Merry Christmas from the Foley's

Sadie's New Horse....

Sadie loves her new horse that Mr. Dave and Ms. Jane gave her for her first Christmas. They are so nice, and Dave is an amazing craftsman to have made this - it is perfect. THANK YOU!!

Look at me ride!! Yeahaw!

Finger foods

So even though the finger foods containers say your baby should be crawling with her belly off the floor before starting finger foods, we have really thought we should start trying to give Sadie some anyway (maybe because it seems every other 8 month old is eating table foods and Sadie's still on pureed veggies and fruit...we haven't even gotten to meat yet, but that's a story for another day). All we had before in the way of finger foods were some Gerber puff stars, and Sadie didn't really know what to do with these. She would push them around on her high chair. Inevitably they would get stuck to her hand, and she would never even try to put any in her mouth. So those weren't working. Then I found these large wagon wheel shaped puffs.

Now we're getting somewhere!

I have admittedly had to give up a little obsessive control in the cleanliness area lately when it comes to Sadie's feedings. After Daniel's parents were here this past weekend, Grampi made several comments about how clean of a baby Sadie was. I'm sure this was well intended as a compliment, or just a statement probably, but I got to thinking....MAYBE I'm not ALLOWING her to make messes. So I set out this week to let her get a little crazy in the high chair with a wagon wheel! I'm very proud of myself for this! Just look at this big mess she made.

Sadie was proud of me too!

Tomorrow night I might actually let her hold her spoon after I'm done feeding her! Now that's living on the edge people!

Aggies in mourning

After the BCS bowl games were announced on Sunday, we came to the realization that A&M just wasn't going to make it to the National Championship game this year. As you can see, Sadie is heartbroken. She didn't take the news so well.

(In reality this is a picture from Thanksgiving day when Sadie was still sick, and I'm just now getting to downloading all our pictures from the last few weeks. She looks pitifully sad, but isn't she cute?!)

You better be good for goodness sake!

Sadie got to go see Santa this past weekend when he was in town from the North Pole. We tracked him down at Traders Point and let Sadie whisper in his ear everything she is in need of for Christmas (socks, mittens, feeding dishes, headbands, you know the usual stuff an 8 month old asks for). She was quite impressed with his facial hair. Good thing it was real or it might not have stood up to the beating (or pulling rather) that it endured for those short seconds before the next kid shooed Sadie off.

We then ate lunch at the creamery and warmed up a bit before heading back out into the cold

It was a fine December day.

Mawmaw and Grampi visit

Mawmaw and Grampi came to visit Sadie last weekend, and she had so much fun showing off for them! Daniel's parents flew in last Thursday night and stayed until Monday. Sadie was finally feeling MUCH better by Saturday and went full force all weekend and hasn't slowed down yet. She's making up for lost time while being sick. She has been SO hyper. Very funny. She's been constantly bouncing up and down, smiling, squealing, waving her arms all over the place, and moving all around like the little inch worm that she is. It's quite the sight to see! :)

8 month update

Laying on her side posing! (and yes, Daniel is cutting fabric for me!)

Sadie turned 8 months old last Friday. We don't have much to update on this month other than she is just a happy girl as usual (other than while she's been sick). She isn't crawling YET, but she gets wherever she needs to go and gets into whatever she wants to! So it is as though she was crawling. It's amazing how much she is starting to look and act more toddler-like and less baby-like (sad for Mommy, exciting for Daddy). She loves playing with my wooden spoons and bowls. She likes to walk around the house with Mommy or Daddy carrying her. She loves looking out the windows (since we don't enjoy much time outside anymore these days). She is a techno junkie and loves anything electronic looking...remote control, telephone, cell phone, laptop, camera, etc. These are pics taken over the weekend on a day she was feeling a little better.

