On to new things

You might be wondering who these people are and why they are dressed up like this? Ask Matt. It is all part of his new job,. No, he doesn't have to dress up like this. I mentioned last post that he was starting a new work schedule. He is also doing something completely different. He is working events and sets up the Verizon FIOS stuff at events for people to play video games, watch movies, etc. This past week, he was at the Medieval Fair in Sarasota. Today, he is in Largo at an event for senior citizens. Good thing they have the large screen TV's. This weekend, he is supposed to be working the Ybor Cigar Festival. Seems to be liking it so far. Rachel and I are enjoying having him off on Sundays and Mondays. He is working 10 hour shifts again, but goes in the extra day to get overtime.

I have been wanting a new stroller. There is nothing wrong with the other one we have, it is just big and takes up our entire trunk. Now that she pretty much won't stay asleep in the carseat, I decided to look for one. Britax is a great brand for carseats, but didn't know they made strollers. I saw the demo on their website and loved it. It is easy to use, light, but really nice. I ordered it on Friday, ran to meet the UPS people on Monday evening, and had her on a walk in it about 30 minutes later. When we got it together, I was so excited to get her up from her nap to put her in it and push her around. I know, silly me! Thankfully, she was just waking up from the nap which is why she looks not thrilled in these pictures. I would recommend this stroller for a lightweight, nice umbrella stroller. Isn't the pattern adorable? And of course, gender neutral!

I don't know why (wait, he is a guy) but Matt thought is would be awesome if the stroller could balance on just the back wheels. Our friend, DJ, was over and encouraged him to try. He finally succeeded. Britax never told me the stroller could do this! Poor Rachel.

She loves bathtime. The only problem is that our house is kind of cold so she gets cold somewhat easily. She doesn't get to play as long as I am sure she would like.

Splish Splash!

Dressed kind of warm (for Florida) on one of our chillier days.

This was something new she started doing recently. I think she is getting tired of just laying in one spot, so this is her way of squirming to a new location. However after observing her new trick of rolling from back to tummy, I realize this helps her get started on it.

Her Daddy is already teaching her how to play the piano. We'll see if she likes Elton John as much as Daddy does.

I tried to upload a video of her rolling, but it is taking forever. Maybe next time.

Haircuts and Swings and Dachsunds, oh my!

Haircuts!

Rachel has really been needing a haircut, so we finally got her one. We have known Kela for a while and Matt has recently started getting his haircut by her. I got mine cut by her, so she offered to do Rachel's. I was able to go because we got it done just before I had to head off to HCC. She was great for it and was just interested in everything else going on. She really didn't have that much hair that needed to be trimmed, just a little on the back and sides. I did keep a little bit.

Prep Time

Action!

Results: A beautiful baby with a clean neck line

Kela and Rachel

SWINGS!

Matt took off a few days before he starts a new work schedule. Lauren and I had already talked about taking the girls to the park and it was a great day. Matt came with us and we had fun! All we could do with the girls was swing, although Kate was somewhat forced down the slide once or twice. She enjoyed swinging a lot and just likes being outside in the nice weather.

WHEEEEEE!

She found a comfortable swinging position with her little arm hanging over the side.

Kate
Hannah kept making her Popeye face! We had a great time with Lauren, Kate and Hannah!

Dachsunds!

DARE is a dachsund rescue organization that my parents adopted their last dog from. They have an annual fundraiser called Doxapalooza and we have gone the past two years because it is 5 minutes from their house. Here are some pictures from that.

This was during the costume contest. She didn't win, but I thought she was very cute! The winner was a little dog with an American flag print shirt and beer cans hanging over both sides of his belly. He called the all American dog: a hot dog and beer.

Osh Kosh Baby

We had a good time in Orlando for about 5 hours. Got off to a late start, but still managed to get to an outlet mall. Katie and I went to the Carter's store first and I got her a fleece outfit for those colder days (still not here) and some adorable jeans. We then ventured to Old Navy where I must have tried on 8 things, but of course, nothing looked good. After that, I wanted to spend some money on someone who always looks good because fat rolls are cool. We went to the Osh Kosh B Gosh store and I only wanted one thing: a pair of girly overalls. She is too cute in overalls and I figured this store was the place to find some. You can't really see the design on them in the pictures, but it has some flowers on the bib part and then some more flowers and a bird on her right leg. I love the pink fleece at the bottom too. We went out to eat, which is getting more difficult as she wants to grab at everything and then left all the kids with some responsible students of Josiah. The best we could do without kids was go to the Babies R Us store and buy a few things and boxes of diapers (they were on sale). We are so lame. So lame in fact, that we got back to the hotel room by 9:00. We headed home because Matt was not able to get the next day off of work.

