7 months, 1 day.

I can't believe it.

7 months?

You are getting so big, so fast.

You eat. Alot. And you cry when food gets taken away from you. We added some proteins this week because frankly, you need them. Too much carrot and sweet potato have turned your already tan face even more orange... can you see my little orange nose?

Physically you have crossed milestones-- flipping over, crawling, sitting, and pulling up to standing.

You are very aware of your surroundings and love watching people. You especially love textures. You rub your silky blanket on the corner of your eyes, scratch the rug, pick at my ring, love fine details like buttons, and the fuzzy texture of Penny's hair *the Nam's dog*.

Every day your gummy smile brings so many people delight. Most people think you are an angel. I do, on most days, except when you don't sleep well. Sleeping has been a bit rocky here the last 2 months, and now I think you are genuinely teething (still not productive though) so it starts all over again.

We love you so much Kate. Thanks for a beautiful seven months as parents.

Makeup Postscript

Instead of Vaseline, I mixed my old broken eyeshadows with a little Lasinoh--natural purified lanolin. It worked great! And it keeps the eyeshadow out of my eyes which keeps my contacts cleaner all day...

I just rescued my favorite copper eye shadow which goes great with the new copper highlights I got done on Thursday!

Makeup rescue

While I sat in the salon, I got to catch up on magazine reading... ahh....so relaxing.
And I ran across this article that tells you how to rescue your makeup that breaks. Finally! A solution that works for the cheapskate in me. I cannot tell you how it breaks my heart and irritates me that I have to throw away a pressed shadow or powder that breaks from a fall in the bathroom or too many trips in my purse.
Here were their ideas:
1) for the broken eyeshadow, mix a dab of vaseline with the shadow until a paste forms and place into a makeup sample cup for a creamy eye color.
2)for the broken powder, crush with the back of a spoon in a bowl and then place into a powder sifter available at Sally's Beauty Supply.
3) for the broken lipstick, melt a jar of carmex in the microwave for 30 seconds, then mix in the broken lipstick and then replace into the carmex jar for a tinted lip color.

I can't keep up...

Look who I found goofing off during nap!
From crawling to sitting up on her own to pulling up--- all in one week. What a transition!

Movies!

This video is for all grandmothers...but especially for Grandmama who is recovering from an infection and couldn't come visit us this week. We love you and hope you feel better soon!

O my goodness!!!

We have officially booked our tickets to Italy for September!!!!

Soup

We have been eating a lot of soup lately on my nights to cook.
Not only are they easy to prepare ahead of time, but they can feed an army. And accomodate basketball practices and games and all 9 of us in and out at different times.

I thought I would post soup as well because I heard there is a real cold front out East. We need to eat soup before it gets any warmer around here.... :)

Some of our favorites are:

Many Bean Soup with Ham (adapted from Joy of Cooking)

2 cups dried beans. any kind. pour boiling water to cover and let double in size.
Saute until onions are clear
2 Tbs. olive oil
2 onions,
chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 jalepeno, diced

Add beans.
12 cups water
1 ham hock, or 1 cup diced ham.

Bring to a boil.
Simmer 2-4 hours (or all day)

Another hit was Mexican Pozole from Food and Wine.
Another classic was the good ol' Chicken Soup from the store roasted chicken that I posted before.

We have also had an Asian version of that Chicken soup with the addition of lemongrass and jalepeno to the broth stage and the addition of cabbage to the vegetables.

Next on the list is Roasted Tomato and Basil Soup, thanks to the abundance of tomatoes we have from our co-op.

Our favorite Christmas picture

How can you resist that smile? Rather than post all our Christmas photos, we thought we would select our favorites. Here's one from the Shanks.

Best Toe Forward

I tried Target.
I tried Old Navy.
I tried Babys R' Us.
Let us just say that none stood the test of Little Miss Wiggle Toes.

Then I changed my friend's kids socks.
I noticed:
A wide, sturdy elastic band to keep them on!
A decent weight that does not alter shoe sizes!
Adjustable elastic sizing!
Walmart!

The world must know! Go to Walmart! Pick up the eight pack. No one told me that more than half of the socks you buy your kids never make it back into the drawer after the first wash! They get lost, eaten in the washer, stolen by the dryer...these tiny toe covers are impossible to own.
But at Walmart, they not only fit, stay on, but they are six dollars for eight pairs.

Crawling

On New Years Day, Kate finally moved her hands. She has the busiest feet in the world. But they haven't gotten her anywhere. Her hands have been stuck. Apparently the forward motion in crawling has something to do with both sides of the brain connecting. Hers connected. She's mobile. She would just "run" in a yoga-like down dog and flop. The inchworm. Or balance on one toe, as pictured above. But now she can balance and move her hands forward as well. Watch out world.

New news

Over the holidays, I opted out of blogging. I had a little burn out on the blog. Besides, who wants to play with the computer when you can play with dough, fabric, craft materials, Christmas trees and not to mention, the cutest girl in the world??
Return I must. There are people to update and to greet.
It is a rainy day here in Phoenix. I wore a tank top and jeans two days ago. Today, the weather has returned to winter cold. Now that I have gotten past the prerequisite weather talk, I can discuss other topics.
Travis' job, for one, requires a happy update. He is finished at the regional Allstate office on Wednesday and starts as a clinic manager at Nextcare, an urgent care company, in a few weeks. He took a week off in between to do something fun with us and to scope out his new industry. We were very surprised and blessed that God provided this opportunity in such an abysmal market, and so quickly! Literally in less than three weeks, he had two job offers, of which he chose this one due to his long-term interest in medicine.
I will be following suit by jumping back into my healthcare role at the hospital every Monday for the next couple months.
Little Miss Kate is eating the ribbon on her crocheted goat while crawling on the floor.
We and our other family are about to resume another round of our new favorite game: Blokus.
Happy Sunday to you and yours.