Our fun in the sun!

Our weekend was very nice. We had some great weather so we took advantage of it and hung around outside. Here's some pictures:

That black blob in the water is not a shark - it's Matt surfing! Sydney and I met Matt and a friend at the beach on Saturday. Matt was far back in the water so my camera didn't get the greatest shot but you get the gist.

We also went to the park...again. We seem to be going there a lot lately. It's just a short walk to get there and then we push Sydney on the swing or let her play in the grass. It's quite enjoyable! I guess that's why we go every weekend.

The next picture I absolutely love. It shows Sydney's bright blue eyes.

and not to be forgotten....

Pudding Paint

Matt was able to go to school with Sydney & I since he had the day off of work. We did pudding paint that day - which was good that he was there because it's messy! Pudding paint is basically pudding on bubble wrap and the babies smear everything everywhere! Sydney LOVED it. She did most of the smearing with her face because she just wanted to eat the pudding. I don't blame here - pudding is pretty tasty. Here is the progression of Sydney at work!

Sandhill Cranes

So here's more of our wildlife in Florida. We had 3 of these sandhill cranes stroll into our front yard. These birds aren't little either and they make the most horrible noise when they fly over our neighborhood. Matt decided to try to feed them Cheerios. They didn't really care for them though. Then we heard they become aggressive when you feed them regularly. Aggressive in the sense that they start demanding food from you by pecking on the house windows and tearing up the screens!

Note to self (or really "note to Matt"): DON'T FEED THE BIRDS!

Oh no, not the Saturn!! This one actually did peck at Matt's beloved automobile. Not to worry, there wasn't any damage - well not any damage that you can see over the peeling paint on the spoiler! : )

More Crafts!

So here is my latest craft/sewing project - I have to say I'm really proud of it. It turned out better than I thought it would. The pattern and fabric is all from Amy Butler. I LOVE Amy Butler stuff! She's got the best designs - very modern yet vintage all at the same time! I could gush over her stuff all day...

Matt thinks it's weird that I put my baking and craft projects on the blog. I can't help that I am proud of some of my creations and want to show them off. So (in honor of Matt) here is an obligatory picture of Sydney! : )

I think Matt's just jealous that he doesn't have any fun project he can share with you.

At the Park - Part 1

Whew, I have done a lot of blogging today - just scroll down and see.

We took Sydney to her doctors appt on Friday. She weighs 17 lbs 6 oz and is 28 inches long. Her weight is in the 70% and her height is in the 95%. We have no idea where the height came from. The only people where she could have gotten her height from is my dad who is 6' or Pa, Matt's grandpa, who's also about 6'. It's tall but not 95 percentile tall! I'm sure it'll all even out soon.

Anyway, here are some park pictures. I broke out the Elton John sunglasses again. The second picture is my favorite. She's such a joy!

At the Park - Part 2

We take Sydney to the park and she loves to swing for a little bit. I hope these pictures bring a smile to your face. She's pretty cute!

I like this picture with her head just peeking out of the swing.

The darn camera make the background focused and blurred Sydney - oh well, I still think this a great picture of her smile.

Syd's Teeth

Awhile back I posted that she was getting her bottom teeth - here's a picture of them!

Ooey Gooey Goodness

Alright so every once in awhile I like to put up some pictures of my hobbies. I hope none of you have a New Year's resolution to lose weight! Here is some EXCELLENT butterscotch bark that I made last night and that's probably not going to make it through today. The recipe is found in the Everyday Food Cookie Collection Edition - Martha Stewart of course. If any of you come to visit - I'd be happy to make some up for you!

Speechless

I named this post "Speechless" because I have absolutely no words for this picture - just giggles! I went in to check on Sydney last night and this is how I found her. She was sound asleep and perfectly content. Matt took this picture with the flash on and then moved her to a better sleeping position - all without her waking up! I think it looks so uncomfortable and I also wonder how in the world she got herself into the predicament.

