11 Months

It's kind of amazing that I am actually posting her 11 month update on her actual 11 month birthday.  BAM!

Millie is at such a fun age right now and I am soaking in every moment; every tear, every tooth- bearing smile, every "HI!", every head on my shoulder moment, and every 100 mph crawling session that I can.  Slowly but surely she is getting over her stranger danger and is allowing more people to hold her which is great but bittersweer at the same time.  I am enjoying the few moments of freedom though!

At 11 months old Millie:

• babbles like she's having a conversation with you
• says "HI" while waving vigorously
• says mama and dada and baba (bottle)
• crawls at 100 + mph
• is now on a two nap a day schedule versus three
• can walk up and down the couch with ease
• can pull up on just about anything
• can balance for a few seconds without help (I know what comes next!)
• still loves her Scout very much.  We have one in the carseat and in the crib.
• is getting her other front tooth which will equal five total teeth
• only likes to feed herself.  Don't even think about eating around her unless you're up for sharing.
• holds her own bottle (she's been doing this since nine months old however I think I forgot to put that in her update)
• Is still in 12 month clothes and wearing size three diapers

So, as you can see Millie is growing like a weed and absolutely loving being a baby/almost toddler.  She is such a joy and mommy and daddy fall in love with her more and more with each passing day.  I can't believe her next update will be her ONE YEAR update.  Oh my, that will be a hard day for me!

Adriane's Olivia Baby Shower

This past Sunday was a special day.  I, along with my BFF Rachel, threw a baby shower for my sister Adriane at 2Tarts Bakery in New Braunfels.  If any of you know my sister, you know that pigs are her favorite animal.  She has always had stuffed pigs and pictures of pigs everywhere in her room growing up.  So, I decided to theme her shower around the adorable children's cartoon character, Olivia the Pig.  Yes, it would have been more fitting if my niece's name was going to be Olivia but still it was a total hit.  Adriane got lots of great items for Charlee including tons and tons of diapers.  Yeah!  Charlee will be all set for her arrival. 

My dear friend and neighbor Tiffany helped me out and designed the invitations, the wish cards and the favor tags for the shower.  She is so creative and did a great job.  If you ever need anything created from wedding invitations to baby announcements, you can find Tiffany's Etsy store here.  Here are some pictures of the day. 

I put an Olivia doll on top of her diaper cake

The party favor was M&Ms with different saying related to Charlee and the wish cards were a definite hit!

I had to include this picture of the room because this bakery is oh so cute!  I made five diaper cakes to use as centerpieces.

The red velvet cake.  YUMMY!

Adraine holding Smitty Baby.  Anytime anyone said the name Smitty or baby, they had to hold the Smitty Baby!

Adriane opening her gifts.

The hostesses with the guest-of-honor.

It was a wonderful shower and now the next big event is another shower in Houston this coming weekend and then baby Charlee will be coming very soon!

Seven random things about me

My girlfriend Alyssa tagged me in her blog like over a month ago and I am just now responding.  Sorry girl!  I'm supposed to write seven random facts about me and then tag 15 people.  I don't think I know that many bloggers so I'll tag as many as I can.

1. I am never satisfied with my hair color.  It changes regularly.
2. I have a slight case of OCD.  I constantly count things.  And they have to be in even numbers.  If something is odd it drives me crazy.
3. I never go more than 24 hours without talking to my mom. 
4. I cannot go to bed with a dirty kitchen.  It has to be spotless.
5. I have a weakness for french fries.  If the choice is fries or some other side, I will always get the fries.
6. I hate the feel of cardboard.  It makes my skin crawl.  It's going to make it very hard if we ever move and I have to pack boxes.
7. I sleep with over 20 pillows on my bed.  No exageration.

I tag the following people:

• Tiffany Walker of The Walkers
• Paige Bird of Three Little Birds
• Viki Peltier of Viki and Joe's Big Adventure
• Meredith Tichenor of The Tichenor Family
• Roxanne Bradford of Hangin' with the Bradford's
• Rani May of aMAYzing Grace

Griffin and Millie sittin in a tree...

