Hello Again

Well, it's been awhile. But we've been getting into the holiday season in full force. I'll try to back track and let everyone know what's been going on since the last post. With pictures, as usual, to tell the story. We'll start back at the week of Thanksgiving...

As in the tradition of our family, we went in search of the perfect Christmas tree. We drove for miles through the mountains, searched through the wilderness, climbed the highest peaks, and finally arrived at a Christmas tree farm in a remote location, not known to many people, known as...

Lailey rode along in the Baby Bjorn carrier, which she loves. She's definitely getting heavier now though. Not quite as easy any more. Here she is feeling a little tree.
Thanks to the help of the local wilderness experts, we sawed and chopped for only 2 hours and ended up with this beauty.
We then loaded the freshly cut (ha!) tree onto our dog sled, er....snowmobile...okay, CAR, and headed the 1.5 miles home. :) (I like the adventurous version better.)
We celebrated Thanksgiving several times over the course of a week, ate lots of great food, and enjoyed time with all our family. Here's a picture of Davey, Lailey, Grandpa Jim, me, Amy, and Tim at my aunt and uncle's house.

It's a Lailey sandwich! (her shirt, which I accidentally covered with my thumb, says "Good things come in small packages.")

Playing a round of peek-a-boo around Daddy always gets her giggling.

Here is Lailey's funny face. For a week or two she would do this whenever she liked something or got excited. She hasn't been doing it as much lately, but hopefully it will come back because it makes me laugh every time. Goofy kid. She takes after her Daddy in that area of course.

Lailey and Rudy are becoming better buddies now that she's more curious and interactive with him. I keep my eye out for pulled ears and fur, but he's pretty patient with her and just moves away if she bugs him. This was so cute, because she kept reaching for his paw, and he'd move it and try to lick her hand. Then she'd reach toward it and he'd move it again and try to lick her again. It was like they were playing a little game. I think the licking won out. He's too quick.

Lailey is now 8 months old. In this picture, she was saying, "Hmmm, I'm 8 months old now. Shall I use my powers of cuteness for good or evil?" She is sweet as she can be, of course.

We still thank the Lord often for good health, even through this nasty cold and flu season that has people out of work and school all the time. A little bit of a runny nose for a couple of days has been the worst of it, and for that we are truly thankful. She is not quite crawling, though she's getting up on all fours and rocking a good bit. She still scoots backwards, and it still annoys her that she tries to go toward an object but ends up getting farther away. I know it's mean, but I think it's hilarious. She'll be all over the place soon enough, so I can laugh. She wants to pull up on the couch, and can do so much more easily now when sitting on my legs. In the last week I've given her some Little Puffs and Cheerios to try to pick up and eat. She'll sit in her high chair and concentrate for 10-15 min. on picking them up. It's amazing, and it lets me get dinner finished. She's gotten a few in her mouth using her index finger and thumb, but mostly they end up in the palm of her hand and then she attempts to eat her whole fist. It's darling. I love to watch her learn. She's still a great eater and hasn't really refused anything I've given her. She's eating more fruits now along with a bunch of veggies. I made acorn squash this week and she's been doing pretty well with that. The texture was a little weird for her at first, but she kept eating. As far as homemade veggies go, I've now made peas, green beans, avocado (no cooking, just cut open and "smoosh it real good"), carrots, peas/carrots together, broccoli, sweet potatoes, and acorn squash. For the fruits, she likes applesauce and bananas, and for the others I've been buying baby food because not as many things are in season right now. She's eaten pears, peaches, prunes, and mangos. I also gave her some YoBaby yogurt and she loves that too. Different sources say different things as to when to give a baby yogurt (since it's dairy), but I decided to give it to her anyway and she hasn't reacted to it in the slightest. I tried it and it's yummy and not too sweet. Fine with me.

This is my favorite recent picture of Lailey. She was all dressed up ready to see Santa at The Bass Pro Shop. Sounds like an odd place to get Santa pictures, but it was free for a 4x6 photo. I like free! Then to download the file it was only a couple of dollars (thanks Grammy and Granddaddy!). We'll probably be heading there every year.

Isn't he a cute Santa?

Here are two videos of Lailey. The first is of her crinkle face. The second one is of her in a Jumperoo. Thank you to our dear friends who so graciously let us borrow it. It is getting lots of love and good use as you can see. We love you guys!