On a roll

Dear Jyzelle,

You got to go camping for the first time this past weekend! After we woke up from our nap on Saturday Momma decided she wanted to go camping. So we made a quick lunch and started packing up the Jeep to head out on our adventure. Well, a while ago we lost our sleeping bags, and so for Momma's and Dada's birthday Grammi and Papa helped us get some new ones :)

We were going to go to Willow Creek but when we got there all of the camp sites were full, so we decided to keep on driving for a bit and see what we could find. Your dad had remembered seeing a meadow type area when him and your uncles had gone fishing so we were going to try and find that. Well before we got that far we found a spot that looked like it had a flat area to put up a tent and looked like it had some rocks around to make a fire pit.

We pulled over, I strapped you to me with the Moby Wrap and began finding rocks to put together a pit while Dad started chopping wood. After we got that all put together and the tin foils dinner cooking we started setting up the tent and the rest of camp.

There wasn't much else exciting going on besides a normal camping trip. You slept in my sleeping bag with me, and slept better than me too. haha.

After we got up (early, as it seems when camping it's impossible to sleep in) we had breakfast, got the jeep packed up then went on a little hike! (Sadly I don't have those pics, they're on Dada's phone). You fell asleep but it was still a lot of fun and a BEAUTIFUL view!

We made it back in time to get to church, but as Sacrament meeting went on I realized I did not pack your diaper bag right. Had a bottle but no formula, had 1 diaper but no wipes, had baby food but not spoon!! So we had to cut it short and head home.

On Monday we went SWIMMING!! I know I've said this before but you just love the water SOO much! We went with your Aunt Kimberly, cousins Abbigail and Brooklyn, and your friend from next door Lily! After about 1 1/2 hours of swimming you got tired so just laid your head down on Momma's arm and relaxed. It was so sweet to get to cuddle with you. Lily asked if you would cuddle with  her and I said we could try, and you did for a minute or two!!

For dinner we had the missionaries over and served them Elk steaks, corn on the cob, and french fries. It's always fun to have the missionaries over :)

WELL, last night at about 3:45 you woke up fussing a bit but before I ever even got out of bed you had stopped and gone back to sleep. Then at about 6 you did the same thing. Well a little after 9 you finally woke up for good! While I was feeding you breakfast I remember thinking those 2 times you had woken up that you were probably teething, so I decided to check! And sure enough there on the bottom you have 2 teeth!! I'm so excited for you!! I love watching you grow and every new thing just makes me so excited for you!!!

I love you baby girl! My sweet Princess!

Love, Momma

                                                     Daddy putting you to sleep :)

                                                       Had your first ice cream cone!

                                                            And you discovered dirt...

                                                So Happy to play with momma and Dada

   Fell asleep drinking your bottle, but I wasn't quick enough to get a pic of it. Dada has some don't worry :)

                                              First time in a tent you had to go exploring

                                              Having some breakfast at the camp site :)

  

                                                               Ready to go on a hike!

                     So much fun swimming!! Whenever your feet are in the water you just kick and kick                                                               and kick!!

                          You always fall asleep holding on to your toys in the car seat. haha

                                                          Just a relaxing evening at home :)

Weekends are fun

Dear Jyzelle,

We had a good relaxing weekend! We got up early on Saturday, dad made Mama and him French toast, then went to go grocery shopping hoping to beat the crowds! When we went to get you out of bed you were holding all your binks as well as had one in your mouth! I hadn't even realized that many binks were in your crib! haha. Well, while we were at the store, we forgot it was the 1st of the month, and I think no matter what Wal-Mart will ALWAYS have hoards of crowds on the first of the month. 2 hours later we finally got home though!

