11 Months

Eleven months old. Where does the time go? Scotch turned 11 months old on Tuesday, and got to spend the day with Daddy, as that is his regular day off (since they cut him down to 4 days) and the regular sitters were not available. And, since I've got some nasty virus or something going on with my laptop, I'm just now getting online to post the regular monthly update. Hopefully things will be back in order soon so I can post some pics as well...

Anyway, at 11 months, Scotch is:
~ cautiously taking a few steps unassisted.
~ "singing" with us.
~ eating, eating, eating... new things this month included chili and, yes, french fries.
~ chewing with her 7 teeth, while working on at least one molar.
~ talking a lot - my favorite "new" word from her is "Bubba" (heh - brother).
~ waving, clapping, and shaking her head "no."
~ climbing.
~ rearranging the house. :) Really, one of her favorite activities is to push the coffee table across the living room. She'll pull up at one end of it, and just start pushing. She laughs and smiles the whole way - despite (or maybe because of) my protests. Then, when it won't move any farther because it has hit the carpet or a piece of furniture, she'll move to the other end and push it in another direction.

Again, sorry for no pics - I forgot the camera today. Hopefully I'll be around to post some Christmas pics at some point.

Catching up

I've been in a 'bit of a funk' the past couple of weeks, and it sucks. So, I haven't been blogging, despite this being a 'blog-worthy' time of year. At any rate, a few pics of what we've been up to...

Like last year, our city had a 'candle-lighting' ceremony downtown on Black Friday. It was a cold night, so we bundled up and headed downtown.

On the 5th, Mr. A. and I were able to get out for the night to attend the wedding ceremony of a friend. It was a nice night out, and we love December weddings. I got this shot quickly one evening. LK was 'reading' to Scotch, who was laughing hysterically at every noise he made. I like the picture - even though you can't see their faces.Because it was SO cold on the day that we had planned to go cut down our tree, Scotch and I stayed home while Mr. A. and LK went to find it and bring it home. Before leaving, I gave LK explicit instructions as to how big the tree should be - as tall as the windows, and no wider than his arms could reach. Uh, yeah... it is MUCH bigger than that. (pics of the actual tree coming in a later post)LK's Christmas concert for school was this week. He was SO excited to wear a tie for the concert, and again, did a great job singing a couple of songs with his class. We have a tradition of sorts, of stopping at Friendly's for dinner and ice cream after his concert, so this pic was taken there. I think it's one of my favorites of the 2 of them so far.

This, that, and the other thing

This past Wednesday, LK participated in a Thanksgiving chapel at his school. He did a GREAT job singing with his class. The pre-schoolers always get the best reactions because of the cute songs they sing and the motions that go along with them.

And, they LOVE chapel because they leave after many of the other classes have sung to have a party. LK really enjoyed his cupcake 'turkey.'

Our city high school has a traditional Thanksgiving morning football game against a 'rival' high school. Actually, the rival high school is one that they don't play during the regular season at all, as they are from NJ. And, these two teams have played on Thanksgiving for over 100 seasons... been on ESPN a couple of times, too. Anyway, the night before the game, there is always a huge bonfire. We park a bit away to see it, and this year's was quite impressive.

That next pic shows LK enjoying his favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal... canned cranberry sauce. Yummy!
Scotch preferred sweet potatoes and turkey, although she liked cranberry sauce, too.
Her favorite, however, was the pumpkin pie, which she decided wasn't coming quickly enough when we were feeding her.

The other thing I wanted to share in this post is a confession. You see, a particular part of our house is UGLY. It was ugly when we were looking at the house 4 years ago, and made worse by our dog. It is the 'mud room' and downstairs 1/2 bath. We call it "Obi's hole," as that is where Obi stays when we leave the house. When we first got him, he had pretty bad separation anxiety, and took it upon himself to destroy walls, floors, etc.

Well, I have good news... we are FINALLY working on making it look better! So, being brave, I wanted to share a few before pics. I'll update with in-progess and after pics as they are available. (Sadly, once we are done, Obi will have the nicest room in the house, as the only other rooms we've made any improvements in are the kids' rooms - and they only got paint. Sigh...)

Giving Thanks

As I sit here in my warm, cozy home, smelling the pumpkin pie in the oven, listening to LK's excitement over the balloons in the Macy's parade, I can't help but be thankful. So, I wanted to take a few minutes this morning to share just a few of the things I'm thankful for.


