Christmas Crafting Projects

I completed 2 more crafting projects today. The first one was little gifts for Delainey's "teachers" on Wednesdays while I am at Mom to Mom. All 3 of her teachers have names that start with an S so that made life easy! I decided to make little peppermint hot cocoa mixes in mason jars. I used my Cameo to cut out the vinyl to put on the outside of the mason jars. I also used it to make the tags. I love that thing! They actually turned out really cute and it was so easy!

The other project was make a plaque that counted down the days till Christmas. I am going to put it in Delainey's room for years to come. I bought a plain wooden plaque, scrapbook paper, modge podge, and a square that I painted with Chalkboard paint. All you have to do is glue the scrapbook paper onto the plaque and paint the whole thing with modge podge  to seal it. Then I used the cameo to cut out the vinyl letters and put them on. Then I glued the chalkboard square onto the plaque and Voila! So simple!

Here is a pic of Delainey's outfit today!

 

My worst nightmare happened today...she realized she had a bow on and kept taking it off! No! I hope the days of bows aren't over! :)

 

We have another tooth!

Miss Delainey cut her third tooth on Sunday. It is her top left front tooth. She really didn't seem like it was bothering her in the days proceeding, but I had a feeling she was gettting another tooth. (Call it mother's intuition or maybe because she was fussy for a total of 30 minutes which is not like her at all)  I hope she doesn't look too much like a snaggle tooth with only 1 tooth up top. We were lucky that the bottom came in at the same time! I think it will be quite some time before I get a picture of it though!

Today we watched Dean and had tutoring. Aunt Emily came over and watched Delainey and now we are just hanging out watching the new Spiderman movie. Here is our outfit for the day! :)

I also just got all my professional pictures back of Delainey and the family. I am going to wait to put them up here because I want to send out Christmas cards first.  Have a good Tuesday!

Weekend Recap - Live Nativity & Xmas 5k

We had a very eventful weekend and I loved every minute of it! We headed out Friday night to go to the live nativity at a local church and out to dinner with my friend Alicia, her husband Mike, and daughter Collins. We had dinner at an italian restaurant called Napoli's pastaria. It was delicious...way better than the last time I went and I will definitely be going back. It is definitely a treat going to dinner with 2 babies, one 7 months and one 15 months. They had fun playing with each other though so the mess and fussing was worth it!

Then after dinner we headed to the Nativity. It is by far the best one in Jacksonville. It has become so popular that you have to park at the golf course nearby and ride on a school bus to the church. Delainey got her first ride on a school bus!

We sat through a little story and song and then headed to the back woods where it was all set up.

They had every kind of animal you could imagine, people dressed up and acting out jobs from way back then, and of course baby Jesus laying in the manger. The girls loved petting the animals and staring at everything that was going on. They also had free cookies and hot chocolate at the end. It is definitely being added to the McLaughlin's Christmas traditions list! 

 Saturday morning, we had breakfast and hung out in our pajamas and watched Christmas vacation. It was a very relaxing day and I did a little bit more crafting. Then we headed down to San Marco for the Festival of Lights 5k. There were TONS of people there dressed in all sorts of crazy christmas outfits. My tutu didn't really stand out, but everyone loved that D & I had matching tutus. A lot of my friends and their husbands did the walk with us too so it was fun. David, Jeff, and Gregg got a wild hair and decided to run it, but the rest of us had a leisurely walk through San Marco catching up and picking out our dream homes on the river.

After the race, we all went to dinner at Mossfire Grill in Riverside. It was a lot of fun, but by 10 o' clock I was exhausted so we got home and went straight to bed. Delainey got to meet a new friend at the race, baby Declan. He is a friend of mines son who is now almost 4 months old. He was a premie born at 2 lbs so this was the first time he has been out and about with us. He is so cute and doing great. He is now up to 12 lbs!

Today we did church and lunch with the fam and then I went to Kelli's to plan out the Christmas party that is in less than 2 weeks! Yikes! I can't believe how fast December is going by! Off to bed I go though because I will be up bright and early at 7 am to watch my main man Dean. Good night & I think this is Christmas outfit #4!

31 Weeks & Santa Pictures!

Big D met Santa today! She was a little nervous at first, but then she looked at who was actually holding her and it went downhill from there. She didn't have time to tell him what she wanted for Christmas so I guess she will be getting what I think she wants :) We actually got one decent picture though so I was happy!

Delainey is 31 weeks now! Such a big girl still eating all types of new foods. Our new personal favorite is banana & avocado puree! (sounds gross but its delish!) Nothing new this week except for our new adventure at the grocery store. We tested out the race car cart and Dean and Delainey loved it!

Here are some pics of Delainey's christmas outfits so far this month. I layed out all the outfits and I'm pretty sure she has one for the next 18 days so get ready for some cute Christmas outfits :) Hope everyone has a good weekend. We are off to the live Nativity with our friends Alicia & Mike and their daughter Collins.

 

BTW I have been doing lots of crafting. Here was my latest deal I created!

