Blog Contribution

I am very excited to be a blog contributor on Better Business Babe!  BBB is a online community of women who offer support in lifestyle, balance and business. My friend Andrea founded the BBB and recently asked me to contribute through writing on the blog.  My first post is "I Want to THRIVE, Not Just Survive."  I love having the opportunity to reach a whole group of people who wouldn't otherwise read my blog.  The link is here (the title below) and I am posting it in the side bar as well.  Go check it out!

I Want to THRIVE, Not Just Survive

Ingrid 9 months

 Oh Ingrid!  Her smile is contagious.  She is over 9 1/2 months old now.  We went to the doctor and she weighed 20 lbs 11 oz and was 29 1/4 inches tall.  She is a tall girl, between 90-95 percentile and weight is in the 85th or so.  She loves to eat whatever I put on her tray. I started out with baby food and I made about all of it and she loved it all.  Then I got lazy a couple weeks ago and just started giving her finger food and stuff that we were eating (with in reason).  I read a little bit about baby led feeding (weaning) and decided to just go for it.  She's doing really well with it, she loves little bits of meat, potatoes, cheese, peas, pretty much all fruits and veggies. that we've tried. I love watching her shovel it in her mouth :)  She has developed some more sounds now, ma ma and na na are now part of her vocab.  And she loves to making the rolling rrrrrr (think spanish speaker) noise with her tongue.   Maybe I should jump on teaching her spanish....

 Whoo hoo I'm 9 months old!!!

 Still just 2 little sponge bob teeth in there.  I think she's working on more though.  She is a great sleeper most nights but recent night wakings have made me think she's teething again.

Seattle, Sisters, Shopping

 Seattle, Sisters and Shopping are three words I love seeing in a sentence together!  A couple weeks ago I flew all by myself down to Seattle and met Michele and Lesha for a couple nights in Seattle.  It was officially celebrating Michele's birthday.  Michele picked me up from the airport at about 3:30 on Friday afternoon, Lesha met us soon after, and off we went!  I loved the shopping, mainly because I don't get to shop much where I live.  The conversation was so fun.  We went to The Cheesecake Factory both nights for dinner and took a table for far too long, just chatting away.  We stayed up til at least midnight both nights, we had to make the most of our time.

Ikea was a hit!  We didn't realize when we made the reservation but our hotel was really near to Ikea.  Lots of fun purchases there!  It was such a blessing to spend some really quality time with those girls.  I am really sad that we can't live closer, but at the same time it makes these times together that much more special.  It was so great of Reese to stay with our kids solo for 5 whole days while I met up with my sisters and then headed down to San Diego as well.  He did great with them and I even came home to a pretty clean house.  I look so forward to the years ahead when hopefully I'll be able to sneak away a little easier to meet my sisters.  Hopefully we'll go on lots of little get aways, but for now, I'll take what I can get.  And this little trip was a treat!

Grandparents and Easter

 Reese's parents came to visit the week of Easter.  It was a short but fun visit.  The kids just love to talk their ears off and show them everything they own (uh em Estelle).  We got some sun so we drove up Pillar Mt and got a nice view of the city.  Ingrid really warmed up to them, especially Poopa.

 Later on the day we drove out to Pyramid and looked around a bit.  Mop, me and the kids hiked out just a little ways to a site where there was plane crash.  We have always driven by it and seen the crosses, so we decided to walk out to them this time.  The view is beautiful.

 Since they were leaving Easter morning, we had an egg hunt the day before.  We had always gone to Reese's work Easter parties here for an egg hunt, so this was the first time we'd done one in our back yard.  It was awesome!

 Showing off their loot.

 The adults watching from the top.

My 3 kiddos all dressed up for Easter.  Our Easter service was really nice and they did an egg hunt for the kids afterward.

Ingrid 8 months

 She is almost 9 months old, what?!  She is so funny!  For a couple months now I've thought that she has such a great sense of humor for a baby.  She totally laughs at things that are actually funny.  Ingrid isn't real close to crawling, which is fine with me.  She doesn't spend much time on her tummy.  I think she'll go from sitting into the crawling position when she's ready for it.  Still just two teeth, but judging by the drool and runny nose, there are more coming soon.  We haven't had an appointment since 6 months but I am guessing that she's about 20 lbs.

 Ingrid loves to clap and now she clicks her tongue too.  And her hair.... it sticks straight up.  Doesn't matter what I do with it.

 Estelle really wanted to be in one ;)

And this is the position I'm referring to.  Leaning forward into the crawling position.

Ingrid 7 months

 I can't believe this chubby little girl is 7 months old (almost 8 now)!  She loves grabbing things, remember when the chalkboard used to sit nicely in the chair next to her.... yep.  She is a grabber!  I was sitting in church this morning with her on my lap, she took everything out of the diaper bag one by one, pulled my hair, grabbed Reese's zippers on his sweatshirt, and I can't even think about wearing a necklace or earrings!

 Man, this girl is cute and smiley and full of personality!

 Ingrid loves saying "Da da da"  and lately I've hear a few "na na na's "  She's just working toward "mama."  The picture above demonstrates how she loves to hold things above her head and play peek a boo.  Eating baby food is also a favorite of hers!

 Bath time is her fave, you should see her kicking and flailing her arms while she's in there! Too bad I hardly ever give her a bath, poor child.  With Lane in sports and a couple different bed times with the kids, the nightly routine rarely includes a bath, so we're pretty random about it!

Trying to grab the camera.  Yep she's a mover!

Hockey 2014-2015

Lane had a fun season of hockey this year.  It lasted from November through March 11th!  Whew!  He did really good and learned a lot!  He can skate so well, backwards weaving through cones, impressive to me!  He got a hat-trick award (3 goals in one game).  He says it's his favorite sport, so I guess we will continue it when we get to San Diego!

 Sitting in the penalty box :)

 Getting an award.

Lane in action!