finley loves to swing

more old pictures of finley ... she's just too darn cute!

finley loves to suck on baby feet

finley loves to suck on baby feet ... whether they are hers or a baby doll. (and actually if she gets a hold of my feet, she'll suck on those too!)

finley loves baby cereal

finally ... i have been trying for awhile, but fin has finally decided that she'll eat solid foods!

finley is 7 months

holy moley ... i meant to do an update when she hit her 6 month mark ... and yet another month has flown by.

she's now 26" long and weighs in at 17 pounds ... both of which are in the 75 percentile for her age.

she has finally decided that she likes solid food ... which lets me not stress as much when aidan drops/throws his cheerios on the floor.she gave up nursing at 4 months and prefers bottles ... heated ... it has to be just the way she wants it. oh well. (and she loves to lay on the floor with her feet straight in the air ... pretty much since day 1!)she started rolling over at 4 months (like ... exactly!) ... that day she decided she could do it, both ways, tummy to back and back to tummy ... it hasn't stopped her since. she rolls all over and can rotate 360 degrees ... so if she sees something she wants she'll get to it.
...
this morning she decided that rolling around wasn't as productive and has graduated to army crawling around after aidan.

...

it's gone by WAY to fast. overall she's a happy baby, an angel straight from heaven. i'm so happy she's joined our family.

my nails

sooo ... my nails were getting long and i figured i better document it before i broke them. of course after i took this picture i ripped 3 the next day!! UGH!!

(they look like i don't know how to trim them straight ... i promise i do ... they just curl when they get long)

aidan loves oreo cookies and milk

aidan LOVES oreo cookies and milk ... just like his momma ... and c'mon let's face it, who doesn't??

aidan loves to run in the sprinklers

in august when hannah and adam were visiting my parents aidan joined them while running around in the sprinklers. he had a great time ... and then even more fun after he pooped in his swim trunks and we had to hose him off.

finley's blessing day

on sunday, december 21st, we blessed finley jean!

...

i started *and* finished her dress on saturday ... nothing like a deadline to get me moving on a project. everything turned out lovely. she looked beautiful (of course there were things i would have changed ... but overall i LOVED it.) we were surrounded by friends and family who truly care about our little family. robby gave a beautiful blessing ... overall it was a FABULOUS day.

...

here is a picture of our little family.

here is our family with robby's mom, who joined us for the blessing, then headed off to her church to sing ... then joined us again for food after.

finley with my parents. pictures of finley ... i mean is *was* her special day. i sure think she looked cute!close up pictures of her outfit ... headband (all of the flowers are on hairclips ... so they are removable ... and finley can wear them when she gets older and grows more hair)diaper cover ... nicole called them "boy shorts" they looked soooo cute on her under her dress.some close-ups of her dress.and the baby shoes that i made totally completed the ensemble! i absolutely LOVED how they turned out ... and the flower clips just made them 100% cuter!

EDIT: the white fabric was some of the 90/10 cotton lycra knit that i use for my modest clothing (http://www.jocole.net/), the white netting was leftover from the curtains in my living room (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90111980), the headband was made from some nylons.

men in her circle: robby, my dad, scott, tj, my grandfather, and chad kelland ... patrick was supposed to be there, but couldn't because his wife and daughter were sick.

aidan loves his great-grandparents

aidan loves his great-grandparents, g-papa and gigi (ya know ... "G"reat-"G"randma.) yup ... he loves 'em ... and balloons ... let's not forget balloons ... he points them out in stores, on tv, while driving in the car.

...

last weekend my parents watched aidan while robby and i attended his work christmas party. my parents had planned to attend a retirement party so they took aidan with them. he was the life of the party saying "hi" and patting them to everyone he saw. all of the sudden he yelled "papa" and started running away from them. my mom tried telling him that "papa" was with her (my dad is called "papa" and was standing next to her). he continued to run. as my mom made her way through the crowd her found aidan. he was at the feet of his great-grandfather and was patting his legs, motioning he wanted to be picked up and excitedly saying "papa" over and over.

...

i LOVE that aidan knows his family and is excited when he is with them! when my mom was telling me about what happened it brought joy into my heart. this is why we are so lucky to be able to live close to family.

...

updates for this week:

first words the nursrey leader said to me on sunday as i went to pick up aidan ... "what did you feed him for breakfast?! pixy stix?!" apparently he was more exuberant than usual.

...

aidan's vocabulary is amazing me everyday. he can now count to 10 and uses sentances (6 words so far!) sheesh! he's growing up so fast!

aidan loves his paci

aidan loves his paci. we've been trying to limit it, sometime is works sometimes it doesn't. these 2 pictures CRACK me up. he's silly even when he has a paci in his mouth. and yes he really does walk around with 2 pacifiers in his mouth.

...

head on over to the jocole blog ... i'm talking about clothing personalities this week (on monday, wednesday and friday)

aidan loves to color

aidan loves to color ... i, on the other hand, don't like trying to keep him contained while coloring. he hasn't learned yet that we ONLY color on paper. he likes to try to color on clothing, his hands and arms and the couch!! yikes. (on saturday he found a pen at my moms and colored ALL over the tablecloth on her coffee table ... sorry mom!!!!)

i couldn't sleep

on wednesday (11/12/2008) i couldn't sleep while the kids were napping, so i decided to be productive instead.
...

i was having groceries delivered (i will be working on a separate post) that morning, so i cleaned out and reorgainzed BOTH fridges/freezers to make room for the incoming food.

...

i put away ALL of the groceries (usually there are a couple bags that hang around on the counter or table) (i don't know if you can tell from the pictures ... but it was ALOT of food)

while i was trying to put away our food in the pantry i decided that it needed to be organized, so i pulled EVERYTHING out and then putting it all back.

all my spices are in the 2 plastic containers so i can find everything easily and they are moved out of the way to get to the things behind them easily

while everything was out of the pantry i realized that my counters could use a good cleaning, so i cleaned them entirely (like COMPLETELY moving the microwave, etc.) while i moved the microwave ... realized it was nasty and scrubbed it super good.i also reorgainzed 2 cupboards to fit everything better (you know all the plastic bowls and containers that always go crazy ... plus all their lids)

i even had time to make dinner ... ranch chicken (similar to my butter chicken) and roasted potatoes

aidan kept himself entertained by watching yo gabba gabba and imagination movers ... plus playing with fashion. he's very into socks right now ... especially MY socks. these ones are pink with silver crowns ... haha! and he has foam blocks on his arms (he sitck his arms through the holes) it reminds me of popeye and his huge forearms!after the kids were asleep i went to target to return some items, did some dishes (i haven't had any dirty dishes on my counter for a week ... we've been trying to empty the dishwasher immediately and put the dirty ones IN the dishwasher ... what an amazing concept!)

then i sat down on my sofa, flipped on the tv and worked on my new project (which requires a separate post!)

just thinking about it makes me tired. my feet were aching by the end of the day, but my kitchen looks great and i feel better when i'm in there cooking or whatever.

aidan loves his momma

aidan loves his momma ... he loves giving me hugs and kisses ... CONSTANTLY!! check out my one arm camera skills, while holding 2 children!