Too Cute Tuesday: Christmas Card Pics Outtakes

Sometimes the pictures that don't make it onto the Christmas photo card are just as cute as the ones that end up getting used.  These pictures were all taken on Thanksgiving.

Grandma Lewis is laughing because every time we'd get ready to snap the picture, Megan would look at her with her silly little grin.  Alexa did a great job of looking at the camera, ignoring Megan.


Here's that grin again!


Megan likes the lady's necklaces so why should Great-Grandpa's be any different?

Too Cute Tuesday: Just for Fun!

 

Megan at Eight Months

Megan is now a week past her eighth month birthday.  She is sooo much fun and ever so strong.  I am estimating she weighs about 20 pounds but I'm sure that if she weren't so active it would be even more.  She seems to be so much happier now that she can do even more on her own.

John and I were commenting a couple weeks ago that Megan had been sort of boring.  It seemed like all she did the last month was perfect her crawling, practice pulling herself up to stand and walk around with us holding her hands.  However, the last couple days she just took off cruising around furniture.  She was showing off tonight to John and me by even walking one-handed.  She is finding out where her limits are and testing them, no doubt.  Here is a picture of the obstacle course I made for her this weekend so she had some good surfaces to walk around.  Practicing her walking is giving her other places to put her attention which is good because it makes her a little less needy.  However, she still likes us to be close by and probably will for some time. 

Besides walking holding onto our hands is not the only practice she has been getting.  Megan will use any object in the house to make herself mobile.  Her activity table, kitchen chairs and the small ottoman.  No stopping this one!  Now we just have to work on walking with only holding onto Mommy or Daddy with one hand and work on balancing to stand on her own.

Megan still has seven teeth.  The last ones came three or four weeks ago.  Bad thing is that she hasn't slept well despite them cutting through.  I admit that I have been babying Megan by rocking her to sleep and we're starting to just let her cry it out when putting her to bed, naps and during the night.  John has been using this technique a lot for naps but I felt bad for her at night with the teeth and all.  But not anymore... Mama needs sleep too!  I do think more teeth are on the way soon, so we'll see...

I love that Megan is getting older and starting to have a better attention span.  I've noticed that she is able to play with some toys and books for a longer period of time before moving onto others or getting bored.  She is figuring out how buttons work and that if she presses them they make noise.  Other motor skills are improving too and she is starting to clap her hands herself when like patty cake.

Megan's diet is expanding rapidly.  We now have given her chicken, turkey and beef along with many fruits and veggies.  She enjoys puffs, cheerios and bits of lightly toasted bread.  Megan doesn't always like to eat alone and if you're eating, there better be something for her too!  She likes to eat off the spoon but what she loves is to feed herself.  We put bananas in her fresh food feeder and also put food on her tray.  She knows that big people feed themselves and is so proud that she can do it too!

One of the other things I've noticed lately is Megan is becoming a mommy's girl.  I knew it would happen sooner or later and when I walk through the door after work she beeline crawls in my direction.  She also likes to be at my feet in the kitchen and has no problem pulling up and holding onto my pant leg!

It is fun to interact with Megan more and watch her try to communicate with others.  Even if it is only through her eye contact, BIG smile and high-pitched squeals!  One of our favorite things right now is to squeal back and forth at each other.  She thinks it's hilarious and I get the biggest grins!  Megan and I went grocery shopping tonight and it seemed she made a point to smile at every single person, man or woman, that walked by our cart.  She also loves to smile at the people sitting next to us at church.  What a joy she is to so many people.  I hope she never loses this spirit!

Daddy and Megan on her 8 month b-day!

1st Snow

We were too busy on Saturday and Sunday when the first real snow of the season hit and was fresh, but we took Megan out for a couple pictures after I got home from work on Monday.  She really did not like getting her snow suit on at all!  All Megan wanted to do was move around in the house but her snow pants and jacket do not allow for any of that as they're still a little too big and quite stiff.  I had to hold her just to sit so we could take the pictures!

 

 

And the Winning Store of the Hardware Gold Cup is...

Chaska!  With special recognition to their Department Head, John!

