My Peanut

Lucy continues to make me smile - her facial expressions, her hair, her smile, her sweet little voice.... I love her! I couldn't resist snapping some pictures of her the other day in her elephant "My Peanut" shirt from Grandma Lori. :)

Our First Pampa Home

Welcome to our home! For those of you who do not know, we are living in an apartment at church as we wait for our home in Chicago to sell. I hope you are ready for a tour, because here we go....

Master Bedroom

Office space

Sitting area

Bathroom

Lucy's room

Lucy's room

Guest-bed and door to outside roof-deck.

Our Kitchenette (once bathroom #2, after a through scrubbing and some creativity, it now functions as our Kitchenette)

Our kitchen storage - I have "McGrovered"(is that what you would say to communicate "Found-a-red-neck-way-of-solving-the-problem?") a way to have power on this side of the kitchenette by using an extension cord - it is bright orange, see it in the first picture of the kitchen? Oh, and you need to have the kitchen light on for it to work. :) Creative? Yes.

I put a card table over the toilet, providing some more counter space and a place for me to decorate a bit. :)

Our "Oven" and Frige. I fill up that white tub with refrigerator items we don't need for the day and switch them out with items we do need that are kept in the big frige down in the church Kitchen.

Our Living/Dining room.

I can't believe how well everything fits!

This is the table from our 301 Winona apt, it fits so much better than our large table would (It is stored in the church garage along with our buffet - the only two pieces of furniture that are not in our apartment!)

We spend most of our time in this room - together as a family. :)

Thanks for taking a tour with me! Feel free to come visit - the guest bed is made and ready for a visitor! :)

(Successful) Tummy Time

If you remember this post - we didn't start out too strong when it came to tummy time. But Lucy has gotten so much better at it!



Ok, to be totally honest (we are horrible parents) Lucy is watching TV in the above pictures - the DIY network (VERY educational), she was learning how to tile a bathroom. :) She held her head up for a record time too! We dont usually let her watch TV...... but it was so fun to see her holding her head so high!

Giggles

For the first time:



I was so excited! She also has laughed at Brad: The other day he was telling her, "Say 'Dada'" and she was cracking up - too cute!!!

Three Months Old

Can you believe it? Three months old already! As Brad and I were watching TV last night, I was looking through old posts here on the blog and I can not believe how big Lucy is getting! Seriously - check out this post and tell me she hasn't gotten HUGE - I can not believe how long her hair has grown too!

I have really enjoyed making these caption collages for Lucy each month. Remember - you can click on the image to see it in a larger size. :)

Lucy is a...

Mirror Mirror on the Wall....

Lucy's reflection provides tons of entertainment! She loves sitting in her Bumbo, in the bathroom or in our bedroom, studying her reflection - sometimes she even talks to herself. It is awfully cute.

"Hi Mom! I'm just talking to my friend."

Letter from Lucy

Hello all,

Lucy here again to let you know that I have started grabbing toys and bringing them to my mouth! My favorite things to have in my mouth are:

• My "Lovie" (Burp cloth)
• Baby Ellie
• My Butterfly Toy
• My Flower Toy (Thanks CPK!!!)

Mom has helped me put some pictures in this letter so you can see me grasping. :)

Love,

Lucy Jo

Kidder Family Update

Hello all,

I apologize that I haven't been updating as often as some of you would like. :) I have been busy unpacking, setting up our home, preparing for the start of Awana and getting to know people.

We are all unpacked - well, not entirely - but that which we need is set up/put away and what we don't need is out of sight, and as they say - out of mind. I look forward to posting pictures so you can see our new home, it has been such a blessing for us and fits us (surprisingly) well. Our Chicago home still has not sold - but we had a man come back for a second showing last week. We are hoping to hear soon if he has decided to make an offer.

