I Love A Good Deal

Visited the local Value Village thrift store and came home with some great finds. Two pairs of flats for me; the navy pair was a $1 more than the red because they were never worn, but still a steal at $3.50! Some great old school stories for Sophie circa 1950s. My favorite find a pair of flawless condition Pediped brand shoes for Maisie for $1.50 these retail for $33, I know because I have several pair that used be Sophie's in the attic awaiting Maisie's sweet feet to grow into them!

A Date With My Big Girl

Neal and I have been feeling like our big girl needed some one on one mama time, so this morning she and I hit up Target for a little Starbucks (hot chocolate for the little one) and shopping! Oh what fun we had!

Christmas Stockings

It's a funny thing to do a blog post on, but I love our family's Christmas stockings. They are each special in their own way. They are not your average run of the mill store bought stockings, ours are all hand knit, with love by family. Neal's stocking was made by his great grandmother on his mother's side and mine and the kids' were all made by my grandmother, Sophie.

The story of how the stockings came to be.....

Neal and I have had our stockings for as long as we can remember. When I was pregnant with Sophie in 2006, I knew that I did not want her to have a store bought stocking, but rather the made-with-love kind her Daddy and I had. At the time my grandmother was feverishly knitting baby blankets for the 3 babies that were about to enter our family (myself and my two cousins were each welcoming little ones that year!) so I thought why not ask if she could whip up a stocking too?! Much to my disappointment my grandmother no longer had the pattern for the stocking that she made for all her children, her children's spouses, and her grandchildren. She did, however tell me that she still had my grandfather's stocking up in the attic that she could simply stitch Sophie's name on. I was overjoyed not only to have a knit stocking for my new baby girl, but what made it all the more special was that it was my grandfather's who passed away when I was just 2 years old.

When Jonah came along in 2009 I knew I was going to need another stocking to keep the tradition going. Knowing that my grandmother could no longer knit one due to the lack of a pattern, my mom offered up her stocking to her new grandson. My mom lovingly stitched Jonah's name onto her stocking making it his.

Fast forward 2 years almost to the day and sweet Maisie Dorothea enters our family. We most certainly could not have mismatched stockings at this point, so my mother already had a plan in place, my father's stocking would become Maisie's.

So while the children's stockings were not made specifically for them, the theme of how they acquired them remains the same........love.

Cedar Lake Tree Farm 2011

It is our family tradition that every year we head out to good ole' Iron Station, NC to Cedar Lake Tree Farm to pick out our freshly cut tree. My parents and I have been going to this tree farm since we moved to NC, and then once Neal and I married we continued to do the same. It is a family run farm that is truly an awesome experience. Cedar Lake has cows, bulls, turkeys, chickens, donkeys, Santa Claus, and of course Christmas trees. Outside of all the livestock fun probably the most alluring thing is a gigantic mountain of hay bales for the kids to climb all over and perform death defying jumps from...you know the kind that give the on looking mommies a death defying heart attack!

What trip to get a Christmas tree is complete without candy canes? After eating 2 & dropping 1 he proceeded to tell me how "kicky" (sticky) he was!

His "cheese" face.

A Few Firsts

Maisie's first cloth diaper that I put on, the midwife assistant put the first one on after she was born.....isn't it so tiny? It is a preemie size prefold! So itty bitty! To give you an idea of how tiny, these diapers measure 11x11. She has since moved on to these AND a newborn prefold together because she is such a heavy wetter! I will try and snap a picture of that, the newborn prefolds aren't much bigger, I think they are 11x13, but a bit thicker. This is my first time cloth diapering a newborn, I did not start with Jonah until he was about 3 or 4 months old, so it was a bit of a challenge getting the hang of putting cloth on such a tiny human!
10/28/2011

First time meeting Papa & Gigi Slimick
10/29/2011

First Bath
11/7/2011

First time outside in the Moby
11/9/2011

Our midwife came back on November 10th for the second postpartum visit, everything is fabulous, Maisie looks great and since her birth has gained a whole 1 pound and 1 ounce! As of November 10th her weight was up to 9lbs 5ozs. I am certain she probably weighs more than that now since she eats like a champ!

Bath Time & Pumpkins

Thoroughly enjoying bath time.

Jonah got to paint his pumpkin and the Baby's pumpkin while Sophie and Daddy carved her pumpkin and one of the bigger ones.

Seeing as I seem to always be pregnant around Halloween time (although this time I didn't think I would make it this close to Halloween) we started when I was pregnant with Sophie painting my belly to look like a pumpkin, and we did it with Jonah which you can see HERE.

Jonah made the nose, Sophie did the mouth and the mustache, on top of the nose!

Jonah was clearly VERY upset that we were all done painting my belly.