Christmas Fun in 2015

This past December has been FULL of Christmas fun.  It's been a blast to have little Evie be SO excited about everything Christmas.  She's been excited about everything from baby Jesus, to Santa, to singing Christmas songs (and having multiple dance parties to them), and much more.

So, here's our holiday wrap-up.

We kicked the holidays off by attending the extended Parker family Christmas party.  We had tons of fun with Grandpa George, Grandma Ellie & other family members.  Evie & Addie even got to sit on Santa's lap.  Evie asked for Christmas trees, while Addie actually sat still and didn't even cry.  I was shocked by that.

The girls with their Grandpa George & Grandma Ellie.

The very next day we were on our way to find and cut our Christmas tree in the woods.  This is a family-favorite tradition and we were all so excited to go.  It started so well.  The girls were thrilled with the snow and being outside in it.  By the time we found our "perfect" tree, the girls were cold and by the time we got them to the truck they were both in tears.  I jumped in the truck with the girls and turned on the heater while Beau went back to haul our tree off the mountain and into our truck.  Beau and I just had a good chuckle when it was all said and done.  This obviously documents our current stage of life very well.  :)

And, we had a lot of fun decorating the tree too.  The girls loved every part of it.  Oh, they are so darn adorable!

I go to the Festival of Trees every year with my mom.  This year my dad joined us since his office is so close to the Festival.  We love seeing all of the creative trees, quilts, gingerbread houses, and more.

There is a little kid area where the kids can do activities.  Evie is old enough to do them so she had fun. Santa is also there.  And, this encounter went down just as I had suspected.  Evie LOVED Santa.  She just sat and chatted with him as if they were best friends.  She told him all about her cute shirt and how it has a snowman and snowflakes on it.  She told him she wants Christmas trees and candy canes for Christmas.  Adeline broke out into tears the second she was placed on Santa's lap.  She was so terrified and upset to be given to such a strange looking man.  I only tortured her long enough to get a picture.

Beau and I attended an ugly sweater party.   Beau's sweater was to-die-for!  We borrowed it from a friend who had taken from her mother-in-law's closet when she passed away.  The sweater was totally legit . . . price tag was still on it and was priced at $118.  We were all amazed!

We attended our church Christmas party where they had a fun dress-up activity for the kids.  Evie LOVED this and dressed up as just about every character in the nativity story.  Adel got dressed up by default.  They are pretty darn cute if you ask me!

We go to the Voice Male concert every year.  They are totally family friendly and super entertaining.  It's become tradition and we didn't quit this year.  We took both girls and they both loved it.  They loved the lighting, the music, and the treats.  Evie danced in the isle, while Addie bounced in our arms.  It was fun.

We have an Elf on the Shelf.  Evie's birth grandma gave it to Evie for Christmas this year.  She gifted it early enough for us to enjoy it throughout the entire holiday season.  Evie LOVED it.  She named her Snowflake and loved looking for her every morning (Snowflake would watch her all day, go to the North Pole at night to report to Santa on Evie's good/bad behavior, and then come back to our house . . . usually finding a new place to sit).  One really fun event that happened with Snowflake had to do with new snow boots.  We had gotten a LOT of snow mid-December and Evie really needed new snow boots.  So, Evie told Snowflake and, amazingly, she told Santa and Santa sent Snowflake back to our house with new snow boots for Evie.  Evie was THRILLED!  It was a sad day when Snowflake went back to the North Pole with Santa for good.  She went back with him when Santa stopped at our house on Christmas Eve.

As usual, we enjoyed so much Christmas fun with family.  We went to our annual Christmas party with Beau's mom and step dad.  Everyone was able to attend and we had a ball.  We ate good food, opened lots of gifts, played games, played the chimes and Evie decorated a gingerbread house with her cousin HaLee and aunt Amber.  We all couldn't get enough of our newest member of the family, McKinlee.  However, Evie takes the cake on us all.  She is smitten with baby Kinlee and wants to hold, kiss, and admire her every second.

Christmas Eve was spent with our little family of four.  I made a BBQ ribs dinner, the girls opened their Christmas PJ's, we read the Christmas story of how baby Jesus came to Earth, decorated sugar cookies, and went to bed.  It was fun to have this special time together.

Christmas morning was a riot.  Evie was so dang excited.  She was beyond thrilled when she saw that Santa came and wanted to tear everything open immediately.  We calmed her down enough to open one present at a time and to take turns with Adel, mom & dad.  Highlights:  Evie's favorite gift was her scooter (with the monster slippers taking a close 2nd).  Adel's favorite gift was the yogurt bites (found in her stocking).  Mom also was gifted a scooter (so now Evie and I can ride scooters together).  Evie gave daddy a pair of pop guns so they can play guns together.

