Daddys Home!

Caroline has been having so much fun with Eli home from school.  Here are some pictures of what we've been up to since we've had Eli all to ourselves!

I guess this one doesn't have much to do with Eli, it's just cute!  She loves to get into her toys and books.  It's so cute how she kneels all the time!

This is what she does best, pulls the tupperware out of kitchen cabinets.

 

On Eli's first night home we had spaghetti.  Caroline loved it and ate a ton!  She was pretty pleased with herself as you can see.

 

We went to our first U of L basketball game.  They played Memphis.  It was fun but we left at half time due to Caroline not liking all the noise and the ward Christmas Dinner.  It was fun though.  They play in the brand new HUGE KFC Yum! center.  We had cheap seats but it was pretty amazing.  That arena is so BIG!

 At the game.  You can kind of see her two top teeth that broke through this week.

They had a cool little museum room.  We wanted to see how Caroline measures up to the college ball players.  She's still got about 5 feet to be able to compete.

Little Elf Baby!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a special visitor to the Christmas dinner.  Caroline didn't know what to make of him.  She just stared with a very concerned look on her face.  At least she didn't cry.  I was half expecting that.

The other day she would only drink her green smoothie from Eli's glass, not her monster cup with a straw.  This is the result.  Now she looks like the monster.

 

This is a weird picture of her but you can see her top teeth!  4 chompers!  And she hasn't bitten me yet.  She still loves to nurse.

Tonight before bed, she was just playing.  Her favorite toys are books. 

In other news Eli passed his classes and is home for 2 whole weeks!  We are having so much fun with him.  Caroline is officially a daddys girl.  She just lights up when she sees him.  I'm loving actually being able to spend time and have fun with Eli!  He also helps around the house a lot which I appreciate.  And, twice he's fed her breakfast and played with her so I can sleep in!   This might make him going back to school very hard on all of us, but we're enjoying it while it's happening!

Catching Up

Wow, I haven't blogged in a long time.  Let's catch up!  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We went to my parents house in Missouri, although my mom was in Utah with my sister and her new baby.  It was kind of strange with mom gone, but we had a lot of fun with dad!  My sister Ronda and her family came down from Omaha and we had our big, delicious, awesome meal at my brother and sister-in-laws house.  It was so good!  The only disaster was a I took a pyrex out of the oven and set it on the stove.  I thought I turned the burner off that it was set on, but I guess I didn't.  A few minutes later, POP! that pan exploded.  Luckily, Cheryl had made an extra broccoli-cheese-and rice casserole.  We even went to see the Muppet Movie with the whole family.  It was Carolines first movie.  She just played the whole time. 

I made four pies: pumpkin, pecan, chocolate, and lemon.

Caroline liked playing at my parents house.

The nap schedule was totally off on Thanksgiving day.  She let her aunt Ronda lay down and read to her.  That hardly ever happens.  Sadly, after that I realized that my memory card was full.  No other Thanksgiving pictures for me!  It took a couple days for me to delete some pictures.

We finally go to meet little sweet Caden, my friend Joanna's one year old little boy.  He was so cute!  He and Caroline played a little bit, and by played I mean tried to touch each others eyes.  How weird that it seems like we were in high school just yesterday and now we have kids and our husbands are both in medical school?  Bizzare!  I do not feel old enough!

Joanna took this picture of Caroline with her super nice camera.  I love it!

Her first spaghetti

She really loves her pappy!  She liked to smile and play with him

On our drive home we ate dinner at Steak n' Shake.  Caroline didn't have any other their food, but Eli insisted on her wearing the hat.  In case you haven't noticed, Eli loves putting Caroline into things (boxes, baskets, etc.) and he loves putting things on her head (hats, diapers, etc.).  It is pretty funny.

We got the house decorated for Christmas.  Here's our little present under the tree in her Christmas pajamas.

She likes to give me kisses.  I love to get them.  She also hugs me too, after I pick her up from her naps.  It's the sweetest thing!

