First Haircut

Orin got his first haircut on December 20th. I was holding off until the last possible day, because I was slightly worried about doing it. I’m not very confident in my hair cutting abilities. But the day had come when I was sick of looking at his long wispy hairs in front and over his ears. It was time to get out the scissors. Daddy helped hold Orin down and kept his head still, and Mama did the clipping. He is just as cute as before. Even if he does look a lot older! We made sure to keep the little bit of hair that we trimmed to save for his baby book. Here are some pictures.

BEFORE:

Daddy and Orin

AFTER:

Merry Christmas!!

Many greetings to you from the Doughan household
Another year of blessings that God did unfold
Giving us a son was the big highlight
In meeting Orin it was love at first sight
Crazy hair and full of smiles

Ornery nature beats all by miles
Forward to Orange City we decided to head

Charting new waters to an old homestead
Home with Orin Katie does stay
Raising the little monkey most everyday
Into the school she occasionally goes
Subbing and mothering keep her on her toes
The shingling, building, and breaking of ground
Make Ryan’s partnership of three busy year-round
As we gather for Christmas with presents and fun
Simply remember God’s gift of Jesus his son

Then and Now

Then (December 2008):

and Now (December 2009):


So crazy how much changes in a year!! We wouldn't trade it for anything! We love you so much baby boy it makes our hearts hurt! Little man, you bring so much joy and excitement to our lives. Sometimes we wonder what we did before you. We love you all the way up to the moon and back down to the dirt. We cannot believe you are already 10 months!

MIA- Mama In Action

Where have I been?

Well let’s see…

During the days, I am at school. And in the evenings, I am busy making supper, grading papers, writing lesson plans, washing bottles, loading and unloading the dishwasher, catching up on laundry, chasing Orin, and spending quality time with my husband.

Needless to say, I've been busy and there hasn’t been a whole lot of "extra" time to blog. Gone are the days where mama can sit at the computer and write a blog post while Orin plays independently with his toys for a little while. Now mama is spending every second of Orin’s wake time chasing him and redirecting him away from outlets, Christmas trees, and cords. Our joke is that his first real word is going to be “No!” I feel like we are constantly saying, “No, No Orin!”

Here are some things that have happened in the last few weeks:

First, we've been dealing with sickness in our household. Ryan and Orin have terrible coughs, sore throats, and are really congested. Orin was given a nebulizer which we've used once (not a fan), and Ryan is toughing it out. Which I guess Orin is too now that we have given up on the nebulizer. Everyday gets better and better.

I’m on my second week of my long-term subbing in 6th grade. It’s actually going really well and I really enjoy the kids I’m teaching. I was still really excited for the half day of school Tuesday and the snow day on Wednesday. Substitute or not, we all enjoy snow days! Ryan was able to be home with us on Wednesday which made for a much more fun day. We stayed inside watching movies and drinking hot chocolate. Anyways, I finish subbing on the 22nd…just in time for Christmas break!

Orin has learned some new tricks that I want to document. Seems like we have been waiting forever to see him do these, but now that he does them, I am extremely busy chasing him around. And so is his Auntie Kim who babysits him.

-He can now CRAWL!! He is constantly crawling towards our small candy cane decorated tree. I think he likes the lights and balls. It’s so cute to see him moving and learning how to use all his limbs together.




-He’s also been pulling himself up! He hasn’t quite figured out how to get onto his feet, but he will crawl to the coffee table and get up on his knees. Nothing is safe now up on the table!



Orin received the cutest knit hat in the mail last week. His Great-Grandma was busy knitting him a warm wool hat to wear for the winter. We love it! And it even ties so it is impossible for those little hands to tug it off!




Our own family Christmas will be celebrated on Saturday morning. Orin is very excited for Santa to come and visit. Okay, maybe not. But Ryan and I are looking forward to Orin’s first Christmas even if he doesn’t have a clue what’s going on. I’ll obviously be taking lots of pictures to post later.

