And always on the go…

I always find these articles to be refreshing and affirming.

Yet at the same time they bother me a little because I’m just not sure how fair they are. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying stay-at-home-moms don’t deserve this compensation chart – believe me, I do! But I also think there should also be a chart for working dads (or every body else for that matter – parent or not). Think about all the stuff they do for the family in addition to working:

• Handy man/contractor
• Financial planner
• Accountant
• Auto repairman
• Price negotiator
• Home inspector
• Grounds keeper
• Systems operator
• Psychologist (for their wives)
• Comedian (Ryan’s addition)

And I’m totally missing some. Isn’t that like a $2 million dollar salary?? Maybe this isn’t your family but this is ours. So yeah, I have a lot of hats but so does Ryan.

It’s not that I’m discounting all the crazy-huge responsibilities of a SAHM, it’s just that when we see “personal chef” on the list we have to laugh a bit because it’s not totally realistic – what normal, blue-collar family has a personal chef? It’s just something that has to get done (and let’s be honest…how often are meals “personal chef” quality? I know that on pizza night it doesn’t require any effort on my part). Cooking is just like paying the bills and creating a budget and fixing the tv when it’s broken. You know what I’m saying?

So when I see things that say how much money a SAHM should earn, I nod my head in total agreement. But I ALSO remember not to get too proud…working dads have more worth than what they’re compensated for, too.

In short: we should be millionaires. That is all.

Your thoughts?

Richly yours,
Laura

Stink face! Angry at her food.

Cutest baby ever.

Babies in hooded towels kill me dead. Especially mine.

Inside car / Outside car

Stair climber.

The following flips are some shots I got of Sonora just after she’d woken up and was having her morning snack. Babies this cute need to be models or something.

I seriously need to research where and how to submit photos. She’s so precious.

Proud mama,
Laura

So the house is sort of in order and almost the way we want it. I’ve been taking photos progressively so some things in the photos have changed (like the refrigerator) but I’m showing these as more of a tour of the house for those of you who didn’t see my progress posts and who just want to see the layout. To actually see the house, a visit is required and desired. Hey, that was a fun little rhyme I just did there.

Okay okay, enough talk. It’s time for the tour. Keep in mind this is a tri-level with a basement so try to follow me with the layout.

Exterior. Will be repainted this summer (hopefully).

Heading inside to the main level…

Looking into the breakfast nook upon entry of the front door. Kitchen is to the left.

Bonus shot: baby on the stairs.

Kitchen looking into dining room. This was before we got our shiny new black fridge and before we moved our table into the breakfast nook which is where it is currently (shown previously).

Looking from the dining room to the front entry. Kitchen is to the right.

Living room (looking to the left upon entry). NEW FURNITURE!!! I'll be adding some better/more colorful throw pillows to the recliners and we'll be updating the side tables soon. But isn't it just LOVELY? Couch is black & white herringbone so it looks gray.

Dining room connected to the living room. Kitchen is to the right. This photo is an old photo taken before the dining room converted into a play room.

Current "dining" room converted to play room. Table is there so we don't hit our head on the light, heh. And so Sonora can have snacks.

Looking at the top level from the living room on the main level. Stairs to the left go down to the garage level.

Heading down those stairs to the left to the garage level…

Progress shot of Ryan's tile work. Heading down to the garage level.

Guest bathroom and laundry room. Door to the garage is to the right. Stairway to the left is going back up to main level and the tiny portion of a doorway are stairs going down to the basement.

Family room on garage level. Still need to finish/paint the stairs. Door is leading downstairs to the basement.

Sorry, I didn’t get a shot of the basement before we moved our old couches and acquired a bed and a dresser from Laura and Jared (and a desk from Ryan’s parents). But it’s a basement – a big long room with a fireplace at the end just like the main level fire place. New carpet, fresh paint. Just use your imagination to picture it. I also don’t have a good shot of the guest room downstairs but that’s still a work in progress so it’ll have to come later. It originally had dark wood paneling and awful tile but we painted it a light blue paneling, put new carpet in and have some guest furniture in there. But like I said, still has some work to do.

All right now let’s go back upstairs now, shall we? Here’s the main level again…

Heading upstairs...

Kid/Guest bathroom, first door on the left. Upstairs.

Our room, second door on the left. Upstairs.

Looking into our bathroom.

Left side of Sonora's room (note the Pack N Play – this was taken before she got her crib). End of the hall upstairs.

Right side of Sonora's room featuring her new crib!

Changing table/dresser & closet are on the other side of the room. Old shot taken before her bird mobile was finished and before her closet was organized.

So the only room I didn’t show upstairs was the office. Don’t have a good shot of it, my bad.

And there you have it! That’s our house. Welcome. Come visit us any time! We love house guests.

Homey-ly yours,
Laura

As you can see from the caption, Sonora is sitting sweetly…on our BRAND NEW COUCH!! I cannot begin to describe what it feels like to have our very own, NEW furniture in the living room. And that is why another post will be up in the coming days so you can see it in all it’s blazoned glory. Of course that means I didn’t take her photos exactly on her tenth “monthday” (Jan. 16) because we just got the furniture yesterday. Oh well! It was worth the wait to be able to announce such an exciting thing on her special day.

The days leading up to her tenth monthday were quite eventful. Here’s what The Precious was up to:

• celebrated her first Christmas with both sides of the family and even got her two {other} front teeth! you can even see them a little in this photo – gap tooth baby!
• assisted walking
• took another cross-country road trip
• bounces to tunes
• pointing at things and people – knows how to ask for what she wants by pointing (water, food, etc)
• free standing for a few seconds at a time
• developed a funny chuckle while eating
• walking holding one of our hands
• cruising like mad and getting really fast
• walking behind her walk-behind car!