Ok I know I say this a lot but I absolutely love the thought of Millie growing up and marrying sweet Griffin Kingsbury!  His mama is my BFF and our little kiddos are too.  If they don't get married, at least they will always be close friends.  Rachel and Griffin came to New Braunfels last week and we had a great playdate.  I took some silly pictures of the babies that I have to share here.  Griffin was born with TONS of hair and has already had like two haircuts or more and Millie, bless her heart, still has peach fuzz for hair.  While they were playing Griffin's hair was getting in his face and so I had a quick solution...

It took four bows to get Griffin's hair up and I think I found four hairs for Millie's bow.

Hi sweet Griffin!!

Don't take her bow!  You have four on your head!!

Haha I love their sweet little faces.  Rachel, don't be mad at me for posting these.  He's just too cute!

Millie is 10 months old! Oh, and Happy Independence Day!

As Millie gets older it's getting harder and harder to get her to sit still to take a picture.  Notice I had to distract her with my keys.  It helped for a few seconds!

I feel like 10 months has been a huge turning point for Millie as far as her development.  She went from not having any interest in crawling to crawling EVERYWHERE and also pulling up on the furniture and walking along the couch.  She is growing up so fast I can hardly stand it!

At 10 months old, Millie:

• can crawl
• can stand up while holding onto something
• takes a few steps while holding onto the couch
• understands "No" but doesn't exactly listen when I say it
• can wave hello and goodbye
• can give sugars (kisses)
• can give high fives
• claps her hands
• likes to eat any and everything that mommy or daddy eats
• loves to munch on huge pieces of bread
• likes to stick a whole bunch of food in her mouth at one time (makes me very nervous)
• loves being in the water and outdoors
• is 20 lbs. and 4.5 oz (75%)
• is 29" tall (95%)
• is getting one of her top front teeth and an i tooth.  They are definitely giving her lots of pain and it's making me very sad. 
• is wearing 12 month clothes and some 18 month.
• absolutely positively loves music of all kinds.  Anytime the radio comes on or one of her toys starts playing music she automatically starts bobbing her head and smiles the biggest smile.  I love that she loves music so much!

Today is the fourth of July.  Independence Day.  A perfect day to reflect on all the wonderful blessings we have as Americans.  And most importantly, pray and give thanks to all of our soldiers that are fighting for our freedom everyday.  To celebrate this wonderful holiday, Trevor and I took Millie to the New Braunfels Independence Day parade in downtown and had a blast!  Millie was so great and she enjoyed all the floats and all the people.  We met up with my sister and Smitty and had a great time.

Millie with her Aunt Adriane

Have you every seen a  happier baby?  And yes, I pinch her cheeks everyday!

Enjoying a pretzel with daddy

I love this photo.  Perfect description of our personalities. 

Hi Adriane and Smitty!

Up high!

That was fun mommy but I'm ready to go home and take a nap!

It's only 2:00 so once Trevor and Millie wake up from their nap we're going to go swimming at Oma and Opa's house and then take it easy.  A little sad there will be no fireworks this year (fire ban) but happy that we got to spend the whole day together as a family.  I hope you all have a wonderful July 4!

Photographing Adriane

My sister Adriane is seven months pregnant and she entrusted ME to take her maternity pictures.  I've never taken photos like this before (where I plan poses, shoot and retouch) and I definitely have a long way to go to get to professional photographer status.  First things first; shadows are a problem.  I need to figure out how to capture light correctly on my Canon Rebel.

Enjoy these pictures of my beautiful sister and her boyfriend Adam. 

This is my favorite.  Minus the huge shadow!

I like how the color turned out in this photo.  Plus the look on their faces is classic Adriane and Smitty!

 

I used some texturing here.



Millie with her Aunt Adriane.  The sun was shining BRIGHT!



Another one where the sun from the window was a little too bright.  I gotta work on that.

I can't wait to meet my niece Charlee Sue in August!

Nine Months Old

At nine months old Millie:

• is talking up a storm!
• is so close to walking it's scary
• can sit up by herself now
• can recognize repetition.  We play different games and she wants to do it over and over and over
• loves the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
• likes to feed herself
• loves the water.  We go to Schlitterbahn all the time and she loves splashing around everywhere
• can pull up on most things but still struggles a bit
• can not get enough of her daddy.  She cries everytime he leaves for work in the morning.  :(
• wants to be mobile soooo bad!
• gets into EVERYTHING!
• loves her nap time
• dances!  She hears music and starts bouncing and smiling.  It's the most precious thing to watch.