We took off to visit my family for our traditional Christmas morning breakfast.  We were spoiled again with gifts and good food.  We had fun visiting with family, playing games, and eating yummy treats. I was so happy my sister made it home for Christmas (in spite of the snowy weather).

And, Christmas night we headed off to visit Beau's dad and step mom.  We were again spoiled with gifts, good food, and fun.  Grandma Ellie had a fun puppet nativity for us to do.  Uncle Bronco read the Christmas story out of the scriptures, while the kids held up the puppets in front of a flashlight . . . where the images then showed up on the wall.  We read the story about four times, holding up the puppets when it was their turn in the story, because Evie and HaLee loved it so much.  They took turns with different puppets and then holding the flashlight.

Christmas was busy and fun.  We enjoyed spending so much time with family and soaking in the Christmas spirit.  The past couple of days we have just been trying to spend a little down-time together.

Because of all the snow we've received lately, Evie even got some sledding in.  Our piles of snow that have been created from the aftermath of shoveling our driveway are perfect toddler-size hills for sledding.  Evie was ALL smiles.

We hope you all had a very merry Christmas and we wish you the best that 2016 has to offer you!

Adeline at 11 Months

Baby Adeline is growing so darn fast!  Oh, but she's SO much fun.  Her personality continues to emerge and it's so delightful.  She's easily excited about things and teaches us all to find joy in the little things.  She's such a happy baby.

Here's what she's doing now.

• She's singing.  You know . . . that cute baby way of singing.  When music comes on or when we sing, she "tries" to sing along with us.  
• She's "bouncing" much more regularly and more consistently to music.  She's going to be such a good singer and dancer.  :)
• She's getting more proficient at walking while holding onto things.  She's even starting to walk while holding onto our hands.  We've also caught her balancing without holding onto something . . . but this doesn't last more than a second at a time.  Needless to say, she's well on her way towards walking independently.
• She's even more vocal now than she has been.  She will rarely sit in silence now days.  She's almost always babbling something fancy.
• This past month little Addie caught a sinus infection.  She only had a few really rough days before the antibiotics started working and then she returned to her happy and pleasant self.
• She can point or gesture to something to get what she needs.
• She is able to say "dada" and "mama" discriminately.
• She responds to one-step commands without gestures (I'll say "no touchies" and she'll take her hand off of whatever I've warned her about).
• She LOVES playing in the dishwasher.
• She wants whatever Evie has.  It's humorous to watch sometimes.  There can be 15 other toys around, but she usually wants what Evie has at that moment.  
• She still loves to play with Evie.  Evie can make her laugh hysterically . . . especially when playing peek-a-boo type games.  
• She's a pretty good eater.  She's eating more and more solids and tends to want to try EVERYTHING we are eating.  She still loves her bottles too. 
• She's a cautious child.  She's so careful when working with stairs/steps.  She's careful when she has to get herself out of sticky situations (like when she crawls into places that aren't as easy to crawl out of).  She just seems to be "aware" of dangerous situations and handles them with ease.
• She looks to me for approval as if saying, "Is it okay that I play with this toy?" or "Is this person really okay to smile at?" or "Is it okay if I eat this crumb off of the floor?"  And . . . a myriad of other situations.

She's seriously the cutest and we're all so blessed to have her sweet soul in our family.  We can never seem to get enough of her.   

Evie is 3 1/2

Our Evie doll is a whopping 3 1/2 years old.  She's amazing in all sorts of ways!  She's at such a fun age where we probably should be writing things down at least once a day of things she says or does.  She is full of personality and loaded with confidence.  She keeps us entertained, on our toes, and young-at-heart.

Here are a few highlights of Evie at 3 1/2.