She also decided she loves blackberries.  They do make quite a mess though!

And she loves to take a bath.  Eli thinks of the best things.  We got a free beach ball this summer and he put it in as a bath toy.  She loves it!

Well, that is what we've been up to.  Eli has a test on Monday and then two on Thursday and he is done for the semester!  We'll have him all to ourselves with no studying for two whole weeks!  I can not wait for this!  Caroline had her first ear infection last week.  She is feeling better now though.  She had a checkup on Friday and she weighs 16.6 lbs (25 percentile) is 27 1/2 inches long (50 percentile) and is all around healthy.  She crawls all over the place and pulls herself up everywhere she goes.  She is usually very happy and smiling.  I was surprised to learn she didn't weigh more because she eats like nobody's business.  Her favorite foods right now are beans, bananas, and bread.  That's all.  Pray for Eli to do well on his finals.  Merry Christmas!

New Trick

Caroline loves to play ball!  She gets so excited when you sit her down, and roll a ball to her.  She squeals and squeaks and gets so excited.  It's so cute.  Enjoy the pictures.

Random Thoughts

• I love watching Caroline just roll around and play in the living room.  She will make little squeaky noises, pull books off the shelf, and is adorable.  She is so much fun.
• Is it lame that I secretly love and find it relaxing to go to the grocery store by myself on Saturday night at 9:00?  
• I ironed my shower curtain last night.  It hangs a lot more nicely and it made me feel in touch with my grandma.  That's something she would have done.
• Eli and I were talking about what we would do if we had unlimited money.  We decided we would buy a house, a minivan for the second car, and I would take yoga classes.  Other than that our life wouldn't change that much.  He'd still go to school everyday, I'd stay home with the baby and make us dinner every night.  I like that we wouldn't let having money change us too much.  At least, we think it wouldn't.
• I'm really excited for Thanksgiving.  It will be nice to go home and be with my family.  Eli's never been able to spend much time in Missouri with us, so I'm especially looking forward to that. 
• I am grateful to be so blessed.  Even though we have our struggles and hard times, our life is beautiful and we are happy.
• Caroline is very close to crawling.  I predict by Thanksgiving she will have it down. 

A Day in the Life of Caroline

Caroline leads a very busy active life.  Here is a photo tour of a day in the life of an eight month old baby (Can you believe she is 8 months old already?  I can't!).First thing when she wakes up after she nurses she has a green smoothie.  This baby loves green smoothies!  I love that she loves them too.

See how happy they make her!

After that it's getting dressed, fixing hair, and playing for a while and then a nap.  After nap it's nursing, and then....

LUNCH!

Today for lunch she had bananas and cereal and a new food.  She had some of my homemade refried beans and she loved them! 

And her other favorite snack is the puff-things. 

After lunch we usually do an activity.  Today we went to a closeby mall we haven't been to yet and walked around.  Then it's another nap, then nursing, then playtime, then dinner time!

While I'm making dinner she likes to snack in the walker.  Todays snack was little crumbs of bread.  She ate almost a whole slice!

Then for dinner she had sweet potatoes, bread, and some of the potato leek soup that I made for me and Eli.  The soup was rather bland for the two of us, but Caroline loved it, so I froze it in ice cube trays for her to eat later. 

After dinner it's bath time and bed time.  Caroline is feeling better now, she was so happy today, especially when Eli came home.  She is back to normal, and feeling good.  She is so much fun to be around. 

After she went to bed I got a chance to pick up.  I bought some kale Saturday night and it was already all wilted this morning.  I didn't want to throw it out, so I tried recutting the ends and sticking it in some water.  It worked and it perked right up!  I think it looks kind of pretty! A cheaper alternative to flowers!

And I was able to make our meal plans for the whole month.  I hope we'll be able to stick with it.  Last month we did really well sticking to our plans, the only nights we didn't was when Eli was studying late and I didn't feel like cooking a big meal for just me.  Anyway it's a good life here with Caroline!