Christmas Pictures

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas. We sure did. We went up to visit my family and had a really great time. Here are just a few pictures. I will probably post more in a few days when I have more time. We also had some professional pictures done of the whole family since everyone was able to make it. Hopefully I'll be able to share those with you too. But for now - these will have to do!

Here is Sydney on Christmas day in her pretty dress.

Bub, Jean's dad, surprised all of us and dressed up as Santa! Sydney's wondering who the heck is this guy!

"Alright, I think I like Santa!"

Merry Christmas!

An early Merry Christmas to everyone! So, at Thanksgiving I said I didn't have any plans to dress Sydney up the Christmas but Jen, Matt's sister, came up with an idea to make a big stocking to put Sydney in. Jen, who is the best seamstress I know, made the stocking. A big thanks to her. I just hope Sydney doesn't think this stocking is suppose to be full of gifts on Christmas day!

Our Weekend

So the coolest thing we saw was the shuttle take off on Saturday night. It was the first night launch since Columbia. The picture below doesn't even begin to show how spectular it was. The whole sky was bright and it looked like another sun rising. The greatest thing - we just watched it from our front yard! On our local news station, we got to watch the video camera that was on the booster rockets. We got to see the shuttle lifting away from the rockets. It was so amazing!! I hope they showed those videos on CNN or FOX news so everyone could see it.

The weather was so nice this weekend so we went to the zoo. At our zoo, you can feed the giraffes. It's very fun and my favorite thing to do when we're there. You can hold the cracker out from its mouth and see how long you can get his tongue to be! Here is Matt & Sydney trying to pet the giraffe.

Sydney is starting to get her bottom teeth. We can feel the little bumps coming up. I've heard they can get the bumps but then the gums close back over them only to reemerge later. So we'll see if she actually gets some teeth out of this little adventure! I hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend like ours. I can't believe Christmas is 2 weeks away!

6 months and 1 day!

Yesterday she turned 6 months! She is definitely more active now and enjoys watching Dixie & Martha walk around the house. Luckily for me she still sleeps from 6 pm to 7 am and takes 3 naps during the day! We have been going to this infant program through the local community college near our house. It's basically 2 hours of play time with 9 other babies and their moms. Sydney loves it because there are a lot of fun toys to play with and I like it because there is always some craft I - oh I mean WE - can make! She likes to sit in the pool with the balls and put everything into her mouth. Her favorite, though, is the mirror where she just sits and watches herself. I guess I can't blame her, she is very cute to look at!

Sitting Pretty

Sydney has been sitting up on her own for about a week now. She does real well but still falls over every so often. I'll send out a 6 month pic in a few days.

Yum!

We just started giving her real food. This cute face is covered in sweet potatoes. I have been making all of her food and I love it. It's so easy. Her favorite meal at the moment is oatmeal with apples mixed in. Along with Matt's eyes, Sydney has inherited his huge appetite also!

Howdy Ags!

Sydney is so excited about the Texas Aggies winning football season (9-3), the big win over Texas and the undefeated, eighth ranked Aggie men's basketball team!

Thanksgiving in Texas

Alright- here are some of my favorite pics from Thanksgiving. We went to Texas to see Matt's side of the family. We had a good time while we were there but we will NOT be flying with Sydney anytime soon. The experience was worse than childbirth! On the way home, I can not tell how long she cried on the plane - needless to say we are very glad to be home.

Here's the family picture, minus Jen and the Wacky's and Sydney who was napping at the time of the picture.

Here's a new picture of us. I still think Sydney looks alot like me, except for the blue eyes - those are definitely from Matt.

The girls with all the yummy food!

Here's Matt's mom, Karen, with Sydney.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Did you see those Aggies beat Texas? Oh my goodness - I just can't believe it! I was looking around to see if any pigs were flying when the game was over! : )

Happy Thanksgiving!

Okay - so I like to dress Sydney up! Here is our Thanksgiving turkey. One of our nicknames for her is "turkey" because she is such a faker sometimes. She acts like she is upset, but when we ask her what's wrong she starts laughing!

