Baby and Her Toys

You may have noticed that Baby's toys look a little different than the average toys you might see. We have a few guidelines that work for very well for us (and are certainly not for everyone). Baby, being the sweetie she is, has done a lovely job of showing that wooden toys are fun too :)

Blocks are the best! After watching Daddy stack her blocks for months now, Baby has just started stacking them too.

The more antiquated looking the better: Here is a picture of my grandmother as a baby - O, excuse me. That is my baby girl with her silver rattle:) My taste is so 1810 rather than 2010. Laugh if you wish (we are used to it as our family makes plenty of fun over our vintage ways).


This Plan Toys punch and drop is her favorite.
To dye and not to paint: Plan Toys is my favorite toy company. They have a wonderful selection of high quality wooden toys. Their toys are made from solid wood and colored with stains which cannot chip off while most Melissa and Doug toys are colored with paint that chips and ends up in little mouths.


Wood is fun: Although these toys do not dance, sing, and light up, baby girl herself does while playing with these toys.



Less is more: We prefer to acquire fewer nice toys for our baby rather than a house full of disposable toys.


Plastic in moderation (and at Mommom's house): Where would we be without Bitty?

Welcome to Her Crib

Baby girl's nursery has been a work in progress for a while now (before pictures here and here), yet it is finally all finished!! I love it to pieces!! ( Pro pictures really make it sparkle extra pretty :)

Baby in her Caroline crib. I call it my forever crib because I dearly want it to last through all our children (many may they be!!! :). This dream nursery set was a generous present from hubby that we were able to afford as we found it amazingly discounted and used our baby's tax deduction.

The picture above her crib is the two of us right after her baptism.
I used my military discount at the goodwill to get this beautiful mirror and had the fun of painting it silver from gold.



Her cradle which was in our room for her first seven months, and prints that I took out of Maud Humphrey's Mother Goose book. I bought the 2005 edition on ebay for sixteen dollars and got over twenty prints rather than paying thirty-five dollars a print at art.com.

The dress on the wall is my mother's baptismal gown. It means so much to me to have my mother's dress in my baby's room. On the tall dresser there is a bowl from our wedding, a vase from her baby shower, my baby cup, her baby cup, books, a maternity picture, and a sonogram picture.
I really love how these plaques (a clearance bargain) frame the french doors to her nursery.

This is a before picture taken in October 2008.


This is how it looked on move in day in March 2008.

Sweet Moments

With these two by my side I feel as if I can achieve all that I desire

These AMAZING family shots were taken by a most AMAZING photographer who I have the privilege of calling my friend. Thank you, A!!! Does this one look familiar? This is the same spot were we took a few from the maternity shoot in 2008.

These shots were taken in August when Baby was nine months old. Looking at them now is making me warm and long for summer.


We will always be there for you, Baby

She lights up our world

Such a smiley baby



Where's Baby?

There she is!

YES!!!!!

Four years ago today on January 27th, 2006, my love while on bended knee asked for my hand in marriage. "YESS!!" was my reply :)

He took me for a beautiful walk in the woods. This was particularly special to me because we loved talking walks together and because even in the middle of winter we were surrounded by the beauty of God's creation.

This spot overlooked the city of Philadelphia where he was presently attending college.

The hand which he now possesses.

Exactly two years later on the 27th of January 2008, here I am waiting for my ship to come in. I really like this picture because I think it artistically shows how I felt those six months fenced away from my love. How fitting that on the anniversary of our engagement my husband returns from his sixth month deployment!! (My favorite blog post.) He surely knows how to give great anniversary presents:)

Together!!

Here I am visiting him on his ship during his duty day a few days after he came home.

Happy 3rd Anniversary!!

This year hubby and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary with a lovely dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. Can you guess where we went?

I enjoyed my amazing Thai Lettuce Wraps.


Hubby had his favorite selection the Herb Crusted Salmon and Steak Diane.


For me, a visit couldn't possibly be complete with out these delectable avocado rolls.

A close up of the rolls and a Gerber spoon.
O, yes! Did I mention baby girl came along for our romantic celebration dinner? She made for very pleasant company (as she was wonderfully well behaved and quiet) and just like her mama... she LOVED the avocado rolls too.

Our cheesecake of choice was the Lemon Rasberry Cream. This one was amazing!! Then again I have never met a Cheesecake Factory cheesecake that I didn't enjoy :) N gave me a beautiful pair of dangle earrings. He mentioned a while back that he would like to see me wearing earrings other than my classic studs. If you have seen me recently, I was probably wearing them :) I bought him two Dillard's suits that I got for 75% off.


And for a little walk down memory lane. Here we are in Philadelphia on our wedding day in 2006.


1st Anniversary in 2007. Since Hubby was deployed to the Middle East, my girlfriends were there with me to celebrate. We had a wonderful evening out, and they (along with many other friends and family members) were a great source of comfort through the whole deployment.

Great friends, D and A, with our Pumpkin, Oreo Mudslide, and Key lime cheesecakes.

2nd Anniversary 2008- Instead of celebrating with a dinner date, we decided to go all out and celebrate by having a baby! It was far from a glamorous evening out on the town, but it was the most beautiful day of my life!!!

Dearest Husband, these past three years have been wonderful, and throughout everything you have been my rock. Thank you, my love!!!

Together

This Christmas we had a delightful time enjoying ourselves as a family. Here we are at our pastor's beautiful home for a party in honor of a church friend who is a missionary. Baby had used up all her smiles for the day as it was 10pm.

On Christmas day the three of us had a lovely and quiet day together. We greatly cherished being together (especially because it appears next year we will be separated). Here baby and daddy are smiling for the yearly picture before the meal.
Last Christmas baby was only one month old and sleepy.

Mommy and baby before leaving for the Christmas communion service.
Same pose last year
Rather than putting most of our focus, time, energy, and money into shopping, wrapping and exchanging presents for Christmas, we prefer to pull our resources in order to make the most of being together as a family, going on fun outings, and making memories. My husband wants to be flexible on this point and thinks that maybe we should do presents when our children are older. I am delighted with how we celebrate now and enjoy using our Christmas money for family enjoyment rather than individual gifts. With my family (and friends too), I love to deck the halls, ice skate, see shows, listen to the Messiah, make gingerbread houses, bake desserts, decorate cookies, cook favorite foods, watch movies (LOTR Trilogy is our tradition), play games, take pictures and smile a lot. The best presents in life never come wrapped in little boxes tied with ribbon. (As it is I love giving birthday gifts and "just because I love you" gifts throughout the year to my hubby, babe, family and friends.)

Our families were able to come visit a few days after Christmas. We had a wonderful time with them, and I had a particularly delightful evening with my little sis-in-law making this house.

Our favorite part was the roof we made by melting lifesaver candies.
Mama and baby at our friend's house to decorate her beautiful cookies. This picture made me laugh because my hair looks like it belongs to baby. Do you see we both have the same red highlights?
Here are the fondant covered sugar cookies I decorated. It was such a wonderful time being together with my friends (whose cookies looked amazing) and my little girl.

Happy New Year!

God abundantly poured out His blessing on us in 2009, and we are delighted to see what He has planned for our steps in this new year of 2010.