Thanksgiving and Things

It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without the Turkey Bowl (or Justin has led me to believe). The only pictures I took at the Turkey Bowl were of Sarah. She fell asleep in my arms 10 minutes into the game so my hands were occupied. She loves football just like her dad--likes sleeping during it, that is. Doesn't she look so adorable? I love the coat over pajamas look. It's very big this year.

There was a time when Sarah would pose for pictures. Now she tries to evade me. This was the best I could do.

Sarah and a fraction of her cousins playing cards before dinner. Jaana, Jared, Allison, Kyra, Isabella and Sarah.

I think these pictures capture beautifully our love of food on Thanksgiving.

I've included this picture because Sarah LOVES this nesting doll. My mom has a few of them and Sarah goes straight for them whenever we go into the living room. She mostly likes to eat the baby (sorry for the bite marks, Mom) and she's all about putting little things inside bigger things.

Onto the other things. This is Sarah in her new "big girl" car seat. She's still a few pounds away from facing forward but being upright has opened up an entire new world for her. She can see trees, houses, trucks and stores instead of just ceiling and sky.

She's 13 months now. She has taken a few steps but still isn't all that interested in walking. She laughs when she stands on her own. I don't know if she gets that walking is where she'll be spending the rest of her life. I think she thinks it's just a game I try to get her to play. I still have high hopes of her running down the stairs to the Christmas tree and we've still got time.

She may not walk but her hair is long enough for pigtails! I've been looking forward to this milestone too.

I can't believe how much she's grown up in the past few months. She has gone from being shy and scared of strangers to walking up to people at church, sitting on their laps and eating their snacks. She still loves books but she likes "playing books" rather than me reading to her. She spreads them out, stacks them up, and turns pages.

The other day she crawled upstairs alone and when she while was crawling back down, she had her Winnie the Pooh book in her hands. She'd throw it down a few steps, crawl down to it and then throw it down a few more until she got it all the way down. Then she dragged it over to me and handed it to me. How do I not stop what I'm doing and read to her? So stinkin' cute. But it only lasted for a page and she was off to something else.

Sarah Watching Sarah

This is Sarah watching the video in the previous post. I don't think I am ever this excited to see myself on camera. (And no, I don't do her hair like this for reals so don't worry.)

This day in history: 2008

Back in those days, Sarah was already super fussy even though she was just a few weeks old and I spent all day swinging/bouncing/rocking Sarah. So we took a break and came upstairs to bug Justin while he was doing his homework. A year later, Justin still has homework but Sarah is out by 8 and I get to clean the kitchen!

Story Time

Sarah talks like this all day long. It cracks me up and I find it sooooo adorable.

Sometimes she'll laugh while she's jabbering away so I know whatever she's saying has meaning to her.

Parenting Tip #003

Never leave baby unattended with a bowl full of oatmeal.

Every winter our couch gets super staticky and it drives me crazy. But this year I kind of like it.

This week's cool place to play is behind the kitchen curtains. After I vacuumed up the dead flies in the the bottom, it's more baby friendly.

A Ghoul and Her Pumpkin

I wonder what the carving pumpkin tradition seems like to Sarah. We've had the pumpkin on our porch for a couple of weeks. She liked to pat it and say "pa". Then one night we bring it in, gut it, and cut holes in it and then make her take her picture next to it on two separate occasions.

Safety first.

Don't we just love dads?

What scares you most about the picture below? My crazy smile? Sarah's demon eyes? You'd be wrong though, it's the spirit of the pumpkin leaving its body.

On to Halloween. We tried on her costume earlier that the day. Her response concerned us as to how the evening was going to go.

Once we figured out that she was fine once her hands were free, she did all right. We never could get her to roar, only scream.

"Sit next to this pumpkin dressed like a lion so we can take your picture." Only on Halloween.

Justin smiles with candy greed in his eyes.

We only went to a few houses of people we knew because holding out Sarah's bucket and saying "trick or treat" is awkward.

Speaking of awkward, here's Justin with no neck. But I find his arm placement impressively accurate.

It's Fun to Be 1!

