House Coat

For those of you who did not grow up as a canuck a 'House Coat' is a Robe. For some reason my husband thinks this term is quite comical. It makes perfect sense to me. A coat that you wear around the house. What is so funny about that?
He also thinks garburator (garbage disposal) and Toque (beanie) are pretty funny. Anyways funny Canadian words were not supposed to be the point of this post (but while we're on the topic can you think of any more? that was all I could remember)
The point was to show you how cute Sierra is in her house coat. I was obsessed with it before I even got pregnant and she is finally big enough to wear it. (there's actually not really any point to a robe for a baby but oh well) ADORABLE! I think she loves it as much as I do. haha

Oh, Santa

We went to our ward christmas party on saturday and Sierra had her first experience with santa. It started out okay, she took a liking to his beard, but soon the curiosity turned into tears. Oh well. One day she'll appreciate him.

Solids

Yesterday Sierra had her first experience with rice cereal. It was so cute. She did not know what to do with her tongue. The picture and video are kind of shoddy because I was trying to take them while feeding her. But still pretty cute.


Also the last couple of times we've tried to give Sierra a bottle she has pretty much rejected it. We usually just give her one when we leave her with Eric's parents. Anyways Sierra's pediatrition told me to try and give her one everyday to get her used to it. Long story short I kind of think it was the brand of bottle and not the bottle itself. Wednesday she still didnt like it too much. Thursday we gave her a different bottle and she drank it like a champ. So we'll see how it goes today.

Enjoying the 'good' bottle with Aunt Alyssa

Round Two

Today Sierra had her 4 month check up (it was a month late) and the second round of shots. It was definately worse than last time. But she still did pretty well all things considered. She is 12 lbs 9 oz (50th) and 24 1/2 inches long (90th). AND she is tripoding like a 6 month old. Whatever that means haha.

'tripoding'

mullet

Travels

My friend Susan did this and it looked like fun so I did it too! Places I've been in the U.S: Even though I'm from Canada I've been to way more places in the states. Growing up we always travelled here and drove from ontario to florida and utah so i've seen lots of states.


visited 23 states (46%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or try another Douwe Osinga project

I'd still really love to go to Oregon & Hawaii.

5 Months

Sierra is 5 months old today. She gets cuter and more fun every month! Everyone in our house has been sick lately and she has been a really good sport about it. She is always coughing and congested and it's so sad but she doesn't seem to mind too much. She just wants to be held twice as much as usual. Some new things she is doing since last month:

-Army crawl. she can really get around now and i have to constantly be watching her. but it is impossible to get it on video. everytime i try she stops and looks at me or refuses to do it when i have the camera ready. i have even tried hiding behind the couch and standing at the stairway spying on her. but it's like she knows i'm there. little rascal.

-scratching. she loves to scratch. especially rough fabrics, my arms, and blankets. not so much her face anymore which is definately a good thing.

-cell phones, remotes, and cups. she gets frantic when she sees any of these things and has to grab them and bring them to her mouth immediately.

-actually she wants to put everything in her mouth lately.

-she wants our food. i think she's ready for solids now because she watches our every move when we eat and grabs for it. and last night when we were out for dinner she was putting the cup to her mouth and sucking on it and i swear she was getting mad because she wasnt getting any liquid out of it.

-she won't take a bottle anymore! even if it's pumped. she gets so upset and will cry and scream for half an hour before she gets desperate and will take it. (at least thats what eric's mom told me) so now i feel bad leaving her ever. such a disaster.

Well I guess that's about it since last month.

She is a funny girl and has such a little sassy attitude. We love her to death. Also I think i'm ruining my teeth because i grit them so much because i can't take how cute she is. Normal? Probably not.

The latest picture of her: And here is a video of her pretending she doesnt know how to crawl/basically just staring at the camera:

NC

This year we went to Duck, North Carolina for Thanksgiving. My friend Serena and I drove down Sunday night with her two girls and Sierra. Eric and Chris drove down Tuesday night. It was so much fun! We were right by the beach and even though it was pretty cold it was so beautiful! There were 3 other couples up there with us who also stayed in the house. We went to the aquarium, shopped at lots of cute stores, played games, went in the hot tub, and lots of other fun things.
My birthday was on Friday so we celebrated with shopping, dinner at outback and ice cream cake!
It's always so nice to get away for a while. Thanks everyone who was up there for making it such a fun week and enjoyable trip!
Playing Rock Band-SO FUN!
At Sonic-yummy cream slushes!
Thanksgiving Day (Serena's little 4 yr old girl Lane took this-pretty good! haha)
Cute little Isaac & Lane cheers-ing
Some sketchy pictures in the house
Serena presenting her delicious sweet potatoes
learning early :)
tuckered out from shopping at The Christmas Mouse
Serena, Lane & Me at Outback
Sierra wants the ice cream!