I gave my midterm at recently, so that means I only have about 5 weeks until winter break! I am also picking up another class in the spring semester, so I will be teaching on Tuesday/Thursday from 5:30 to 7:20 and then 7:30 to 9:20. I will also be teaching the next class up, but it works out because I will now have all planning done for both classes that I can teach.

Matt is still busy working on another house, but we are looking forward to the extra money. Rachel accompanies him to the house when she is under Dad's time.

I switched back to Lifestyles gym recently and am really trying to lose that baby weight. So, I have been working out and decided to try this Bootcamp class. I picked the one that starts at 5:15 in the morning. Crazy, yes I know, but Rachel is still sleeping and I don't have to deal with messing up her naps and bringing her to the gym. It really does take much longer to go anywhere with her. It was my first class today and we did an assessment: 1 mile run, push-ups, sit-ups, plank, wall sit, tons of shoulder work with dumbbells. I am going to feel it tomorrow. I liked it a lot and there is only a small group of women that go. I get out just in time to head home and kiss Matt goodbye before he leaves for work. Perfect! I will probably start taking a nap thos days. My next one is Thursday, so we will see what is to come. (Hopefully a skinnier me!)

Rachel isn't really doing much new. She babbles a lot and can say many consonant sounds. She also rolled from back to tummy, but when no one could see her. I had her sleeping on the pack n play pad on the floor at Lauren's. She was fussing on and off for awhile and I went in to get her and she was on her tummy and a little under the bed. She was right up against the leg to the bedframe, so she couldn't roll over. So, I know she can do it. She has also beed napping terribly lately. She wakes up at the first sleep transition and cries for awhile before going back to sleep. She does this for almost every nap. Ugh. I also finally found a food that she didn't like. I bought some apples and blueberries baby food and she took like two bites and wouldn't open up. I kept giving them to her at other meals and pretty much the same thing. To avoid wasting them, I mixed them with avocado and she stomached them. She likes applesauce, so maybe it was the blueberries.

I am tired from class this morning, so I am taking a nap, even if Rachel doesn't go back to sleep.


Trying to entice her to roll over with the camera.

She loves this little birdbath toy and enjoys hitting the two birds because they bounce.

75% of the family.

Rachel and I just before church. Headbands look so funny because her hair is crazy behind it. We took it off.

Her ballerina outfit wasn't much, but it was given to us, so it was free! It was a dress with a light, flowy skirt. Above the heart says Baby Ballerina.

Grandma Schaefer and the Baby Ballerina

The lion cousins in their cute little chairs at the Trunk or Treat.

I love this one!

This picture is slightly deceiving in that she cannot stand while just leaning up against something.

It has been awhile

So, the huge garage sale was lame and I got a whopping total of five items. One of those was a high chair for my parents, one was a pack-n-play for Matt's parent's house (they are moving down this month) and the other three items were for us. One was a cute dress from Baby Gap with apples on it. Another was a very small toy that would be good to put in her diaper bag. The last toy is the one in this picture below, which I really like except there is no on/off switch. It is great for her to sit with and has lots of things to do.

At church, we are having our annual Global Outreach Celebration, which is where a bunch of missionaries come in from all over the world and talk about what is going on. That is always a busy week for us because our Sunday school class is assigned a missionary and we do things with them throughout the week. Tonight we are having a bonfire and just hanging out. No, it is not bonfire weather at all, but if we waited for that, it might come around in February. Ugh.

Rachel and I are going to Orlando with Katie tomorrow. We are leaving her two girls with her husband and we are hitting the outlet malls since we didn't find anything good at the garage sales. There is also a big consignment store convention thing that we are looking into this weekend. Matt will be driving over after work and all 7 of us (8 if you count their unborn baby) will hang out and possibly make it to Downtown Disney this time around. If you recall and probably don't, last time we tried this, I got puked on, we all got rained on, and the guys went out and had fun while Katie and I ate Oreos and watched a chic flic. I have to get ready for school now, which is halfway over already, so enjoy the pictures!