Checking herself out in the mirror! :)

Parenting 109: Taking care of baby during a stomach virus

Sooo...Sadie is STILL sick, or she was as of last night....with another vomitting episode. Stomach virus marathon....that is what this has felt like. I can only imagine what Sadie has felt like, but I know not well. Poor thing. Today was better though, thank goodness. We went to the doctor this morning, and he said he did not suspect anything out of the ordinary. They have evidently seen a couple of other cases recently where the child gets sick on and off for a while and that Sadie could be sick for another week. :( We will see how the next few days go, and trust the doctor that she is fine. We just want so badly for her to feel better again. Here is a picture I took of her this morning on her towel with her washable toys! :)

And here is a pic out our back window this morning.

Sadie enjoyed watching the snow out the windows. It has been snowing off and on since Sunday, but we decided not to take Sadie out in it yet. We'll wait until she's feeling a bit better. Her new snow suit just came in the mail on Friday and is all washed and ready to be broken in. I can't wait!

Happy Thanksgiving

We wanted to wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving. Thank you to all who have called today to check on Sadie and wish us a happy T-day. We are so grateful to have wonderful friends and family and especially for our little happy family of three.

May you all have lots of turkey, dressing, and pumpkin pie. May everyone have safe travels. May the Aggies win tonight (wishful thinking). And may Daniel and I not get sick! :)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

p.s. One of my coworkers called this morning to tell us he heard a commercial for Shiner Bock on the radio this morning. I guess Shiner is truly in Indiana to stay now, and Daniel is grateful for that!

Update on Sadie

I think Sadie is on the mend now. The only struggle left with her is still trying to keep enough food and liquids in her that won't hurt her sensitive tummy. We are still following a very strict diet. When talking to the nurse yesterday she asked, "Do you know about the 'brat' diet?". I thought, oh no she didn't just call Sadie a brat! Then she went on.... Bananas, Rice cereal, Applesauce, and Toast....B.R.A.T. Ohhhh! OK. So that is what we've been doing minus the toast becasue Sadie is still not on finger foods yet (she has to crawl with her belly off of the ground in order to get those....the rules on the finger foods containers, not mine). We've also been giving her some watered down Pedialyte to keep her hydrated. I will be so relieved when she shows all the signs to progress back to formula.

So now we wait to see if Daniel and I end up with "IT".

Sick Sadie...

Our little girl was sick this evening - poor Sadie. She thought the bowl we were keeping close by for 'accidents' was her new toy.

Christmas projects

So I haven’t written much on this blog lately. Daniel, thank you to him, has been carrying all the weight of our family in the blogosphere. I have been admittedly a little stressed at work lately and so busy planning for the holidays, that I just haven’t been in the blogging “mood”, so to speak! But, that is all about to change….I know, I can hear cheers of joy out there!!!


As I mentioned, I have been very busy readying our home for Christmas. We LOVE Christmas time, sometimes I think Daniel loves it more than I (he can go a little crazy with the Christmas jingles....aka, Christmas music...he wanted me to clarify what jingles meant in case anyone didn't know. ha!), but we both really like this time of year. Usually, however, we do not have anyone in our home during the month of December, and so we don’t go too overboard with many decorations other than a Christmas tree and the usual other things (basically setting out all of our nativity scenes), really because we’re just kinda loser-y like that (I mean that in the best possible way)! Well, not this year!!! Daniel’s parents will be coming to visit the first weekend of December and my entire immediate family (9 in all) will be visiting for Christmas weekend. We are so happy to be welcoming December travelers to our little home that we’re sparing no expense with the Christmas decorations (or at least I am sparing no expense…Daniel may stop me at some point because I WILL go overboard, it’s inevitable).


Anyway, since the holiday decorating has been draining all of my creative juices lately, I thought I would marry those projects with the blog and write about them. We are just so excited to be hosting Christmas for once (did I say that already?). I might as well share our decorating projects and decorated house with more than our visitors (with us living in Indiana, this may be our only chance at holiday hosting!) So now you will not have to travel all the way to Indiana to be able to take in the awesome Foley Family Christmas. We are coming to your home via this blog!!! Yes, get excited! Here is a teaser photo….more to come!

What to do...