John has been busting his butt the past couple weeks at work.  He has done many back-to-back shifts and working late into the night to get his Hardware department ready for yesterday's walk.  This was a competition between all the Home Depot stores in the district, about 8 in total including Chaska, Eden Prairie, Brooklyn Park and Maple Grove.  Besides just cleaning and straightening up, John's main task was to make sure there were no out of stock items.  There had to be at least one of every 9,000 plus SKUs on the shelf at the time of the walk or he would lose points. 

John couldn't do anything besides laugh at all the items that they were selling through the past week.  A couple examples... There was a pocket knife that he has only sold three of since May.  However, he sold two in the past two weeks, putting him out of stock.  There is a drill that he sells .67 per week and in one day he sold two, putting him out of stock.  He did probably a dozen transfers of items from other stores in the past week and his favorite story is when he came back from a trip to Shakopee he discovered that someone had come in and bought his entire supply of bungee straps!  The walk was at 2:30 yesterday and he finished with only one out, which happened 20 minutes before the store managers arrived at the store.  After one trip to Eagan and two trips to Shakopee that morning, finishing with only one out of stock is pretty good!

His one out of stock tied him for first place with Eden Prairie.  Overall, John's department looked better, so Chaska took 1st place. 

John, I know you didn't see Megan or me much the last couple weeks, but we are super proud of you and your hard work.  You take such pride in your work and have such a sense of ownership towards your department that is hard to find in many people.  We love you!

Too Cute Tuesday: Sleeping Poses

Early on, Megan sure got me spoiled with her good sleeping habits.  Since we got back from overnight trip to Red Wing over a month ago, Megan has only slept through the night one time - most times waking at least twice, sometimes three times during the night.  Last night I was lucky that I didn't have to take her out of the crib and got by with only rubbing her tummy to get her back to sleep.  Several times I had to feed her and rock her for over an hour and half to get her to back to sleep.  Despite all the frustration and headaches she still is so pretty when she is sleeping.

With the time change and the teething, Megan has been so tired lately.  The whole last week she had been going to bed later and later partly because she had so much energy and partly I let her to hopefully make the daylight savings switch easier.  Last night she fell asleep around 7 even with a late nap.  Tonight John had to put Megan to bed and this is a picture of what she looked like at 7 after drinking just a couple ounces of milk.  Poor girl passed out on John's lap.  She slept like that for about an hour when she finally stirred enough so John could give her another four ounces of milk and change her clothes for bedtime. 

 

Not Me Monday

I know I just wrote a long post of what happened this weekend, but wanted to do a separate post of Not Me's.

Megan is not become a big necklace destroyer.  Last Sunday at church she managed to grab hold of my mom's necklace and rip off the big pendant.  The necklace was beaded so when the one part came off all the little seed beads fell off right after it.  Kind of made a mess in the pew but we cleaned it up the best we could.  You should have seen the look on Megan's face when she realized she actually got it off!  Recently she has also managed to disfunction one of my Grandma's, one of Rachel's and two of mine.  That girl...

Megan's newest favorite household item is the printer.  She is not able to reach up and hit the photocopy buttons.  It doesn't make a copy but still spits out a blank piece of paper. 

I am not having bad luck in trying to get my passport.  Both times I made it to Chaska I got there too late.  I think I am going to go to Glencoe tomorrow before work.  However, I actually just read today that I could have applied by mail since it would be a renewal.  But since we're leaving in January I want to do it in person so it can get started faster.

My dad did not change a diaper for the first time EVER!  It was Sunday morning and Rachel, my mom and I were still at church for the second service.  Megan was so tired and squirmy because of her wet diaper but it needed to be changed.  After Megan woke up from her nap I examined his work.  It was bunched in the left, the right tape had come undone and her right butt cheek was hanging out but the diaper had been changed, none-the-less.

John is not having issues with his big right toe.  He says the knuckle part is very painful when he walks.  Ouch!  If it doesn't get better soon I guess we'll have to talk to his physical therapist about this.

