About Me

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Nebraska, United States
A former full-time teacher living her life-long dream of staying at home. And homeschooling to boot! Comments make my day. Thanks for stopping by! kimlepper at gmail.com

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Lunch


Get ready, Charlotte!

I loved watching Sam's mouth opening as she fed her.
"We're good here, mom."
Then a few days later Charlotte wanted NOTHING to do with me feeding her and would only eat if Samantha was doing it.


Food always tastes better when sisters are holding the spoon.

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Front Yard

I called Jeremy one day asking if he was ok with a swing investment.  He was skeptical but has commented daily what a great idea it was. 

You would think I'd gotten Sam a whole new playset, it's all she wants to do now!

I cut the wrong canes this year so we're only getting this much every day.  Next year we'll get around 10 times this much!  Samantha is looking forward to "fighting" with Charlotte over them. I'm hoping to get to eat some too...

Friday, July 4, 2014

4th of July

We had to find a pose for the yearly father/daughter photos we do on the 4th. 
This is the "chosen one" to be duplicated each year.

Although this came in a close second...

...Third place...

No words :)

I attempted to do some firecracker games...

They had to call the color they were going for.

In the end they just wanted to throw them at Amanda.

Wait for it....

CRACK!

So many things happening in this picture!

Everybody say "Happy Fourth of July!"
Grayson said it too, just didn't know to look at me.  I've got to learn to be more specific.

Poor Cora.

She was not impressed and wanted to be INSIDE.

Samantha's Levi watching Amanda's Levi. 
 
 
2009


2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
I could not for the life of me get a good pic of these two. 
Sam kept doing goofy stuff, so it's just her legs and pursed lips this year!
I SWEAR Jeremy has other shirts...
Charlotte had loads of fun with her Godmother and went to bed at 7pm.  When she got up to eat at 10:30 I brought her upstairs to see everything and she was all like, "WHERE ARE WE GOING MOM?!?"  She couldn't decide if she liked it or not and was shaking the whole time I had her outside to watch.  She only lost it a little when Sam started to cry from a bonked head.  When we got home I nursed her and she went right back to sleep.  Dream. Baby.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

9 Months

 9 Month Stats

28.5" Tall (90th%)
18lbs 13 oz (70%)
Six teeth (no more vampire grin to show off)
She can squeeze into some 6-12 month clothes,
but wears mostly 12 month (some 18 month clothes).
Charlotte. 
To Samantha you are "Sharlie".
 
Oh, what a month it has been.  You learned to crawl, but quickly decided you liked bear crawling better.  You're pulling up on anything you can, but still have difficulty as you think it is an effort of the arms rather than legs.  When you are standing up you are slowing starting to shuffle around.  You've also mastered walking while hanging on my fingers for dear life.



You love paper. And keys.  And BabyMums, Puffs, cups with straws, my coffee cup, baths, oatmeal, and your sister.  But not in that order.  But it all goes in your mouth. Well, not your sister, but I'm sure you'd try if she'd stop long enough. 



I think you already have allergies, my poor baby.  Within seconds of going outside your nose is running and your eyes tear up.  You've mastered the allergy salute.  It's lucky that you get so excited to take a bath every night.  And I plan on nursing you as long as you'd like, as I know that will help as well.

Mom!  This has a TAG on it!!!
 
You've got two solid and predictable naps now.  It's heavenly.  Just under 2 hours in the morning and 30-45 minutes in the afternoon.  It's wonderful, but it dictates our schedule this summer and we miss a lot of activities scheduled for 10am.  With your naps you are a dream baby.  However, recently you've started screaming and protesting after I lay you down.  One day you actually tricked me and I thought you really weren't tired.  You little stinker.  By the time I realized my mistake it was too late to put you down for a nap.  I'm sorry dear, but 6pm is not going to work for a bedtime, so you will just have to come to grips with a second nap for a while longer. 


The Grin
We also discovered that you are allergic to amoxicillin.  Hopefully you'll outgrow it, but we're not going to try again for another decade or so. As far as my diet, I'm still avoiding egg and most corn.  I'm not brave enough to try any of it yet.  It's funny, though, I keep forgetting that I can have dairy!  Oh, how I do love dairy.


I just can't help myself and end up making her food every week. 
Slowly but surely she's just eating what we eat, but we're holding off on things with soy, dairy and corn for her.   
After teaching Amanda, Lucy and Samantha sign-language I was fairly confident in my abilities to get babies to sign around 6 months.  It turns out it wasn't me, but the fact that they were all "performers".  You are anything but.  I've caught you signing and you will occasionally say a word in context when you don't realize anyone is listening/watching.  But as soon as I praise you or try to "show off" the trick you freeze or hide your face. 

So, although I can't prove it, you do know how to sign "all-done", "more", "milk", "bye bye", "bath-time" and "down".  I've even heard you say "all-done", "bye" and "bath-time". 
Tricks?  What tricks.  You have the camera, I ain't showin' you NUTTIN'. 
 

And your legs.  They talk.  When strangers talk to you, you give them a blank stare, but I know you are excited to see them as your legs go wild.  And when your smile doesn't suffice to show how pleased you are, your legs join in to make sure we know.  Whoever is holding has to hold on tight- you still make no effort to hang on because your legs must be free to kick at the speed that correlates to your level of excitement. 


You are melting your Daddy's heart.
 He was hoping you'd be his side-kick, considering Samantha still remains glued to me 80% of the day.
He looooves how much your legs kick and your Grin when you see him!
 

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Naptime


Some mornings are rough because the night was rough.  On these mornings Samantha gets to play on her LeapPad.  I set the timer for 20-30 minutes and then leave her with a checklist.  She has to complete it before she can continue playing.
She drew Charlotte in her lap!
 
 
These are actually kind of fun to make and I look forward to seeing how she does.

 

Charlotte is always in someone's lap.
Samantha couldn't hold still she was so excited for Charlotte to see it.


It took her a while to figure out what to do.

Then it came tumbling down!

And Samantha proceeded to ban her from touching it while she built it again...on top of the coffee table...

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

The Neighbor

 Last year his yard had- not exaggerating- over 100 tree seedlings growing in his tiny back-yard (from the drain pipe to the tree in the middle of the mud).  Other neighbors dug those all out last fall but that just left a mudslide. After three years of being disgusted and frustrated by it, we finally decided to do something about it.
Before.
growing....growing...
Lawn.
I ran out of seed, so that little patch will have to wait until the fall. 

Monday, June 30, 2014

Cousins




Can you give kisses?
smmmmmmmmmmmmack


Livy "Ta-dah!"
C "What just happened?"

Ram Sam Sam

Lilypie Kids Birthday tickers

Lil Sister

Lilypie Third Birthday tickers

Genevieve

Lilypie First Birthday tickers