Skyping

Sorry for the delay in posts! Finals time has been very busy!

Recently we got to talk to Papa John and Grandma Rina on skype and they got some wonderful screen shots of Psalm playing. (What's better than watching a playing baby?!) I wanted to share some of these great pictures with yall:

Playing with the lady bug toy but heading towards the book she loves.

Yay I got the book!

Now I'm going to put it in my mouth!

Daddy getting my belly with raspberries and me giggling!

Are you talking about me?

Who's that talking to me on the computer??

Oh! Its Papa John and Grandma Rina! I know them! 

"...and then we did this and then we did that and I love you and we are going to have wonderful parties together and have so much fun and..."

We love getting to skype with family and friends, if you would be interested in skyping with us sometime (even to just watch her play) we would love that! 

Howdy Yall

Yep that's right, we are raising a Texan (I know, all the family in Oregon is shaking their heads at us right now) ; ) But when there are such cute outfits like this one around:

How can you not?! I feel like there is at least one redeeming aspect about this outfit though and that is that it has a covered wagon on it! So I mean that is a little bit of a shout out to Oregon and it's history, right?! hehe

Anyways, this post is mostly to show you my adorable daughter while I work on downloading and sorting through the pictures from Thanksgiving -that way you don't get "baby deprived" in the mean time - (P.S. if you were here for Thanksgiving please send me your pics as soon as you can so I can post some of them on the blog!)

As some of yall know, Uncle Johnny, Aunt Jennifer, and Uncle Jacob came down for Thanksgiving along with Great-Grana and Great Uncle Chad. We had a great time and I can't wait to share pictures with you! I hope each of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well!

PS. Only 30 days till Christmas!!! Maybe I should do a 30 day countdown with Christmas pictures of Psalm! We will see if I can do that...along with posting the Thanksgiving pictures! Ekkk! Lots to do!

Christmas Gifts

So we have now been approached by several people about Christmas gifts so I decided the easiest thing would just be to write a blog post on it.

*My disclaimer:* No one is expected to get Psalm a gift. If you wish to get her something, here are some ideas. However, if you were not planning on getting her a gift that is quite alright with us. I mean she is only 5 months old after all and Christmas is about giving not receiving. : )

Some ideas:
-First off we are trying to stay away from materialistic gifts for 2 reasons:

1. She grows out of things way too quickly right now and it is not worth the money or the space they take up for her to have a thousand toys. She already has too many.
2. We are going to try to shield her from the materialistic world she lives in as much as possible. We are hoping this will limit tantrums and always wanting things and never being satisfied with what she has later on in life.

So what are some gifts you can get her that are not materialistic?! Glad you asked. We are hoping from a young age to teach her that experiences are more worth while then things. Things wear out, but you will never forget the experiences you have and they will make you a richer more well rounded person.

So what experiences are we thinking of for a 6 month old?

• Kinder Music classes. 
• Aqua baby swim lessons
• Membership to the kids Science Spectrum in town
• Gift cards for gas money (for traveling to local sites such as Carlsbad Caverns, Bottomless Pit Lake, etc.)
• Tickets to San Antonio's Sea World
• Tickets to "near by" zoos (Dallas, OKC, Abilene, etc.) 
• Gift cards for hotels and attractions in those locations

We are also setting  her up a educational pursuits fund if you are interested if giving cash, savings bonds or precious metals to help with this fund those would be much appreciated as well. 

While we will of course love any gift you get for her(if you choose to get her a gift) we would prefer if you could think along the guidelines above. Please also contact us for info. on purchasing any of the "lessons" above. I have information on pricing, when they will happen, etc. We will also work hard to make sure you get to see her enjoying your gift. Whether that means we use the gas money to come visit, or we take lots of pictures while at the event and post them to the blog will completely depend on the activity! : ) But don't worry you will get the joy of seeing her receive it one way or another!

We would also love if you would consider giving a gift to a charity on behalf of Psalm. Some charities that she likes are:

• World Vision
• Compassion
• Ronald McDonald House
• Food Banks
• Buckner Childrens Home

We hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas!
Thanks so much for thinking so much of Psalm! If you have any questions about the gifts above or have any ideas for an "experience" gift that you would like to get her please feel free to call, email, facebook, or comment below and I will work to get back with you as quickly as possible.

Love,
Cody and Sarah

Tea Party

We recently went to a banquet for a non-profit I use to work for (PIDW-Asia). The banquet was a lot of fun and pretty fancy. They had real china on the tables. Psalm found one of the china coffee cups very tasty to chew/teeth on. (Don't worry there were no liquids or teas in the glass). But she is definitely learning what cups are for!

Who wants to throw me a tea party???

She also discovered a new game called throw spoons on the floor and watch mommy pick them up. Unfortunately I don't believe we got a picture of that. 