Situation….Sadie now spits her food everywhere. She has spit before while eating, but it would be like once in a single feeding, and then she would keep eating. This weekend she decided to spit every time she ate and the entire feeding AND everything in her mouth. How is she supposed to get enough nutrition like this???? It is not because she disliked her food either, because she did it at every meal, and I KNOW my girl likes her apples and prunes!


Daniel and I have different “jobs” when it comes to Sadie. Feeding Sadie her meals is pretty much my job, mostly because I’m OCD and do not like the messes that Sadie and her daddy make together. :) Plus I really enjoy feeding her, or at least I did! I think I changed clothes twice yesterday and had to clean my glasses every time. I told Daniel last night that I was going to have to gear up tonight in a trash bag and some goggles before feeding her. ha!


So my question is: do you discipline an 8 month old baby (when I say discipline, I mean that in the lightest sense of the word...as in telling her no)? And if you are supposed to, then is food spitting something to be disciplined for? I mean she’s just learning that she can do things and get a reaction, right? I did try to use a stern (kinda) voice and tell Sadie, “No, we do not spit our food. Food is for eating. We don’t play with our food. Mealtimes are not for playing. It isn’t funny.” Over and over as I catch Daniel in my peripheral vision laughing in the living room. So much for my disciplining! :)


It isn’t all bad though. She smiles really proudly every time she does it, and THAT is funny!!!!

Trouble on the horizon!!!!

It doesn't seem like she is old enough, but somehow Sadie is on the verge of crawling. Right now she is mainly pulling herself around, but she is getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth, so it won't be long.

We have been told that she will get into everything when she gets her mobility, and here is the first proof of that - she found the baby wipes! The trouble for now is not her 'exploring', but how can we tell our little baby girl 'No' when we are loving what she is doing (for now at least)?!

And speaking of trouble on the horizon, surely she will get this out of her system and won't always want the remote!

The Economy and People's Decisions...

This post is a little different than our typical, but it has been on my mind, so I thought that I would share.

There have been a lot of conversations about our economy over the past several months and for good reason - things are currently bleak even for an optimist. This is the Dow Jones Industrial Average charted over the past year, and it is clear we have taken a downward turn.


There are so many factors that affect our economy and we have heard about a lot of them recently. There are also many thoughts and varying opinions about what went wrong, who’s to blame, and how we are going to fix things. I would agree that these are important questions, but in trying to answer them have we, myself included, forgot about or skipped over a very basic truth of economics – it is a SOCIAL science. It is PEOPLE that drive economics – demand, supply, prices, etc.

We have heard so many times that our problems are the result of something far removed from us as individuals (consumers and citizens). It appears that we are laying the majority of responsibility of our struggling economy on big corporations and our government, but is this really the case?

• Does the blame for people losing their homes lie with big corporations such as ‘greedy’ mortgage banks or ‘predatory’ credit card companies? Or, is it to some extent that we as a country spent beyond our means because we ‘have’ to have this or that?


• Are our energy costs a result of ‘huge’ American oil companies taking advantage of us? Or is it at least in large part the result of our demand for manufactured goods and our desire to drive the vehicle of our choice wherever and whenever that has driven the GLOBAL market price for oil to its highs.


• Is our own government to blame because of our ‘broken’ tax code and their ‘uncontrolled’ spending? Or is it that each of us tries to minimize our tax burden, but yet we demand that the government keep us safe, build and maintain our infrastructure to some of the highest levels in the world, provide social welfare benefits, etc.

I am not saying that I don’t agree that there are problems with each of the above that need to be addressed, and I certainly can’t say that I understand all of the complexities of each of these. However, it is ultimately the decisions and actions by individuals that have made our economy what it is. Our economy is on the decline right now, but history has shown us that our free-market economy works. When allowed to function, markets will dictate to businesses to produce more or less and to individuals to consume more or less. They also lead to price discovery and equilibriums, innovation and entrepreneurship, and in some cases, the failure of a company.

Our free market economy has been down before only to rebound and grow. This is part of the American Dream!

Tooth #2

Dental update.....Sadie got her second tooth yesterday!

