Baby "Sprinkle" 1.25.14

My friend Valoree asked if she could throw me a baby "sprinkle", which is a lot like a baby shower, but smaller-ish since I have a lot of what we need already for baby.  I was really excited about getting together with some friends and celebrating baby!

Valoree asked what foods I have been craving this pregnancy.  One food has been nachos, and the other has been Snickers bars.  So she had nachos and a party favor of mini Snickers bars.  I thought that was so neat!

Lots of yummy food!  And do you see the spectacular view she has?  She gets to watch whales and all sorts of things from their house.

Valoree and I

My friend Joyce and I.

From left to right: Kelly (she has a daughter a few months older than Jeralyn), me, and Lisa.

Left to right: Samantha (Abby's mom), me, and Sarah.  All 3 of us are pregnant.

Beautiful cupcakes

Group shot.  Left to right: Valoree, Jill (my neighbor), Nicole (her daughter Gracie hugging her), Samantha, Lisa, Joyce, Sarah (in the back), (in front of Sarah) Olivia and Kimberly (our other neighbors), and then Kelly.  And of course I'm in the middle.  And the little girl in the left bottom corner is Annika, Sarah's daughter.

Opening gifts

I am so blessed!  So thankful for these ladies!  It was a wonderful time together!

New Ride 1.24.14

This past summer Jeralyn had so much fun riding in this Little Tykes car that was at Grandpa & Grandma Smith's house.  I've been on the look-out for them ever since.  And being we live in Ketchikan, I felt like it was going to be like searching for gold to get one since we live on an island.  There are just some things that are hard to have shipped here, like her water table for instance.  I'm not sure why, but even Amazon Prime isn't a friend certain items.  Anyway, I drove past the Salvation Army thrift store one day and spotted the car on their deck.  I whipped around as fast as I could and snatched it!  Yay!  I am SO happy we found one!  It needs some extra cleaning at some point and the roof has it's own color personality, but she loves it!

Raspberry Face 1.22.14

If there's a berry around, she will eat it.  I was thawing out some raspberries to make a dessert.  She spotted them and asked for them for her snack.  She enjoyed every bite!

Puddle Jumpin' 1.18.14

 I was at a friend's house, so Quent and Jeralyn went for a hike on the Carlanna Lake trail.  I heard they had a great time and from the pictures, it's very true indeed!

Can you just feel the joy?

Jump!  Splash!  Jump!  Splash!

I love her expression!

I LOVE this photo!  There's just something so sweet about it!

I don't know what got her attention here, but I love the "O" shape of her mouth!

My Girl 1.17.14

Friends 1.16.14

We had some friends from Wrangell visiting.  One set of friends were here for their son to get surgery on his broken arm (poor little guy!).  You can see the cast on Evo's arm below (red shirt).  Another friend had an appointment, so we hung out with her kids.  It was SO great to see our friends!  We had them over for dinner that evening.  Jeralyn had a blast playing with her friends!  She was so busy playing!  We love it that we aren't too far from Wrangell.

Jack, Renee (in the back), Jeralyn, and Evo.

My friend Jamie and I.

Outside Smiles 1.15.14

We had a LOT of rain in December, so when it's not pouring out we try to get outside.  We redefine what a "nice day" means in Southeast Alaska in the fall and winter.

Sweet Girl 1.13.14

High Chair Smiles 1.13.14

I realize we have a lot of photos of her eating, but it's when she's actually sitting still and she always makes the funniest faces!

Blueberry face!

Bathing Shelly 1.11.14

 Jeralyn was helping me put away some things in baby boy's room and she was really interested in the baby bath tub.  She decided to give Shelly a bath.  It was so cute to watch her play and pretend.  Then she got most of her bath toys for Shelly.  So cute!

Sweetheart 1.8.14

I have slowly been working on Jeralyn's quilt.  It's basically a queen size quilt, so it's been a longer project.  The front of the quilt is done, so I ordered the fabric for the back.  I just had to find something with turtles on it.  I spent some time this particular day laying out the backing fabric so I could measure, cut and sew.  Jeralyn was "helping" me.  She's so cute!

She's such a happy girl!

30 Weeks 1.7.14

We are growing and getting bigger!  I am noticing that baby is a lot more active at this point than Jeralyn was.  With Jeralyn, I had to lay on my side and try to move her around to make sure she was ok, but I think I've only had to do that maybe 2x this whole pregnancy.  He is an active little guy, especially at night when I'm trying to fall asleep.

Sucker 1.4.14

Jeralyn will often wake up from her nap and inform me what she would like to have for her after-nap snack.  For a little while it was a sucker (which I also include a piece of fruit with).  Here she is enjoying a sucker.

Baby Boy Quilt 1.3.14

I made a quilt for baby boy Smith...in a week!  I impressed myself!  For one, I don't really enjoy sewing that much, and two, it usually takes me a long time to complete such a project.  But when I'm pregnant I'm super creative, so I was super stoked about getting started on the project.  And then I was having so much fun that I couldn't stop (even with sewing--which I've done a lot of lately).  It's a simple quilt, so that helped the project go even faster.  I really like how it turned out!

The colors of the quilt are the colors of his bedroom.  I don't have a particular theme.  I like to work with colors more than with a theme.

The back side of the quilt is minky fabric.  So soft!

Here's the quilt in his crib with a little teddy bear Grandpa and Grandma Smith sent.  (Thank you!)

I will show more pictures of his room, soon!

Outside 1.3.14

I'm trying to take more pictures.  It's something we both need to work on.

We happened to have a nice day weather-wise, so we played outside in the sun for a little while.  Jeralyn likes to go in her swing and make these loud noises.  It's funny!  I can't believe how big she looks in the swing now!

Fish Eye 1.2.14

Happy New Year!  Quent bought himself a new toy, a fish eye lens.  And we were his first victims!

Turtle Book 12.30.13

Jeralyn has a serious love for turtles.  Grandpa and Grandma Smith sent her some turtle books for Christmas.  Here she was reading one of them.  We are learning all sorts of things about turtles now.  She is having fun!

12.27.13

Just a random photo I asked Quent to take of me.

Jeralyn was pretending to sew and talk on the phone.  Sweet girl!

Christmas 12.25.13

 We had a nice Christmas day (although not a lot of photos to show for it).  Jeralyn slept in a little since she was up later than normal the night before.  We had gone to a friend's house for Christmas Eve dinner.  She woke up to some fun new toys and presents under the tree.  I made a breakfast casserole, which I don't even know why I bothered.  Next Christmas we should just eat candy for breakfast because that's basically what happened this year.  Ha!  In fact, I think the only "healthy" food Jeralyn ate the whole day was a mandarin orange.  No joke!

Quent took a lot of video of her opening her presents, which I'm not even sure if we will even post, but I did manage to take a few photos of her opening presents.  Here is the best one.

Later in the day we had some friends over for Christmas dinner.  We made a slow-cooked chicken and a prime rib roast.  Both were delicious!  It was all said and done after 2 hours though, which I was a little bummed about.  It made me miss family all the more!

Jeralyn and one of her favorite people, Olivia.

Our friend Cassie made the most delicious and moist dark chocolate cake!  It was seriously AMAZING!

We had a merry Christmas!