Dad's visit, part 1

My dad came out a few weeks ago for Alex's graduation and to visit us. Here are our adventures from the first half of the week.

 Can you spot Alex? Second row, turned with his hand sticking out...

 Alex getting his diploma, just after he flashed his Batman shirt to the crowd.

 Papa Ron and Julia cuddling.

 Grandma Lorraine and Julia at Utah Lake.

 

Brenan and Julia

Lorraine and Jules at 7 Peaks.

 Papa Ron and Julia having a good ol' time.

 At graduation...yes it was that boring.

 Julia's first trip to Temple Square

 Me, Papa Ron, and Julia

Papa Ron, Lorraine, Julia.

Lots more pictures to come...

You know you're pregnant when...

...You get mad at your husband at church because you're thirsty.
...You put clothes in the washer, wake up to put them in the dryer, then find the lid is open and they never washed.
...You pay bills with the wrong credit card/account...multiple times. Hello overdraft fees and silly pregnancy explanations.
...You forget where you're driving and end up somewhere unexpected.
...You need help rolling over in bed.
...You pour a bowl of cereal, get distracted, then find it sitting on the counter an hour later.
...You make phone calls but forget why you called.
...You forget to water the plants.
...You cry watching Sports Center, or because it's Dr. Seuss' birthday.

**All true.
Hello 6 months of pregnancy, let's wrap this up.

Cooking experiment

I recently came upon a lot of tomatoes, so I have been trying out new things with them to eat them before they go bad. Here is adventure #1

http://emandrachdg.blogspot.com/2012/06/tomatoes-three-ways-part-1.html

My one-year old

Julia gulia is a year old, and I only cried a little...We have tons of pictures of her on my camera, and of course I can't find the camera cord to upload them, so the good pictures will have to wait. We had an eventful long birthday weekend and it was so much fun celebrating with her, even if she didn't know what was going on.

Here is our Julia at 1:
She loves trying new food, especially from our plate
She bumped up to size 4 diapers (she's got some chunky legs)
She "talks" a lot now, and she reminds me of a Pokemon when she does-- pikapikapikapika-- an example of her babble
She will wear sunglasses for longer than 5 seconds now
She can hold cups and drink all on her own
She is not quite ready to give up bottles, but she is warming up to sippy cups at bed and regular milk. I don't think it will be too hard since she gave up pacifiers cold turkey about 4-5 months ago
We will enunciate words and she will mouth them to us, but not say them out loud
We are working on signing/saying "more" "please" "thank you"
She learned (or rather we taught her) to stick out her tongue, and I know it's "bad" manners, but it is hilarious
Still no walking, but she will walk holding one of our hands or along the furniture still. She gets so excited that she loses her balance.
She understands and acts on commands/phrases like "where's your toys/books/monkey?" or "give it to doggy/daddy/mommy"
She points to what she wants and mumbles something until we figure out what she wants
Sometimes she lays in bed in the morning playing with her monkey instead of calling for mom to come get her
She has taken to tearing paper, any kind...
When she is tired she likes to squish her face up against ours, we call it squishy face and it cracks her up
She is now facing forward in her car seat and LOVES it

Here are some pics from my phone. I promise I will find a way to get the good pictures on to my computer.

  

Here is the first picture we took on her birthday, bright and early.

After breakfast and some quick errands, we went to 7 Peaks to celebrate. Taking a tired baby wasn't the best idea, but once she got in the water she had a great time. Later on we went and shared a frozen lemonade, walked the mall (grandma C bought her a few outfits) and then we went out to dinner.

Julia's first PB&J sandwich. She loved it.

She is a year old, which means Jackson will be here in 3-ish months. Yikes...

Thankful

I am thankful for my friends who stepped in this week in lieu of my family (who are opening a restaurant hecka far away) so that I could get my house ready for guests. Jessica was super amazing and came over and helped me organize our guest room, decorate Julia's room, and do some light cleaning. Then she took me to dinner. Such a great friend! And the ever wonderful (and happy belated birthday) Amberly watched Julia so I could run errands all over town. Last but not least, my wonderful husband who has helped all week with re-arranging furniture, cleaning, baby sitting, and organizing. He also did a great job helping me pick out our new sofa and he has, as he puts it, worked hard for free all week [literally :( ]. I am so excited for my family to come in to town and spend a whole week with us! I am one happy lady.

On a side note, Brenan felt Jackson kick for the first time!

My garden

World, I am trying to keep a garden this summer. I have only killed one plant so far, which is a HUGE success for me. I'm not done planting and I'm no pro, but we will have flowers, tomatoes, basil, and cucumbers (hopefully) in our little dirt patch in the back. I even intend on canning the tomatoes (which I have never done before, but that is a different story). Here is my garden...

http://emandrachdg.blogspot.com/2012/05/gardening-tips.html

11 months

Don't remind me she's 11 months old, because that means she'll be 1 soon. Too soon.

**She wasn't in the mood for pictures today, so here are some from the past couple of days.

 Julia and her friend at the park.

Julia and daddy.

New things about Julia:
She stands on her own. Sometimes she realizes and sometimes she doesn't. She also just started to step toward something (like the sofa or chair) without holding on to anything. Walking may be sooner than I thought.

She crawls up the stairs all the time and heads for her play room. If I weren't so afraid for her, I might think it's cuter.

She has started sleeping through the night (i.e. 12 straight hours) more often than she wakes up in the night, so about 4-5 nights a week. I LOVE this, especially since I'm pregnant, I want all the sleep I can get.

She does not like salmon. Or sitting still on her changing table.

She does like ice cream, veggie straws, chicken (chunks, not pureed), shopping and water. Boy does she love baths, fountains, sprinklers, hoses, the dogs bowl, etc...

She got 2 more teeth, totaling 8 in all.

Grass is the enemy (and still the swing set). For now...

The dog and her get along great and she now knows how to pet him and she tries to "throw" his toys for him. She also feeds him off of her tray.

We are also working on high fives and kisses (she is very stingy with her kisses).

She has started making "w" sounds, our favorite is "whoa!"