More Pearly News!

So Finley has been up the last three nights and has definitely been fussier than usual so it was no surprise this afternoon when I discovered that another tooth is about to appear.  Her first tooth has broken skin, but still isn't very long yet.  Our poor girl is clearly miserable.  We are going through the Teething Tablets and the Ibuprofen!  She also really enjoys this mesh baby feeder... even more than usual now that she is teething...  she absolutely loves it!!!!

New Mexico Trip 2009

Views from New Mexico

Better very, very late than never, I guess.  I'm finally finding time to blog about our New Mexico trip.  I've been avoiding it because I have so many pictures to sort through which in my book is the best excuse to have.  I so adore pictures!

I'm going to start this post where THIS post ended...

Tuesday, June 30th:

When Finley and I got home from Dallas, I quickly tried to get our laundry washed.  Unfortunately, we were out of Spray N Wash... a necessity in doing baby laundry... so I was limited in what I could accomplish without putting Finley in the car yet again.  I made a shopping list and tried to get organized for the next day.

   

Pretty Flowers

Wednesday, July 1st:

I had Bible Study in the morning so afterwards we went to Wal-Mart and straight home to do laundry, pack, and make Black Bean Salsa to take on our trip.  

Thursday, July 2nd:

Thursday morning, I finished packing for us and then we were off to meet Aubrey for lunch.  While Finley took her afternoon nap, I made Mexican rice for the trip and then when Finley woke up, we made a MAD dash to the Farmer's Market to pick up green tomatoes and to SWAK to buy some yarn.  As soon as we returned home, Devin was packing up the car so thankfully, we were able to leave a little before 5.  We were torn on when to leave.  Devin had meetings so we couldn't leave too early and we also thought having 2 eight hour drives in a matter of 5 days could be hard on Finley.  We thought by leaving late on Thursday, Finley could sleep most of the way and that her schedule wouldn't be too altered.  We pulled into the cabin around 1:30 a.m. and as we feared, Finley was wide awake to greet the grandparents and let us get her bed set-up.  We had worried that she might think it was time to be awake after sleeping in the car, but fortunately, she easily went back to bed once we turned out the lights.

   

Cabin Time

Friday, July 3rd:

We woke up to homemade breakfast by Johnny and Homemade Chicken and Dumplings for lunch by Amy.  Delicious!  After lunch, we actually took a family nap... me, Devin, and Finley.  It was wonderful!  How I miss naps!  We took a walk afterwards and then hung out at the cabin.  Amy helped me knit on double pointed needles for the first time and I was excited to be knitting again after a long hiatus.  That night, we helped grill steaks for dinner and made smores on the fire which is one of my all-time favorite New Mexico traditions.  I really love being at the cabin because there is never an agenda.  Just true relaxation.  

   

Fun in the Basket

Saturday, July 4th:

We woke up and got ready for the parade.  I had made Finley this dress for the 4th and it turned out pretty cute.  (Stay tuned for another post which will have more pictures of the dress.)  The parade was a lot of fun... Adam and Nathan loaded up on the candy while Finley couldn't get enough of people watching from her stroller!  

      

 Cousins Enjoying the Parade

      

Us at the parade and Our ONLY family picture of the weekend =(

After the parade, we walked around town since they were having a big festival.  Unfortunately, my favorite bookstore was closed.  I really wanted to buy Finley a book about New Mexico as a souvenir since we had bought her a Seattle book when we went there last September.  I thought it would be a fun tradition to start.  We also ate lunch at the Rialto before heading back to the cabin.

It rained all afternoon... literally down-poured which ruined any opportunity for more pictures.  Thankfully, it cleared off late afternoon and allowed us to enjoy some fireworks.  The caretaker brought us authentic enchiladas for dinner and they were AMAZING!  Amy and I also made fried green tomatoes a tradition that was started by her last year.  They are so so so good.  We also had peach cobbler and homemade ice cream for dessert!  What a great 4th! 

    

Firework Time!  

Aren't these pictures great?  

Nathan always in motion and Adam always looking like he needs to go to the bathroom!  Finley checked it all out.  Surprisingly, she wasn't scared at all by all the loud noise.

