from the mouth of Addelyn

Quotes of the weekend:

After climbing into bed with us the other morning..."Dad, your breath smells like salad and poop."

When I laid in bed with Addelyn the other night before she fell asleep. She put her stuffed dog, Lucy, next to her. She told me, "I'm going to re-tect her and she is going to re-tect me tonight."

I love it. She makes me smile.

projects

Addelyn loves our neighbor boy, "A." He loves to come over and play at our house. In fact, one afternoon he knocked on our door five times while Addelyn was napping! He has different interests than Addelyn so it has been fun to see what they end up doing together when they play. After one time of "being the baby" at our house, "A" has convinced Addelyn he doesn't want to do that ever again! He brought over his pheasant feathers the other day and they did a project together- cutting the feathers. I sat and listened to their conversations and just had to smile. Last weekend, he had her running around our house- "hunting" rabbits with his little nerf gun. Ahhh the fun of having neighbor kids!

5 months

*Note- this was the lazy parent's month when it came to putting a white onesie under the sticker to take a picture. Before bath we threw the stickers on for some quick pics. Now we know- those stickers really take to the skin well!!!

Jace - at 5 months: (we are getting closer to 6 months already, just a little behind on this post!)
*Has 2 teeth
*Started eating some food- cereal, applesauce, carrots and sweet potatoes so far. Wasn't too interested at first and now he gets EXCITED about getting that food into his mouth!
*Smiles, smiles, smiles! love it!
*Is "loved on" by his big sis- daily incidents. She can really get him to smile or laugh though and he watches her closely.
*Goes to bed between 7:30-8:30 and eats 2-3 a night still (then falls right back asleep). We tried a bottle for one of those feedings so I could sleep more but he isn't having it. Only wants me to feed him at night. Yep, the five month tiredness has hit.
*Loves his exersaucer- AKA Chucky Cheese is what we call it at our house
*Recognizes us- gets really excited when he hears Mark or my voice
*Is a big boy- wearing 9 month clothing!
*Has hair finally starting to fill in
*Gives us some cute giggles
*Gives us some very serious looks at times
*Is laid back- such a good baby. He hardly cries or fusses unless he is hungry or tired!
*Still isn't tolerant of dairy, although I have been sneaking more bites here and there of "dairy items" and he hasn't seemed to notice
*Likes to grab onto and study his toys
*Sits up in the "tripod" pose but tips easily
*Takes 2-3 naps a day, usually pretty consistent but has random days
*Is such a sweet baby boy! Jacers, we love you!

our buddy cole

One of my best friends that I grew up with - Arika- came up to visit with her little boy, Cole, the other day. Cole will be one year in December. He is at a fun stage- all over the place and into everything! I forget that part of the baby stage- AKA- my house is not ready. I have some baby proofing work to do. It was so fun to see them and have our kids together. Hopefully Cole and Jace will be great friends. Addelyn really loves Cole.
As you can see, she gave him LOTS of LOVE (that is what we'll call it)!

big, bad wolf

No reason to be scared of this big, bad wolf!

mark junior

Can you find the little girl napping in this photo? I actually looked around her room before I found her. She is going to be just like her dad- head under the pillow! (Now as long as I can keep her from needing a fan in her face.....)

spa treatment anyone?

We are trying to do what we can to get rid of a really bad case of cradle cap. This poor babe has had it since he was weeks old. Recently, he has started to itch at it- which makes me feel terrible when he wakes up in the morning with a bloody scalp. So we have tried some special spa treatments at our house. First, olive oil. Next avacado. Last try, a special healing clay from Jess. Nothing has worked so far, at least not more than a few days! Any great suggestions for us?

the best thing...

....is a toothy grin from the sweetest little baby boy ever!
(Two teeth already- got them at four months)

sibling love

I love, love, love to watch my kids interact. Of course, Addelyn has loved on Jace since day #1. Finally, Jace is giving her some love back! Tonight, Mark and I went upstairs to change after work and put Jace in his highchair. Addelyn was playing in the living room and Mark headed downstairs and called for me to come too. We hid at the top of the stairs, peeking around the corner and watching the kids for a few minutes. Addelyn would run around, yell, smile, giggle- do everything she could to get Jace's attention and he would give her the best grins and giggles. It makes me excited to think of this as the beginning of their relationship. It makes me wonder what their friendship will look like as the years go by.

