Eloise at 6 months

Sweet Eloise Hope will be 6 months old tomorrow! Half of the first year of life has passed and it has been a joyful time in our home.  She continues to be an absolute bright spot in our day with her precious smiles & giggles.

Here she is enjoying a new favorite activity.....


Swinging & swinging....she loves it & I love those knees!

STATS

Weight- 14lbs 11oz- 25th percentile

Length- 26 3/4 in- 75th percentile

Head Circumference- 75th percentile

What this little cutie patootie is up to at 6 months:

• still loving anything and everything about the outdoors- watching Sissy play soccer or blow bubbles, riding in the stroller enjoying a breeze, or just staring at the sky.  Outside=no fussing for this girl!
• grabs & holds on tightly to toys or Charlotte's hair
• grasps her feet & sucks on those yummy tootsies
• grins SO big when you sing & clap (or dance)
• can roll front to back & back to front with not much effort although she doesn't do it often
• can sit unassisted for a long time unless Charlotte comes by to knock her over : )
• reaches for toys while sitting bending almost in half & pulls herself back to a sitting position
• likes to sleep on her side or her back with her hands over her face
• smiles then buries her face into my shoulder when others talk to her...love this!
• making lots more noises & high pitched squeaks when excited
• sounded like she said "da" the other day
• loves Tiny Tales story time at the Library
• lets Charlotte hold her for long periods of time without crying

For Thanksgiving, Eloise got to try her first solid food & she loved it! Here she is checking out her banana's or as Char says "her menas."  She was pretty excited to get that first spoonful in her mouth!

She had a helper, as always. One who loves her almost as much as her mommy does : ) Charlotte actually did a pretty good job minus a couple spoonfuls that went directly into the back of her throat causing a little choking sound from the new eater...oops!  Charlotte has been Elo's dedicated trainer for the past few months placing a spoon in her mouth at least once a day while she pretend fed her along with Libby & London.  One day while I was working, Robby texted me a picture of Elo in her seat & Charlotte next to her with every spoon we own lined up perfectly in a row...headed straight for the smallest mouth in the house.  I guess it paid off because Elo scarfed down a half a banana without any hesitation!

 She had to give us at least one silly face even though she really loved her menas!

I am excited to move forward with solid foods for this one.  I made nearly all of Char's food & loved the little system I had going with cooking & freezing all sorts of healthy, delicious foods.  Up next on the menu: sweet potatoes, avocados, oatmeal & brown rice.

Eloise is still nursing 5 times a day usually at 7:15, 10:30, 2:30, 5:30 & 7:15.  So far I have added the solids in around lunch time & will see if that works as we continue. Our routine was shaken up around this house with the time change early this month & we were back to an evening snooze (4th nap) for a few weeks but have now dropped it again. She is napping 3 times a day usually from 8:30-10:30, 12-2:30, 4-5:30 & then sleeps goes down for the night around 7:30.

She is happy as can be to be laid down wide awake after a song and a snuggle & now "talks" to herself for about 5-10 minutes before falling asleep.  Maybe once every few days she will fuss for a minute before giving into a wonderful nap.  I tell you what, I would not put up a fight if someone made sure I was in my comfy clothes, made the room dark & told me it was time to take a nap!

Eloise really likes her puppy dogs, especially when they get up close & give her a kiss! Here she is with Bella Blue, the perfect dog.  Bennett has eaten about 9 socks & a pair of leg warmers this month...he is not my favorite right now.

The girls have been taking baths together & both love it! They will stay happy in there for a really long time.  Eloise usually ends up peeking out from behind the pile of toys her sister so lovingly places on top of her. Char says "more toys Eh-Wheese? oh oh okay! Here go!"

One final picture of Eloise sitting up all by herself.  I love this stage, it is like a whole new world opens up when they can sit & look around!

In six more months we will be celebrating that exciting first birthday! For now, I am going to enjoy every sweet moment with this girl....it is going by way too fast : ) 

Thanksgiving 2011

Our Thanksgiving Day preparation began on Monday of Thanksgiving week when we took a family trip to Whole Foods to get all the goodies to stuff inside the turkey.  Robby made the brine on Tuesday afternoon & little Miss Charlotte was very interested in what was going on.  She said multiple times "What doin' Daddy?" She says this a million times a day right now : )  We put our 22 pound Turkey into the brine when we got home from the beach Wednesday morning where it soaked in all those delicious juices for the next 24 hours.  Before I went to bed Wednesday night, I whipped up a Chocolate Pie & Buttermilk Biscuits, both recipes of my Grandmother Alene along with some Pumpkin Muffins, my mom's recipe....all super yummy!



