Christmas time in cedarburg

Just wanted to post a few pics from Christmas time in our town. We weren't in cedarburg for actual Christmas Day, but still felt the Christmas spirit before and after the holidays

Chchchchchch.. Changes!

Finally did something new with the hair.. Bye bye (not by choice) all natural and hello bangs! On Wednesday the way to blonde will be more my natural carmely color and I will be able to wear it down again, and then I will be happy :)
Here's a before and after

Finley is 5 months!

On December 1st Finley turned 5 months

She is such a blessing in our lives, I honestly cannot remember what it was like before her! We love her more and more each day. I never knew how much I would truly LOVE being a mom. Hands down the best job in all the land :)
Finley, at 5 months you are:
-the easiest baby in the world
-every time we are driving back from an outing, (which is daily), Ben and I just talk about how good she is. Even after all day outings. She is just so relaxed and chill.
-she is still stubborn about tummy time, anytime I put her on her belly she immediately rolls back over
-she naps like a champ, I just swaddle her up and stick her in her crib, then she looks up and smiles and I leave and she goes to sleep for 1-2 hours. We still do three naps a day
-she does the same thing at night, we swaddle, say prayers, put her in her crib, she smiles and goes to sleep for the night (she legitimately loves going to bed at night)
-she loves to play with her toys, and thinks water bottles are some of the best toys :)
-I still just breast feed her, we did rice cereal once and she loved it but I wanted to wait until 5.5 to 6 months to start officially
- she gets distracted while nursing now sooo easily, if she hears any noise she is looking around to find where and what the noise is. She also enjoys playing games while eating. She will come off and look up at me until I look at her then she smiles and laughs and goes back to eating, then she repeats that over and over. I love it, but it does take a lot longer to do feedings!
-she can stand on her own while holding the couch or something for short periods
-she loves to stand, tries to stand all day
-loves her jumperoo

Finleys first thanksgiving

This years thanksgiving was spent here in Wisconsin with some of our "dental family". The hirsburners hosted it at their home and 5 of our families joined them. There was a TON of amazing food, and we spent the day with very full bellies playing Just Dance 4, chatting, and having a gingerbread decorating competition. It's a good thing that Laura took some pictures because I only took one the whole night!

This thanksgiving was so much better then last years. At thus time last year I was 7 or 8 weeks pregnant and I was super nauseous.. Of course it is also when we announced that we were pregnant only to our families though.

I never wrote how we made that announcement! I had made 2 onsies , (one for my fam one for bens), that had the state of oregon on them, (where we were living at the time), and under the state it said, "made in Oregon". We wrapped it up as a present and had our parents open them at thanksgiving dinner so all the family would see at the same time :)

So weird to think that was a whole year ago, but at the same time so so much has happened since then that it seems like it gas been even linger then that. We have lived in three places since then! So crazy.

Finley was perfect, like usual all day, she took her naps at our friends house and just chilled. I think she likes thanksgiving ;)

twinkie recipe

Our friend Scott McNairy is hilarious. Here is his amazing twinkie recipe.. I would have to say he is spot on ;)

Just discovered the BEST TWINKIE RECIPE!!! It is dead on, tastes just like the real thing and it's so easy: Bake yellow cake with 6 cups canola oil Mix 3 Tbsp lard with 2 cups sugar and inject into the nasty cake you just made Voila! and I had to add, put on the shelf for 20 years then, voila! ha...

4 months & thankful November

I didn't have time to upload my actual pictures from my camera from finleys 4 month shoot, so this insta will just have to do :)

At 4 months Finley is
*still my cuddle bug, which is my favorite thing EVER
*she is getting pretty attached to me, if someone else is holding her she looks around for me until she finds me,( I secretly love this) :) we are besties you know
*she will reach for us now
*she interacts more and more, currently she loves copying faces that we make at her
*she used to sleep through the night every night but she likes to party 2 times in the night these days,,, I'm not ok with this so we are in the process of fixing this ha.. I guess lots of people call this the 4 month regression stage?
*she rolls over anytime I put her on her tummy because she hates tummy time
*she is even on the verge of crawling because of her trying to get out of tummy time
*her favorite word right now is centipede... She laughs soooo hard when I say it
*she laughs whenever she hears us laughing, like the other night I was watching AFV and everytime I would laugh she would too
*she loves to fold her hands and to eat her hands
*she laughs when she sneezes and when we hiccup
*Ben wants me to write she loves when I sing to her, her favorite are the tangled songs and the Anastasia songs

