Ethan and Lisa: August 2011

I can't believe we have been in our home for almost 5 weeks already. Time has flown by. I am so thankful for our home. I love it so much and it is a joy to be home with Julia here. It's getting organized, little by little. I wish I could do everything much faster but as you know, with an active little one you can just do a few projects each day. The downstairs is almost all organized. Also, our bedrooms are in pretty good shape. I haven't done much decorating yet, so I'm looking forward to doing that soon.

Some of the things I love most about our home:

1) Washer and Dryer!!! No more quarters and lugging big laundry baskets. Also, our washer & dryer is upstairs so that is a blessing.

2) Big kitchen with an island

3) Gas stove! (I've been using an electric stove for the past 8 years and I much prefer gas)

4) Much more space (double the space of our apartment)

5) Beautiful neighborhood (I've been taking walks in the mornings and sometimes again in the evenings with Ethan & Julia)

6) A yard (Our yard is nice and private with no rear neighbors, just a hill. So peaceful...) We often see rabbits in our yard. The other day I even saw 2 road runners in our yard. They look just like the cartoon...

We've had a few friends over. It is so fun to have people over, especially since we have a patio set behind our house (given to us by friends from our Bible Study) and we can eat dinner and relax outside. It's great to have a yard and a bigger house to make entertaining so much easier and fun.

Cameron & Joanna's family were the first guests who Ethan fired up the barbeque for.

Enjoying eating outside

Ethan's brother's family came over and we ate pizza.

Aunt Lisa holding Julia (Julia was sucking her thumb - she always does when she's tired)

Julia loves hanging out with her cousin, Ava. It's so cute because Ava can make her laugh like nobody else can.

Eric hanging out with Julia while Ava runs off some energy in the yard :)

Our sweet girl is over 9 months now. I had her 9 month check up last week and all is well. Here are her stats:

Height: 27 1/2 inches (49th percentile)
Head: 17 1/2 inches (64th percentile)
Weight: 15 pounds 9 ounces (5th percentile)

It cracked me up that her head is in the 64th percentile. When I look at her I don't think she has a particularly large head... As far as her weight, it's funny because she is a great eater and eats ALOT of solids. People are always surprised how much she can eat. Still, she is quite petite.

I really enjoy having such a little girl. She is still wearing her 3-6 month clothes (and can still wear a few outfits size 0-3 months!). I am getting much use out of her clothes which I hear isn't always the case. Many babies outgrow their 0-3 month clothes quickly. Not our girl! :)

Since my last blog post, she has really started crawling alot (now on her hands and knees rather than dragging her body with her arms). She has also started pulling herself up on furniture. She can go from a crawl to a sitting position. She is making sounds like "Ma-ma" "up" and "ba-ba." She has started returning kisses by opening her mouth really big, leaning toward me, and slobbering all over my cheek. It's so sweet.

It seems like every day she starts doing something new... I love it. I am so happy that I get to be home with my sweet girl.

Here are a few recent pictures of Julia.

Crawling!

And pulling herself up!

Yikes! She wants to start climbing.

I think it's so cute how babies just love playing with things they discover around the house and can stay entertained for a long time... She played with this Sprouts grocery bag for about 15 minutes...

And like all babies, she loves my keys... Notice how she's sitting. She often sits like that. Future chearleader? :)

And this is one of her favorite spots in the house. She loves hitting the vent and hearing the sound of the metal. Also, there used to be a door stopper on the wall but she kept pulling it off, so we have found a new place to store it for now...

She loves pulling books off the shelf.

Just a cute picture of our girl

This picture is for all you "LOST" fans. :) My friend, Caroline, made this for Julia (before she was even born) when she hosted a "LOST" finale party. It finally fits her. So cute. :)

So, some excitimg news on our end is that Ethan and I just purchased a home! We're so excited. We still can't believe that this is our house. We are loving it more and more and really appreciate the neighborhood. We've been enjoying our walks after dinner in our quiet and beautiful neighborhood (very different after apartment living). It's wonderful having a backyard, also! :) God has blessed us incredibly and we are so grateful. I promise to post some pictures as soon as I have the house a little more in order.

Before our move, I could tell that Julia was getting close to crawling. She has been rocking for about 1 1/2 months or maybe more. It seemed like she wanted to crawl so badly but always pushed herself backward. Well, last Friday she discovered a way to pull her body with her arms. Then, on Saturday she added her legs so she was able to move forward much faster. The fun part was that Ethan was home and got to witness her crawl for the first time. :) She loves her new ability and is so curious about the world around her. This is motivating me to get our house set up at a much faster pace so that she can safely explore! So, at almost 9 months, Julia is a crawler. Hard to believe that some babies WALK at 9 months! I'm kinda glad she has taken her sweet time, especially with packing up our apartment, moving, and now unpacking...

Julia started making the "b" sound a few weeks ago. So she'll often say, "Ba, ba, ba" over and over again. Also, yesterday on the changing table I was saying, "Mama" to her and she actually said it back to me. I thought that maybe it was just a fluke so I tried again and she copied me again. She kept saying it over again - very cute. I know she doesn't know what it means yet, but it's still fun to hear her say it. :)

We are enjoying our sweet girl so much. God has truly blessed us!

Here are a few pictures and videos of her.

On the day before we moved, we had someone come to professionally clean the carpet and tile. I was over at the house, but had to go outside when he was working on the tile. Unfortunately, it was Julia's naptime. But, she was such a trooper and was able to fall asleep outside in her pack n play (with an umbrella to shade her). It was really sweet.