Where did October go???

As you've probably noticed...it's not Tuesday. It is in fact past then. I did make an attempt Tuesday night to update as usual, but Blogger was not being friendly. It wouldn't let me upload pictures...and then it wouldn't let me close the tab and open a new one either. Soooo, I gave up and went to bed. Since Tuesday night we've been very busy and I haven't had a chance to get caught up. So here goes!

Wednesday: I watched Dylan again...and he was quite a handful in the morning. So, Sam being the awesome, loving husband that he is - surprised me (after he got home from court that morning) with some flowers and a card - thanking me for all I do for our family :) Aaaaah, love that man! Today was also the first day that I found Sophia KNEELING in her crib, holding onto the bars after she woke up from her nap. Little stinker. The weather was gorgeous today, so after Dylan got picked up we went to the Botanical Garden to spend some quality family time. On the way home we stopped and grabbed some Sonic for dinner. It was my first time having it, and it was pretty darn yummy! ....And I didn't have to cook or wash dishes then either! Hahaha.

Thursday: I had Dylan again today...and Sam had court again today too. Bummer. BUTTTTT Sophia turned 11 months old!!!! Holy moly. I cannot believe at how fast her first year has gone - makes me sad. Sophia started "clucking" today. So cute! I got her up from her nap and put her on the changing table. She just started clucking her tongue and it is adorable! While the babies were napping, I decided to sort through the drawer of things I had saved to put in Sophia's scrapbook (various NICU memorabilia, baby food labels, cards from people, etc). I then proceeded to sort through and chronologically organize the pictures that I had printed off for her scrapbook. The weather was beautiful again today, so after Dylan got picked up Sophia and I went for a walk on the beach. I love when tourist season is over because no one is on the beach. We sat down and I let her play in the sand for a while. She LOVED it. After the beach I did Sophia's 11 month footprints and she ate her first whole jar of #3 foods without gagging once! Awesomeness! So proud of my little girl!

Friday: Sophia, Sam, and I all took a glorious 2 hour nap this morning. Just amazing. After the nap, we went on our first family beach walk in a while. It was fairly rushed though because Sam had to work at 2pm. While Sam was working, I spray painted the dowel rods and hardware that we are using for the curtains in the master bedroom. I started to paint our front railing...but ran out of spray paint. After I got Sophia off to bed I started working on her scrapbook....FINALLY. I got the very first page done and it felt so good to get back into scrapbooking. I forgot how much I really love doing it. It is so time consuming...and it's not cheap either....but I love doing it and I love the final product.

Saturday: Today was another continuation of our busy week. After some yummy pancakes at Kristin's house, we were off to the bank, Home Depot, and to Walmart to get pumpkins! We stopped by Sam's mom's house on the way home to visit. She gave Sophia a piano/xylophone and Sophia went to town on it lol. After Sam went to work, I finished painting the front railing while Sophia napped..and it does look marvelous.

Sunday: I went to the 11:00 church service today so that afterwards, I could go out for lunch with Sam (before he had to rush off to work). Sue took Sophia after church until 5:45! Sam and I had Firehouse Subs (one of my favorites) mmmm. I then went and took my time looking around Michaels. I got a few scrapbooking items and some supplies to make a fall wreath. I managed to get home and finish the wreath all before Sue dropped Sophia off. :) I missed Sophia like crazy, but it was nice to have some time to myself too.

Monday: Today started off on a not so great note....Tommy forgot Dylan's diaper bag today. Soooo, I had to find some formula (still packed in boxes in the garage) that we got for free. Well, then it came time to feed him and his bottle was leaking out the bottom??? Still don't understand it. Sam had his shooting qualifications today and he shot a 98! That means he got a Marksman Medal for it! Awesome job, Sam! After Dylan went home I went to Lowes to get some paint for our shutters and a few other things. I also swung by Walmart to get some groceries to make my chicken chili. Mmmm mmm good!

Tuesday: Dylan got dropped off early today....6:15. Needless to say, it was a fairly long day of babysitting, but at least it was Sam's day off. Sam cleaned the garage today...and it looks worlds better. Tonight we tried out the jogging stroller that we have on loan. Sophia loved it...and I enjoyed it too!

Sitting up in her crib....waiting for Mommy to come get her

Really trying to escape

Loving the new mirror by her changing table

"Ooooh who's that cute baby!?"

