With My Own Two Hands

Ever since we got married almost 5 1/2 years ago, I have been looking for Christmas stockings for us. I could not find any that looked right. So many were ugly and gaudy, or they were plain and cheap looking. I was probably trying to find ones that looked like the ones I grew up with, and since those are over 20 years old, then they were no where to be found.

Then last year my mom made one for Alaina and for my sister's husband to hang at her house. And they looked exactly like what I had pictured having for my family. So, after putting off the project for almost a year, I finally made three. I went to the store, bought the fabric and trimmings, followed a pattern and used my mom's sewing machine. It was my first sewing project since 7th grade, and I am dang proud of how they turned out.

You should know that Lee makes fun of how big they are, but I think they are perfect.

My New Hobby

I have a new hobby. It's probably a long shot, but I'm enjoying it. I enter giveaway and sweepstakes on the Internet.

I got the idea from an article on MSN.com about making extra money. It was a whole list of things, like start your own home business (duh) or take online surveys. I've tried the whole survey thing, but I never qualify for them. Apparently I need to spend more money as a consumer, so I can tell people how much I like their products. Or maybe they always have their fill of middle-class, white, stay-at-home-moms, ages 25-34.

Then this article mentioned online sweepstakes as a legitimate form of making extra money. They referred me to this website, sweetiessweeps.com. It is dedicated to posting a bunch of online sweepstakes games and instant win games. Of course the owner of the site has this huge success story of winning a bunch of stuff. I figure it can't hurt to try, especially the things that are free. I even created a gmail account so our regular email won't be flooded with all the junk that inevitably comes along with passing out your email address in contests. (Wendy of SweetiesSweeps recommended this.)

Which leads me to today's blog. I was entering a giveaway on a lovely blog called RaisingMy4Sons. As a stay-at-home-mom, I love reading other mom's blogs about their kids. If you go to her site, you can see the giveaways she has listed. www.raisingmy4sons.blogspot.com. She even has a button called Reviews/Giveaways.

I wonder how I can get in on that action.

Snowed In

It's no secret that we've been getting a little snow for the past couple of days. Now that we're living in a place with no garage for our cars, we've been less courageous about venturing out. Alaina is bored with her toys by mid-afternoon, but we're managing with relatively few tears (hers and mine.) You can see for yourself what our world looks like.

If Alaina were standing in that snow, it would probably be up to her chin.

Sometimes all you can do is look out the window all day.

Latest Stats

Age: 15 1/2 months

Height: 31 inches

Weight: 22 pounds

Teeth: 5 - two upper front, two lower front, one lower right molar

Sleeping patterns: 12 hours at night, an hour and a half nap in the morning, and a 2 to 2 1/2 hour nap in the afternoon

Favorite book: I Love You, Goodnight or any touch and feel book

Favorite toy: baby stroller

Favorite food: bananas

Favorite song: The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Known sign-language signs: please, thank-you, more, all done, eat, drink

My Outgoing Baby

I'm pretty sure Alaina is an extrovert. I have three pieces of evidence that support this theory:

Exhibit A - She is downright CRANKY starting around 5:00 each day. And clingy. While I'm trying to make dinner. Plopping her in front of a cartoon doesn't work. Digging out toys she hasn't seen all day doesn't work. I've come to decide that she is tired of being with just me all day, and definitely doesn't want to be by herself.

Exhibit B - She does VERY well in nursery. On Wednesday she was cranky around dinner time, as usual. On Wednesday nights we have a class we take at church, and Alaina was so cranky that Lee asked if we should even take her that night. I said YES because maybe the other kids would be a great distraction. And they were. She did great...much better than she did with just us.

Exhibit C - Last night we went to Olive Garden. Lee and I were eating, and I was trying to get Alaina to eat. She wasn't really interested, because she was too busy throwing her menu on the floor for the busboys to pick up as they walked by. Then I look over to see her playing her "Point to My Nose" game with a lady a few feet away. Alaina does that at dinner with us...she quizzes us by pointing to her nose, hair, mouth and tummy and will do it until we name the part she is touching. Anyway, I look over to see this lady touching her nose and looking at Alaina, and look down to see that Alaina is doing the same thing. Plus, at the end of the meal there was a rousing game of peekaboo with the servers.

So how did my daughter become an extrovert? I'll never know, but I am gearing up for a lifetime of driving her places just so she can be around other people.

Taking Real Live, Drunken Monkey Steps

She walks! She's getting a little braver every day.

Little Princess Pushing Her Stroller

She LOVES wearing that crown. And a pink pair of bunny ears that Grandma Kimble gave her last spring. I think she's really going to like dress-up when we get to that stage.

New Blog

I know I'm not very good at keeping this one up to date, but I've started another blog that is not so much about the life and times of our family as it is about an avenue for me to write. Check it out if you want:

http://victoriakimble.blogspot.com

Taking Steps

I imagine we're just a few weeks away from a child running around with wonton abandon.

Happy Birthday Alaina

You are one year old! It's hard to imagine that one year and one day ago, you were still in my tummy. We didn't even know you then. We don't remember what it was like to not have you. We love your curiosity, your silliness, your chatter and your cute little smile. You bring joy and sunshine, even when you're crying. Right now your favorite game is peekaboo, but we know it will change soon. We love you at this age, but we are looking forward to seeing you grow and change and learn new things about this world. We pray that you will know the Lord at an early age, and that you will learn to hate sin. Jesus loves you, Alaina, and so do we.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

Mother's Day and Alaina's Dedication

Alaina was dedicated at church on Mother's Day. What a great way to celebrate! She's almost one year old and we still sometimes can't believe that she's ours. Or what an awesome responsibility parenting is. We're so grateful to find a church that is as committed to godly parenting as we are. We need all the support and encouragement we can get!

It was also great to dedicate Alaina at the same time the Gilletts were dedicating Avery. We didn't get a great picture of our two families, but I think you can see Kelvin's nose in a few of ours. :) We love them.

And by the way, Alaina was the noisiest baby on that stage. Apparently she saw the lights and the mic as an opportunity to say the only two words she knows, "kitty cat" and "dada." She's not shy of the public eye.

On The Move

She Likes to Stuff Her Mouth

A video only grandmas and aunts will enjoy...or maybe they won't.

WrestleMania XXIV - Bear vs. Baby

The face off:

Alaina made the first move:

The bear was quick with his retaliation:

Why, you may ask, is the baby so close to the edge of the bed? Because she was pinned there by the bear.

It looks like the bear won this round. Next time he may not be so lucky.

Monkey See Monkey Do

Check out Alaina's newest trick: