My Baby is 6 Months Old!

Six months ago my life was changed forever!  My sweet Hadassah Anne entered the world just after 11am on March 28th of this year.  I cannot believe she is already six months old.  

She remains one of the most mellow babies I've ever known and continues to just delight us to pieces.  She is crawling, sitting well when propped and almost pulling herself up to sitting.  She has cut her two bottom teeth in the last month and thankfully wasn't bothered too terribly by the event!

She is a pretty good napper and was sleeping through the night until recently, which is one reason that we have started...

...eating!  

Last night she ate food for the first time and had more tonight.  She seems to really love it and chowed down!  Hopefully she won't have need for that extra night-time feeding anymore.

 Haddie had her well-check today and is healthy and growing! 

 She is 15 lbs, 3 oz and 26 1/4 in. long.

She is average or slightly above for height and weight.

 She LOVED chewing on the tape measure the nurse gave her. 

 She didn't love her two shots so much, but recovered quickly!

Look how she has grown!

Six Months

Four Months

One Month    

And the crazies who insisted on a picture with Pooh too!  :)

Fall is upon us

A fun part of homeschooling is the times we get to deviate from "classroom" work, and just have some craft fun!  Last night we stopped at our local produce market and the kids got to choose a small pumpkin.    Sophia chose a "warty" one, while Riley chose a smooth one.

Time to paint them!

 Sophia LOVES painting and was begging to get to this all morning!

 She kept herself nice and neat and produced a very colorful pumpkin!

 Riley on the other hand...

Well, he started out neat enough.

 And was definitely enjoying himself.

 Then, once his pumpkin was mostly covered he started amusing himself by covering the table and himself with paint. :)

 I actually didn't get a picture b/c I was dealing with the mess,

 But, he was a MESS!  His face, hair, stomach, both hands, tongue (yes, he thinks it is his job to taste test all craft products)...  But, he had fun, and that is what matters!  Right?  ;)

 I took these 3 little pumpkins and painted each of my little pumpkins first initial on them.

Clearly, I won't be opening an Etsy shop anytime soon...

but, I still had fun painting with Soph and Riley!

The Face in the Window

IMAGINE: hubby is out for the evening, due back around 11pm.  

IMAGINE:  wife misplaces phone somewhere in the house, but since it took till about 10pm for all the kiddos to FINALLY get to sleep, she gives up looking for it, feeling bad b/c she figures hubby has tried calling.  
IMAGINE: wife is finally gathering herself to get in bed around 11pm, grabbing a glass of water from the kitchen.  
IMAGINE: wife turns the corner and in the open window in front of her is the Face of a Man- probably a murderer.

Wife screams.  

Hubby (who turns out to be the Face of the Man) begins to profusely apologize saying he knocked but door was locked and he was worried b/c she wasn't answering his calls...

Wife is shaking as she opens the door (that happens to NOT be locked, ahem) to greet The Face in the Window, I mean, her hubby...

All live happily ever after, except wife may never be the same since one of her worst nightmares came true except in her nightmare the Face in the Window was NOT her Hubby!!!!   

:)  She still loves him though, especially since he found her phone.  :)

You too can make these - and you should!!!

Grab an oreo

Dip it in chocolate chips that were melted in the microwave

Using a spoon, coat with the chocolatey goodness

Lift out of chocolate with a large fork

Let excess chocolate drip off

Place chocolate covered oreo on wax paper lined cookie sheet

Here's where the fun begins!  Add sprinkles!  The possibilities are endless!

You can match any season, holiday, themed party, etc!!!

I made these for Jamie to take to a work birthday party tomorrow.

The party is Mexican themed, so I thought these sprinkles said,

"Fiesta!"

:)

Gaze at their beauty and imagine eating the whole sheet full one

Place in the fridge so they can set up.  Hmmm, what's this?  Extra melted chocolate??

The mind reels. What to do, what to do?

Any ideas??  ;)

[don't worry, i got in on the bowl licking goodness too!]

Video

So, I shot this video of the kids last week, September 7th.  Haddie was giggling like crazy and so I was trying to capture that.  Of course once I turned on the video she wouldn't do it much.  :)  I especially love how the video ends with Riley accosting me by throwing food at me and then tackling me.  Such is a moment in the day of the life of Ruthie...

