Our Baby Girl is 4 Months Old!

Aelyn turned 4 months old on Thanksgiving day and had her 4 month visit on Tuesday.
Here are the stats:
Length- 26 inches 95%
weight- 16 pounds of roly poly cuteness 92%
Head size- 75%

Sweet baby girl,
We love you more and more every day. Overall, you are an extremely happy baby girl. We love to listen to your coos and squeals. You love to be cuddled and just melt into our arms when we hold you. You love to snuggle close to mommy in your wrap and be a part of whatever action is going on around you. You and your big sister seem to already have formed a special bond, and you are happy to receive the millions of kisses Layla, Mommy, and Daddy give you daily. Lately, you have been perfecting your reaching and grabbing skills. You can get a hold of many things now (especially mommy's hair, necklaces, and dinner plates) and immediately pull them to your mouth to test the flavor. Nursing is definitely one of your favorite activities, as can be seen by the fantastic sausage rolls you have for legs. You (usually) only get up one time during the night to eat and have thankfully started going back to sleep instead of having a 2 hour party afterwards. This makes for a much happier mommy come morning. Laying on your sheepskin while staring at the sky, tree branches, and shadows is another favorite of yours. And once you figure out how to get your arm out of the way, you will be rolling all over the place. Baby girl, we love you so much and cherish every moment we are blessed to spend with you.
Love,
Mommy, Daddy, and Layla

Wordless Wednesday ~ Our Masked Avenger

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2 tanks of gas- $50, Hundreds of miles of Turnpike Tolls- $40...

Spending the Thanksgiving holiday weekend with family- Priceless.

Layla and cousin Skyler exploring cousin Heidi's farm


My maternal Grandparents


Layla and Skyler on the trampoline


Aelyn and Grammy (My mom)


Aelyn taking a nap on Poppy (My dad)


Aelyn trying to eat Mommom's (my paternal grandmother) finger at the Diner


Layla enjoying a lemon at Sunday brunch

Wordless Wednesday ~ Bubbles & Cheeks!

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It's the Simple Things...

This weekend we made a spontaneous trip over to western PA to visit the hubby's family. We are able to check out a bit of the "Art Attack" the community held in various shops around the town. Lane's dad displayed some of his nature photography and had his book for sale at the local coffee shop and cafe.


Lane's step-mom had her pencil drawings of historical landmarks on display there as well.


However, the highlight of the trip for Layla was the CORN! Yes, it's the simple things in life that make my daughter happy.


She shucked away the day with grandma...


and proceeded to remove each individual kernel from the cob.


This kept her busy for the car ride home too!

We now have lots of dried corn kernels for feeding the squirrels, waldorf type playtime, and montessori practical life activities (like transferring by scooping, tweezers, and sorting). We are also drying the cobs to put in a basket for the waldorf play area in our living room and cob printing art.

And here's just a random cute picture of Aelyn chillin' with her Grandpa.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Nature, Friends & Mud!

Layla and her friend Cece playing at the Metroparks last weekend...














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Advent Conspiracy

I know I've been MIA from bloggy land for a bit over a week now. Life has been keeping our family super busy as of late, and a three year old in nap transition is taking away from my afternoon computer time. I wanted to share this information and link to the Advent Conspiracy.



The concept behind Advent Conspiracy is Simple...


Let's be a light and a change this Christmas!

Baby Talk

Aelyn has a lot to say...

Wordless Wednesday ~ Fall Fun

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Costumed Cuties

Once again, we joined our friends Jon, Jenna, Ben, and Sam at their place for trick or treating. I was much less conflicted about about allowing the whole trick or treating thing this year, and the kiddos had a great time. The hubbies took Layla and Ben door to door, while Jenna and I stayed back with the babies to pass out candy. Layla was so excited to be a princess this year. Unfortunately, the tiara kept digging into the sides of her head, but she was quite happy to go without it and just wear her dress. The evening was quite cold and chilly, however the kids didn't seem to mind at all. They were thrilled with all their treats and were quick to dig in upon their return.

Aelyn- Our little Sweet Pea


Princess Layla


Sammybear


Trick or Treat! Notice Layla's dress. It was way too long, and I didn't have time to hem it on the sewing machine before leaving. (Such procrastinators we are). So we did it the redneck way and used the stapler. I did the bottom, but apparently she was still tripping, so Lane added the extra staples to the middle.


The beginning of the sugar high!

Thanks to our friends for dinner and another fun year of trick or treating!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Layla & Hydrangeas

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What's Cooking? ~ Homemade Applesauce

We made some delicious homemade applesauce yesterday. Applesauce is fairly quick and simple to make, and the flavor cannot be topped by any store brand. There are many different recipes out there for making applesauce, but as in most of our endeavors, we did it our own way- cooked it 'til it was done and added stuff until it tasted good. This is why it's so hard for me to share recipes! I rarely have precise measurements, and each time things may be slightly different. Here's how we did this batch...

Cut, pared (mostly), and cored about 4 pounds of apples. Usually, 3 medium sized apples will equal about a pound which would come to 12 for a 4 lb batch. Our apples were fairly large, so we only used 10.


Added some water and cooked the apples in the crock pot at 350 for about an hour, stirring occasionally


Once the apples fell apart and were applesauce consistency, I added a cup of brown sugar. The amount of sugar depends entirely on the types of apples you use. Some sweeter apples won't require any sugar at all while tart ones, such as the Melrose we used, need a bit of sweetness. I scooped it into a colander that was sitting in a large bowl.


I used the spoon to press the sauce through the holes. This step is only necessary if you have some skins that need separated. If you want a smoother consistency, you can run it through a food mill or blender.


I used two medium sized containers for freezing, making sure there was some head space to avoid a freezer explosion, and a third container went in the fridge. We enjoy ours with a bit of cinnamon sprinkled on top. Happy saucing!

Apple Picking Time

Yesterday we joined our friends Connie and little AJ for some apple and raspberry picking fun on the farm. The sun was shining, the weather a balmy (for Cleveland) 70 degrees. The pictures tell the story...

Wordless Wednesday ~ Mama Marsupial

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Little Artist at Work

Some samples of Layla's recent artwork. She created these entirely on her own and named them herself.

Layla's drawing of a bird (beak to the right)


Sculpting medium (aka Homemade play-doh)

Making snakes, cubes, and tiny balls


"Spider on Her Web"


"Lots of Robots"


Painting the "Big Water" (Lake Erie)


"My fingers are blue, mommy!"