New Car!

We bought a new car! I bought it over the phone yesterday on my lunch break and they trailer-ed it over here today at 1pm! We bought a 2010 Honda Fit. We have been officially looking for one since the beginning of September and no one seemed to have one. Then yesterday, someone wanted to buy Dennis's car which prompted another search by me.....and then everything just fell into place! The unfortunate this is that we had to sell Dennis's beautiful Acura. It's only a 2 door so it's not very practical. We thought it may work out, but it's pretty hard to get Caitlin in and out of and I have to sit in the back to be the most comfortable. I wish it would have worked out because it was such an awesome car and Dennis really loved it. But, I do absolutely LOVE my new Fit and Dennis likes it too (which is a good thing since he hadn't driven one until we bought ours today!).

Happy Birthday Grama!

Happy birthday Grama! Mommy forgot to put your gift in the mail last week....even though I tried to remind her. She said she will mail it on Monday (but I think she won't get to it until Tuesday). So I'm giving you a video of me in the meantime. I hope you have a wonderful day. Hugs and kisses!
Love, Caitlin

Pumpkin Patch

We took Caitlin to her first pumpkin patch on Saturday! I think she really loved seeing all the pumpkins and watching all the people. During the hayride back, she stared down this guy who was trying to make her smile.....it was pretty funny. She finally did crack a smile though. We got three pumpkins, one for each of us of course. Caitlin's is a pie pumpkin, so it's too little to carve. Although, I may make a pie out of it when were done with it! While we were walking around in the patch, Dennis and I took turns carrying Caitlin on our shoulders. She absolutely LOVED that, but I wasn't too fond of it. Caitlin discovered she could pull mommy's hair and make her squeal. So that didn't last too long. I can't wait until next year when she can walk all around the pumpkin patch and choose her own pumpkin!

More, please.

Caitlin signed the word "more" on Saturday for the first time! I couldn't believe my eyes, so I had her do it over, and over, and OVER again! It's so adorable! On Sunday, we took her to a birthday party. She's been to quite a few weddings, but this was her first birthday party. She really liked watching all the kids and playing with the "new" toys. She loved the cake (surprised?) and got really mad when I wouldn't give her another bite. This makes me think she's going to LOVE her birthday cake!

I did quite well at the Fire and Light sale with Nancy on Saturday. We waited in line an hour and a half and shopped for an hour. I got my cake plate, which I LOVE, and most of our Christmas shopping done. Woo hoo!

The World of Mama

We have officially entered the world of "mama." Caitlin not only says it when she's frustrated (which used to be the only time she said it), but also when she's happy! It just melts my heart every time I hear it! And today was the first day she signed "more" and I actually got her to do it several times while feeding her breakfast!

Today we hope to go to the pumpkin patch when I get back from a "Fire and Light" sale. They sell hand blown glass dinnerware, bowls, vases, and many other accessories. It's their seconds sale and I hope to find a cake pedestal at half price. Wish me (and Nancy) luck!

And I'm calling it. Caitlin has officially been weaned. She hasn't nursed AT ALL for a week now and she doesn't seem to miss it one bit....which makes me happy and a little sad at the same time. I have also stopped pumping. My supply was significantly decreasing so I thought I'd just end it there. She's also sleeping really well and with the help of Grama Dea's birthday present, we don't even pick her up out of her crib when she wakes in the middle of the night. I just put her blanket back over her, turn her on her side, and put on the music. She only cries for a minute or two and then she's out! I think we have trained ourselves well (Dennis and I of course).

Caitlin's favorite food these days: toast

Dancin' Baby

Caitlin is quite fond of dancing these days. It's really the only way we can get her to stay put while we change her diaper! Thank you Black Eyed Peas!!! Oooo, and I also discovered tonight that she really likes Disco too!

Stomach Bug

I have now come down with Dennis's stomach bug he had yesterday.....I seriously hope Caitlin doesn't get it! She slept well again last night and I can almost say she's done nursing, for good. It's bitter sweet success.

Now, it's off to lay down on the couch and curl up into a fetal position :(

Oh...my....gosh!