Sadie's first word

She didn't start with Mommy, Daddy, or even anything similar, but she still won our hearts over! Ahh --- gee!!!

Soooo, maybe this is a stretch for a first word, but hey, it's close!

I voted....

....very good turn out in the two precincts that voted in our subdivision. We left the house at 11:30 and got back at 1:20. So it took about 1 hour 45 minutes. The poll workers were predicting a 90% turnout. Sadie was worn out by the time we got back in the car and fell asleep right away, but she got her sticker (Note her patriotic outfit)!
And now we wait......

p.s. I just noticed you can see Sadie's tooth in this picture when you open up the close-up. Check it out!

And on a lighter note.....

Election 2008

We are only a couple of days away from the 2008 elections, and we thought that we would share a few feelings with those interested in hearing them. We originally had thought we would not post on the election; however, some words our pastor spoke this morning during Sunday school, while discussing the book of Genesis, really hit home with us.

It is a privilege to be able to cast a vote in this great country, and we shall all remember that. Most of us eagerly gripe about the state of the world around us and our supposed failing government, but yet we don’t take the time to realize that we live in a country with more freedoms than most anyplace in the world, and the day to day luxuries that we take for granted are beyond most people’s wildest dreams.

We are not writing this blog to say that one presidential candidate (or any other elected official for that matter) is correct or wrong. We do not totally agree with either party on all issues. We all need to educate ourselves on the issues and the candidates, and we should not simply be Republicans or Democrats.

That which our pastor spoke of this morning was regarding the creation of life, God’s creation of life. This is an issue that has and continues to weigh heavy on our hearts: the sanctity of human life. All of us in the world today are here because God made us. Human life begins at conception in the womb because this is the way that God created it. God did not place his son, Jesus, directly on earth, but rather Jesus came through Mary’s womb. In Hebrew, the word womb is the same word that is also used for compassion, only one is in a noun format.

There is no such thing as an unplanned pregnancy in God’s eyes. There is no handicap or disorder that may be detected during a pregnancy or after birth that prevents a person from being loved by God. We are all special, we are all unique, and above all, we are all loved. This is a gift that has been given to each of us, and it is not our place to take it away or deny it to anyone else so that we can be comfortable in our selfish and sinful ways. As a matter of fact, our Declaration of Independence even states that ‘life is a God-given right’.

There are many important issues that have been discussed leading up to Tuesday’s elections, but with Sadie setting before us this election season, we do not believe any are as important as the sanctity of life. God will take care of us as He has said that we will not face anything that we can’t handle without His help. Our taxes may go up or they may go down, our health care may change, our strategies for dealing with international affairs may be altered, but of all of these situations, with faith, God will provide.

Below are links to each of the presidential candidate’s websites. Please take a look and please vote! Please also take the congressional and other local elections seriously. Government starts from the ground up.

Senator Obama's Website

Senator McCain's Website

99 Balloons

Sadie's in bed, The Beatles Abbey Road CD is on, Daniel is typing on his computer (wait for him to post his novel later), I'm playing on my brand spanking new computer, and we're waiting for Desperate Housewives to come on. Oh what a life! We hope everyone had a good weekend, we did! Here is a link to a video, 99 Balloons, that I just can't quit thinking about. It is so touching and makes me so appreciative for every day spent with Sadie and Daniel. It was on Oprah last week. So some of you may have seen it already.

Gig 'em Aggies!

Gig 'em Aggies! Whoop! A&M wins again. I wonder if Sadie's smart choice of attire helped the team out this week.....



No, we do not believe in brainwashing, just encouraging!

Thanks Tracy for the get-up!

7 months

Our baby turned 7 months yesterday and has been a busy bee.