• She loves to sing and dance.  She constantly asks to have dance parties.  We oblige, of course.  She'll tell us that the music is "making her bones move."  It's also VERY common to see her lip-sinking, while she pretends to hold a microphone, as she dances.  She loves her kid music, but she's starting to really like pop music too.  Some of her favorite songs include Geronimo (Shepperd), Fight Song (Rachel Platten), Shake It Off (Taylor Swift), What Makes You Beautiful (One Direction), Heartbeat Song (Kelly Clarkson), Call Me Maybe (Carly Rae Jepsen), Celebration (Kool & The Gang), All about the Bass (Meghan Trainor), Happy (Pharrell Williams), and Sugar (Moroon 5).  
• She loves to pull funny faces.  Her favorite one right now is with crossed eyes (see picture below).
• She LOVES anything Halloween.  And . . . it's not just because we just had the holiday.  We're constantly talking about "spooky" things.  They really aren't that spooky, but she loves to talk about Halloween figures (mummies, zombies, witches, ghosts, jack-o-lanterns, etc.).
• While Halloween is over and we're still talking about it, she is already starting to transition to Christmas.  It probably helped that her Grandma Yvette gave her an Elf on the shelf (Thanks!  She loves it!) who has taken on the name Snowflake thanks to Evie.  We've already started the Christmas music in our house (her request, but I certainly didn't object) and she's soaking in all the songs.  It's amazing how fast this girl learns and can retain information.  
• We didn't enroll her in Preschool this year.  She is so bright and already knows all the things she would learn . . . . at least scholastically.  I think I've written this previously (because she's known most of this for a while now), but she knows all her ABC's by sight and sound, she knows her numbers by sight and sound, she can count to 20, she's even starting to ask me how to read words (so I'll sound it out for her).  We know there are more aspects to learn at preschool such as sharing, playing with kids, listening to a teacher and following instructions, etc.  However, we waited so long for our sweet Evie, that we just couldn't give her up for the time she would spend in preschool when she already knows so much.  Instead, we decided to spend our money doing something different that would still help to teach her the other skills she would possibly acquire and . . . 
• She started gymnastics and LOVES it.  This kid is a machine and is built so athletically.  She constantly amazes her teachers with what she can physically do at her age.  Besides learning how to do front rolls, swing on the bars, balance on a beam, do backbends, etc., she's also learning how to take turns, listen to a teacher, follow instructions, etc.  It's been fabulous!
• She loves playing with "friends."  I'll set play dates up for her and she is in heaven.
• It probably goes without saying, but she still loves the animals and the farm.  She loves to feed with her dad.  She loves to ride the horses even more than she has before.  She loves the kitty cats.  Most of all . . . she loves her baby chicks.  Even when they aren't babies anymore, she still calls them her baby chicks, chases them, catches them, and loves them to death. 
• She really does love her baby sister.  She is really good to her (with very few exceptions).  I love to watch her be sweet and loving to her sister.  She helps her out, loves to do things to make her laugh, and constantly wants to hold her.
• Speaking of her baby sister . . . Evie also just loves babies.  She recently got a new baby cousin and Evie talks about her constantly.  We're getting another baby cousin in January and Evie cannot wait for her to come!  Evie talks to this baby cousin through her aunt's belly.  She even gives her kisses (on her aunt's belly).  
• We play "Barbies" a lot.  It's probably one of her favorite things to play while we're in our play room.  She always instructs me on how we play.  I'm always the mommy Barbie, while she is the kid Barbies.  
• She is a natural-born leader.  She is usually the one telling everyone what to do (or what NOT to do).  She's like that with me and Beau, but she's also like that with other kids and adults.  Some may say she's bossy, but I like to say she's got killer leadership abilities.  :)
• She's way into anything Hello Kitty. . . . from underwear to toys.  
• She loves to wear princess shoes everywhere!  And, I usually let her.  It's pretty funny.
• She likes to tell boys/men that they are her "good buddy."  So, she will put her arm around Beau and say, "Dad, you're my good buddy."  She'll tell me, "Mom, you're my good big girl."  Sometimes she'll say, "Mom, you're my good mom."  It's pretty darn cute!
• She still loves to be held and wants to "snuggle/cuddle" every night with me or Beau at bedtime.  She's really hard to resist in such moments.
• She loves to do anything active.  She wants to exercise or run with me, she loves riding her bike or tricycle, she loves to run and play at the park, or really do anything active.  She's like the Energizer Bunny . . . her energy just keeps going and going and going.  
• She loves to play games.  Her brain is amazing at figuring out stuff so games are a fun challenge for her.
• She's way into emotions.  She'll say things like, "I'm mad now." or "I'm angry." or "I'm happy."  or "I'm so excited."  We talk through them all.  Depending on the emotion I will usually follow up one of her statements with, "Why are you mad/angry/happy/excited."  It's insightful and pretty darn cute.
• She still loves to do anything that allows her to be creative.  She's getting better at coloring and actually realizing that you're supposed to color within the lines.  She loves painting, using stamps,  play-dough, etc.
• She loves to talk with her dad about big bucks.  She was elated when Beau brought home his big buck from the latest rifle hunt.  She wanted to get a picture with it.  Nevermind that she was just in a t-shirt and underwear when he got home.  She wasn't about to take the time to put pants on before snapping that picture with the big buck.  She's so funny!
• She loves Band-Aids.  Evie will find any excuse to put one on.  She looks for the most minute scratches, and if she can't find one, she'll just make one up.  She currently has princess, Frozen, and Hello Kitty band-aids.  She loves them!
• She loves the snow.  She loves to run in it, make snow angels, make snowmen, and eat it.  
• She got her first haircut finally (in August).  And, it wasn't much.  She just had a couple locks of hair that where considerably longer than the rest of her hair, so I just trimmed those up to match the rest of her hair.  Speaking of her hair though, it's got the perfect amount of natural curl.  I think her hair is so pretty.
• As you can probably gather from all the other notes, Evie is both a tough, farm girl as well as a pretty princess.  She loves to put her boots on and work on the farm, but she also loves to wear her princess clothes and shoes and play Barbies.  She's a good mix of both worlds. 