Now all I have to do is get through two more days of working this week and two days next week and then I will officially be on Christmas break!! Can’t wait!

Take Your Pick

Over Thanksgiving, Auntie Molls decided it would be fun to experiment with different hairstyles for our little man. So out came the gel and comb, and she went to work stylin'. Here's what she came up with:

The Spikes

The Grandpa Orin Comb-Over

The Faux-Hawk


Which one do you pick?

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Here in our household, we LOVE to decorate for the holidays!! So we broke the rule of waiting until after Thanksgiving, and instead put our tree up the weekend before Thanksgiving. We knew we would be gone for a while over the holidays and with my long-term subbing coming up, it would just be too crazy to do after Thanksgiving. And it is way too much work to only enjoy it for 3 weeks. So here is a little look inside of our home. Enjoy!!

We changed it up this year and did a "pretty" tree. We will have lots of years to put little kid ornaments on the tree.


Our stockings are hung!

My mom and I worked together in making Orin his Christmas stocking.






Scouty, the Elf, has made his appearance for the first time this year. We started this tradition last year (Ryan named him), but it is all the more meaningful now that we have Orin. Each night, Scouty flys to the North Pole to give Santa a report on Orin's behavior. In the morning, as soon as Orin is awake, we search for Scouty's return from the North Pole in a new hiding place around the house. This has been a lot of fun for all of us. I can only imagine it becoming more exciting as Orin gets a little older.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving vacation!! I felt like we had been on "vacation" for a long time! We left Tuesday night and came back on Sunday. We packed in a lot during our time away and loved every minute of it. Especially all the mornings of sleeping in. Thanks Mom!!

We spent a lot of time just being together as a family and visiting with my parents, sister, and grandparents. Benny had to spend the holiday in London. We missed you, Benny! We also got to see Ryan's parents for a few hours on Thanksgiving. They happened to be celebrating in the same town. We are so blessed and thankful for wonderful families, parents, and grandparents. It was so great to see everyone!

Mom hosted Thanksgiving this year for all of us. I didn't take any pictures of the food, but it sure was delicious! Here are a few recipes from our meal. I found these two on other blogs I follow. I'm not usually a fan of green beans or pumpkin, but both of these recipes were amazing! They will definately be made again!!

Green Bean Bundles
Kelly's Recipes

Ingredients:
2 or 3 cans of whole green beans
Bacon slices
1 stick of butter
1 cup of brown sugar
tsp of garlic salt

Wrap a handful of green beans in half a slice of bacon. That makes one bundle - keep going for as many bundles as you would like to have. Melt a stick of butter and stir in one cup of brown sugar (more or less depending on how sweet you would like it). Add a teaspoon of garlic salt. Pour over bundles. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Then put under the broiler for 4-5 minutes at the end


Pumpkin Crisp
Jenny at Beyond Our Wildest Dreams

Ingredients:
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 egg
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 (29 ounce) can pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup white sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Set aside 1 cup cake mix for the topping. Combine remaining cake mix, 1 egg, and melted butter or margarine. Pat into a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix pumpkin, 2 eggs, spices, 1/2 cup sugar, and milk. Pour pumpkin mixture over the cake mix crust.
3. In a small bowl, combine 1 cup cake mix and 3/4 cup sugar. Cut in 1/2 cup softened butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle mixture on top of pumpkin mixture.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 55 minutes.


We joined the crazies on Black Friday at 3:30 am!! There were just too many good deals to pass up. Plus, I really enjoy the craziness of it all. We ended up getting most of our Christmas shopping done. Yay!! Ryan and I divided and conquered spending most of the day apart shopping for each other and our little man.

It was so good to see family and to spend time together as our own family unit. Now we can't wait until Christmas!!

Great-Grandma and Orin

Great-Grandpa and Orin

Our little family- We forgot to take a picture until the end of the night which is why Orin is in his pajamas!

Auntie Molls

Grandpa and his Little Man