Santa Baby

I totally saw something similar to this on pinterest, and tried to make one for myself!!

Its a Santa Tutu Dress :)

It turned out okay, so I had to take some pics of Addie in the dress, and then I had to play around with Picasa and add some edits, just for fun!!!

Weekend Recap

We had a very busy and fun weekend! (mainly saturday)

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to head to the Dewberry farm with lots of family. We came home and I made some snacks for the kiddos. That night we had our annual Delcampo family pumpkin panting and carving.

Let me overload you with pictures of the day!! :)

Pumpkin Patch at the Dewberry Farm

 Apple Nachos and Monster Munch

(Apple Nachos are super delicious and super sticky - Perfect for kids... and grown ups :) )

Kids getting ready to paint pumpkins

 Addie painting her pumpkin

This is fun.

U sure I'm allowed to get this messy, mom?

Addie's finished pumpkin.

Yay, taking pics with all our pumpkins :)

 

Wait, why is ev1 screaming "cheese" so loud??

The Indian Game

Addie learned how to play the Indian game and LOVES it. It started with me patting her mouth one day while she was making sounds. She thought it was hilarious, and I tried to teach her to do it herself. She learned but uses the  back of her hand instead of the front!!! So Cute!!
I tried to capture a little video of her doing it. She usually does it a lot more, but was distracted by the camera. Here is a little bit of what I could catch.

Side note: She loves watching videos of herself, so we have sat here and watched it a few times as I'm posting this!!

A Day of Crafts w/ the Mom to Be

Ashley Kivch and I spent a wonderful day together today. We started off with a pedicure and lunch at Jason's Deli. Then we headed over to Hobby Lobby for some supplies for craft making.

I'm normally not much of the crafty type, but had a lot of fun today learning to make some things. As it turns out they are all really easy, and I may just be becoming a Do it Yourselfer.

First we made Tutu's. I made Addie one to go with her "My First Halloween" onsie.

Isn't it cute, and it was so easy, we were done in minutes. I'm thinking she needs tons more, right?

Then I made her a Bow holder. Currently they have all been in a Bow Basket. This is much more organized. All of the bows that are sewn onto headbands and the plain headbands are still in the basket, until I get a hook. Here is the Bow holder I made her.

Before I put the bows on and After.

"Princess of Everything" :)



Ashley also taught me to make hair bows. I only had time to practice on one and it didnt turn out as well as I'd hoped. I need a little more practice before I finish one and post it, but it really wasn't too hard!!

Nichole

Happy Fall

Adam and I took Addie to a pumpkin patch this weekend to try and capture a couple cute photos!!!

I also discovered the awesomeness of Picasa and Picnik!!! They are free and have so many tools that are easy to learn for editing photos!! I played around a little with it on the pumpkin patch pics!!

Cake Balls

I made cake balls for the first time last month, and have since made them a few more times!! Each time I think they are looking a little better!!!

Here are a couple of pics from the latest batch I made!

Plain Vanilla

W/ Sprinkles

My attempt at a blood shot eye, for Halloween

(the edible pens I have didn't write well on the coating)

Milk Chocolate W/ drizzle

 

 

Yum

A Pink Berry opened by my house!!!



I have always seen people eating at them on Reality TV shows, and thought it sounded and looked so yummy. I think the name is what sounded good to me.

I tried it for the first time today, and its pretty delicious. Its a frozen yogurt place, but what is good about it is that there are a lot of healthy options, and all the yogurts and all the toppings have the calories listed right there for you to see as you are ordering.

Hopefully I'll be going back again soon to try a new flavor!!

Fall

One of the best parts of this time of year is getting to eat things with pumpkin in them!!! I LOVE it!!

It is probably one of my favorite ingredients. In past years, I have sort of stuck to 2 main pumpkin dishes, the pumpkin roll, and my staple- Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread!!! I love it, Adam loves it, and the whole family loves it!!! I always make several loaves a year for everyone!! It's really great, and if you want to recipe I will totally share!! :)

This year thanks to the internet, and more free time I have stumbled upon SOOO many more pumpkin recipes. They all look delcious and I can't wait to try them!!

Even though fall has officially began, I sorta feel like I have to wait for the temperature to drop down just a little bit, so I can really enjoy them!!

Here are 2 new ones I'm going to try first:

http://jessicainsd.blogspot.com/2011/09/pull-apart-cinnamon-sugar-pumpkin-bread.html#comment-form

http://www.bakerella.com/pumpkin-pecan-chocolate-chunk-cookies-with-maple-brown-butter-frosting/

I'll let you know how they turn out!!! :)

A Day of Baking

Yesterday Audra, Webber and I got together to bake a few recipes we have been waiting to try.