She just keeps getting more and more busy which brings more and more fun. I love all the stages of baby but it’s so exciting to get to the next stage and realize just how much you love that one even more, especially for the first kiddo since EVERYTHING is new and exciting. And to think playing with, talking to and going on adventures with her is my job. I’ve never had such a fun job in my life.

Also? Things are getting real now folks…t-minus two months (less than that now) until The Big Day. Eep! They weren’t joking when they said time flies.

Stage lovin,
Laura

A little tidbit about our Christmas celebrations before we begin. As I mentioned before, the night everyone arrived (Ryan’s whole family stayed with us) I happened to get violently ill with some sort of 12-hour bug. I can honestly say it was the worst night/morning of my life. So the next couple days I was, shall we say, less than chipper. I left Ryan and his family in charge of pretty much everything (baby, house, food, cleaning, etc) the next day and – don’t know how except for sheer willpower and desire to see the last Olde Golden Christmas parade – I did manage to [briefly] get out and about that day despite my predicament. That night (17th) we had our Christmas party and I was still pretty miserable so I honestly don’t remember a whole lot. But I know everyone else seemed to be enjoying their time, ha.

Okay so without further ado, this post is just going to be photos and captions. Your favorite! Please enjoy thoroughly.

Enjoying downtown Golden's Christmas parade – a yearly tradition for Ryan, me, and now Sonora!

Opening her first gift!

She wasn't quite so sure about it.

But she was a fan of the fun hat her Auntie Rhonda gave her!

Mostly interested in eating wrapping paper, of course.

And she chooses to play with one of her old toys. Lovely. Also, please note pathetic me just laying there. That was me the entire night after a full day of laying in bed. Miserable. But I still had fun!

The next morning we all went to church. Sonora is wearing her Christmas dress and doing her favorite activity – assisted walking!

That night we all took Ryan's parents out to Denver Botanic Gardens to enjoy the lights festival.

The whole fam (except for Ryan, the photographer). We all loved this walk through the gardens.

The lights were so pretty! I think this will be an annual tradition.

The next day we went to Tabernash/Winter Park for the day. Ryan stayed back to work while I went skiing with Rhonda and Jared. Jared was too good for us so he went on another run and waited for us while we lollygagged around taking photos of ourselves and texting people.

Such a beautiful day...once again, sunny! I guess my track record is improving.

A little surprised by the flash as she gorged on her first spaghetti dinner.

Super excited!!

Quick break to share a bit about the second part of our Christmas celebrations.

After Ryan’s family left, we packed up and headed to Michigan early Friday morning (23rd) at 4:30am. The timing worked awesome for traveling with a 9-month old and her new car seat worked wonders, too. Sonora didn’t complain at all on the way there except for a little fussiness when we put her back in her car seat after each stop (shocked! amazed! loved it!). We made it to Chicago in about 17 hours to spend the night at Ryan’s parents’ house while they were in Las Vegas since it was late in the evening and I wanted to get a good night’s sleep. The next day we took our time leaving for Michigan because my mom got sick with a similar bug (how weird…must have been going around) and we arrived late afternoon on Christmas Eve. And now here are the photos from our time there, keep enjoying!

Holding hands with her cousin Arianna before the present opening ceremony begins.

Arianna and Sonora enthralled with their new dollies (Sonora's gift to Arianna)

Playing with the gift Arianna got for her...a fun, {mostly} self-propelling alligator.

Hanging with Grandpa.

Once again, enjoying something other than her presents. (although I guess technically that went in one of her presents so I'll give her that)

I love this little sleeper on her! I just want to smoosh her.

Morning playtime with Grandma.

A special gift from Grandpa - baby hippie clothes he picked out himself. I guess he does really love her if he willing goes shopping for a pink outfit.

Now she is a spaghetti fiend.

Playing with her buddy, Grant.

I found this car at Goodwill for only $4!! I wanted to take it back to have a second car but decided to leave it at my parents' for her and Arianna to enjoy when they visit. I also found a mini floor kitchen for $4 and normal toy kitchen for $12. I love the thrift stores in Michigan...they practically GIVE stuff away.

Leah and I love it when we see girls do kissy fish face at our age. it's so cute. So we thought we'd try it out for old times' sake.

Don't worry, Sonora is enjoying a ROOT beer. We had another family outing the next week where we took our parents to the Electric Cheetah for a nice dinner out and quality time together with everyone. Then we went back to Nathan & Heidi's for games.

Taking Sonora sledding for the first time on a real hill.

Sadie had a fun time romping around in the snow, too.

Dino ball-popping fun.

Loving her sink bath!

We spent a couple weeks in Michigan, spending quality time with my family and friends. Lots more photos were taken but mostly I just savored the time I had with my family and best Midwesty friends. Oh, and with all the free babysitting, I had several girls’ nights and we even “partied” the night away on New Year’s Eve with our friends – we are such wild parents! Oh wait. Then we went back to Illinois for a few more days to mix some business with pleasure – I had a social media meeting (see, I am using Facebook and Twitter for some professional gain, too) and a photo shoot. But mostly it was just more fun with family and friends.

Fun time at the park with her good pal, Bud! (and his mom, Faith, who happens to be my good friend. funny how that works)

Peek-a-boo!

Slide fun with Daddy.

First time in a big tub!

Touch!

On Saturday I'd hoped to meet up downtown with a couple of my Twitter mom friends but due to poor planning on my part, I had to cancel. Sorry, ladies! Instead, it ended up turning into a lovely family excursion with the inlaws and we all went to Lincoln Park Zoo to enjoy the beautiful day.

Crazy mirrors.

The monkeys were hysterical. Sonora loved them!

Checking out the gorilla with Daddy.

Our little family. Aren't we just precious.

Dinner with friends has changed quite a bit since last year...

