Family of 4!

Family of 4!

Monday, March 21, 2011

Just a swingin'

With the exception of some wind, yesterday and today and been BEAUTIFUL outside.  Fortunately, the wind has died down by late afternoon/evening so we have been out enjoying it!  Yesterday before dinner Tim put the airplane swing up for the 1st time this season.  We receive it last year before Tenley was here, but it got plenty of use from Dick and Sharon's grandkids (our neighbors)  and fortunately they have the perfect tree for it too!  Tenley had gotten to play outside at the Miller's a week or so ago and loved their swing, so we were excited to try out hers.  She loved it!

Some of these are a bit blurry, but still cute.  I am still figuring out manual mode with a moving subject (or at least moving faster than she normally does!)





Friday, March 18, 2011

Really Mom?

I am just trying to play with my toys and you have that darn camera out AGAIN......

Happy St Patricks Day

Though it has been a crazy week of work for both Tim and I we all got to spend the day at home together yesterday.  Tenley and I were SO ready for Daddy to be home for the day.  We spent the day just relaxing and I had a few things to get done.  Last night we went over to some friends house for dinner and had a great time, Tenley got to play with her buddy, Logan...forgot to bring the camera.

We did get some pictures of her all decked out on her 1st St Patrick's Day, enjoy!
And as a side note, we are getting really good at sitting up on our own, such a big girl!


Made her some festive baby legs, but they are pretty much to short...good thing they only needed to make it through the day


Like my bow, I needed a green one so Mommy made it! Making bows/flowers for my "hair" is becoming a hobby of hers.





Yay for green fuzzibunz

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Breakthrough...

....of our first tooth!  We thought maybe it would be soon and sure enough.  Yesterday, 16 March 2011, we had our 1st tooth breakthrough.  It is her bottom right one and it is just barely showing through, but none the less there. You can see it and feel that it is not just a gummy little smile anymore. 

Sunday we had somewhat of a long day with church in the morning and then going to Wichita for a church even as well as some shopping.  She was a trooper all day, but just not herself.  When we got home and got her to bed, about 9:00 (so a bit late) she felt like she was burning up and was pretty fussy.  We took her temperature and it was at 99 degrees, she is normally about 97.5, so we thought something was up.  That night she did not go down as easily as normal.  We generally lay her down and she is out before we are out of the room, this time she cried for awhile and Mommy was feeling guilty for putting her through such a long day so I went in and rocked her and she soon fell asleep.  She was down for about 30 minutes when she awoke again, so I rocked her again, but only for probably 15 minutes.  She did stay down for the night, but I awoke to her fussing a few times through the night, not normal for her.  She would put herself back to sleep within about 5 minutes so it wasn't bad, but again not normal. As a note, when we got up the next morning and Tim made the comment that she slept all night....I said, "You slept all night, she slept most of it, and I didn't sleep much at all." He hadn't heard a thing... Monday she went to her sitter, and had a good day so we kinda brushed off Sunday night and just being a long day, the time change, and just being fed up.  Tuesday I was home with her and though I saw a tooth trying to poke through, but couldn't feel anything.  Then Wednesday she spent the day with Sharon next door and did great.  I had told Sharon that I though we were close to teething, but nothing yet.  She has been somewhat of a drool factory for a while so we didn't put alot of stock in that, however, she did have a bit of a diaper rash (very mild) and many of our friends said their little ones had the same thing when they were teething.  When we sat down to play last night and I was looking/feeling around for a tooth, there it was! Just barely but it had broke the skin so hopefully the pain for her is less.  She was such a doll through it so we are praying that the ones to follow will be as easy! When it is a picture worthy tooth, be sure we will be snapping away and sharing with you all!

Josie visits!

Last week Tenley got to see her Godsister for a bit when the Siebens came through town on their way to training for the AF.We hadn't seen them since the girls' baptism the weekend after Thanksgiving so it was great to catch up for a bit.  It was so neat to see them interact and what they had learned since the last time that they "hung out."  We only had a few hours and the girls' crashed out about 8:15 so after their playtime Dan, Kristi, Tim and I got some time to catch up as well. We are so glad that they will be just down the road at Whiteman AFB now and that we will have the chance to see them MUCH more often. 

So much girl talk already!

Josie was ready to play, Tenley was pretty much ready for bed.

This picture was from their baptism, they have grown so much and are so interactive now, what fun!

