Reading: I am actually between books!  I finished the Shopaholic, and I am thinking about reading Paper Towns, but I haven’t read many reviews…what are you all reading???

Watching:Parenthood’s final episodes! Is anyone else sad?! Big Bang Theory and PRETTY LITTLE LIARS! I know I am obsessed! 

Looking Forward to: Celebrating Hallie’s first Valentines Day! Making special Valentines for her playgroup friends, my homemade Valentines for family and friends, and of course my Linzer Cookies!!! Yum! 

Loving: My little girl to pieces!!! She is such fun! Every day with her is a new and wonderful adventure!  

Happy Friday! This week was pretty good! It was back to story time for us! We also got to meet some new friend in our playgroup! It’s also been a week for good blog news! Which I hinted about here.


I am hoping having such a good week can only mean an even better weekend is on it’s way!


Linking up with September Farm for Oh Hey, Friday!
Here are my favorite pics from the week:

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! See you Monday!

Oh hey! It’s really Friday? Not that I am complaining! That just went REALLY fast! This week was just so up and down that I think it passed in a blur and left me utterly exhausted! 


This weekend should be fun though! We are heading out to Houston to celebrate my friend Sindi’s birthday! If you haven’t already checked out her blog, you can do so here!  We also get to see Christopher’s Mom, which is always great! We love and miss her so much!


Anyway, on to my pics from the week:
Linking up with September Farm


1. Hallie still gets so proud of herself when she shows off her skills! 

2. Cheering for the Aggies of course! 

3. I don’t know if anyone else watched the Pretty Little Liars Winter premier, but I figured out who A is!!! She’s living under my roof!!! 

4. Hallie’s newest thing is this incessant sniffing! It’s hilarious! And she thinks it is sooo funny! She will even do it back to you if you sniff at her! So cute! 

5. Hallie and Sadie…AKA her favorite person ever! She wants Sadie’s attention more than anyone ever! 

I hope everyone had a lovely week and has even a lovelier weekend! 
<3 Kelly 

Happy Wednesday! One other goal I had for the new year is to start weekly lesson plans with Hallie.  Not a structured lesson plan really, just learning through play.  Each week we will be focusing on a Letter, a color, a number and a shape. 


This week we are learning about:
Color: Blue
Number: 1
Shape: Circle
Letter: A


These are some of the materials we are using:

It has been really great so far! She really enjoys looking at circles.  Generally I let her run her finger around it and repeat: Circle! It is amazing how many colors, shapes, letters and numbers you can find in your child’s every day toys when you begin looking! Or around the house anyway! 
Yesterday we went on a “Circle Hunt” before bed, and pointed out items in our house that were circular! We also always point out the Big “A” in her name on her wall above her changing table each time we change diapers!
I am not quite sure how much of this she is actually obtaining, but I have always heard that baby’s are little sponges, so it’s worth a shot…who knows! Maybe I will end up with a baby genius! 
What have other mommies done as far as teaching their babies at home? Would love some ideas!
<3 Kelly

I know I know…I am behind! But in case you were wondering…this is how the Mock’s celebrated Christmas:

Christmas Cards: Shutterfly

 On Christmas Eve Morning, Hallie and I headed over to my parents house to make Clam and Corn Chowder with my Dad for Christmas Day lunch! I have been helping him since I was teeny tiny every year! Seriously as long as I can remember! It is a Hofmann tradition! My Dad helped his Dad and so on! This year, Hallie got to help!

 After White Elephant we headed over to Christopher’s Dad’s house and celebrated with all of the Mock’s! We opened presents there and then went to Midnight Mass! Which was as always beautiful! (The parts I was awake for anyone…I did dose a few times! Oops!) 

Note the beautiful stocking made by my Mother in Law!

 Late morning we packed up and went to my parent’s house to open presents with them! And then to Christopher’s Dad’s again for a Christmas movie! 

 For dinner we went back over to my parent’s house! Christopher’s mom joined us there! 

Good morning and Happy Monday! So excited for my first edition of Must Have Monday in the new year (as for quite some time).
Now that Hallie is 6 months old (I still feel the tears welling up each time I make that realization!) I thought I would share some of our favorite products we’ve used in the last 3 months! 

 1. The Boppy– If you don’t remember, I wasn’t a breastfeeding Mom. I pumped and bottle fed, so this product was though at times useful, less relevant to us in the earlier months! Lately though it has been perfect! From tummy time to placing behind Hallie now while she is sitting it has been incredibly useful! We love this guy! 

 2. The Bumbo– This has been amazing for practicing sitting, but even more amazing for starting solids! I place Hallie in it every night at dinner time and she knows that she is about to get food! We still have yet to decide on a Highchair, but Hallie is so little still that this is working great! 

 3. Sophie the Giraffe- (and other teething toys) Lately the teething has really kicked into high gear! Hallie is constantly gnawing on  anything she can get her hands on! Sophie is perfect because it is soft enough to be gentle on her gums, but satisfies Hallie’s need to bite and chew! Perk…Sophie won’t get Hallie Hickeys like Mommy’s chin!

 4. Safety First Bibs– We got soooooo many cute cloth bibs! But a lot of them are short and only cover part of Hallie’s onesies and they stain and are a pain in the butt to treat! These are awesome! They just wipe clean! Confession…..sometimes I just throw them in the dishwasher! 

5.  Nuby Long Handle Spoons- 
These are so awesome because they are the perfect texture for Hallie and long enough to keep my hands away from the messy action! Plus they change color if the temperature of the food is too hot! 

6. Take and Toss bowls with lids- 
These were so so good when Hallie started eating oatmeal.  Sometimes she wouldn’t finish it, so we could just stick a lid on it and save it for later! We also use them when we make her baby food…which is rare lately! lol 







Hope this helps some of the new/soon to be moms! Expert Mommies…any products that you would recommend for our upcoming months?