8 months old

Last Saturday Eden turned 8 months old along with Daddy turning 32!

Posing with her hat - thanks Grandma for the cute outfit!


Grandpa helped us get some good pics!
She loves to stand! Not really on the ground much but wants to stand on your lap if you have her. What a big girl!
Things to remember about this month:

- The most exciting is you saying your first word: mama!!! It was more towards the beginning of July. You talk the most when we are feeding you and you are hanging out in the high chair. (at 8mo. 3days you said "dada" while he was feeding you at Chick-fil-a)

- You're talking all the time now! It's the sweetest sound to hear you babble and experience new sounds with your voice.

- You want to grab EVERYTHING in sight including your favorite, jewelry! You also want to grab food off our plate and anything else you can reach.

- You are constantly entertained by your sister and Rollo. You love books more than your toys right now but you're intrigued by anything that has a tag. Well, the tag itself! You also love having small stuffed animals pretend come in for a kiss!

- No crawling yet but you are moving all around by rolling to get what you want. You kind of get your legs under you when you get mad on your tummy.

- You started sleeping on your tummy in the crib. I thought this might help you sleep more soundly but more than anything, it makes you a bit frustrated! As soon as I lay you down, you roll over but the past 2 weeks you are liking it more.

- You've now tried all the fruits and veggies up to stage 2 and haven't refused ANYTHING! You are a great eater but you get distracted very easily (spoon and nursing).

- You still keep me up at night. After trying to get you to learn to self soothe for a week or two and me being up for hours on end, I am swaddling you again when you wake up around 2-3 a.m. As soon as you see it, you grin and kick your legs. It's actually hilarious!

- Your sleeping schedule is something like this: wake up around 7 a.m., nap around 9 a.m. for 45-90 minutes, up to play, long nap starting between 12:30-1:30, if you sleep till 3 then you stay up till 6:45-7 p.m. and if it's a short afternoon nap, you cat nap around 4:30 for 20-30 minutes. You wake up between 10-11 p.m. to eat and go back down. Wake up around 2-3, I swaddle you and then you get back up between 6:30-7 to eat and start your day all over again. I want to remember this for number 3!

Happy Birthday Neil!

We celebrated Neil's 32nd birthday on the 25th and boy was he spoiled =) We all went to Ruthie's for breakfast, he spent the rest of the morning hiking at his favorite park, Government Canyon, he went to his 3:00 p.m. massage appointment (my gift to him!) and then it was off to dinner and a movie. Of course we had his favorite Chinese food, Mencius and he got to pick the movie - Moon. Not the best sci-fi but it kept you guessing! Overall, we had a great time and enjoyed a date night out to celebrate. Thanks to Neil's parent's for taking the early shift of babysitting and then Eric and Erin for coming over so we could see the movie!
I love you honey and can't wait to spend many more birthday celebrations together!

Holy Heat, Batman!

So what do you do when it's the 36th day of 100+ weather? (well, I think today is posted as the 36th day and we're looking at 7 straight more to go) You face it head on!! As most of you are even experiencing, this summer has been MISERABLY hot and caused a lot of cabin fever (especially us with toddlers!) Finding fun inside projects can get challenging - send your unique ideas if you think we haven't tried them!

So... yes! With our sunscreen, swim suits and ice water, Claire and I braved the hot weather last Friday and went to Sea World to spend some special time together. I LOVE being able to do something with Claire by herself! We had a great time seeing Shamu, feeding the birds and most of all, spending time in the water park. Claire is loving the water this summer as long as her head doesn't go under!


Looking at the map




Waiting for Shamu.....

seeing Shamu! Can you tell she loves the big orca?!

Dr. Wally the Penguin came to visit his homeland! Claire got him last year when my parents were along for a Sea World trip.

Feeding the birds

Couldn't pass up posting this picture!

Enjoying the water

Claire eating goldfish and us trying to stay cool!

So we survived and actually, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. My stroller has a temp gage and at one time it said 107 - we can't wait for the fall! Please pray for some relief and for rain! I can't even imagine those who don't have the shelter and food they need.

Busy bees

(I haven't posted in a long time because of time and I've been waiting to upload picstures. Well, our computer is about dead so pictures will just have to wait! We just got a laptop from Neil's work about a week or 2 ago so it was good timing for us. Praise God Neil is so diligent in backing everything up so we didn't lose much if anything at all! Honey, YOU'RE AWESOME!I'll post pictures to the following 3 posts sometime soon!)

