Nap Wars

Cali is currently waging a full scale war against naps! For the past 10 months Cali has enjoyed taking almost all of her naps in someone's arms. Most of them were enjoyed in Nick's arms in the recliner for 2 hours every afternoon. Well, Sunday we drew a line in the sand. No More!

The new plan is for Cali and I to go home at 11am each day for an early lunch. That way Cali will nap in her crib. I eat while she sleeps then head back to work once Nick gets home. She and Nick play until nap time then play till I come home. This may be the plan, but this is not what is happening!

The morning nap is going ok, but it is much shorter than we'd like (only 30-40 minutes). The afternoon nap is not going well at all. Poor Nick has to listen to her SCREAM for an hour before she wears herself out. Today she cried so much she started sweating. At that point Nick gave up and they just played. Cali got a total of 39 minutes worth of nap time in today.

Any suggestions? The girl needs to be napping in her crib for 1-3 hours a day at her age.

So far the score is Cali 3, naps 0!

Merry Christmas

Cali had a great FIRST CHRISTMAS!!

Cali started the morning off at 5:45am ready for presents! We spent the morning playing with new toys and cooking. We joined the extended Jordan family in Nick's hometown for lunch. It was great to see everyone and hang out. Cali did a great job and even let lots of people hold her!

After lunch we went over to Grandma Jordan's house for more presents. Cali loved playing with all her new toys, the boxes and her cousin Leigha's toys!

Here are some pictures from Cali's First Christmas!

Cali heading for presents


Opening presents with daddy and mommy




Playing with her new toys


Hanging out with uncles, aunts and cousins


Eating turkey for the first time


Cali had a pile of new toys - she wanted to play with a plastic cup


Playing with Aunt Jennifer and Cousin Leigha's toy cat

10 Months Old

Cali is 10 months old today! Wow time flies! It is hard to believe she has been here for almost a year. Nick and I can't imagine our lives without this sweet little girl! She makes every day fun!

Cali's tricks and talents at 10 months old:

• She has 5 teeth, 2 on top and 3 on bottom
• Crawling everywhere and she is FAST!
• Can stand without holding on for a few seconds at a time
• Can open and close drawers
• Makes lots of crazy noises
  
• Only really wants food that she can feed herself. Her favorites are toast, cheerios, and cheese (if she is in the mood).
• She claps when she is excited
• She can wave
• Sleeps from 7pm-6am, with one night feeding
• Will only take a nap if someone is holding her. She takes a 20 minute nap in the morning and a 2 hour nap in the afternoon.
  
• Puts everything in her mouth
• She loves to watch people!
  

This is Cali fresh out of the bath tub. She has curly hair when not brushed.

She was not happy about getting her 10 month pictures taken.

In front of the tree.

Happy playing!

SNOW!!!

Over the weekend we received about 2-3 inches of snow. We all suited up and headed outside to play and for some fun pictures!

Here she is checking out the snow.

Looking beautiful in her snow suit.

Playing with daddy

Looking at mommy

Jack looking for sticks

Harley waiting for us to throw the ball

Go Cali Go!

If she is awake she is on the move!

7 years

Monday was our 7 year anniversary! It has been amazing to see how far we have come as a couple in that time. We truly are an "Us" and work as a team. We have gone through career changes, lose of family members, health issues, graduate school and even the journey of parenthood over the past 7 years.

Looking back it is clear that God knew what He was doing when we put us together. He knew we would be better for the Kingdom together than apart. I thank God everyday for blessing me with Nick.

Seven things I love about Nick:
1. He truly is my best friend
2. He is an amazing father
3. He is in love with the Lord
4. He puts his heart and soul into everything he does
5. He is very considerate of other people and their feelings
6. He makes family a priority
7. He is so much fun to be around!

Here are some fun pictures from our wedding!
December 14, 2002

First Babysitter

Nick and I went out for dinner on Monday for our anniversary and left Cali with her first official, non-family, babysitter!

Abby did a great job! Of course Cali was asleep the whole time, but Abby was ready just in case!
She watched movies and played with the dogs. Excellent job!

Christmas Cookies!

Christmas isn't Christmas without cookies! Growing up we would always go to Indiana to spend the holiday with my mom's family. It was great to see family and maybe even have a white Christmas but the best part were Grandma's cookies! She would have tins all over the house with different kinds of cookies. My favorites were her oatmeal cookies and her snicker doodles!

Here is her snicker doodle recipe:
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp soda
2 tbsp sugar & 2 tsp cinnamon mixed together

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream sugar and butter together, add eggs. Sift together flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Stir into sugar, butter, egg mixtures. Form dough into balls and roll in sugar / cinnamon mixture.
Bake 10-12 minutes.


What is your favorite Christmas Cookie?

Changes

It always throws me off when Cali makes a big change. It seems like once we get a handle on life she goes and does something to change everything. I guess that is just how life will be from now on. Once I get a system and things organized - its all going to change.

Some recent examples:

The crawling was of course huge! I can't just put her on the floor while I get ready in the morning anymore. If I do she seems to find cords, shoes, trash cans, books and socks to put in her mouth. If I put her in the living room to play and walk into the kitchen to get something - she follows me! And we still have lots of "Cali Proofing" to do so there are still a number of not safe places to sit her down.