~ My family. Both the family I live with, and family living all across the country. I'm blessed to have a loving, supportive husband and 2 wonderful, beautiful children. I also have not one, not two, but four fabulous parents. And, many grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews, and in-laws.

~ Friends. Friends I've known for years, and friends I've never actually 'met.'

~ Jobs. Both Mr. A. and I are blessed to have stable jobs that we enjoy. While there are definitely days that we wish we were bringing in more money, our jobs are enough to provide for our needs.

~ Freedom. Special thanks to those men and women who have or are fighting and working to protect our freedoms. I also thank the families of those men and women for the sacrifices you make.

~ God's grace in providing all of these blessings, and SO much more!

Happy Thanksgiving to all (or both... whatever) of my blog readers! I know holidays are difficult for some of you, so I'm praying for ALL of you to have a restful, thankful, peaceful day of blessings.

Tagged

Deb over at Our Life - This and That has tagged me to do a 5 Things Meme. So, here goes...

5 Things Meme
5 things I was doing 10 years ago:
1~ going to college
2~ staying out way too late
3~ going to clubs in Philly
4~ driving my little white Hyundai
5~ working at my favorite internship – Head Start

5 things on my to-do list for today:
1~ get this blog post completed
2~ wash diapers
3~ do the dishes
4~ pick up toys
5~ make pies for tomorrow

5 snacks I love:
1~ ice cream
2~ Reese’s peanut butter cups
3~ chips and salsa
4~ crackers and cheese
5~ popcorn

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire:
1~ pay off debt
2~ kids’ college funds
3~ buy a vacation house
4~ season tickets to the Phillies and/or the Eagles
5~ give

5 jobs I’ve had: (I’ve had WAY more than 5…)
1~ All Pet Complex (kennel person and receptionist)
2~ retirement centers (dishes and patient care)
3~ retail (Warner Bros. Studio Store, Burlington Coat Factory, Pier 1)
4~ banking (teller)
5~ teaching (2 private learning centers, 2 Christian schools)

5 people I’m tagging:
1~ Shannon
2~ Kristin
3~ The Sandgroper
4~ Jill
5~ Shana

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like...

It's really not beginning to look like anything just yet. But, in the next week or so it will. Anyway, I decided to make a wreath again this year for our front door. I did it several years ago, using trimmings from our Christmas tree, but wanted to do something a bit different this time. I was reading various blogs yesterday, and ended up on one with directions for this fun-looking wreath made of Christmas ornaments. I tried to bookmark it, but lost it... so I'm going to share what I did without giving credit to the person who ultimately shared the process with me. Oops! :)Start by going to the dollar store and buying a whole lotta ornaments. I got around 70. In addition to the ornaments , get one package of wire edged ribbon. You'll also need a wire hanger.

Undo the hanger, and form the wire into a circle. Goofy helper not required. :) Although I did need help from Mr. A. in getting the top of the hanger unhooked. I broke the first one trying to unhook it.

Thread the ornaments on the hanger. We used a color pattern, and then tried to vary the size and design of the ornaments as we put them on. When you begin, it will look kind of sad and pathetic.

As you finish, and the hanger is full of ornaments, it will look more like this. Dollar store ornaments are quite cheap (duh!), so I had several fall off of the part that has the 'hook' as they were being threaded. I attached some of them back, and others, toward the end of the process, I couldn't because there wasn't room to get the ornament in the proper place. Re-connect the top of the hanger and create a bow (something I'm obviously still learning how to do) out of your ribbon for the top.

Voila! My new wreath that only cost $12.72!

10 Months

Holy cow! Scotch is already 10 months old!!! She's such a blessing, this one. She's still very easy-going and happy, despite currently fighting her first (hopefully only) ear infection. At 10 months old, Scotch:

~ is a crawling fiend.

~ is beginning to climb... the stairs, the furniture, etc.

~ has 6 teeth, three of which appeared on the same day.

~ stands alone for several seconds.

~ is actually "playing" with her toys.

~ dances and loves music.

~ listens to stories being read to her.

~ says mama, dada, nana, hi, hot, yay, and I think she's trying to say book, Obi (the dog's name), and brother (sounds like "bruddy").

~ waves and claps.

~ eats pretty much everything we eat. This month, she especially likes chicken and pasta.

And, as usual, a couple of photos of our dear little lady... (the only decent one I was able to get on Sunday - hanging out with one of her great-grandmothers and another that isn't that great, but you can see her many teeth.)