If you just want a good laugh...not a good picture, but funny.Okay, take two on that pose

We signed up for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library when she was first born. There are only two requirements and they send you a children's book for free every month until they are 5 years old. This is one of them.

She got a teething biscuit for the first time a few days ago and devoured it. This was after her nursing and eating solids. It was no wonder she was hungry the next feeding time.My stickly little mess to clean up.

Rachel now finds her reflection somewhat entertaining.

Rachel's thoughts: "I am so stinkin cute! I could totally be a baby model! Why haven't I gotten my pictures professionally taken yet?"

New Stuff!

Not a whole lot that is new since the last post. Cousins Hannah and Kate are currently sick and I am just waiting for Rachel to show the symptoms since they are around each other a lot and play with the same toys. For now though, she is perfectly normal. She got baby yogurt today and really liked it. A few days ago, I tried giving her the dissolvable puffs and when I put them in her mouth, she looked at me like I was nuts. I don't think she is a fan yet, but this girl loves to eat, so I expect her to like them soon enough. On Wednesday, I got a new haircut and color. Yes, me, miss cheapo paid someone to color my hair. I know, I will have to pay her again in a few months to touch it up, but I love it! I couldn't get any good pictures of it since Matt is never home and Rachel hasn't quite figured out how to work the camera yet. It is short. The front is just under my chin and then it gets shorter as it goes back. She put caramel colored highlites in. Nothing too flashy because we all know I am not flashy. It is really easy to style and no more ponytails for me! Speaking of flashy, here are some pictures of Rachel flashing you a pretty smile!

She has gotten really good at sitting as long as there is a toy to entertain her. The leap frog table was loaned to me and Rachel really likes it. Once she gets into the standing phase, there are legs I can snap on. She is such a big girl!

Can you see her teeth?! There are two in the middle. Doesn't seem to bother her a bit.

Rachel finally realized that she could sit up and lean forward a little in her high chair and she could then reach the spinning part of the toy. This also poses a small problem when she decides to lurch forward while I am feeding her. She has been hit in between the eyes, up the nose, and on the cheek.

I have mentioned how much she loves her sippy cup. Isn't this such a great shot? I didn't pose the cup so you could see her name. It just worked out that way. If I put it on the high chair, she can usually get it to her mouth all by herself. Most of the time she does it one-handed too. She likes water a lot.

What a Big Girl!

Where has the week gone? My last post was about gardening and Matt and I are still admiring the new plants. They look great! Now, some of my other periwinkle that I trimmed are dead. I don't know if they are diseased or I cut them too short or what the deal is, but I am just rooting some clippings and will replace them. Rachel has changed a lot in the past few weeks. I didn't really notice it while she was going through this change, but looking back on it, my Mom and I can really see the difference. She is just talking all the time, happy as can be, sitting up really well unsupported and just seems so much more grown up (as much as she could be). Yesterday, she got a total of maybe 2 hours of naptime and was pretty happy the whole day. I couldn't believe it. She is a pro at rolling over from tummy to back, but not yet doing the other way. I still work on it with her and the only help she needs is getting her leg up and over just a little. Otherwise, she can immediately do the rest. I think she is just being lazy. Aunt Lauren said she can do it 95% of the way. I think that is good enough! She has been getting really heavy in that carseat of hers. Toting it around it a back breaker and I have been thinking about putting her in the big girl carseat soon. I kept asking myself what is stopping me and then I realized how would I go grocery shopping because I didn't think she could sit well enough to ride in the front. Well, after sit and playing for minutes by herself yesterday, I thought she might be ready for her first trip in the Publix shopping cart. I was so excited because normally she takes up all of the room in the cart, not my food. Publix is nice because they have the sanitizing wipes that you can wipe off everything first. So, as a good mommy, I did that and then put Rachel in. She sat so well and loved the view. She didn't have any problems staying upright or falling to the side. She like to chew on my purse strap and then found the metal bar in front of her. Good thing I had wiped it off. She got bored with it pretty quick though. I made her some more baby food this week: green beans and peas. The beans came out more like a relish consistency which she really didn't care for much, but the peas, she loved. I have lots of bananas that were given to me, so I need to mash and freeze them before they go bad. She also went to the doctor today for her 6 month checkup. Her are her stats:

Weight: 17 lbs, 4 oz (75th percentile)
Height: 27.25 inches (90th percentile)
Head Circumference: 16.75 inches

She gained one ounce under two pounds and grew 2.5 inches. She must have had some crazy growth spurt. However, I have never known when she goes through them, so who knows when it happened. She also got three shots and of course, she cried, but as soon as she got picked up, her whine turned to her little form of babbling. She went down for a nap right when we got home and it currently sleeping very soundly. The doctor said I can start giving her yogurt and pretty much anything except the normal off limits foods. I just have to make sure they are mushy and can dissolve easily. So, Cheerios, puffs, and yogurt, here we come!!