Their moment of unsupervised fun ended quickly as Addelyn pulled up a chair next to his highchair and started to try to lift him out. "You want to get out, right buddy?" she said.

family pics

I'm not going to lie, pretty excited to get some of these pics hanging on our walls. Bryn is a friend of mine from high school, I'm so proud of her and her amazing photography skills. Just glad she is willing to come back to Iowa to share those skills with us!

http://www.brynmarae.com/2011/11/hoskinson-family-cedar-falls-ia-family-photography/

A Sound Among the Trees by Susan Meissner

Another Blogging for Books post! If you like free books, I suggest you check out their website.

This story has two settings. The past and the present. It focuses on a home, Holly Oak, that is filled with history. As a young bride, Susannah Page was rumored to be a Civil War spy that lived in Holly Oak. Her great-granddaughter Adelaide, who currently lives in Holly Oak, doesn’t believe that Susannah’s ghost haunts the mansion, but she does believe that the house brings along with it issues from the past. Marielle comes into the story when she marries into the family and it isn’t long before she also sees the pain the home brings into the lives of women who live there. Throughout the story, Marielle searches for the truth about Susannah and the past of Holly Oak.

I was not sure if I'd like this book, however, ended up having a hard time putting it down. I liked the story line and liked that the setting was current, however, that it went back into history as Marielle searched for the truth of the women of the past of Holly Oak. I did think that there would have been a little more of an exciting ending but it wasn't what I expected. Overall, I would suggest this to those that are looking for a good fiction book to read!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the Blogging for Books book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

River Valley Pumpkins

The Friday before Halloween, Ilene's daycare crew plus a few moms plus Katie and Lisa (two of Ilene's daughters) headed to Steamboat Rock to the pumpkin farm. It is owned by a guy I went to high school with so I was excited to check it out. It was fun to go back to my hometown for an "outing."

It was a cold, sunny day. Jace was bundled up and just hung out, happily the whole time, despite the cold. I'm so thankful to have such a great, laid back kiddo- makes life so much easier on days like these!

There was a great corn box to play in. The kids loved it!

Katie took the day off from teaching and came along! We were so glad to get to hang out with her. She used to watch Addelyn all the time when she was little- it is fun when she gets to have some time with Jacers too! We love her!

Oh Ilene. Where to even start? She is much more than a babysitter or daycare person. She loves our kiddos and is such an amazing person. We are so thankful for her.

Raegan and Lisa and the kiddos on our tractor ride!

My beautiful little girl

The kids loved the tractor ride

At the beginning of the corn maze- with my sweet kiddos.

In the big ole barn- there were ropes to swing on, saddles to ride, and hay to play in.

The best picture on the bus ha ha.

The whole crew

Running through the hay maze

And last but not least, Lisa and Jacers. Lisa is another of Ilene's daughters. She moved to New York this summer so we miss getting to see her. We were so excited that on her long weekend home- we got to spend the day with her. She is so special to us. What a great morning!

halloween 2011

The Friday before Halloween, we made our way to Steamboat Rock for some trick or treating action. Papa Marvin was busy doing fieldwork but he even took a break to see the kiddos.

Great Grandma Kramer always has her special touch with babies. It seems like both Addelyn (when she was a baby) and Jace just fit well in her arms!

Gotta love the chunky chicken! Nonnie Lora sure does!

Jacers got some cuddle time with Great Grandma Stewart.

My sweet little trick or treaters, the kitty and the chicken.

How can you not love this little kitty?

The four generations

Grandma Stewart loves her little kitty!
So glad we got a day of seeing some of the special grandparents and great grandparents!

leaves

On one of those beautiful fall Saturdays, Addelyn helped her daddy rake leaves. Don't worry, she got plenty of jumping time in too!

carving the pumpkin

We did end up buying a pumpkin right before Halloween so we could carve one too. What is Halloween without pumpkin carving?
Of course, Mark ends up doing all the work. This year, Addelyn did some help scraping out and also poking holes so we could cut out the shapes for the eyes/nose/mouth. She was a bit distracted though as Alec, our neighbor boy came over and carved with us. Addelyn LOVES this kiddo and really loves to play with him so often we invite him over to play or for dinner.


Mark hard at work, as usual. I take pictures and join in some of the fun. Jace was in his chair this year and didn't even make a picture. Whoops! He was there, just not real excited about the pumpkin fun. Just wait til next year!

The finished product!