Tag Archives: debbie

January 11, 2014

DSC_0286We finally got some of that white stuff and super frigid temps to go with it! It was so cold out, we weren’t really able to play in the snow. Finn and Daddy did shovel the driveway the morning the snow arrived. I think they both had some fun 🙂  Later that day Debbie, Finn, and Sam played with the snow in the warm indoors – lucky, eh?DSC_0288 photo (60)Monday Grandma and Grandpa Armstrong came up to play with Finn for the day.  Finn had lots of fun playing and showing Grandma all of his skills. It was frigid out, so we all enjoyed some spicy black bean chili for dinner before they headed back home.

Finn hit another milestone this week as he put on his pants and shirt all by himself! His pants were backwards, but we’ll take it! He has really been into picking out his clothes for awhile now either in the morning to get dressed, or at night he picks out his jammies. He also has put on his shoes or boots a few times but will usually ask for help. photo (59)I attended the CENTS show this week so Kevin and I were able to fit in two date-nights this week. We went out to dinner both nights as we met up after work. Our fave was G. Michaels. I had a delicious Roasted Butternut Squash salad followed by the Vegetarian Plate which also included grits. Here it is – it was AMAZING. And I brought home tons of it and enjoyed it on Saturday.  Yum!  Kevin enjoyed Fried Gerber Chicken with braised greens, cayenne mashed sweets, kitchen sink gravy, and pepper jam.

IMG_20150108_18541436620150108_185409We also celebrated Debbie’s one year anniversary with us on Wednesday.  I left early for work all week, so I wasn’t here in the morning, but Finn and I baked some vanilla cupcakes and decorated them with chocolate frosting and sprinkles. Debbie, Finn, and Sam enjoyed them for lunch, amongst other things, of course. DSC_0289It was a pretty typical week otherwise. Painting with some new sparkle paints, enjoying tomato soup, playing with tools, walking around like a blue monster, Lily enjoying the sunshine, and making Buckeyes in preparation for Monday’s National Championship Game!photo (58) photo (57) photo (61) 20150111_201648 IMG_20150110_101326949 IMG_20150110_113840583Here’s a cute video of Kevin and Finn reading night time stories tonight.  He was pretty loopy at the end!

Finn ~ 45 weeks

DSC_0841Look at him, barely hanging on! That’s what he does most of the time he’s on his feet! Actually, Finn took his first real steps this week! On Sunday we went to IKEA after church to purchase some toys, toy containers, and such.

Finn slept a good portion of our drive down, which was great, because he was awake for our 3 1/2 hour venture inside!DSC_0337 DSC_0334

We found so many cute kids toys and we purchased several things not on our list. I mean, come on, doesn’t that happen to everyone at IKEA? We were all in the basement on Monday night setting up some new toys and playing together. Finn pulled himself up on to his new inflatable dragon and just stood. Kevin pulled the dragon away from him and he took a step to get back to the dragon. He fell after one step. So Kevin stood him back up and he did it again, taking a step toward me! The second time he fell on his second step.  Growing up way too fast! And he moves really quick when he is cruising around the coffee table, ottoman, or couch. Good thing we have our safety gates up 🙂 The tent is by far the most popular new toy. Finn constant goes in, then out, and repeats a million times. And Lily is pretty fond of it as well. She’s been in there on more than one occasion! Our camera was doing some really weird yellow coloration in the basement – I have no idea why or how to fix it, so just ignore the weird yellow!DSC_0409 DSC_0410 DSC_0365 DSC_0367 DSC_0389 DSC_0343 DSC_0340 DSC_0381 DSC_0371 DSC_0400 DSC_0405 DSC_0424 DSC_0428 DSC_0431 DSC_0412 DSC_0416 DSC_0419DSC_0456

Finn has adapted really well to his new nanny, Debbie, and her son, Sam. They have a lot of fun playing together and mimic each other quite often. It’s pretty darn cute. They’ve even been coordinating their nap times – both short or both long, but usually at the same time. Not sure how that happens, but Debbie has it all down pat!DSC_0636 DSC_0641 DSC_0653 DSC_0648 DSC_0650

I took my camera to work this week to shoot a few stock images so I can continue to build the image library for Millcreek. It was a pretty and snowy day so I took some of the display garden and greenhouses too. Hard to think with these frigid temps that spring is not that far away. Here is a taste of what is now and what is to come!DSC_0472 DSC_0504 DSC_0509 DSC_0570 DSC_0478 DSC_0615 DSC_0599 DSC_0589

We went to the OSU men’s basketball game on Thursday night. My parents gave Kevin the tickets for his birthday. Turns out our friends the Manning’s had tickets to the same game, versus Illinois, so we met up for dinner prior. It was a freezing cold night, and we had a most memorable drive to the gas station after the game on “0 miles” remaining in the tank thanks to yours truly, Megan. But, those who were confident we would make it were right, we did, and we filled up with 19.0 gallons (in what is I’m pretty sure an 18 gallon tank – oopsie!).