You might wonder what Rachel is doing in the picture. This is our family room that we don't use much. Baby Einstein is playing on the TV, but she is more interested in her foot. Side note: she got her foot in her mouth for the first time this week!

But now she realized she can do both!

Well, one of them looks like they got a good night's sleep. The other one's eyes look a little rough (maybe like they are getting closer to 30).

Ahhh, that is better. Daddy and Rachel hanging out before church.

If anyone cares about what Matt and I have been up to recently, the answer is a lot, but nothing really interesting. I picked up another tutoring job, but haven't started yet. I am not sure if it will be a weekly thing or just on an as needed basis. We are almost at the midterm for HCC and I am look forward to winter break (almost a month long). We had a friend return home from overseas and a few people from our Sunday School class went boating and jet skiing on Saturday. We headed down around 3:30 (so after the heat of the day) and just laid on the boat for hours. It was great! A nice breeze, no bugs, and just a lot of laughter! Lauren was so nice and watched Rachel for us. Matt picked up another remodeling job this week and will be working on it during his non-Verizon hours for a few weeks. Hopefully it won't take too long and we will get him back quickly. Matt and I stopped going to the class Growing Kids God's Way that we were doing up at church. Rachel is too young to apply the information. So, I decided to go to a different class. Guess who is leading the class? Dave Ramsey. Well not in person, but we watch videos of his speaking events and last week's was great! I love this guy! I plan on going to that each week now, whether Matt goes or not. I have some friends who help lead it so at least I know a few people. This has turned really long, so I will stop.

I love gardening

The weather has been awesome in Florida and finally starting to cool down a little bit. This week, during Rachel's first nap, I decided to get some stuff done on the outside of the house. The back porch was a huge, cluttered mess so I cleaned it off on Tuesday. I wish I had a before and after picture. Unfortunately, the back porch is still ugly and in desparate need of repair, but is now clutter free. On Wednesday, I mowed the lawn. On Thursday, I worked in the backyard pulling weeds and picking up trash. Now these weeds are not just flower bed weeds, they are weeds that are like a carpet in parts of our lawn that are in the shade. They come from the neighbor's yard and are awful. We now have bare spots in our yard, but I am hoping the grass will grow in those spots. On Friday, I moved to the front yard and trimmed my periwinkle, swept the porch and walkway, and pulled out my hibiscus that were in front of our house. I planted them when we first moved in about 3.5 years ago and they did well at first, giving me pretty flowers. Two died during the winter and the others never flowered again. They grow just fine, but I wanted more than green plants. I have been wanting to pull them out, but just didn't know what to put in that would give me color, but would do okay in the shade. I love to garden and look at plants and wander around the nursery, so I went last night to get some ideas. Matt, Rachel, and I loaded up in the truck this morning and picked up my plants and mulch. Matt helped me plant while Rachel napped and I am so pleased with the results that I wanted to show everyone. I hope they look this good in a few weeks/months. But first, a picture of Rachel to appease you.

She has started making so much noise this week. She is constantly squealing, cooing, oohing, and aahing. It is really funny.

The front of our house. It is hard to see my new plants so I have some closeups next.

The tree is a purple princess glory tree and most of the time I see them as bushes. I really like it a lot and it has pretty purple flowers. No buds yet, but I am still hoping.

This is the left side of the garden. The first plant is the red sister ti plant and I love these for shady areas. They have more pink than red leaves and basically require nothing.

This is a stromanthe. I love the colors, especially the pink.

Behind the tree was looking a little bare and I have always really liked the oyster plant. I thought they would add a splash a color and fill in some space.

This is a veragated ginger and smells really good. Not too strong, but when I was planting it, I could smell it.

This is a mammie croton. I have the petra croton in a few other places in my yard. I used to not really care for this variety, but I wanted something different and these have grown on me over time.

Matt has done a little more work in the kitchen as far as finishing touches. He put trim on the corners of the island and at the bottom.