Continued adventures in messy

*Check out that baby mullet!!

Let's be honest, if there is one thing that babies are good at, it's making a mess.  Abby's been in a particularly frustrating stage going on about 3 weeks now where she really doesn't want anything to do with any food that I've touched.  Forget about me trying to spoon things into her mouth, we're over that.  She doesn't even want it if I try handing her the spoon and letting her try.

It's instantly "No" in a tiny muchkin voice with a hint of whine behind it.  Then add exaggerated head shaking and hand flailing and you'll get a picture of what I've been dealing with these past few evenings.

So, we're onto food that she can feed herself....which only works part of the time (as witnessed here where she's got more food on her face then actually IN her mouth but at least she's smiling).  Of all the stages we've gone through this far, this one seems to be annoying me the most.  I worry about her not getting enough "real" food to eat.  Goldfish crackers, fig newtons, bananas and toast are about all I can count on these days.

I have found that she'll eat those squeezy packs of food that only cost about 3 times as much as normal baby food because she can hold them and feed herself, but other than that, it's a guessing game each night about what exactly she'll eat.  Please don't let me have a picky eater on my hands....please let this be a stage!!!

Christmas Tree Cutting 2013

Ryan's family has traditionally cut a real Christmas tree every year for the holidays.  So, when I joined the family, I joined this little tradition as well.  Want to see how much Abby has changed from last year?  Check out this post from last year.  She's still in a pack, but she's so much bigger!!!

It was a beautiful day for cutting.  Probably about 40 degrees outside and sunny.  After eating WAY too much stuffing on Thanksgiving (thanks Peggy!), it felt good to get outside and move around a little bit.

It didn't take us long to pick out the tree we wanted.  Next year we can go a little taller and I think I'll try to get one that's a little fuller but all in all, we're pretty happy with it.  That's one funny thing about not having a fake tree, every year it's just a little bit different.  Sometimes it's too tall, or too short....other times its too wide or too skinny.  It's so hard to tell how it's going to look in the house when you're standing outside and the sky is your ceiling!

How's Abby doing with the tree?  Well, the first night we put it up ended in tears.  She couldn't understand why she couldn't bang all the balls together or ring the bells on the tree (we put all the unbreakable ones at the bottom just in case), but what she had a really hard time with was understanding why there was a tree in the house.  She wanted to grab the higher up ornaments so badly that she'd get really close to the tree and try reaching up and would inevitably end up getting poked in the belly by the tree.  It's a little poky, but more than that, it's scary!!!  She'd instantly fall down and start crying wondering why this poky thing hurt her.  I have to admit, I laughed, and she learned.  Now, after having the tree up for about 4 days, she's less interested in it.  She still goes up to it and grabs a few of the ornaments, but mostly she says "preeeyy" which means pretty (and don't touch it because it's pretty and you'll break it), so that's a start!!

My how time flies

On Thanksgiving we took my Mom's family photo for the Christmas cards.  As I was downloading the pictures to my computer I realized the last time we had a family photo like this was back in June for Kayden's birthday:

Now, almost 6 months later we look like this:

Of course the snow makes a big difference, but check the babies.  Abby still really looked like a baby back in June but now, 6 months later, she's not so little anymore.  Well, that's a lie, she's still pretty little but she's defiantly more grown up.  My sister's also changed her hair color and I couldn't love it more.  Joey's been a blond for her entire life but this is a change I defiantly think should stay around.  Finally, the last change is pretty hard to see.  This picture was taken at my parents new house.  They  moved back in October to an amazing house/property just outside of Cedarville.  About 5 minutes north of the house that we grew up in.

I sort of wish I could pause time right here where we are, but I know that's never going to happen.  So, I'll continue to enjoy the moments while we're in them.  Life is good!

1 Family x 12 (November)

Happy Thanksgiving ya'll!!!

My sister gets 100% of the credit for this picture.  She staged these for my Mom's Christmas letter photo and I got her to squeeze in our monthly family photo as long as we were at it.  Got this one in by the skin of my chinny chin chin this month too.  I'm going to try really hard to get December's done early but Christmas sure is tempting.

All Hallows Eve

Happy Halloween ya'll!!

This past weekend we hosted our 8th annual Halloween party.  I can't take much credit for this tradition, Ryan and his friends have been dressing up and celebrating Halloween together long before I came along.

At this point, everyone knows they better come in costume.  It's not optional, and I'm so glad we've set it up this way.  This year we had some GREAT costumes....but of course, I slacked on the picture taking after the beer started flowing so I've only got shots of the first few people that came.    Lo and Bri flew in from LA for the party and were dresses as LA Hipsters this year.  It was great to see them and hear all about how things are going for them in Cali.  They've been living there since April and we miss them more that I can say!