Beau and I are so honored to be Evie's parents.  We feel blessed in every way.  

Snow Canyon Half Marathon and Half Mile

My brother and I trained for another half marathon.  We thought it would be fun to take a weekend trip to St. George and run the Snow Canyon Half.  

I personally was jazzed about this run because I feel like I didn't really get to train well for my half marathon in June.  Now that sweet Baby Addie is sleeping through the night I was able to get better training milage and much more consistently.  

I also asked Evie if she wanted to run a race too.  She totally did so I signed her up for the Half Mile kids run.  A half mile is kind of a ways to run when you're only three-years-old, but Evie is a go-getter and she's super athletic so I knew she could do it.  

We both practiced.  I did a lot of my miles on the treadmill.  I took Evie to the high school track to practice her half mile.  

We both ran our races and conquered them!

We both got our medals and were thrilled!  

We had a HUGE cheering section too!  

Beau and Adeline were there.  I ran the entire race with my brother, Tyler.  So, obviously he was there.  His family (wife and three kiddos) was there too.  My mom and dad made the trip down to cheer us all on.  Evie's birth grandma and birth aunt were there.  Amber, Beau's sister, also ran the half marathon so she was there.  And, Beau's mom and dad made the trip down to support us all.  My uncle Kelly was there too . . . helping with the race.  It was such a fun family affair.

We are blessed to have such healthy bodies to complete something so physical.  We're even more blessed to be loved by so many! 

Beau's Big Buck

Beau did some great hunting this season!  He most recently participated in the Utah Rifle Hunt and had some success.

Beau's Big 4-Point

He got a pretty darn nice 4-point.

Beau and his Big Buck

And, quite honestly, he actually had WAY more fun doing the camping, riding his horses, and spending time with his brother Chance.

Chance with the riding team.

Beau sure loves the outdoors and he loved taking this well-deserved break from work.  Way to go Beau!

Halloween Treats AND Tricks

This year we found lots of treats AND an awful trick.

The festivities started a little early.  We have an annual Halloween party with Beau's family every year. It's one of the parties we all look forward to.  And, as usual, we had a great time.  It was held mid-October this year.

We dressed up as a bottle of Ketchup, a Police Officer, a Lady Bug, and a Kitty Cat.

And, here is a group picture of everyone!  The costumes are pretty awesome.  We had a huge Toy Story clan, Peter Pan/Wendy/Tinker Bell combo, a scarecrow, and a runner.

And, to follow tradition, we followed all of this fun up with some delicious food and family games.

As Halloween finally approached I knew that pumpkin carving would be on the agenda this year.  Evie has been WAY into pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns for years now.  I mean, she seriously hasn't stopped talking about Halloween stuff since LAST year.  She's a riot.    So, now that she's old enough I decided to bite the bullet and make jack-o-lanterns with her.  We grew pumpkins this year, so we went out to the garden to pick the perfect pumpkins.  When we got in the house I told Evie she could choose the faces.  We jumped on the computer to look for patterns and as we started looking through them she wanted NOTHING to do with the ones that looked cute and happy.  We MUST have scary/spooky ones.  So . . . she chose her favorite 2 and off we went.

We started carving and I had Evie pull out the "guts" of the pumpkins while I scraped them down.  She was NOT a fan of the slime.  Not one bit.  She lasted for about 2 handfuls and then passed that job right back to me.  LOL.  Once we started carving, Evie was thrilled.  And, then she fell asleep right in her chair with her head down on the countertop.  I had to keep carving because I didn't know how much time I would have until Addie would wake up from her nap, so I got both pumpkins carved before both babies awoke.

But, when they awoke, they were both thrilled.  Evie loved her pumpkins and she especially loved that they looked like Draculas.  They passed the "spooky" test.  We had to light them right away to see them glow.

Then, the day before Halloween was filled with all sorts of fun.  It started out with a Halloween lunch at daddy's work.  Everyone in Beau's office dresses up, so it was fun to see all of the costumes.  And, of course the girls LOVED getting to spend some extra time with their daddy.  I did too.

After lunch, we went to pick up cousin HaLee for the afternoon.  She went with us to Aunt Amber's work to trick-or-treat.  They had SO much fun and loaded up on SO much candy.  I think they really loved the trick-or-treating part, but they loved playing with Amber in her office even more.  What a fun treat!