Check out those top toofies

Our ugly railings before I painted them

Watching Wheel of Fortune

Using her cart cover for the first time

Sam is looking for the Great Pumpkin

We bought these three

Mmmm this is good

A new piano from Grandma!!!

The first spread for Sophia's scrapbook

The awesome painted railings AND our pumpkins and mums

The fall wreath I made

Trying to grab the camera from me

The second spread for Sophia's scrapbook

Sophia got a card from Granny!

All ready to go jogging

She LOVES Tommy the turtle

Four little toofies...

We had another busy week and some new, exciting milestones with Sophia! The fall weather is here and I'm loving the brisk air. However, I don't like that it takes more than half the day to warm up enough for Sophia to be outside. We're working around it and getting used to bundling her up in order to go for walks. I am sad that I can't really walk on the beach with her anymore. It's too hard to get her in enough layers AND have her fit comfortably in the front rider. Boo.

Wednesday: I managed to get a lot accomplished today. Sophia, Kristin, and I went to the commissary so we could stock up on groceries and baby food. After a loooong trip to get groceries, Sophia took a nap while I mowed the lawn. I then proceeded to put the first coat of sealant on our kitchen backsplash. After Sam got home from work, we continued to do some cleaning (as we were hosting dinner the following night). After dinner I put another coat of sealant on the tile.

Thursday: What a scramble. Today I did about 4 loads of laundry, dishes, cleaned all the floors and picked up the house. I baked a cake (Better Than Sex cake mmm) and made homemade salsa and creamy chicken enchiladas. A few officers and one of their girlfriends came over for dinner around 5. Dinner was a huge hit. It was fun to get a chance to finally entertain...and hopefully they will all stop teasing me about not letting Sam go out for lunch every day at work.

Friday: Today was my first full day watching Dylan - our friends' 2 month old baby. Everything went soooo much better than I thought it would. Sophia and Dylan took both their naps at the same time and were extremely well-behaved. I even managed to get laundry and dishes done while they were napping. How easy! I know everyday isn't going to be this smooth running though. I am not looking forward to the days where neither of them will take naps or are screaming. Haha. I started to put the decorative paper in the shelves on our TV console. I got one side done and it looks marvelous. (I finished the other side on Monday night.) I also got a great package in the mail from my mom! Yay!!!!! Sophia got some cute Halloween socks, a couple outfits, and some cute tights. She also got 4 books from the "If you give a..." series. We read 3 of them the following day. While I was excited about Sophia's gifts, I was more excited about what my mom sent for ME...and Sam I guess. Mmmmm toffee bars, monster cookies, and Halloween peeps! I finished the toffee bars off in just a few days. Luckily, I put the monster cookies in the freezer right away so I couldn't snack on them as easily. Thanks Mom!!!!!

Saturday: Today was somewhat lonely. Sam worked the 6am-2pm shift. He got home around 3 and had to leave by 4:30 to make it to church band practice. Kristin brought over two sisal rugs for us to put in Sophia's room...sweeeet! After Sam left for practice, Sophia and I got bundled up and went for an evening stroll around the neighborhood. She was overtired, so she went to bed early. She however still didn't sleep well. It was the first night that we turned the heat on. And let me tell you - I'm LOVING the baseboard heating. We can choose to heat only the bathrooms and bedrooms at night while we're sleeping and during the day we can heat all the common areas. It is sooo convenient! ...and hopefully saves money.

Sunday: Sophia went in the new church nursery for the first time today. She was supposedly well-behaved and they didn't really want to hand her over to us after church. Lol. After Sam played in both church services, he went straight to work until 11pm. Soooo, Sophia and I got our layers on and walked around the neighborhood before stopping at Kristin's to hang out. Sometime before Monday morning, Sophia's other top tooth finally poked through! Yay!

Monday: I watched Dylan again all day today...and thankfully had Sam's help. Sam had court in the morning, but was scheduled to be off for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday as his regular 3 day weekend. I put a giant pork roast in the crockpot all day, and it made for a YUMMY dinner. Sophia even got to try some of our dinner. She had her first real "table food" tonight. We gave her some of the cooked potatoes and carrots and she seemed to like them. After we filled our bellies and got Sophia to bed, Sam and I curled up on the couch to watch "The Proposal." I recommend it. Very cute!

