4th of July

For the 4th of July Lilybelle was the only one in our family to sport the patriotic red, white, and blue all at once. And oh boy did she look cute doing it. Her Nana made sure that she would look fashionable and cool for the 4th of July. 

Since we've been experiencing a heat wave, it was 105 degrees earlier in the week, we opted to spend part of the day inside. Tim had never been to the National Automobile Museum so we decided to go check it out. We had a blast! There are so many cool cars to see, and there are a lot. We enjoyed looking at cars from the 1800s all the way up to the 1980s. It was funny to see that some early American cars had the steering wheel on the right side of the car, which was a carryover from the days of the horse and buggy. The history person in me LOVED reading all the plagues in front of the cars, and if I could have spent all day there I would have read each and every one of them. They even let you climb into one of the cars and take pictures. They also have props for you to wear for the picture taking. So I guess what I'm saying is that hat on my head is not really mine.

After the museum, we went out to the outlet stores, ate lunch, and did some shopping and walking around. This was the first time that we actually fed Lilybelle her food at a restaurant and she did great. She really enjoys her food. Banana is especially her favorite, which is what is on her face in this picture.

We then headed home where we spent the evening. No fireworks for us this year, they went off way past her bedtime.

Long Overdue

It has taken me a while to post her nine month photo (only three months left to plan her birthday, eek), sorry. But I have a good reason for it. Last Sunday I was walking to church for a special stake fireside, when I fell and fractured both my elbows. You heard  right, both elbows from a simple fall on a simple walk. Nothing exciting like skateboarding or  new exercise routine. It's taken me a while to get back into the groove of things. I'm doing better, and am able to do more things. I'd show everyone a picture of my double splints I had for a few hours on Monday, but it's a really unflattering photo.

Lilybelle is getting so much fun. I can actually play with her now. She interacts with me. We like to stack things up, and she likes to tear it down. She plays with Sophie, and enjoys swinging. We went down to my parents' house for Memorial weekend and put her in the swing. She really liked it. She's also started to feed herself. She loves to hold the cereal in both hands and then eat from her right hand and leave a piece in her left hand for later.

She's also getting more independent. Because of this independence I've been able to resume doing some crafty stuff. I made a wreath for our front door that I thought turned out great. Thanks Pinterest!

Taking her nine month photo was a hoot. She was such a ham for the camera. As I looked through the many photos Tim took I realized that she had almost every facial expression possible in these photos. Happy, sad, tired, angry, etc. I kinda miss the one month old that couldn't move when we took her photo.

On Friday we went to the pediatrician for her nine month check up. She's 27.5 inches long and 15.10 pounds. Tall and skinny. She's in the fifty percentile for height and five for weight. My mom and dad came up  to help me get her to the pediatrician and so afterwards we went to lunch and did some shopping.

Finally a video that has been months in the making. We got her jenny jump up as a gift and tried it out when she was younger, but all she did was chew on it. Now she has finally gotten the hang of it.

8 months

Over the weekend Lilybelle turned eight months! So of course we had to take a new photo to track her progress. We didn't lay her down for this photo because the minute you put her down she rolls over to her stomach and surveys her surroundings. If she finds something she wants, she army crawls over to it. So taking pictures has gotten harder.

 

Nana and Grandpa came up on Saturday and Minden came over, and we all went out to lunch where Lilybelle gave rice a try (not too sure about it). Before my parents came up, Lilybelle gave her new toy a try. The photo below is one of my new favorites and I just can't get over the look she gave Tim as he was taking the photo. She smiled later, but the first look is my favorite.

After lunch we all hit the mall and did a little shopping. My mom and I went straight to the baby department and supplemented Lilybelle's summer wardrobe. With the warm weather we've had lately I became aware that Lilybelle didn't have too many summer outfits. Minden had her try out sunglasses and I had her try on shoes while she was sleeping.

Vacation

This past Thursday we all drove down to Buellton, CA for Matthew and Kit's wedding reception. Between the baby and my pumping it took us 10 hours to drive down there. But all things considered, Lilybelle (LB) did amazing in the car. We started out by leaving at four in the morning figuring that if we left early little LB would sleep longer. We stopped at Stockton where we fed the baby and I pumped in the parking lot of Raleys. We got gas and then got back in the car, and headed on. We had planned to stop in Paso Robles, but my bladder didn't make it that far. We stopped at a rest stop, went to the bathroom, fed the baby, and while I pumped in the parking lot Tim and LB played on the grass. We then continued on our way. We settled into our hotel, took a nap, had a nice dinner, and went to bed.

The next day we spend the day in Santa Barbara where we went to the Santa Barbara Zoo, saw the Pacific Ocean, and did some shopping. At the zoo we saw the standard zoo animals, but the highlight was seeing the baby giraffe. So super cute! Lilybelle wasn't impressed as we were, but she enjoyed being pushed around in her stroller.

