Four Seasons

I finally did some actual decorating in the kitchen. My mom and I have been working on this for at least a year. She brought some photographs of Colorado scenery on one of her visits here. I picked out some that I liked, and she was going to frame them.

I decided that four photos would fit in the space in the dining area. I chose to do the Colorado mountains as they can be seen in each of the four seasons. We decided on a brushed nickel frame to tie in with the hardware on the kitchen cabinets.

My mom matted and framed them, I think they turned out really nice, and look great in the space. Eddie did a great job hanging them, they are evenly spaced, and at the same height, thanks to the laser level. Just don't look to close at the order. I had originally planned for them to be in the typical order that you would usually think about the seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.

11 Months

I took this picture the day after her 11 month birthday, she was just not feeling well or looking well the day before.

My baby is getting closer to that year milestone everyday. The most exciting changes in the last month are getting her first 2 teeth, and standing alone. She will walk with the blue hippo, or while holding your fingers, but has not mastered her balance just yet. So she is not walking at 11 months as I had predicted.

Her hair is so long now that it falls in her eyes, and it is uneven in the back since it is the hair she had when she was born. I am thinking about breaking the waiting until the 1st birthday before cutting it rule. We are going to the beach for Labor Day, so I might want to cut it for cute pictures, and it is getting long and unruly.

She is eating more, and makes a grunting noise and sorta points when she wants something. It is usually something the other kids have. She eats crackers, pita chips, smoothies, cherrios, some veggies, and pretzels. She is much better about not gagging on everything she puts in her mouth.

She has been especially fussy and needy since she started teething several weeks ago. She was running a high fever all night yesterday, today the fever is mostly better but she doesn't look or seem too well. At first we were just blaming teething, but by Friday she broke out in a rash all over her back, that spread to her tummy on Saturday. After doing some research on the internet, my best guess is that she had Roseola.

Here she is a few days later, feeling and looking more like herself. See those two cute bottom teeth.

Brand Name

Brian has a friend from school, Logan, that had Z-strap shoes, you can get them at Shoe Carnival according to the information Brian came home with. I had no idea what he was talking about, and I wasn't planning to get them for him anyway.

I bought the girls some cute new outfits for Fall, but Brian doesn't need that much, just a few long sleeve shirts, and some new jeans. So I was feeling a little bad, so when he asked for Skechers light up shoes, (they also make Z-strap, I have learned) I started to look into it. Um...they are $50!! Yikes I am not spending that kind of money on shoes he will grow out of in six months.

What can I say, I am a softy, and they were on sale.

However, I can't believe that at almost 6 he is already reconizing and wanting brand name items. I guess those marketing people on TV know what they are doing. Time to start limiting our TV viewing.

Jones Look-alike Meter

Eddie's Little Mini-Me.

I had hoped to tip the scales a little on this one.

A good combination of both.

Certifiably "Crunchy"

I now have an award to prove it.

Goals

Last night I was listening to our weekly Juice Plus team call, and one of the things we were discussing was setting goals, and it didn't always have to be a business related goal. In fact one lady with small children had a goal to go to the bathroom all by herself. I laughed, and I can totally relate!

So today as I was standing in the bathroom with all my children huddled around my feet as I was drying my hair, I had just taken a shower with Danielle trying to crawl in the shower, and also had the pleasure of all the kids visiting me when I was using the bathroom (Brian asks, "why does it smell in here."). For a moment I thought, why can't I be in the bathroom alone, I can see why that is a good goal to have, but then I realized that it won't be too long before the kids get bigger, and they won't want to be close all the time, so I just looked down, smiled and went back to drying my hair. I am happy that all of my kids want to be around, some goals can wait.

Standing Alone

While playing with the kids today, Danielle would stand up to put a ball in her new (that we got down from the actic) gumball machine, and then she would let go, and stand all by herself for a few seconds. I predict that she will be taking steps by the time she is 11 months. I hope the video I took will post on the blog.

Nope the video will not load :(