Tuesday: Today was the type of day I wasn't looking forward to: Dylan was fussy all day and wouldn't sleep. Sophia managed to take a great first nap and played like a good little girl...but then she refused to take a second nap in the afternoon. While it was more frustrating than any other day watching Dylan, it was still definitely doable. Sam however.....let's just say crabby babies aren't really his thing. Today I managed to get the dowel rods (which we'll be using as the curtain rods for the master bedroom) painted. I forgot to paint the brackets to hold the rods though...so I'll have to do that tomorrow. We had beautiful, beautiful weather here today. Sunny and around 70. We all went for a walk. Sam pushed Sophia in the stroller, and I carried Dylan around in the sling.

Ok, well I've got to get up early again tomorrow to watch Dylan, so I better wrap it up and get to bed. See you next week! Enjoy the pictures!

Bundled up to go for a walk

Got our rain gear on the stroller so she doesn't get wet...and stays warmer!

Got the table all set for entertaining the guys from Sam's precinct.

Check out that fistful of puffs

Passed out on our walk...

So precious!

"I got up onto my knees, now what!?"

Check out how good her belly looks after almost a year!

Tried to get a picture where you can see her top teeth coming in

mmm Monday night feast

Trying the potatoes and carrots

How can you not smile at her?!

Sophia's curtains

Guest Room curtains

Living Room curtains

Makin a list, and crossing it all off!

What a wonderfully productive week we had! Wowee. It's a good thing I kept notes on what we did each day, otherwise I'm sure I'd forget half of it...at least! :) I'm a huge list maker, so this week we were able to cross tons of things off my many lists. Wednesday we managed to iron, hem, install the curtain rod and hang up the living room curtains. I also filed a claim on Wednesday for our home warranty (because we haven't had any hot water for like, oh EVER.) to have someone come look at our "natural gas water heater" (as I looked it up in our inspection report). That night Kristin sat at our house while Sophia slept, so I was able to go to Borjo coffeehouse to watch Sam, David, and Cameron play a show. It was sooo nice to hear them play again. They are so talented! ...And the hot caramel apple cider with whip was pretty awesome too :)

Thursday someone came out to look at the water heater...only to tell us that we don't need a plumber, because it's not a natural gas water heater....it's a boiler. Sooooo, not only did our home inspector NOT know what he was looking at when he did our inspection, we had to wait until Monday for someone from the heating end of things to come out and look at it. Thursday we also hung up curtains in Sophia's room and hung 9 pictures in the guest room.

Friday was a rough day. Sophia didn't sleep well...which meant Mommy didn't get to sleep either. I think I managed to squeeze about 4.5 hours in that night. That evening we got cleaned up and Kristin took some family pictures for us down at the beach. My camera battery died about 5 pictures into it, but we managed to suck every last ounce of life out of it. It also started getting dark really quickly, so a lot of the pictures are grainy. Some of them are quite nice and I've posted a few below!

Saturday was the first day all week that Sophia slept past 6:30am. Thank goodness! We went for a walk on the beach that morning with Connor and Kristin. After Sophia's first nap, she and I went to the NICU to visit our old nurse Christy. It's always good to see her and catch up. After our stop at the NICU we went to the grocery store where we stocked up on the 10 for $10 items: ragu spaghetti sauce and all the chicken/tuna/hamburger helpers. What an awesome deal. Sam and I watched the movie "State of Play" and just vegged on the couch because I was STILL sick. Great movie - I recommend it!

Sunday morning I actually stayed home from church because I wasn't feeling well. I managed to clean the house up a bit and unpack some more boxes. I ironed the curtains for the master bedroom and guest bedroom.

On Monday, we got a great deal accomplished. We were up early for a beach walk (Sam's day off hooray!) and then I grouted the kitchen backsplash with the wonderful expertise and help of Kristin! It looks amazing! We also got our boiler fixed and now have an abundant supply of hot water! How exciting to be able to take even a lukewarm shower and to not have to heat water up on the stove for Sophia's bath. Ah, the luxury. Sophia also had a top tooth poke through today! We can't see it very well yet, but you can definitely feel it.