So that was our trip! And now I still have SO MANY MORE posts to do. Oh my goodness. Not only have I been taking thousands of The Precious but I also have her slightly belated 10-month post AAAND…photos of our house! More on that later, kids.

Love,
Laura

I’ll let the photo {captions} speak for themselves.

Sonora was super excited about going on a hike.

The standard Hartgerink family portrait. Obviously.

I love me some weed. Er wait. That came out wrong.

Ran into this fella halfway up.

Sonora was intrigued by his hat but dismayed by his cold demeanor.

It was kind of pretty.

Oh nothing, just an amazing sky with a mountain range in the background.

Hair grabbing neck scratcher.

I could not resist the composition of snow drifts and clouds. Mm.

Are you kidding me with this sky?

Shot from the top. Note the sleeping baby.

Zonked! I mean she had a hard day riding in the pack, after all. So exhausting.

The Precious.

Just another January day in our part of Colorado. Don’t believe me? Check out this post and this post. See? Mild winters, people.

Love,
Laura

Anyway, her 9-monthday was the same day Ryan’s family came to stay with us for an early week-long Christmas celebration and that very same night I got violently ill with either a 12-hour flu or food poisoning. Puke-fest all night long, could hardly function the next day. And after everyone left, WE left for the Midwest for 2.5 weeks. So in my defense, there were many distractions and valid reasons for this past month’s delay. (why am I even defending myself?)

So here’s what the peanut was up to leading up to her ninth month of life:

• she finally got a crib!!! Ryan and I graciously used our own Christmas money to finance this grand purchase and it was totally worth every penny (and totally not a sacrifice at all…what would we buy anyway?). My oh my did she sleep well and love her new bed – slept late and woke up jabbering to all her toys I hung up or put in there. The Pack ‘N Play had a great run but is now happily in storage. My back rejoices daily (though my quads aren’t getting quite as much of a workout…)
• continued cruising along furniture, getting more and more adventurous and steady on her feet
• sitting on her knees kind of frog-like in the same position Ryan used to sit in (double jointed knees?)
• pulling up to stand on All The Things including and mostly, me
• super busy – always on the go and moving but not totally all over the place yet…just climby, crawly, pull-uppy baby
• gets upset with things she’s not sure about (ie. food, toys and the bunny) and gives a fake diva cry or does a stacatto whine-grunt (uuh uhh uhh uhh uhhhn)
• eats A LOT and super slow – there are times she eats all day long between snacking & meals and times where it takes her an hour to finish a meal
• the biggest thing of all: she SMILES ALL THE TIME now! Hooray for me!

And I do have a new nickname for her now: The Precious. I guess it basically means she’s the ultimate in being precious. Because…duh.

Ryan’s cut off in this one because he had some issues with looking like a major ma-goo (sorry, dear, but mid-blink isn’t a good look) every time I got a good shot of The Precious actually looking AT me and smiling. Yeah, she’s an expert at avoiding the camera now, too.

Pretty sure a Christmas post is coming up next so hold tight…it’s gonna be a doozy.

Love,
Laura

—-

Spiritual growth. Instead of say “read devotions every day” or “read the Bible all the way through” like I have in the past, I’m just hoping for this to happen for me this year. Every time I make some sort of tangible goal I feel that I’m failing myself horribly at the single most important thing in my life and it’s depressing. This is an area where I need great improvement but setting goals like that just isn’t working for me. I HOPE to start keeping a prayer journal but this year I’m not going to commit to anything more than just spending more time with God. This time it’s not something that can be measured by pages in a book – whew!

Being nicer to Ryan. I can be a mean girl sometimes. That’s all I’ll say about that because I know everyone has issues with this to a certain extent and no need to give the dirty details, heh.

Become more financially responsible. I can be pretty spendy at times and now that we are both freelancers money’s become a lot tighter. We (and by we I mean Ryan) have created a new budget that we hope to stick with based on some of the principles Dave Ramsey talks about and others that we’ve been doing all along. Like not spending money we don’t have, paying off our credit cards and always giving our tithe to the church no matter what. But I’ve yet to completely adapt to the model Ryan’s laid out for us which is: only buy what we need. {whining} But it’s sooo haaaarrrd. There are so many miniature things I cannot resist…

Meal plan. I’ve just devised a meal plan for us that will begin tomorrow. It’s 14 meals (lunch & dinner) that I plan to repeat every two weeks. There is some wiggle room on deviating from the menu so long as I maintain the basic ingredients and don’t need to go out and buy more. We’ll see how this works (and how sick of the same meals we get).

Get Signify more social. I need to continue to grow the business so I plan to tweet more and give more updates on Facebook just to keep my name circling. With Ryan now working freelance we need all the work we can get! In saying that…please pass the word if you know of anyone looking for some marketing/design work. It would be much appreciated.

—

Well I actually didn’t think my list would be even this long but turns out I do have a few set goals for myself this year. No traveling was listed on here but I’m sure there will be at least one trip back to the Midwest to meet all my friends’ new babies! Oh yeah, did I mention everyone and their mother is pregnant…in Michigan and Illinois? Yeah. Cruel seeing as I don’t have many moms to play with out here.

Hrmph.

Resolutionarily yours,
Laura

We just got back from the Midwest this week so I’m just popping in to say hi just so you don’t think I’ve totally disappeared. You see, Ryan’s family visited us the week before Christmas and we’ve been gone since the day before Christmas (get that…THREE WEEKS of Christmas break) so I need a few days just to do nothing. But I’ll have much to report once we’re totally settled in and once all the photos are downloaded. Lots of baby updates – including TWO month-day posts – and Christmas chaos.

In the meantime, I have an update on my list of “to-dos” for 2011. I was about 50% successful if you count the “sort ofs.” Heh. Enjoy!

