Giddy Up!

Muffin Date number two with miss Halle! Where'd we go? Horseback riding! If you know Halle, this kid love horses. Stephen and I were interested to see if she would be nervous at all because horses are pretty big animals. And compared to the size of Halle, it's pretty daunting.

We loaded up and headed out to Bastrop. This type of class was created for younger children and encompasses not only a ride but also an instructional portion on horse care.

Halle getting prepped!

Meet Ranger (Left) and Zeke (right)!

The wrangler (Ms. Stacy) started talking about how to brush the horses and what types of brushes to use. First, they use a star brush (or that's what we called it!). It's a hard plastic brush with course teeth at the ends which is used to break up dried mud, dirt and debris from the horse's body and mane. Because horses like to roll in the mud - Halle thought that was pretty funny. :P  She was a little nervous getting right up close to the horse but she seemed to enjoy it.

Pink boots, purple helmet and a purple dinosaur jacket - perfection.

After the mud is loosed up, they use a long bristle brush to clean and smooth out the hair on the horse's body and a comb for the horse's mane.

After the horse is brushed and cleaned, Ms. Stacy talked about their hooves. This is where Halle was not interested at all. She was clung to my leg and not wanting to get anywhere near the horse. Now, I do have to explain that before we even started, Ms. Stacy was very clear about horses and how you cannot walk behind them. The reason is horses scare easy and their defense is to kick. I understand why she starts this way, because obviously this can be very dangerous for kids. But I'm pretty sure this is why Halle wanted nothing to do with their feet.

We stood back and listened while Ms. Stacy talked about their feet. It was pretty interesting actually! Most of their hooves are the same type of material as our finger nails. So, when the horseshoes are nailed on, it doesn't hurt them. She explained that the horse's feet have to be cleaned daily because they could get sick from the bacteria in everything they walk in (mud, poop, water, etc). The way they are cleaned is by using this big pick. She lifted the horse's foot and cleared out the inside of the hoof. What was interesting is while the hoof is made up of something similar to our nails and doesn't have any nerves, the middle portion at the bottom does have an area the horse can feel called the "frog". You have to be careful with this area while cleaning because you could hurt the horse. Learn something new everyday!

Anyway, after we learned about the feet, Ms. Stacy talked about the saddle. Each saddle is fitted to a particular horse to ensure it doesn't hurt their back or skin. With each horse, they have a special saddle pad too. She said that if the pad is incorrect, it could rub the horse's back raw :(

So after learning all about the horses, we are ready to ride!

She may have been nervous before, but once she saddled up, girl was in heaven.

There was another little girl at the class (Ava). She's riding Ranger, Halle is on Zeke.

Check her out in action!

The ride was about 20 minutes or so. Stephen and I walked the trail behind the horses (don't worry, we avoided poop as best we could!) so Halle wasn't left by herself. However, I don't even think she realized we were back there. Haha! She was very quiet the entire time and seemed to be soaking in the whole experience. When we were almost done with the ride, Ms. Stacy asked if she was having fun. Halle started talking about how "Mimi will need to tell Mommy where the horses are because I want to come back and ride the horses. But Mimi will tell Mommy."

After the ride, we finished up, thanking Ms. Stacy for her time. We also chatted with Ava's family while the girls said bye to the horses. Oddly enough, they live in Whispering Hollow as well! Just down the street! Such a small world.

We didn't see this big smile until after the ride was over. But she said she had so much fun!

After the horse riding, we turned on some Disney tunes and ventured off to Southpark Meadows for a snack and some ice cream. What's a muffin date without ice cream of course!

All in all, super fun! I learned something, I'm sure Stephen learned something and Halle was able to experience a "real" horse - not just the little ponies at the Christmas festival.

"Mimi....you will tell Mommy about the horses right? Right Mimi?"

Becky... a family ride might be in your near future!

Happy Half Bday Miles!

Miles is 6 months old! Can you believe it's been 6 MONTHS? I can't. He's still that tiny baby I brought home from the hospital....just a little bigger. Glimpses of his tiny babyhood still come through every once in awhile. Mostly while he's sleeping. Hopefully that doesn't go away :)

Here he is now:

Vs. Tiny Baby:

He looks totally different with his new blonde hair. It's still so crazy to me the change. To see all monthly photos, check out One Basket, One Adorable Baby.

