Living Room Updates

Wohooo!!! The new blinds finally got installed! The blinds were suppose to be our anniversary present to ourselves, which was a while ago...But Home Depot didn't have the ones we liked in stock and it took a while to find a different place to order blinds from and then all the highways got closed.... So happy to be finally able to close out the night! We were also able to get a ceiling fan with the Christmas present money we received (Thank you!😀). Besides having to return the first one we installed, it has been working great and really helps to move the heat around the house! The light that was there was quite nice and dimmable so it got moved to our bedroom, and the extra lights from our bedroom got moved into the lamp in Hazel's room. An overall win for everyone! 😄

Switching Things Up

With Hazel's new abilities comes a new play space. I thought I would give it a try after I was working on the new nursery at church, as I put her in a Playpen with a bunch of toys while I was there and she was surprisingly happy in it for quite a while. When I tried it out at home it seemed to have similar results.

As I was setting this up, and sorting the toys and books I realized that just about everything in this picture, including all the toys and books in the baskets are gifts from our family and friends. Once I realized that it just seemed to make this picture that much more special. A big thank you to everyone for still being involved in our lives even though we live far away. 

Hazel Highlights

Now that Hazel can sit so well she got to have a bath in the big bathtub rather then her baby bath tub. She thought the big bathtub was quite the improvement.

If you want to know how the whole bath went, then just put the video below on repeat for a bit. 😄

Look what Hazel found under the coffee table, Daddy's hat that he couldn't find this morning!!!

The story of how Hazel got behind the couch: 

Over the last few days Hazel has really enjoyed playing under and around her highchair which is beside the couch, I often sit on the couch beside her highchair so it is also a place to play nice and close to Mommy. Once or twice I managed to catch Hazel's feet before she went too far behind the couch... this time I wasn't quite so on the ball and she was half way down the couch when I got there!!! 

So I let her crawl into the corner where it was a little easier to get her out. 

This is one of Hazel's new sounds, which I personally think is adorable!!! This video was surprising hard to get as just about every time I pulled out my phone to take a video of it she would stop or only babble for about 3 seconds... (Video below)

I was looking through the blog today and realized that I only have videos of Hazel just learning to crawl, she has come quite a long ways since the last video. She is crawling all over the house and has been coming to find me if I am in one of the bedrooms. (Video below)

As you can see in the video above Hazel has got the army crawl down pat! Now for the next stage... getting into more things, the basket in the kitchen was the perfect target. 

Knee Deep? Nope, Deeper...

 I believe we have officially reached the "a lot of snow" mark! Just in the last 2 days we went from - 23/-30 to 3/-5 temperatures so we were actually able to go out and enjoy the snow! 

We now have a ramp to our front door rather then steps... the ramp in easier to maintain...

I love how the snow just hangs off the roofs!

You may remember from spring pictures that there is a whole trailer frame hiding in this picture...

I have no idea how much snow we actually have, but you can kind of see half of a coffee table for some perspective. 

Nova likes chasing snow balls

Starting to make a trail around the fenced backyard.

We got about 1/4 way around the property when the snow got about mid thigh deep on me and we took a break!

Lounging in the snow. 

1/2 way!

And the snow is quite a bit deeper then Nova 😄

The yard looks so nice and flat when its all snowed over! But don't be deceived there is still a little dirt bike track hidden in there!

The next day I took Hazel for a sled ride as she was napping when we made the trail. 

She seems to be enjoying the ride! 😊

Baby in a Basket

Hazel is 8 months old already! Time sure seems to go by so fast! She seems so grown up lately as she is crawling around and happily feeding herself solid food.  This photo shot was a bit tricky then others as she doesn't just stay in one spot anyone... so I thought if I stuck her in a basket then she would stay in one spot for pictures... It didn't work out quite as well as I hoped as trying to get out of the basket seemed to be quite the fun game!

This is Hazel's grin, rather then a smile, she squints her eyes and grins really big!

It turned out that just sitting on the floor with one fun toy was the best way to snag some pictures. 

This is me trying to get some Hazel and snow pictures without going outside into the snow... 

Hazel quite enjoyed her little perch on the window sill and keep turning from side to side to touch the window.  

So far the easiest way to get a happy Hazel in when she is in the highchair with food! (Video below, sound on 😊)