Daily devotions. I don’t want to talk about it.

Devote more time to productivity, less time to time-wasting activities on the Internet. Well, I joined Twitter shortly after writing this which wasn’t exactly UN-productive since it really helped out with all sorts of mama/baby questions buuuuut I did do a lot of chatting, too. Granted, it was mostly while breastfeeding and heaven knows in the beginning that’s ALL. THE. TIME. But still. In October I realized I’d averaged 1,000 tweets a month. Ummm yeah. Like I said, not unproductive, but not really what I was intending. In related news though, I blogged and Facebook-stalked less and worked more! So there’s that.

Go on real dates with Ryan at least once a month. Real dates didn’t really happen, but not because of the baby. Mostly because of Ryan’s school and having a new house to work on. Oh, and money that we don’t have a lot of.

Continue to be active. Yep. It happened. I rock at doing things.

Be more intentional with my photography and hone my photography skills. I did allllll right. Not quite what I was hoping for but I at least read up and practiced a bit more than usual. I’m still not where I want to be but that’s more of a motivation issue in general, not limited to photography.

Grow my business. I did it! I had a TON of work this year. This summer brought in a bunch of new clients as well as a bunch of new projects from a few of my “regulars”. It was an amazing year.

Draw something. Guess I should have reviewed my goals more throughout the year. I didn’t even remember this one. But also…where would I find the time?? Fine art isn’t quick.

Be more crafty. Well this one didn’t really happen. Even though I could have found the time amidst the busy I still like vegging out better. Plus, why do I need more stuff?

Take a trip. Obviously we managed this one and more. Several trips to the Midwest plus a detour to South Dakota made this easy peasy. We didn’t make it out of the country…yet.

–

Future goals beyond 2011:

- Own a house. Holla! Totally didn’t think this one would happen so soon but it all worked out. So happy with our house…it’s finally looking more and more like the way we want it. And YES for the love of Pete, I will try my hardest to get some photos up. I keep changing furniture in the rooms around and adding/removing decorations so I feel like it always looks different but I do need to put some more comparison shots up. Guess that will be on my 2012 To Do list, ha.
- Go back to Hawaii and Europe (this time including Ireland and England). Money’s especially tight right now so this is still in our future. Probably 5-year plan.
- Create Montessori-like activities for little Hart. This and dog-earing magazines and finding ideas online is happening.
- Become a teacher. I’m actually not so sure about this one anymore. Ryan’s in school now for Special Education and I think I might wait to see how things go for him. I know that sounds lame but for me it makes sense. Don’t judge. Also, I’m a little interested in home schooling…but not something I’ve really seriously considered just yet. Just an idea.

Next up…some goals for 2012.

Love,
Laura

Anyway, I think it has to do with the weather and not being able to gallivant around the town as much, being holed up inside more, etc etc. But it mostly has to do with the fact that the majority – and I mean pretty much all – of my mom friends are back where I used to live. Ho hum.

That’s not to say I don’t have fabulous friends out here or better yet, fabulous mom friends. But the mom friends are few and far between. Colorado is lacking in the late-20s/early-30s moms for me to play with.

So what’s a girl to do? I’m just not sure how I can go about planting babies in my girl friends’ bellies without somehow infringing on their rights. Plus, I don’t think their husbands would appreciate that very much.

I’m just missing on my lady peeps. Again.

And I’m not sure if anyone who lives here and is friends with me is reading this, but if so…and if you’re a woman…can you just have a baby already?? Do it for a friend.

Love,
Laura

So. Yeah. Our baby is almost beyond 8 months already. NUTTY. Here’s what she’s been up to lately: pulling herself up to her knees & also pulling herself up to standing, cruising along furniture, eating mostly finger foods (pushes the spoon away, refusing to “eat like a baby” – her words, not mine), babbling with a lot more inflection, nearly always standing, trying to stand/walk on her own (meaning no assistance and she’s SO close…whoa, slow down!!), super steady on her feet, and she crawls after the dog which is hilarious.

She is getting even more of a personality which I find to be awesome, yet I am leery of her “drama baby” days (throwing her head down on her arms dramatically) and her most recent behavior of gruffly shoving an item aside when she doesn’t want it anymore. Namely my hands (when I try to force feed her something she doesn’t want) and face (when I’m up in her business mashing my face into her belly). It is also sometimes accompanied by an annoyed/disgusted/snotty look. Um, does this mean we’ll have a diva on our hands?? Oh dear me, no.

Anyway, last week Sunday, December 4th, she was dedicated at our church. This basically means we took a covenant to raise her in a Christian home, following the values of the church and guiding her in such a way that she will want to accept Christ as her Savior one day. Um, yeah. No pressure or anything. Anyway, it was a good service and we were happy to have Laura and Jared there along with a few of our closest friends to support us since we don’t have much family here. I struggled with not being able to put her in my own baptism gown that her Great-Grandma made for me when I was even more wee than she is now, but it was much to small. In the end I’m glad I went with a new dress because she looked ridiculously adorable.

This little face kills me.

Oh my goodness. Love her.

Her latest thing - the crinkle-nose snuffle laugh. It's adorable.

Such a lady.

Just hanging out on the table at the service. Ain't no thang.

Almost captured a smile.

Announcing our little family.

Besides that, we’ve just been enjoying her constant on-the-go behavior. She hasn’t caused too much mayhem…yet. We installed a couple baby gates, covered the outlets and are just generally more aware of what she’s doing, but so far haven’t really had to worry.

Now on a different note, from all these posts of the baby it may seem like she never smiles or that she only smiles with a closed mouth. But I have photographic proof that she does, in fact, smile quite big! I just don’t often get the chance to capture it since I love smooshing my face into her every time she does.

