Our First Vacation

To celebrate Scott's last real summer as a student we did lots of playing! As soon as Scott finished his summer research, we headed out to Utah for some vacations with the fams. First up, Park City with the Ellsworths!!!

The Whole Clan

(One of the few times we weren't wearing our swimming suits that week)

We spent a whole week in some awesome condos tucked right into Park City. Being in Park City gave us prime location to spend all day, almost every day on the boat!

Addie Lovin' her Aunt Laura

The new boat was amazing! I think it was hard for Scott to say bye to it.

Scott doing a little slalom

Addie chillin' with her Grandma. She was in heaven on the boat. I've never seen her that relaxed before.

Our lil' family

(I promise that we're happier than our faces look)

Braving the cold Deer Creek water

Being spoiled with a chocolate shake.

Yummy!

Adorable

Dinner time!

The Folks that made it all happen

Thanks Harold and Sue for an amazing week. Everyone was so accommodating to Addie and was so great to help me out with her that I actually felt like I had a vacation too. It was great to see Addie interact with everyone and get to know their faces. We love you guys!

6 Month Photo Shoot

I know I'm a little slow in posting this, seeing as Addie turns 7 months this week, but better late than never. My friend Nicole took some gorgeous pictures of our little sweetheart at 6 months. I'm so happy to have these pictures so that we can remember this sweet face. Thanks Nicole for the pics!

Just Having Fun

Addie's been learning some new tricks lately, like crawling! She's pretty much mastered going backwards and often finds herself in little predicaments, like being stuck in the TV stand:)Today we took advantage of having nothing to do this afternoon and we went to the Children's Museum with Addie's little buddy, Jackson. The kids had a ball, literally.

Here she is eating the balls. I couldn't keep them out of her mouth.

To keep the balls out of their mouths, we had to plug the hole with their pacifiers. They played so well together and Addie didn't pull Jackson's hair and he didn't yank on her bow.

I think Addie might be a little vain... she just couldn't stop checking herself out in those mirrors.

Oh, don't mind me. I'm just getting into a little bit of trouble.

This is my angelic face.

I also decided to add some videos, finally. I've been horrible at putting them up right when I get them. I'm putting these videos up, even though they're old so hold over the Grandmas until they get to see this sweet baby in person in just a few short weeks.

Addie LOVES being bounced around by her Daddy. She doesn't giggle all that often, but she can't control the giggle when being bounced.

This video is from right when we got Addie her exersaucer. This is when she discovered that she could jump and that it actually had a little spring to it.

Addie's starting to develop her fine motor skills and was very meticulously spinning the wheel on this toy for about 5 minutes before I decided to pull out the camera. I couldn't believe how enamored she was with this simple toy.

Our Sweet Girl

Thanks for yet another gorgeous pic Nicole!

Date Night!!!!!!

I am not an advocate for the overuse of exclamation points, but in the case of our first date night in quite awhile, I figured it was called for. Our first date night with just the two of us was Valentine's Day. Our awesome friends, the Brames (who we miss dearly while they're in Mississippi for the summer) offered to watch Addie so we could go on a date. I was so stressed about leaving Addie that I didn't really enjoy being out with Scott. I made us go to a really quick place, grab good to scarf down and hurry home, just in case.

This date night was much, much different. I was more than happy to spend some time with Scott, without Addie. We've been trying to do a date night once a week, with Addie in tow, but this week Nicole offered to watch Addie for us. I took her up on her offer and we dropped Addie off last night to play with her buddy, Jackson.

I was going to take a camera to document our date, but I forgot. Sorry about the pictureless post. We headed to the Cheesecake Factory. Can you say, "Yum!" It was amazing. We decided to share a bunch of appetizers because that way, you can try a lot more of the things on the menu. We got an amazing piece of cheesecake to go and had it at night, when the munchkin was down to bed.

We had a great time and almost didn't know what to do with ourselves without having to worry about a little person. I actually carried a purse (not a diaper bag) for the first time in 6 months). Thanks Nicole for babysitting!

