Sunday Funday and Thanksgiving

Today we walked up to the Chatterbox Pub for the afternoon. We got some good and spicy cheesedip and Amelie entertained the waitress while we pretended to watch football. Or maybe, the waitress was entertaining them...

We started out on a walk around the neighborhood and ended up there. It's a real cool place, check it out if you can. Amelie is so good, she was really happy during the 1.4 mile walk there, super happy the whole time we were at the place, and napped on the way home.

Also, we went to Houlihan's in Richfield yesterday after we stopped at Home Depot. That's right, we had a nice little Saturday. Got some child safety locks for our newly installed cupboard doors, some lights for outside among other things. She played with her toys at Houli's and ate some Puffs while Ty and I split the fish tacos and a burger. Loved the fish tacos. Look at her attack those puffs. She actually uses our hands as a tool to get them into her mouth. Don't mind the woman with the evil laugh in the backround.

We hosted Thanksgiving this year. It was a lot of work, but nothing that I didn't expect. My mom seemed like she was trying to freak me out a little, and it almost worked. I think it went pretty well. Here I am putting in the turkey at 12:15 pm, then the final result after 5pm. We planned on serving dinner around 4 so it ended up being later than I thought but...the food was great.

I worked Wednesday night and didn't get home until 4 am so no I'm still in PJ's with no makeup ...don't judge.

Grandma D reading Amelie a story.

Tyler feeding Ami and the fabulous Steckers

My brother in law Ben and Sammy.

Grandpa Jeff and Ami.

Abby, Grandma T and Ami.

Torey , Beth and Amelie still wearing the fancy clothes.

It was a pretty good holiday. We missed TovAndy and Uncle Tyson, but hopefully they will be around for Christmas. Next year though, we want to to the Turkey Day 5K, then we'll fill ourselves up with food.

Our new home...the first 2 weeks

Here are some before photos of our new home. We moved in at the begining of August and we did A LOT of work on it in the first 2 weeks. We have slowly been getting more things done since then. As I mentioned before, there was a ton of cig smoke damage so...be prepared. I have shared some photos, but I hopefully plan to get some before, during, and after up in the next week or so. I didn't include any photos of the upstairs or the basement. I'll do those another time.

The gross bathroom.

The dining room, and a peek into the kitchen.

The guest bedroom which is currently our bedroom.

The livingroom wall.

The fireplace.

The back of the house

The backyard.

I posted some progress pics back in August of the kitchen and dining room floor. Once we get the house cleaned up for Thanksgiving, I'll take some more photos of what the place looks like now. It's been a lot of work in the last 4 months!

Well, we still don't have a dishwasher. I just did yet another mound of dishes. Somehow there is already another sink of dirty dishes again. Argh. We tried buying a dishwasher off Craigslist last week but out schedules clashed so it didn't happen. I can hardly wait for one...and a garbage disposal.

I finally got some curtains for the cupboards in the kitchen. Here are some not so good photos of them, although, you can see all the dishes I did and the dirty ones that magically appeared after I finished. Also, Tyler is making eggs for dinner so the back of his head is in one photo.

We also got a new fan installed in the dining room and one in Amelie's room. Grandma D came over to help out so Tyler was able to get that stuff finished.

It was my good friend Cassie's bachelorette party last night. Julia, Beth and Amber were all there. We stayed downtown and cruised around on a Limo Bus. We bar hopped, saw a drag show at Gay 90's, had some fancy drinks at Prohibition, and ended the evening at Gluek's with some dancing. For some reason we walked back to the hotel. We ordered Pizza Luce and ate all the leftovers from the shower. It was really fat of us, but totally worth it. I felt surprisingly ok this morning.

Tyler sent me this photo of him and Amelie at the park while I was gone. She looks like she is having a pretty good time.

She initiates games of peek-a-boo with me all the time. The video is dark but it's so cute. She is pulling a blanket up to cover her face and then pulling it down.

She's at a great age. She is sleeping better most of the time. The other night she woke up at midnight while I was at work, and she didn't go back to sleep until I got home at 3:30 and put her back to bed. She's been eating more solids lately too. She loves cottage cheese. So do I.

The learningist baby ever.

I got scolded today by my cousin Maren for not blogging enough. So, I guess I will try and be better about it. To make up for it, here are some videos.

Playing in the fall leaves.

That girl of mine is learning at an astonishing rate. She pulls herself up on anything and everything. She will also balance on one arm to lean down and pick up a toy. She gets herself up and she can get herself back down again. She will sit on the floor and entertain herself for an hour laughing and screeching.

