A Happy "Ahhhhhhhhh" Julie is Walking!!

My babe is walking as of 7:00p.m. tonight. I was just headed out the door to go grocery shopping when Rob told me to come check this out. So, I came and looked and she was walking from Rob to the coffee table. She just kept doing it. Rob said he was just playing with her and instead of falling to the ground to get to the coffee table she wanted to walk instead and she did. Crazy, we have had family over and everyone wants to see her walk, and we said she really wasn't interested anymore. When we would hold onto one hand she would just fall to the ground, so we figured it would just be a while until she was finally ready. Well, it didn't take too long. 

She is so proud of herself, she was giggling the whole time, she was so excited. Oh my, and we were definitely excited as well, yelling and clapping and cheering her on! So much fun to watch! I will have to post a video soon but for now, just a pic!

Have a great day!

10 months old and Happy Thanksgiving!

Julie turned 10 months on Turkey Day! We had a good day. We headed out to Bear River to my Aunts around noon. My mom rode with us and kept Julie company until she fell asleep. I got to see some of my family that I haven't seen in a while. It was a very relaxed day and I liked that.

-On Thanksgiving morning I noticed Julie is getting her top right tooth, it is just barely popping through. It is hard to tell when she is getting teeth in since they don't really bother her. I usually check as she is in my arms and laughing with her head back. She is just a pleasant little girl.

-For quite a while now my sister has been trying to get Julie to make an elephant noise. She will say,"Julie, what sound does an elephant make" and then she will make the noise to show her what it sounds like. Well, basically my sister is the only one that can really do a good elephant noise. Although I have been practicing, but it basically takes all the air I have inside of me to do it. Well, Julie can now imitate an elephant, not like my sister, but she gets the whole idea. Now she is teaching her the action with it.

-Julie is our little dancer, it seems she just has music in her head. She will start to sway her body whenever. She will dance while sitting like in this picture with her monkey, and we learned tonight that she loves to dance to Christmas music, my mom was watching her while Rob and I went to a movie with my brothers and sisters and my mom had some Christmas music on and she was dancing away, apparently Christmas music has a good beat to it. My mom also has a lot of clocks that chime, and she will start dancing when they go off. My parents also have this reindeer that lights up and dances and sings when you push its foot and she was loving that and dancing to that music. I think we are going to have fun this Christmas with this little gal.

 -Julie loves to read books(or look at books), we need to actually reed books to her more often. She has a pile of books in our living room, and she will pull them down and start flipping through the pages.

-I love how the rooms get so light with the snow on the ground, the snow just brightens up the room and so I can take pictures without using the flash. I hate how the pictures turn out using the flash. If Julies cheeks are slightly red, the flash just intensifies it so much more. So I took this without the flash, although it shows her bump on her forehead and cheek from falling on our kitchen chairs. She has gotten quite a few more bumps lately, I am just glad they heal up pretty quickly. 

 -Julie is in a phase(hopefully it is just a phase) right now where she will gag herself by sticking her finger down her throat. I do not like this at all, I will tell her no and pull her hand out, and she will just laugh and stick it right back in. I usually have to distract her with something else to get her to stop. Ahhh, drives me nuts, hopefully it won't last too long.

-Julie will pull the blanket that is on our couch onto the floor and immediately lay down on it and get all comfy. She does this all the time now and I don't know where she picked this up. She doesn't sleep with a blanket, but she just started doing this and it is so cute. She will do this randomly while playing with her toys. I came over to sit on the floor next to her and she crawled over to me and rested her head on my leg, oh I love this, she is definitely getting a little more cuddly, especially at nap time and right before bed.

-Walking is totally on her time, I know she can do it, she just won't. And that is okay! We will try to hold only one hand, but she will now just slowly lower herself to the ground. One of these days she is just going to forget to drop down and crawl to the next object and just take off walking. Oh well!
What a sweet fun little girl we have, she grows and changes so fast that it makes us sad. But it is so much fun at the same time watching her do new things.

Shoes and Snow!