Sunday, July 5th:

Today was a pretty lazy day.  We went for a hike up the mountain and managed to make it to our cars right before it rained.  We thought we had Finley's Baby Bjorn in the car, but we didn't so we had to carry her in the sling instead.  Not nearly as comfortable, but we really wanted to go on that hike!  It poured and poured all afternoon and these pictures came from our sheer boredom!

    

Aren't these truly great pictures of us?  

I'm not sure where Amy was though I'm sure she is devastated that we didn't capture such a superb picture of her! =)  

Probably one of my favorite moments of the trip happened during the down-pour.  Nathan woke up from his nap and came into the portel to play with the blocks.  He sat down and looked up at us and said "Where's Finwee?"  It was so sweet!  They were such good playmates all weekend and he was clearly missing her during her nap!  Adam was also a big help with Finley... always wanting to entertain her and find out what she was saying.  I think he thought it was odd that we didn't know what she was saying either!

Thankfully, later in the afternoon, it cleared off because I really wanted to have at least one photo shoot of Finley before we left.  Devin helped me and we got some really fun pictures.  I'm going to post them in an album in another post because there are just too many of them.

We grilled hamburgers that night and tried to eat the assortment of left-overs that we had.  We also tried to get packed up and organized so that we could get a fairly early start the next day.  It was sad to leave, but thankfully, Amy has already invited us out again!

Monday, July 6th:

Home Again!  The drive home went well.  Finley did much better than I expected.  She did get a little antsy, but not too bad.  In fact, she was really just an angel the whole trip.  I think I learned a lot from our Dallas trip because I didn't even TRY to keep her on schedule... I just let her wear herself out and then put her to bed.  It worked well because she was super happy the whole time.  Hopefully, when we go to the beach at the end of the month, we will have similar results!

Finley said MAMA!!!!!!

It's true!!!!!!

Finley said "Mama" today!  

And she repeated it over and over.  She is so stinking sweet.  I simply can't stand it.  I am forever bugging her to say Mama, but she has never even remotely made the "mmmmm" sound... until today!  And oh, how I loved hearing it!

And no, we aren't counting it as her first word.  I'm not sure what the rules are for first words.... for some reason the chapter "What Qualifies as Your Child's First Word" was left out of all of my parenting books... but Devin and I agree that her first word will be when she points to something (or distinctly refers to something) and says its name.

If we were counting strewn together sounds, her first word would've been "Hi" followed by "Duck" followed by "Dada" followed by "Ugh-Oh" followed by "Mama".  So fun!  She is definitely improving her babbling and adding more sounds to her repertoire, but today, she said what is sure to be one of my absolute favorites!  

Have I mentioned how much I love my girl? 

Girls' Trip 2009

Girls' Trip 2007

Girls' Trip 2008

Beth and I implemented an annual girls' trip 3 years ago with a trip to Eureka Springs.  We had an amazing time and that's saying a lot since we went over Spring Break which we discovered was before the town really opened up for travel season.  Last year, we went to Florida with her mom and her mom's best friend.  It rained literally the whole time we were there so even though we had a good time, it didn't live up to our lay-by-the-beach-all-day-long expectations!

This year, we knew that we would have a new addition to our trip... Finley... thank goodness she met the requirements of being a girl! =)  We knew we wouldn't want to spend a lot on this year's trip with Beth's wedding plans and my having a baby so we decided to go to Dallas.  We stayed with her aunt and uncle which also helped us save a little money and I admit was a complete blessing having a baby with us.  It was so nice to have an actual kitchen to mix bottles, wash out bowls and spoons, and even bathe the little one.

Finley being bathed in the kitchen sink

Here's a run down of our time in Dallas...

Saturday, June 27th:

We drove into Dallas around lunch and stopped to eat at El Fenix.  It was so yummy!  They have THE best salsa!!!!  (Beth and I both have the philosophy that good food is the primary focus of every vacation so pretty much this whole post is going to be about FOOD!)

Julie had this plastic food that Finley LOVED!  She couldn't put it down.

We then drove to Aunt Julie's and got a tour of the house they had JUST moved into!  Oh, how I desire to be as hospitable as sweet Julie!  They were still in boxes and didn't mind at all that we were adding to the chaos!  We then spent the afternoon by the pool just relaxing.