I got her some baby crackers and the baby equivalent to Cheetos. It may have been a mistake to introduce her to those things but she loves 'em. The best part is when you can hear her crunch them on her gums. She grips them in her fingers (which turn orange) and gets them all slimy and then they stick to her arm/hand/face/hair. Usually half of them end up on the floor.

She loves Peek A Boo also and figured out how to play even when she is standing in the crib. Amazing.

If I may talk about myself for a moment, my current obsession is Shazam, which for those of you who don't know, is an application on my phone. It recognizes songs by listening to them. Then it tags the song with the artist and song name and you can go right to iTunes to buy it. Some songs that I LOVE lately are Singapore by Tom Waits, Love Long Distance and Dimestore Diamond by Gossip, Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Last Dance by the Raveonettes, and Sexy Bitch by David Guetta.

I dressed Amelie in this cute dress this morning and it lasted about 10 seconds. She got Cheetos all over it. Cheetos and pureed baby food.

I love when she chills on my lap and is still, it doesn't happen very often.

This is a hat that my mom got Ami, it is a crocheted owl and damn cute.

Lastly, I would like to wish my friend Krista a happy 29th birthday.

Fall Weather

I've been in a real crafty mood lately. Today I made a banner out of old newpaper, thread and some feathers. Yesterday I spray painted some picture frames and ordered some new photos to go in them. I have ants in my pants to hang them and some shelves that I got. I also want to get back to sewing, or rather, get back to learning to sew. I want to do some needlepoint (but not grandma needlepoint, cool needlepoint)

Spray painting is harder than I thought it would be. What I want to do is just spray it on real thick...that's not how it's done though. Leaves big drip marks. I'm figuring it out.

It has recently been super nice out. 50's 60's, fall in November. It made for a nice evening to get all those leaves out of our yard. We only have 1 tree, and it's barely even in our yard. We had 4 massive piles of leaves in the front yard. We haven't even raked the back yard yet... Anyways, Ami loved the leaves.

My cousin Maren came over to play with Amelie, Abby and Sam while I got a massage the other day. It was pretty much awesome. I needed that.

I've been making dinners again. Thanks to Rachel Ray, Martha Stewart, and their magazines that have pull out recipe planners for the week I have managed to purchase, cook and eat some good food. Perfect for me. You do all the work, I reap the benefits.

Love life

I am convinced that I bore the cutest, most beautiful little girl in the world. Seriously, I'm not even kidding. You want proof...here she is in her Halloween Fairy costume.

When we are at the store or anywhere in public, people always stop and comment on her cuteness. It is crazy. The other day, some woman stopped and took a photo of Amelie with her cell phone. Are you kidding me?! Really though, it's great and I love it. I cannot believe that I GREW her. Incredible.

We were at the cabin for Halloween. We measured her in the basement where my parents measured us when we were kids. She was 24 inches tall.

There has been so much happening lately and I have had so little time to blog about it. Clint, Brenda and their kids came for a visit. We had a lot of fun and I'm really glad I finally got to meet their super cute sons.

Amelie is a pro-crawler, "talks" a lot, pulls herself up on EVERYTHING, claps, eats all sorts of solid foods, LOVES meeting new people (and babies), love Toby the dog and Lucy the cat, and says Mama. I'm so proud.

Also, check out the new chair that my dad loves. He fell asleep in it this weekend and we thought about ejecting him from it.

Yeah, it's an old man chair, but he's not really that old yet so it's mostly funny.

Besides constantly staring at my pretty baby, her and I have done some thrifting/antiquing. I have gotten some really great picture frames and shelves for super cheap. I'm going to paint them and hang them in our house.

We had some time to hang some artsy items in Ami's room and laid out a plan to hang some more stuff in the rest of the house. It's incredible how time slips away from you. Last week, while pretty baby was napping I had time to rake the front yard into 4 HUGE piles of leaves. Piles that we still haven't had the opportunity to bag. We also need to mow.

I just gotta say, I'm so glad that I did a lot of life living while I was young. Really enjoyed my youth. Throughly too. I had TONS of fun. For me, 28 was the perfect age to have a baby. I'm 29 now (which is weird because I feel way younger), and super happy...regardless that I never get a full nights sleep or any time to myself without sacrificing my own sleep. I had fun, did some crazy shit, lived it up with my girls, and had some incredible experiences with Tyler. I really appreciate the fact that I was able to have my own fun early in life, so that I could really enjoy my life now.