See why I can't capture it? I just want to attack her when she does this.

Now granted it’s not constant, but when she smiles that large it’s the best and cutest thing ever. And I’m not sure how many times I can use that phrase before it totally loses its meaning but whatever.

She’s cute. She’s moving. She’s 8 months…until Friday. *gulp*

Love,
Laura

But I’ll get to that at some point. Right now, I thought I’d first share some great photo strips with you as well as some pre-Thanksgiving photos of our new tradition of hiking up one of the Table Mountains in Golden on Thanksgiving weekend.

So please…just sit back, relax and enjoy the show. (plus a bit more blathering at the end)

Neighborhood watch.

Not so sure about the eggs / Loving her toast with every meal

The baby loves to stand / Anxious to get out of her seat

Bunny visit!

Just eating some apples at the top of a mountain. No big deal. (ps. i love the lighting from the sunset in these shots)

The photo combo above is from our trip to the top of South Table Mountain. The views aren’t quite as nice as on North Table Mountain, but the hike is beautiful and Table Rock sits atop the butte, so it was a perfect spot for a little sunset snack.

We decided that we want to make this our family’s “Grand Haven Pier” tradition. See, every Thanksgiving Ryan’s family (his mom’s side) would take a trip to Lake Michigan to take a pier walk after the big Thanksgiving meal at his grandma’s. So we wanted to keep up the tradition of an annual walk, only ours has quite a bit more elevation gain, heh.

As you may recall from previous Thanksgivings, the weather is usually pretty spectacular around these parts and this day was no exception. We went pretty late in the day on Wednesday – just after Ryan got done with work – so in addition to having one of the warmest days of November that day (60s), we were also fortunate enough to catch the sunset over the mountains. This tradition is a keeper.

Hiking to Table Rock.

Sonora wasn't keen on the self-portrait family photo without her baby sunglasses. My bad.

Second attempt and still not amused with the sun in her eyes.

At the top!

Queens of the mountain.

Snack time.

Sunset love.

The view is still pretty great.

Sadie also enjoyed this holiday adventure.

On the way back down.

Holding hands.

That was Wednesday. Then Thursday rolled around and we were able to celebrate Thanksgiving with two of our dear friends, Kristine and JB, and their son Grant. Last year we had a youth leader Thanksgiving with all the leaders but this year it was just us. And it was really, really nice. We ate and chatted the day away.

That night we headed up the mountain to stay with Laura and Jared and celebrate another Thanksgiving on Friday with them. But when we arrived that night, they had a special announcement for us:

Big announcement!

Sonora is getting a new baby cousin in June! We are so happy for them and are excited for little cousin play dates in the near future.

Friday morning, Ryan, Jared and I all went skiing while Laura watched Sonora. It was the first time in over a year I’d been skiing and it was just like riding a bike. And wonder of all wonders, I didn’t fall down once! Wow. That is a first for such a rookie like me. Oh, and it was sunny! Normally it’s overcast and freezing but my new coat was excellent at keeping me warm and I was sweating by the end. Anyway, there were only a few runs open (and just blues and greens, whomp whomp) but with Jared’s free passes we didn’t feel bad about only skiing for a few hours before heading back to prepare our feast. Then Saturday we just spent the day lazing about and took a little trip into town to shop at Cooper Creek before we left for home.

Sunny!

On Sunday, believe it or not, we had yet another Thanksgiving with two other couple friends of ours you’ve read about before, Brad and Sarah and their son, Davis, as well as Danielle and Kevin. Three Thanksgivings is thrice as nice. And it was fun getting caught up on the last few months of each others’ lives. Good food, great friends, fun adventures.

That’s how we roll.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend, too.

Love,
Laura

So I’ve been slack-a-lackin on the posts lately because I just have. No real reason – I haven’t been super busy or anything, just took me a while to go through photos I guess. And we’ve been more social lately, too, which has been nice. It was my birthday two weekends ago – the day after I wrote the post about our impending doom life changes – and on my birthday we celebrated by getting the flu shot for Sonora and looking for refrigerators, yay! Oh wait, that’s not cool. That’s adult-y and boring. But AFTER that we went out for dinner with our good friends Meghan and Greg (aka Megreghan) where I proceeded to get wine, dinner AND dessert. That’s how I do birthdays. I also received my very own homemade tiramisu the next day made and delivered by another good friend, Amanda, and her fiance. So even though we had to drop my birthday money on a new fridge, it was a good weekend.

But let’s get serious, you don’t care about what’s going on with us anymore, do you? You just want to get back to baby. Well that’s fine because we haven’t really done a lot of adventure-y things lately that are worthy of putting on the blog. Mostly just park walks, play dates and friend get-togethers. So I get it…the content is not quite as riveting.

Anyway, so lately I’ve been LOVING this stage that we’re in. It’s the climb-all-over-mama, crawling and babbling stage. I have my very own pocket-sized friend.

She cuddles…

She plays…

And she lounges.

OKAY NOW STOP JUDGING ME. This was early in the morning (or 9am, *ahem*) and I wasn’t ready for the day yet. See my coffee mug sitting there? It wasn’t yet finished. I like to enjoy my mornings, relaxing in my sleepy filth.

Whatever. I dare YOU to post an ugly photo of yourself for the world to see.

So besides that, she’s just been getting cuter and cuter now THAT SHE’S CRAWLING. Yep, that’s right. Crawling. No real destination yet other than trying to procure the remote and any cord she can get. It’s a slow, methodical crawl now – one step up from the robotic crawl – and it’s ridiculously adorable. Here is a video of her first real crawling experience (double click the image):

Oh my goodness. I just love her.

Now, onto the photo strips!

One of her favorite activities is to stand holding onto her activity mat...and then fall over when she loses her balance.

Real crawling happening here, folks.