After that, we hurried home to eat dinner and then we went to our neighborhood trunk-or-treat.  This involved trick-or-treating as well as a dance party.  It was way fun.  Adel and dad handed out the candy.

I took HaLee and Evie around to all the "trunks" to trick-or-treat.

Then, it was home to get some much needed rest, because we had parties and trick-or-treating to go to the next day.  After all, the next day was actually Halloween!

And . . . that's where the BIG trick comes in.  Evie caught a stomach bug and "spit up" in her bed around 4am.  She called it "spit up," but it was full-on throw up.  It was everywhere and it was disgusting and awfully sad.

And, like flies, we all started dropping.  Daddy was sick within a few hours of that.  I managed to last until the late evening (thankfully, because I don't know who would have taken care of the girls if both Beau and I were down-and-out at the same time).

It really was a mean Halloween trick that hit our house.  Addie had been sick a few days before, so I think she started it.  I just didn't really know she was that sick until it started hitting the rest of us (those poor little babies can't really tell you how sick they truly are).  So, needless to say, we missed our annual Halloween parties at the grandparents homes.  Major bummer!

But, today we are all feeling good, eating without wanting to puke, and we've found our smiles again.  So, I dressed my babies back up to get some good/decent Halloween pics of each of them.  They are sooooo darn cute!

Here's our darling little kitty cat.  The costume fits her well because her favorite animal around our house is indeed our black barn cat.  Man, you just want to grab her off your screen and squeeze her, don't you!?

And, here's our lovely lady bug.  She is charming in every way imaginable.  I hope you all had a fun and safe and sick-free Halloween weekend!

Baby Adel is 10 Months Old

Yep!  It's true!  My sweet little Adeline is a whopping 10 months old.  What in the world!?  Time goes WAY too fast sometimes.

She has become so busy, busy, busy!  She can really move around so she's exploring everything she can possibly explore.  I know a lot of moms hate this stage because of all the messes these little babies make, but I actually really love it for that reason.  I don't mind that the toys get strung all about the house, or that the DVD's are pulled off the shelf 12 times a day, or that she has to go through 27 books before she finds one that interests her.  You get the idea.  And, by all of this you can probably gather that my house is rarely organized (I do try to keep it clean…..wiped down, vacuumed, etc).   But, I wouldn't have it any other day.  There are days I look at the mess and think, "I should clean this place up."  But, usually I look at the mess and smile and think, "I'm so lucky to have these girls that make these messes."

And, while Adeline goes about her busy business, she is usually as pleasant as can be.  She's happy to explore, to crawl and climb.  She LOVES to follow her sister around and usually wants whatever Evie has.  I suppose that's natural for siblings, right?

Here's what Addie is up to now:

• She's finally starting to like books a little better.  She'll actually sit through an entire board book (so long as it's not too long).  At this point, that's about all I can get her to do, but I'm happy to see her start enjoying the "reading" world a little more.
• She has another tooth on bottom.  So, she now has 4 teeth on top and 4 on bottom.
• Thanks to those teeth, I haven't hesitated to start feeding her table food.  She is SOOOO sick of pureed baby foods . . . to the point that she'd rather go hungry some days than gag down another serving of it.  So, I started cutting up chicken, giving her brown rice, and chopped up veggies. She's a HUGE fan.  We've started trying her on all sorts of stuff and she likes most of the stuff we give her.  She still loves to follow every meal up with a bottle.
• She's babbling much more now.  She loves making the sounds all day long.
• She's ditched the "army crawl" and just crawls on her hands and knees.  
• She is much more confident and sure when she pulls herself up to a standing position while holding onto stuff.  She isn't even wobbly as she walks along furniture and she's figured out how to gently get herself down to the floor.  She goes everywhere I tell you!
• She definitely understands "no" (but doesn't always obey it).
• She started using a sippy cup.  She prefers the straw ones.  She can also drink out of a normal straw (it just sometimes comes up too fast and scares her).
• She caught some strain of the flu.  While she was a little more whiney and clingy than usual, I still wasn't sure what was going on with her because she was still pretty pleasant and happy overall.  It wasn't until Evie got it (and then Beau and I got it) that I connected all the dots.  I mean, how can I complain too loudly when I have a baby with the flu that is still relatively pleasant?
• And, as annoying as it is, Addie even got her flu shot this past month (do those things REALLY ever work!?).  She was a champ when she got it.  She cried for about 5 seconds and was over it.  (I won't mention how long her older sister cried.  Ok . . . for minutes!  But, it was super cute because Evie got her shot first.  Then, when the nurse was about to give it to Addie, Evie looked at Addie and told her it was going to poke really bad . . . as if telling Addie to run for her life.   Then Evie yelled at the nurse to not poke her baby Adel.  Evie was TOTALLY watching out for her little sister. I love watching exchanges like this.)
• She loves to go through the animal sounds.  She cannot make them, but she sure recognizes them.  She gets most excited for dog and cat.  Although, duck and anything that roars is starting to become more amusing to her.  
• She LOVES to snuggle up to her blankets.  If her blankets aren't available or handy, she'll sometimes find other things.  I've caught her laying on the floor with a dish towel, Evie's blanket, pillows, or anything else soft.  She's such a little cuddle bug.
• Addie is busy and into everything.  She is curious and wants to explore anything she can possibly explore.  She's into the toys, the books, the DVD's, the shoe bins, the dishwasher, the diaper bag, the garbage (ugh!), and she's even tried to stick her hands in the toilet.  This girl is seriously into everything.  Busy, busy, busy!