Charlotte checking to make sure Daddy put all the right ingredients in the pot : )

Thursday morning we woke up bright and early ready to start our fun day.  We hurried & got the biscuits baking, all of the prep done for stuffing the turkey & did the first clean of the kitchen for the day.  Hugo, Juanita & Matilda joined us for breakfast and some Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade watching. The girls were in their PJ's & we were all quite relaxed....except Chef Robby, he was in a cooking mood : )

Watching the parade with Juanita & Matilda...the girls were happier than they look in this picture.

Hugo overseeing some Play dough activities.



pulling the turkey out of the brine



Stuffed & ready for the oven!






the CUTEST turkeys in the house!

 Our friend Heather joined us for the day & we had so much fun with her! Charlotte got LOTS of extra attention which is always a good thing in her book : )  Heather spent our very first Thanksgiving with us in Florida.  I am not sure if I have mentioned it before but it was our first go around with hosting and cooking a turkey.  Long story short, we didn't get to eat until about 9:30 at night due to a slight miscalculation of time needed in the oven.  Heather has also spent some time at our house taking care of Bennett & Bella when we were out of town.  During one of those visits, she chased Bella a couple blocks down after she took off on her own little sprint.  All that to say, we were very thankful that Heather would even consider spending a holiday with us! She was pleased when we sat down to eat about 30 minutes ahead of schedule ; )

The house smelled amazing with that turkey cooking & we were all drooling by the time we sat down to eat! The turkey was amazing again & Robby tried a new recipe for stuffing that turned out SO good! I could eat that meal once a week....seriously!

the spread

These two girls really love each other.  We can't help but smile watching them interact. Here they are jumping, dancing, smiling & hugging.  LOVE THEM!  We should have taken some pictures of them hitting  & stealing toys from each other just so you could get an idea of what ALL our time looks like together : )



Mati, Juanita & Hugo



Charlotte's smile after we told her she would get a lollipop if she would smile....hahaha! 

 

Elo, me & Heather after chocolate pie




The end of the night, the girlies were so tired they switched daddies for some snuggle time. 

 It was a lovely Thanksgiving as we had much to be thankful for.  It is hard to believe that only 3 years ago, at our first Thanksgiving feast in the Valentine home I had a teeny little baby Charlotte growing inside my womb!  So much has happened in 3 years. I feel like we look really young & thin in this picture....maybe we will look like that again next year ; )

We actually cooked a second 12 pound turkey on Friday & Robby went all out & made three new recipes with the leftover turkey.  We usually make about 8 gallons of soup for the freezer but we were so tired of turkey soup that we decided to try something new. 

Our chosen recipes for the 2011 leftovers were:

• White Bean Turkey Chili
• Turkey Pies with Mashed Potato & Asiago cheese topping
• Fontina & White Wine Fusilli with sauted Caprese Mushrooms, and turkey of course : )

No photos but believe me, they are delish!

Two things in closing, I enjoy the Thanksgivings where I am not nauseated & likely to vomit during a meal....1st & 3rd Thanksgivings here, joyfully pregnant but oh so SICK!  Also, I am happy to not clean the kitchen 4 times a day for awhile ; )

Our hearts are filled with thankfulness

The Valentine Family decided to follow suit with the thankful tree craze that everyone & their mom pinned on Pinterest.  Last year I was thinking about what we could start as a November/Thanksgiving tradition in our home & when I came across this, I was quite excited to say the least!  Thankfulness is something that I desire to cultivate in our home & in our hearts.

This year, we started on the 1st of November. I arranged our tree, cut all our "leaves" & watched Charlotte lay them out in all sorts of arrangements while I cut the ribbon. She so enjoyed "helping" me & I enjoyed her "help". Each morning or evening, we talked about things that we were thankful for that day & selected one to write down as a family. We did let Charlotte choose 3 for herself....sweet & funny choices, just like her! 

