Boo!

Hope everyone has a great Halloween. Tonight we will be having dinner with some friends and then watching a scary movie. Then on Saturday Belle and I will be spending the day traveling with Grandma and Grandpa Smith to visit Bonnie in Ohio. This will be Belle's first trip out of state. We are looking forward to seeing Bonnie!

Hot Tamale!

We had an eventful weekend here at the Delaney house. On Friday John worked from home and was able to watch Anabelle for a little while so that I could go get a massage. It was one of the best massages I have ever had, rivaled with the massage we got on our honeymoon. I was telling John how wonderful it was and how good the girl was who gave the massage and John seemed to think that maybe it was related to the amount of stress I have been in and that it was similar to the stress I was in after our wedding, and that that is why it was so good. Yeah, he could be right :)

On Friday night we had some friends over to play poker. Both John and I love playing poker and used to host games all the time, but over the last 2 years we haven't been playing as much poker as we like, so we were really happy to have everyone over. Anabelle chose to stay awake all day and then crash from 8:30 pm to about 4 am, which was nice because John and I could both enjoy playing and not have to be on baby duty. Of course we both lost, but had a great time.

The next day we went out to Zion, IL to a Chili Cookoff Contest Party hosted by our friends Michael and Inga. Every year they host this party and John has enjoyed making his chili and entering it in the past years. He has won 2nd place in the past, so we were excited to see how he would do this year.

In honor of the party and Anabelle being the youngest participant Inga made a onesie for Anabelle with a Chili Pepper on it. It was so cute and thoughtful-Thanks Inga!

At the Chili Party, Anabelle and Phil are deep in conversation

Congratulations on taking 2nd place again John, even though I can hardly eat your chili because it is so hot- it is tasty!

We had a great time at the party, thanks Michael and Inga!

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing, and enjoying a lazy Sunday. Hope everyone else had a great weekend too!

Pumpkin picking

On Tuesday John was off from work, the weather was beautiful, and we had some fun activities planned. Anabelle had her 1 month well baby visit to Dr. Andy. She is doing great, weighing in at 10lbs 6oz and 22 inches long. She did have to get 1 shot, her HepB vaccine, but she took it like a champ only crying for a second.

After the doctor it was time to go to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkin, we drove about 45 minutes to Didier Farm in Deerfield. It wasn't as good as Quig's Orchard that we used to go to, sadly they closed, but it was ok. We thought it would be less crowded being on a weekday, but we forgot about the school children who were visiting. It made me remember when I used to take my students to the pumpkin patch, those were some of my favorite field trips. Anabelle helped us look through all of the pumpkins picking out a big one to take home. After that we had to stop by the bake shop and load up on apple cider, corn on the cob, homemade cheese popcorn, and apple cider donuts-Yum!!

Anabelle gives her approval of the pumpkin

Hi Grandma Jackson! Look I'm wearing the Halloween shirt you got me, it's so cute!

A beautiful Fall day!

Bird Watching

We had a great weekend here in the Delaney house. Anabelle, John, and I survived our first night apart. Friday night Mommy and Daddy went to a concert and had a great time, while Grandma and Grandpa Smith babysat. We went out to dinner, and enjoyed being able to eat hot food, with both hands, and at the same time. Then it was off to see Mike Doughty, a singer we have seen before and really enjoy, it was a great show. Following the concert we decided to take advantage of the fact that we had a sitter and met up with some friends celebrating a birthday. It was a late night, but fun... and I only got sad and weepy a few times :)

Saturday was spent reuniting with Belle and doing some shopping with grandma at the outlet mall, of course we bought some cute stuff!

Sunday Belle, John, and I spent the day watching football, and that night went to a Bears party at a friends place. Anabelle was great, she loves being around people and didn't fuss at all. We came home and put Belle to bed at 11pm and she had her first full night of sleep. She was nice enough to sleep till 7am! John and I both got up to make sure she was still breathing...we were both so surprised she slept so long. We'll see if she keeps it up or if it was a fluke.

Introducing Anabelle to Target today, she's gonna learn to love that store. Happy Monday everyone!

Friday

Here is some video of Belle doing absolutely nothing except looking cute! Hope you all have a great weekend. John and I have plans to go to a concert so Belle will have her first night away from mom and dad and spend some time with Grandma Smith. I'm sure Anabelle will be fine, but how will I do?

Sleeping and shopping

I took some pictures of Belle sleeping yesterday and got her mid yawn on one of them, I like to call it her Elvis look.

Following her afternoon nap we bundled up and headed over to the mall to get out of the house and walk around. We like to go to Old Orchard Mall b/c it is an outdoor mall, and you can get fresh air while window shopping. With the way the weather has been lately it won't be long before we are stuck inside where it's warmer, but for now we are enjoying the fall weather.

Belle decided to reject her bassinet last night, resulting in very little sleep for mommy. Therefore today was spent doing very little. I gave Anabelle a bath, which she still hates... screams through the entire thing. I have learned to be very fast. Then I got a lesson in why it's always smart to put on a diaper immediately following bath time =) Luckily I hadn't taken my shower for the day yet. I don't think I'll make that mistake again. Not too much else going on here, tomorrow we have big plans to go to the post office. I know what you're thinking, "slow down Christy!"

Halloween Decorating

3 weeks old!

Anabelle is 3 weeks old and doing great! She is getting on a better schedule and this week we have been blessed with her deciding to sleep from midnight through 4/5 waking to eat and hang out for about an hour and then sleeping again till 8/9. This amount of sleep is fabulous and we are hoping it continues. However prior to this period of sleep she is frequently fussy for about 2-3 hours, where we attempt to figure out what she needs/desires.

Anabelle is also becoming more alert; looking around, reaching out for toys, hair, clothing, Daddy's chest chair and anything else that looks fun to grab. It is truly fun to see her discover new things and her expressions are so funny.


Since posting video is so easy I am thinking I will try to post daily or at least every few days. Don't expect anything too exciting, we don't do much around here except eat, sleep, and generally look cute-but hey who doesn't want to see that?

Testing out some video

Thought I would try to figure out how to add video to the blog. This was pretty easy so expect more to come. As you can see Anabelle is doing great, so are mom and dad.