We just love having this sweet pea in our home and family.  She's a dream come true in every way.  

Cornbelly's Tradition With Four

Well, we took our annual trip to Cornbelly's.  This year it was FOUR of us, instead of three of us.  I just love my little family!

Cornbelly's seems to get bigger and better every year.  There was more for us to see and do . . . more than we could get to in three hours of time (who would of thought we would need more time, let alone the girls would last longer than three hours!?).

We had lots of fun doing the traditional stuff . . . riding the cow train, going down the giant slides, going on wagon rides through the corn fields, jumping on trampolines, playing in the corn pit, etc.  This year we got to watch a dog show where the dogs did tricks while catching frisbees as well as jumped into a pool of water.  The girls loved that part.  We also got to see a firework show.  This is one of my favorite family traditions!

Baby Addie with her daddy.  So cute!

The girls . . . on our wagon ride through the corn fields. 

Evie got to watch the dog show from her daddy's shoulders.  Lucky girl!

Mommy and Evie playing together in the corn pit.

The awesome firework show.  

Baby Adel at 9 Months

My sweet Adeline is another month older, wiser, bigger, etc.  She's had a great month and continues to amaze us in her development, her sweetness, and her beauty.  She's the most darling, little thing there ever was.

Here's what she's up to now days:

• Evie started calling Adeline "Adel" a few months ago.  It was Evie's endearing, little nickname for her baby sister.  Well, it has really stuck and now we all call her Adel.  So, Adeline truly responds to 3 names now . . . Adeline, Addie, and Adel.
• She's eating solids way better.  She now loves her rice cereal when I mix it with fruit.  She still has her favorite veggies . . . sweet potatoes and carrots.  She enjoys fruits now.  I've tried her on a few baby foods with meat in them and she is NOT a fan of those yet.  I'm going to try making my own instead of using store bought to see if she'll tolerate it a little better.  She loves the baby snack items (puffs, yogurt bites, etc.).  She still LOVES her bottle the best.
• She has 3 more teeth, folks!  They appeared in her upper gums.  She now has 4 teeth on top and 3 on bottom.  This girl is ready to eat!  Let's give her a turkey leg or something.  LOL.
• She is sleeping ALL the way through the night now.  She'll sleep 10-12 hours at a time.  Well, unless she's teething or sick.  But, that goes without saying.  
• Her interest in animals has piqued.  She is becoming more and more drawn to them.  Her favorites around our house are our little, black cat Louise as well as our giant mule Tiny.  She tends to get more excited around both of these pets as opposed to the others.  However, she still loves to watch the others too.
• She LOVES to watch us brush our teeth.  She's actually loved this for months, but I've forgotten to write it down.  She grins and giggles when we brush our teeth.  It's pretty funny.
• She loves fabrics, clothes, and jewelry.  It's becoming very obvious that she is quite the girlie girl.  It cracks me up how she is drawn to clothing and jewelry. She loves to play with her clothes and dig in her clothing drawers/baskets.  She also loves all jewelry and will tug and play with anything I have on.  
• She is a hair puller.  She's pretty sly about it too.  She'll gently grab your hair and then she'll quickly yank.  As you can imagine, it doesn't feel super awesome.
• She's finally babbling.  I've been waiting and waiting for this and she's finally gibber-gabbering.  It's ADORABLE!  She's unleashed all sorts of sounds . . . just within the last week.  Dada, Gaga, Zaza, ShaSha, VaVa, GuyGuy, and last but certainly not least . . . Mama. :) The babbles are so fun and it's hard not to HIGHLY encourage them.  We all get excited and chat right back with her . . . mimicking her every sound.  
• She loves nature.  She's love this for many months too, but I haven't really written it down.  She loves to watch the leaves on trees blow in the wind.  She even loves to be on the grass.  Her first touch of the grass never bothered her, it just intrigued her.  She doesn't hate the texture of it at all.  
• She can now officially crawl on her hands and knees.  She still prefers to "army crawl" because she's more efficient and can get places faster this way, but she can officially crawl.
• She can now get herself in and out of a sitting potation.  
• She's pulling herself up much more now.  She can even crawl up stairs (oh no!).  She loves to pull herself up like a big girl, but often times finds herself stuck there afterwards.  Sometimes she'll plop back down on her bum and sometimes she'll whine for me to help her.  She's even starting to walk a little while holding on to furniture, but she's super wobbly.  
• She's starting to show more sensitivity.  One day she grabbed something she shouldn't and Evie hurried to grab it and tell her no (which I often have to remind Evie that I'm the mom and can tell her no when needed. . . .ha, ha).  A big frown showed up on Adeline's face which was quickly followed by big alligator tears.  She was so sad.  She's also been known to sympathy cry when others are crying.  
• She's starting to tap to the beat of music.  She'll sometimes bounce a little, but she mostly waves her hand/arm in line with the beat of a song.  She's loved music since birth (well, probably even before that) so it's fun to see her start to move with it now.  She really loves it when I dance with her in my arms.  She has huge smiles and loud coos.
• Oh my word!  If there is anything to be found on the floor that will fit in her mouth, she'll find it and eat it.  I am vacuuming constantly.  She'll seriously put everything and anything in her mouth.
• She is totally understanding certain phrases.  It's amazing how fast these babies learn languages.  She responds and acts accordingly to the following phrases:  No, Good Job, No Touchies, Look, Look at Momma, Where's Evie, etc.
• She's still a momma's girl.  She hasn't "grown out of it" yet.  Speaking from a mother's intuitive place, I don't think she really will.  I'm sure it will ease over time, but she's just not one to get too far from her momma's eyesight or arms.  I'm perfectly okay with this.  That all being said, she has really formed a darling bond with her daddy.  And, she still adores Evie to pieces. 

