sand

we made our annual/semi-annual trek for sand last week....a fun tradition we have with the Fergusons

the kiddos think the ride in the back of the truck is the best part!

sweet friends

We walked up to the park the other day and Landon and Kale chatted the whole way home (mostly about Lego Batman!)- they really are sweet friends and good buddies.

Leia's nursery is coming together

Here are a few more photos of Leia's nursery. I have completed the painting (2 coats and 2 gallons of paint later) to the best of my ability for now, and am starting to put the decor up and around.

almost crawling, waving, and saying "da da"

Loving this stage of development- Leia is starting to get up on all fours and should be crawling here within the next few weeks, and she is also doing the waving motion and saying "da da", although I don't think she is connecting waving with greeting people and telling them goodbye, and she for sure isn't connecting the sounds "da da" with Aaron, but it's fun all the same.

sleep update

Well, I decided to keep the monitor off...with some success, Leia is "sleeping" through the night for the past five days. Most nights now I wake up once and she will be crying, but she usually gets back to sleep within a half hour. She has another cold though, with possible ear infection (I'm taking her in to the doctor AGAIN today), so I hesitate to just let her cry it out due to the fear that she is in pain. Argghhh. It's been nice getting some better sleep though.

4th annual Vday party

Here we are with lots of friends celebrating Valentine's Day at our 4th annual Chuck E Cheese bash. We always have a wonderful time!

Nursery

Here is Leia at worship time in the nursery with her little friend, Iris. :-) Thank you, Mr. David for leading all of our little ones in worship...even the littlest Zoe Kidz.

Nursery Worship

Here are some pictures of Leia in the nursery at church. We have an amazing worship team that shares a Bible story and memory verse and leads all of our children in worship each week. They even travel to the nursery, and this week Leia and Iris enjoyed Mr. David's music. Leia eventually scooted over and was trying to help him strum the guitar strings. Both baby girls seemed to enjoy the "concert of praise".

she slept through the night

at eight months old...Leia MAY have slept through the night (but it's doubtful)! I put Leia to bed at 8pm, and when Aaron came to bed at 1am, he said all was well, but at some point during the night our power to our bedroom went out (we've been having some electrical issues), and I woke up in a panic...the monitor was off and the clocks, so I jumped out of bed and was shocked to see the clock in the kitchen read 6 am! I was totally disoriented and ran upstairs to make sure Leia was okay...she was sleeping soundly. Now, she has been waking up consistently two times a night- around midnight and 3:30- and has never slept more than 7 hours at a time (that I recall!), so, I am pretty sure that she didn't make it from 8 pm-6:30 am, but I did (actually, from 10:30-6)!!!

so I took an informal poll today (if I had facebook, this would have been a poll I sent out today, but alas...still not going to bite that bullet...sorry Nancy and Barie) to see if people thought I should just leave the monitor off for a few nights to "sleep train" her (since I can't let her cry it out if I know she is crying!), and the general consensus was that I should keep the monitor off and hope for the best.

Snow Day!

We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland here in Round Rock, Texas, which is very rare! Landon enjoyed playing in the snow with his buddy, Colton, but Lincoln decided he wanted to stay warm and watch Toy Story inside. :-)

2nd tooth and bottom scooter

Leia's 2nd bottom tooth is now coming through, and she is beginning to scoot around the room on her bottom. I'm guessing she will soon be fully mobile.

The Blackman Home

This is my Aunt Glenda's and Uncle Gary's new home back here in Texas. We went to visit yesterday in the freezing cold (22!) and had a delicious meal to celebrate Glenda's birthday. Check out the gorgeous frozen fountain...this doesn't happen too often in our neck of the woods. Poor Landon walked outside yesterday and slipped on the icy sidewalk! We are definitely not used to walking on icy ground.

...a work in progress

I now understand why most people decorate and paint a nursery BEFORE the baby arrives! Leia's room is a work in progress. I think I've decided on "pink ice" paint throughout, with black and white accents and ecru (I think it's called) design. The tulle tiara canopy is my personal creation that I am very proud of. :-) It is starting to look like I will be using some pink and black tulle accents around the room also (thanks for the tulle, Ya Ya!). It's been too cold these past few days to paint, and I only have one coat on one wall down, so I'm anxious to get the whole thing painted and get to the fun parts of decorating. I'm enjoying the foof and the bling that comes along with little girl rooms, and I'm hoping the pink will go with all the girly princess themes Leia might want a little later in her life. :-)