So, what's this little boy up to? Well, just about everything. We've experienced a lot of firsts this month!
- First time to roll. Now he's rolling from belly to back and back to belly on both sides. But, he typically prefers his left shoulder. He rolled late, so I'm pumped he picked it up so quickly. Just needed a little coaching.
- First time to hold his own bottle pretty successfully. It can't be more than half full and he does better with the smaller bottles, but he can do it! Does he do it every time? No. This kiddo is a little lazy. Ha
- First time to sit. He can sit unassisted for quite awhile. Typically he loses balance when he tries to look up.
- Tried solid foods for the first time! So far we've gone through peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, squash, carrots and prunes. He doesn't seem to like the peas or carrots though.
- First time in overnight diapers. Man, are those things amazing. Just sayin!

Other updates for the month:
- Weighs 18lbs 8oz (69th percentile)
- He's 26.5" (54th percentile)
- His head measures in the 72nd percentile.
- Has been interested in textures. He scratches the walls, his clothes, interested in zippers and seems to think furry blankets are pretty cool.
- Reaching for people's faces
- Trying really hard to move across the floor. When determined, he can make it a couple inches, but then he gets frustrated.
- Wearing size 2 diapers (in Huggies & Pampers Baby Dry - doesn't fit into the swaddlers yet)
- 6 Month clothes are almost all too small. He's in some 3-6 pjs, but the 6-9 month fit better. He's been rocking the pjs a lot lately because of the weather. We tried some "real clothes" and most were too small. Even a 9 month romper from Carters was small. Seems like we're going to be sizing up his closet soon!
- All of his baby hair has turned blonde except for this one little section at the of his head. We considered trimming it, but Stephen was not havin it :)
- Yall...HE'S NAPPING! Those 30-45 min naps were not fun. Not sure if it's the solid food or what caused the transition but I don't care. He's napping.
- He puts everything in his mouth. Everything.
- Eating 4 times during the day and once at night. Typically all 6 oz. (We had a week or so earlier where he was eating all 8oz bottles. It was insane. Kid must have been growing)
- No teeth yet
- He's quick to smile and easy to make laugh if you know the right tricks! Ride on horsey and kisses to the neck are almost always a sure thing.

For this month's photo-op, we used the photo studio Todd got Becky for Christmas. That setup is pretty cool! Professional lights, backdrop and everything. We got some really cute shots too!

Runner up for the Official monthly photo

He sat great for this 30 min photo-op. But, there were a couple topples!

He hadn't be IN the basket in awhile. So we tried it out. Still fits and nothing is boosting him up at the bottom like all the others.

Attacking some overalls

EVIDENCE of those baby blues  :)

Happy half bday to you little boy!!

"Mufin Dat"

Becky and Todd created this activity a long time ago called Muffin Dates. It's where one of them take one girl or all of the girls on a special activity. Stephen and I had a great idea to gift the girls Muffin Dates for Christmas. An activity they get to do just with us! Needless to say, they were pumped!

Lia was first. We gifted her a pedicure party! She's in kindergarden now and was all proud an excited to add her "Mufin Dat" to the calendar. She sounded it out and everything. Becky said it was so cute, she didn't have the heart to tell her it was spelled incorrectly. We won't tell her either *wink

My mom so graciously came over to watch Mr. Miles and we were off! Lia had no idea what to expect because she's never been before. I asked her beforehand what she thought they would do. "They will paint my nails Mimi." She said it like, Hello? It's pretty simple right? Ha! I'm not sure she was prepared for the pampering.

When she arrived, she had no idea she'd be sticking her feet in bubbly water that changes colors. Pretty cool in her book I'd say.

Royal treatment over here - she had one lady doing her feet and the guy was doing her hands!

'

"It tickles!!"

On to drying - she thought this was pretty cool too

Lia:  "Bob-o, what's your favorite color?
Bob-o:  "What do you think it is? Look at my sweatshirt, shoes, and hat."
Lia:  "Green!! Is that what color your nails will be?"
---- she didn't seem to understand why we laughed ---
What a great uncle. His toes are all fancy....and green.  :P

 After we finished up with our nails, we ventured off to NXNW for lunch. Some delicious burgers and a word find complete, we decided dessert was in order. It's been forever since I've been to a TCBY. I had totally forgotten how everything worked. Pretty cool serve-yourself style so you can pick whatever you want. Our selections are below! Can you guess whose is whose?

