11 months

So last week our baby girl turned (gulp!).......11 months! I'm just really in denial, because she is just a baby to me. But it's just part of it....she's growing and getting bigger, and doing more and more things everyday.

11 month notings.......

• no more middle of the night wakings! yeah! i am most excited about this one for sure! for some crazy, unknown reason (maybe a growth spurt??) mary etta was waking up on and off in the 9th and 10th month--and was eating! i've NEVER had a baby due this--and since I hadn't fed her in the middle of the night since she was like 7 weeks old, it was so wierd to start up again. but she was hysterical and screaming and after she ate she passed out. so who knows, but i'm thankful it stopped since i felt i was living back in newborn baby phase all over again!
• crawling, crawling, crawling--everywhere!!!! she had been crawling but she is definitely all over our house and into to whatever she can find! we often find her playing in Reed and Emery-Claire's room---she loves it in there!
• using some "words"---mama (is often), uh-oh (uh-uh is her production), and bye-bye with her wave
• 3 teeth now--she's had the 2 middle bottom teeth since 8 months, and now 2 upper teeth on left side are poking through
• trying to cruise....seen a few steps occasionally, so not all the time yet, but i know it's coming!

So how funny I just figured out how to "add text" to my pictures??!! After trying to "tape" on numbers and fighting the pull-off and re-stick.....these last 3 pictures I was able to add text since she had already pulled and ripped the numbers off. Why I had I never noticed this before??!!

Father's Day

Even though it's a week late......wanted to share our Father's Day! We are so thankful for the husband and father that he is to us! We had a great day celebrating and being together (Daddy's been traveling LOTS this summer)! How much the Lord has blessed with us this man to call my husband and best friend, and wonderful father to our children. God is so good and faithful, and I know I'm beyond blessed with this man who loves Jesus more than anything---as he seeks to know God and make him known!

Swimming Willis Style

So we've been doing LOTS of swimming these days---to cool off from true summer weather these days! We even created our own "water slide" (fabulous idea of mine).

We LOVE pouring water!

AND spraying the hose......

On our sister--that is!

FYI--if you put your play structure into your pool to create a "water slide" be prepared after multiple times of impact down the slide you will put a hole in your pool. So after busting the pool we had to get another pool. Casey tried fixing it with some sort of wood glue---and shockingly it appears to be holding the water in. So I guess now we have double the fun with 2 baby pools! We also have been going to the Y pool lots, but you probably won't see any pictures from there as I'm chasing after 2 little fish (while baby sister hangs out in the nursery) and have no time to create Kodack moments!

Strawberry Pickin'

Several weeks ago (long before our computer had crashed and I never got to download pictures instantly for awhile) we went on our "annual strawberry pickin' adventure!" This year we went with our friends the Pepiots. We had lots of fun and Reed was much more into "picking" this year--as opposed to last year as our strawberry bandit! And Emery-Claire got to join us this time, while Mary Etta was at home with Daddy. We can maybe let her come next year.

Lots of yummy strawberries to take home--yum!

No worries--we had a new bandit with us this year! She kept wanting to eat the unripe ones too! Silly girl!

Catching up....way up

So you know it's bad when you FINALLY are downloading pictures onto the new computer, and have to because today you filled up your memory card. Yep, completely full! Sad, isn't it! I'll be sorting through pictures for days....definitely lots to delete! Here is what I've gone through so far, and here are some cute one of our new 2-year-old from last month when we celebrated Emery-Claire's birthday.

She was absolutely ticked as everyone sang "happy birthday" to her. You can just see the excitement in her little body! So cute!

Psalm 121

Ok so we are having fun with our "photo booth!" I don't know if I've mentioned before but after working through a whole series of Scripture verses with the alphabet, we decided to move onto longer passages of scripture--as I'd seen several other friends do with their young children. So our most recent one completed was Psalm 121. Hopefully you can understand amongst the "giggling"...apparently, recording yourself when you're 3 1/2 is pretty funny! So excuse our lots of mouth covering and laughing.....how it goes when you're 3 and on video!

New video!

So Mac has this great feature called "photo booth".....we can sit in front of the computer and create our own video! So we tried it.....they were more intrigued with wanting to try and touch the screen and all....but here's a hello to our family. Pictures our uploading soon!!!!

We Love You!

Coming back soon!!!

Ok, so we are halfway into June and I know I STILL haven't posted!! We have our new wonderful Mac computer.......this thing is fabulous!!!!! So many things I have to learn how to use! Casey's been doing some traveling so I still have yet to download our camera......going to be way too many pictures to sort through! But hopefully while he's home this weekend we will get busy! I saw Mac has an I-photo program to edit photos; we had PICASA before and I really liked that. Anyone have suggestions?? I have heard great things about Photoshop.....I know you have to pay for it, but wondering if it's something I will really use or will it be way over my head?

Well, for now I'm going to go finish some of these sewing projects I have wanted completed like 2 weeks ago! Some bubbles for Mary Etta! As we are 1/2 way into June!! Oh and yesterday.....June 16th our girl turned 11 months old!!! We are 1 month away from turning 1 year old. She is still my little bitty baby to me.........I guess that is how you view the baby of the family. The other 2 just kinda got thrown into their "big sibling" roles (poor little things---though I did try and savor them as best I could)......it's nice to savor and enjoy "the baby" while she is "the baby".

Oh blog, oh blog!

Well, we are still here.......I think in my last post I mentioned computer issues. Well, our computer officially crashed! So we are in process of getting a new one....not real sure how quickly we will be up and running--hopefully sooner than later. Meanwhile, my camera continues to have LOTS and LOTS of pictures I need to download! But I'm obviously waiting on the new computer to do so. We've been at least able to get online using our really old computer. So we have something that works decently til we get the new one.

We've been busy swimming in the baby pool out back, going to the library, picking strawberries, and of course there were lots of pictures celebrating Emery-Claire's 2nd birthday! Next week Reed starts swimming lessons for the first time, twice a week! So I'm hoping he does ok and doesn't get too timid and scared--like he is known to do.

So for now I have no new pictures to post....but I did find this fun one from our first anniversary. We didn't get to take a long honeymoon since I had just started a new job and didn't have much time off work. So for our 1st year anniversary we took another trip to the Dominican Republic to another all-inclusive resort. So much fun the 2nd time around......we need to do something like that sometime soon (but all these babies have put it on hold lately). So I thought I'd post a picture from our trip......wow, 4 1/2 years ago, and less 3 kids ago we look so young and fit! (And so tan---and now I'm so pale but so loading on the sunscreen to not get sun damage! Isn't it funny how just a few years later changes your perspectives on so many things!)

Oh, but maybe we'll look somewhat like that soon as we've started the P90X this past week! So now into week 2 of it I think I'm liking it more! It's been a little hard to get used to, but hoping it will help shape me up again! Be back soon!