Happy Birthday to Sarah!

To be honest, I didn't think we'd make it this far so it's hard to believe we've made it. And I've been focusing on her turning 12 months for so long, I'm having trouble comprehending that she'll be 13, 14, 15 months, etc. So prepare yourself for a long post. I've taken 97 pictures and 23 videos in the past 3 days but here's just the best and the highlights.

Just to see how far she's come, here she is on her true birthday.

Here's my little pioneer girl now.

Her birthday balloon.

It took all day to make her birthday cake. I'm very proud of it--not because it turned out spectacular but because I did it while taking care of a speedy, sometimes clingy one-year-old.

She got her toe in the cake in the above picture so we helped her lick it off.

It's no wonder that "ball" was her first word.

Her balloon was pretty dead this morning but still fun to play with.

I love fall but am sad that it's getting too cold to go on our daily walk.

Sarah tasted quite a few leaves. None of them tasted good but that didn't slow her down.

The Great and Dreadful Day

The great and dreadful day has come to the Dye house. Sarah figured out on Wednesday how to climb the stairs.

I haven't seen her this gleeful since she figured out how to flood the bathroom with her splashing.

Sarah continues to have a love/hate relationship with her clothes. After a few minutes of whining and pulling, this is what she was going for, apparently.

This has no story. I just like her.

Today was unseasonably warm so we headed to her favorite swing at the city park. And since we've been sick all week, we both needed to get out of the house. We may or may not have had the flu caused by the H1N1 virus. And Sarah may still be contagious so pull out your sani-wipes if you happen to use this swing--just a heads up.

40 Years and Counting

40 YEARS ago today was my parent's wedding. Wow!!

(Picture stolen from my sister's blog. Thanks Meredith)

After 8 kids, 20+ grandkids (I'm too lazy to count right now), 10+ moves and who knows how many cars later, my parents have seen it all.

I am just so blessed to have their fountain and well of wisdom (my mom is the fountain...dad the well) so close. I can't tell you how many times I call them with a cooking question, gardening question, car, money, parenting question and they are more than willing to help and 99.9% right.

And they have everything you could possibly ever need to borrow. Square nose shovel, stack of coloring books, putty, meat thermometer (I still need to return that one), paint roller, weed killer, wheel barrow, Prince Caspian movie, pillow cases, old sheets, rugs. And that was just this summer.

Congratulations Mom and Dad! We love you.

-Justin, Diana and Sarah

Busy, busy Sarah

She loves food and is always willing to try what we're eating. And by 'willing' I mean she gets mad if we don't share. Here she is eating some bread and jam. I tried to break the bread into small bite-sized pieces but she showed me that was a waste of time. She ate 1 1/2 slices. She would have eaten more.

The Price is Right is one of her favorite shows. You may think I'm a slacker parent since her pants are falling down. You should be impressed that she's dressed by 9 am.

Just looking for more to eat.

I almost forgot the most important event. Sarah can crawl like a normal human now! Suddenly, she just did it. I was giddy. And yes, I let her eat food off the floor. More often than not, she put it there anyway.

This picture was taken September 1. I put a sheet under her pool because I was afraid the sunburned grass would pop her pool.

This was taken a couple of days ago. Amazing what a sprinkler system will do. Thanks to Justin's dad!!

The other morning, Sarah was really annoyed with her pajamas. She pulled on her sleeves and feet but wasn't getting out of them. Being the considerate parent that I am, I unzipped them and got her arms and feet out so she was left sitting on them. But she didn't quite get that she was free.

The Perfect Gift

I've been stressing about what to get Sarah for her birthday. I don't have the money to get her tons of stuff and hope that she likes at least something -- what I get her has to be good! (Not to mention not annoying and fun for me to play along with her.) I've been searching websites, stores, and classifieds to find the toy that will win her heart.

Today she played with a bottle of paprika for over 10 minutes while I made dinner.

After dinner she stood at the stereo receiver and turned the big volume knob for what seemed like forever.

During her bath, she bit on her washcloth and yanked it back out like 20 times and thought it was hilarious.

Why do I even bother?