Sick Day

I knew it would happen eventually. Finley had the makings of a cold. She was snotty and her eyes were weepy, she kept sneezing... it wasn't cute. I came home from work one afternoon and she was fussy and clingy and just not herself. So I took her temperature and she had a slight fever of barely 100.0 degrees. BUT I didn't want to expose Henry (our neighbor's son who watches Finley a few days a week) to her germs. So I decided that Finley and I would have a sick day the next day.

The next day her fever was gone but she was one of the most pathetic looking kids I've ever seen. I just had to take pictures.


We also baked a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread that day.


Thankfully, she's feeling much better now. The runny nose hung on for 10 whole days but I think those days are now past. We're looking forward to her 4 month check up on Thursday to find out how big our little girl has gotten.

Finley's First Christmas Tree

On a bitter cold Sunday afternoon, we drove an hour to join Paul's family for the annual tree cutting afternoon. Paul insists we have a live tree and we have paid through the roof for the last few years going to a fancy schmancy tree farm. I always admire the Koutz's tree each year and they always get a great bargain. So we decided that we'd join them for the first time this year.

When we got there it didn't take long to find the perfect tree. It was probably just shy of 8 feet tall, super-full, and really well groomed. Paul quickly got down to the ground and sawed this bad boy down.


Nick and Molly were also there and Nick made quick work of their tree as well.


I thought that I had Finley plenty bundled up to brave the elements. It was in the high 20's so I figured she'd be ok. I wasn't counting on the blustery cold wind which felt like -20 on your skin (not sure, but this is what I'm estimating :) ). Needless to say, Finley through a fit about 20 yards into the tree farm. Paul's mom volunteered to stay with Finley in the car the whole time for some bonding time.


Now unfortunately, this bargain of a tree farm (20 bucks!!!) does not have one of those handy-dandy tree binders. So Paul's dad, nick and paul maneuvered our tree on top of our car. And here you have it - Finley's first Christmas tree!


I'd like to show you the tree all nicely decorated but unfortunately, this story does not end here. As we were driving home we figured out that we had to readjust the tree about every 1/4 mile. After making it about 15 miles in an hour, we figured out it was likely going to take us another 3 hours to get home and we may destroy the roof of our car in the process. So the decision was made to ditch our pretty tree on the side of the road. As we were taking it down off the roof, Paul flagged down a stranger in a pick-up truck and offered him our tree. He was driving to his daughter's house to help her put up her fake tree and we suggested that he could offer her this real tree instead. So off he went, with our beautiful tree in the back of his truck.

We came home and put up my old fake tree. Lesson learned!

Thanksgiving Family-palooza

We decided to make the long trek out East for Finley's first Thanksgiving to have dinner with... the Finleys! We've been told that the time to travel with a child is when they are still young as they just sleep in the car. Thankfully, Finley lived up to this expectation. We left after work on Wednesday and drove 6.5 hours to Pittsburgh. There, we stayed in a hotel to get up bright and early (or maybe I should say rainy and early) to drive another 4+ hours to Mt. Joy where my Aunt Joyce and Uncle Jere live.

Almost all the Finley's were in attendance, minus Grammy and my Uncle Jerry's family from Atlanta, but 22 were there that day. They made a giant table in the garage for us all to enjoy dinner and play games afterwards. We are looking forward to this summer when we will all be together again for a family vacation in North Carolina.

After Thanksgiving, we stayed in Lancaster to visit with family some more. My uncle Jon and Aunt Debbie from the Rigby-side drove up to Lancaster on Friday morning to meet us for brunch.





After brunch, we joined Uncle Jere and Katie at the train museum in Strasburg, PA. Steven enjoyed climbing on the old engine.

After the train museum, we walked around the town of Lititz, PA and were joined by Aunt Joyce and Greg for dinner.

On Saturday, Paul, Finley and I traveled up to Hershey, PA for a quick tour of the Hershey Chocolate Factory. We rode the Chocolate Town, USA ride and learned about how the importance of milk developed the now famous Hershey's MILK chocolate. I'm pretty sure Finley found it really enjoyable :)



After Hershey, we traveled back to Pittsburgh to spend the night at Brad and Andrea's condo. The grandparents got the opportunity to babysit Bridget, Spencer, and Finley as the kids took a night out on the town.



It was certainly an action packed weekend but we enjoyed being able to start some good memories with Finley and to have all of her family members get to meet her.