After we were done with the zoo we went to Stearns Wharf which is the oldest working wharf in California. We had lunch and enjoyed breathtaking views of the ocean.  We then moved onto downtown Santa Barbara and did a little shopping. Like her mother, LB enjoyed looking at the clothes. Our day didn't end there though. We made quick stop at a beach to look for tide pools (no such luck) and to dip our feet in the ocean. LB was taken by surprise by the coldness of the water, but did good. We then met family for a nice dinner. LB enjoyed hanging out with family.

The next day we went to Solvang and spent the day looking at shops with Minden and my parents. After some shopping, we went to Mission Santa Ines. It was an impressive sight to see. The history person in me enjoyed looking at it and trying to construct how people who built the mission would have lived there. The day ended with the wedding reception at a Peruvian horse ranch. The views were amazing, and Matthew and Kit put on a beautiful wedding reception.

We drove home that night, and didn't have to make any feeding stops or pumping stops. A nice change from the rest of the trip.

This trip taught me that my daughter does very well traveling, but change in routine is never easy for a baby. I also learned that you can pump anywhere. I pumped in many many parking lots, and even a horse ranch.

7 Months

Question for Lilybelle

Question: Lilybelle, who do you love?

Answer:

I guess I know who Lilybelle loves. She does spend a lot of time with her daddy, especially since it's tax season.

Tim took the 7 month picture. She looks so different in it. It's the first one that I really see a change in from the previous month. 

Also, Lilybelle sits up now. We have sit her up, she doesn't do it by herself, but once she's up she's good to go. It's not a great photo; we probably need to buy a camera instead of always using our phones.

I wish I had more to say, that I was more witty, but it's tax season and I just don't have the brain power to accomplish that. Maybe next month.

Happy Easter!

I love holidays. They are a perfect excuse to eat chocolate, do fun things, and spend time with family. Easter is no exception. Since this was our first Easter with a child I wanted it to be special for Lilybelle. The Easter Bunny came and brought her a new toy and some chocolate for Mom and Dad (woo hoo!), Mom and Nana each got her an Easter Dress, and we dyed Easter Eggs. The last part Tim didn't think was necessary, but he had fun anyways.

First the Easter Basket. She liked her new toy, but I really think she would have liked to have the chocolate dipped Peep that I ate. She watched longingly while I ate them, yes all three because they don't taste as good the next day. Got to get them while they are good I say.

Next came the Easter Egg fun. I put her in her cover everything Ikea bib, that's actually still a little big, put her on Tim's lap, and then let her chose her color. She chose blue and made a really pretty egg.

Look how excited she looks to dye her very first Easter Egg. I can't wait until she can actually do it.

Here she is getting ready to put that egg in the blue dye. You can also see that her bib is just a little too big for her still.

She was very interested in how Dad put the egg in the dye. Guarantee that by next year she'll have this process down and will want to do it on her own.

Dad couldn't resist "decorating" her when we were all done with dying the eggs, and I couldn't resist snapping a picture of it. The stickers came right off because it was time for her Easter bath, which was like any other bath.

Next came the Easter dresses. She actually wore the sailor dress last Sunday, and it made me wish that I had waited until Easter Sunday for her to wear it because she looked so adorable in it, but she couldn't wear the bunny dress a week early.

 I couldn't believe that she left the hat on the whole day, but she did. All through church and her great-grandma's birthday party.

And finally her actual Easter dress that I bought back in December. So cute!

Happy Half Birthday Lilybelle!

 I'm going to admit that I probably got a little too excited about my daughter's half birthday. I kept telling everyone today that it was Lilybelle's half birthday. If I wasn't working crazy hours right now I probably would have thrown her a mini birthday party. The thought did cross my mind. But since I am working crazy hours, I contented myself with the following: I made her 6 month onsie, I got her peas all ready, and dressed her in her cupcake outfit today.

So to sum up her half birthday, Lilybelle is six months old today. She has gotten so big, and the time has gone by so fast. Some of her more recent accomplishments include sitting up by herself (she did it for a little bit on Sunday, hasn't repeated it yet), expanding her vocal range, and trying new food. On Sunday I made her a pea puree and a banana puree. In honor of her 6 months, we broke out the pea puree and fed it to her. At first she didn't seem too impressed by it, but she ate it all, and by the end she was excited to get it.

Tim also took the standard 6 month photo. It gets harder each month to take the photo because she doesn't sit still. This month she had an obsession with her feet. Most of the pictures that Tim took she was holding her feet up close to her face. If only I were still that flexible. I leave you with a video of her today. Happy Half Birthday Lilybelle.