We made a chocolate sheet cake

a Mochiko Blueberry Cake

Mochiko is an asian rice flour (if you hadn't heard of it, because I hadn't) 

and Devils Food Cake Cookies with Rolos in the Middle

They all turned out very good

 

 

As good as they were, we all felt a little overloaded with sugar after we finished our sampler platters and had to counter with something salty... so we made an emergency trip to Sonic :)

All in all a very fun day with friends!!

On the Run

I have been having some trouble getting back on the horse when it comes to running. I love to run and was doing really good there for a while. However, since being pregnant and now having a baby I have not been exercising consistently.

I have been doing good so far this week (lol) and it has felt great. A couple of weeks ago I was talking to someone and they mentioned that their New Year Resolution was to do at least 1 run each month. First of all I thought, what an awesome resolution, and second of all I thought how awesome it was that it was August that we were having this conversation and she had still kept her resolution... I think I might steal her resolution for next year...

In the mean time, there is a Bay Area Turkey Day 10K/5K. It is in my neighborhood and it is Thanksgiving Day morning. What an awesome way to start out the day, before you go home with your family and eat way too much! I know I can do a 5K. I could probably even do it without training, I would just be realllly slow since I am wayyy out of shape right now. So I am debating if I want to attempt the 10K??? I'm scared. My sister in law is totally on board with this run too, and she may do the 10K as well. I am pretty excited about it, and it will hopefully be the motivation I need to start getting back in shape!!

She's on a Roll...

Literally....

She rolled over for the first time today... Good Job, Addie!!!

She CAN do it!!!

Addie finally stood up and put weight on her legs!!!! Up until now she has never done that, she completely refused. I was a little worried about it and I asked her doctor at her last appt. She told me not to really worry about it yet, that everything looked fine and we would revisit the issue at the next check up. Well thankfully it is no longer an issue. I guess that little girl is on her own schedule, and will not be rushed by anyone to do anything!!

Also, a friend of mine called me today and asked if I was interested in a job. It sounded really great and it really did interest me. Unfortunately, with the baby and my online classes I just don't feel that I would be able to give my best effort and do a really good job right now. The job is part time, only 10 hours a week, and you do most of the work from home. It is a personal assistant job for a lady that just had a baby and has been starting up her own business, but as she is getting more success is needing some help. She is basically a pregnancy concierge. From what my friend described she does the same job as on the TV show Pregnant in Heels (which I love to watch). Doesn't that sound awesome??
My friend plans to keep working there until she can find someone to replace her. So maybe if she is still working there in January and I think it is something I can handle I might rethink taking the job.
I do start Nannying little Raylee Ann at the end of this year though, so that may just keep me too busy for much else. :)

Hello

I have been slacking on blogging... but with all the activity on the blogs I follow plus having some new blogs to follow, I have been inspired to try to get back with it!!!

First of all I have joined a MOPS group at church. "Mothers of PreSchoolers"
Ive been attending this group for close to 2 months now and am really enjoying it. It is so great for so many reasons. For one, it gives me somewhere to go rather than always being at home :). Other than that though, it has been great to meet some women who are in similar seasons in their life and that love the Lord. The ladies in this group have been so friendly and welcoming, which is good, especially since I can be a little shy when first meeting new people. Addie usually goes to the nursery during the MOPS meeting (It is 2 hours twice a month). The ladies that work there are so sweet and are good with Addie, plus she gets to socialize with the other babies :)!!!
The speaker at MOPs today was the author of "Power of Parenting, Easy as A,B,C". I left feeling really blessed by what she had to say, and excited to read her book!

She talked a lot about the power of your words and speaking faith into you and your families life. At one point she even talked about Sleep!!! I don't know why, but I have a lot of issues falling asleep at night. I had trouble before I had Addie, and it has come back again. (I had no trouble falling asleep when I was pregnant :) ). I lay awake at night for hours trying to fall asleep and one night I was even awake until 7 AM. Anyway.... the speaker, Barabara, talked about how important sleep is for everyone epsecially Mothers, and how everyone has probably at one point had trouble with sleep due to stress or any other factor!! She talked about speaking scripture over your sleep, inparticular Psalm 127: 2 -
²It is in vain that you rise up early
   and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
   for he gives to his beloved sleep

God WANTS to bless me with sleep and a restful night!!! I couldn't believe how she was speaking straight to me!!! anyway I'm rambling!!!