She got to visit with her friend Lawson this past weekend. Our friends the Braggs were briefly in town from Evansville, and we were excited to meet them for lunch. Sadie and Lawson exchanged some notes on teething (Lawson is 2 months younger than Sadie, but has two teeth already!). Lawson is just as cute as they come, and we so wish we got to see the whole family more! Then she graced everyone with her presence at the Mundt's Fall Party. We didn't last long there, since it was late in the evening, but we were glad we could go for a while and bring Sadie. She very much enjoyed and appreciated Rob's bonfire! :)

Sadie and I were supposed to go with the rest of her daycare cronies to Stonycreek Farm for the Fall festivities yesterday. However it ended up being a super cold day and Daniel and I just decided it was a bit too cold for Sadie. I know the other, older kids were undaunted by the cool weather and had a very good time, and Sadie is looking forward to going with all the kids next year. This year instead we enjoyed a day at home together. It was nice and makes me really wish I could do it every day. I do get the next two Tuesdays off for Election Day and Veteran's Day, respectively, and I am looking forward to more quality time with my girl!

Another note, Daniel hit a deer yesterday morning on the way to work, or rather the deer hit him. He was in the Explorer, and it hit on the pasenger side. Usually, Daniel takes Sadie to daycare every morning because her babysitter lives just outside Sheridan where Daniel works (and is in the complete opposite direction of where I work), and usually he is in our Honda Accord. So we were very thankful he was in the Explorer, and very thankful Sadie was not with him.

So on to the 7 month updates....

Sadie has one tooth as you can see in the previous post. We are expecting a second tooth ANY day now. You can see it just trying to bust out! So very soon....

Sadie has been learning cause and effect. She has a particular toy with ducks that spin. She will spin one of the ducks and watch it spin and as soon as it stops, she spins it again.

She and I play a game where I kinda head butt her, gently of course. Well, now if I do the whole routine she will move her head to meet mine.

Sadie is also making progress toward crawling (I so need to get the house, or at least downstairs, baby-proofed!). She has been sleeping on her knees for some time now, but she is now getting up on her knees during play time and is busy hitting all kinds of funky poses, particularly what I think is a 'downward dog' in yoga. She can somewhat scoot backward. This has all developed so quickly that I'm not certain what to expect next.

Sadie now eats three full meals a day, and eats them all as if it were her last! :) She is so much like her mommy and daddy in this respect!

Well, sleep tight our sweet angel (I can hear her breathing in the monitor and it just makes me smile to know she's in the next room getting rested up for another fun day!). We hope all is well with everyone else. We were excited that our Aggies finally pulled off a win last weekend. Boy are we ready for basketball season to start!

A Tooth!

Sadie has a new addition today....she finally got a tooth!!! A what? A tooth!

Yea! We've been checking every evening and could tell she was close because her gums were getting whiter and whiter on the bottom. When Daniel picked her up today, Jane (Sadie's lovely daytime caregiver) said, "Sadie, you'll have to show your Mommy and Daddy what you have in your mouth." Sure enough, there is a tooth. It's kinda hard to see in my opinion, but you can definitely feel it.

We'll see if we can't catch a picture of it in the next few days to share with everyone (maybe I'm a little delusional to say that).

Hooray to finally having ONE tooth! Oh Steak here we come! :)

Pumpkinfest

We went to Pumpkinfest yesterday and had some fresh cider and homemade, warm apple-cinnamon donuts! Yum!

Still no teeth for Sadie, though I think she'll have some very soon. She is always rubbing her tongue along her bottom gums. We can't get her to take to a teether. She usually just uses her hand or a blanket to rub along her gums. She learned how to splash in the tub this week. So we can now have a shower while she is bathing! :) She's talking non-stop! She especially likes to squeal alot! And it doesn't matter where she's at.... daycare or home, church or the grocery store. She makes sure everyone can hear her. She's eating three "meals" a day now and doing very well at it. It is impressive how much she can eat. She is still such a happy baby. We just love her to death! Our Sweet Sadie!

Cousins

Sadie loves her cousins. Here's a pic of her that we thought was funny. She's fascinated with Livy....

and a pic of her and Bea, a couple of beautiful babies.....

Weekend in College Station

We took a quick weekend trip to visit some friends from college last weekend and enjoyed getting to see everyone. The Aggies aren't going to win the National Championship this year; however, a football weekend in College Station is still a great time.




