Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Why was six afraid of seven?

Because seven ate(eight) nine!  Haha!

Jared and Novalee are at a really fun age where they come home from school and share with us funny jokes they've heard.

Anyways,


Six...Seven....Eight....Nine.


Those are the months that Kinsley turned and I never blogged about.

I'm awesome. ;)


So here is the run down.

Month Six
 Just before turning six months she started trying to sit up on her own.
 We finally started feeding her real food.  Out of all our kids, we waited the longest to feed her solids.  She seemed so content without it and we were a little lazy about it.  She was SOOO happy to finally have it.  Probably because she was so old when we started feeding her, she took to it like a pro.
 Yummy!
 She picked up the sitting up on her own pretty quickly.

 She was in 6-9 Months clothes.  Just perfect.



 Yes, she's chewing on the bag of extra christmas lights.  Don't worry I took it from her.  Isn't her face so clean?  ;)

 Wes and I are suckers for outfits with ears.  
So cute!


Month Seven

 I think she was a little grumpy about wearing dolly's skirt on her head.
 Around seven months she started to do this downward dog pose and look between her legs.  So cute.  I don't think any of the other kids ever did that.  We also noticed around this time that even though she can't really say any words, she will mimic you while you sing to her (mumbling and grunting only of course.)  She likes to hear "I'm a child of God."  
 We spent Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Crockett's house in Arizona.

 Where it was nice and warm.

 Santa brought Kinsley a bear for Christmas.
 All the excitement of her first Christmas wore her out and she fell asleep on the floor while playing with a new toy.  :)  Haha!
 She turned seven months on Christmas day.  She also started pulling herself up onto things around that time.

 Snuggles from Grandma.

 The lucky little girl and three other lucky little ones, got to go to Disneyland for Christmas.

 She had fun!  So did we!
Can't beat being able to hang out on California sand in December!


Eight Months
 She fell into/onto the drawer of the entertainment center and gashed her face.  So deep, probably permanent. :(
 She went on her first bike ride.
 Here she is at Eight month exactly!
 With her squeezable sisters.  (Ohhh how I love that Sadie is such a little poser.)

What in the world?  Oh yeah, Sadie dumped out all the markers again. 


Nine Months.
 Somewhere between eight and nine months she graduated to 12 month clothes.  She also showed her "assertive" personality and absolutely refused to eat baby food anymore.
Her eyes also started to change color.  They were at first very olive brown and now they are starting to look more red brown like the rest of the brown eyed crew in the fam.
 Her first time touching grass and not crying.

 What? Markers again!  Oh Sadie...you're killing me. :)
 She recently started using her food for hair conditioner.  
I wish I could say she is the only child of mine to have done this.  
I seriously wish.  :)

 Sunday, one day before nine months at Daddy's birthday.

 She is busy and she would rather move around and explore, than snuggle.  But she is also reserved and she doesn't just smile for anyone, you generally have to earn it.  She seems very sure of what she wants and lets you know.  And she loves her big brother and sisters.  
Standing all on her own!  She's been doing it for probably a few weeks now.  Every now and again she will get brave and try to take a step and fall.  At this moment she is trying to climb up onto a children's activity table.  Yikes!  She's so ready to be a big girl!  We're not ready for it though.  





Sunday, February 17, 2013

Framed

I wanted to have a mirror in our bedroom but didn't want to pay the price of buying a new one.  So I thought I would try and make my own.

About 3 months ago I found this one at Thrift City for 50% off $9.99.  Not bad.  
 (It looks like it was a mirror originally attached to a dresser.)

So I went to Lowes and bought trim, stain and sand paper.  

I stained the trim the color I wanted and cut it to the size it needed to be.

Then I took the old frame off the mirror.  
Here is a mid step, where I was checking to make sure I cut the wood to the right size.

Then I hit a snag.  I couldn't figure out how to make the frame hold together.  I stabled the back, I wood glued it, liquid nailed it, put nails into it and still once it was attached to the back of the mirror, the frame would separate in the corners.  So annoying and time consuming!  (I even gave up and one point just hung it up with huge cracks in the corners.)  I  guess I was just too lazy to ever look online at how to do it right.

Finally Wes suggested L brackets.    
 It worked!  Holy Hallelujah   

I'm not sure there was a huge savings after adding up all the materials to make my own framed mirror.  And holy cow it was a headache!

But you can't beat being able to look at something and saying, "I made that."

Would I do it again?  You bet.
Cuz I made that!  ;)


Six on Valentine's Day

Novie turned six on Valentines day.  We had a little get together with my family on Sunday at our house to celebrate.  Nothing fancy, just family.

 I think the cousins had fun getting together.
 I love that Sterling is doing rabbit ears to the girls, Novalee is about to unleash her feisty spirit, Jared's dancing around and Sadie looks dazed, all so classic.  :)

Novalee took a really long time to think of her birthday wish.
 So when she finally had it figured out and was about ready to blow out the candles, Sterling was already one step ahead of her.  

 So cute! 

Grandma and Papa.

 She looks so grown up here.  


 This was her favorite present.  It is a monster high journal.  It has a lock on it that is voice activated and only lets in Novalee.  I told her to make the password something quick and easy so she wouldn't forget it.  I suggested "pumpkin" since that is what Wesley calls her.  But she insisted that it was, "I love my mommy!"  So sweet!  I loved hearing that over and over again the next day.

 My new favorite picture of Novalee.  I love how she is so creative.  I can just hear her saying, "Arghhh!"

Then on Thurday it was actually her birthday.  So I woke up early and made her a special breakfast.

 Sadie has started waking up in the middle of the night and coming into our room to ask Daddy if he will "nuggle" (snuggle) her.  ONE time he let her and now we have a little "nuggle" monster.  Anyways, the night before Valentine's day Daddy was trying to be more firm so she wouldn't always be getting up and he asked her a couple of times to go back to bed.  

I guess she thought the couch was a better option.  I was pretty startled when I flicked on the light and glanced over at the couch to see a little sleeping person on it.


 Novalee woke up to pink pancakes, pink eggs, pink sprinkled cinnamon toast and pink apple juice.  
Just what a birthday princess should have.

(Daddy surprised everyone with a box of chocolates.  Sadie thought hers needed a little more sugar on it and used the breakfast whipping cream to decorate the chocolates.)


Happy birthday Novalee!  Time is flying by and you are growing up so quickly.  Sometimes you are so silly and goofy.  And sometimes you are so sincere and thoughtful.  I love that you have so many sides to your big personality.  I love that you love to take care of others.  I love that sometimes I just find you in your room writing in your journal.  I love that you have so many journals and that is what you love to collect.  I love that you love learning about the church.  I love that you are so determined when you have made up your mind to do something. You are so creative and artsy.  You have an amazingly quick mind.  You have a natural gift for numbers and math.  I love that school and reading seems to come so naturally to you.  You have so many other wonderful and special talents.  You are just the girl any mother would be so happy to have.  
                                                       Thank you for lighting up our lives!