veda's half birthday

Guess who is turning six months old??!! okay, so it's tomorrow. but I consider myself to be quite punctual-- so we celebrated today. And yes- with a party. maybe some of you remember the past half-birthdays at our house? They are all celebrated in the same manner, and are just an excuse for this cake-loving-lady to eat cake. Quinn's half birthday party.

hendrix's half birthday party.
And here's Lou's cake

no, Veda didn't get any. Do you think I'm crazy?

she looks huge in this picture. Where has my baby gone? oh yeah.. she's six months old :)

the lighting was good today so I got about a dozen darling pictures of her. If you recognize this same shirt and headband in lots of pictures lately, don't be surprised. veda did get to enjoy some sweet potatoes instead of cake.

and she liked it

oh yeah.... one more for good measure.

hendrix being a super hero

it's a good thing hendrix is around to rescue the orange people

wall art

it's a wonder any of you still read my blog even though i consistently take pictures with a crappy camera. we finally put some pictures up in the office/entry way. it's been a blank wall since we painted a couple months ago. but i got this idea off of Pinterest. and this looks WAY better in real life. i really need a new camera and to take this picture not at night time :)

how many?

how many pictures can i take of myself and veda over a weekend? too many :) i took three actually.




and dave and veda

favorites of me and davey boy

wow... isn't my husband hot? i know, i know. i'm one lucky girl. all that juicing and Insanity and running like a crazy person has him glowing :)

favorites of hendrix

here are my favorites of hendrix. he was very cooperative with our photographer, and would do whatever she asked him to do. even push ups :)

or laugh really loud

i sure love this little boy. geesh. he is just the best thing ever.

favorites of quinn

it was funny how quinn was the kid who didn't want to cooperate. i could see hendrix deciding to be a stubborn two year old and not wanting to be good-- or even veda just getting too tired to smile-- but it was QUINN who was the stinker. we didn't get any shots of her at the first location-- which stinks because it was so cute. but at least she warmed up by the time we got to the second spot.

favorites of vedes

these are my favorite of Veda.



this one is maybe my very favorite. i'm such a mean mom :) but just look at her little furrowed eyebrows and her little lip. so cute.

family pictures

we got our family pictures back today. they are lovely. i haven't had a chance to look at them 1,000,000 times yet, but here are a couple of my favorites. (Hendrix's jeans/flip flops are the best. I could just have a picture of that and be happy) :)


get excited to see the rest :)

Favorite things

Maybe none of your care what my favorite things are... but maybe you do. So here are some of my favorite things in no particular order *(and obviously my favorite things in the world are my kids/husband. this is a list of my other favorite things)

Blog
For some reason this is my favorite blog lately:
La Vie Petite.

it's a fashion blog of all things... and ya'll know that I'm not really a huge fashionista. But I love her style, and she's beautiful, and short (like me), and has three darling kids (like me), so I pretend that I relate to her in some way. When I open my mobile reader-- La vie petite is the first one I read. go figure.

blanket
My favorite blanket is this flannel rag quilt that my mother-in-law made me. She actually made it for me when I was pregnant with Quinn (thanks Cheryl!!).

I used it for my night time nursing sessions (because I'm sleepy and who wants to sit there without a blanket on?!). It's the PERFECT weight and super soft and comfy. I've made my share of rag quilts-- they are kinda fun to make. I've made Quinn a couple and hendrix one, and our family home evening blanket is actually a rag quilt too. But my all time favorite one is this one that Cheryl made. I've used it for all my kids for nighttime nursing-- and some day I'm going to make another one just like this. I think the size of squares is what makes the difference. This one has small squares-- probably 4-5 inches. And the ones that I've made have larger squares-- which I think equals not as soft of a blanket.

books
I LOVE parenting books. I know, I know... it's crazy. But I actually ENJOY reading a good parenting book. I can blame it on my sister. When I was pregnant with quinn she sent me a handful of pregnancy/birth/nursing books. I LOVE LOVE LOVE
So That's what They're For It's a book about nursing. If you ever have any questions or problems nursing-- this book is awesome. I read it before I had Quinn -- it's actually a pretty humorous read. But if you've ever given your baby formula- don't read it. :)
Right now I'm reading Positive Discipline for Preschoolers. It's good-- and helps me decipher what quinn is going through right now and how I can help her with it. Some people thing parenting books are silly. Maybe for them, they are. But for me-- I love an experts opinion! And I also feel like I'm good at taking what pertains and works for me-- and discarding the rest.

Other parenting books I love:
-Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy child
-The Baby Book by Dr. Sears (a book that I think every mother should have. It answers all sorts of questions about feeding/milestones/illnesses/medicine/etc.)

