Oh Christmas Tree

Clark Griswold, Blake, Lauren & I headed out to "the forest" as Blake says, to find a Christmas tree today. I love that Chad makes us get a real tree every year, even though part of me envies my neighbors who pulled their perfectly shaped tree out of it's box Friday morning and called it good. We promised each other we'd get a smaller tree this year, something more reasonable.... Does this look reasonable to you?
Blake found the perfect size tree for him.

And the perfect size for Lauren. :)

Blake, Lauren & I entertaining ourselves with the camera while Daddy chopped down our tree.

And she's off...

When I was pregnant with Lauren I told my OBGYN, "this baby is strong, a lot stronger than Blake was". She sort of rolled her eyes at me, as in, 'yes, yes, dear' until she went to listen to Lauren's heartbeat and she kicked - hard! Dr. Foltz looked at me and said "that is a strong baby". Well, I don't know if it's her strength, but Lauren has figured out how to crawl. It took all of three weeks to go from rocking on her knees to crawling. Today, she was trying to pull herself up on our toy chest. Seriously Lauren, it's okay to put your feet up and relax for a bit!

Thanksgiving 2010

We headed out in the snow early Thursday morning to go and spend Thanksgiving with the Pittmans in Portland. It was wonderful to see everyone, Blake had a blast playing with his cousins.

The turkey

Our host and hostess

The grown ups table...

...and the kids table. Some how the kids got the table next to the bar?? :)


Lauren & Daddy
Lauren & Grandad
The whole Pittman clan

Blake's cousins let him play the wii with them. Live it up B, your daddy will never let you have one...ever.

Lauren & Uncle Todd

Todd, Lisa, Gage & Jake

Thankful

I'm not really sure where to begin my Thanksgiving post this year. 2010 started out as one of the best years of my life. I finally had my second baby - a girl! Lauren is the icing on my cake. After she was born, I would wake up every morning (after a full nights sleep!) feeling so grateful for my life. I have an amazing and sweet son, my dream baby, wonderful husband, crazy bulldog, beautiful home, we even have a white picket fence. This was exactly where I wanted to be. Sometimes, late, late at night, I would chase away thoughts of "this is all just too good to be true". Then October rolled around and the other shoe dropped. I still have days when I can't believe my niece has cancer. I try to focus on the fact that I am thankful for Children's Hospital (despite their politics, personality conflicts and other details that make my sister's life harder). I am thankful there is a bone marrow match, a 10 out of 10, but I will be cautious with my gratitude until the bone marrow is safely inside Georgia's body. I am so very thankful for my Dad and Leslie. They have stepped up to the plate in ways I didn't think were possible. They have continued to be a tremendous help to Alison, Brian and Georgia in this time when I can't. I have also been so thankful for the friends, old and new, who have been so supportive. Over all, I know I have so much to be thankful for, and I am. I can't wait until next year, I know exactly what I will be thankful for. It will happen, one day at a time, "this is a marathon, not a sprint".

Snow Day

We bundled up this morning and headed out to play in the snow! Blake LOVED every minute of it and Lauren seem to like it too.

I wasn't expecting snow in November, I ordered her snow outfit so it would fit in a few more months. Oh well, she stayed warm!

Blake played in the snow with his sister, then we went out again when Lauren went down for a nap. Then he headed out again when Daddy got home for some evening sledding. Blake loves the snow...good thing, from the looks of it, we'll have plenty to play in tomorrow.

She's a Pittman

A couple people have mentioned to me lately how much Lauren looks like her Grandad. I definitely see it too, so I decided to look back at some Pittman family photos we have. (Don't worry Lauren, you still look very girly to me :) Lauren - six months old

Grandad (Vern) at six months old

Tis the season

Our favorite neighbors, the Bertsch family, invited us to a fundraiser for Children's Hospital tonight at the Fairmont Hotel. Cal, their youngest son, has spent a lot of his time at Children's Hospital. With all that Georgia has been through over the last two months, it has been really nice for me to have such great people in my life that know what my sister's family is going through. We had a great time this afternoon, checking out all of the fancy trees and eating lots of Christmas cookies. Here are some pictures from our afternoon.

B & Daddy all dressed up.

This is the best we could do...we'll keep trying.

Grammy & Lauren

Blake decided he didn't want to see Santa. Lauren however, was a complete ham!

Grandpa, Lauren & Grammy

Audery, Cal, Caiden and their Grandma

Cal's tree

Happy Birthday Georgia Girl!

Happy First Birthday Georgia! We aren't able to celebrate with Georgia today but Blake wanted to send a birthday song. (please excuse the pen on his face...his pants are on backwards too :)

Chow Time

Lauren tried a couple of new foods over the last week or so. She seems to like them all so far. Mostly, she likes to feed herself. Blake also likes to help, which means everyone is a mess and we usually dirty up lots of spoons in the process.

Offering Blake some peas, such a polite girl.

It took Louis no time at all to remember how this high chair thing works.

They are HOME!

After 5 1/2 of the hardest weeks any of us will ever go through, the Handsakers drove home today! Throughout this experience my sister has amazed me. I have always admired who she is, honest, straight forward and kind. I knew she was a strong person too, but I have been so impressed with the way she has handled every hurdle along the way (and there have been some heart wrenching hurdles to say the least).
Today we celebrate this victory. In the beginning, the doctors thought Georgia might be home by her birthday...next Friday. Georgia impressed everyone with her quick recovery. Way to go Georgia girl!!
Thank you to everyone for the overwhelming amount of love and support, positive thoughts and prayers...they are working.

Here are some pictures Grandpa took this afternoon!

Six Month Stats

Lauren had her six month check up today. She is one healthy girl! She weighs 15.3 lbs. (50th percentile) and is 25 3/4 inches long (70th percentile). Physically she is "ahead" (I could have told you that, she is about to crawl away...much to my shagrin!). She has doubled her birth weight and grown over six inches since the day she was born. Good job baby girl!

Six months old today!

Lauren is officially six months old, I can't believe how fast the time has gone. The past month has been a busy one for Lauren. She wants nothing more than to get up and run around with her brother, so she rolls as fast as she can to where ever he is. Last week she decided to pop up on her knees and start rocking back and forth. (I hope she practices this move for a few months before crawling!) Lauren continues to be such a happy baby, she smiles and giggles, except for when we put her in her car seat. Then I have to load her up with toys to distract her from the fact that she can't move. She loves to eat and really likes to feed herself. Lauren is also pretty easy going and independent. She is content to play on the floor with her toys and she'll let most anyone hold her.

I love you my baby girl, you are a dream come true. Happy six months!

Love

They finally gave me some food!

We gave Lauren her first taste of "real" food this evening, she had a bowl of rice cereal. Actually, she had three bowls of it she liked it so much. Working up an appetite and getting excited.
Blake getting in on the action.

It took her no time at all to figure out

she liked feeding herself.

Good stuff!


(yes, I actually forgot to put a bib on her! I don't think it would have helped much anyway :)