Our last day at the beach

Sleepy munchkin on the way home

The Bug Came Back!

Do not ask me how the bug made it's way back into our lives, but it did. I am positive that we didn't use the stroller the night it went missing but two nights ago when I pulled it out the bug was there! We are very pleased with it's return.

A Camper & A Sleeper

What do you do when your husband is on a young men's camp freezing his rump off and your baby is sleeping? I'm not sure-I'm getting pretty bored. So I guess I'll update my blog with a pointless entry!
I just finished watching The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2-so cute! I love Blake Lively(Gossip Girl) and Alexis Bledel(Gilmore Girls). And since I'm so bored right now with nothing to do I just read both of their biographies. Did you know that Alexis Bledel's first name is Kimberly? Or that her first language is spanish and she learned English in school? If you watch gilmore girls you know that she is obsessed with coffee on the show but really she hates it and drinks coke on set. Pretty enlightening stuff wouldn't you say? haha
Today we had our first snowfall! Tomorrow we are celebrating my birthday a week early with Eric's family and on Sunday we leave for North Carolina for a week for thanksgiving! Then when we get back Eric's brother and his wife will have moved here from Utah and it will also be time to start decorating the house all Christmasy! Which I'm pretty excited about this year since I have way more space to decorate!
It's 1:30 in the morning now so I guess I'll go try to sleep. Here are a couple new pics of Sierra:


Nighty Night!

Date Night

Last night was so much fun! We dropped Sierra off at Eric's parents and his mom actually gave us money for the night! We should be paying them to watch her but instead they pay us! Pretty sweet! It is so nice to have family near by and be able to go out whenever we want because we know there are grandparents dying to watch our little baby.
After we dropped her off we met up with a big group of people from the Susquehanna ward for dinner at La Tolteca. There were seriously like 20 couples there! I think it is so cool that their ward does these big get togethers! Some of the people we knew who went (so i remember later on who was there)were the loff's, the landbeck's, the reuckert's, the braun's, the mccafferty's, the bullock's and the crowl's.
After we went to get homemade ice creram at this cute little farm called broom's bloom with the rueckert's and landbecks. so yummy. and cheap too! we will definately be returning. eric got rice pudding (really good) and cookies and cream and i got chocolate peppermint chip.
After that we went to the mall and i got new black dress shoes at Aldo.
Then we went back to Eric's parents and watched the UFC fights wth Kye.
Sorry, no pictures of this event. :) But it was a good time and so nice to get out together.

A Tribute to Jodi

Last night we celebrated my friend Jodi/mourned her farewell at the Cheesecake Factory. They are moving to Utah to be closer to family in a couple days. It was so much fun to see all the girls from my old ward again! I will miss my Jodi so much! We did activity days together in my old ward and she is such a great person and so much fun. Thanks for a great night girls! And Jodi keep in touch and I hope everything goes well in your travels! Love you girlie! xoxo

The Staircase Saga

When we looked at our house it was empty which made it more appealing and easy to picture ourselves living in it. What it didn't do was let us know how much of a disaster a certain staircase would pose to us.
Eric's parents were nice enough to offer us two of their couches they weren't using to put in our basement. Naturally we were pretty excited seeing as we were going from a 1 floor apartment to a 3 floor townhouse and didnt have eough furniture or money to fill the new rooms.
Well lets just say neither of them made it down the stairs. We even sawed the legs off of one of them to try and make it fit-but no luck. We did acquire a little extra space though with a new hole in the wall!
Finally after a couple weeks of sitting on the floor to watch tv and then on the couch cushions from one of the non-fitting couches (which would become our make shift couch for a solid month) we broke down and bought a sectional (after measuring carefully). Eric rented a truck to pick it up and his dad came over to help him take it down the stairs. After lots of sweating and cursing we still did not have a couch downstairs. But we did have a new hole in the wall! And were out the money it cost to rent the truck.
Here is the evidence:

We continued our search through every furniture store within an hours drive and found one we thought would work out so i called the next day and reserved it. well we got cold feet and decided not to buy it because we werent for sure it would fit. Then we found another one that we were pretty sure would but it was a special order and we couldnt return it if it didnt. After much debating we took the jump and bought it. We also paid for them to deliver because eric couldnt take trying to get another couch down those stupid stairs. (why is an only 10 yr old house built so stupidly?) we were pretty nervous when it came and I hid upstairs the whole time because I knew I would have a nervous break down if it didnt.
Well by some miracle it fit!!! So after 4 couches, a little sawdust, 2 holes in the wall, some money lost, much pain(in the neck and in the rump) and lost sleep we are so happy to have something to sit on down there! Now if I could just get my hands on some money to decorate...