5 Months and counting!

INSANE! We have a 5 month old.....as of 3 March...Mommy is a bit behind posting..weird!
She is such a joy for us, she is always so happy and so much fun to be around. Tim took her in to be weighed at the OB department since she doesn't have a well baby visit, and she was 15 lbs 4 ozs. Such a big girl. 

Can you believe I am 5 months old?

happy girl






She looks like she is in quite the converstion...



Aren't they sweet!!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Fluff!

At times I can't believe we did it either...if you would have asked me 5 months ago when Tenley was born I would have thought you were CRAZY! Cloth diapers...are you nuts, I am not swishing, sloshing, or getting anywhere near that mess....

Fast forward 5 months to today, and you will find Tenley in cloth!  Though we have only been doing it for a few weeks, we LOVE it.  I happened upon a a link to a blog (which I now love and have mentioned on here before www.styleberryblog.com) that a friend had posted on facebook that showed one mom's system for cloth diapering.  I have to say I was somewhat hooked from then on.  I was very uneducated on "modern cloth diapering" and once I began researching everywhere I could and asking friends who cd I cautiously brought up the idea to Tim, who immediately though I was out of my mind.  I took it in stride because I was expecting that reaction from him.  I decided to show him bits and pieces over the next few days/weeks and soon he was on board too.  His biggest thing was that we still have ALOT of disposable diapers from his diaper party and generous friends.  This in mind we still will use disposables when we are out and about for long periods of time,  when we are out of town, or when we leave her with a sitter who isn't comfortable with cloth.  We first figured that we would have enough disposables to make it through her 1st year, now with the addition of cloth we may never have to buy disposables, just exchange sizes! LOVE THAT!

We made our decision based on a few factors.  1st, chemicals...there is alot packed into those thin diapers to allow them to hold so much.  In doing research we found that they are starting to attribute early puberty in girls and other longer term problems to the continuous exposure to disposable diapers. Not only this but diaper rash is much less common when using cloth diapers.  For us, we just feel better putting a soft layer of fleece next to her skin for the next 1.5 (ish) years. 2nd, in more research we found just how long a diaper sits in a landfill before it decomposes...up to 500 years!! Wow, now we aren't all about going totally green but that is a LONG time.  This will be part of our step to reduce waste. 3rd, cost.  Though we were blessed with a huge stash of diapers (which we are so thankful for) so we haven't had out of pocked expense yet the continuous cost of disposables mounts up quickly.  With cloth we made an investment up front, but now have diapers to take Tenley though potty training.  We chose Fuzzibunz one size diapers.  They are called "one size" because they adjust in size and will fit her from now to potty training, huge savings.  Not only will they fit her for that long, but will last for future kiddos.  Yes, it is extra laundry, but we have a stash of cd that will allow us to do laundry about every 3rd day...I am doing her laundry that often anyway so it is not a big deal.  There is a bit of a wash routine and they do have to be washed separately with a different detergent, but it is still so easy and worth it for us. And dare I say that they are so cute.  Fuzzibunz has awesome colors to choose from and I love them all!

Here's a peek of some of our cute "fluff" more to follow:
My 2 favorite people!
Our 1st order, LOVE the colors
No swishing, swirling, or dunking!
For anyone interested...I will try and get a post up about our system in the next week and talk more about the whole process.

Cereal Anyone?

At just a few days shy of 5 months we decided it was time to introduce Tenley to rice cereal!  She hadn't really shown any interest in us eating or indicated that she was ready...then we were at a church event and I was holding her eating a slice of pizza and she locked on and followed my pizza from plate to mouth.  Ok, baby we get it...you can have "real" food!  I won't lie, I wasn't super excited for this step, I love the bond of being the one person that can fulfill her nutritional needs.  I will admit that it is a bit selfish on my part, have any other Mommy's felt this way?  However, after her first feeding and seeing how much fun it was for us to watch her and for her to learn to eat, my anxiety has subsided.  Now I am not only so blessed to be able to breastfeed her, but now we get to make her baby food and help her to experience new flavors too!

This looks interesting....
I'll give it a try...
yummy! more please!
And this spoon is pretty fun too!
yep, I think I will chew on it for a while!

Cute Alert!

These are from mid-February on a day when we were just home hanging out!  She is so stinkin' cute...but we maybe just a bit bias! Enjoy!


Seeing all of her changing expressions is so much fun. She has quite the personality, and we are getting to see more and more of it with each day.  Her discoveries are endless and seeing her eyes light up when she figures something out or to watch her study something for what seems like minutes before she is fulfilled with her discovery is fantastic.  What a joy Miss Tenley is for us! Blessed, Blessed, Blessed!