Friday, Crawling. Tree. Cards. Thanksgiving. Graduation. Waffles.

Good morning, it's Friday! I have French Vanilla decaf to add to the regular Folgers today, PLUS the Pumpkin Pie Spice creamer stuff in the fridge. You don't necessarily have to put them together, but it's not bad together! Good stuff.

Elizabeth is going to be 6 months on Tuesday, and for the last 2 weeks she has been crawling. Seriously, what is her deal that she wants to do everything already?! She sits up, crawls, puts her paci in and out of her mouth, babbles, tries to drink out of a sippy cup, pulls up onto toys, and can stand against furniture and toys for quite a while. She is growing up so fast!

Here is a short video of her from last week. She is getting better at crawling now, but this is so fun because she's cracking up as she goes.




We put up the Christmas tree on Saturday, which is the earliest I've ever put a tree up. I think I was so antsy to put it up because we didn't have a tree up last year. The combination of morning sickness and traveling left me un-enthused about decorating. We took a stinkin' adorable picture of Elizabeth on Sunday, which I already made into a Christmas card and put in the mail. I don't know what's gotten into me that has me ahead of schedule as it relates to Christmas. I have never had the Christmas cards out the first week of December, either. Weird.

Here is our Christmas card:



I uploaded it to Costco and picked up 100 the next day for only $29! Envelopes, and all! I did go through nearly $40 of stamps, though. I'm hoping to hand out a bunch at church this weekend, though, and anybody I miss Sunday will be mailed their card on Monday.

We hosted Thanksgiving here last week, which was delightful. We fried a turkey again, and everybody contributed to the meal to share the load. We invited my parents and brothers, plus a family from church: Josh & Becky and their two boys, 5 and 3 years old, who don't have family in the area. The boys set up a huge city of blocks on the coffee table, and had a great time playing with Lady in the back yard.

It is kind of a family tradition to "adopt" people who don't have family nearby, since we don't have family nearby, either. Besides, holidays are so much more fun when you share them beyond just your family.

I'm still coasting on having the house clean from Thursday. It's starting to look like it needs to be picked up and cleaned again. I also haven't gone grocery shopping this week, except for an abbreviated trip through Walmart Friday night. If we can hold out through Sunday, I'd be happy. And if that means we have to pick up something over the weekend, I'd be that much happier. Ha!

Since the house was clean and we were free, we invited Scott & Stephy over for brunch on Saturday morning. I made waffles (using the waffle maker they gave us) and a potato/ham/egg frittata. So delicious, and we had a great time having them join us. I think that may become a tradition: post-Thanksgiving brunch!

The bummer of the month is that Sam did not make the deadlines he needed to for his senior project, which means he will have to complete it next semester. So, unfortunately, he will not graduate this month, and it will be next May. This may mean that he can continue working part time as an intern through the HVAC company he's been working with for a couple of years. It also lets him stay a student, allowing him to stay at the school where he has his foot in the door with different companies who will be pursuing graduates. It could be what gets him a job in a few months. We will see how God provides.

I should be getting off the computer and getting my butt in gear while Elizabeth finishes her nap. Lately she takes 2 naps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Fortunately she goes down without a fight anymore (not usually) and will sleep for at least an hour. It has changed my life! She also goes to bed at around 7:30 PM and sleeps pretty well through the night, usually up around midnight once, and sometimes one more time around 4 or 5. Last night she slept from 11:30 PM to 7 AM! Getting up earlier is a little rough, but it's great to be up and at 'em before 8 every morning.

All the more reason for the coffee.... :)