Recounting a month of thankfulness in our home:

1.  God's faithfulness
2.  Unity in our marriage
3.  Testing & trials in our life
4.  Trick or Treat - Charlotte
5.  God's patience with us
6.  Health
7.  God - Charlotte
8.  How much Charlotte loves Eloise
9.  Friendship
10.  God's kindness towards us
11.  Freedom
12.  Laughter
13.  The local church
14.  New life
15.  Rest 
16. Our Life Group
17. God's Story
18. Our jobs & the ability to work
19. Soccer ball - Charlotte
20. Beautiful weather
21. Family Fun Week - Daddy off work!
22. The blessing of children
23. The sunrise

Day 14- I got to spend an afternoon with Traci & baby Piper, just snuggling on the little one while a tired mama
got some rest. I know Eloise is only 6 months old but how quickly we forget the sweetness of a newborn baby!



Day 7- When she says "God" right now, it acutally sounds like "Don" not sure why but she is consistent with that response!  Yes Charlotte, we are most thankful for God or Don : )

Our plan is to read these aloud sometime during our Thanksgiving celebration. In the upcoming years, we hope to give each child their own set of "leaves" so they can write what they are thankful for.


As we shared each day what we wanted included on our tree, we quickly saw that each thing could be directly traced to God's goodness. Just a few weeks ago, I sang the following song with our worship team at Celebration Community Church.  It has been stuck in my head, yet another thing to be thankful for.  The words turn my affection towards Jesus & I pray they will do the same for you.

“My Heart Is Filled with Thankfulness“
Words and Music by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend


My heart is filled with thankfulness
To Him who bore my pain;
Who plumbed the depths of my disgrace
And gave me life again;
Who crushed my curse of sinfulness
And clothed me in His light
And wrote His law of righteousness
With pow’r upon my heart.

My heart is filled with thankfulness
To Him who walks beside;
Who floods my weaknesses with strength
And causes fears to fly;
Whose ev’ry promise is enough
For ev’ry step I take,
Sustaining me with arms of love
And crowning me with grace.

My heart is filled with thankfulness
To him who reigns above,
Whose wisdom is my perfect peace,
Whose ev’ry thought is love.
For ev’ry day I have on earth
Is given by the King;
So I will give my life, my all,
To love and follow him.

The LORD is my strength and my shield;

in him my heart trusts, and I am helped;

my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him. 

Psalm 28:7

Oh what a beautiful morning, Oh what a beautiful day!

Our iPhone alarms went off simultaneously at 4:50 am with the absolute most obnoxious combination of sounds we chose the night before.  We wanted to make sure we woke up....it worked, in fact I woke up terrified : )  We loaded the car, grabbed the girls & headed out in complete darkness.  I have never been great at waking up early but thankfully, Char & Elo have gotten me used to a wake time of 6:30.  They are sweet to wake up to & this is sweet waking up for............ 

It was Robby's idea to drive out to Playa Linda Beach at Canaveral National Seashore to enjoy the beautiful sunrise.  We LOVE this beach because it usually is populated with no more than 15 people at a time in the middle of the summer.  This morning, we were with 2 fisherman when the sun came up so it really felt like a private beach.  It was a race to get there after stopping for gas & a potty break & we made it within 3 minutes of the sun breaking on the horizon.  It was GORGEOUS!

There have been more than a few times lately where I feel like God allows me to step back and realize how precious the moment really is.  This was one of them.  Looking at Eloise's sweet little hand grasping her Daddy's thumb while Charlotte held onto his shoulder to steady herself & all the while seeing the overwhelmingly bright sun surrounded by the painted sky.  All I could think about was that God is SO great!

"The heavens declare the glory of God & the skies above proclaim his handiwork." Psalm 19:1

me & the little peanut enjoying the oh so comfy Maya Wrap



Our most recent beach visit was in the middle of the afternoon on a super hot August day so it didn't allow for much playtime. This time around, Char loved building sandcastles with Rob, collecting shells & running up & down the beach. She was so scared of the sand just over a year ago. This visit, she walked barefoot through piles of seaweed & was coated in sand by the end....she would have stayed all day if we would have let her! By far, her favorite activity was jumping on & crushing the castles her Daddy made. He found her some flowers to complete the look of her castle & she placed them very particularly...as expected of course : ) She is two! I love watching her enjoy something & this morning was full of enjoyment!

Today we are thankful for the sun rising & for those little ones in our arms : )

Continuation of the Master Makeover

I have kept what Robby did while his 3 favorite girls were in Texas until I could get all these pictures together....

The first morning we were gone, I received this picture via text with the caption, "It's just not the same!" Oh my, it made me laugh so hard! 