Half Way There

Addie's hit the mark, half way to being a year old! I know I say this every month, but, where has the time gone?!

These past few weeks Addie has started to grow up so much.

She's no longer way off the charts with all of her measurements. She's stopped packing on the pounds like she did for the 1st four months.

Weight: 17 lb 12 oz (75%)

Height: 26 in (50%)

Head: 18 in (off the charts, like usual)

This is what our little girl is like right now:

1. Can sit up on her own, although the large melon makes it a lot of work to stay sitting for long periods of time.

2. One of her favorite things to play with is paper. She loves scratching her nails on it and sucking on it (although we stop the sucking when we see it).

3. We can no longer eat dinner, or do anything, with her sitting on our laps because she wants to grab everything in sight. Once she grabs it, the object goes directly into her mouth.

4. She intently watches us when we eat and desperately wants to be apart of it all. To help her feel like she's eating too, we'll put our drink up to her lips and not tilt the cup at all. Just having the cup up to her lips makes her think she's one of us at the dinner table.

5. She's discovered me driving from her car seat. Lately when I look back to check on her, she has her neck craned clear around so she can just watch me the whole car ride.

6. She's on the move. She will roll clear across the room to get things. She's in the beginning stages of scooting and is really good at scooting backwards. For now, rolling is her quickest form of transportation, so that's what she does the most often.

7. She is starting to take a bottle!!!!!!! This has been a battle between us since the day she was born, so I gave up trying a few months ago. Last week, we decided to give it another try and she chugged away and has been willing (if you catch her in the right mood) to take one since.

8. She has a chessy grin. I love this smile! I don't know how she already knows how to cheese it, but this is what is looks like:

9. Still sleeps like a champ. She sleeps 11 hours straight, with an early wake up time around 6:00, but I can't complain when she goes for that long! She now loves to sleep in crazy positions. Sometimes we can't find her because she'll be along the top of the crib mashed into the bumper pads.
10. She loves to eat. Bananas are definitely her favorite and she'll make a growling sound when you're feeding them to her but are taking too long to give her the next bite.
We feel so lucky to get to be the parents of this sweet little girl. She becomes more fun each day. We love to watch and help her discover her world! I can't believe that in another 6 months we'll be having a birthday party!!!

The 4th in Dallas

Our good friends, the Krewsons, recently moved to Dallas. Scott had some time off from research this past weekend, so we thought it would be the perfect weekend to go up to Dallas to visit the Krewsons!

Unfortunately, Mother Nature was not cooperating. Hurrican Alex sent some of the biggest rain storms that I have ever seen. We were nervous about hitting the road, especially with the baby, but decided to just go for it. On the road there were lightning cracks that seriously seemed like they were only a few yards away. I was glad I was not the driving. Our little Addie was a trooper the whole way! She slept and played with her "laptop" the whole way. Five and a half long stressful hours later, we made it!

We were greeted by one of the cutest little boys ever saying, "Welcome home Baby Addie!" Cooper was so cute with Addie. Every morning he would come looking for Baby Addie.

Here are the cute kids in their 4th of July attire. I couldn't get over how much they look alike!
The storms finally cleared out for a few hours, so we decided to hit the pool. It was freezing from all of the rain! Addie surprised us by actually tolerating the cold. We decided to pull her out when we noticed she was turning a faint shade of purple.
This little guy is hilarious! He has the most expressive faces.
Cooper found Scott's gigantic sandles, which he called flop-flips.
The kiddos Sunday morning ready for church. Alli, sorry for posting this picture, but he is just too cute!

You'll notice that there is not a single picture of fireworks or anything of the sort. Between the rain and our little girl that is obsessed with maintaining her 7:00 bedtime, typical 4th of July activities were a little difficult.

Monday we hit up the Dallas Zoo. Addie continued being the observant baby that she is. She would just stare at the animals without any expression on her face.
She liked watching Cooper more than the animals!

After a quick zoo trip and lunch, we headed back home to Houston. Thanks Krewsons for letting us come crash your weekend. We had a blast getting to spend so much time with you guys!