Her First "Real" Meal

We've reached yet another milestone. Sadie enjoyed her first taste of rice cereal last week. I only give it to her once a day at this point to let her kind of get a feel for it. She does better some days than others. Believe it or not, her first try was the most successful of them all! She emptied her bowl entirely!

This is Halloween!

This is the best time of the year! The trees are vibrant with color, the weather is getting milder (if not chilly), and the holidays are just around the corner. What could be better?

Here are a few pictures of our Halloween for you to enjoy:

Every year we get all the Davis cousins together in their costumes just before Halloween so they can all admire one another. Looks like Gabe isn't too keen on Davis's costume! Run, little bee, run! Sadie is the pumpkin on Addie's lap.

Scarecrow Adeline

Ironman Calder

Spiderman Gavin

Pumpkin Sadie with her Spooky Daddy. Oh wait, he's not in a costume. Ha ha ha!

(By the way, if you like Sadie's cute little hair bow, go to my teaching partner, Candace's blog where she sells them. She calls this one the Halloween Korker. She makes some cute stuff, so check it out! keiselkreations.blogspot.com)

Happy Halloween 2008!!!

Family fun!

Sunday, October 12th, my little, er I mean younger brother, Cory, blessed his new little Aidan. We all made it there for the blessing and yummy food afterwards. Lyn's mom makes some delicious chile verde. Add my mom's classic cookies to the mix and you have a hard time kicking me out of the joint!

Here's the cute family: Lyn is holding Aidan David and Cory is holding Ethan.

Sad, but true, this is our first official family photo. and didn't it turn out great!? Pay no attention to the evil expression on my sweet Calder's face. He's going through the 7-year-old-boy-has-to-goof-off-in-every-picture phase. As Yoda would say, "Love him, we do!"

Here are the two precious baby cousins. Love Sadie's drool spot! Mmmmmm! The combo of Aidan and Sadie are lovingly referred to as "Saidan" by Granddad Robison. :)

Our little Sadie is already 4 months old!

Where in the world does the time go? Our sweet baby, Sadie, turned four months old last Sunday. Although I struggle to remember life without her, it seems crazy to think that she's been with us for so long.

Right now, Sadie is 12 lbs, 10 oz. That's a chunky kid for us!!! She has rolley-polley legs which are just the cutest. I've never had a kid with rolls. Never!

She is at such a fun age. I always enjoy this stage when they are more alert and responsive, but not into everything yet. It gets even better once they can sit up on their own and entertain themselves for a bit.

Sadie is smiling a ton now. I got a cute photo of her doing just that. I put her in the saucer (thanks, Aunt Karen) which I only brought in the house because I was babysitting my neighbor's 1-year old the other day. I didn't think Sadie would even care, but she started looking at all of the toys and just got really happy. She is also cooing and babbling a lot more. We still haven't gotten her to let out a laugh. It's seriously like she's trying to hold them in. She'll cough/grunt when we tickle her, like she just won't let that giggle come out!

She is gaining more and more control over her movements right now. She reaches out to things, especially the little toy we have on her carseat. She loves making it jingle. She grabs onto everything that comes into reach, including her clothes, my clothes, burp rags, long hair (watch out!), and toys. She stares and stares at her hands with wonder and amazement. She also loves to give us a good splash while she's in the tub! It's amazing to watch the growth she is experiencing, both physically and mentally. Remember there's a 5-year gap between Gavin and Sadie, so I am really remembering so much that I had forgotten about specific milestones. So fun!

Sadie is our little angel and we are so blessed to have her in our family. I thank my Heavenly Father every day for sending her to me. She is so sweet and always has a happy little twinkle in her eye. We just love love love her so much!

Spider Gary

My crazy hubby and I, along with a couple of other cool "grown-ups" ;) took the young women to City of Rocks, Idaho a couple of weekends ago. We had a fantabulous time. I have got the greatest group of girls! Needless to say, the girls were wowed by Gary's awesome skills. They dubbed him "Spider Gary." Here's a picture of him goofing off.

Slacker!

Apparently I need to update more often or I'm going to lose all (3) of my devoted readers. Complaints have been pouring (trickling) in. I have been soooo busy! Holy cow. I promise to post some good stuff coming up. We have lots of fun pictures on our camera I need to upload and then I'll get rollin'.

Blast that watermelon!...

So, apparently I really AM allergic to watermelon. Who knew???

About 15 years ago, I noticed my throat would tickle and feel a bit sore after I ate watermelon. So, I tried what any rational person would try and I ate a whole bunch of the stuff just to see if it was my imagination. Nope, I really was allergic to watermelon. So I stayed away from the stuff as much as it pained me to do so. I love the taste, the texture, the watery juice, the coolness of a chilled piece of watermelon sliding down my throat on a hot summer day. But, I didn't want to run the risk of going into some allergy-induced throat swelling or something.

Well, fast forward about 12 years or so, and wouldn't you know it, curiosity got the better of me. I tried some watermelon. Just to see. And guess what? NOTHING! No tickling throat, no soreness, no itching, no nothin'. So, I 've happily been eating the nummy gourd for about 3 or so years now symptom free.

Okay, fast forward again to about 10 days ago. There I was, doing my best to set up my classroom and get ready for the new school year at a new place. I was eating pretty well, mostly because my teaching partner is eating well and I didn't want to down the usual chips and cookies in front of her. How embarassing! So, I bought me a nice, juicy watermelon, cut half of it up into bite-sized cubes, and threw it in the fridge for a quick serving of fruit here and there. I was eating the stuff a couple of times a day. And, dang, it was good!

Anyway, first day of school rolls around, and I start to itch a bit. Second day of school comes, and I itch some more. The middle of the night before the third day of school arrives (which happens to be my FIRST day of teaching due to my part-time schedule), and I wake up with a mild case of hives. Could it be stress? Could it be the portable I'm teaching in? I dunno. Fourth day of school rolls around, and I am scratching like there's no tomorrow! At this point I'm more hive than normal skin. I have a fever and my whole body feels like I'm being attacked by bees. Killer bees. I go into the doctor the minute the kids leave the portable. The doctor seriously does a double-take when he walks in the room. Poor Deana. Swollen eye lids, patchy bumpy skin, tingly lips and tongue and throat. Needless to say, I was immediately given a steroid shot, and prescribed 3 medications to take for a week to stop the allergic reaction.

I'm still not 100% sure what's caused this reaction, but I've narrowed it down to a few culprits. Could be my portable (very musty smelling, and a new environment), could be the watermelon (still remembering my previous reactions to it...although they really weren't a big deal), could be the cinnamon gum I had been chewing (I occassionally get wheezy with it and the cinnamon toothpaste I use, but DANG I love me some cinnamon!) So, what's a girl to do?

Well, never NEVER wanting to meet Hivey Deana again, I needed to figure out exactly what did this to me. So, I did what any rational (are you seeing a pattern here???) person would do and waited for the hives to subside and the steroid prescription to run out and tried me some watermelon! I've taught another hive-free week in the portable, so it seemed like the best thing to do. And I very responsibly only tried a little bit tonight. But, guess what......I'M ALLERGIC TO WATERMELON!!! As I write this, my lips, tongue and throat are tingling. My skin is itching, and I'm MAD! I love watermelon. But, apparently it is not to be between us. I'm going to have to give it up for good.

Sniffle, sniffle.

I just count my blessings I'm not allergic to chocolate milk. :)