 

 

7 Month Update

 

Height: aobut 27 1/2 inches
Weight: about 16 pounds
Head Circumference: about 17 inches
Vision: Your vision is great as far as we know :) I think it's about time to remove this category!
Movement: You can sit up by yourself for a long time now. You move from sitting up to a crawling position, but no crawling yet. You do an army crawl where you pull yourself forward with your arms and pivot around but that is about it. You should be crawling on your knees any day now. You are a wild woman in your walker. You have mastered going forward and turning. You run all over the house especially away from Dean :)
Eating Habits/New Foods: You are officially eating normal foods!! We started off with spaghetti squash and you loved it. Since then we have tried avocado, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, and bananas. All of which you loved except for the sweet potatoes. You also eat cheerios and puffs now too. You do rice cereal in the morning and a veggie at dinner. You eat about 3-4 ounces per meal. Your milk has cut back to about 4-5 times a day instead of every 3 hours. You also drink a good bit of water out of a sippy cup now.
Sleeping Patterns: Pretty much the same as last month. I am currently in the process of trying to get you to sleep through the night for a full 10 hours, but we are averaging about 8 hours. You now drink a 6 oz bottle before bed so that seems to hold you over a little while longer. The morning nap is like clockwork; an hour and a half after you wake up, you lay down to take a 30-45 minute nap. Then take an mid day nap, and an evening nap with dad on the couch.
Sounds/Words: You said your first word! It was Mama! You say it over and over and it just makes me so happy. I also think you are saying hi, but who knows.
New discoveries/accomplishments:
-You ate real food for the first time
-You can drink water out of a sippy cup
-You can army crawl
-You said your first word: Mama
-You bowel movements have thickened up and become the color of the food you are eating
New Friends I've made: You made a new friend Dean who comes over to our house every Monday & Thursday. Mommy watches the 2 of you and you love playing with him and learning from him.
Places you went/Adventures: This month we celebrated your first Thanksgiving at both grandparents' houses, you did some black friday shopping, you went to St. Augustine with mommy and Aunt Kelli, you had another sleep over with Grammy while mommy & daddy went to Tallahassee, and (not that this is a good adventure) you got in your first fender bender with mommy. Not a big deal and everyone was fine, but I thought it was worth noting.
Clothes: You are still in 9m for sleepers. These are your current sizes: Gymboree-6, Target-3/6 (The shirts are 12 month, but the pants are 3/6), Carter-6, Old Navy/Gap- 3-6
You are still in a size 2 diaper, but the Christmas diapers are size 3. They are a little big, but I think we are making the jump up to threes once we run out of twos!

December = The most wonderful time of the year!

I am so glad December has finally arrived!  I just love Christmas and all the fun it entails. Dressing up in cute holiday outfits, Christmas parties, shopping for presents, Christmas music, cold weather, family traditions, Christmas eve church, and of course the Christmas morning scavenger hunt my dad does for us. I am going to try to see how many Christmas outfits we can fit Delainey in over the next 25 days so look out! :)

David made us reindeer pancakes for breakfast!

On Sunday, we started of December with a bang in the cutest little outfit. We went over to my mom's and taught Delainey how to make buckeyes. They are peanut butter, graham cracker balls dipped in chocolate. It's been a tradition that we do every year with my mom and now we will add Delainey to the ball rolling team :) We also had our family pictures on Sunday. I haven't seen any images yet, but I am hoping the turn out well!

On another note, Kelli & I are starting to prepare for the annual Griffin/McLaughlin Christmas party. This year it is going to be at Kelli's house. I'm sure it is going to be beautifully decorated and so much fun. Kelli is starting to send me crafting projects she wants done. Last night, I was able to complete my first project of making hot cocoa tags using my Silhouette Cameo. It worked like a charm and I'm obsessed. I just need more projects to do! I'm going to start vinyling everything I can get my hands on soon!

Loving the santa diapers we got! :)

We are just hanging out this week doing the usual activities. Tutoring, watching Dean 2 days, gymnastics today, and mom to mom tomorrow. I am excited though about this weekend! On Friday, we are going to go to a live nativity and on Saturday, we are doing a Night of Lights 5k in San Marco. It's going to be a weekend packed full of Christmas activities! :) I will be back soon with a post on Delainey's 7 month stats! Such a big girl!

 

29 Weeks & 30 Weeks & D's first word!

So as I was giong to do Delainey's Week 30 post, I realized I never did her 29 post so I'm doing them together.
Week 29 was Thanksgiving week and as you previously read we had a fantastic week. Delainey experienced some new foods, like mashed potatoes and stuffing on thanksgiving, but we have also tried some new vegetables. We moved on to sweet potatoes and she hated them! I tried for 3 days straight and after one bite she refused to open her mouth! So we moved on to carrots which she loves! No new achievements this week as far as crawling goes...She is still squirming around but no crawling yet! I made a huge error on her 29 weeks pictures and accidentally had the blocks on 28 so please ignore the photoshopped number 9. haha

HAHA love her crazy bed head!

Here is D doing her army crawl!

 

Week 30 was spent mostly at the house trying to recover from our sickness :( She is still coughing a good bit, but it doesn't seem to bother her because she is her usual happy self. I would like to say Week 30 has been great though because she said her first word! And of course it was MAMA!! :) She obviously doesn't know what it means but everytime she says mama I run over to herlike a crazy person to try to teach her to associate Mama with me. We are so very close to crawling but not quite there. She took 2 steps (or however you explain her moving her legs up 2 times), but then fell on her face so we should be there soon. :) Our pictures were canceled on Wednesday due to bad weather, so we will try again tomorrow. I need them ASAP though so I can get my Christmas cards made. Here are her 30 week pictures!