Today (Tuesday) I babysat Dylan for the first time. Dylan is a 2 month old baby of our friends from church/Sam's work. I'll be watching him while his dad works as a Norfolk Police Detective and his mom is busy as an art teacher. Sophia adores Dylan and of course would probably attack him if we let her get close enough. We also ran lots of errands (returned a movie, TJ Maxx return, Michaels, Old Navy, Target, bank, AND Home Depot), put up the guest room curtains, and did some other odds and ends.

In next week's blog, you'll hear all about....what, did you think I was actually going to tell you? Psht. Guess you'll have to stick around for next Tuesday :)

Sophia learning how to restring a guitar 10-7-09

Just being cute...as usual



A lovely family picture on the beach 10-9-09

Her first real time getting to play in the sand...and she kept trying to eat it

Sophia and Mommy

Sophia with Daddy

Grout. Oh, you mean that's not vanilla frosting?

Getting started

Looks marvelous if I do say so myself!

He's still in the car seat and Sophia is already trying to check out Dylan

Filling his own diaper bin

Such a cutie pie

Picking out a couple pumpkins at Home Depot to put on our front steps

MY little pumpkin. I picked her.

She loves Tommy the turtle!

I just realized there are no pictures of the curtains we hung or the pictures, so I'll try to do that next week :)

Did I not promise I would update today? :)

Here I am, one week later, updating the blog. YESSSSS. I'm actually quite proud of myself for keeping my promise. As the week went on, I tried to make notes about what we did, so that when tonight came - I could actually remember.


Wednesday I did a lot of cleaning (dishes, laundry, sweeping, etc) and put some new pictures in our dining room frames. That night I started feeling sick - my throat was sore. I wasn't sure if it was just dry or what. The next morning I was supposed to be going to Woodbridge, VA to Ikea with a friend, so I was hoping it was nothing. Thursday morning arrived and my throat was still feeling yucky, but we went to Ikea anyway. She has an 8 week old and he slept pretty much the entire drive there, while at Ikea, and on the way home. Sophia was not quite as pleasant, but that's alright. She has a short attention span now that she's older. At Ikea I got a few things that we needed: curtains for all the bedrooms and the living room, a curtain rod for Sophia's room, a TV console, some small jars for my sea glass, pillow inserts for the guest room shams (99 cents a piece!), a flower pot, and 3 small framed mirrors. By the time we got home that night, I felt completely awful. My nose was running, I had a horrible headache, and my throat was sore. I went to bed early and woke up Friday....MISERABLE. I still have my cold, but it's getting much better. Friday was probably the worst day of it - I kid you not when I say that I couldn't smell anything - not a poopy diaper, not the Vicks under my nose, nothing. I couldn't taste anything either. I love food, so this was a particularly frustrating day. Let me tell you - not being able to taste your food takes all the enjoyment away from eating.

Sunday morning I started a roast in our slow cooker and went to church. It was our first Sunday in our new church building! So exciting! The building is awesome and I'll try to take pictures next Sunday. The grand opening services totaled almost 700 people! That is amazing! I hope the Lord continues to help us reach new people and grow as a church community. Sunday night we had the roast, potatoes, carrots, homemade gravy, and wheat rolls for dinner. It was incredibly disappointing...because I couldn't taste a thing. Arg. Sam said it was great, so I took his word for it. Leftovers on Monday were great though! So glad I actually could taste it and enjoy it.

Monday night Sam and I went out for dinner at El Loro - our favorite Mexican restaurant. Sam's mom was kind enough to give us a gift card AND volunteer to babysit so we could go out to eat. Dinner was wonderful. Afterward we ran a few errands at Target and Babies R Us.

Sophia has been quite the chatterbox this week. She babbles constantly and is saying new syllables all the time. Tonight while she was eating dinner, it sounded like she was singing. Adorable! I think she's also working on a little tooth on the top. Her gum has been really white for several days, but nothing poking through yet. I hope it explains why she hasn't been eating as well this week and cranky.

Scooting herself under the chair

Awesome new shirt from Auntie Kristin!

Hanging out at Tyler's baseball games on Sunday

The new tv console! Need to find some neat decorative paper to back those shelves...because Sam accidentally put the backing on backwards. Oh well :)

The OLD tv console...aka a dresser we found on the street

Playing before bedtime

The new pictures in the dining room

Our lights we hung inside the screened in porch