Penelope at 8 months

Our eight month old can be summed up in just a few words...

drool, snot, and food.

The drool and snot portions are mainly attributed to teething. She's been teething for months but it seems to have intensified, which hopefully means a toofer (or several!) is on its way.

And FOOD because it's all she really cares about. Toys? No, gimme food. Naptime? Nope, more food please. Try to soothe my crying with hushes and lullabies? Food. Food is always the solution.

Any kind of food, really. Cereal...pureed stuff...formula in her bottle...whatever mommy or daddy is eating...whatever lurks under the couch...dust balls...the bottoms of shoes...even sissy's poop clump on the bathroom floor (yes, this really happened.) If it fits in her mouth, it passes as food.

In fact the only way I got her to cooperate for these pictures is by bribing her with puffs, as evidenced by the puff stuck in her leg rolls.

 
I am sure that if she could talk, she'd be saying "PUFF POWER!" as she fist pounds her puff into the air.

She even started eating her sticker halfway through our little session.

Anyways, we love her silly self. She only naps for 20 minutes at a time, but has started sleeping longer stretches in her crib. Hallelujah.

Her facial expressions kill me.

But most of all it's those enormous blue eyes that get me! 

Happy 8 months, honey bun.

our family's 4th

 There really are no words. I just love this family of mine so much!

I love celebrating the 4th. My heart swells with pride for our country and the freedoms we enjoy. It bursts with love for my family members, who all share different political views and still respect one another. And it breaks for the men & women who have given so much. We really are so blessed.

I always like to take pictures of the kiddos on or around holidays. These ones were kinda fun, except the sun was so bright! You can tell by the squinty eyes ;)

Penelope at 7 months

This is way late, but here it goes!

at 7 months:

*she wants to be held ALL the time, by me. Just me. The only break I get is when Jonathan comes home and suddenly she's content playing on the floor. (what the...?)

*snorts like a little piglet (she's been doing this for a few months but it just gets cuter the more she does it). 

*loves baby Einstein movies and will drop whatever she is doing to watch with her mouth gaping open.

*is super (and overly) brave in the water. Like when she's in the bath or kiddie pool she will try to crawl and even puts her face down into the water. I'm always right there to pull her out, of course- but its crazy! She never even cries when she goes under.

*crawls everywhere! And really fast, too. It's really funny.

*pulls up on things to stand. Such a big girl!

*says "dada" "mama" & "baba"

*eats all kinds of canned baby food goodness. her favorite snacks are cheerios & mum-mums.

*still sleeps with us...but at least she sleeps!

*teething all the time but still no toofers!

*loves sitting outside and watching nature. It is her happy place.

*when I hold or rock her, she soothes herself by pinching my nose, putting her fingers in my mouth, and pulling my hair. She's actually mastered how to use both hands to do as many of those as possible at one time. 

*unlike our other babies, she actually chews on her chewy toys. 

*makes the cutest little duck face you ever did see.

*is still quite petite. At church she was playing with another baby 2 months younger than her, and that baby towered over her. I hadn't realized until then just how small she really is. 

love you, sweet P.

Penelope at 6 months

On Mother's Day our babe turned 6 months old! Half a year already! This can't even be possible :) 

On that day we were driving back from Utah after spending a week there with family. So this post is a few days late, but we are finally home getting back into the swing of things and laundry is DONE. Bam.

Also, I'm getting lazier and lazier with blog posts. This time I'm typing it on my phone and I decided to take pictures with my phone, too. They aren't edited and don't look as good probably- but hey, this is saving me tons of precious time ;) 

A few things about our Penelope right now: 

She gets on all fours and puts her bum in the air. We call it "downward baby." Sometimes she will scoot a little bit forwards, sometimes she lands on her face, and mostly she scoots backwards (not her intention, I'm sure). 

She also likes rocking her bum back and forth while on her hands and knees. We call this "revving up". It is so stinking cute :)

Eats applesauce, pear sauce, bananas, and rice/oatmeal cereal. She's also on formula now. We won't go into all that- but I am sooo happy we made the switch. So happy. I miss breastfeeding only a teensy bit, but it was definitely time to stop. I'm thankful I could make it to 6 months- that is a huge personal accomplishment for me. And I will always hold out hope that I'll make it the full year someday with one of our babies. 

She still only says "da da", but she will say it *constantly*. Sleeps through the night but likes to eat at least once and then again as soon as daddy's alarm goes off. And she sleeps mostly with us...still. We finally got a sound machine so I think that will help her sleep in her crib more soundly. How did we live without one for so long?! 

Penelope is certainly growing like a weed, and it's bittersweet. We love her sweet little self. In Utah lots of family members commented that she looks more like me as a baby than our other two (who were carbon copies of Jonathan!). 

bunnies, birthdays, & beads

So much to catch up on! April was busy buys like usual. Easter, Conference, and two birthdays!
I want to get all caught up on stuff before we leave tomorrow for Idaho & Utah :)

EASTER:
Some things we did this year-

*ward egg hunt in the rain*
 goooood times.

*visited the baby chicks, bunnies, turkeys, and ducks at the ranch store*

 *performed some egg-coloring magic with koolaid, fine glitter, and rubberbands*

*had another little egg hunt at home Saturday morning. And the Easter Bunny brought some goodies!*

Charlotte got the sweetest dolly wrap. Its the same brand as my wrap and she totally loves acting like a little mommy! 

On Easter morning we enjoyed cinnamon rolls & watching General Conference. It was a wonderful Easter overall!

And then it was T's birthday. He is FIVE now! Craaaaaazay. We didn't have a party, but we did make him a fun cake with legos fighting on it. :)

We also took the kids to Get Air for the first time. It was the perfect way to celebrate our Talmage- he is so full of energy!

The next week I turned 26. I feel like birthdays for adults aren't very exciting so we will skip this part, but here are some pictures to prove that we did celebrate ;)

We've also been busy going to the beach, smelling the flowers, going to soccer & ballet, riding bikes outside, and taking walks almost every day. This warm weather is the BEST. 

Oh, and I've started an obsession for perler beads. If you are familiar with them, you may cringe a little. If not, well...your mind will be blown looking at some perler creations on Pinterest. We found out they are PERFECT for Minecraft stuff, so Talmage and I kinda love it. I may have gone a little nuts and ordered thousands of beads in dozens of different colors...and then spent many hours sorting the beads by color. But hey, it's not an unhealthy hobby, my son thinks I'm much cooler now, and my OCD is thanking me. :D

I'm excited for May! Bring it on, Oregon!