Last Monday in November

Today is the last day of November, and it happens to be Monday. Every few Monday's I like to confess to some of the oopsies and not me's that make life more true and interesting. For example I couldn't resists having Summer wear this hat, even against her will, just because she looked so darn cute. It really wasn't cold enough to warrant a hat, as you can clearly tell from the lack of a jacket, but that hat is precious, just look at it. It makes me want to go out and buy all of the cute hats I can possible find because I know cute hats make great photos, but I also know the the length of time for wearing such hats and I hate to admit but Summer just doesn't really like to wear hats. I need to work on that ...




Maybe I should take different pictures each day with her wearing a different hat. 365 days of a cute girl wearing different hats. That is a fun idea, I should start it January 1st - oooh I better work on finding a lot of hats, feel free to send me any old cute hats you may have laying around.

Goodbye November

November is quickly leaving us and I need to post the rest of the November related pictures, you know like the one of us on Thanksgiving and the turkey. We went grocery shopping at wal-mart earlier and guess who was sitting around the photo area - Santa! Already!!! We could not pass up on the opportunity for a free 5x7 Santa photo and since he had candy canes Summer was willing, reluctant, but willing and she did a great job, after the first picture looking stunned, scared, and ready to run, she smiled for the second photo and her reward for being so still was the two small candy canes sitting next to Santa. Anyway, since I made the point that it is technically Christmas season now, let me get out the rest of the pictures that shout November or Thanksgiving.

Here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving day.

Doesn't this just look scrumptious? And do you love the word scrumptious as much as I do?


Papa & Summer showing the camera some love.


Daddy & Summer showing the camera some love.


Me cooking with real herbs, and don't say the H, it is silent like erbs.


Here is Summer napping that afternoon, I guess it is true what they say about turkey making you sleeping, or it could just be her normal nap catching up with her:o)


It really was a lovely holiday, exhausting and a lot of cooking, but nice to be with family and friends.

Thankful

While most people spend Thanksgiving together with family, I spent Thanksgiving, and the day before, preparing the most awesome Thanksgiving dinner ever. On Wednesday I made a banana bread and three desserts, a pumpkin cheesecake, a pumpkin banana pie and apple crisp. Then on Thursday I got up and got the turkey ready - juicy was the theme for the bird this year. I did a lot of online research and it paid off, the bird was indeed very juicy. I also made all my own sides, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, and add a few olives, pickles, cranberries and rolls, dinner was a delicious success.

Summer enjoyed it mostly, by the time we got to eat, 1:30 ish, it was nap time and she was tired. She managed to stay awake to eat some of the food but fell asleep right after while we watched our yearly National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. She had a great 2 hour nap, half while on dad, the other half while in the living room floor. We spent the afternoon with our good friends the Springston's and all and all it was a great holiday.

Today I woke up, got dressed and left for "work" or so I told Summer as I dashed out the door and headed to Kohl's for some black Friday shopping. I think I did good, I am all done Christmas shopping and if I can control my spending in December we should be all set. We also put up the tree today and it looks good. Really the only thing I haven't done lately is take pictures, and with such a pretty girl ...


Such a shame, but we do have plans to go out on Sunday to take family pictures for the holiday card. I have no idea what we are going to wear - hopefully the outfits just work. I guess we will find out soon enough.

Pieces of Art

Here is the cute hand turkey I imagined while trying to take a nap yesterday. All the feathers are cut outs of Summer's hand. Kris helped draw the face and I taped and glued it all together. We will use this as our centerpiece for Thanksgiving.


This is the ceramic turkey plate Summer made two weeks ago. Once fired the thing came out very nicely. I want Summer to use it for Thanksgiving but I will probably just buy a plate holder and hang it up instead. After all it is ceramic and very fragile, and while I trust Summer would be careful, accidents do happen.


The cute little turtle lives in our entertainment center. He is a sweet little guy, Summer's first painted ceramic piece. He came out better than I expected, I might go back later and get him a matching(ish) brother, but that place isn't the cheapest and I want to get papa a holiday mug, that seems like a good gift for a coffee drinker! I need to find some good hand Christmas tree patterns.

Turkey Time

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Thanksgiving is a time to show off your cooking skills, or your shopping skills if your cooking skills fall short. This year I took Summer to the Artful Potter, the place where she painted her ceramic turtle, to let her paint a Thanksgiving turkey plate. We went with our friends Jessica, Chloe and Liam. First the girls painted the back of the plate, a good idea since no one will see the back :o) then after that Summer was ready to quit. We turned the plate over and teacher came around and painted the fingers and hand, then the fingers and hand got pressed onto the plate and we decorated the edge of the plate to create a very lovely Thanksgiving turkey plate.

Here is Summer painting the back of her plate.


Here is the teacher painting Summer's hand. She actually enjoyed having her hand painted and wanted to do it again.


Next they teacher pressed the painted hand onto the plate.


Look, a turkey!


