New Layouts

An Apple a Day

I managed to complete a scrapbook page tonight. Hoping to get Delilah's 2nd year book done ahead of schedule. Nothing is worse than rushing to finish something at the last minute. Check out my craft blog if you want to see what supplies I used.

Thanksgiving Highlights

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We certainly did. John's parents, grandmother, and brothers were in town to celebrate. Delilah ate up all the attention. She was so excited having everyone here that she was constantly trying to walk and babbling up a storm. She was such a ham with everyone, always laughing and making the rest of us laugh. She is definitely missing them.

I wish I would have gotten more pictures, but I never seemed to pick up the camera. I did manage to snag a few of Delilah eating her Thanksgiving dinner, in her new Jumper I made, and eating her first whole apple. I will make it a point to take more pictures at Christmas.

She certainly loves her apple. Hopefully it will help her learn to take bites instead of shoving whole things into her mouth.

We were glad to visit with family, but are happy to have our quiet house back! We have quite a few things going on the next couple of weeks; a trip to Gainesville, Guard weekend for John, therapy appointments, etc, etc, etc. Hopefully I have time to get few projects done. Top of the list, a Christmas dress for Delilah. We will be having Breakfast with Santa on the 9th, so I better get started!

Some Updates

Last night Delilah was in the mood to practice walking. She has been able to take about 2 steps before losing her balance and sitting. She seems to do best when John and I are sitting on the furniture and not on the floor. If we are on the floor with her she wants to be silly and play, not walk back and forth to us. So, John sat on the couch and I sat on the ottoman. She continued to take two to three steps at a time. Then all of a sudden she decided to change direction and walk from our ottoman to our Papisan Chair (also known as the round chair). I would say it is about 10 Delilah steps between the two. She made it the entire way without losing her balance! I was so excited I started cheering and clapping. Delilah was also very excited. The smile on her face was so big! She was very proud of herself. She continued trying, but walking is very hard work and she was getting tired, so she wasn't able to continue much longer. Even so, 10 steps is such a big deal! She is on her way to walking. We have physical therapy tomorrow and I can't wait to tell her therapist. I just know she will be a full time walker by Christmas; the best present I could ever ask for!

Another thing Delilah is doing is pretending to talk on the phone. She has always loved the phone, but she has never held it to her ear. She has only ever pressed buttons and shake it in her hands. Anytime I am on the phone she stands next to me and watches what I am doing. When I am done she reaches for the phone. Now she puts it to her ear and says "Ahhhhhhhhh". She will continue saying that over and over again. It is the cutest thing. I am very impressed by this because it is the first time I have seen any 'pretend' play from her. It's one of those little things that would seem 'normal' for most kids, but is extraordinary for her. I can't wait to see her pretend play with her baby doll!

Hope everyone is having a magnificent Monday!

Holiday Preparations

We have had a very pleasant weekend. It is highly unusual for us to be home, together, all weekend. So what did we do with all our family time? We put up our Christmas Tree!

I know, I know! Most of you are probably thinking it is too early, we should celebrate Thanksgiving first. Normally I would wait until after Thanksgiving dinner to start putting up our tree, but this was truly the best weekend to put it up. Our next few weekends are going to be so busy. We have family visiting for Thanksgiving and the Iron Bowl to watch the Friday after. GO AUBURN! Then the next weekend is full with the SEC Championship on Saturday...again GO AUBURN!...and then we head towards Gainesville on Sunday, for Delilah's appointment with Dr. Miller. So as you can see, it was a must to get the tree up this weekend.

Ok, I will tell the truth. I just wanted to see Delilah's reaction to the tree. Last year she was too young to really notice all the beauty of the decorations. This year she is old enough to notice and take interest. Let me tell you, she is infatuated with the tree. She sat and stared at it for about 10 minutes when we put her in front of it for the first time. What surprised me most is that she hasn't tried to grab it or the ornaments. She has reached out to touch it a couple of times, but when we say "No" she stops and moves on to something else. She is such a good listener. This is going to be a magical Christmas!

And before I forget, I made my first Apple Pie today. I had to do a trial run before Thanksgiving. It really turned out great.

Well, that is all for today. I will try to get pics of D in front of the tree soon. Hope you all had a great weekend!