We have been running around crazy the past week! The weekend was a whirlwind full of baby showers, a get together at our house and a trip to Houston. Friday, we surprised Lauren with a diaper/dessert shower at Maggiano's which was so fun! A girl's night out with Italian food is just about my favorite thing to do (Italian with the hubby would be my favorite). Lauren will be welcoming baby boy #3 sometime soon! Saturday we had a brunch diaper baby shower for Tara! I'm so excited she is having a baby girl and will be experiencing the daily drama we have at our house - just joking Tara! It's great but I'm sure it will be night and day for you! I had Eden with me so I was unable to get pictures - sorry Tara!

Natalie and Melynda loving dessert
Amy and me

Stephanie and Allison

Misty, me and Jen - Misty said she'd only take a picture if she would get to be on my blog so hear you are Misty!! You're famous!

The guest of honor - Lauren

Karen and me

Me and Kristin

Everyone! Amy, me, Kristin, Lauren, Misty, Jennifer, Jen, Stephanie, Allison, Tara, Natalie, Melynda and Karen

Saturday afternoon we had a get together with our high school buddies. We hadn't gotten together in a long time and our families have been growing! We had 13 adults, 3 babies and big sister Claire. Of course the one day we decide to grill burgers it POURS at our house. A much needed shower but not the best timing for Neil and Eric who grilled half the burgers with umbrellas! So good to catch up with everyone and to see baby Lyla and big girl Iliana who just turned 1! Unfourtunately the pics taken didn't turn out but we did get one of the fearless grillers!
Sunday after church we drove to Houston to visit my dear friend from college, Laura, and her hubby, Taylor. They live in Ohio and we visit them in Houston when they are down staying with her parents. It had been a year and a half since I had seen her last which was WAY too long! I'm so excited that they are expecting and on their way to this crazy chapter of life: parenthood. The visit was way too short but I'm so glad we got to go and share in some wonderful time together. Claire and Eden did well but I don't know how people travel a lot with little ones! Crying in the car when the other is sleeping, a potty accident, having to stop to nurse in the car, terrible traffic, unexplainable screaming, dirty DQ's and not a seat in the back for an adult! It's not something I like to do but it was well worth the trip.

I love this girl and miss her terribly!!! You know how there are people who you can just pick up where you left off? This is mine! She is an amazing woman with a heart and passion for the Lord. Such a sister and example for me. I'm so excited she is expecting!

WOW!! A family of 4 picture - too bad Claire was being weird. She didn't want to take the picture and then we got her to take one and her mane was crazy!

Wow - I need a week to recover! Neil's birthday is Saturday so we have that to look forward to!

29 and holding

I can't believe I just celebrated my 29th birthday! A few days before I got a little sad thinking about it but it was such a wonderful day that I will remember it as the fabulous and final birthday of my 20's. Boy was I was spoiled! Claire and Neil got me tacos from our favorite place, Ruthies, and then it was time to get lunch ready for playgroup at our house - 10 mommies, 12 little ones and 3 babies - it was pretty insane! Actually, the kids were really good but my house just isn't that big! It was great to hang out with friends on my special day. Thank you Stef for my beautiful gladiolas (and babysitting the late shift!)

For dinner Neil took me to Silo's which was excellent and definitely a special occasion restaurant. Food was great but oh my gosh!!! The chocolate souffle was AMAZING - I still can't get over how good it was. We came home to relieve my dad from babysitting (thanks dad!), tucked the kiddos in and then went out to the Luna Bar which was a great change of pace for us oldies. We enjoyed a relaxed, smoke free, classy, nice setting and some good live music. I would highly recommend this place to anyone in SA who likes live music!

LOVE this picture of the three of us - Eden was already asleep! This was between dinner and Luna.

It was a WONDERFUL day! Neil brought me red roses, the first season of "Big Bang Theory" and the BEST present ever! He printed off our blog from April 2008-August 2008 from a great website http://www.blog2print.com/. The quality is awesome and everything is included: dates, pics, comments, table of contents and it is bound with pictures on the cover and back. We will periodically print it in 4 month increments. I was so taken a back by the gift because he knows how important memories are to us and how much time I've spent writing this thing! One day he told me there was no guarantee that the blog would be around forever and I about flipped! I suggest you all print yours if you want it to be around for your kiddos to read =)

So far 29 is fabulous!

Canyon Lake

Saturday, July 11th we took a day trip to Canyon Lake with my parents and Mike and Heather. We had such a wonderful time just relaxing, sharing food, swimming, etc. and Claire couldn't get enough! We really haven't spent any significant time at the beach or lake so she was really soaking it up. We plan on going back next summer and trying to stay in one of the shelters on the Randolph property that my parents stayed for 2 nights. Eden did a great job and just went with the flow while still getting some good nap time in.

