Grandfather Mountain

We set out to explore one of the local features today. It was rather windy and quite chilly, but it was a lot of fun. We went to a place called grandfather mountain. They have a windy road that is nothing but switchbacks. Getting there we took the "long" way and coming home we went on the blue ridge parkway. We got to drive on the really cool viaduct, which is what is classically shown as the blue ridge parkway. :) We did a bit of hiking while there, so it was not the best activity for me since I needed a day off of running. There was also the mile high bridge that we hiked to, but A was asleep so once I found it I just turned around and went back to the car. It was neat hiking up to it though because with the wind, the support cables were humming. There was interesting harmony being made and it also was a gauge of how close I was. Here are the pictures.

Spaghetti Squash

We occasionally have spaghetti squash for supper. We do this since pasta for me isn't exactly cheap, it is an easy thing to cook, and it is quite tasty. It had been a while since we'd done squash and as Chris said, "I forgot how much you liked squash, baby girl" as he kept shoveling squash with sauce on it in her mouth. Here are a couple of cute pictures I was able to get.

Oxford, MS

Well, this past weekend we made a quick trip to Oxford, MS for a wedding. It was a great trip, though really quick. A did marvelously on the trip, though today she has been a super cuddly baby. She was the ham and during the reception she tried to dance with all the little boys. It was GREAT! Everyone loved her, of course who wouldn't? But I'm the mom, I'm supposed to say that. I'm about to attempt bread for the first time here, so hopefully it turns out okay.

Edit: to fix the photos and say that the bread turned out really well. I may like baking here in the mountains because it gives my denser flours less air pressure to deal with so they rise more! It is great, I can actually have airy muffins and bread. Chris now wants me to attempt a chocolate cake of some kind.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the wedding.

The sun finally came out that day and it was bright! while waiting for the wedding to start

All of us sporting the shades

Well, the groom seems to like A, but she's not so sure about him.

 

Working on the walking thing

Playing with my hat, which she seems to love

Dancing with all the boys. The fact that she can't really walk yet doesn't stop her.

Walking at a rest stop in TN

11 months and counting

Well, as it has been about a week, I suppose I should put a little something here. We passed the 11 month mark yesterday and still no walking. She is super fast crawling and will stand there, literally just stand there, for a really long time. She will also walk with just one finger for support, and monster crawl on hard floors, but she is adamantly refusing to actually walk alone.

She got two teeth last week and is working on a third, at least we think she is by the crabbiness and drool. She isn't really drooling all over herself, but rather all over anything she puts in her mouth. We are gearing up for May, which will bring several visitors and a first birthday for us!

I finished the quilt from a few weeks back and it is going to my mother tomorrow. I ended up doing a Noah's ark theme -- an ark caught in the mountains with a few trees and some animals. There is also a sun and white puffy clouds (thanks Mags!) for the sky portion of the quilt. I think it turned out well, and I learned a lot about non-ditch quilting. :) This side is more difficult to see, but you can see the sun really well in the bottom left corner. The ark is in the middle of the quilt more or less.

We are really starting to see spring here. The trees have greened up considerably and the weather is sort of warming up. We are in the seventies during the day and the 40s or 50s overnight.

Monday we explored a new park in a nearby town. It has a lot more stuff A's size, so we will go back there I'm sure. It was also not so busy, so I didn't worry about her getting run over by the bigger kids.

Easter Finery

 Well, we didn't make it to a mall Easter Bunny or any egg hunts this year. However, we did make it to Arkansas to see family. Chris had a four day weekend, so we left Friday after work, drove all night (12 hours door to door), hung out for a few days then drove home yesterday. It was a much longer drive coming home with A being up. She is getting a new tooth as well, the top right that is one off of middle, yeah, it showed up yesterday. Kind of out of the blue, but it makes sense why she seemed a bit extra cranky. She is starting to sleep better at night, so hopefully we can work on that a bit more.

The first two pictures are of us at church. We got to see our old church family and it was a lot of fun. It was the first time we managed to make it back for a church service since we moved to Chicago all those years ago. It was nice to see everyone. The coolest surprise was the music minister got married and had a son a few months older than A. They played a bit during the service.

These are family pictures taken outside of my mother-in-law's house. 

Since you can't really have Easter without eggs, we did manage to dye some eggs and get them together for an Easter basket of sorts. A really thought the paper needed to be out of the basket and didn't want to get in the basket. She also wanted to share all of her eggs. 

Quick Video

I mentioned in the giveaway post about A feeding herself. This is a bit longer than I typically get of her, but I think it is funny if you finish it out. Here she is working with Cheerios. She also likes to share with Chris. It is really hard when she wants to share with me. I need to learn a trick on making food I can't have disappear when she puts it in my mouth, only I can't actually have it go in my mouth, or eat it...

Randomness, and a giveaway

Well, I normally don't do this, but I'm tempted to so here goes nothing. I currently have a quilt that needs quilting and a good home. Since I really really can't decide which one of my friends and family would put the quilt to the best use, I'll do a quick giveaway. :) The person who gives me the best idea for the quilting will win the quilt. (The quilting is the pattern that holds the parts of the quilt together for those who don't know.) It needs to be something simple -- stars, rainbows, crosses, etc. Be as specific as possible. I will take suggestions/entries until April 10, provided someone doesn't provide me with a really good idea before then. :) With your entry make sure to leave a way for me to contact you. Please "follow" the blog as well if you are going to enter, and you can even suggest something if you want to give the quilt to someone you know is expecting.

Here is the quilt top that needs quilting:

The back is an alphabet pattern that has letters and words that start with those words, for example, A and apple with a picture of an apple. In my mind I've titled the quilt, "Remembering God's Promises" because of the rainbow theme and the promise God made to Noah with the rainbows. Also, since it is a baby quilt and babies are blessings, it is a reminder of the promises God has made for us and our children.

You can pretty much see what I've been up to lately. I've also made a nice sun hat for A and am working on a summer dress since I can't seem to have any quilting ideas. I'm working on running a 5k again. I'm also trying to decide if I want to do the "High Country Triple Crown" series of races this summer/fall. I'm highly tempted, not sure if I can actually commit to it though since A is still nursing.

A is incredibly close to walking. As in, if she decides to stand up and walk across a room it won't surprise me. I think she is working on perfecting walking before really taking those first steps alone. She is babbling like no one's business and regularly talks to us from her carseat for trips, before she falls asleep. She is starting to feed herself finger foods and sometimes will not eat something unless she can put it in her own mouth. She regularly forgets to leave it in her mouth, so I'm learning to deal with the messes.

Chris is liking his job. On Friday he had a big day with an emergency preparedness drill. It basically shut down the building because of an "explosion" (something he rigged to look like an explosion that wasn't) and some random spills and chemical problems. They had actors in with fake blood and all sorts of other gooey stuff. They even had helicopters flying overhead. We live close enough that it bothered us a bit until I remembered what was going on.

We've decided that we get more hail here than anything. We've gotten pea sized hail consistently for the past few weeks. We are very thankful for our carport. A now knows all about hail as well since we talk about it and have broken a few open for her.