Adeline is a happy, happy baby.  She loves to smile, she loves to play, she loves social interaction, and is a pure delight to be around.  Needless to say, she's irresistible to squeeze and kiss.  We love, love, LOVE her!!

Adeline at 8 Months

Another month has gone by and our little Sweet Pea keeps growing.  She's starting to show some independence at this young age and is getting braver and braver as she moves around and works on her movability.  She's an absolute joy to watch and have in our presence.

Here's what she's doing now:

• She can now totally sit upright on her own.  She likes to do this if we put toys in front of her.  She does struggle to get out of the seated position once she gets bored of this. 
• She still "army crawls" everywhere.  And, I must say, she is pretty darn fast.  She hasn't figured out how to crawl on her knees.  She'll get up on her knees and rock, but she doesn't do anything past that.  
• I added fruits to her diet this past month and she definitely prefers veggies over the fruits.  She always gives me a sour face when I feed her fruits.  She eventually gets used to the taste, but she won't eat nearly as much of them as she will her veggies.  Sweet potatoes are definitely her favorite.
• She has developed the ability to pick up tiny objects with any part of the thumb and pointer finger.  She has developed extreme accuracy with this.  Her favorite things to grab are cheerios/baby puffs.  She can been them herself with those.
• She has more teeth.  She has one more on the bottom (making that 3 on the bottom) and one the top (one of her eye teeth).
• She still LOVES peekaboo.
• She loves songs with actions. . . "patty-cake" and "itsy bitsy spider" are favorites.
• She loves her dad's hair.  I guess the pokey texture is awesome, because when she touches it she bursts out into giggles.

She is as adorable as they come!  I know; I'm her mom so I'm biased, but I'm guessing you'll totally agree.  :)

Adeline's Baby Blessing

We blessed our sweet Adeline in church today.  It was a special, special occasion.  Beau gave the sweetest, most tender blessing and I'm pretty sure the spirit was felt by everyone.

We were so grateful to share this special day with so many loved ones.  Most of our family members were able to attend.  We also were graced by Adeline's birth mom and some additional members of her birth family.  It was so nice to be with everyone.  Addie is surrounded by so much love and we are SO grateful.

We've certainly enjoyed all of these special occasions this past month to celebrate our sweet Addie.

Adeline at 7 Months

She's done it to me again.  She's another month older!  That little stinker.  Man! Time sure goes by fast.  As you've been able to tell on the blog, our month of July has been chock-full of events.  We've had a lot of fun, been really busy, and that is usually the formula for time going by super fast!