A Funny Tale

So, one week ago, today, Jamie started a new job.  He was working at the Depot of Home, but the hours were inconsistent and were beginning to leave huge gaps in our finances.  This new job provides much better and, for the first time in our 7+ years as a married couple, is a M-F, 8:30a-5:30p job.  Jamie has always had jobs with wonky, ever-changing schedules, often having to work evenings, weekends and holidays.  This job requires none of that and we are so thankful!!!!

At any rate, Jamie is working as an Administrative Assistant on a team of Admins, all of which happen to be women.  As it happens - and this will become important in a second, all the HR folks are female too.

One of the Admins is getting married later this month and yesterday all the Admins and HR folks threw her a bridal shower - yes, you've put it together- all women, except for Jamie...  They invited Jamie to come, and being new and all, Jamie didn't have a good feel for if they were just trying to be nice or if he was more or less expected to join them.  So, he erred on the side of caution and joined them for the bridal shower.  :)

 The best part is yet to come.

Jamie calls to let me know that the party was considered their lunch break so he wouldn't be coming home until the end of the day.  Then, he lets me know that at The Bridal Shower he just attended, he was the winner of the "Guess The Kitchen Utensil" game.  A bunch of utensils were in a bag and without looking one had to feel and guess.  Yep, all those women and Jamie was the winner!  He even won some chocolate and lovely stationary for his win!  :)

Suffice it to say, Day 1 of Week 2 of New Job was different than expected!

jumperoo and garage sales

This adorable little 2 year old, who is starting to pose for pictures and gives the cutest crooked smiles now when asked to... 

...has been managing to get himself into...

... his baby sister's jumperoo!  

He jumps for a bit, happy and gleeful, then realizes he is "Stuck.  MOM!  Stuck!"

 and I help pull him out.

This sweet faced five month old fits in the jumperoo just fine!

She loves chillin' in here, jumping away, playing with the toys, chewing on the top of the seat.

She is big stuff around here, what with having her first tooth as of about 10 days ago, trying very hard to sit up and she's also almost crawling!

My sweet school girl has discovered garage sales this summer!  Our neighbors had a sale for three days last week, and you can bet she went shopping every day!  She was so sweet to find things for her siblings too.

She got Riley this bird and he readily gave it a hug for a picture!

My favorite snippet of conversation with Sophia this certain day:
Me:  So, how much did you spend for all of your treasures?
Sophia:  $5!  Well, it wasn't really only $5 but she gave me a deal...   (cocks head and in the sweetest most grown up voice) since we're neighbors.  :)

[and indeed, I later found out when I went over to say hi to my neighbor, that Sophia was receiving the 50% off "neighbor discount!" (:  ]

The Home School

Sophia's new desk area

The organization of school supplies

 ( I am loving clear glass containers lately!  All of the jars I simply washed out after we'd consumed their contents.  The square ones with lids were in my kitchen - but I didn't ever use them - so, they've found a new home!)

To the right of Sophia's desk area we added some shelves for more storage.  I keep all my Instructor's Guides here, other school supplies that are not for little hands, and my sewing machine and notions.

A view of that whole side of the room.  Don't mind the boxes.  :)  We're still working on putting the rest of the room together.  Across from this wall is a love seat and the wall to the left of this picture will be a desk for Jamie and me.

The pink desk with the very coordinated student!  :)  My BIL scored this free, about to be pitched, school desk.  He and my sis painted it just the perfect color for Sophia!  She loves it!!!  And, it fits her perfectly, which is such a blessing!

***

So, you can probably put two and two together and guess that we are joining the ranks of home schoolers this year.  Though, really, aside from purchasing a legit curriculum and setting aside certain hours of the day to do our learnin', this home school scenario is not much different from what we've always done.  Sophia has always done most of her learning at home, and we really love that!  

In assessing her proficiency with different subjects this summer I realized she would be a mixture of Kindergarten and 1st grade this school year.  She is doing 1st grade math and Language Arts/Reading while doing Kindergarten History/Geography and Science.  

Today was our first official day and it went really well!

Sophia seemed to really enjoy the curriculum (minus the copy work, possibly...  just saying) and did so well!  I am really glad I ordered the 1st grade stuff for reading and math b/c it is right on.

I can't believe my baby girl is old enough for "real" school, but she is and I am loving being such an active participant in her learning!