All in all, a fantastic time! Lia was a gem the entire outing and it was fun to have some time just with her. With a new baby and two other nieces, I think she enjoyed the one on one as well. 

Next up? Halle! Stay tuned!

I like to Eat, Eat, Eat...

APPLES AND BANAN.....oh wait. It was peas. Huge milestone over here. Miles had his first taste of solid food an surprisingly enough, he didn't seem to mind it that much! He had a few weird faces and a couple shivers but for his first food ever, he ate like a champ!

BEFORE:

Huge thank you for my Aunt Janice for these super cute, and amazing I might add, bibs!

AFTER:

And all the rest in between:

Mid Shutter. ha!

Since this, he has had peas, cereal puffs (banana flavor) and we've moved on to green beans. He seems to like the green beans MUCH better than the peas. Interestingly enough, Stephen and I feel the same in regards to those two veggies. We are trying foods for 3-4 days before introducing anything new to make sure he doesn't have any sort of allergy. Next on the list - Sweet Potatoes!

Tickles

So it seems....Miles is ticklish!

Movin and Groovin

Over the past couple weeks, Miles has really accomplished a lot. Seems like our little guy needs a little motivation to work on things. When I noticed he wasn't rolling at 5 months, I got a little worried. I did some research and realized he was a little behind. So after watching some videos and how-tos, we got to work! In just 2 weeks, he's rolling on both sides! Check out his mad skills:

His first roll - From belly to back. He got this one pretty quick.

A week or so later (and a little more intervention/motivation) he started rolling from back to belly on his own! What did it? Watching videos of himself on my phone...he finds himself to be pretty funny.

And sitting up? He's got this. He can keep himself up for maybe 10-15 seconds before losing his balance. He's getting better day by day and I think we'll have a solo sitter by 6mo! 

He's also doing a little scoot to try and get places. I didn't get a great video, but you can see he kicks his feet and brings his butt in the air. He only goes maybe an inch, but he's working so hard.

I think it's safe to say we're back on track! :)

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is always a fun time of year but this year was extra special because it was full of firsts. Our first with Miles and our first Christmas in the new house! While this house has had it's fair share of issues, I'm glad to have a spot where family & friends can join in and celebrate. What encompassed our holiday this year? Baby giggles, baby snuggles, family, friends, games and of course, wine!

My holiday planning started early this year. I had secret plans to put together a photo shoot with Miles where I could use these photos on a number of gifts. Who doesn't love gifts with baby pics?! I got everything put together, gathered my outfits and hoped that Miles was in a decent mood to give me some cute smiles - we all know it's not very hard to get this little guy to smile. But, to smile with a camera in his face hoping that I've caught the perfect expression AND it's in focus? That's a different story.

It took one day and two photo sessions, but I was really happy with the outcome. So happy I could barely keep it together when it was FINALLY time to open gifts.

Our Official 2017 Christmas Ornament Winner is:

These next 4 were featured on a custom mug:

And because I couldn't possibly put out my Christmas photos without my sweet boy, this one was printed and framed :)

On Christmas eve, Denise and Ray made it into town and we started our Short family festivities. A delicious steak dinner followed by a traditional movie night was a perfect prep for Christmas morning.

In the morning, we rolled out a bed at a whopping 9am (sorry to those up at 6), made breakfast, mimosas and started our gift exchange.

Lucy was gifted a sweater from one of Stephen's friends. She looked adorable, but was not thrilled about wearing it!

We have, however, realized that if Lucy is in any sort of outfit (costume, shirt, or similar), she becomes this rag dog. Just sits there, still, and pouts until you take it off of her. Miles was taking advantage!

Sweater buddies!

After our morning of opening gifts, we invited my mom and dad over for a BLT lunch and everyone spent the afternoon mingling together - Shorts, Gates, Feekins and neighbors. Well...mingling and burning cardboard.

Preston found a new buddy :)

All in all, an excellent time! Hope everyone had a happy holiday! I know we did :)