She has also changed her eating the past few days. She is all about feeding herself and only really wants food she can pick up and eat. Cali can kill a piece of toast (minus the crust) by herself in one sitting! She also loves the Gerber Puffs. So I'm working on making her food that she can feed herself. Today I tried: cheese (she only ate 1 piece), carrots (I didn't cook them right so they didn't work), and chicken (she got confused when it didn't dissolve but ate 2 pieces).

The other major change is Cali refusing her morning nap. She is now down to a 2 hour nap in the afternoon with Nick. This means she is awake with me from 6am (ish) to 1pm at work! As you can image the last hour or two she is not the happiest of campers! If she does take a morning nap it is only around 15 minutes.

Christmas Photos

This morning we had our Christmas family photos and Cali's 9 month pictures taken. Here are some of the better ones.



Cali got tired of sitting and wanted to show everyone her crawling skills.

Christmas Parade Take 2

Friday night we went to another Christmas parade. It was pretty cold so Cali hung out with Nick while I rode on our company float. Our float was close to the front so when I got done I ran back to where Nick was so I could see the rest of the parade.

This is how I found them.

Parades make Cali sleepy.

Cali's Dedication

Today was Cali's dedication at our church. It was a very special day as we stood before the church to declare our commitment to raise Cali in a Christian home and welcoming the church's help in showing her God's grace. We had our extended family present to witness the event and also state their commitment to do their part to raise Cali and draw her to Christ.


Pastor Eric did a great job with the dedication. It was really special to have him do the little ceremony because Eric is the pastor who married us almost 7 years ago.

Cali was adorable and well behaved during the whole thing! She even tried to take the microphone from Eric while he was talking.

After the service we came back to the house for lunch. It was the first time we had served a meal to both sides of our family.


The four cousins had a great time playing! The two five year olds got along really well and helped entertain the younger two.

It was a long day for Cali that included LOTS of playing. Poor thing was up from 7:30am to 3pm before she got a decent nap. Once everyone left she slept for 2 hours.

This evening we put her back in her dress for photos. She looked like a princess.

She was not too excited about the photo shoot though. This also proves that she is not happy all the time:)

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a fun Thanksgiving with my side of the family at my sister's house, aka "Toyland". Cali had a great time playing with her cousins and their toys. The highlight was Cali finally figuring out how to crawl!

9 Months Old!

Cali is 9 months old today!

We went in for her 9 month check up today and she was 18 lbs 1 oz and 27 1/2 inches long. It is amazing how big she is getting! She did great at the Dr. until she got her flu shots.

Fun facts about 9 month old Cali:

• She has 3 teeth and is working on her 4th
• She can walk if you hold her hands
• She loves sweet potatoes, apple sauce, carrots, and bananas
• She sleeps from 8pm to 6:30am most nights
• She makes LOTS of fun noises
• She is the queen of the 20 minute power nap
• She can pull herself up from sitting
• She can sit up from a laying down position
• She still spends the morning with Pam at work and the afternoon at home with nick
• She doesn't like to be ignored

Christmas Parade

Cali went to her first parade today! We were actually in the local Christmas parade. My company had a truck and trailer in the parade. It was a ton of fun! We all sat in the bed of the truck and waved.Cali did great!
However after about 10 minutes of waving at the crowd she fell asleep.
She slept for over 45 minutes in my lap as I waved.

Awake!

Now that Cali can sit up on her own, this is how I find her when she wakes up.


Sitting up and smiling in her crib!

Toyland & New Tricks

Friday night Grandma Jordan and Grannie came over for dinner. We had a nice time chatting and watching Cali play.

Saturday we went to Toyland (my sister's house) to celebrate my birthday. Cali had a blast! She played in a horse jumpy, went through boxes of toys and played with her cousins. With the combination of Mary's house having carpet (our house is hardwood and tile) and the older cousins running around Cali got some motivation to move. She accomplished 2 new tricks while at Aunt Mary's house:

1 - Go from on her tummy to a sitting position.

2 - Go from sitting to pulling up on furniture, toys and Nick.

Cali playing in the horse


Playing with her cousins


Cali pushing herself into a sitting position

Walking

This is my first attempt at iMovie.

Shoes

As a women their are certain rights of passage... Cali achieved one of these over the weekend. Shoe shopping!

We went Saturday night with Nick's mom and her friend but were not willing to spend $30 on a pair. So we left empty handed.

With Angie's advice Cali and I went to Target on Sunday. Here is the picture of Cali trying on shoes! We decided to go with the pink pair! She wore them all day and only pulled them off once!

Grandparent Fun!

Saturday Cali got to play with her grandparents!

Grandma Kerry and Grandpa Ray came over to play Saturday for a few hours while Nick was hanging out with the youth. They came over for lunch and some quality play time.
Here is Cali playing with Grandma Kerry!


After a good nap we meet Grandma Jordan and her friend for dinner. After dinner we walked around and tried to find Cali her first pair of shoes. They were great sports as we dragged them from kids section to kids section trying on shoes!
Here is Cali playing with Grandma Jordan!