~Stuffing Cheerios~

As a mom, you will most likely do pretty much anything in the world to entertain and try to get your child to laugh. For example, jump up and down like a goofball-make every animal sound you can think of-invent sounds that you didn't even know your voice could make-etc...and I have fulfilled them all. I usually can get a huge smile from my daughter-but laughing is rare. This whole time, all I needed was Brooklyn (Aylah's BFF-and I mean BFF) to stuff her face with cheerios to entertain my child and get her laughing. This video doesn't even measure up to how much she was laughing before the camera was turned on, but at least I caught this much.

So thank you Brooklyn-for making Aylah laugh and being such a good friend to her. She loves being with you! You sure will make a good big sis-huh?!

~Bear Crawl~

~Car Seat~

It is time for Aylah to get a new car seat. She has outgrown her infant seat, so.... I need some help. Can anyone tell me why these things range from $59 to over $300? What exactly am I suppose to be looking for here? Obviousely, I don't need the car seat with speakers (yes, they have car seats with speakers)...but I would like your opinion on what you liked, didn't like or what you wish you had as far as features, brand etc...

Thanks in advance for your help.

~Whistle While You Play~

Aylah was hard at play today...

when she found her daddy's whistle.

Pretty good job, if you ask me?

~Cleaning House~

I'm definitely not one that has my house clean if you just happen to pop by to say hi. Nope, not me at all. I am one to have a halfway decent clean house if I know you are coming (what I mean by decent is...most things are picked up off the floor, everything that was out of place was thrown in to the extra bedroom with the door closed, and the floors were vacuumed). I use to be a spic-n-span type of girl. I loved fly lady and I definitely had a weekly schedule that I stuck to as far as cleaning, laundry, ironing etc. Then one day I meet this guy named Mike and I feel head over heels. I decided that there was absolutely nothing more important than spending every spare second with him-and that's when all the organizing-cleaning and having everything in ABC order went out the door. Then on another day-I gave birth to the most beautiful girl in the world and any cleaning that I might have still had in me, yep, you guessed it...I have nothing left, nothing! I figured that my time was much more valuable spent playing, teaching and learning with sweet Aylah. You might be thinking, so what about when she is taking a nap. You should be cleaning then, right? WRONG!!! Who wants to clean when noone is around. When your child is sleeping, your husband is at work, noone is coming over (at least not planned). I would rather sit and do nothing-or read your blogs-or sit and do nothing. So this is what I have to do. I set the timer for oh, lets say 30 or 45 minutes (sometimes 1 hour)...and then off I go. Cleaning as fast as I can. Yes, I actually run-on my tiptoes of course so that I won't wake my sleeping beauty. I run from room to room-cleaning and grabbing things as I go. I get as much accomplished as possible within the time set and then when that timer beeps---I go back to sitting and doing nothing.
I'm trying though, I really am. I want to have a well balanced home. I want my children to know that a clean house is important but that it is definitely not a priority over playing, loving and spending time with each other. Many people have a hard time with that-letting the small things go such as a few dirty dishes in the sink, an extra pile of laundry, crumbs on the floor...you get the point. So, I'm really not complaining about my lack of cleaning...I'm saying thank you to my wonderful husband who totally agrees with me and doesn't mind if the house is a mess sometimes. On the other hand, I need to be more disciplined so I can set a good example to my children and so I can be the best wife and mother I can be. It's all about balance I suppose.

~Weekend Fun~

Our weekends are so much fun. They actually begin on Fridays for us since that is Mike's day off. I usually make Waffles on Fridays...and the puppies get the leftovers. As usual, I walked outside and threw the leftovers on the back patio so the puppies could chow down. Well, now that Aylah can crawl so well, and gets practically anywhere in the house in a matter of a split second...this is what I found-

Aylah decided she wasn't quite through with her waffles and wanted the puppies to share with her...and yes-I let them share (yuck, I can't believe I did that and I really can't believe I let you know about it)

Aylah is getting so good at standing up. Here she is in action.

Daddy's lil' ~Polka-Daughter~

I apologize that none of these pictures are edited. I have yet to retire the old Kodak program and it is taking me at least half a day to even get the pics loaded-so as soon as I get this rather annoying problem solved...edited pics will be back-don't worry.

~Taken By Brooklyn~

Aylah's bff, Brooklyn came over yesterday for a few hours and loves to video Aylah. She captured this hilarious moment of Aylah misplacing her hand and....well, I'll just let you watch and see for yourself.

~Happy Birthday Nanae~

I just want to tell my Nanae Happy Birthday

and I sure do wish I could be there to celebrate with you.

I wish I could pick these flowers and send

them to you for your birthday Nanae!

I love you and miss you!

~Aylah Belle

~Tuesday~

I must warn you, this post is quite long...you will not hurt my feelings if you don't take your precious time to read through this-like I even know if you read this in the first place, huh?

Aylah's new entertainment. Playing in the blinds. She loved doing this at Meme and Papa's house too.

Someone got caught playing in the bathroom.
___________________________________________________________________

We have this room in the back of our house, that has a fireplace and is so nice...but it's really odd. It's difficult to put furniture in it-so basically it's became the dog's room that stores all our other unused furniture. We decided we really need to use it, especially since it has the fireplace and it gets so cold here. Thus starts the backroom makeover.