Since we were well aware of how quiet the house would be, Robby decided that he would use his time to build us a new bed.  In the post "Beginnings of a Master Bedroom Makeover" you see our bed on a frame & some new curtains.  We are sticking with the slow & steady pace & have now added one more thing to the bedroom.  Nearly 7 years with a bed on a frame, which is just fine for the record, we are now enjoying a beautiful bed styled after the Pottery Barn Farmhouse Collection at a fraction of the cost! $1,400 or $200, easy decision here since we don't have that to spend on a bed anyway : )

My husband is so talented in many ways....especially woodworking!  Here are the photo updates I received while I was away:

woodpile begging to be put to use



Headboard & Footboard



first time put together with the moulding on the headboard & footboard...this picture got me really excited!

up close view

painting in the entry way because it was too humid in the garage

And drum roll please.......

What I arrived home to:

I had no doubt he could do it but I am still very much impressed with the final product!  I know it is the same mattress but for some reason it is so much more comfortable now : ) Rob, seriously, you are amazing! Thank you for spending almost every free moment during our time away to make something special for us!

We frequently ask Charlotte "Why did Daddy do _______ for Mommy or vice versa. Fill in blank with: clean the kitchen, take the dogs out, treat the other person to something special.  Our answer is, "because Daddy loves Mommy or Mommy loves Daddy."  I asked Char why Daddy built the bed for Mommy & she said "to jump on!" Hahaha....love the why she thinks! 

Next episode in the Master Makeover....we will search high & low for the perfect shade of blue paint.....

Almost done!

Today was another exciting day in the life of Celebration Community Church.  As a church family, we gathered together in our building that is almost done! We were able to spend time writing verses & prayers on the concrete floor before the carpet is laid. It was a special time as a family, the 4 of us & the 200+ family we are a part of : ) If you are interested to see the history & hear about the vision of CCC, watch the video on this link.

Here are some photos of our time there today......

View from the parking lot



Jenny with baby Isaac in her belly & sweet little Kar-bear!



Char was SO excited to run all over when we arrived.  People pay her lots of attention....she relishes in it : )



I love this picture of our family....it's so wonderful when everyone can look at the camera at the same time!
Thanks Heidi for being the attention getter!

Here are just a few of the things people wrote......

Robby was the writer for the Valentine family

The picture below is so sweet.  Our good friend & pastor, Chris pictured with Amanda, his beautiful wife to be.  Theirs will be the first wedding ceremony held in our chapel at the end of December. The spot they chose to write on is where they will stand as they commit their lives to one another.  Now that is special!

Eloise made church history for being the first baby to eat in the middle of the chapel ; ) When this girl is hungry, there is only one thing to satisfy her!

As we treasured this moment with our girls,  I was thinking specifically of two things.  One, we moved here with "a womb they called barren" & have since been blessed with Charlotte & Eloise.  Two, only time will tell but, what if they got married in this chapel? How special to be a part of the early years with this church body & building! The girls would walk right over the place where their Daddy wrote our names below a verse ending with "he himself gives to all mankind, life & breath & everything."  The word of God is true.  As we focus on thankfulness this month, we can remember this verse that it is HE that gives EVERYTHING & to him we owe our thankfulness.

Eloise really got the hang of sitting up on her own this week...perfect for picture taking!

I can't help but include a bit more of our story of how we ended up in Florida.  Chris called us in August 2007 to see if we would prayerfully consider moving to Orlando to be a part of this church plant.  We were excited right off the bat to even consider the possibility but took our time to even respond to his initial request. A month later, we called to let him know that we would like to come out & visit.  We scheduled our 10 day trip for November.  It was actually exactly 4 years ago this weekend that we arrived! We spent our time meeting with the Heinsch family & a couple other families within CCC. We were there for 2 Sunday worship services which we very much enjoyed.  We felt so confident that week that the Lord was directing our steps toward pursuing moving to Orlando & shared our hopes with Chris before returning back to Texas.  And oh yeah, of course we spent a couple days at Disney.....here we are in 2007...

Long story short although I must share in more depth at some point, we moved 6 months later committed to serve alongside Chris, Gregg & the people of Celebration Community Church.  We didn't know what to expect & we didn't know what the years ahead would hold but we were confident that God would provide our every need & work all things for His glory & our good.  We have continued to meet in the auditorium of Celebration High School & Lord willing will celebrate with our first Sunday here at the end of the month..... 

Praise be to God!