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.