Chris and Brenna were Wayne and Garth from Wayne's World.  Pretty creative, and comfy outfits if I do say so myself.

Meg and Greg were a skeleton and muscle man.  Greg's costume was officially creepy.  First off, it was skin tight...in all areas (all the ladies know what I mean), then there was that weird mask.  The mask part was supposedly thin enough to drink through but Greg didn't test it.  It didn't take him long to figure out that major flaw of his costume was that he couldn't go to the bathroom without completely stripping down.

They even brought the deer foot along.  If you're part of the Murphy family, you already know that this foot has been re-gifted between the cousins for the last 5 Christmas's.  There's a photo book and tons of stories to go with it.  That foots been to New York, California and just about everywhere else in between.  It's been bedazzled, seen whales and even has a beer bottle open added to one end.

Since I suck and didn't get any other pictures of the night (except these cuties of my little Peanut) I'll just have to tell you about some of the other costumes.  Nick and Kimmy Kat came as Cruella De Vil and a Dalmatian puppy.   Sam and Juan might have to win the prize of the best costume.  They came as Gatsby and  Daisy from the Great Gatsby.  Sam even made herself a yellow car that she could wear/drive around in.  They stayed true to costume and drank only out of martini classes and Sam was even carrying around one of those long cigarette holders.  They looked great!

Anthony and Teresa get the award for most creative costume.  They came as Dexter and one of his victims.  Anthony's outfit was pretty simple...an apron and a knife but Theresa stole the show with her scantly clad dress.  She wrapped herself in a mini-dress of cellophane with some fake blood smeared between the layers.  I don't know how she could have stood out by the fire for hours but she did!

Who else am I forgetting??  Jamie and Zach came as a Teen Mom (her excuse to wear sweatpants and a t-shirt, but I can't blame her!) and a paintballer.  Betsy was a cowgirl for sure, but I can't remember what Pat was.  Ug...that's why you take pictures Sadie!!

We had a great time and are so happy that everyone came!  We'll be hosting again next year so mark your calendars for Saturday November 1st!!!  Start planning your costumes.  I'm thinking of giving out for real prizes next year.

1 Family x 12 (October)

For the first time in the history of knowing Ryan, he agreed to do a couples costume.  In years past when I've mentioned it, he's quick to turn me down, but this year, when I spun it as a "family" costume, he was on board!  I wish I'd gotten a few pictures of Abby standing up because her costume is so dang cute, but I'm dressing her up for daycare tomorrow so I'll grab some then.

Didn't our costumes turn our great?  I can't take ANY credit for them.  Ellyn, Ryan's mom, spent the last two weeks working hard making our costumes great.  When I was younger, my mom hand made our costumes every year.  I vividly remember the excitement of driving to Joann Fabrics in late September and flipping through the pattern books to pick out what we wanted.  I don't remember Mom ever telling us we couldn't be something, though I do remember having to think about how I'd bundle up if it was cold.  I was everything from a pumpkin, to the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz, to a ballerina.  One year my sister wanted to be a Genie....and mom racking her brains on how to make it warm enough for her while still looking like a bare bellied genie.  

Ryan's mom also made the kids costumes and Ryan is NOT easy to please, nor did he "grow out" of requesting costumes from her....so she was not surprised at all to hear us asking for these custom made outfits.  Ryan's been everything from Darkwing Duck to the Thundercats.  He has an affinity for being scantily clad, so the idea of not having to wear pants as Fred was right up his alley.

With two great seamstresses in the family I'm debating if I want to take over the costume making for Abby as she grows up, or just keep letting the grandmas do what they do best :O)

More pictures from the party to come tomorrow.  Happy Halloween!

Weeknight Fire

You might remember from earlier in the week when I posted our family picture for September, that we were outside enjoying a nice fire as a family.  Well, it was too perfect of a moment to pass up snapping a few extras of my two favorite people in the world.

Abby's recently started to enjoy having her own mini furniture to sit on.  Joey and Andy got her a tiny couch for her birthday and it took her a good two weeks to not be afraid of it, but now she loves that thing.  She doesn't sit still on it for long, it's more like, sit down, stand up, sit on the arm and fall down on the floor, laugh, stand up, sit down, stand up, climb on top, jump around, sit down, etc.  But it does keep her busy and every so often she will lay back on it with her water cup and just relax for a minute or two.

This little green chair had exactly the same affect.  As soon as we brought it out, she knew it was for her and she plopped her little butt down and just chilled.  It was great!

My gosh, she's growing up before our eyes!!!  I love how independent and silly she is, she really has her own little personality, but I miss my baby too!

Just over a year after moving to this house, we still realize every day how happy we are living here.  For the first time in a long time we've finally got the space we need to spread out and enjoy the outside.  We're loving our little town of Hampshire and are so grateful for everything that happened to get us here.  #lovinglife