Saturday Night

Saturday night we finally went to P.F. Changs with our friends Shelby & Kyle. It was SO good and well worth having to make reservations 4 days earlier. I can't wait to go back!
We also went to Coldstone (always delicious) and rented Be Kind Rewind (oh did i forget to mention eric decided he needed to go out 30 mins before we were supposed to go out with kyle and shelby to buy a blu ray player? he is kind of out of control and was late coming back of course. he told me he'd be back in 20 mins. it takes 20 mins just to get there and back. he must've really wanted to have it for that night! silly boy.) The movie was so good that me and Shelby both fell asleep within 10 minutes of it. Apparently it was pretty dumb.

Little Bug

On Friday night we went to Noodles & Company with Uncle Kye. Sierra decided to yell the whole time. Not because she was mad just because she felt like it. I kinda hope this stage ends soon even though it's cute at home, it makes me a little nervous when we're out! lol
Afterwards we went to circuit city because Eric has been obsessed with getting a blue ray player ever since he got his new tv. Apparently this means every store we go into or are near(target, wal mart, best buy, circuit city, jc penny, sears, etc.) we have to go in and look at the blue ray players. The same thing happened when he was looking for his tv.
Anyways somewhere along the way Sierra lost her little bug that she loves so much! It's so sad! I'm sure she doesn't know or care but it makes me sad! haha Just wait until she loses a toy and she's old enough to care about it. I will be the crazy mom looking in every store for a replacement.

Scooty

Last week I got some videos of Sierra trying to crawl. It's really funny and cute. They will also give you a good example of her screaming. Especially the second one. Although in that one it is more mad screaming than for fun. (please try to ignore the drool and spit up on the blanket-that's prettty much all she does these days)


Isn't her little rump up in the air so cute? Her little legs are trying SO hard to move!

4 Months Old!

Sierra changes so much everyday! It's fun to be able to look back each month and see what new things she has learned in such a short time.
-Rolls over right away pretty much everytime we lay her down on her back. She can roll back onto her back too.
-Talks ALL the time. She loves to hear her voice and all the different sounds she can make. She screams a lot too. It's pretty funny because she is so pleased with herself after she does it.
-She has just started hating naps and going to bed at night.
-She loves playing with toys now. She'll always talk to and suck on little animal toys (her favorite are her lamb and bugs).
-She has THREE teeth coming in. Two on the bottom and one on the top. What is up with that? And gets extremely upset when they start hurting her. (this also causes plenty of drooling)
-She has decided that she hates her pacifier and will never take it.
-She loves looking at everything-she is just taking everything in and moves her head around constantly.
-She is OBSESSED with McDonalds cups. Everytime I try to take a drink from one she tries to grab it. If you hold an empty one in front of her she will scratch it and talk to it and bite it. It keeps her amused for so long!
-She laughs out loud a lot and smiles all the time.
-She is trying so hard to crawl and gets so frustrated. I swear she is so close though! She'll get her rump in the air and move her knees but she can't figure out what to do with her arms yet.
-She loves to lick-yesterday i was giving her a bath and she kept turning her head to the side and licking the water. (she doesnt get mad anymore when we take her out)
-She loves to touch her ear and will always put her hand up by it when she's getting tired.
-She yawns out loud! It is the funniest thing ever.
-She does not give any warning when she's hungry. She'll just start screaming and crying out of nowhere - no fussyness or anything she just decides it's time.
Sierra is so funny and such a good little baby, we just love her so much! This girl is not kisses deprived at all. Happy 4 months! :)

Little Tink's First Halloween

Woah, I have been absent from the blogging world for quite some time now! My mom extended her stay and we have just been really busy lately! There's always so much to do when you move into a new house! And when you have a busy little almost 4 month old.
Anyways here are some pictures of Sierra's first halloween. She was so adorable and thanks to Grandma de Jong for making the cutest tutu ever for the cutest little tinkerbell ever! (more pictures of grandma's visit to come)
Our little tink:



Tuckered out with Uncle Kye:
Flying with Grandpa Stephenson:
Happy Halloween!