Bumbo Love

Unfortunately - Finley is not some super advanced baby that is completely independent at 3 months. Instead, she requires us to feed her, bathe her, change her, hold her, etc. However, the invention of the Bumbo has made this so much easier! Finley sits in her Bumbo several times during the day. She helps me to pack my lunch, make coffee and fill up bottles for the day in the morning while sitting in the bumbo. She watches me enjoy my lucky charms and cup of coffee in the bumbo on the coffee table after the lunches are packed. In the evening she joins Paul and myself for dinner while sitting in the bumbo. We call this "The Hot Seat". She sits in the bumbo on the middle of the dining table directly under the lights. That way, we can have a nice family meal. She even holds our hands for grace :)



Next up - Finley and her bumbo hit the road - to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving!

Spit Up and Smiles

Not much new to report on the home front. We're still getting into the routine of life now that I'm back to work. Finley is doing GREAT sleeping in her crib, although we're still not close to sleeping through the night.

She has become quite the pro at spitting up. When received 20+ burp cloths as gifts I thought there was no way we were ever going to use all of them. SURPRISE I use about 5 a day, so they are always in use!

Here is my favorite picture of Finley to date. She is loving smiles and will occasionally even smile for the camera.

Halloween 2010

We loaded up the car and headed to church for Trunk - or -Treat. It was INSANITY. We brought 500+ little plastic toys to give out, thinking we were well prepared. We ran out in 20 minutes. Thankfully the church had TONS of donated candy to keep our supply stocked. I would guess we gave out our toys + 20 bags of candy.

Everyone thought Finley was super cute as Winnie the Pooh.

I stayed warm as Tigger.

And Paul toughed out the cold as Christopher Robin.

I would like to say we got her all hopped up on Reeses' and Snickers but really, she just had a bottle. Either way - she enjoyed her night, and so did we.

For the Record

Finley has reached the double digits! She had her 2 month check up yesterday and tipped the scales. Here's the stats:

Weight: 10 pounds 12 oz (40%)
Length: 21.5 inches (40%)
Head: 15.5 inches (75%)

So she is growing well! Her growth has improved since her first few weeks and she is right where she should be. We also got scolded for not developing good sleep habits with her. (She sleeps in her bouncer). So we are now dedicated to getting this girl to sleep right! She will only sleep in her crib from now on and we're working on a routine.

It was awful to watch her get four vaccinations at this appointment. The first was a liquid that she had to drink. Apparently she was hungry because she guzzled it down, no problem. That was followed by a sequence of three shots. The look of terror in her eyes as she screamed broke my heart. I felt like she was looking at me saying "MOM!!! Why are you letting them do this to me?!?!?!"

I'm not sure if it was the new routine or sleepiness from the vaccinations but she slept the best EVER last night! A stretch of 6 hours with a quick feeding at 2:30 am followed by 5 more hours of sleep! We could get used to this :)

Trip to the Johnston Farm

Finley was able to participate in the annual tradition of a trip the Johnston Farm. Our friends Bryan and Julie Johnston invite us all out to Bryan's parents' farm each fall for an autumn extravaganza. This year Finley joined in the fun.

The girls took a shopping trip and we put Finley in her umbrella stroller. She didn't quite make it through one store before screaming bloody murder. So she made it through the rest of the stores in her moby wrap.

We took a trip to the local orchard and Finley enjoyed the ride with Paul in the Moby wrap again.

We rounded out the evening with Finley's first hayride!

The following weekend, Finley made it across state lines for the first time. We went to Cleveland for a friend from high school's wedding. It was nice to have her meet some of my old time friends and of course for her to get her groove on on the dance floor. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures this weekend.

Finley has her much anticipated 2 month check up on tomorrow. Paul and I are pretty sure she's over 10 pounds by now but we'll have confirmation tomorrow.

Hotel Koutz Has Closed It's Doors

During my maternity leave, we have had a plethora of visitors. In addition to the multiple visits from the local relatives, my BFF Julie and her daughter were here for a week, Paul's brother and wife were here for a few days and just last weekend, my brother and his family were here for a few days.

I have affectionately referred to the days of Brad's family's visit as Rigby-palooza. It was pandemonium! They arrived early on Friday morning, with 2 year old Bridget and 11 month old Spencer in tow. We spent Friday just catching up, going for a walk around the neighbor, having Steven over for dinner and wrangling kids.Spencer and Finley bondingSpencer playing with Moses

The Rigby cousins

On Saturday, my parents joined in Rigby-palooza for a trip to the apple orchard. It was beautiful 70 degree sunny weather. We enjoyed a walk through the corn maze, picking apples, a gander through the pumpkin patch, playing in the corn box and many helpings of cider and donuts.Finley's apple picking

It was a fun, action packed weekend.

Finley and I have spent the rest of this week just relaxing and getting ready for me to go back to work. I am excited to have adult interaction again but it's also a little bittersweet as I won't be spending my days with little miss Finley anymore.

Up this weekend - annual trip to the Johnston Farm.