K so HUGE list, but these are for me to remember later :)

I'm going to write something everyday this month, on here or insta or somewhere that I'm thankful for. Since im already on the topic, today I am thankful for finley. People always talk about the indescribable love a mother has for her children and I never fully understood it until now. I thought I did, but I didn't. I love Finley more then words can describe. She is my everything.

Everybody scream, this is Halloween

We have had such a fun filled fall! Lots of Halloween activities and parties! Here are some instas of finleys different costumes ( plus one of here just chillin for good measure)!

She got to be a pumpkin, an apple, and a lady bug this year! She will be the lady bug one more time on Halloween day. :)

Happy Halloween!

Growing

Fall is in full swing over here in Wisconsin and we are in love!!! I have never lived in such a pretty place in the fall as cedarburg! We have been having a blast with the different festivals, going to pumpkin farms, museums, parties with friends, and making sure to eat plenty of apples, and pumpkin flavored anything! The other weekend I even made my pumpkin pancakes with apple cider syrup and whipped cream! To.die.for. I am loving everything about fall over here, and I'm getting super excited to get Finley dressed in her adorable Halloween costume!

Ben is enjoying school.. He has been super busy with multiple tests every week, but we still fit in plenty of time to play too! This week is another busy one, and Ben has no school Friday and gets out early on Thursday!! woohoo! We are thinking of going on a mini getaway, we shall see!

Life is good.

I'll leave you with some instas... :)

3 months!

How can this be?!! my baby girl is 3 months old! She is really the best thing that has ever happened to me. I love her more then words can describe. Sometimes I think about how care free life seemed to be before her. Now I worry a lot more, about finley.. is finley warm enough? Is she to hot? Is she hungry? Is she getting sick? haha.. it is true what they say, once you become a mother the worrying never stops! But it is the best job in all the world, and I wouldn't trade the worry for anything. this month finley is in a super fun stage! *She is super interactive. *She always smiles at us. *She is now officially laughing too! I mean before she was doing little giggels, but now we can make her laugh uncontrollably! It is THE CUTEST thing *she still loves to eat, and eats a lot. *She is starting to not like going to bed at night, so we are working on figuring out a better nap schedule in the afternoon and this is helping her go to bed better at night.. really she has made her bed time earlier and earlier on her own, right now she goes down around 8... it is pretty nice! *she is still cooing a lot, especially likes to say hoo hoo, like an owl *she laughs everytime ben gets home and she sees him *holds herself up by herself all the time now *shes learning how to hold things, especially her lamb *if she isn't swaddeled she always sleeps with her arms above her head. *she has officially been to urgent care for a little eye boo boo *is just barley getting over her fist cold :( We love you SOOOO much finley

slipping away

Time seems to be just slipping away, I mean, where in the world did september go? holy moly! Finley is now almost 3 months old.. but here are a few pictures that the amazing carrie lashelle photography did back when she was just almost one month old. It is INSANE how much bigger she is now. She looks so different now too, and is smiley, and alert most of the day now.. just in those two short months so much has changed! Im getting all sentimental over here.. about to cry no joke! ha... well here are just a couple of my favorite ones :)

"isn't it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back everything is different..."        -unknown

lake michigan

It is beautiful out here in wisconsin. I never thought that it would be pretty, in my mind I envisioned brown, flat, and ugly. It is the very opposite, it is very green with millions of trees, yes it is flat, but just gorgeous. The other night we had a bon fire with some friends at a beach close to our house. we roasted hot dogs over the fire and talked for hours. It was great! Loving that we can still do bon fires on the beach!

and here is a picture of finley in her bumbo! She loves it!

ben last night at the milwaukee ale house.. look at that ridiculous burger!!

and last but not least, what I have been eating everyday for the past week... kinda pathetic!