8 months

Anslee,

What a fun month we have had together! Over the last few months we have been able to see your little (or very big, should I say) personality develop! You have a mind of your own, and really know what you want. This month we have really been able to see your showing preference for certain people, toys and objects, and food. Its so wonderful for see you having strong opinions at such a young age! You are still so busy, spending less time crawling...only to get to a sturdy enough object to pull up on. You "step" yourself as best as you can around whatever you have found to hold you up. Each day I see you making yourself a more independent baby, and each step you take and milestone you reach the more of a little girl you become. You have changed so much already, and I am reminded of that each time I look at your sweet face. 5 teeth (and 2 more coming) take up a lot of space in your beautiful smile. You hair has really grown too, and your physical features are really starting to become defined. Every time I look at you, I feel like I can see something new...and I am reminded of how fast you are growing.

Its important that you are able to adjust to being in different atmospheres and around other people who love you, but I can't say that I love how you have started reaching out for me when I come back around. When I come back after being away from you (which really is never that often) all I want to do is hold on to you too! We have to remember that there are so many people that love you and want to love on you too!

Your cuddling days are over. You have too many other new things to discover to stay still in anyone's arms for any length of time here lately. This is ok with me, because my favorite part of the day is at your bedtime when I sneak some extra time snuggling you before bed every night. This is a part of each day that I would never give up or try to never miss. When you fall asleep after you have had a nice fully belly, you will stay asleep right in my arms. I know that I should put you right down in bed, but I take advantage of your sleepy state and how you will just lay so very still right where you are. I use that time to pray over you and thank God for the blessing that you are. My reason for waking up each morning is to spend those last few minutes of each day with you.

You are growing up so beautifully, 8 months strong and so many more to go!

I love you,
Mommy

Carrots.

I have a new fun hobby. Making Anslee's baby food. This all started, because Anslee was not eating well for me. There were a number of things I was blaming myself of doing wrong that caused her to not like to eat, so in my desperate attempt to get her to enjoy mealtime, I decided to make her food in my own kitchen. In this attempt, I found myself having a lot of fun...and even better, she takes the food 100% of the time with no fussing. I have been so relieved. I decided that I would blog about my experiences with her foods, as I get more creative in what I decide to feed her.

Tonight I made carrots. I think I have enough carrots for about a month now. I have frozen all but one jar, and that jar will be what Anslee will have for lunch tomorrow. This is a simple one, seeing as how it just simply carrots, with no other foods mixed in or added.

I use a Kid Co. food processor to puree the foods.


I bought 2 bags of organic carrots (each bag is 1 lb)


I chopped up each carrot


I added about 3/4 cup of water to a saucepan, then dumped the chopped up carrots in, put the burner on a medium heat and let it simmer there for about 10 minutes until the carrots were nice and tender.



When the carrots were tender enough, I added them (and the water) to the Kid Co. processor. I plugged it in and let it run until the carrots were to the consistency where Anslee will be able to safely gum them down!


2 lbs of carrot sticks gave me 7- 4 oz jars full and 3- 3.5 oz containers full. Since Anslee won't eat carrots every single day for every single meal, I have carrots that will last me quite a while now. You can safely freeze vegetables for 3 months, so now I have a little reserve!



I had started out feeding Anslee the store bought food, and for some reason I saved almost all of the jars after she had eaten (or not eaten) them. I was glad I did, because now, I have jars to put the food I make in. I also have some Kid Co. cube trays that I use as well. Both work great for knowing how much I am serving her at each meal time!

Sorry these pictures are not that great, lets be honest, I am no photographer and photographing food is much different than photographing people!

*next time I will be STEAMING the veggies rather than boiling, in order to keep all the nutrients contained* Ahhh...still learning...as I go!

Anslee in week 32

Its amazing to me how much happens and how quick babies are to learn and to adapt to things in their very new world! I guess I feel like Anslee has "broken into" our world and family and has adapted to daily life with us. It does not seem like someone who is 32 weeks old should be able to do that.

Things we have noticed this week

1. TEETH. My goodness. We thought she had her top two teeth coming in (she got her bottom two in during the last week of June). Oh no. We discoved 4 of her top teeth coming in all at once. I knew her teeth would come in pairs...well I guess I expected them too because the last two came in as a pair. I had thought she was acting WAY more fussy than she did with her last two, and now I clearly know why. The front top two are cut, but the other ones are not yet. However, the swelling and redness are all present with the other ones. You can see them making their way down. The Drooling has somewhat slowed down, but the constant gnawing at any and everything has continued!

2. EATING. We are eating well this week. Still fussy at times, but not NEAR as bad as it has been in the past. I have started making her baby food from my own kitchen, and she certainly prefers homemade food to bought food. We have had carrots, green beans with oatmeal cereal, yogurt and peaches, bananas, blueberries, and sweet potatoes. I have learned to be more patient and to accept that she might not finish an entire serving. I plan on doing a blog about homemade baby food...or just my experiences with it, because I have really had the BEST time making it. It especially is worth it when the fussing is at a minimum.