Two Steps

Last night, Delilah took two steps without assistance! I was sitting in the glider, binding a quilt, while Delilah played next to me. I looked up to see her standing by the foot stool. Then she let go and took two full steps before losing her balance and falling forward. Did she fall on her face? NOPE! She reached out and caught herself. She then got back up and tried again. My little girl is on her way to walking! I am so excited. When we try to assist her with walking, she fights it, or she just wants to be silly and play. She is proving how independent she is. She wants to do it on her own. I hope she continues trying. I would love to see her walking by Christmas! What a wonderful present that would be! I will try to catch it on video. I just need to charge to Flip.

Happy Veteran's Day to all the soldiers, past and present, especially my husband! Thank you for your service!

Wordless (almost) Wednesday

Her new favorite spot: The Dog Bed!

Snuggly Fire

We have had a very productive weekend. We have finally unpacked all our moving boxes. Yep...only took a year. Our garage had gotten out of hand so we finally decided to clean it out and get rid of all those boxes. It is always fun to unpack boxes. You find things you had forgot you had. Normally I would say if we haven't seen it/missed it in a year, then it goes in the trash or donate pile. Unfortunately, there was a lot of stuff I forgot I owned that I love. Needless to say, I have to figure out where to put all my new old items. I did throw out and donate a lot, so not to worry.

We also lit a fire for the first time this season. It is so nice to cuddle up under my quilt with a good book and the fire crackling beside me. We were very curious to see how Delilah would react to it. She loves climbing on the hearth, so we were worried she would try to jump in. Well, at first she did try. She wanted to be up close and personal with the fire. After a few "No's" and placing her away from the fire, she finally understood to stay away. We will see if she understands tonight! I did take some pics of her by fire light that I have to share.

Our night time routine includes the following: Dinner, Bath Time, Sippy Cup of Milk with Mommy on the couch and then PLAY TIME with Daddy on the living room floor. She loves her play time with Daddy. She is all giggles and squeals. They are too stinkin' cute together. 

We have also figured out how to stop the bed time screaming fits. DADDY! He has the magic touch. Anytime he puts her to bed, it is instant peace. If I do it, she screams bloody murder. Good thing Daddy is here to stay:) And before I forget, she has recently learned the art of waving Bye, Bye. Every time we carry her up or down the stairs, she will wave bye, bye to the one staying behind. It is ridiculously cute. 

Hope you all had a great weekend!

A New Look

As many of you have seen, I like to change up the design of the blog. Normally, I search through "free" blogger templates that can be found online. The problem is, I can never find anything I really like. There are definitely cute templates available, but I could never find the perfect one. So I just designed it myself. For those of you who are familiar with my other blog, you know that I did the same thing to it. I am really happy with the way this blog turned out. (I am going to change the craft blog.) I especially love the pictures added to the Header. It makes it that much more personal. It was much easier this time to apply my designs to the blog. I am beginning to understand the codes and how they work. Hope you like the new look as much as I do!

6 Years of Marriage

Wow! Today marks 6 years of marriage for John and I. It is crazy how much our lives have changed evolved during that time. What started as a family of two has since evolved to a family of three, plus the mini zoo we seem to have accumulated.

As with all marriages, there are ups and downs. Sharing your life with someone isn't always easy. It can be even harder when you marry young and move away from everyone you know and love. In our case, we moved to Alaska...from Florida. Yep, you read that right. ALASKA! But we made the best of it, and I truly believe it was the best thing that ever happened to us. It forced us to work out any problems that may have risen without running to our family. We grew even closer as a couple.

Our love has grown with the birth of our beautiful daughter. She brings such light into our lives. The first few months of her life were tough. Her time in the NICU and the diagnosis of Prader-Willi Syndrome brought us even closer together as a couple. We were forced to lean on each other like we never have before. Our bond continues to grow as we watch Delilah develop and conquer her obstacles.

Now don't get me wrong. We don't spend everyday of our lives basking in Love's glow. We are your average couple. I am guilty of nagging my poor husband to death, and he can't ever seem to push in the dining room chair. We have our differences, but what would life be without those differences. Let's face it, sometimes a little argument is needed. We just never let it blow out of proportion. Not to toot our own horn, but we are pretty good about moving on after we have a bit of a tiff. No use dwelling on unimportant issues.

Anyhow, I thought I would share a couple of pics from our wedding. For those of you who don't know, we were married in November, but didn't have our ceremony until January. One of the lovely things about the military; John received his orders to Alaska the day after he proposed so we went to the court house two weeks later, in order to add me to his orders. We didn't want to have any difficulties if we waited too long. My family and friends were wonderful and helped plan the ceremony and reception for a couple of months later. It was beautiful!

Hope everyone has a happy Monday!