For dinner, we went to this restaurant called Buco di Beppo.  It was a family-style Italian restaurant that was amazing.

They sang Happy Birthday to this girl behind us, but I think Finley thought it was for her!

All of us

While there Uncle Steve got the one and only picture of me and Beth.  Sad to say, but we were so pleased with this first attempt that I think we decided not to even try to get another one the whole trip.  It's so rare that we actually get a picture of just us these days (that sneaky little Finley always manages to get in the picture with us!  Hee, hee!) that we were ecstatic to get just one... and we even liked the one he took!  Amazing!  

After dinner, we went back to the house where I began to discover that vacation Finley does not like to sleep!  It took forever to get her to bed, but she finally succumbed.

Sunday, June 28th:

We began the day lying by the pool.  Another thing about vacations with me and Beth... we like to relax!  I tried to keep Finley on a schedule, but she again was too distracted to sleep.  She wasn't in a bad mood, but I just knew that she needed sleep and was afraid that if she didn't get her naps that she would be irritable.

Around 2:00 or so, Beth's mom offered to watch Finley while Beth and I went shopping and to eat at our FAVORITE restaurant in the whole world... Fogo de Chao.  Well, we drove to the place we wanted to shop at only to find they were closed on Sunday's....  so we decided to drive towards to the restaurant (that didn't open until 4) and ended up trying to waste an hour in Target.  We were tired, hungry, in pain (stupid heels!), and grumpy!  Thankfully, the food made us ALL better.  Except that we ate so much that we hurt!!!!!!  We were completely miserable.  Completely.

We got back to the house and hung out for awhile.  I attempted to put Finley down for the night with absolutely no luck.  I remember taking her back out to the living room (everyone else was upstairs) to play and just feeling incredibly frustrated...  not really with Finley, but just the situation.  I knew I was being irrational because Finley was fine and happy and no one was upset that she was awake, but I was just feeling very emotional.  I went to wash my hands at the kitchen sink and saw Julie's little verse-a-day calendar.  I immediately saw the date... June 28th... Really?  It was June 28th?   I thought it wasn't for a few more days yet, but no, here it was.  18 years.  Could it really have been so long since my mother's death?  It's amazing how powerful our sub-conscience can be.  I wish I would've realized what day it was sooner so that I could've better anticipated (and handled) my emotional state.  I continued to play with Finley and sufficiently wore her out.  Thankful that I knew what was wrong with myself, I put her to bed easily.  Obviously, she was sensing some of my stress and I absolutely hate that.

We ended the evening by watching the movie Taken.  It was really good and I admit that it was especially enjoyable to me that we all watched it in the living room as a "family."  I hope that one day our almost-grown kids are all sprawled out on our living room watching a movie with us and not thinking it is uncool in the least.

Monday, June 29th:

MARKET!!!!  Beth and I went to Market with her mom.  It was absolutely overwhelming!  Hannah (Beth's cousin) kept Finley the whole day so that we could shop (babies weren't permitted) and though I felt a bit guilty knowing that Hannah was giving up her whole day, we called several times to find that she was having a great time with Finley and didn't need me to come back early.  It was nice knowing that Finley was in good hands and that I could concentrate on helping find the perfect jewelry and decorations for Beth's wedding.  We found a lot of great stuff and thankfully, I didn't have a chance to meander through all of the Christmas shops or I'm sure I would've maxed out a credit card or two!

That night, Beth and I met her friend, Ali, for dinner at North Park mall.  I think I embarrassed Beth by taking my paparazzi like pictures of Finley playing with the Etch-a-sketch!  

(Notice Finley's reflection in the Etch-a-sketch)

After dinner, Beth and I wanted dessert so we drove to find this bakery we had passed several times.  Well, when we finally found it, it was closed!!!!  So we went and had very sub-par dessert at La Madeline's.  When we got home, we found out that the bakery we had been looking for had another location at the very mall we left!  We were so disappointed!

Tuesday, June 30th:

Home!  We drove home where I immediately attempted to get us repacked for our trip to New Mexico!  I'll post about it tomorrow!

I'm already looking forward to Girls' Trip 2010!