Beauty supplies:
-favorite shampoo is still Paul Mitchell: Shampoo One with Instant Moisture Daily Treatment conditioner. To me-- hands down the best shampoo/conditioner combo. I've tried ALL kinds and I always go back to this.
-favorite cure-all: Aquaphor. that stuff is like miracle in a bottle. Kids get a diaper rash? Aquaphor clears it up almost immediately. But I use it on anything-- red skin, dry lips, bums, sun burns. it's amazing.

-favorite blush-- Mac creamblush. awesome-- and lasts forever

-still looking for my favorite mascara-- my old fave was Maxfactor 2000 calorie. but maxfactor no longer exists... and neither do my amazing eyelashes :(

so there you have it. Some random things that you now know about me. anyone have any favorite things that I should know about?

julie

it's my sister's birthday today. i have the best sister ever. she's smart, fun, cute, generous, thoughtful, good at everything she does, an awesome aunt to my kids, my own personal on-call nurse, and did i mention cute? :)
love you Jules-- hope you have a fun birthday!!

and a crazy fact-- she shares her birthday with her dog AND her husband!! what are the odds??

veda again

see her little lips? she does this face all the time. she basically hangs out with her lips pursed like this all day.

i think she's pretty close to crawling too. i know she's not up on all fours in this picture, but she is a lot lately.

she also hangs out on her side a lot lately too. she's ready to be sitting on her own, but can't yet. so this is her compromise :) and i swear she still wears headbands 90% of the time. i've just been too sick to care if she has one on or not

and the boys

silly projects and veda

i made Quinn and Hendrix these before vacation. I had really high hopes, but I think they both turned out slightly silly.

I made this taggie lion for Veda today. Also silly... what's the matter with me?

and my sweet baby has her first cold. It stinks. Plus, I'm super sick too. We haven't had a very fun few days around here.

see? she's still so cute even when she's sad.

do you know what?

I have a pretty great husband. He's handsome, funny, a good daddy, a good provider, a hard worker, laid back, has great taste in music, is a great musician, is an awesome web designer, super coordinated and good at everything he does, is honest, he puts up with my crazy, has amazing calf muscles, and he's a great dancer. I couldn't ask for a better partner in life.

Plus... Tomorrow he's gonna change all the poopy diapers for me... Aren't you, sweetheart? :)

veda

yes-- Veda did ACTUALLY turn 5 months old-- I just didn't post about it because we were on vacation. Even though I missed the 5 month date, Veda is pretty awesome, so here is a post just for my special little baby girl.

We've kind of started with solids. What in the world did I do without a baby food grinder with my other kids??!! I wouldn't have needed one for quinn since she refused anything mushed up anyway. And I remember when Hendrix got about this old, my mom and I went out searching for a grinder and couldn't find one. So I used my blender... what a pain. I ended up buying a lot of food to supplement what I was making him because it was too labor intensive. And now I have a baby food grinder-- and it's the best thing ever. I didn't start Veda on the traditional rice cereal-- because one day Veda seemed all of a sudden ready to eat (I have been in no rush.. I basically wait until 6 months). But she seemed ready, so I mushed up a pear-- and she liked it. Even though she's a new eater, she barely spits anything out. She's amazing. So she's tried pears, oatmeal, and bananas.

She's sleeping ok. Still learning to take long naps... she wants to wake up after a half hour. But she's getting there. And generally wakes up once or twice at night. so not awesome, but okay. And it's almost okay when she wakes up, because she's my last baby and I get to snuggle her under a cozy blanket and if the other kids wake up, they don't know where I am :)

She is scooting like crazy!! i realize that now she is almost 6 months old-- but she can get around! she is up on all fours a lot now, it's super cute. She just hangs out on all fours-- and one of these days, she's gonna take off. Until then, she scoots and rolls to get where she wants to go.

She is cute and smiley and happy. People always comment on how happy she is (probably because she is smiling at them). They ask me if she is always that happy... and yes, she generally is.


She's beautiful and sweet and I love her more than words. Happy 5 3/4 months Vedy girl.

a few pictures

Our photographer put a few pictures up on her Facebook page.


I can't wait to see the rest!!

That one of Quinn and the umbrella is darling. And it's a miracle that quinn had a change of heart and decided that she was in fact going to cooperate for pictures.

And the ones of Hendrix... come on. cuteness.

And hopefully there are some smiling one of V in the rest of the pictures :)

new shirts

mmm.. this little doll tried pears today. she liked em.

and here's the little doll wearing her new bunny shirt.

and quinn making faces in her new shirt




practicing for family pictures? we have them tomorrow. cross your fingers that i have happy cooperative kids in the morning :)