6 months!

Lily is 6 months today!

About you:

• You weigh 16lbs, you're getting SO big!
• You have changed a lot in the last week or two, your personality is coming out and I love it.
• You nurse 4-5 times a day and you have started to eat some solid foods. 
• The growth spurt you just went through was rough on you (and me), waking up every night around 10 or 11. This week has been better, going to sleep at 7 and sleeping until 3 or 4am.
• Like Mama and Dadda, you're an early riser, up by 6 or 6:30.
• You like to chew on everything and reach for everything, too. The other day I turned around for .02 seconds and turned back around to see you trying to eat a piece of spinach from my lunch. SPEEDY!
• You are very inquisitive. You love studying people, objects, anything and everything around you. 

Month 5 should be called the "month of many changes", I can't believe how much Lily has changed in such a short time! 

cereal for the first time

3 years and news

Yesterday, Mark and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary. Whaaat?!?

To 3 years and many many more...cheers!

While enjoying our coffee & breakfast, we talked about our life in 3's:

• 3 years of marriage
• A new family of 3
• 3 moves: Oxford, Delaware x2
• 3 popcorn makers (insert guilty faces)
• 3 brands of cars: Honda, Ford, Toyota

...and now starts what might be the craziest of all 3 years.

NEWS:

The rumors are true, we are moving. Mark accepted a job in Virginia, just south of DC. Exactly one month ago (to the day) Mark received a call from Independence Landscaping asking him to interview. Two days later, on the 4th of July, he was on an airplane to meet the owners in person. It was a crazy day; there and back before 3pm, and it has been crazy ever since. 

Our house is on the market and we are praying a buyer will come along sooner than later because we are moving regardless if it sells. Our tentative moving date is August 18th so if you're in the area and want free pizza (and help move a box or ten), come on over! :)

We're excited, nervous, sad, tired, and anxious all at the same time. We both grew up in Delaware and besides our small-town college experience, it's all we've ever known. Did you know both of our parents live here too? 1.2 miles from each other to be exact. It IS definitely going to be different living outside of our "hometown" and away from our family and friends. 

Without a doubt this is bittersweet. We are excited. We're excited about Mark's new job, exploring all the area has to offer, meeting new people and all of the other 'firsts' and 'new' things for us and for Lily. 

I have been doing a little bit of packing each day. One closet and one room at a time. I made some time to make this little frame (from Pinterest) for our anniversary. It's three maps of where 'we met', 'we married' and where 'we live'. I've been planning on making this for a few months and the whole time I thought about how funny it was going to look with the same map for all three...but not any more!

(t-minus 2 weeks)

My newest and most favorite picture of Lily. 

Lily, some day we will look back at this time and laugh as we describe all of it to you. 

Summer is here!

Summer is officially here today!
It was in the lower 90's and sunny today. Hot, Hot Hot.

We stayed inside all day (except for the little photo-op on the patio this am).

Lily cooled off with ice-cold teething rings. She is getting so good at holding them herself and reaching out for them from me or when I have a few on her Bumbo tray. (The Bumbo is the blue seat she is sitting in.)

Lily will be rockin' a tri-colored mullet this summer:

Business.

Party.

Happy Father's Day!

 Happy first Father's Day to a wonderful husband and father!

There is no doubt, you are a hard-worker. Just like the sun, you rise early and set late. Why? So you can provide for your family. 

I know you are tired after hot days in the sun...

...but still you show our daughter how much you love her

...even when she doesn't express it back.

God has blessed me with an amazing man who loves Him and his family. 

Thank you, Mark, for being such a wonderful Dadda to Lily. You are doing a great job.

I love you! 

(and so does she!!)

4 months!

Lily is 4 months today!

The facts:
You weigh 13 lbs.
You are 23 inches long.
You eat when you want to; sometimes every 2 hours sometimes you go 3-4 hours between feedings.
Schedules aren't really your thing, you enjoy sleeping when you're tired and being awake when you want to be awake.
Bedtime is around 7:30-8:00 and you usually sleep until 4-5 and then another hour or 2. Except lately, you've been up at 2am ready to play. Mama no likey.
You smile and laugh at Mama and Dadda.
You smile and shy away when you see yourself in the mirror.
If I lay you on your back, your feet are busy, constantly moving and kicking.


A little about your sleep:

You have slept through the night 4 or 5 times! (weird at first, but SO good.)
You take a paci and always spit it out as you fall asleep.
You sleep with your hands behind your head like you're going to do a sit-up.
You keep one eye partially open, keeping a watch on the world.
Noise does not bother you when you sleep. Leave the windows open!
Of certainty, you look so peaceful and beautiful when you sleep.


Fun things:

You LOVE to stand (and be naked)

You LOVE being outside

You're growing to like tummy time. 

It's still very much an effort, but you're learning.

You're learning all about your feet. You hold them and stare at them with curiosity.

Wow, you're getting so big.

We love you, Lily!

Goings-on cont'd

Fun with SO many bunnies!

We went to The Y with Baba and swam for the first time.

Lily was pretty unexpressive about the whole adventure.

I baby-sat my cute little neighbor, Kenton.

He has red hair, too!

Mother's Day

being sweet

little friends who wanted some coffee

 This is 2 blocks away from our congested neighborhood. 

...dreaming of living in the country.

Goings-on

My computer was down for quite a while. Long story short, it kept freezing when I tried to upload pictures from my camera. I took it to a local place (The LapTop Guy - highly recommend) and they replaced my internal hard-drive. It's all better now.

I am going to post pictures that most of you haven't seen. Hopefully this will be a quick way to get up-to-speed and keep current with posts from here on out.

just as we got home from the hospital

Itty-Bitty Lily

3 days old

sleeping in the moby, ready to catch some flies.

snugglin' with dadda

sleepin' with dadda

thinkin' about which diaper to wear

beautiful bleeding heart out front

evening walk with "Ellie-Belle"

homemade rosette for Lily

The never ending to-do list. sigh.

Lily is almost 4 months!?! She is getting so big, so fast. 

I'll do another catch-up post tomorrow.