FREE STUFF!

So I know everyone loves a little freebie every now and then. My BFF Jacquie and her hubby are selling scentsy candles (wickless candles with AMAZING fragrant) I've personally never seen or smelled them but I know people who have them and LOVE them so I am willing to support this venture. Also how can you not support your BFF? lol So in order to get free stuff they have a little system set up so that you can get your name entered into a drawing, you can learn more about that here.

Also I know I have been slacking with the blogging lately but things around our house have been CRAZY (moving totally sucks) and my mom is coming into town tomorrow so there will be more slacking for another week. But after she leaves I promise I'll be better. :)

Here is the most recent picture of Sierra for all of you out there who need to see her cute little face.

Roll Over

She can do it! Just a week after that post that I wrote about Sierra trying to roll over, she surprised me one day. She was laying beside me on her back while I was watching tv and I look over and she is on her tummy!! I was so mad I missed it! But now she is a rolling machine, that's all she does when I put her on her back. It's so funny! She has even gone from her tummy to her back a couple times now, but usually after a few minutes of trying she gets frustratesd and starts crying. It's so cute though. Here is a video for your viewing pleasure...

Her face after being on her tummy for a few minutes...

Updates!

I have been a big time blogging slacker lately but with good reason! We finally got our house last Wednesday (you know, the one from this post)! AND Eric is starting a new job on Tuesday with Tyco Interational! So much newness going on in our lives! We are really excited about the house and having more room and also about Eric's new job. It will give us more stability, better benefits and most importantly more money to pay for our new mortgage! So hopefully Eric likes it and everything goes well with the company. Here is a picture of our house (the landscaping is kind of pathetic right now and the bay window needs to be washed but i'm afraid i'll fall out of the window doing it haha) But other than that we love it and are excited to make it all pretty on the inside and out. More updates to come!

3 Months Old!

Sierra is 3 months old today! So I thought I better record what she is up to these days because I don't want to forget.
-She is trying so hard to roll over from her back onto her tummy, she'll get herself onto her side and burrow her head into the ground as hard as she can until she can't hold it any longer and then she rolls back over. It is so funny to watch.
-She will scoot around now and push off of things. We find her turned around in her crib now when we go to get her.
-She talks/coos all the time and smiles and laughs especially when you talk to her excitedly
-she sleeps at night on average 7 hrs!
-she loves to hear herself scream. it is so funny. she'll let out a huge scream and then smile huge and do it again louder.
-she LOVES the bath and kicks and moves her hands and arms around so vigorously that her knuckles get red from hitting the side. Then she gets so mad when we take her out!
-she also loves laying on the ground and kicking
-she does not love laying on her stomach-she usually gets frustrated after about 2 minutes and starts crying
-she loves looking at things. Especially her hands, her little bug on her bouncer, and lights.
-she just started closing her mouth when you kiss her on it. she used to always open it the second you got close to it.
-she loves to grab onto my hair and jewelry-not her best talent
-and last but not least sierra is obsessed with sticking her tongue out lately! it is so funny. it is always out and she is always blowing bubbles.
We love our little baby girl so much. She is so much fun and we couldn't imagine our lives without her! She is growing up so fast it is unbelievable!
We tried to get a video of her doing her half roll and burrow but as soon as she saw me taping her she looked at me and then got distracted by the tv. haha

Donkey

Sierra found a new friend...

Leg Warmers

I was reading my friend Mandy's blog the other day and her cute little girl had leg warmers on in one of the pictures. It was SO cute! I just had to go out and get Sierra some. I am obsessed. I'm getting some in every color. I can't take how cute they look on such little legs! (thanks for the inspiration mand! :))

Ledo's

Eric's parents are obsessed with Ledo's Pizzeria. I will say the pizza is pretty good there. But they get a little out of control with it. Every time we are going out for dinner with them it's Ledo's. Eric's dad kind of gets obsessed with places though. It used to always be Fortunato's and when I worked at Nationwide with him he loved to always go to this sports bar called Torino's. It's pretty hilarious. Anyways I decided it was time we got some pictures at our favorite hot spot. Plus Kye looked really cute holding Sierra so we had to get that on camera too.