Wake Me Up When September Ends...

Funny… I actually wrote the post for September a few weeks ago.  When I opened the file just now to add the final touches, I realized I hated it.  Sometimes it’s hard to write when the time to do so is shoved in between short nap times and errands that need to be run on my days off.  Unfortunately, my writing definitely shows this.  Sorry y’all!  I hope it’s not too terrible.  Anyway I’m starting anew with this one so hopefully it goes better this time around.

September was a big month for us!  It’s the first month that we actually spent living in our new home!  I feel like I’m constantly writing about house stuff what with the selling, buying, fixing up, etc…  Hopefully I can tone that down after this month’s post.  But honestly, I can’t not talk about our first month here! 

We love our new home!  Sometimes when I walk through the door, I still get that girly, excited feeling where something inside me jumps and says, “this beautiful home is yours… like… for real!”  Haha!  Don’t let me give you the wrong idea; it’s not huge or fancy by any means.  Our house may not be Parade of Homes material but to me, it is perfect.  It’s not big, but its space is used wisely and the tall ceilings make it feel bigger and more open.  I’ll stop there before I start gushing over all the details that no one wants to read about.  Basically, it suits us.  It’s exactly what I’ve always wanted and what I pictured for my family and I am so thankful to have it.  Plus, it’s the first time I’ve had my own central air and I am thrilled about that!  Wonderful!

Our new ward here is great!  We were surprised to walk into the chapel and find that it was the tiniest ward either of us had ever seen.  It didn’t take long for us to fall in love when we learned that it was made up of a tight-knit group of young families like us and that members had prayed and fasted us there.  Our Sunday school class was a marriage class that catered to young couples.  It was a blast to gather together and learn from a hilarious, slightly more seasoned couple in the ward.  One of the couples even hosted a big neighborhood party with giant blow up toys and a rock wall and stuff! 

After only 2 weeks however, the announcement was made that they were changing our ward boundaries.  That tight-knit group of young families has now been disbursed into other wards.  While this makes us very sad, we’re looking toward the future and are excited to get to know even more people now.  This Sunday will only be our second week in the new ward so we haven’t gotten cozy just yet.

Aleah has developed all sorts of new skills this month.  While I’m sure I can’t name them all, they include large amounts of language and communication.  She understands so much of what we’re saying now!  It’s so cool!  I frequently voiced instructions to her throughout the month just to see how much she understood and I was totally blown away with the results!  She may not be able to say all the words back to us yet, but she knows and understands many of them already.

She has also started eating more solid foods now.  From what I can tell so far, her favorite foods are chocolate frosting and Pasta Roni.  She won’t be breaking any healthy records with that though, so we’ll keep working on her.

I can’t remember if I wrote about this last month or not but guess what?  Aleah is turning into quite the little soccer girl!  She loves kicking the ball back and forth with daddy and what’s more?  She is amazing at it!  I can’t believe how much fun it is to watch her run around and kick the ball (even the tiny tennis ball size)! Tyler is of course ecstatic about this new development.  So far she is left-footed, which apparently is a very sought-after soccer trait or something like that.

Also new this month, this mommy is a newly converted yard sale addict.  What have I been missing all these years?  The Grange girls took me out in September and I had a blast!  Not only was it tons of fun, but we got some killer deals too!  I’m hoping to get as many Christmas and birthday presents for Aleah as I can at yard sales now!  So far we’ve been able to get her several books, toys, and clothes for next to nothing.  Additionally, we got a cute table for our living room, a few decorations, and even clothes for me ($1 for darling shirts?  Don’t mind I do). I am officially addicted.

Tyler is performing most awesomely in all of his classes and enjoys playing soccer regularly on base for his paid exercise time.  Also, he has totally mastered the art of cookie-making.  Allow me to explain: when I found out I wasn’t supposed to eat cookie dough while I was pregnant with Aleah, I vowed never to make cookies until that changed.  I always, always eat the dough and refraining from doing so is simply unrealistic.  So ever since then Tyler has been the cookie baker at our house.  Tyler’s cookies blew my mind this month.  Whatever the secret to baking killer chocolate chip cookies is, he has found it and the convect bake on our new oven cooks them perfectly.  I confess, I’m a little jealous that he can outbake me now.  But there’s no turning back at this point, I’m officially passing the trophy on to him.  So next time you see me and notice that my butt no longer fits in my pants, you can thank Tyler because I cannot stop eating those delicious things and he can’t stop baking them. 

And with that, here are the pictures we’ve saved from September:

Cabinet Before

Here is Ty's work in progress on our cabinet detail

Unfortunately this is the most recent picture we have of the after on his cabinet.  You can still tell it's cool though, right?

Kitchen Before

Kitchen After (fridge hadn't been delivered yet... sorry)

Aleah's Room Before

Aleah's Room After

Play Room Before

Play Room After

Living Room Before

Living Room After

Master Bedroom Before

Master Bedroom After

Tyler added this super cool trim to all of our pillars.  Now you can tell they're separate pieces from the wall

Aleah's first haircut with Mommy!

Here is a view of the new lights and fan we added



               

Here's a pic of my latest project.  I wanted a bright red chandelier so I bought one, sanded it down,  painted it, glossed  it, bejeweled it, and used and abused Tyler's skills all along the way.  It was a lot of fun and I love having a splash of color hanging from the ceiling!

Another cool new light fixture we added.  I found this one bargain-hunting on one of our yard sale adventures.  Sweet deal!

Oh the messes she can make!  Aleah dumped out our entire box of Q-Tips (her very favorite), one-by-one.  She was so thrilled with herself, that we didn't have the heart to stop her.  Here is a pic of her getting started.

We recently learned that Aleah eats solids much better when she is eating at the table with us.  She totally devoured this corn on the cob and relished every single second of it :) 

Here is an action shot of our monkey baby!  She kept climbing up the ladder while I was decorating our shelf so finally we quit trying to stop her, and let Tyler help her do it the safe way.

This is Aleah's favorite hiding spot... behind the ottoman.  Sorry for the mess, I was pulling out our Halloween decor.  Every day when it's time to get her dressed, she runs and hides.  This baby just loves being in her birthday suit!