I did not get taken by Target's coupon issues.  I had a $5 and $3 coupon and only got a couple bucks taken off.  Hopefully they will fix this.  I didn't know this was a national deal I was telling John my dilema.  Thank you Target, I know you think you're all that, but seriously?

10 Word Weekend

Working Husband. Shopping. Birthday Party. Overtired Baby. Praise Sunday. Awesome.

Every Monday morning KTIS has callers describe their weekend in 10 words so I thought I would give it a try.  I debated between Awesome and Exhaustion for the last word and settled on Awesome because althought it wore me out it was all worth it in the end.

John has been busy at work preparing for the Gold Cup, trying to make his department look its best and making sure the shelves are completely stocked.  That hasn't been easy and he's been doing many trips to other Home Depots getting inventory to fill the gaps.  I haven't seen much of him in the last week and a half since he's been doing many 3-midnight shifts.  It's kind of wearing on both of us but at least the walk is tomorrow and then things should be back to normal (at least until Black Friday).  It's kind of sad that most of our conversations have been regarding John's work schedule and who's going to be watching Megan!

I finally got to see John a little on Saturday since he worked his schedule out to work later (9pm-3am) since Alexa's b-day party was that night.  My sister and I had rehearsal for Sunday's church services up at Trinity Saturday morning.  Bryan and John had some fun taking it easy and playing Mario Wii while we were out.  After our rehearsal Rachel and I gave the guys a break from Megan and took her uptown where we hit the Stash and Wild Bird Store.  They were both very cute shops that I had never been to before.  Back home we cooked up some spaghetti for the boys and gobbled it down and cleaned up just in time to leave for Alexa's party.  John and I made a quick stop at Kohl's to use my Kohl's Cash before it expired.  We were able to get Megan's Christmas dress for only $8!

The birthday party was a full house with no shortage of food, presents or laughs.  I can't believe that Alexa is a year old already and starting to walk.  She can take about six or seven steps before falling down.  It won't be soon until Megan is doing the same.  We had a very tired Megan by time we left the part at 8:30.  The naps she did take earlier that day were shorter than usual and she got a little whiny during present opening but got her second wind ate her way through a whole handful of Cheerios while Alexa attacked her cake.  Poor Megan was so tired and full of Cheerios that she didn't even want a bottle before bed.  Both times she woke up during the night she didn't even need a bottle to get back to bed.  I just held her close for a couple minutes and she was back asleep.  All last week she seemed to go to bed later and later each night.  Since Saturday was about an 8:30 bedtime (7:30 after daylight savings) it will be interesting to see how she does this week after the time change. 

The peak of the weekend came Sunday morning when I got to play in the orchestra at church.  It was Special Music Sunday.  The choir sang, we had a full orchestra and the praise band in two powerful sets of services!  This is my third time playing with this group and each time it gets better.  I realized that I like playing in this and other worship settings much more than any other community band I've ever played in.  There is just something about praising God with His given talents and leading others in worship that is so special.

Whew.  I think that's the main highlights of the weekend and I got exhausted just from typing all of this!  Long story short - it was a busy, busy weekend but I enjoyed everything.  Hope all of your weekends were great also!

Happy 1st Birthday, Alexa!

Our niece Alexa turned one year old on Wednesday.  Kristin and Patrick had the whole family and a few friends over tonight to celebrate the occassion with an awesome birthday bash.  Grandma Lewis made Alexa the owl smash cake.  At first Alexa didn't quite know what to think of it and just poked and pecked at the cake but after a while she got the hang of it as you can see above.

We arrived a little early just as Alexa was getting out of her bath.  I was able to get a photo of Alexa in her "birthday suit" before the party started.

Everyone had a wonderful time and took lots of pictures.  You can view my pictures from the evening here.

Too Cute Tuesday: Smiles in the Highchair

I don't know when she started doing this little smile, but it sure is cute and it makes us all laugh... and she knows it!  

Megan thinks it's really fun to grab the spoon from me when I am feeding her.  I read somewhere that it is a sign babies are ready to feed themselves.  And that is really the case for Megan.  She is enjoying feeding herself puffs, cheerios and all kinds of steamed fruits and veggies that are put on her tray.