Turkey meet-

Kate's swim team had a fun 'turkey meet' today, which was a nice potluck dinner/getting to know the team/and competition swim. There was a sign up that got passed around a few weeks ago for parents to sign up and participate....so I gladly volunteered Scott. ;) Both Kate and Scott made us very proud. :)

Happy Thanksgiving-

So much to be thankful for...

My super seven month old...

Shots for my sweet Gracie today at her 6 month well-baby appt. (a month late), then we stopped at the Thrift Store to look around.

Our thrift store find today, this fun vtech toy for $4:



More Gracie pics, love her little hat:



Watch me mom!





AHHHHH! Seriously Gracie, we can wait on walking till month 12, RIGHT??!!?

toy auction pics...

This was an event to raise money for Kate's swim team. Pretty neat that we got to take the kids to an auction. :)

Kate looks like she's petting the bear...

Forget the teething biscuit, I'd much rather have fries, daddy!


The girls ended up with one of the raffle prizes--a big plastic vanity *groan*:

homemade teething biscuits...and Kate's new haircut

Yum!







Love this new cut on Kate:



The teething biscuits were such a huge hit with Gracie, I thought I'd post the recipe...

Donut-Shaped Teething Biscuits

These teething cookies are shaped like a wheel, with a hole in the center. Perfect for little hands to easily grab and carry around.

Ingredients

* 1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
* 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
* 1/2 cup maple syrup
* 3 Tbs applesauce

Directions

Preheat oven to 300. Place all the ingredients in a medium bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until they just come together. Dust the counter lightly with flour and knead the dough until smooth, around 3 minutes.

Roll with a rolling pin until around a half- or quarter-inch thick. Invert a round glass and cut out circles in the dough. Cut out a circle in the middle with a donut hole cutter, or a steel napkin holder.

Transfer the cookies to a greased cookie sheet and bake until barely browned (around 35 minutes). Let them cool completely on the sheet overnight to get very hard.

Makes about 1 dozen teething cookies. Store in an airtight container for 2 weeks.

it's going by so fast!

Happy 7 months Gracie!

baby food...

This book is great!!! If you have a baby or know of someone expecting one, I highly recommend this book. I'm going to start branching out from organic brown rice cereal, bananas, and avocados. Storing breastmilk in ice-cube form is new to me this time around. Why didn't I think of that before?? The baby food industry is not making any money off of us. :)

just a couple of black and white pics...

Tomorrow Gracie will be 7 mo. old! Time for another baby photo shoot. More pics to come...

notes to my friend Deborah...

I'm so happy that my friend Deborah is expecting her first child in the spring. She's been my friend since I was 6 years old. I had the girls make a little note to mail her, and they were so cute, I had to scan them before I send them off tomorrow...


**Ella explained that in her picture, Deborah is about to go to the hospital to get the baby out--so she's wearing her backpack full of the things the baby needs, and she's grabbing her camera.**
Congratulations Deborah and Craig! You will be fantastic parents! :)

seeing my friend Beth...

Today I was so happy to see my friend Beth, from California. I met her back when we were stationed in Monterey. She's one of those people that I just instantly clicked with, and even though I haven't seen her in years, we picked up like we never missed a beat. We were just talking about how grateful we are for facebook---makes keeping up with great friends so easy, even when you live far apart. Her sister Mary lives near me, so hopefully visits from Beth and Mary can be a regular thing. :) Beth has 3 kiddos, her baby Izeah made the trip with her this time. I was so happy to meet him, so was Gracie...




And here are some pics I took later of Gracie enjoying a book:

baby that crawls very fast = less blogging time

Therefore just some random pics...

The girls going through recipes---ended up w/a bunch of desserts they wanted me to make....


Gracie's loves this thing...


Occasionally, Gracie pouts when we don't pick her up as fast as she would like...


And we had a freaky hail storm in the middle of the afternoon today...




And I do want to add that we are praying for the families affected by the Ft. Hood tragedy. I don't even know what else to say, it's still sinking in. We have a good friend that was in that building just a few hours before. I'm thankful that our dear friends at Ft. Hood are safe, but heartbroken for the families that lost loved ones.