Here are some pics from my camera but mom and dad have some great ones I need to get!

Mike and Heather



The shelter mom and dad stayed 2 nights in - great shade, view of the sail boats docked and perfect picnic table
Claire after swimming in the lake for about an hour and a half or two!
Bet you can't tell what my favorite part was!!
I wonder what Claire's favorite part was.... like mother, like daughter....
Oh, and there was more!! Mom surprised me with a birthday cake and Claire STILL talks about the chocolate cake with the strawberry on top!
You think she got enough sugar?! She has my sweet tooth - sorry Claire!!

Itsy-Bitsy Spider

So what did we bring back from Austin? A yucky Spider bite! It was really crazy how it evolved from Sunday morning to Monday morning. Saturday night on the way home from Austin Claire said her foot hurt but it was dark in the car and she was asleep by the time we got home so we didn't look at it.


Sunday morning on the way to church she started crying in the car saying her foot hurt and when I looked down, there was a large welt the size of an egg. A little mark with white and then red so we were unsure what had happened. Her foot was too swollen on top to put her shoe on but she was able to walk and run on it fine. A Dr. at church looked at it and said to give her benedryl and just watch it. Later that afternoon, Neil took Claire to Target and she told him "My toes feel funny" so he looked down and her toes were sausages! The swelling was definitely spreading and we got a little nervous. My mom came over and had us soak it and said to look at it later that evening to see how it would progress. That's when I first saw a tiny bubble next to the mark. 10:30 p.m. she woke up and complained about it hurting and now the swelling was up to her ankle so Neil quickly took her to the Texas Med Clinic. They took ex-rays to make sure nothing was broken so $200 later (they don't take our insurance), she was sent home with the same thing - take benedryl, watch it and take her in again if it got worse.


In the morning, it was worse and she could barely walk on it. Within the next two hours, the bubble got larger and larger and started draining a little bit so that's when I took the pictures in case I needed to show the doctor. He touched all over on it and said "Yup! It's a spider bite" which was a relief because he had seen several staph infections the week before. He said that if it was an infection then she would've screamed when he touched it and it looked a lot worse than how it felt. So our goal was to now keep it from getting infected! We've been soaking her foot in Clorox/water twice a day and then putting a antibacterial ointment on. It didn't get better quickly but it looks SOO much better today. Her foot was still really swollen Thursday but it's almost completely down today.

Excuse her pedicure! We certainly need to give her one!




I just thought she looked so pathetic sitting there one day soaking her foot. So pathetic that this loving mother had to document it with a picture =)

Fourth of July

We had a very fun and eventful 4th of July weekend with our families! Friday night we ate at Neil's parent's house and his sister's family before she left for Australia. It's so fun to see Claire play with her cousins and now Eden watching every move. I remember thinking "I can't wait till Claire can walk and run so she can play with them" and boy does she ever! She is right behind the boys and loving every minute! They even found cardboard boxes to use to slide down Mimi and Poppa's grassy hill. I'm so glad I got that memory on video! We had good food + great company = wonderful evening!

Mimi & Eden

Saturday morning we left for Austin to spend the day with Mike and Heather. They needed to build a fence to keep the boat so dad, Mike and Neil worked on that pretty much all day. The rest of us just hung out, baked, chopped, prepared, visited, played in the "sprinkler" and just spent some quality time together. The girl's were great and had a good time with everyone. My sweet friend Heather who also lives in Austin came over to visit and spend some time with the girl's. It had been WAY too long! She took some incredible pictures - thanks Heather!

Claire and Heather making fresh peach cobbler with oatmeal cookie on top! Claire LOVES licking the beaters. This one was a little large =)

Claire loves to help anyone in the kitchen. She had so much fun helping Aunt Heather

Eden sporting her festive outfit from Grandma - what a cutie pie!

Mike and Dad working on the fence - too bad I didn't get Neil in there too! They worked hard and long in the 104 degree weather

Heather finally caught Claire long enough for one picture. She was having too much fun in the sprinkler a.k.a. hose spray!

Eden loved playing with Heather

Sisters wearing 4th of July stuff - how can you resist?

Yee-Haw!!

Watch out Uncle Mike!

These are the pictures Heather took

Believe it or not, the pictures from Mike and Heather's house were just a few of my favorites! If you want to see all of them, here is the site for our shutterfly albums:
http://neilkathrynclaire.shutterfly.com/

Stay tuned for what we brought home from Austin with us. It made for an interesting next couple of days including a trip to the Med Clinic at 10:30 p.m. Sunday!