3. SEPARATION ANXIETY. We had made it to 7 months without this being a problem, and honestly I thought we were out of the woods. Over the past week, if I set Anslee in her pack and play for independent play, she protests loudly. She usually calms if I sit down in front of the pack and play where she can see me. We have not had to drop her off anywhere this past week, but I am anxious about leaving her in the nursery on Sunday and will just have to see how that goes.

4. NAPS. 1st nap has become VERY short. I would jump for joy tomorrow if she slept for 1.5 hours during her first nap. They are usually about an hour at the most. If that is all she gets, that is fine. Its fine because she still sleeps about 2 hours in length for her 2nd nap and then 12 hours at night.

5. GROWTH. My word. Who would have thought that a baby born at 4 lbs 11 oz could end up catching up and surpassing her "should be" size in clothes. Anslee is 7.5 months and fits very nicely into 9 month clothing. I feel like this is probably not out of the ordinary, but for someone who came into this world so incredibly tiny it just blows my mind.

6. Mobility. Anslee started crawling about a month ago, and ever since then she is a baby on the go. I can not sit down and relax if she is not in the exercauser, pack and play, or activity center seat. I am almost certain that Anslee understands the word "No." because I say it about 49506456 times each day. The last two days, when I say it, she stops crawling and sits up and looks at me. Then she tries again. And again. We repeat this prcoess about 6 times before I finally just pick her up and distract her with something else to do.

At the beginning of this week, Anslee and I had the opportunity to see my sweet college friends for lunch. We had a wonderful time, and Anslee got to see her sweet little friend London Noel Day. Here are some photos from this week!


Anslee with her Mama, Dutch with her Mama, and London with her Mama!




Aunt Christen loves her sweet Girls, Anslee and London!


Anslee scaring Dutchess. Poor Dutch! This is what I mean by on the go baby!


Becky loving on Ans, and Me loving on Miss London Day!


A special thanks to Becky for letting me steal these photos from her camera!

Tune in for the homemade baby food extravaganza to come soon!

Option Period!

Exciting news! We are not crying wolf this time either, we are officially under contract on a perfect home for our family!

Tyler and I, after a lot of prayer, thought, and discussion have together decided that living in Brownwood, Texas is the right choice for us. It will be about a 25 miles commute for Tyler on some days, but not everyday. I guess after all the talking, and looking at homes in both Coleman and Brownwood, we came to the conclusion that when we have to move (which we will have to move, and move fast when the time comes!) we would be able to more quickly sell in Brownwood. Brownwood actually also has a lot to offer a young family. There are opportunities to work with college students in the church setting,(which I love and hope to jump into getting involved in this respect soon!) We also know 3 other young couples, one of which has a baby about 6 weeks younger than our Ans, that all graduated from HSU with us! Like I said before, Tyler will still be working in Coleman county as one of two Troopers there. He is so excited to get to work in this county, as it is so close to our families. I Tyler's parents live in Coleman, and we fear that since we will be so close that they will have to kick us out!

We are so excited about the actual home. It really could not be a more perfect situation for us. It is Austin stone in the front and then cedar wood siding on the sides adn in the back! The sellers, as part of the offer, are letting us keep their stainless steel fridge, and the beautiful playset in the backyard for Anslee to have in her toddler years! Most exciting: the house is 100% move in ready. We will not even have to buy one can of paint. The colors are perfect. The sellers in laws happen to be interior designers, so I am MORE than pleased with the walls EXACTLY how they are. We also love the lighting (recessed lighting and pendant lighting in the kitchen!) and the light fixtures all throughout the house. The landscaping is clean cut and perfect. I have pictures below that were taken before the landscaping was complete and the yellow room is now a beautiful brown color.

Oh yeah...you can't see it, but the pantry is like the size of a walk in closet (or maybe bigger) Tyler says I have NO argument when it comes to cooked meals now... :)

The one thing we will do is buy a microwave/vent a hood combo to put above the stove (must save that counter space!)

Alright already! Here is our most perfect home (almost) as we have papers signed, are in the option period, waiting on the results of the inspection, and are set to close the 1st week of October! Oh yeah...there is a 3rd bedroom, and a 2nd full bathroom that are not photographed, but are both really nice and exactly what we are looking for!!

Bye Bye to renting :)

Front View from Street



View of Living Area from Dining area


Beautiful and Spacious backyard


Bedroom (they have recently changed the color of this room, and it looks just as good as the yellow does!)


Master bathroom counter/sink


Front view of the Master bedroom


Part of kitchen


Kitchen view from Living area


Living/Dining/Kitchen


We feel extremly blessed to be in the middle of the process on this particular home. The last several months of looking (in many different places might I add) have been so worth it to be right where we are right now.

Please pray that the last part of this process (a most emotional process) goes smoothly for us!