Eating my drawstring. Grabbing the camera strap. Of course.

Sadie stops by for a visit. Showers overhead. Washcloth on the noggin.

Looking guilty about something. Probably about being so cute.

Excited to talk to Sadie and pretty sure attempting to comb her hair.

Chillin. It's how we do.

Good things DO come in small packages. And small packages just keep getting more and more fun.

Have a nice day,
Laura

Well I’ve got that now.

Lately I’ve been thinking about our upcoming situation and just need to let some things out. I haven’t written about this on here before because Ryan didn’t think it should be public knowledge but I’d like some support from the Internets.

So the big news is that Ryan is going to school to get his Masters in Special Education to change careers from graphic design to teaching. Yeah, risky move, right? But he feels very sure about this and is excited for this new endeavor. Even more news is that come January, he will be working as a freelance designer rather than a salaried employee while he is in these two years of school/student teaching. This is scary and exciting at the same time. We both have mixed emotions about this but we are trusting in God and that He is working for our good. Because quite frankly, having two un-salaried parents with a new baby and a new house is a little daunting. But as I start to worry about this and realize that we need to start being even more money-conscious than ever before because we may not have very much income for a while (which hasn’t hit me yet), I remember the sermon about worry.

The main point was that if I start to worry then I am not living GRATEFULLY PRESENT. And that’s a problem because I have so very much to be thankful for, including this great opportunity – as nerve-racking as it is – for Ryan. And if I worry, not only am I being ungrateful but it’s also keeping me from trusting God completely. I know His hand is always on us, and he is always fighting on our behalf. But it’s so hard not to get caught up in the “what ifs.” What if we don’t have enough money? What if Ryan can’t find a job in two years? What if we lose the house? What if, what if, what if.

It can drive a girl mad.

And I know the answer to those questions…God will provide. But it’s so hard to let go. It seems we need control on every part of our lives – from work to family to future plans – so to give up those rights and open our hands to receive rather than hold onto? It’s tough, man.

The good thing is that Ryan is not a freak like me never worries about anything. So while he is curious to see how this all pans out, it’s not getting to him at all. His classic “Ryan” phrase that he repeats so often, especially to me, is this: “Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but doesn’t get you anywhere.”

Bless his little heart.

So anyway, I just ask that you please pray for us. Pray that in these next two months we (or maybe just me) can find peace and comfort rather than worry and doubt. Or if you’re not the praying type, please send positive thoughts our way. This may be the best thing or this may be the worst thing or this may not even be a big deal at all. But right now we’re taking a leap and with anything unknown, it’s a little heart-pounding.

I really appreciate it.

Thanks,
Laura

She had quite the adventure already, too. On her 7-monthday, we took a cross-country trip in a motor home to Michigan with my sister-in-law’s inlaws who are from the neighboring town of where I grew up. Did you catch all that? And it went fabulously.

Some updates: she is still figuring out how to crawl, but during her time in the Midwest she cut not one, but TWO teeth! And she handled it like a champ. She finally got to meet her Uncle Nathan, Auntie Heidi and her two-week-old baby cousin Arianna for the first time. She also had her first airplane ride and while her airport experience wasn’t the greatest (shriek city), she did really well on board.

As for me, well I plan on just staying quiet about the whole visit because I think everyone knows by now how conflicted I get. It’s definitely harder now with her being so far from grandparents. But home is where the heart is, right? And like I said before, it makes our trips back so much more special.

Anyway, we are having such a great time with her – I still look at Ryan in wonder sometimes and ask, “can you believe we have a daughter??”

I love her so much.

Love,
Laura

Ahem.

Curious. Angry.

Loving the teether toy Grandpa Gras made.

Bathtime cuties!

Pink hoodies are the best.

Not sure what to think about her new playmat.

This is pretty much the extent to which she plays with her activity mat.

Random cuteness.

I like my normal photostrip version, but this last photo combo is fabulous. I can’t wait to put her One Year book together and have all kinds of crazy cute like this happening on the pages. I will probably have to start doing some more combos like this now, won’t I?

Loving the baby girl,
Laura

For the last two months I’ve been pretty much up to my eyeballs in design and PR work. It’s been SO GOOD for us as we’re trying to save money but I need to figure out a way to better manage my time – maybe setting up one day a week where I will get a babysitter or something. Because I had another meltdown one day last week (of course I did) and after some talking with a few good friends and a loving husband, realized that this “busy season” may not be temporary. Which is fantastic but so crazy with a baby. Being a work at home mom is challenging!

And that’s all I’ll say about that…for now.

Because I have TWO WEEKS of photos to share with you. First, I will start with our trip up Mt. Evans last weekend. It. was. GORGEOUS. And we took Sonora in her hiking backpack for the first time – yay! Super cute and hilarious. Also? She likes to drink from the Camelbak. Here are just a select few of the amazing shots we got on our color tour and hiking excursion.

Family portrait on a mountain. Baby in her jammies.

We were literally surrounded by neon yellow. Trees were blazing in the sun.

There was this huge patch of bright yellow across the way, as the sun hit it just right.

Love the moody atmosphere.

Baby hand pressing against the baby backpack.

This view is incredible on so many levels.

Loving the camelbak.

Thirsty little bugger!

It was a pretty gorgeous water break.

The sun came out!

It was a gorgeous drive.

And I have a few more photos of our trip on Facebook. Yeah, yeah, I know. I WAS going to stop posting there but it has this strange pull…

Love,
Laura

Here are some of her “official” 6-month shots. She wasn’t smiling for many, but we got a few gems for wall hangings.

Pretty as a princess.

Giggles!

I love this kid.

Checking out her dress.

Pouty.

Photo shoot wouldn't be complete without a little baby tongue.

Not going to smile. No.