Our Awana program started last Wednesday, I believe we had about 50 kiddos! I had 11 little people join me in Cubbies. I think we are going to have a great year. Lucy did great in Nursery - it was her first time, and I was a little worried she would be fussy. Her fussy-time of day is around 7 o'clock and she doesn't have a great track record with taking a bottle - but she drank 3 oz from Ruby (such a sweet lady with two daughters in my Cubbies class), slept and was smiling and happy when I picked her up (making my mama heart proud!).

We have so enjoyed getting to know people here better - through one-on-one time and fellowship over a meal (both here at church and at the Plaza - a favorite Mexican Restaurant in town). Brad is enjoying his new role as Pastor - He finished teaching through Jude yesterday and next Sunday we start studying Ephesians. Sunday evenings we have a prayer service - it has been such a blessing to me to pray and worship with our Brothers and Sisters here in such an intimate and authentic service. After the service on Sunday nights we enjoy a potluck together which has provided great opportunities for us to continue to get to know people.

I realize that I have a habit of blogging in "binges" (as Brad says) hahaha. And I am going to attempt to remedy that by only posting some of my pictures today - and posting more throughout this week. :) So get excited - pictures of our home, and Lucy are coming up! :)

Bangs

Lucy now fits into 3-6 month clothes. Not to say that she has grown out of all her 0-3, or even newborn clothes - but her wardrobe has expanded. (Side note: I am amazed at how different brands have different sizing! Luce still fits into newborn Gerber clothes, but grew out of newborn Carters after the first month) I have found it helpful to keep an open box in her closet that I can put clothes that she grows out of in, this helps with organization and helps me make choices as to what Lucy wears each day as I know that she fits into all the clothes in her closet.

Lucy's physical body isn't the only thing that is growing... her hair is too! (I know that this is to be expected, but I find it exciting all-the-same.)

When I put bows in her hair, I have started leaving some hair down in the front - resulting in bangs. I think they are pretty cute, what do you think?

I wish I knew what is going through her head - Love this picture! She is such an expressive gal!

Bumbo

Lucy enjoys sitting up and observing the world around her - often, in the evening when she is fussing all you need to do is set her up in the corner of the couch and she is satisfied. Because she enjoys her independence so much we thought it would be a good idea to get her a Bumbo - a seat for babies. It is called a Baby Sitter, as in it-helps-the-baby-sit, not to be confused with it-is-capable-of-watching-your-baby-while-you-leave-the-house. The following pictures are from the first time Lucy sat in her new chair. She was a little apprehensive at first, but her confusion soon turned to glee. :)

The picture on the right captured the moment right before a sneeze. :) Bless you Luce!

First Pampa Visitors

Over Labor Day weekend, Becca and Samuel drove up for a visit. They were so flexible! We didn't have any of our furniture yet, so they camped with us. :) I went furniture "shopping" in the church and found some chairs and a table that we used for the weekend, fun memories. We had a great time, there was lots of Settlers, Sonic, Smiles and Snuggles! :)

I think we played 8 games all together - I didn't win one.... frustrating. As you can see here, we had to stay hydrated and Sonic has this thing called Happy Hour... that is very hard to pass up.

Of course the reason Becca and Sam came to visit wasn't to see me or Brad but this little gal.

Aunt Becca

Uncle Sam - Please notice the drool that is coming out of Lucy's mouth :) I didn't notice it until I was editing the picture.

Becca and Sam - Please come visit us again! We had so much fun with you two. Thank you for making the trip up here!

Downtown Chicago for the Last Time

We got to go downtown, for the last time, with two of our amazing friends Elise and Brandon. We went to Millennium Park and listened to "Jazz" music. I say "Jazz" because it wasn't what we expected, but it was very much fun nonetheless. :)

Brad was our Photographer for the evening :)

(We are all iPhone 4 users... we are all addicted. :) )

This couple was practicing inappropriate PDA (Public Display of Affection), or so we thought. We felt bad for being so judgmental when we saw him get down on one knee and propose. :) It was really cute - she was shocked and embarrassed. :) Everyone around clapped - sweet.

It was a wonderful evening.