Raising Cubs in a Campground

We made it! Elsa celebrated her 52nd week by pulling herself to standing on our kitchen steps. (June 23rd) All this time she's been our baby girl, lagging behind in development compared to her siblings. Sitting for FOUR months before she started to crawl. Humoring Mama and staying 'little' as looooong as possible.  The times are a changin' now! She now has way more awareness of her surroundings, her wishes, and getting in the middle of all the action. One thing that hasn't changed is her smile. No new teeth for a while now. Still top four and bottom four. She's a great eater - chunks of cooked carrots were added to her diet today with success.      Did I mention the pulling up she's starting to do? Good time to retire the basket! Cloth Diaper Details: Using a Thirsties cover here, but ever since I bought disposables when she had Hand Foot & Mouth, I've been using them more often. My excuse - she's a squirmy wormy on the changing...

Our baby girl turned 51 weeks waaaaaaaaaaay back on June 29th. But I'm not going to dwell on my lack of updates. Instead I've pulled out my calendar and looked up the notes I've taken on Elsa's development and am going to get myself caught up. So there. :)  This was VBS week so Elsa was my helper at school while I did my part to help out. It's been nice to not have to wake her from her afternoon nap (transitioning to one nap slowly) now that school is out for summer.  She's so good about going to sleep as long as I stay in the room with her. I love to sit in the rocker and watch her drift of to sleep. She tried chicken breast for the first time this week and liked it, but for the most part we will continue to use beans as her main source of protein. I hate beans. hate.them. But it's the least I can do to help her be braver than her mama. I'll wrap up this week's update with one of my favorites from this week. Good thing we only have o...

 Our neighbors clued us in on a great way to carve a pumpkin without the typical mess that goes with it. The secret is to carve into the pumpkin before  it turns orange. I used my car key to carve Elsa's name into one of our pumpkins and then waited a few days to see whether a scar would form or if I would cause the pumpkin to rot.   A week later and sure enough, there is a scar starting to form which means Elsa's pumpkin is on its way to being ready to decorate our front porch and it only took 20 seconds to personalize it! A week later and sure enough, there is a scar starting to form which means Elsa's pumpkin is all ready to decorate our front porch and it only took 20 seconds to personalize it! This will remain a simple design for this year but by next year I will carve her name (and maybe the year?) and then let her paint the pumpkin. Sam loved painting his pumpkin when he was two and I have a feeling Elsa will too. Here's the pumpk...

 She is a treasure and we are so happy to welcome her to the family! God's riches blessings to our newest Goddaughter! We love you Amelia!

 The day Julia has been waiting for FINALLY arrived. August 28th, 2012. Ever since we dropped her big brother, Sam, off at kindergarten two years ago she's been itching to go. Sam is a pro at this first day of school business. He has loved school from the beginning . Preschool seems like forever ago. Look how little he looked and so handsome the next year ! I love being able to compare their heights against the big rock by our office. I suppose it would only be fitting to do some senior portraits on the rock some day....some day far far far from now.  I found these chalkboards at a garage sale the week before school started with the intent of using them to play school, but they ended up being perfect for the first day of school shots.   (Elsa's reads: First day with just Mama) As you can see, Julia is right at home at school.  The first day she didn't get to stay very long and she had to have boring ol' mom along.  We did some o...