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Our C-group hasn’t met in quite awhile with all of the holiday bustle. But with that behind us, we hosted our gathering on Friday. We had a lovely swedish meatball dinner, complete with cream sauce and ligonberry preserves compliments of our recent trip to IKEA.  Ha, it was delish! Finn just loves playing with other kids and now that he’s been around more kids more frequently he’s more interactive and a bit less observant! He used to just watch everyone and take it all in!DSC_0695 DSC_0680 DSC_0677DSC_0659Saturday we enjoyed quite a lazy day. It was super windy and snowy so we stayed warm inside and enjoyed the scenic view through the windows in our pj’s! Oh, and Finn roamed around some in his “Super Finn” cape. He tried to put his skills to work to get the gate open, but he didn’t succeed. We’ll give him some more time! DSC_0699 DSC_0700IMG_20140125_115338436_HDR DSC_0707 DSC_0715 DSC_0717 DSC_0739 DSC_0751 DSC_0753 DSC_0756 DSC_0757 DSC_0760 DSC_0777 DSC_0779 DSC_0781 DSC_0789 DSC_0795 DSC_0808 DSC_0816 DSC_0832 DSC_0837 DSC_0839 DSC_0841 DSC_0843 DSC_0859 DSC_0866 DSC_0870 DSC_0871 DSC_0872 DSC_0874 DSC_0885 DSC_0897 DSC_0917 DSC_0919 DSC_0922 DSC_0925 DSC_0933 DSC_0939 DSC_0951 DSC_0956 DSC_0958 DSC_0964IMG_20140125_121719489 IMG_20140125_121955866

Finn continues to be an awesome eater, especially with solid foods. He often isn’t interested in his bottle, certainly not if there is activity going on around him! He’s down to about 3 bottles a day, sometimes almost 4. He definitely prefers to feed himself or have some solid food on a spoon like hummus, yogurt, and the food pouches.

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Finn ~ 43 weeks

DSC_0114-2Look at all of those teeth! Finn now has a 5-tooth grin, 3 on top and 2 below. He’s been a champ through the teething process and really hasn’t been fussy or unpleasant. Honestly, he’s been sleeping longer during the night and typically one (of his 2 or 3) naps is around 3 hours a day!

While Finn continues to bring a smile to our face every day, we all shed some sad tears around here this week too. On Wednesday we had to make the hard decision to put Hailey down. It was the hardest decision I can recall making in recent years. She was totally together mentally, had a pretty good appetite, was able to go potty outside, wasn’t sick and so on, which made it extremely hard for me to go the route we did. But I realize that she wasn’t going to improve with time. I posted earlier in the week but here are a few more photos I found as I looked a few more places. Sweet memories with that girl. MISC sony 155 Christmas 2010_108 Christmas 2010_150 Christmas 2010_123 Christmas 2010_161 Christmas 2010_194 dog photo shoot mansfield October 9-11 2010 (70) bev2 Christmas 2010_005 Christmas 2010_073 Christmas 2010_097 christmas 2012 (166) DSC_0010-2 christmas_2012

Tuesday we welcomed Debbie to our family! She will be caring for Finn during the week and we are excited. She has a background in early childhood education as well as an 18 month old son that she will bring with her everyday. He and Finn can be playmates and learn all kinds of things together! IMG_20140107_113416747-2

I didn’t really pick up the camera much this week with everything that was going on with Hailey, so you’ll find most of the photos are from the one day we had some fun together and several are from my cell phone. He is developing more and more of a personality and is like a little man. Lately he’s been hiding his face on the ottoman and couch. And you’ll see when we go out to eat we take a seat for Finn that “clips” on to the table. I find it a bit awkward and feel silly carrying it in to the restaurants (just being honest!) but we are always happy we have it. Finn sits right up at the table and lately he’s even taken to standing in his seat as he can touch the bench below. He loves it and it works out well for all of us :). Kevin and Finn play a game with the pacifier – they bite it with their teeth while pulling it out of their mouths and it makes a loud clicking noise. It’s rather cute, Kevin will do it and then give the paci to Finn and he will do it, then they go back and forth. Silly boys. IMG_20140110_182247838-2 IMG_20140110_182317168-2 IMG_20140110_182239383-2 IMG_20140110_191348643-2 IMG_20140110_192838713-2 IMG_20140110_193332714-2 We have a ton of new toys that Griffin loves exploring and playing with. He’s getting very good at walking through the family room with his walker. One day we gave him empty water containers to play with and he thought it was great. He loves giving zerberts, is quite expressive, and loves to dance. Here you can see some of his personality shine through!IMG_20140105_162403155-2 IMG_20140105_162159598-2 IMG_20140105_153707156-2 IMG_20140105_153641857-2 IMG_20140105_153645059-2 DSC_0051-2 DSC_0062-2 DSC_0056-2 DSC_0077-2 DSC_0091-2 DSC_0089-2 DSC_0101-2 DSC_0113-2 DSC_0117-2 DSC_0119-2 DSC_0121-2 DSC_0124-2 DSC_0126-2 DSC_0128-2 DSC_0134-2 DSC_0138-2 DSC_0143-2 DSC_0147-2 DSC_0148-2 DSC_0152-2 DSC_0153-2 DSC_0154-2 DSC_0155-2 DSC_0159-2 DSC_0163-2 DSC_0166-2Kevin and Finn were playing together the other night and Kevin turned on Sesame Street and Finn stopped what he was playing with and sat still and watched the show for quite a long time. Then they got some good snuggles together. DSC_0105-2 DSC_0112-2

While Kevin has been busy installing real safety gates we also resort to simple measures as you can see here 😉
DSC_0083-2 DSC_0084-2Sweet dreams everyone!

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