This little Sweet Pea is just that . . . still super sweet.  It is so much fun to watch her grow.  She's really developing into more of a "person" . . . meaning she knows more of what she wants and how to voice it. She keeps growing bigger.  Those growth spurts seem to be very obvious to me when they occur.  She is so darn cute that I can hardly stand it.  I think that it's nearly every night when Beau gets home from work that he says, "She is so adorable."  He says it almost as if he can't believe how cute she is from day-to-day.  She is a pure delight.

Here's what she's doing now.

• She kicks her legs when she is either excited or frustrated.  For example, When she sees me coming, she'll kick her legs in excitement. Another example in the frustrated area is when she's hungry and I'm not making a bottle fast enough, her legs kick hard and fast.  
• She started teething this past month and has two little front teeth poking through on her bottom gums.  She really wasn't a horrible teether either.  She didn't have any crazy symptoms (fever, runny nose, etc.), she just wanted more comfort and needed to be held more.  Naps and night sleeping were a little more interrupted from the pain, but a little consoling helped her tons.
• She now fusses when a toy is taken away.  She knows what she wants and is not a happy camper if something is taken from her before she's ready to give it up.
• She loves her water time.  She enjoys taking baths and she loves to go swimming.
• She is a mover!  She's totally scooting wherever she wants to go now.  It kind of looks like army crawling.  She is constantly scooting to get a toy that's out of reach or to find me in another room. Just today she actually pulled herself up when holding onto something.  It happened when I was taking pictures of her and she held onto the basket and pulled herself right up.  She also started (today) to get on her knees.  You can tell that she knows there's supposed to be a way to crawl, but she can't quite figure that out yet, so she goes back to her tummy and scoots.  It seems like she'll be crawling and walking before we know it.
• After that, it probably goes without saying that she can stand holding on to someone or something.

This is the picture I took today when she pulled herself up.

• She can almost sit without support.  I can sit her up and leave her and she'll stay for a second, but she'll usually plop over. 
•  She started solids this past month. She initially didn't really like anything I fed her.  Come to find out, I started feeding her right when she was teething, so I'm sure the spoon in the mouth didn't feel good plus she mostly just wanted the comfort of a bottle.  Once we got through the teething I tried again and she did better, although she still didn't love anything I fed her.  It seemed as if she was saying, "Come on, Mom.  The bottle is so much easier."  However, after she figured out how to eat, she has done much better.  She doesn't eat a ton at one sitting, but she's eating the food without crying now days.  She is not a fan of rice cereal, although she's tolerating it a little better now (after a full month of breakfasts).  She likes peas, carrots, and sweet potatoes.  I haven't really given her fruits yet, but will soon.

Looks tasty, doesn't it?

• She still wants to eat every three hours during the day.  I'm sure it's because she really doesn't eat a ton at each feeding.  If given solids at a meal, she'll eat a little of those and then about 3-4 ounces of formula.  If not given solids, she'll drink about 5-6 ounces of formula.
• She's on a pretty regular sleep/nap schedule now days.  She takes a short nap in the morning (usually an hour) and then a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon.  She then stays up until bedtime which is usually between 8pm and 9pm.  She'll usually wake up once or twice in the night crying for her binkie, and then she'll wake between 5am and 6:30am to eat.  She then goes back to bed until 8:30ish.     
• She is getting that fine motor skill down to put her own binkie back into her mouth.  This is something I've been hoping for her to do so that she doesn't need me during the night to do it for her.  Unfortunately, she can't always find her binkie in her crib at night, so I still go find it for her, but I'm grateful for those times that she can find it because I can continue to sleep.  :)
• She loves her dad's hats.  If Beau is holding her and wearing a hat, she'll always try to grab it.  Beau always helps to put it on her head.
• She definitely looks for dropped objects.  She'll drop something and look for it.
• She still loves peek-a-boo.
• She can pass an object from one hand to the other.
• She is actually a pretty quiet girl. . . . that is until she wants/needs something.  She is usually pretty chill and doesn't babble much.  She is a quiet observer.  However, when she needs something she is not afraid to voice for it.  She has a loud cry and she'll kind of scream sometimes too.  I really don't need the baby monitor at night because I can clearly hear her when she wakes.  She is a silly little baby.  So, I guess she's quiet and loud . . . depending on the moment.  Lol.
• I've been meaning to put this down for a couple of months, but she does fine in the car now.  She out-grew the crying in her car seat stage.  Thank goodness.  
• She is a true mommy's girl.  This sweet babe will cry for me if I'm not the one holding her.  It's always worse if she can see me and she'll reach for me while fussing.  I gotta admit . . . I love that she loves me so darn much.  It's hard to get anything done effectively with her so attached to me, but this stage doesn't last long and I'm happy to put stuff on the back burner so I can relish the snuggles with this sweet pea.

We're so blessed to have this Addie baby in our family.