Biker Baby

Today we got our little girl all dressed up in her biker outfit. She looks so long in these jeans!

And we thought the bow was a nice touch. She enjoyed getting to go garage saleing with Mommy and Nana at a house down the road. We found 6 outfits for $5! Jackpot! And one is a really cute little dress. It may not fit her for a while, but it is nice to know we have clothes as she grows! -Because they grow so fast!- speaking of which, she is beginning to try to crawl. She can scoot herself all over the place and is working on getting her booty up in the air and lift her chest up with her arms. She can do each independently, now she just needs to get them to all work together! : )

Sorry

I must apologize for a lack of posts recently. As many of you know from facebook, our beloved dog passed away a little over a week ago. Some of yall knew Mahatma and also knew how special she was to us and how devastated we have been to loose her. I, to be honest, have not really had the emotional energy to post for this last week. However, I will begin posting again soon. (Hopefully within the next 24 hours -or less)

Thanks for your patience
-Sarah

Once Upon A Time

Psalm really enjoys reading time. We don't get to have it every night, but I have been working on incorporating it more. These are some of the books we have read so far:

 Good Night Baby is a fun book to read right before bedtime. She enjoys the smiling babies. She smiles right back at them.

The A,B,C's of Animals is also a fun book. It has little flaps that you can pull on to see the animals that are "hiding". She really enjoys that book but I have to watch her little hands since I don't want the pages to get ripped.

We have also read "The Littlest Pumpkin", "Little Bear", "You are Special" and "My Little Bible" (maybe I can get some pictures of us reading those together and put those up sometime soon)

If you are already considering Christmas gifts books might be a good way to go (P.S. we don't mind books that are used like from Goodwill or Garage Sales or Second Hand Book Stores-in fact I prefer those, because they are cheaper, more environmentally friendly and in need of love...just wipe them down with a baby wipe or spray them with a little bit of lysol and they are good as new...or at least that's what I did with all these books, and we have no shortage here!) ; )

Morning Work Out

I know some of you have already seen this picture, but it is just so cute that I felt like I MUST post it on here:

Apparently Psalm is already working out. Maybe she gets that from her Aunt Jennifer ; ) 

I will have to watch out though! Soon she is going to be running all over the house getting into trouble and making mischief.  

Snuggle Time

Yes, this is an adorable picture of Daddy and Psalm snuggling. Sometimes on weekend mornings (when we get to sleep in) Psalm gets a little restless in her snuggle nest. But a lot of times she will go back to sleep if she can just be cuddled up next to us. (For example this morning we got a whole extra hour and a half of sleep by letting her lay next to me). This picture is a little bit older but I thought it was really cute, and let's face it no one gets pictures of me snuggling Psalm because I'm the one with the camera ; )

They are just so cute together! : ) I really think they love each other...maybe that's just me ; )

Fall Photo Shoot

Psalm, Nana Bear and me had a photo shoot with Psalm. We got 3 pictures we loved.

Psalm's outfit says "This is my little black dress"

 We propped her up against the pumpkins. She had fun posing.

This one has her blankie with her name on it : )

We Love Visitors Part 3: Grandma Rina

Psalm LOVED spending time with Grandma Rina. They had lots of fun together! 

This first picture is my absolute favorite! You can just tell they are so in love with one another! And it was so cute because it was like Psalm instantly knew when she met Grandma Rina that they were meant to be best friends (I guess I should add that was true of Papa John too)

 They especially spent lots of time together around bed time when Psalm enjoys being held the most. She is such a little cuddle bug! 

They had so much fun together! Psalm really hopes she gets to see Grandma Rina and Grandpa John soon! 

Psalm sends her love and lots of drooly kisses! : ) xoxox

We Love Visitors Part 2: Papa John

One of Psalm's favorite people to come visit was Papa John. She loved being held by him and would almost instantaneously relax and fall asleep in his arms. This was one of the best pictures we got of that:

 I love her little open mouth...so cute! He isn't wrapped around her little finger at all! ; ) 

We Love Visitors Part 1: Uncle Jacob

When Papa John and Grandma Rina came down for a visit, Uncle Jacob came up from Austin to see Psalm too. Psalm really enjoyed playing with her Uncle! 

This picture is probably my favorite one:

 These are pretty good too:

 While they were here we had to take the family to Cagle's to eat. We had a great time there! Its was so nice to finally get to have some of Cody's family in Lubbock. Hopefully we will get to have them come down again soon! *wink wink* ; )

 We also went to a few of the vineyards/wineries that are around here. We had a lot of fun and Psalm enjoyed being outdoors so much!

 If we photoshopped these 2 photos we could have everyone in the picture (except for Cody-he had to work that day)

 Us visiting Cody up at work. 

We would love to have YOU come visit us too. ; ) 

Just let us know when you would like to come and we would love to show you around Lubbock and let you spend some good quality time with Psalm. (Right now several family members are coming for Thanksgiving! You should come too! We love having large family holidays!) 