We then came home and had a great 3 hour nap! I'm so glad you're such a good sleeper so when Mama and Dada want to have some down time you give us ample time to enjoy our own naps! After that your Mama worked hard making more baby food for you. I'm not sure why, but I just love making your food! I thought when I first started to do it back in April that it would just be a huge pain! I found however that knowing what I'm feeding you is what I picked out and got for you instead of just getting it all off the baby shelf makes me happy. I then finally put pictures of you up around the house and in our photo album!, Later PaPa and Uncle Richard came and installed our ceiling fan for us :)

SUNDAY was a GREAT day!  You are now 7 months old!! You also decided to show off for Mama and Dada. You showed us that you can army crawl to get to whatever you want that's out of reach!(In fact I'm watching you do it right now for your tweety bird teether as I'm writing this :) ) You also showed us you can stay sitting up while reaching for a toy! You still can't sit up for long periods of time but you're getting better and better at the balance of it! Dada had a church meeting to go to so while he was gone we turned on some disney music and danced! You giggle and smile and just enjoy being tossed around and twirled. :)

At church you showed us that you can hold yourself in a standing position at the back of the bench. Especially when the lady behind us had a fun toy you wanted to play with. :) She was nice and let you take it from her. It was one of those ball toys that had all the, gosh I'm not even sure what to call them, strings? that are really stretchy when you pull them? You would go to grab it then pull your hand away unsure what to do with it. It's so fun to see you exploring new touches!

During Sunday School you were getting restless so I took you outside. You were SO fascinated by the trees and bushes. I picked you up so you could reach the tree and you loved touching the leaves. We then looked at the flowers and I helped you touch a petal. It was so soft! You pulled off one petal and kept looking at it in your hand and rubbing it between your fingers. If anyone ever forgets how beautiful this world is, all they need to do is watch a baby explore it and I don't know how they couldn't realize how amazing it is!

After we got home and had dinner we went to the park. Have I told you how much you LOVE the swings? You are so fun to watch. You laugh and smile and have yet to complain about how high or low you are going! One of our favorite games is to catch the swing when it comes up, count 1, 2, 3, and before we even let go you are laughing! It's all about the excitement of what is to come I suppose. :)

This morning I finally got out of bed a little after 9 and decided to go check on you before starting my workout. Well, you were awake, just holding your hand in front of you opening and closing it. Never heard a peep from you to know you were awake :) I just love what a good baby you are! I hope you continue to always be so sweet and fun to be around! I have no doubt that you won't be, but no matter what I will always love you!!

Here's to another great day together! :)

Love, Mama

 This is a baby picture of me, and you've been making somewhat the same face so I was trying to see how similar they really were :)

                                                            You LOVE water/bathtime!

                                                       Playing in your saucer :)

                                               A work project Liz and I did for Relay for Life :)

                You do NOT like to sleep on your back, so you found a way to get on your side, even while strapped in! I then of course had to cover you with a blanket so you didn't get cold :)

                                                        Playing under the bench at church

                                                   7 months old! Having fun at the park :)

 Showing us how well you can stand while holding on to something :) (A few moments after taking the pic you did fall.)

                              Wouldn't even let go of your binks after Dada picked you up!

You are very good at reaching for things! After you got the spoon out I helped you get bites before you made a big mess :) 

