7 Months

Baby June (or Baby Dune as Andrew lovingly calls her) is 7 months old now.

The time is just flying by and I feel like my baby is changing right before my eyes. 

Her personality is really coming alive and we are getting to know our sweet girl more and more each day.  She is a funny little girl with a smile almost always plastered to her face.  She is happy and silly and adorable.

But don't get me wrong, she has her needy side and her needs must be met in a timely fashion or else! 

We joke about how the house sort of revolves around her highness, June,and we are all just subjuects her in court. Ha! 

She is eating some solids now.  Her favorites are avocado, banana, sweet potatoes, and mum mums.  She prefers to feed everything to herself either through the self-feeder or just using her hands.  She is not much for anything that comes via the spoon.  It is funny how much more relaxed I have become on feeding a baby with each of our kids.  Will had nothing but jarred baby food, fed to him with a spoon according to "the chart."  Andrew ate more finger foods and more self feeding as well as homemade baby food with a spoon.  Now with June, I don't hardly even buy baby food and just give her what is easiest and I know she will eat.  And if she doesn't eat?  Oh well, I try not to sweat it!

She is crawling both on her knees as well as "Mowgli" style. 

She is also pulling up and cruising around the furniture.  She is crazy strong and steady on her feet.  We are constantly amazed at what this little girl is able to do.  Her size definitely makes it even funnier to see, because she looks like a 3 month old doing things that a 10 month old should be doing.

She absolutely adores Will and Andrew and they are her entertainment.  She loves to get down on the floor and "play" with them which usually involves attacking their perfectly organized line of cars or their defined city of figurines or whatever else it is that they seem most interested in at the time.  If it looks like fun to them, it looks like fun to June.

When it comes to eating, mobility, and playing with her brothers, she is one independent baby, but she is still VERY attached to her mommy.  Seperation anxiety has set in early with this one and she does not like to be away from me.  She lets out the saddest cry when I am not in sight, and has to be distracted.  She is happiest when attached to me, whether that be nursing or being worn in the ergo carrier or sleeping right next to me.  Sometimes this is the greatest feeling in the world, to be loved so much, and sometimes it is a very suffocating feeling.  But, I am quick to remind myself (as is Dan) that it won't be like this forever and I need to soak it all up now.  The laundry can wait.  June cannot! :)

 

 We love you June bug!

Christmas Part 2

The weekend after Christmas, we made a trip over to Hartselle to spend time with the Whatley side of our family.
Saturday morning, we went over to Grandmother and Pappa's new house to celebrate Christmas with them and Tamra and Randy. Kelly and Brett rolled into town with their little family that afternoon too. We all enjoyed a delicious brunch and opened gifts together. (Shockingly, we didn't manage to get any pictures while there. This is definately a rare thing for us.)

Saturday evening, we opened presents at Gigi and Jabo's house. This year I think we figured it out. We let the kids open presents before dinner, ate dinner, put them to bed, and then let the adults open presents later. This way we got enjoy watching the kids but also got to enjoy opening ours in peace.

 

Sunday morning, we went to mass.

Look how cute and happily June posed for a picture...

and look at our attempt with everyone else. Complete craziness!! :)

Afterwards, we went over to visit Nanny and Papa.

That night, Gigi and Jabo kept the "big" kids while Kelly, Brett, Clay, Michelle, Dan, June, and I took dinner over to Nanny and Papa's house and got to enjoy some adult conversation. 

The kids go to have a slumber party complete with a movie and popcorn.  Win-Win!

On Monday, we all headed to Chuck E. Cheese's for some pizza and some fun.  And we had so.much.fun!!  The boys had permanent smiles plastered to their faces.

Afterward, we walked around the mall and did a little shopping.  Check out this crew:

Look at these beautiful little girls in their coordinating dresses.  Having a little girl is such fun!

On New Years' Eve, we hung out at Gigi and Jabo's playing games.  We actually all, okay most, got addicted to the application, Ruzzle, on the I-phone and Gigi caught a moment on camera when everyone in the room was totally engaged in the game...with each other...via our phones.  Call it sad if you like (that's what Dan calls it) but we were having fun.  And eventually we did get out a good old fashioned board game.  :)

Also, while in Hartselle, this great little shop opened up called Gigi and Jabo's Mercantile.  They had a line of eager little customers waiting to spend their money.

It was such a cute idea and the kids loved buying all the treats, toys, and "stuff."