Looking a bit less annoyed.

Oh my goodness. There are no words.

Man and baby on a bench. I die.

And now for the progression of mobility. First up, crazy move:

Then the almost-crawl:

Next we have a nice representation of the wide range of girly emotions, baby-style:

And now you have my personal favorite – the video bomb. I had just captured a special moment in Sonora’s life when all of a sudden…well, you’ll see.

Yeeeeaaaaahhhh…and our dog is a girl. So anyway.

Just know that all of this happened within a week or so. Crazy how much progress happens in just a short time. This girl is motivated! And I haven’t gotten a video of her even better attempt at crawling yet – lately she likes to get camera shy/stubborn when the camera comes out.

Until Sunday…
Laura

All this to say, I really, really hated not being 100% there for Sonora. I was happy that she took very long naps on those days and was not fussy or needy at all, but it really stunk to have to put her in her walker and ignore her for long-ish periods of time. Ugh. This WAHM stuff can be very challenging sometimes.

Anyway, as far as baby updates go, well…we officially have a scoot-crawler! I mentioned this in my 6-month post and I phrase it that way because she’s not quite crawling, but she’s past scooting on her belly. Basically anytime she’s on the floor, she gets into a hands-and-knees stance and rocks forward and backward. It’s pretty much the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. She has nearly stopped scooting on her belly altogether and the rolling has slowed as well since she’s focused on trying to figure this new move out. I’ve been helping her along by “walking” her knees and hands forward and she’s learning quickly – I think she’ll have it mastered in the next couple weeks.

In addition to the nearly mobile baby, I got her a few bigger toys (she mostly just had toys she could hold in her hands) at Goodwill the other day, which she’s been thoroughly enjoying. I have been slowly collecting toys for Christmas and her birthday as I see them on sale or at the resale shop and my intention was to wait on these, but they are perfect for keeping her entertained right now.

One thing I forgot to mention earlier is that Sonora has really discovered HAIR. My hair, her hair, Ryan’s hair, doggie hair. She has to touch it, pull it and eat it any chance she can get. It’s adorable and painful all at the same time. No, seriously painful. She’s become excellent at removing fistfuls of my hair from the most tender of areas – think nape of neck, hairs framing my face, etc.

So basically this week we saw a lot of action. Lots of chaos with work, lots of movement and discovery with the baby. I’ll do a follow-up post soon sharing some videos of the scoot-crawl. But for now, enjoy lots and lots of photos of the munchkin in action (it’s so hard to choose!).

New toys must be taste-tested.

Approved!

Must touch all the buttons and levers!

"What do you want NOW, Mom? I'm busy playing!"

Daddy hair discovery.

Getting a very firm grip.

This one slays me. It will clearly be her campaign photo.

The launch forward.

The face afterward.

So much scoot-crawl launch action makes a baby tired.

Done-zo.

Next up? Six month photos!

Love,
Laura

I’ll start by back-tracking a bit. In June and July, I used to lead a “mom group” with a few ladies from our church – I would pick a place to meet and we’d all meet up and socialize. It varied from a coffee shop to a splash park, yogurt place to a pool. But once design picked up, I found it to be too hard to get out of the house at a scheduled time for 1-2 hours a day, and to be honest, it just wasn’t working the way I’d wanted. Rather than go into all the reasons why, I’ll just say I don’t like scheduled plans as much as spur-of-the-moment. My original intent was to form a core group of friends with babies because it would be nice to be able to find a few more SAHMs, but right now I have two close mom friends who I get together with weekly and it’s been great.

A perfect segue…for the last few months I’ve been hanging out with my good friend, Candace, and her five-month-old son, Beckett. We found each other through a mutual friend (Meghan) while we were both still with child, and hit it off right away. She’s my go-to girl any time I want to do something with someone else because she lives super close and she’s great with last minute plans. She’s also the kind of person I can say anything to – anything weird going on with our bodies is fair game for discussion. We’ve been taking walks downtown Golden, meeting for coffee, walking around parks and just recently started going to baby time at the Golden and Belmar libraries. She was also who we went to the zoo with last Friday.

Now as for the library…I. LOVE. IT. I am used to be a bit of a nerd because there wasn’t a lot to do growing up in the country besides write letters to friends, go for nature walks or mow our 2-acre lawn, so as you can probably guess, I did a lot of reading. In saying that, I have fond feelings toward libraries. First of all, their baby story time programs are great. Twenty minutes of singing, wiggling and a story – they even have copies of the songs we sing in a handy packet to take home, who knew? Second of all, they have book stores in them where one can buy out-of-circulation or donated books for $.50-$2.00. Needless to say, my children’s book collection is growing exponentially. And I don’t know if other counties do this, but the Jefferson County library just so happens to have culture passes to local attractions. Such as, the Denver Botanic Gardens, Butterfly Pavilion, Dinosaur Ridge, Denver Art Museum, Golden History Museums, etc. There are like ten different places I can go, FREE OF CHARGE, pretty much any time I want to reserve a pass. For instance, a couple weeks ago, I went with two friends and their babies to the Hudson Gardens and Event Center. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a camera for photos, but it was lovely. And tomorrow I plan to go through the Astor house again because I reserve the pass for the Golden History Museums. Love it!

Want to know more about all the fun FREE things I get to do – without even having to have a membership places? I thought so!

Something else people who live in bigger cities may not know about are the free days. When we lived in the Chicago area we took advantage of this a little but not as much as we do here. Ever since we moved here, we’ve tried to take advantage of them as a way to get to know our new area as well as go places we may not have gone if we had to pay. And now, as a SAHM, it’s great to have the opportunity available if I’m so inclined. Remember my recent photos from the Denver Botanic Gardens? Free day! And our first visit to the DAM when we moved here? Free day! Denver Zoo? Free day! I think you get my point. If for nothing else, look into free days in your city for a great way to explore places you may not otherwise go. (note: free days are generally much busier than normal days, just as a forewarning)

Anyway, so that’s what I’ve been up to lately. Play dates, story time and free days. Anyone else have any tips to share on things to do?

