Six Months!

Reposting:  Let's try this again!  Apparently I upload too many pictures and my Google account was full, so the pictures I tried to upload didn't come through.  But here they are again...Google account is updated/upgraded, and now the pictures work!  After all, I'm sure the reason you're looking at this blog is for the pictures of the little Strauberries, so we've gotta keep the Google account working!

-----------------------------------------------------------------

This little doll turned six months earlier this week!  It's hard to believe, especially considering all my other babies were sleeping through the night well before this point.  But she's a one-of-a-kind, and we wouldn't trade her.  She's a sweet pie, for sure!

Speaking of pie, we hosted our second annual Thanks-Singing Pie Social the Sunday evening before Thanksgiving.  Lots of yummy pies!  The Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Pie was the biggest hit, I believe.  It was definitely a full house here with between 50 and  60 people; I'm not sure we could have fit too many more.  But lots of mouths to feed also meant lots of voices to sing.

I don't have any pictures to share, however, because most of the evening I was wearing Miss Cutie Pie in the Ergo.  She even helped me dump my plate upside down on the floor once, so there wasn't much time for picture-snapping.  Maybe next year...

Happy belated Thanksgiving!  Time to get ready for Christmas...

Big Girl!

Now that Caroline is sitting a bit better, she and Elsa get to have baths together.  This doesn't always suit Elsa as she likes to lie down and play with the toys by herself.  But she sure does like it when she can make Caroline laugh.

And while Caroline has never hated her bath time, she has recently begun to enjoy it a lot more.  She loves watching the water and tries to "get" it.

She is now sitting by herself a bit, and she just got two teeth in the last week. Poor baby has been kind of miserable with both teeth coming in at once, but thankfully, it hasn't affected her sleep much.

Actually, her sleep has improved a bit. She has even taken a few long naps this week! That has been quite welcome, especially since we were working like madmen to get the basement bedroom finished before today (refinance appraisal going on this afternoon). 

And we did! It looks SO different from what it was when we moved into this house. What used to be shiny insulation paper walls and concrete floor is now painted walls, carpet, lights, etc. And the kids love playing in there...or at least they will love it until we get some furniture for the room.  And that will have to happen sooner rather than later since I hear that Grandma is coming for a Christmas visit!  She'll be just in time to see Caroline crawl...if she follows in her siblings' footsteps or continues to be an over-achiever and crawls early too.  She's been our earliest teether and sitter.  I'm hoping she kind of slows down because our earliest walker started at exactly 9 months and they were all walking by 10 months.  I'm not sure I'm up for her to be walking sooner than that!!

My Choice

The choice that will face us at the polls tomorrow is not a palatable one for me.  I will be with great disappointment that I cast my vote.

There is much that could be said about why I don't want to vote for Mitt Romney and how I wish that we had a different candidate on the Republican ticket, but I am trying to focus instead on why I do intend to vote for him tomorrow.

It all comes down to choice...or rather, life.  Budgets, foreign policy, and healthcare take a backseat to what is the most important issue of this - or any - election.  President Obama is solidly in favor of a woman's "right to choose."  To choose what?  To choose whether a child that she has conceived should live or die.

Mitt Romney's position on abortion isn't perfect.  I don't agree with his exceptions in the case of rape, incest, or the health of the mother.  Killing a baby is killing a baby no matter how that baby is conceived.  But he obviously values life.  

And I will cast my vote on the side of life every time.  There really is no other choice.

Edited to clarify:  For me this isn't a choice of whether to vote for Obama or Romney.  It's a choice of whether to vote for Romney or a third party candidate who values life as well as liberty and more limited (much more limited!) government.  If this election weren't so close, I would almost certainly cast my vote for a third party candidate whose views more closely resemble my own.  But when there is a close race like this one (especially when it's a close race in my own state), I'll choose the major party candidate who values life. Having re-read my post, I think maybe I didn't make that clear.