I think Caitlin has weaned herself! I was just going to try and decrease nursing to just once per night, but for the last two nights she hasn't nursed at all! In fact, she slept from 7:30pm until 5am!!! A personal record for her! Then she went back to sleep and I had to wake her up a little after 7:30am. Although, this whole thing might be because she's growing and we may be headed for a major set back. She ended up taking a 4 hour nap today!....which leads me to believe she's definitely in a growth spurt. It would be super cool if we were still able to eliminate all night time nursing.....and way faster and easier than I thought it was going to be!

Caitlin has also taken to "dancing." The other evening she started waving her arms up and down while listening to Black Eyed Peas....she just loves them! Her cousin Brady introduced her to them and she's been hooked ever since!

Behold!.....Our new sink and faucet!

Yesterday, Dennis spent the entire day installing a brand new sink, faucet, and pipes in our kitchen. It turned out so much awesomer (yes, I know that's not a word...but it fits) than I thought. We were planning on getting a basic stainless steel double sink. Then we went to Costco and found a much awesomer one. When we got home we discovered Dennis would have to drill out two more holes in the sink to fit our current faucet, so we began to look at new ones. It was decided that if we couldn't find a new one at Costco or our local hardware stores, we would just use our old one. However, we found a beautiful one at Costco! Dennis had actually pointed it out the first time we were there and I didn't pay any attention to it because I thought we weren't going to get a new one, so why bother looking....right? Well, I guess I should have looked the first time and it would have saved us a second trip! Here are the before and after photos:

See the little tiny sink to the left? That's where we washed all our dishes that wouldn't go into the dishwasher!

Isn't it beautiful! Each side is SO much deeper! It's so much awesomer to wash dishes now!

So far Caitlin has had 4 awesome nights....and last night I didn't even nurse her in the middle of the night! I think I'm going to try and continue that since she was fine without. Wish us luck!

What to blog?

I am at a loss (a first) of what to write. Construction season is far behind us, but yet, I've been seeing road construction signs pop up here and there, ruining my the flow of my drive to work. Caitlin has abandoned her army crawling for good, I think. I haven't seen it all day. She was CRAZY in the bathtub tonight. Dennis got pretty wet and she splashed and splashed for a solid 10 minutes! She also went to bed an hour later than usual....we'll see how that plays out tonight. Although, last night she only got up once (if you don't count the random 8:30pm wake up) and I was able to get over 5 hours of sleep in a row!!!! Woo hoo!


This is a picture from my friend Dyani's wedding that her photographer took of us. We have several more that turned out really awesome. I'm definitely going to have to get some printed!

Thank you Grama Dea!

Caitlin received her first birthday present today! It was an aquarium with lights and sounds for her crib. I'm thinking this will come in handy when we start working with her on sleeping through the night! Caitlin loved opening up the present and did a pretty darn good job of ripping the paper! She helped her daddy take it out of the box and was extremely eager to play with it. When we attached it to her crib, she was bouncing up and down on her mattress! Oh, and I think the days of army crawling are going to be over very soon. Caitlin pretty much crawled on all fours all evening. Now she's going to be even faster than she was before!

Caitlin 11 Months

Only 1 month left until our baby becomes a toddler! I don't know if I'm ready for that! And today I got her to stand for a few seconds without holding onto anything!


Saturday we spent the day at the Apple Harvest Festival. We ate way too much food! We had cotton candy, apple cider, apples, apple fritter, and a tri-tip sandwich! Caitlin tasted her first sip of apple cider and she really wanted more. She also took her first hayride through the apple orchard. The one time I forget our camera! The weather was nice and sunny but there was a pretty cool breeze. Thankfully, we all brought our warmer sweaters. It will be really fun next year when Caitlin can walk all around the festival.

This is the first weekend since I started weaning Caitlin and it went fairly well. Today's morning nap was the hardest because she REALLY wanted to nurse and not drink from her sippy cup. Finally, with Dennis's help, she went down......45 minutes later. Otherwise, we haven't had any other meltdowns.....myself included. It's so weird. Now that I'm not nursing in the day if feels like something is missing. I think I'm beginning to go through withdrawals! I just need to remember, it's all about forward momentum!

Last week was a horrible week for me at school....thus, no blogging. I'm hoping this week will go much better. I'm not CELDT testing so that is a headache I don't have to endure. And there's hope for all those reports I need to get done. The fourth graders are going to Wolf Creek so I will be able to use that time slot for the blasted reports instead! Yippee.