The plate came out so nice after they fired it. I am going to take a picture of it and the turtle so you can see how it looks. It will be neat to see how much her hand grows by next year. I have another hand project I want to do when Summer wakes up from her nap, a nice colorful hand turkey that we can use as a centerpiece for our dinner on Thursday. I am so excited, anyone else?

Silly me

Earlier in the week Summer and I were in the living room watching TV while Kris was outside cooking burgers on the grill. I called out to him, "Whatcha doing babe?" Summer looked at me all confused and said to me, "you just called him Babe. His name is Kris" ...



I was playing with Summer a few minutes ago and was taken back by how well she speaks. Her sentences are long and detailed, she has no problem getting her point out - here are a few things she is saying to me right now.

"I have books, you can read that book, are you ready?"
"I miss one page" (she skipped a page and went back)
"all done" (with that book)
"what you doing?" (to me while I am on the computer)
"were gonna put this right there" (as she sets a book aside)
"we can get it later" (to the book)
"hey this one upside down" (about one of the books)
"type it like that on your computer" (telling me to type stuff from the book in my computer haha)

I love how well she speaks now, she is such a cutie.

The Duck Park

Many blog posts are about the duck park because we are there quite a bit. The park is close to our house, well a few miles, and has a ton of birds from geese, ducks, pigeons, to some other weird looking birds. Plus the park has bees and turtles, and of course all the play equipment. Last week Papa and I took Summer to the park and I brought along the camera. I didn't expect much because I have been to this park with my camera many times, but it turns out I got a lot of great pictures.

I got a picture of a bee:


A picture of a turtle:



And a few pictures of the birds of course:


The birds were amazing, and apparently hungry, at least for bird seed. Summer had a blast and so did papa, the birds were so brave they were eating the seeds out of his hand.



It was actually really neat to watch, those birds are not normal!

And here is my favorite picture of the birds and Summer, it reminds me of that other famous bird photo, surely you know the one I am talking about.


Tomorrow is suppose to be nice out, maybe we will go to the park again.

Fire Station Tour

Last week I took Summer to a local fire station. It was not the ideal time to go because she normally naps at 1:30 but that was the only time they had, needless to say she fell asleep in the car on the way and wasn't in the best mood upon being woken up, but she still did good and she made it through the tour with only telling me she wanted to go bye bye about 15 times. I kept telling her soon :o)

Casey and Ana met us there, the fireman who was our tour guide was really sweet and did a great job showing us around. He even put on all his fireman gear, which was actually kinda scary looking if you want to know the truth, especially to a 2 year old.


Summer was nice enough to stand on and around the fire truck so I could feed my addiction, I mean so I could take a few pictures.



We were there over an hour and Summer was awake the whole way home, yet she was tired. She fell asleep soon after we got home and slept late but I think her and Ana had fun even if it was a little weird for them. They really liked the hats, pencils, erasers, rulers, bracelet and other trinkets they got.

I love her (fill in the blank)

Summer still amazes me every single time I look at her. I wonder if I will ever stop the amazement, how can this beautiful awesome little girl be my baby? How did she get those lush eyelashes and full pouty lips? Where did she get that amazing eye color? How is it possible to grow such a beautiful thing inside you? I love every single thing about her.

Starting at the bottom, I love her feet, which are big and cavemanish, and her little toes, or piggies, yep every single one. I love her little fat knees and thighs, and her butt is so squishable. I love her little belly and her belly button, and her beauty mole. I love her little arms, and hands, and fingers, and fingernails. I love her neck, and her head, her face, her eyes, her nose, her mouth, her ears. I can't think of a single thing I don't love.

Most of the time I look at my daughter in awe, I feel lucky that she is mine yet sad that she has grown so fast. I love the way she looks at me and tells me she loves me this much as she stretches out her arms, or this bitty as she holds her thumb and fingers together. I love to watch her hug her daddy and tell him she loves him.


I love how photogenic she is, I love that she lets me take photos, I love that she smiles, and poses, and laughs.

I guess I just love every single thing about her.

Splish and Splash

Baths are a fun relaxing time at my house. Summer plays in the tub while I wash my face, brush my teeth, or sit next to the tub and do sudoku puzzles. Summer loves those crayons that are made for the tub. At first I hated them, I hate a mess, but a few nights ago Summer drew the letter C inside the tub all by herself! It was backwards but still a very nice backwards C, and I didn't even know she could recognize the letter C yet. She already knows B, A, X, and a few other letters, but knowing the letter C was new. I guess I don't hate those crayons anymore.


Yesterday I also discovered two new upper molars have broken through. I keep telling Summer she is going to get new teeth and when I felt them, to my surprise, I told Summer she had new teeth. We smiled, I don't think she understands, but it is still neat. The upper right molar has been there a few days, the upper left is really new. I put the dates in her baby book. I wonder when the bottom molars will come through, I will have to keep checking - at least she lets me check.