On our trip, Sadie had the chance to stop into the 'world famous' Dixie Chicken, College Station's most well known drinking establishment. While she didn't get to partake, that didn't stop Craig from offering to share his drink with her. Just wait Craig - paybacks are coming!

Sadie also made a new friend this weekend. Here is a pic with her and Natalie, Billy and Anne's little girl, sharing toys at the tailgate.

We had a great time and are looking forward to seeing everyone again soon, and, of course, some brighter days for Texas A&M football!

It's October

Sadie's first Halloween party....

Six months

Sadie's halfway to a party!!! She had her six month check-up on Thursday.....17 lbs 6.5 oz, 27 in long, and 44 cm head circumference (80th, 90th, and 93rd percentiles, respectively). She didn't cry nearly as much from her shots, but just passed out pretty quickly there after. The doctor said she was just perfect, and we couldn't agree more! She is really sitting up on her own now and only falls if she gets too excited. :) She's eating solid foods like a champ. We think she MAY finally be getting teeth for real now. She has been super fussy at bedtime and not sleeping hardly at all in the middle of the night the last two nights and has a very distinct bump on her bottom gums. So we will see in the next couple of days. Here are some pics we took today. Sadie's not too sure what to think of the grass....you can tell in the pictures.

High school homecomings and other differences

So I learned something new over the last few weeks. Carmel's homecoming was two weeks ago which brought up high school homecoming traditions. Come to find out, Indiana doesn't "do" homecoming mums! Shocker, huh?! Then as I'm Googling it today to try and show some coworkers what all the mum/garter fuss is about, I slowly start to realize that all websites point to Texas! Is Texas the only state with this "spirited" tradition??? (after further thought, it is kinda an exaggerated tradition I guess) I'll have to find out more about it's history. I did have to laugh as I reminisced on the old high school homecomings and how we would actually talk about different people's mums. The conversations would go something like this, "Did you see her mum?" "Oh my gosh it was HUGE" "Tacky, huh?" Like one mum is actually tackier than another mum. Admittedly it was (and still is) a fun tradition!

All this mum business made me think I should write about all the other differences that have provided entertaining over the last several years:

• In Indiana, an ice chest is a "cooler". This is another fact I only learned two weeks ago. Daniel, of course, has tried to act like he grew up more civilized than I and says that he has ALWAYS called it a cooler and NEVER an ice chest. What?!!!
• Potluck dinner = Pitch-in in Indiana
• There has been some debate on Frito pie. We've had differing opinions on this matter. Some say they've never heard of a 'dish' like this. Others call it a 'walking taco'. While still others say it's a haystack or something like that.
• Did you know that other colleges around the country don't have hand gestures to express their loyalty (example: thumbs up at A&M, bear claw at Baylor, guns at Tech, horns at tu, etc.). Which led Daniel and I to think about this further. We think this was may be an old SWC tradition??? Anyone else have a history on this tradition? We've had some explaining to do over the last few years as to why all of our friends from Aggieland are giving a thumbs up in pictures. Then there's a whole other conversation discussing what Gig 'em means! :) This difference does explain why other colleges say "they're #1" when the cameras roll across their fans....they just don't have anything better to do with their hands!
• Ranch dressing is not the dip of choice in the Midwest. Here in the Hoosier state, nacho cheese dip is what it's all about. When you order breadsticks from a pizza joint, they come with marinara or nacho cheese sauce. Go figure! This took some getting used to, but I have to say, it's not so bad!

Well, these are just a few of the fun differences we have encountered. Usually, the joke is on us as people are trying to figure out what the heck we're talking about! How different two parts of the country can be!

Fishin'

This one's for Papaw.....

This is a picture from Sadie's daycare party last Friday night at Dave and Jane's house. Look at how professional she looks...she's got fishin' in her blood alright!

Thanks Dave for the photo!

Football Saturday

It may take some time for Sadie to really understand the game of football, but come on, taking a nap during a Notre Dame game??? Daddy has some work ahead of him!