing the paci, which means I go in and pop in his mouth and sleepily return to bed.

Liam loves his Johnny Jump Up and the Exersaucer. He is easily entertained for a while in either of those, and he also loves to play on the floor with toys or just watching his big sissy girl in action. Oh, Liam can also sit up by himself with a little bit of assistance. He is not doing it for long periods yet, but he has the "tripod" down pat! After a while though, his big head gets the best of him and he starts leaning over unable to pull himself back up. We're going to get him on the P90x plan soon to strengthen his core! HAHA.

We love our little man and can't imagine life without him. I cannot believe he is already six months old. Breaks my heart!

Fresh Apple Pound Cake

My in-laws dropped of a brown grocery bag full of fresh apples from an apple orchard they visited last week. I have tons of apples so I was busy looking for some yummy apple recipes when I found this one on Tasty Kitchen. You know how I love The Pioneer Woman. Well, this is her new website where viewers can submit and find recipes. It's awesome!

This is called Fresh Apple Pound Cake. It's really yummy. Not very appley (is that a word). Not too coconutty. (Definitely not a word). Just really nice and light flavor. I really liked it!

FRESH APPLE POUND CAKE

Ingredients:
* 1 1/2 cups Vegetable Oil
* 2 cups Sugar
* 4 whole Eggs
* 3 cups Flour
* 1 teaspoon Salt
* 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
* 1 teaspoon Vanilla
* 1 cup Chopped Pecans
* 1 cup Coconut
* 3 cups Chopped Apples

Preparation Instructions

Mix the oil, sugar and eggs well. Add flour, salt, baking soda and vanilla. Mix until smooth and blended completely. Fold in pecans, coconut and apples.

Pour into a greased and floured tube pan. Bake for 1 hour at 275 F. Increase oven temperate to 300 F and bake for another ½ hour.

***I don't know if it's my oven or my bundt pan or what, but I ended cooking mine at 300 for an additional hour, not just thirty minutes. My recommendation is to check the cake with a knife and back until knife comes out clean.

When?

When did my girl grow up? I mean, I've been here with her every day. When did this happen?

When did she learn to put her shoes on all by herself? The socks may be crammed all up in there, but the shoes are on!?

When did she get the ability to climb on the jungle gym all the way to the top and come down the slide without me standing behind her the entire time? I don't even have to catch her at the bottom of the slide. When?

When did she become good at feeding herself with a spoon and a fork?

When did she learn to pretend? When did she learn that Baby and Bear are more than just stuffed things that accompany her to bed, but are friends? Playmates?

When did she become so caring? So intuitive? When did she take it upon herself to comfort her baby brother and bring him toys to try to bring a smile to his sweet face?

When did she start telling us she loves us unsolicited? When did she start coming up behind me to hug my neck?

When did she go from hating when Jonathan and I hugged or kissed in front of her to watching and smiling at us as if she now gets it?

When did she become so smart? So manipulative? So darn funny?

When did she change from a baby to a girl?

When did she become so independent? Insisting that she can do it, without my help, even when she can't?

When will she stop surprising us? When will the amount of love and joy and pride she brings start to level off? Will it ever?

When will watching my little girl grow up become any easier?

Halloween 2009

We had a great time this past weekend celebrating Halloween with some friends! We had the Townsend crew over along with our neighbors, Matt, Anne, & Dillon Walworth. We just love our neighborhood and our neighbors, especially Matt and Anne. We frequently go for walks with them in the evenings through the neighborhood, and Nora and Dillon have become great buddies over the past year. So, we were so excited to celebrate Halloween with them.

We enjoyed a big pot of chili, the kids shared a pizza, and Amy made some delicious cake balls for dessert. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't as wonderful as we would have liked, and naturally, when we decided to go take the kids trick or treating, it was raining the hardest. Go figure. I think we actually ended up going to only three houses, but the kids didn't know the difference.

Dillon....get this.....was a garden gnome. It was the cutest costume! It came with pointed shoes and a beard and everything. Dillon didn't want anything to do with the beard, but he gladly sported the rest of the ensemble. I kinda think he looked like a Buddy the Elf replica or something. Absolutely adorable.

Layla came as Super Girl. She was decked out from head to toe! She's so fancy!

Nora was a ladybug. Pretty cute, and she even had some spots on her face to finish off the look.

Liam, poor baby, was a red hot chile pepper. Of course, being the mother of the year that I am (please insert sarcastic tone here), I waited until the afternoon of Halloween to try on his costume. Amy let me borrow it, and I thought that it would definitely fit. Um, no! My chunkerboy was way too long for the costume, but if I tried really hard...which I did....I could make it fit. He looked more like a stuffed pepper! He was so great about it, though. So Liam. He just kinda laid there like, "Okay, Mom, let's just get this over with." We only left him in the costume for about 15 minutes, so he was a free bird before too long. Later on, he decided to try on Mr. Robert's wig.

Oh, and Robert. Well, I will just let you look at the pictures. I am sorry. There are no words.
















As always, we had a wonderful time with our friends! We are so blessed!