I have a pair of shoes that I have just lying around our front room(got them for my birthday like two years ago and they rub my pinky toe, darn), and Julie loves them. She will take the shoelace and run it through her fingers until she finds the end and then rub it against her lips. She will also drag them by the shoelace every where she goes. At least they are pretty clean.

Julie took a couple steps on her own today at my parents house. She was standing in between Robs legs and wanted to get to the table and so she just went for it and took a few steps all by herself. She did this a few more times. Wow, it definitely won't be long now. She gets so excited when walking along the coffee table, and tonight she got an owie landing her chin into the edge of the table. Her two bottom teeth made their way to the top of her gums and caused some crying, but it didn't last long and she is okay now.

Julie loves to destroy my nicely put away toys. She seems to like playing with her toys when they are not strewn all over the floor. Here she is after waking up.

 Well, the white stuff has fallen and still is falling. I managed to rake up the rest of the leaves in the back yard in between rain storms on Saturday, and I am glad I did because that afternoon/evening is when the snow started to fall. You can see that Rob had some fun in it as well. And our YM/YW activity to Salt Lake to go see the Savior of the World performance at the Conference Center got canceled due to a major winter storm warning. The schools are actually having a half day tomorrow because of the storm(that NEVER happens). They say it will be the worst we have had in 10 years. I wasn't planning on going, but I am bummed for all the girls that were excited to go see it. Wow, can't wait to see what comes of it, but I hope all those driving for Thanksgiving will be safe.

 Julie has been doing this downward facing dog position, like they do in Yoga. It is so funny, I don't know what she is doing. She has also been jabbering like crazy, and this jabbering is different, it is like she is trying to respond back. It is more like you are having a conversation with her, but still don't know what she is saying. I can't really describe it, but it is different. She is close to signing "mom" and "dad". She is one happy little girl, even after bonking her head so many times today. She has two nice lovely marks on her forehead from the railing on the banister! 

The snow is getting me excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas, it is giving me that Holiday Spirit and I love it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jon Schmidt, Steven Sharp Nelson, and Daniel Beck!

I went to a concert Saturday night where all three of these guys were performing. I went with two of my sisters and we had a blast. I had never heard of Daniel Beck, and I really liked him, he has a great voice.

Then there was Steven Sharp Nelson, and I am a huge fan of his music. He plays the cello. And then there was Jon Schmidt, and who doesn't love Jon Schmidt. And having Jon Schmidt and Steven Sharp Nelson at once was awesome. They played there famous Viva la Vida meets Cold Play song, I was so excited for this song. Loved it! They also played a lot more songs together and it was awesome. All I have to say is I loved their music and I had a great night. It was also my first night that I didn't put Julie to sleep. Rob got her down all by himself.

Combing her hair!

We showed Julie how to comb her hair, and now she does it whenever she sees her comb. She learns so fast.

 Playing with one of her favorite toys, and she is getting how to play with it now.

It is so fun to watch her sign water at lunch or dinner. We don't keep her cup on her tray, and so she will sign water when she wants her sippy cup. 

 Lately she has been imitating everything we do. She learned how to blow a kiss last night, saying "Mmmm-mwaaa", she still will not give us kiss's though. She is so super close to walking, and she can go fast. One of these days she will surprise us.

Julie Randomness!

-We have been watching Baby Signing Time, and Julie loves it. She only watches it about once a day and she is glued to the screen. She can sign milk, and water. Today I asked her and signed at the same time if she wanted some water when she was having lunch and she put her hand up to her mouth and did the water sign(wasn't exact), and when I hold her bottle of milk or just before I nurse her I will sign milk, and she will get so excited and sign it back. She has not done it on her own yet for what she wants, but it was so fun to see her do some signs.

