Thankful Thursday: First 10 Days of Thankfulness

Again I find myself copying Adrien's blog post ideas.  I had no other original thoughts to put together on a blog post, so thank you for this great idea!  Everyone on Facebook is sharing what they are thankful for and posting one thing a day.  I am ten days behind, so I will just share the first ten of my own now and I will do two more of these kinds of posts on the 20th and the 30th of the month.  I have a long list, so this might be difficult.  And, here we go:

1) My husband: He puts up with me and loves me.  He works hard for our family, but I know he doesn't often get the acknowledgement that he really does need.  He helps out around the house (I mean, he cooks dinner 99% of the time).  He is a GREAT dad... and Clara is definitely a daddy's girl!

2) My daughter, Clara: She is my world, plain and simple.  It is so much fun to watch her learn new things!

3) My family: I am closer to my mom now than before Clara was born, and I have always been a daddy's girl.  I miss them a lot when I haven't seen them in a while, and I love to visit them!

4) My friends: My good friends stand by me through whatever I'm going through in my life: Hannah, Danelle, and Kaarin just to name a few... THANK YOU!!

5) My health: Without it, I couldn't enjoy this life that I live and love!

6) My home: Military housing may not be the best, but it is a roof over our heads and a dry, warm place to do our life!

7) This blog: Some of the people who read my blog don't have Facebook to keep up with me, so I like that they can here!

8) Naps: Sleep is always good for me!  And, when Clara sleeps, I can get much needed stuff done... unless I am napping!

9) Cameras: I didn't say "my camera" because I have been known to steal pictures that other people take, too.  But, I don't know what people did way back when to document their everyday life... write?  Yeah, I'm not too good at that!  Haha!

10) My washing machine: Without it, having clean clothes would really be a chore and, Clara would probably be in disposable diapers if I had to wash those by hand!!

The Green Monster...

... looks like this, right?

Good ol' Fenway Park!

But, Saturday night, The Green Monster took on a new identity:

Scary monster, eh? 

You guessed it, she didn't have butternut squash.  I was totally wanting her to have butternut squash as her next food after oatmeal.  Then, she woke up from her nap and I hadn't even started to make her food yet.  Butternut squash takes um-teen minutes to prep for baking, 45 minutes to bake, then another um-teen minutes to puree, and I had a hungry baby on my hands.  Avocado, however, took about ten minutes total.  All I had to do was cut it, de-pit it, scoop out the meat, and mash up with a fork.  It was glorious!  I do not like avocado, so the smell was not so glorious.  But, the little lady LOVED it!!  She gobbled it right down!  I promise, the next food she gets WILL be butternut squash... I'm making it later today for her to eat tomorrow.  I hope she likes it just as much! 

Weekend Wrap-Up... Bullet Point Style -- 11-7!

I had a blog written... and it was SUPER long plus I couldn't find any pictures that I really wanted to find!  That would have just been boring for you to read!!  So, I'm going to make it a little shorter by doing bullet points.  (I got this idea from you, Adrien!  I hope this makes you proud.)  :)

*I filled up my tank with gas that only cost $2.89/gallon!!

*I'm not going to tell you what new food Clara ate this weekend.  You will have to wait until tomorrow to find out!  (I really was NOT kidding that I could stretch these food posts oooooouuuuuttttt!)

*We went to Topeka this weekend to shop and I got some FANTASTIC deals at Babies R Us, The Children's Place, and Scrapbooks Etc!  I LOVE having really nice people check me out on top of having coupons!

*Clara got a winter coat, snow suit, scarf, and mittens when we shopped.  I would put a picture up of it all, but the rain today is making me too lazy to take a picture and apparently the company who made the coat got bought out by Columbia so they don't have a website.

*Does anyone know if the Topeka mall got an Express?  I saw a lady with a bag that said EXP JEANS on it, but the directory did not have it there.  So, let me know!  I would LOVE to only have to go one hour away to shop at Express instead of two!!  :)

*We test drove a 2007 Honda Accord EX-L v6.  We like it, but it was an automatic and we would like to get a manual.  But, I was super stoked that the anchor system will work on both sides AND in the middle!  I measured (with my hands) and all of the anchor system hooks were 11 inches apart like they are supposed to be!  SCORE!!

*Clara can now roll over from her back to her belly!!  Okay, so I mentioned this on my confession post, but this mom is proud of her baby's new skill!

*We watched a ton of both college and NFL football this weekend.  I like football, but I'm not that extreme in watching it like Caleb is!  Plus, we learned the news that Mizzou is joining the SEC.  This will be great for them (or so Caleb says), but I think they will lose a lot of games next year.  M-I-Z!!!  

*I watched the following video for the second time last night.  I still laughed as much as I did the first time I watched it.  You HAVE to see it!  (The language is NOT appropriate for little kids, fyi.)

