I did get some things done on my to-do list.

As soon as we got home yesterday, the house was freezing, so I decided that the only way to stay warm was to keep busy. I strapped Daphne to me, and I went out and cleaned out the car. Usually this takes me days after a trip, but it was done within the hour. We cleaned the car and then vacuumed it and cleaned the hard surfaces with Windex!

After that, we came in and cleaned the house, so that got all handled. I just need to keep it clean now, which is a hard thing to do. So, this stays on the list until it gets cleaned again!

I then gave the dog a bath. I haven’t done this since before the baby was born. I had been taking him to a groomer, but I was noticing that she was missing things, so I gave him a bath myself. He had rolled in cow manure when he was out at the ranch, so this was a must.

He came really clean, so I plan to do it more often. Daphne helped, and it wasn’t so bad really. He enjoyed it!

I am now off to mat things. Lots of that to do for sure.

Yes, it is true, Daphne took her first steps this weekend. On Saturday night, my sister and I had just made raviolis for dinner, and we were sitting on the floor of the kitchen eating them. Daphne was between the two of us, and she was looking for something to eat in my bowl. She tried almost walking to get to it.

I immediately put the bowl down and so did my sister, and we put her between the two of us. My sister held her and pointed her toward me. I was just beyond her reach, so she took two steps toward me and then fell on her bum.

Good job Daphne! The first steps go down in the books on November 24th at only 8.5 months old!

I told Daphne that she wasn’t allowed to get a tooth until I was able to take a good photo of her toothless smile. The funny thing is that she actually listened to me. She is almost 9 months old, and it was starting to look like she wasn’t ever going to get teeth.

When I hunkered right down and took the photos that I wanted, she went and got herself her first tooth!!!

It wasn’t as dramatic as I thought that it would be. It didn’t take a fever or many sleepless nights or anything. It just came right out!

It is on the bottom left. It is cute, but it is sharp. I was in no hurry for her to get teeth because I am still nursing her, but she has to grow up some time right? The official date of this new tooth is
November 11th! Yay! Well done Daphne.

I just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to all who read my blog. I hope that your Thanksiging was lovely. Jared, Daphne and I all headed out to eastern Oregon to visit with my family. It is a long drive, but we had a lot of fun. More on this later.

I am thankful for my family, especially our new addition, Daphne. I am also thankful that I have had the opportunity to go to Greece and expand my photography skills to the point that I have been able to run a viable business. I have happy clients talking to me almost every day about how much they liked my photos of their wedding, or how excited they are to have me photograph their wedding because of how lovely the photos they have seen are.

I am thankful for my husband who puts up with my griping and snapping at times and is always willing to be my best friend even when he doesn’t feel well. Thanks Jared.

My family rocks. I love spending time with them!!!!

In the month of October, I posted a record number of times at a whopping 87. That is almost 3 posts each day.

The month I planned to NaBloPoMo, I have only posted 15 times. I know, I know, I will get back in gear. I promise.

In case you didn’t notice, I changed the style of my blog. I like to change it up a little bit and keep you on your toes. I got tired of the blue, and I am liking the new sea foam green!!!

Ok! The Thanksgiving Holiday is now over and I have a lot to do in the next week. Daphne’s naming ceremony is coming up on Saturday, and we have a lot of people coming over to help celebrate that. After that, I am leaving for New York. These two things, one-after-another, are making for a very big amount of work.

I figured I would post my to-do list up here, and then update you when I get things done. That way, when I get to the end, I will be posting more. You all want to hear the latest about Daphne and out trip to Eastern Oregon right? I will be blogging in New York and NH as well, so worry not. The last thing on my list is processing photos for the blog, and there are lots, and lots of those!

1.) Clean the car
2.) Clean the house
3.) Wash the dog
4.) Balance the checking accounts
5.) Pay all the bills
6.) Take Jared to the doctor at OHSU
7.) Work with my photography apprenticeship
8.) Blog on Yellow Cow Photo about the recent weddings
9.) Create JM wedding album
10.) Create DC wedding album
11.) Create KI wedding album
12.) Finish wedding edit for JS and create wedding album
13.) Mail things to JS
14.) Finish website update
15.) Contact wedding promoter
16.) Finish matting all photos
17.) Mat photos for the gallery
18.) Hang gallery photos
19.) Print photos for the house
20.) Put up photos for the house
21.) Create Daphne’s brag book
22.) Answer all emails
23.) Wash fabric
24.) Cut fabric
25.) Create flappy nappies for going to NY.
26.) Finish wet bag for NY
27.) Put snaps on all wool covers
28.) Wash and lanolize all the wool covers.

BLOG ABOUT DAPHNE WITH PHOTOS!!!!!

This is a lot of work, but I will keep you posted.

Jared and I recently were shuffling some home mortgage stuff, and in the process they were required to tell us what credit scores they used for us.

My credit score was 800. I have no idea how that happened, but hot diggety!

Here are some photos from an engagement session that I did with Heather and James. They were adorable, and it was the first time that I had ever shot while on a carousel.

I am looking forward to their wedding next year.

I put this on the moms group that I am a part of, but I thought I would post it here in case anyone had any brilliant ideas.

“I thought I might run this by you smart ladies and see if I could get some help.

I was one of those rare mamas that breastfeed her baby exclusively with no food whatsoever for 6 months. The problem was, that at 6 months Daphne still wasn’t interested in solid foods. She would toy with the idea off and on, but would generally scream when she saw I was going to try to feed her. So I let it be, and at 8 months I was still pretty much exclusively breastfeeding. Now, she is starting to be interested in food more and more, but I am at a loss, I have so many stupid questions.

I am one of those people that don’t want to feed her grains at all until after she is a year old. We have allergies running in our family, and I don’t want to too anything at all that may help bring them into my daughter’s life. I am also staying away from dairy completely.

The problem is that I am just giving her goopy and soupy fruits and veggies that I have mixed up on my own. How is she ever going to learn to chew something if I can’t give her something with texture?

Is it going to be the end of the road if I make up some Ezekial biscuits and let her chew on them every once in a while? Ahhhh… What are the rules? I am so confused. You would think that I would bee more on top of this considering the fact that I have had almost 9 months to prepare.

Any ideas or suggestions?”