Memorial Day weekend

Dear Jyzelle,

You had your first Memorial Day Weekend! Because your momma works Thursday's and Friday's this didn't really start until Saturday. Your dada had left Thursday morning to spend the long weekend with his parents in Rexburg. This did not quite go as expected so he came home Saturday night! For us our Saturday was spent getting up about 7 to go watch your cousins' Cadance, Olivia, and Averielle while your Uncle Richard did one job before they left for Utah. We went to a few yard sales in their neighborhood and your cousins' loved it! They each found an item to get and just loved looking at everyone's stuff they were trying to sell. We didn't really find anything for you though.
We then went to spend some time with Grammi. She was helping your Aunt Kimberly and cousins Abbigail and Brooklyn get ready to go camping! You were asleep when we got to their house and momma left you in your car seat while you slept. Aunt Kim walked by and saw you were awake a little while later and Grammi and I joked that you need to learn to make some kind of noise to alert us to you waking up! You always get so excited when you see your extended family with lots of smiles and feet kicks :)
We didn't do much else Saturday, we went home and cleaned up a bit then took a nice long about 3 hour nap while we waited for your dada to finish his drive home. We then bought Jack Reacher to watch, put you to bed and that was that.
On Sunday we decided we needed to go do something adventurous! So we packed some hot links and snacks for a trip to Bald Mountain and headed out! It was about a 2 hour drive. Once we got to the mountain it was only 10 miles in, but driving those roads that takes about 30 to 45 minutes! At one point we were worried we weren't going to find it, but we did! You had so much fun seeing the outdoors, it was your first long outing with that type of environment. After we finished eating we heard thunder and saw some lightning. It was REALLY loud, but you did good and just looked around trying to figure out where the sound was coming from! After we felt the first raindrop we packed up the jeep and sat in there and watched as it HAILED! It was so loud! And in just a few moments the ground looked like it was covered in an inch or more of snow!
We made our way back down the mountain and about halfway down ran into your dad's friend Dean. We chatted with him for a bit and he just thought you were the cutest little thing! He held you for a bit but you kept kicking his radio equipment on his belt so I had to take you back.
Eventually we made it back home and just had a relaxing evening finishing our movie then going to bed.
On Monday you woke up and started playing with your rattle. I later joked to mom that it's a good thing you always have a rattle in bed with you so I know when you wake up, otherwise I might not ever know! We went to IHOP and met your Grammi, PaPa, and cousins and Aunt Kimberly there. You got to eat some eggs and pancake. You then tried a "Gogurt" for the first time and LOVED it! PaPa ordered you one of your very own and you gobbled it right up! Your dada then went to help PaPa tear out a wall in Grammi's and his house to open up the upstairs a lot more. We'll have to show you pictures of what it used to look like since you won't ever remember seeing it the way your momma grew up there! We then came home had a nap then went back for a BBQ later that evening.
It was a good fun full weekend and I enjoyed getting to spend all of it with you and your dada and family!
I love you princess, you're in bed sleeping peacefully now and we'll spend more time together tomorrow.

Love, Momma :)

Oh yes, you also discovered stuffed animals this weekend. You were a big fan :)

Going to try something new

Well, I think I'm going to try a new way to write my blog. I'm going to do it in letter format, as in letters to my dear sweet princess. I want to document as much as I can about her life, and have been keeping her baby book updated, but there just isn't enough room in it for everything! So I shall try this. I will start it soon, but FIRST I want to put down all the dates of "firsts" or as close as I can get so I don't forget!

1st smile, not sure, but it started around December 18th.

1st laugh January 6th

1st time rolling from tummy to back: February 28th (for dad) Feb 29 (for Grammi and PaPa) and Mon March 4th for me!

1st time rolling from back to tummy March 29th for Grammi, March 30th for me

1st held bottle on her own March 18th

1st taste of "food" (rice cereal) about a week before 4 months (did not go well) and then about 3/20 you got the eating solid foods things down and LOVED it

Sleeping through the night: from the beginning slept a good 4 hours between feedings. At about 4 weeks slept 7 hours a night. at about 8 weeks was sleeping 8 hours a night, by 12 weeks was up to 10 hours, sometime before 4 months were consistent at 10-12 hours a night and still going strong with that. Usually goes to bed between 9 and 9:30 and wakes up anytime between 8 and 10 a.m.

Still working on sitting up on your own but on May 24 and May 25 able to sit on own for longest periods of times as to date.

First road trip to Rexburg 12/20

Road trip to Rexburg again 5/5/13

Road trip to Richfield 5/16/13

Does great in car

First time swimming to Given Hot Springs on Feb 25, 2013 (you LOVE the water)

First sign "milk" started week of 5/20/13, getting more consistent.
5/7/13 Said Momma, on 5/15/13 said momma more, started saying dadda right after that and is the word you say the most besides blah blah and bah bah

Hmmm, that's all I can think of right now. I'll try to start writing more frequently so I can remember all of your precious moments better!!