One of the purchases was these cute hand puppets.  We thought it would be a fun to do the craft with the kids, but the adults ended up doing all the crafting because these jokers were tough to put together. 

June was pretty fascinated the finished product though. 

Many of you may have seen my post on Facebook about Clay and Michelle's new dog, Digby.  He is such a sweet little pup who they found on the side of the road and had an injured hip and leg.  Well, just last week, they were able to get him into surgery and he is now on the mend.  Yay!!

Okay, I know that was a really random post, but we did a lot and had a lot of fun things to blog about. 

We rapped up our Christmas vacation watching the bulldogs in the bowl game with everyone before heading back home to Starkville.

We had such a wonderful time with everyone as always.  We had a full house with adults and kids running around everywhere, but I wouldn't want to spend our Christmas any other way.  Time with family is what it's all about! 

6 Months

June is 6 months old and the time is flying by at breakneck pace. I cannot believe that this little angel has been a part of our lives for half a year already.

Her tricks: She crawls on her tummy...not too fast or too effectively, but she crawls. She gets up onto her knees and sometimes even pushes up to her feet(Mowgli style)but doesn't go anywhere. She sits up unsupported. She can pull-up to a standing position, but forgets that she doesn't know how to stand, lets go, and falls. She then lets out a frustrated squeal. She has found her voice and loves to let everyone else hear it too. She squeals, laughs, and even growls.

Her stats: She is tiny! 13 lbs 8.8 oz and 24 1/2 inches. This puts her in the 10th percentile of the growth chart. I have gone from freaking out about how small she is to now just accepting it as her little stature. I too was a small child and June seems to be following right in my footsteps. You can look at her and see that she is one happy, fulfilled little girl. She has started to try some table food. Her favorites so far are bananas, mum mums, or anything else she can feed herself. She sort of balks at spoon feeding. She is just way too independent for that. ;)

June loves: 1. Her mommmy 2. Her daddy and brothers 3. To be held at all times either in ergo or in arms of mommy or daddy 4. To sleep in the bed with mommy and daddy 5. Balls, cars, or any other toy that her brothers seem to be interested in

Christmas Part 1

The first part of our Christmas holiday break, we headed to Jackson to spend time with my side of the family. And the highlight of the trip was getting to see Erin and James for the first time in a YEAR! They also got to finally meet baby June. :) Friday night, we had a little birthday celebration for my birthday. It was a nice low-key birthday party for a pretty low-key birthday. I mean, 31 is sort of a boring, somewhere-in-the-middle kind of year. But, that being said, I have it pretty good for just 31 years. 3 kids, an amazing husband, a wonderful family, and time to spend with all of them! Not too shabby!!

Saturday morning, we woke up and had "Christmas." The kids (both grown and young) were all spoiled with wonderful gifts and goodies.
Afterwards, we headed out to the ice skating rink. And oh what fun?! At first, I wasn't too sure that it was going to work. It had been years and years since Dan or I had been on a pair of ice skates. But, we got the hang of it and then so did Will. Andrew....well the positive is that he wasn't scared. The negative is that we spent a lot holding onto him for dear life and swinging him between our legs. Talk about a workout! And June slept soundly on the sidelines with Nonnie.

Sunday, after mass, the whole gang went to visit Amma.

That evening, Natalie and Jesse brought Miles down to hang out with June.
Can you believe that these two are a month apart...and Miles is the younger of the two? They are definitely on different ends of the size spectrum. :)

And Monday, we made a quick stop by the Kirks' house before heading back home to Stark-vegas!

Getting back into town in time for our Christmas Eve mass was quite the challenge. We had to stop no less than 5 times on what should have been a short 2 hour trip. Oh the joys of traveling with 3 young children. Our tires were literally squealing into town at 3:55 and the boys had to be dressed and ready at church for 4:15 to sing in the children's choir before mass. (I realize this isn't the best picture, but running in and out of the house in 5 minutes didn't allow me too much time to grab much other camera, so my phone was all I had. But, hey! At least it is documented!)

That night we ate pb&j's and popcorn and watched Christmas movies together as a family. It was not at all what I pictured our Christmas eve looking like being the meal-planner/somewhat anal person that I am, but it ended up being absolutely perfect and a wonderful way to spend the night.

On Christmas morning, Santa had arrived and brought more gifts for everyone!

We had a really lovely Christmas and hope you and your family did as well!