Thursday's Three Small Successes

1. Caught up on my recent photography projects.  (Working on cover art for a friend's CD as he tries to raise money to pay off debt so he can enter into the religious life plus all my recent shoots in Kansas and Colorado!  You can also always check out my photography blog and leave a few comments!)

2. Baked a cherry cobbler and made it to Thanksgiving dinner at FOCUS without too many issues (other than Anni's eventual exhausted stranger danger breakdown and immediate return home).

3. Made an entirely gluten-free meal for a dear friend from Crossroads.  She is a FOCUS missionary in Denver and came up for dinner.  For those interested, we made White Chicken Chili (making sure to use gluten-free chicken broth), salad and gluten-free cornbread (we ended up using a mix for this, but soon after discovered a simple gluten free cornbread recipe thanks to my sister)!  She also brought delicious brownies (yep, also gluten free).  My husband was in heaven with their fudgy goodness!

And there you have it!  Also, just a little photo eye-candy... just because :).  Anni is loving the mirror concept!

Share your three small successes of this week and check out everyone else's at Faith & Family Live!

A girl and her daddy

Can it get much sweeter?

Favorite Day

Today is my favorite day, I like tomorrow and yesterday, but today is my favorite day.


This week was the big birthday celebration week. It was... wonderful :). Last year at this time I was still getting used to the rather debilitating nausea/vomiting that dominated 7.5 months of my year. The only food that sounded good was Arby's and we even had to leave there because something was burning and made the whole restaurant smell... well... in a way that made me want to puke.

This year... well this year I am mostly healthy and celebrating with a beautiful baby girl and my wonderful husband. (The fact that we were able to go places without me wanting to never leave my bed again was definite icing on the proverbial birthday cake.)

We started out with a trip to the art museum... because I haven't been to one since I was in school getting my art degree, and that's just a little ridiculous. It was also Anni's very first art museum (of many to come, I might add). I loved it. It reminded me of how much I don't know and refueled a desire for (someday) a master's in art history.

The view from the walkway between buildings at the DAM.

And on my actual birthday? Daniel helped me discover my new favorite restaurant. Gaetano's Italian. Not only was it delicious (like, seriously, they made manicotti just the way I like it and they had bread... yummy bread), but they have the coolest history! Check it out on their website. Daniel and I double checked that the bullet proof glass was still there as it claims. I highly recommend this place if you're ever in the Denver area... good food and bullet proof... what else can you want?



And finally, celebrating with Daniel's family this weekend. Football, everyone loving on our Nugget, cake, ice cream... life is good.






Happy Birthday to me.

The nugget turns 6 months old!

Little Miss Nugget has officially turned 6 months old!

Stats:

Length
25.75 in (50% or 90% adjusted)

Weight
15 lbs 2 oz (25-50% or 75% adjusted)

Head Circumference
16.5 in (25-50%)

So, all in all, we've got a big preemie on our hands! The doctor even wanted to make sure our carseat was big enough because Anni is so long (luckily we bought one that goes up to 32 inches).

Anni is really big into vocalizing and fine motor skills right now. Lots of picking things up, shaking them, passing them from hand to hand and definitely chewing on them! (No teeth yet, just lots of drool, one possible ridge and some crankiness.) She loves her feet and rolling really fast to her tummy. She likes to move once on her tummy but hasn't quite figured out how... so we hear the new whine squeak she's got going on a little more often. Her favorite position is definitely standing; she can bear her weight but obviously needs help with the whole balance thing :).

Anni has also started eating solids! She was kind of ambivalent on the rice cereal (ate it, but didn't care too much), but bananas mixed with rice cereal is a huge hit! I think the sweetness helps. She cries when we finish a bowl, so we tend to scrape it out as well as possible! We just do one meal a day (occasionally we skip it if it's just one of those days) and she tends to eat about two cubes of rice cereal mashed up with two banana slices. Such an adorable little oinker! Eventually we need to buy her a high chair, but as she doesn't sit up on her own yet, we figure it can wait a little longer. But while we're talking about it, does anyone love or hate your high chair? I'm all ears!

And that's Nugget at 6 months!

That Halloween Post

Our plans for Halloween sat at a pretty open zero for quite awhile. We figured Anni wasn't going to care too much and we just wanted to relax... so we had settled for a cute hand-me-down Halloween onesie and maybe a Sunday at the in-laws. Then Daniel told me that his office was having trick-or-treating for all of the FOCUS kiddos... and that the only requirement was to dress up like a saint. I didn't plan on going until a wonderfully talented and generous fellow FOCUS wife, Lisa, offered to loan us their Infant of Prague costume for the little nugget. (The reproduction statue to the right is similar to the two little ones we have in our house). Well, being Czech and always loving a visit to FOCUS' headquarters... we agreed :). We then ended up also having her wear it briefly on Halloween to show her grandparents.

So, despite being the wrong hand, I had to say this picture made me giggle a little with her peace sign (see statue). We also added a little blue ball and were on our way. Also, you may not be able to tell in these pictures, but my favorite part of the outfit is some really pretty white and gold lace on the edge of the cape.

Some of the staff and kids that dressed up :). I loved it! Can you pick out any? (Some of my favorites are Juan Diego with the tortilla chips, Moses with one of Juan Diego's maracas, the lost lamb, St. Francis checking out his loot and that cute little Infant of Prague.)

Commence Halloween Day festivities:

Cutest little pumpkin ever! Thanks for the hand-me-down, Katie! We loved it!

There is a sound that goes with this picture... can you imagine it?


Checking out the fall leaves (and, yeah, that's the orange halloween onesie underneath... I might be a little lazy :)).

More leaves! This girl is learning to bring those to her mouth, so we had to play a lot of tug o' war... but she enjoyed herself!


We did trick-or-treat (minus any candy) at one house. They were old friends of the family and hadn't met our little pumpkin as of yet. We lasted about 5 minutes before her exhausted crying sent us back home.

Had to share this. My husband is a wonderful pianist, but we definitely don't have the room for a piano, so he only gets to play at his parents. It is always a treat to listen to him play and I'm hoping Anni gets his skill! (Despite 5 years of lessons... I never really took to it.)

And there you have it, nugget's very first halloween! A year ago we had just found out we were pregnant and I spent the day lying on his parent's couch experiencing the beginning onslaught of exhaustion and "morning" sickness. So funny what a year of difference makes.