This and That

Grace-isms:

How did Jesus get her up to heaven? Did he drive a van or fly a plane? (talking about a dog)

Mom, can I wear this outfit out in public? (she's been very adamant about picking out her own outfit - down to the socks, shoes and hair barrettes - dressing herself and doing her own hair) Obviously there are times when I tell her Grace, you can't go out in public looking like that. :)

Samuel got stuck between the table and fence while I was making supper. He was so ticked off. :)

Haven't I seen this before?

Helping with the laundry...and finding that underwear can make a great necklace. Brings back memories...

Samuel at 10 months

Samuel has changed tremendously over the last month. At 10 months he...

eats 100% of what we eat (besides all of those "not until 1" foods)

pulls up on everything

is a climber

has decided he doesn't need to nurse anymore...a couple months earlier than I expected! :(

had his first ear infection

had his first bout of croup

always has a bruise on his head/face somewhere

is working on 2 more teeth

plays a bit rough sometimes...bites/pulls hair

had his first experience playing in the toilet water...we keep the lid closed now :)

switches positions from crawling to sitting to standing very easily

continues to army crawl like a pro

signs all done

loves balloons

only fusses when he's hungry or sleepy

waves consistently

LOVES Maggie (our dog)

always has a huge smile for you

continues to take a morning and afternoon nap

is exhausted and in bed around 7:15 and sleeps until 6:15

is hard to get a good picture of because he's always on the move! :)

Cupcakes

I had my first baking gig this weekend. A lady that Steve teaches with wanted several dozen cupcakes for a baptism. I made chocolate buttermilk filled cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting and pink lemonade cupcakes with lemonade buttercream frosting. They all tasted great but the pink lemonade cupcakes were a bit too sweet for me. I had fun experimenting and hopefully will get to do it again sometime. :)

Preschool

Grace had her first day of preschool this morning. She was so excited last night that she was literally jumping up and down. We found a sitter for the kids less than a minute from my school (seriously-Steve timed it at 49 seconds) :) for the days that she has preschool so that I can run and take her to preschool during my planning period and then pick her up from preschool and take her back to the sitter's over my lunch break. I love that I get to do that! Steve got to come and take her in too. It's crazy how fast time goes and we each shed a few tears after we were out of the building thinking about how it seems impossible for her to be that old already! :) She had a lot of fun and has talked about it MANY times since we've been home. 

Samuel at 9 months

This month has been full of changes for Samuel:

he has mastered sitting up and changing positions without being wobbly

he hasn't lifted his belly off the ground yet but continues to army crawl at rapid speed (see video below)

he pulls up to his knees

he eats 90% of what we eat and is a huge fan of food in general

we've started signing with him - just the basics like more, all done, drink and food

he says dada, mama, mom and no

he gets up on all fours but then goes back down to his belly when he actually wants to move

he is starting to mimic what we do (like blowing on hot food or making sounds with our mouths) 

he waves bye-bye

At his 9 month check-up he was in the 90th percentile for height (29 1/2 inches) and 25th percentile for weight (18 pounds 14 ounces.) The doctor was excited because he had such a nice growth spurt. He was in the 50th percentile in height and 10th percentile in weight at his 6 month check-up. He was amazed at the comeback he's made after how sick he was when he had pneumonia. That was exciting to hear. He's such a busy, happy little boy!

Summer Projects

Jill and I decided it was time to attempt canning. We really had no clue what we were doing but ended up with these beautiful canned peaches...all of which sealed! 

This is our first can of peaches...notice the glistening foreheads. We look pretty good for it being 2 a.m. :)

Jill has also been busy canning salsa and pasta sauce. I plan on attempting those as well now that we're back from vacation. Here is our first jar of peaches. Hopefully there will be many more summers of canning together to come. 

Another summer project was a family cookbook. I was so excited when they were delivered yesterday! We wanted a place to keep all of our favorite recipes and a place to save a lot of our grandma's recipes. Here's a quick preview of it.