Not quite BFFs

Moses and Finley started out their relationship on rocky terms. Moses pretty much thought that we abandoned him after leaving him in his crate for 2.5 days and then we come home with some other living thing that we OBVIOUSLY love more than him. We've tried really hard to get them to be BFFs.


But in reality, Moses would rather be basking in the sunlight

and Finley would rather be staring at her favorite picture(I'm not lying.. she fixates on this picture for long periods of time)

In other news, Finley has successfully conquered her first cold. After 10 days of snot, coughing and sneezing...

She is back to her jovial self.

Looking ahead - Finley gets to meet the last of her aunts and uncles, as well as her COUSINS this weekend.

Like a weed...

Well she may have gotten off to a slow start, but little miss Finley is certainly growing now. I took her in for a weight check at three weeks to make sure she had regained her birthweight and she was at 7 pounds 4 oz... woo hoo!

At one month she was 20.5" and 7 pounds 15.5 oz - so I think she's continuing in the right direction. She has her next doctor's appointment at two months so we'll get more official weights at that time.
Finley has brought many new visitors to the hood. Aside from the numerous visits from the grandparents and local relatives, Julie, my BFF from high school, came to visit for a week and brought along her 1 year old daughter Lily. Although Finley wasn't much of a playmate for Lily, Moses certainly loved the attention. Finley had her first exposure to daily shopping and was a trooper... most of the time.

Uncle David and Aunt Caroline (along with canine cousin Scooter) came up for Aunt Molly's wedding. We tried to go apple picking but it was too windy, so she just got a tour of the orchard's barn. But we did get a bushel of apples for applesauce and apple butter.

All dolled up for Molly and Nick's wedding

In two weeks, Finley is excited to meet the last of her aunts and uncles when Uncle Brad, Aunt Andrea and cousins Bridget and Spencer come out for the weekend. Hopefully the weather cooperates a little better so we can show them a true Michigan fall orchard experience.

New Kid on the Block

Just two short days after my last post, where I hoped for our baby to wait until her due date, we welcomed our daughter into the world.

Finley Joy was born two and a half weeks early on August 19th, 2010. She was 7 pounds and 19.5 inches long.

We've quickly acclimated Finley to the 'hood. I try to take her for a daily walk up and down the cul-de-sac and usually she gets to see a few neighbors each time. Moses is getting used to the idea that there is a new girl on his turf. He doesn't really bother her much, but doesn't love her being here either.

Finley had her 2 week check up today. No shots - thank goodness but she still is quite the peanut. She hasn't quite regained her birthweight yet and was only 6 pounds 13 ounces. I'm not quite sure how this is possible considering I feel she feeds ALL THE TIME! But we're just going to keep working on it and take her in for a weight check next week.Needless to say, some of our house projects have gone by the way side. We still have a few last minute decorating things in the nursery, Paul's man cave is coming along nicely and the craft room is a disaster area. Oh well... I've got maternity leave to figure it all out and get all the details in order :)

Patience is a virtue

For all you loyal readers out there (or maybe this is just for Ron....) I promise I haven't forgotten about the blog. It's just amazing how busy life can get when you're trying to make new construction home-y and preparing for your first child!

We've decorated all the rooms we're going to decorate and have just a few finishing touches on the nursery. I've decided I want to rearrange the furniture in the nursery, so its a good thing I didn't hang anything on the walls yet. Once we do this, I'll take some pictures and post them on here.

Paul has been working diligently on his "man cave" and it is turning out AWESOME. I am so impressed with the skill and craftsmanship he is putting toward this project. I hope to be able to include pictures of this area as well.

As a family, we are anxiously anticipating the arrival of our little one who is due in just three short weeks. Unlike many pregnant women, I'm not at the point where I am just done being pregnant. In fact, we want her to stay baking until AT LEAST her due date so we can mentally prepare for our parental duties. We'll see if she complies.... We have had FOUR showers for this little girl and she was definitely showered with gifts. There is very little that we still need, and even those are really NEEDS just more desires. I plan to get those taken care of this week.

Here's to hoping I'll update sooner than almost 2 months apart!!!

What we've been working on...

We've had lots of projects completed in the last two months and many projects still in the works.

So far we've painted the family room, kitchen, foyer, powder room, master bedroom and nursery. We've partially built a deck (it still needs railings) and worked diligently on our yard (including getting a sprinkler system, patching up bare spots and deciding where to put the flower beds).

Here are a few pictures of our works in progress... I'll update again when I have some pictures of them more fully decorated.

Powder room - put up beadboard and painted

Nursery - paint and bedding

Hauling topsoil and mulch (yes its good to do this when you're 7 months pregnant)


Working on the deck