I did make the costume. I saw it from, where else, Martha Stewart's show! It was a segment for a halloween costume, but I already had her mermaid costume, so I thought I would make it for Thanksgiving. It was super easy. We put her on this platter - which is entirely way too small (as you see her head & feet are hanging off)! Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

And just in case you are wondering I don't have any plans to humiliate Sydney for Christmas, but it's still a few weeks off so you never know!

Here are just a couple of my newest pictures. The photo below is from last night. Sydney is on Matt's shoulders - aren't her chubby cheeks the cutest?

Baby Dediction Photos

Here are some pictures of Pastor Mark and Sydney during the dedication. Our friends Paul & Angie took the pics (a big thanks to them) because we were standing behind Pastor Mark on stage. She didn't get fussy at all - as you hear a big sigh of relief coming out of my mouth! The first picture's background has the two of them up on a huge screen and I like the second picture of her where she's sucked in her bottom lip.

Coming soon... a great picture surprise for Thanksgiving!

Baby Dedication

We are dedicating Sydney at church this Sunday at the 8:30 am (eastern time) service. You can see our church services live over the internet - so you'll be able to watch the dedication if you like! The dedication will take place somewhere around 9 am. It will only take a few minutes too - so you may want to tune in early so you don't miss it! I put our churches link to the right. When you go to the website during the service it will say you can "watch the service all ready in process" (or something like that) in the upper left corner - just click it and follow the directions according to your connection. It's real easy. Now I just hope Sydney doesn't scream during the middle of it!

She's 5 months!

I can't believe she's already 5 months (I think I'll say that every time another month or year passes). She has gotten used to sleeping on her stomach and now prefers it. Within a few minutes of putting her down she automatically just rolls over and passes out. These 2 pictures show her elated facial expression.

This is one of my favorite pictures! Capt Sydney reporting for duty!

By the way - the granola bars for Halloween were a hit and we didn't get egged! One boy even ran away saying "Yes! Chocolate chip is my favorite!"

This is how we stroll

Every evening we all go for a walk around the neighborhood. Sydney does real well in the stroller. She gets super comfortable by slouching down in the seat and propping one foot up on the tray - acting like she owns the place!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the little mermaid!

I know this is one day early but I had to post the pictures! I figured the costume was very fitting since we live at the beach. I made the bottom part of the costume and the shell bra is real. We picked up some shells on one of our walks and Matt drilled holes in them so she could wear them. Anyway, hope all of you have a good day and enjoy the pictures!

Rolling Over

By the way, Sydney started to roll over. The problem with that is she hates to be on her stomach so when she rolls over in her crib within a few minutes she lets us know how unhappy she really is. So much for that easy going baby I previously talked about! : )

The Catch of the Day

Matt went fishing this weekend with a neighbor. He caught 2 bass. Here is a picture of "the big one!" He looks so proud doesn't he?

At the beach

We went to the beach this weekend. Sydney was a good sport even though she was kinda tired. She didn't mind being put in the water, but that's just Sydney- she's pretty easing going, well 90% of the time. The other 10% is when she is really tired and just wants to go to bed.

My Halloween Craft

One of the great things about being a stay-at-home mom is I get to watch Martha Stewart's show. Well, I think it's great. I saw this on her show and decided to make it. It's a candy dish (the goodies goes in its mouth) - not that we'll be putting candy in it. Matt and I, being the "concerned citizens" we are, decided to single-handedly fight childhood obesity this year and hand out granola bars for Halloween! I'll let you know if we get egged! : ) Anyway, I am super excited about Sydney's costume. A few know what she is going to be dressed up as - but the rest will just have to wait and be surprised! Also, with the candy dish, it does look like Martha (our cat named Martha not Martha Stewart) but only WAY friendlier!! On a side note: our cat is not named after Martha Stewart either!

Whew - what a random post huh? Hopefully it all makes sense. It does in my head and I guess that's what matters! : )