Oh, and one more thing…

Love,
Laura

In addition to this week’s photo strips, I am also giving you some bonus material. No need to thank me, it’s all part of my job.

Am I serious with this photo? Kills me with cute.

Getting a little too grabby during playtime makes baby go boom.

A perfect sitting spot for a baby while I change the loads.

Just checking it all out.

Touching all the toys. So many to choose from!

Sonora's first time at the Denver Zoo! She was more interested in the people than the animals. But she loved the seals!

SOO big!

The faces this girl makes...

Inspection.

Upon review, I see she wore very colorful clothes this week. How lovely. Also, as you may have noticed, I have changed my header accordingly. Happy 6-month baby to me!

Love,
Laura

SIX. MONTHS.

In case you didn’t get that, we officially have a 6-month-old. A half-year baby. Who is eating solids, rolling, sitting up, scooting on foot (in her scooter) as well as on belly (so much!), grabbing & playing with toys, “talking”/squawking and generally just growing too fast. But I’m actually okay with it. I think when she turns a year it will be difficult (“my BABY! she’s *sniff* growing so fast!), but right now it’s just so exciting to watch her develop. She is just soaking it all up, taking it all in and learning new things every day – whether it’s physical, emotional or mental. And I can see her working it all out in her brain.

Ever since she was a wee one, people have said “She is so alert!” I never really thought much about it until I really thought about what that meant – she is observing and processing. She is LEARNING. Sometimes I look at her and wonder what exactly she’s thinking. I think it would be funny if we don’t have words for a bit and then all of a sudden she springs a whole sentence on us. Like, “I would like to take a lovely stroll around the neighborhood, Mother.” And she will have a British accent somehow.

Well, I actually don’t think that will be the case and I hope she starts talking soon-ish rather than later. I know we have a bit of time yet but I am so curious to know what goes on in her little mind.

Also, we are in for some trouble. Because lately she has been getting up on all fours and launching forward. I think she is trying to CRAWL! Oh dear. This one is a little bugger…

Anyway, I was going to write some 6-month sappiness, but I’ll save that for her baby book and one-year album. Tomorrow we have our “official” six-month photo shoot where she will wear a fancy dress and pose pretty. Well, as posed as we can get her anyway…I don’t think these will be very formal, heh. Oh, and the photo for this post? Yeah, I got her to smirk by singing her new favorite song, “You pooped in your pants” mentioned in my fourth baby play post. Nice.

Time flies,
Laura

Also, they will take a while to load so hang tight. (double click the image to play each video) Also, please excuse the awkward mom voice. Sometimes babies bring out the worst in us…

Video #1: Sonora swims! (end of August)

Video #2: Rollin’ baby

Video #3: Sitting pretty

Video #4: More rolling

Video #5: Still more rolling/scooting

Video #6: Sofie gets whacked.

Video #7: Stack it up.

Video #8: The daddy is SO FUNNY.

For the record, that last one is my FAVORITE. That was last night. I died. And that was when I realized I had to make this post a priority.

It’s all part of the job.

SAHMoming,
Laura

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Tongue twister: This is one I forgot to mention in the first post as we started playing this one right away, and still do. Basically it’s just sticking our tongues out at each other in different ways and sometimes making corresponding noises. Totally entertaining and a good lesson for her on mimicking, too.

Noise maker: As with silly faces, funny noises are some of the best entertainment for babies and for you because it’s kind of an experiment to see what tickles their fancy. We found that Sonora HATES having Ryan blow raspberries on her cheeks but she LOVES his loud elephant noise. She also gets a kick out of my open-wide “AAAAA” when I’m trying to get her to eat. She totally doesn’t take me seriously, hrmph.

Where’s the Daddy?: After we’ve been playing all morning and Ryan finally gets up for work (heh), I like to take her into the office asking her on the way, “Where’s the Daddy?” and then, “THERE’S the Daddy!” After we “find” him, Ryan holds her for a little bit by his desk. She especially loves this one.

And a couple new ones…

Laundry day: The other day Sonora was helping me fold laundry (har har) when she started to get fussy because I wasn’t playing with her. I didn’t have any of her toys in the room, so I took a few small articles of clothing of various colors and textures and stuck them partially through the holes in the laundry basket for her to pull on and play with. It worked like a charm.

Honk, honk: Lately Sonora has been fond of grabbing parts of our face (nose, chin, lips) and pinching them. It’s not the greatest feeling in the world, but she’s a baby so we let it slide. Sometimes I’ll turn it into a game (if I’m not in too much pain) and make related noises to every part she grabs. For instance, if she grabs my nose, she gets “HONK HONK HONK” until she lets go. If she grabs my chin, she gets a prolonged, “BEEEEP.” My lips? “Toooot tooooot” (because it makes my lips pucker and puckered lips are less sensitive to yanking, I’ve found). I don’t know why I made them all car noises, but whatever. But if it’s my hair, she gets, “Owwwww!” because THAT is not a game.

Pooped in your pants: Well, this one is actually more of a song. I love playing with her on the changing table and this one I like to sing to her when I’m completely disgusted by her poopy diaper. I sing, “you pooped in your pants! poo-pooped in your pants! hey hey! pooped in your pants, poo-pooped in your pants!” It’s weird, I know. But it makes the grossness actually quite adorable when she giggles to my tune.

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Okay, I’m done for now. Those are my baby games up to six months – I’m sure I’ll share more in months six through twelve. Thanks for playing along.

Love,
Laura