They got one!

Well our pheasant population is down by one.

Here are the great hunters with the man bird and Hank (the trusty old pickup).

Anyone have any good pheasant recipes?

Sunday spent at home

Here on the prairie of North Dakota, pheasant hunting season is in full swing. We spent yesterday in Linton, ND, and on the way down there, I think three of four cars were full of hunters.

Well today is Sunday and we are spending (most of) it at home.

Corey and his brother Andrew are hunting in the backyard.

From the sounds of it I will be cooking up some pheasant this week.

Kya and I are spending the day in the comfort and warmth of the house.

Kya got a package from her Great Grandma Katy yesterday. In it was this beautiful sweater and matching leg warmers. Grandma was worried the sweater would be too small already, but thankfully, it is plenty big (I even had to roll the sleeves). Thank you Grandma - it is beautiful!


Oh no. I seem to have misplaced my little sweetie. Can you help me find Kya?

(by the way, she had a serious case of the giggles when I took this - can you tell?!)

Hope everyone out there is having a good Sunday! Only one more Sunday until November. We have snow in the forecast ...

Enjoy autumn.

The 16 pounder

Little six and a half month old Kya weights 16 pounds and one ounce (40th percentile).

She is 25.5 inches long (30th percentile). And her head is 17.3 inches around (83rd percentile).

So in a nut shell, we have a very cute little lady with a huge head.

The check up went very well and she only cried for about five seconds when she got her shots.

A post for the grandparents

Hold on to your hats.

This post contains no less than one thousand oohs and ahhs and more than 10 photos of my favorite six-month-old.

This post is dedicated to all of Kya's wonderful grandparents ... who are coincidentally probably the only ones who will make it to the bottom of this lengthy "all about Kya" post.

Kya is still enjoying food. A lot.

Her menu now includes peas, parsnips ...

... nectarines, plain yogurt ...

... broccoli, apples, pears, carrots, squash, zucchini, baby oatmeal, bananas, avocado, corn ...

And her new favorite:

PICKLES (compliments of her father). She doesn't actually eat them, just sucks on them. She puts up a fuss when we take them away.

Notice the bib? Aunt Caitlyn got it in German. It is German for "sophisticated eater" or "fine diner" ... Thanks Caitlyn! The design of the bib is genius. Some day when I start sewing again I am going to try to duplicate it.

She is getting goofier and more fun by the day. She babbles on about everything and nothing. No "words" yet but lots of ddds and mmms and bbbs ...

She is a good helper when I am cooking. She will sit and watch (and chat) for an hour. Notice this lean she has going on? She does that at random. We think it's funny ... and apparently so does she.

Here is a lean and finger chewing. Still no sign of teeth.

Her hair is growing in more and more. Still not long enough for pigtails, but she has a nice peach fuzz effect going on.

No crawling yet, but lots of rolling and scooting around.

Kya got a special package from Grandma ReNay in the mail. She was excited to show off her new clothes.

Kya has mastered sitting. She will sit and play with her toys for long periods of time ... which I greatly appreciate on busy days. Her favorite "toys" right now are an empty tissue box and books.

Tomorrow she has her 6-month check up at the doctor's office. I'm curious how she ranks for height because she seems to be quickly outgrowing her pants and shirt sleeves. I'll be back with a full report tomorrow.

A little strawberry and pumpkins

Last Sunday Kya and I met our friends Katie and Tess at Papa's Pumpkin Patch. Tess is about three months older than Kya so it is always fun to see them together.

Kya was quite skeptical about her strawberry costume. And the big orange things. And about sitting the the grass.

But before too long she became interested in the adventure.

She managed to crack a smile a few times.

The stems made for some fun texture exploring.

Tess and Katie arrived and we thought it would be fun to get some photos of our girls together.

Our girls thought photos sounded overrated.

Little strawberry and ballerinas are pretty cute.

But it proved difficult to get their attention.

Then Kya got a bit scared, or shy. Or both.

Then Tess caught the shy bug.

And that concluded our photo session. :)

Kya's new toy

I never in a million years thought I'd own one of these contraptions. I call them "over stimulation chairs" ... but as luck would have it, I found a great deal on BisManOnline (our local version of Craigs List) and I knew Kya would enjoy it. So ... enter our very own over stimulation chair. Compared to other models, this one has significantly less stimulation, so it does have that going for it. And, I completely took it apart and disinfected/washed all parts. It's clean and she likes it. Everything is ok in moderation, right?

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Why Didn't I Think of That?

This blog is my new favorite.

It's extra special because Sister Denise (I used to work with her) always said the first thing she wanted to find out upon her arrival in Heaven is "what do babies dream about." Well, I think this gets pretty darn close.

You must check it out.

Makin' Baby Food

Kya is quickly expanding the variety of food she likes. And as a result, I've been making baby food like a crazy woman. I'm 100% thrilled to make baby food - it's just so very bitter sweet to see her growing up.

This selection of frozen food includes: center - apple, from left - squash, zucchini, pear, carrot, broccoli. Next up: rutabaga. I freeze each batch in small amounts (in fun shaped Ikea ice cube trays) and then I freeze the cubes in labeled freezer-safe bags. Wehn Kya is ready to eat, I thaw a few cubes (both the same or mix-and-match two or more flavors), sometimes I add a bit of baby cereal.

I get my instructions and recipes from the book: Top 100 Baby Purees (above)

I think this book is great. It is the inly baby food book I own, so I don;t have much to compare it to, but I do like this one. The illustrations are beautiful and the recipes incorporate the usual (carrots) and the unusual (rutabaga).