My Other Blog

I promise I haven't been cheating on you... ; )
But I do have another blog...

I just wanted to let you know that I am in the process of training to become a doula. A doula is a woman who helps emotionally support other women in labor (we are not medically trained) but we do get paid to do this and studies have shown that having a doula present greatly reduces the chances of complications and interventions during birth.

I have created a blog to advertise my services as well as give information on birth and support during birth. The blog is called the Cowgirl Doula and you can find it at www.cowgirldoula.blogspot.com . You will find some blog posts overlap, and some do not.

Please help me get the word out about my services in the Lubbock area. I will be offering my services for free for the moment. I need to have experience in many different types of births (hospital, home, birth center, c-section, vbac, hbac, etc.) before I begin charging. I also need to have experience to complete my training.

If you know of anyone who would be interested in me attending their birth please let me know. (I am fine with them hiring another doula who has more experience as well as having me there). But I am also fine with being the only doula on site.

I will be offering my services to anyone within a 2 hour drive of Lubbock and in special circumstances I will look into driving to others births.

Thanks!
Sarah

Lean on Me

Most of Psalm and Daddy time is spent with Psalm on top of Daddy while they lay on the couch. Sometimes she is sleeping...but sometimes she isn't. The funniest part is that she won't do this with me at all. I mean sure she will snuggle with me at bedtime or maybe even with the occasional nap (especially if she is eating-p.s. This has nothing to do with this post, but learning to breastfeed laying down was the best thing ever. For those of you that will be having children sometime soon I strongly recommend learning to do this!) But, with Daddy she will just sit/lay and snuggle for no reason at all. She just finds him comfy I guess ; )

I'm so jealous! 

: ) 

My Little Pumpkin

So this outfit was originally purchased for late summer early fall weather, but as luck would have it, she has ended up wearing it much closer to the October months. And I think it makes her look like a little Pumpkin.

She really enjoyed the photo shoot. We also have an old cloth book from when I was little that has the story of The Littlest Pumpkin and I have been reading it to her in the spirit of the season. The story is about a little pumpkin that thinks its too little until one day it gets taken home by a family and is the cutest little Jack-O-Lantern anyone had ever seen. We have really enjoyed reading it together and she really likes the pictures in the book. -I will have to share some other pictures we have of us reading together soon.- : ) 

Splish Splash Taking a Bath!

Bath time is probably one of Psalm's favorite times of the day! She didn't actually get her first bath until about a week after birth (baths dry out baby skin, so we decided to wait until she actually needed one). And the only reason she needed one then was because she was "saving some milk for later" underneath her chin.

We decided to use the kitchen sink since it was perfectly Psalm sized. She still has yet to have any soap used since human milk (breast milk) is water soluble. Plus living in the desert, we don't want to do anything to dry her out more...

Giving Psalm a bath is wonderful because she enjoys it so much! When I was pregnant I would take several baths a day because the water felt so good...Cody kept saying I was having a mermaid. Guess he was right! ; ) While Papa John and Grandma Rina were here they had the joy of giving her a bath too!

You can't tell it from the pictures but the little hood on that towel looks like a ducky! 

A new development with bath time is that she also loves to splish splash especially with her feet. Soon we will probably be introducing some bath toys. We already have a couple rubber duckies on stand-by for bath duty. 

Strawberry Toes

Oh look a bonus post today! 

STRAWBERRY TOES!!!! 

Thank you, that is all... : )

The Teacher and The Princess

As some of yall know Cody got a new teaching job this year. He is teaching at Harmony Science Academy (its a charter school) here in Lubbock. He originally started out the year teaching High School Math and Science Special Education. Around the 5th week of school he was promoted to doing his Special Education job for most of the day, as well as for one class period doing High School Physics. (He will probably also be teaching a High School Engineering class next semester as well-so that will mean he only does Special Education half of the day-but more on that later).

One day, before school began and while Cody's parents were in town we got to go up and see his classroom.

His classroom is upstairs in the High School wing, he shares it with the other High School Special Education teacher who does English and Social Studies.

Cody was practicing getting his stern face going...

He looks pretty handsome if you ask me ; )

Psalm was just chillin in her car seat watching everyone look at the classroom. 

Jacob (Cody's brother) was practicing his science abilities on the board. 

 More science lessons from Uncle Jacob! (Ooooh that makes you sound kind of old ; ) )

Papa John, Nana Bear and me all hanging out at the kidney bean table  

Psalm wanted to spend some time with Daddy (he had been at work all day and she really misses him while he is at work!)

Psalm enjoyed looking around at her surrounding. She really likes going places and seeing new people. Psalm is definitely an extroverted baby...I wonder if that will last?!

And while she may be extroverted there still isn't anything better then sitting and relaxing with Daddy!