A Ham

My child is a wonderful little model and such a ham! Sometimes I just want to fix her hair and throw a cute shirt on her, put up the sheet in the living room and take a few pictures. I need better lights, natural lights are nice and all, but it just isn't bright enough. Feel free to send me nice bright studio light, I won't mind. Until then I will keep trying and Summer will keep posting and being the cute little ham that she is. At least she is enjoying herself, and so am I.

The lone turtle

Yesterday Summer and I met a friend and her two children at the Artful Potter and enjoyed watching our children paint ceramics. Paint and not break, nothing was broken, not even a little turtle toe! I didn't know if Summer would do ok or not, we haven't ever painted anything like ceramics before, but Summer did a great job. I only helped a very little bit touching up the white spots, oh and I did the eyes and the mouth, but Summer really did the majority of the painting.


She handled the brush nicely. I tried to give her two brushes but she didn't grasp the concept of not mixing the paint, but that might be ok, might look better all mixed together anyway.


I was going to paint a cup but I didn't have time, Summer was done painting after 15 minutes, it didn't take her long at all, then I had to point out all the white spaces and have her get some paint on those spots, then I had to do the eyes and the mouth.

We are going back next week - Summer will hear a Thanksgiving story and create a turkey hand plate, that should be fun.

Happy 2 Year Old

Summer is a happy baby most of the time, and I am a lucky and happy mom all of the time. We are both on the mend (I think) and the weather has been amazing. Thanksgiving is coming up and we all have a lot to be thankful for. I can't wait to make dinner for us yum!

Today we hung out in the back yard enjoying the fresh air and sunshine. At first Summer was in a good mood and let me take a few pictures.


After I continued to snap photo after photo she became increasingly annoyed with me, imagine that. Of course once I showed her the pictures of her whining she asked to take more, so we played a game of fake crying and picture taking. I think this was a real whine picture, the rest didn't really come out. Darn the harsh sun and shadows!



I haven't been feeling well and haven't been up to taking many photos, I hope to get back on the ball and start taking photos again soon. I have to hurry before Summer turns into a teenager.

Tis the season

Tis the season to be SICK. Where did we get this - we meaning Summer and I. We both have runny stuffy noses and slight fevers and sound like a horse. I have already been sick for the past 2 weeks but this is something new and way more annoying. I am thankful it waited until after Halloween and before Thanksgiving but I sure hate being sick when it is 82 degrees and beautiful outside. I have zero energy but Summer seems fine, she is bouncing around all over the place.

She still has pretty eyes and a pretty smile, even if she sounds like a horse. I really need to get it on video.



I need to find some energy to take some more photos.

Happy Halloween!!!

Is it possible to have just one costume? I think we only had one costume last year, but this year we had three, mostly on accident. The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader costume was actually purchased last year but it was too big, the Philadelphia Cheerleader costume was purchased while we were on our trip last month, and the clown costume went with our costumes. They were all super cute costumes, of course putting a costume on a super cute child helps.


I think this was a great Halloween, we went to three Halloween parties. Summer has had so many cupcakes she should be good until Chloe's birthday in April. She played with all her little friends and perfected the "Happy Halloween" and "Trick or Treat" that I almost hate that its over. We have at least 10 Halloween books now and I have to put them away for next year. I could get the Christmas books out I guess, only 55 days or so until Christmas, can you believe it. I can't even believe today is November 1st, and the temperature was 80 out! I love the warm weather, we almost went to the park, but I am rambling, time change, it seems later, or was later yesterday yet I have to adjust. Summer seems to be adjusting just fine so far, she is still up 30 minutes later than normal and doesn't seen to be too annoying. Annoying, have I mentioned how annoying she has become lately? I don't know what is going on, I guess she is growing up and becoming opinionated and annoying. It doesn't bother me too bad but I hope it is just a phase. She is also clinging to me more lately, I don't really see it but when she prefers to stand by me instead of playing in her room with papa or daddy I guess they see it. Well, what can you do.

Oh and back to the trick or treating, the first house we came upon, Summer did go up to the door and she did knock and when the person answered the door she proudly held up her pumpkin and waited for the candy. She did not say trick or treat but it was still cute. Kris and I also dressed up as clowns and as we escorted her around the Ross's neighborhood it was warm and the moon was full and high, a great night to trick or treat. Evan and Sabrina came with us dressed as the mob, so a pack of clowns were safe from anything bad happening, and we got the "goods" - which luckily wasn't too much, and Summer knows she can only have three pieces at one time because eating more will cause a person to get sick and she will tell you this too.

I kinda wish candy was healthy and good for your teeth, it would make things so much simpler. It is not so I just really make sure we brush extra. Oh another Oh - Summer also won best costume, I got second :o) and we got two large baskets full of yummy things like olives and pasta and sauce. I am looking forward to making spaghetti! I hope everyone else had a wonderful Halloween, until next year when we get to do it all again.