 I hope you enjoyed your laugh!  :)

Confession Saturday -- 11-5!

Whoops!!  It is obviously NOT Friday, but time flies when you are having fun, and sometimes I get caught up and forget to do my posts!

So without further ado, here are my confessions!

I confess that I picked up both butternut squash and avocados at the store this week.  I personally don't like either, so just picking them out was difficult!  I hope making them into baby food goes well and that Clara likes them.  I'm still not sure which one I will have Clara try first, but at least I have narrowed it down.  (Butternut squash is winning on my poll!)

Can you find the avocado and the butternut squash?

I confess that I could have done a whole week's worth of blog posts on Clara's food... so watch out for some food prep posts next week!

I confess that I am contemplating writing a Christmas wish list blog post for at least Clara and myself.  I really hope that Caleb will give me some ideas for him for this post as well.  I'm not the only one who has trouble buying for you, honey!  (Let me know if you think yay or nay for this idea, please!)

This is NOT my list... but it IS super cute!  (Caleb would say that my handwriting looks just like this!)

Bahaha!!

I confess that I am 5 days behind on the "30 days of being thankful" boat.  I will be catching up soon and posting that here as well, too! 

I confess that I have a husband who spoils me!  He got up this morning and made Clara's oatmeal (the way I do it, not the way his is made), he let me sleep "late" (if you call 8:30am late... after being up until 1am), it was his idea to go to Topeka today, and he shopped with me with little to no complaining!!  I LOVE him!

I confess that I found a picture frame that I bought when we went to Las Vegas in October 2010 when I was cleaning.  I had totally forgotten about it!  Merry (early) Christmas to me!!

When we went to Las Vegas, we stayed at the Signature Towers at MGM Grand.  (Smoke-free and totally awesome!)

We saw this.  If you have seen Ocean's Eleven and ever wondered about the music at the end, yes, it does play with the fountain when you are there.  It was SO cool!  I wanted to stay and see if the songs repeated, but Caleb didn't let me!

We did not get to see this.  :(

I confess that my friends Kaarin, Meghan, and I TOTALLY called Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries getting divorced when we watched the first part of the wedding special.  We still have not finished the second part to that special...

We knew you guys were doomed!  Kim, you should have listened to Khloe about Kris.

I confess that I LOVE shopping for scrapbooking stuff!  I REALLY wish that I had more space and baby-free time to scrapbook!

I confess that both Caleb and I missed Clara rolling from her back to her belly for the first time today.  He saw her on her back and the next time he looked at her, she was on her belly.  I was cleaning.

Have a good rest of your weekend everyone!!  :)

Parents as Teachers -- 11-2 Visit

Patty, my parent educator, came for her monthly visit yesterday.  (Monthly visit... that sounds so wrong.  Hehe!)  The activity she brought this time was a "Pat Mat."  It is a gallon size Ziploc bag filled with water and colorful items that float.  She, then, put duct tape over the zippered part (even thought she said that she usually puts the tape around all of the edges, but she was running late that day).  The one she made had not quite enough water in it to allow the items to float, but it was still a cute idea for this momma.  Also, if it gets a hole in it, there is only water in it so nothing toxic!  Clara LOVED seeing the bright objects, so I am going to make another one for her in the future.

Here is the "Pat Mat" even though I forgot to get a picture of Clara playing with it.

 Other than that, she just checked to make sure that Clara is hitting all of her milestones (which she is).  And, we will also be hearing from the Parents as Teachers nurse so that Clara can get her hearing and sight checked before the end of the month.  All in all, it was a great visit yet again!  I'm SO glad that I decided to do this program.  Here is my first post about PAT if you would like more information!

Also, since you are reading this, please look on the right hand side of this page for a poll on what I should have Clara try eating next.  Look for a post on Monday to find out what she tried!

The First Supper Video!

What do Halloween and oatmeal have in common?

Clara's first tastes of both were last night!!

First, Halloween:

Clara slept for the first hour of passing out candy, but when she woke up, she was as cute as a pumpkin!

We had 100 bags of candy made up (consisting of a blow pop ghost, twizzlers, and tootsie rolls)... but we ended up needing to use the candy that was left over from putting the bags together, too.  LOTS of cute kids in costumes came by... and some big kids who I think just wanted some candy!

Then, it was time for the lesser known first supper:

At first, Clara seemed to like it.  She would "help" me feed her.  It was super cute!  But then, after a while, she started to not like it so much anymore.  I'm hoping that it will help her sleep better at night (although that was not the case last night).  I can't wait for her to get to try bananas, sweet potatoes, and other tasty foods!  Stay tuned, tomorrow there will be a video... be prepared to laugh!