Addie turned 4 months on Tuesday!!! I can't believe it! Her doctor said she is doing great, she can start trying solids and has doubled her birth weight!! (and I think of Rachel on Friends when I say that, but it really is all true).
She is now 11 lbs 11 ozs. and 24" long. Her weight is 6th percentile and height is 26th percentile, so she is catching up a little bit!!
Right now we are working on sitting. She is getting better!!! She holds herself up a few seconds now before she starts to tilt over. She refuses however to ever put any weight on her legs. I asked her Dr. about it. She said her hips and legs seem fine, and she does have the ability to hold her weight, just not the desire. she might just be a little stubborn and will do it only when she is ready. For now we will just keep working on sitting and revisit her legs at her 6 month check up.
oh, and she also does NOT like Tummy Time.... At our house Tummy Time is more accurately called Torture time.... since that is what it would sound like to any passer by who may hear her screams. :(

Lately I have been starting to really enjoy baking. I always have enjoyed it, but never had a lot of time on my hands. I have so many recipes I want to try. As with any new hobby though there are a lot of supplies I also need/ want to buy!! For now Im trying to stick to the recipes that I already have all the tools to make!! Some of the things I have made have turned out SOO great, others have not. I have made cream cheese pumpkin rolls before (from scratch), and thought I would like to try to make a red velvet roll. I made the cream cheese from scratch but thought I would just use a box mix for the red velvet cake... maybe thats where I went wrong?? I rolled the cake to cool, and when it was no longer warm I unrolled it covered it in cream cheese and when I tried to re-roll it things went disasterously wrong. It didnt look very pretty, but still tasted good.

There is more catching up to do, but maybe if I save some of it for later I wont wait as long to blog again.

Houston Zoo

Adam and I have a little tradition that every year in March we always go to the zoo together.
And every year that we go we always take a picture together in the exact same spot...

Well I finally have been able to find all of the pictures (I was missing 2 of them for a while)

It's funny to see how different we look from the first picture to now.

In the last picture (from this year) I was pregnant, but you can't tell in the photo. I am so excited about next year's zoo trip though, because Addie will be in the picture with us.

SAHM

July 20th is the day I was scheduled to go back to work after my maternity leave.
However, as some of you already know, there has been a major change in plans.

I am now going to be a stay at home mommy 'SAHM'. It was a big decision that Adam and I had to make. We had already had plans for this to happen someday, we were just praying and waiting on God's timing for it to be right for me to be able to leave the work force.

We didn't think that staying home would even be an option to consider seriously until next year. Imagine our surprise when God said the time is now.

It was bitter sweet to leave the job I have been at for the past 5 years. I have worked there for my entire 20's so far. I loved my boss and co workers and will miss seeing them, but I am so happy and excited to get to spend my days being with and raising my sweet little girl.

I was nervous at first, scared even to be making such a huge decision so suddenly, but I have such peace with it now and I know that it is what I am supposed to be doing.

Director of Addie's Development,

Nichole

2 Months

Addie is 2 months old today!! She is such a big girl.

She got her first shots today. I was prepared to have my heart totally ripped apart as I watched the Dr give them to her. Much to my surprise my sweet little girl handled it incredibly well. She was very tired and half asleep when it was time to get her shots, which helped I think.
She was given an oral vaccine first, which seemed to taste good to her. She swallowed it right up.
Then she was given 3 shots in her thighs, 2 on one side, and 1 on the other.
She did cry, but not like I had expected. It sounded more of a mild fuss, which she does all the time.
Once it was over I was able to soothe her back down pretty quickly, I put her in her car seat and she was sleeping almost instantly!!
The doctor put a batman bandaid on her which I thought was kinda funny, supposed they ran out of princess ones??

She is now 8 lbs 7 ozs, which is nearly 3 pounds higher than her birth weight. The doctor said they look to see that the baby has gained around, or at least, 2 lbs by this time. This means she is doing really well gaining weight!!!
She is 2nd percentile in her weight now, and 17th percentile in her height (22 in.).
She is a very petite compared to other baby girls her age.

Picture Perfect

I have a few blogs to write that I have missed, but I wanted to post up some of Addie's newborn photos so everyone can see them.

I am so happy with how they turned out. We actually had to try it twice. The first day the photographer came to the house, we spent 3 hours and were only able to take 3 photos.. Addie was just not a happy camper and I couldn't soothe her for anything. Thankfully the photographer agreed to come back another day, and we were able to get plenty more pictures.

Sweet Girl