Firsts.....

Well as of 11/26, Lucy has her very first tooth!

As of 12/8, Lucy now stands up in her crib...


And as of 12/9 she has played in her first snow fall!!





This just in:
She now claps and does other funny things with her hands, which I try to convince Joe that they mean something...but not really :)
Also she is getting really good at mimicking sounds - sniffles, sighs, etc...
very cute :)

Christmas Decorating!

I just LOVE getting the tree up, stringing the lights, putting up the ornaments while drinking cocoa and listening to Christmas music. THE.BEST.
It was extra special this year because the little lady was there - and she makes everything merry & bright... :)

We also had to rearrange the furniture this year to get our HUGE tree up...why does it look average size out in the big field and gigantic in our home?? Even in the coach house, we would put up a huge tree. I just love Christmas, so I guess big trees are necessary? :) I love our tree this year. It smells wonderful, is healthy and fresh and looks verry beautiful - 100,000 times better than our dead tree from the lot last year...Never.again.

Here are some photos of the girl decorating the tree and the new set up in the living room & dining room.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year - our first with the girl! :) We started out in Glen Ellyn and had our big meal with the Jones family - all the sibs & little cousins (nieces) and aunt/uncle/cousins. It was a lot of fun & we had some great evenings all together before thanksgiving day too. It was SO fun having all the little girl cousins together and loved seeing them all in matching PJ's and of course the highlight of the week was learning that we have 2 new nephews - Don and Sara's twin boys!! Ahhh, what a great week it was!!
Then Lucy and I got to see my Grandma Bubar who was in town and then we all headed over to Michigan later on Friday and stayed until Saturday evening. We had a great time there - Lucy went on her first carousel ride, we walked on the pier, cut down our Christmas tree and had a great meal together as well.
So thankful for family and for our wonderful times together!
Here are some photos:

Christmas Shopping for ME :)

Ann Taylor was having some ridiculously amazing sales/clearance last week - I popped in to shop for one of my sister in laws and left with 2 items for her and several for me! I think everything I got was between 85-95% off the original price. sweet!
Here's what I got - black skinny capris, a green lace skirt, a wool cream-colored skirt (its not short on me bc I don't have long legs like the model..., a dress and the black/khaki skirt is a gift). I was skeptical about the capris, but they fit really well and I can wear them with my black ankle boots (booties??) or under boots since they are so fitted. :)
Have gotten some really great items at Ann Taylor on clearance through the years & will definitely check back if I'm needing something dressy or nice in the future!
Here's the photos - the ones I took aren't great :(

Applesauce & Corn Days!!

We have made it a yearly tradition to make corn & applesauce with my parents. We husk, cut of the cobb and then cook the corn and put it into freezer containers and then store it all in my parents big chest freezer.
With applesauce we wash, cut the apples in halves or quarters, cook them and put them thru a machine that turns it into sauce. Both the applesauce and corn are SO naturally sweet, doesn't even compare to anything store bought AND just taking a day to do this gives us a year's supply. WOOT!! (And many thanks to my parents :))

Photos from Corn Day in August:







Photos from Applesauce Day in October:

Bath Time & more... :)

She loves her wash cloth bath toys, whether she is in the tub or not.... :)

And isn't she looking SO old, sitting up so well??? :(



And from a walk a couple weeks ago...she would NOT look at me!! stinkerbean!!!