This is a view through our kitchen to the backroom.

The walls are currently green, the blob on the right is where we started painting, but I didn't like the color at all. The gray is actually the primer. I already started the trim, when I remembered I promised Carrie I'd take before and after pics.This is after the primer, the fireplace in the corner (who puts a fireplace in the corner?). Please forgive me for not taking the time to clean up for the pics...just keep'n it real :)
Maybe I'll get the final pictures up tomorrow.

___________________________________________________________________

Tomorrow is the pastor's lunch at Golden Corral. The pastors and their families in our area all get together once a month at Golden Corral and eat-eat-eat! Surprisingly-it has become one of our favorites. Aylah gets enough fruit and veggies that could hold her over for a week. I eat all the fried okra, hush puppies and rolls with honey butter. My husband chows down on their hamburgers made right there in front of you on their grill. Then we all 3 team up and take rather large bowls to the dessert buffet. Yes-dessert buffet! Love it!!! So I'd be lying if I told you that I wasn't extremely excited about lunch tomorrow!___________________________________________________________________

Okay, for those of you who took the time to read through this, I must tell you a secret I've been keeping. Well, actually I've only kept it for about 12 hours because I've only known about it that long. I found a new blog that you must read. It's on goggles top blogs...

My Charming Kids

I love it-and her kids are beeeaaauuutiful! She's a mother of 3 children, all under the age of 4....and she has one on the way that will be born in October-AMAZING!!!

Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

~Feeding Myself (sort of)~

Aylah's eating habits are quite hilarious. If I'm feeding her, she will absolutely not take another bite until she has slowly chewed and swallowed very carefully. However, if there is food on her tray...she goes at it with both hands and stuffs her mouth full. So I thought I'd try something in between. I'll put the food on the fork and then she can feed herself. So far so good...

PS> Yes, that is a SOONER fork! :)

~9 Month Visit~

Today, Aylah had her 9 month well visit. I'll begin with another one of my "Mother of the Year" awards!

As you all know, we have been in Texas for the last 2 weeks and came home yesterday. Aylah's appointment was at 9:00 am this morning and today was the day she decided to sleep in...8:33 I woke up a little frazzled-knowing I had to get us all ready and out the door in 7 minutes. Well, it happened-I was successful. All of our clothes were still in the suitcase next to the bed-so I grapped sweats and a t-shirt for me and a cute little sleeveless onsie for Aylah. To my surprise it was a bit chilly this morning, but I didn't think much of it. As we walked into the Dr.'s office all the kiddos were wearing sweats and warmups-with jackets I might add. While everyone looked a little confused as to why I had this little girl in a sleeveless onsie...well I guess that's why I get the "Mother of the Year" award once again.

Other than that, Aylah is doing great! She weighs 18.6 lbs. (30 percentile) and is 29 inches long (85 percentile). She's crawling so fast now, walks the furniture and can stand by herself-but not for too long. She's a great eater and still loves those cheerios. She had her 1st banana split at Braums while we were in Texas (but don't tell anyone). She talks all the time-mama, dada, nana, baba and another other sound she can come up with are the sweet sounds I hear all day long. She loves to sing and is quite curious about everything. Aylah could play outside all day, especially if Hugs and Kisses are out there. She is a total wiggle worm,,,never stops moving-NEVER! She's such a joy. Oh, what a wonderful stage this is---love it-love it-love it! Have a great day!

~We're Back~

Aylah and I had such a wonderful time visiting all of our friends and family! Thank you to everyone for being so great...those of you who housed us, fed us, shopped with us, changed diapers for me, etc.... What would I ever do without you all!

It is nice to be home though-

Aylah was so excited to see her daddy. She looked at him like "I can't believe it's really you!" She was completely in awe when she saw him...so sweet.

Aylah is ready to retire from the carseat :)
Thanks again to everyone for such a fun two weeks.

A very special thanks to my loving husband who let us stay gone so long.

~Church~

We are on our way to church this morning.

This is my mom's lovely backyard!

Aylah is playing in my rocking chair when I was a little girl.

Have a great day!

~Football~

It is so much fun watching football with papa.

Aylah is saying "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....U!

~Go Sooners~

We are getting ready to go to Meme and Papa's house to watch OKLAHOMA FOOTBALL!

P.S. - Thanks Meme and Papa for the OU onsie and thanks to Auntie Carrie for the adorable jeans!

~Bird Show~

I forgot to add these pics of Aylah watching the bird show. She was quite entertained.

It was so neat to feed the birds.

~Sweet Dreams~

~Lions and tigers and bears....oh my~

My mom, Lauren, Ashley and her son Isaiah (who is adorable), Aylah and I all stayed in Tyler Texas over the weekend. We went to Canton and the Zoo and had a great time. Here are a few pics from the Zoo. However, you may notice there are no pics of the animals...:) By the way, does anyone else feel sorry for those poor animals bored to tears, stuck in a little bity place?

Aylah, curious as to where all the animals went as we were leaving.

Aylah loves the beautiful flowers.

This is Aylah with her cousin Isaiah. They had so much fun together.

My family.