-Robs Uncle got married over the weekend, we went down to Salt Lake Friday evening and went to the reception and then went to my BIL and SIL to spend the night. We got there around 9:30 or so and Julie was so ready for bed. They had already set up their pack n play and so we got Julie ready. During this time everyone came home and you could hear the kids upstairs getting ready for bed. I thought for sure that Julie would not go down, anyways I fed her and usually she is zonked by the time I am done feeding her and she wasn't. So, I laid her down anyways and said good night. Then I turned out the light and it was totally dark(like at home), I sat on the bed and waited thinking she was going to start crying, but nothing, I heard her turn over and then start breathing heavy like she was asleep. Wow, I could not believe it, even with all the noise she went right to sleep and so I left and went upstairs. We visited for awhile and then got ready ourselves and headed to bed. We slept in the same room as Julie(first night EVER), and even when we came into the room and got into bed, not a peep out of her. She started making her usual noises around 6:00 in the morning, but did not wake up until 7:00a.m. like usual. I guess she knew that it was bedtime. 

The next day was the wedding in the Salt Lake Temple, we had to be at the Temple at 11:45 and so we got ready, there was enough time for Julie to have a morning nap before we left, but she didn't take one. So we headed out about 10:45 and made it in good time. I stayed in the kids waiting room with Julie, and my niece and nephew while Rob and the others went up to the wedding. The waiting room was empty when we first got there and by the time Rob came back, it was packed. There were kids everywhere. It was a chilly day in Salt Lake, we went out to see them come out of the Temple and then we headed back into the waiting room, it was just too cold for Julie to be out there that long. The wedding lunch was not until 3:30, and it was only 2:00, so I fed Julie at the Temple and then we left to go to the luncheon. Julie had already missed both her naps for the day, but was in a good mood for being so tired. We ate at Sizzler and then right after headed home. Julie fell right to sleep and slept pretty much the whole way home, which I was grateful for. Got home, ate some dinner and fed Julie some food and then I made cookies, I finished at 9:30, and I had only made half the batch, so I froze the leftover cookie mounds for baking later. Pumpkin cookies are so good.

 -Yesterday I was spinning the fan in our front room for Julie, and then I notice Julie would lift her arm up into the air and then drop it, I couldn't figure out why she was doing this. After several times doing this, I realized what she was doing, she was imitating me. When I would spin the fan, I would reach my arm up into the air and then drop it, and so when the fan was getting slowed down, she would lift her arm up and then bring it back down. It was so funny!

-Julie loves to play in her room, her she is hamming it up for the camera. When she hears me turn the camera on she will look at me and arch her back and tilt her head back and smile or do her full open mouth smile. Love it.

-I looked in her bedroom the other day and didn't see Julie anywhere, she  was also being quiet so I got a little worried. She loves to play in her closet so I looked in her closet and found her in between the door and the shelves. She was having a grand old time hanging out in her closet.

Here she is dancing on Dad's shoulder, she will wave her arm horizontally back and forth when she dances.

-Julie takes two naps during the day, and when it gets that time I will pick her up and head into her room. As we enter her room she will start rubbing her eyes and start yawning, even if she wasn't beforehand. Then I will stand next to her crib and just rock her on my shoulder and she will just rest her head on my shoulder, I love this. She is not a cuddler baby and the only times I can hold her and cuddle with her are when I am feeding her and right before nap time. I cherish these moments, because I know they won't last.

New Tooth

Julie has got a new tooth! It is on the top, not one of the two front teeth, but just to the right. It is just barely popping through. Again, she was her normal self, except for a few times when she would start growling and getting upset. I think that could have been in part from her tooth, because once I saw the tooth, she has not been grumpy or growly since.

Growing up

-Julie is starting to get a little temper, she will get frustrated with something and then she will growl and sometimes arch her back. Her personality is really starting to come out.
-She also is a big cheeser, she has started to smile really big and she will imitate us when we smile or just open our mouth really big. It is soo funny to watch her do this. Her Uncle got her going the other night, he has this classic honking/growling noise he makes(don't know how to describe it), and Julie would imitate him and she did this for the rest of the night. Hilarious!

-She is able to walk now while holding onto one of our hands, before she had to have both hands or she would start whining. She loves walking with her little Dino, but gets mad when she runs into something and can't go any further until mom or dad come to the rescue.
-If we clean her toys up and organize her books back on her shelf all nicely, she is more likely to play with them again. She loves reading her books and playing with her blocks. She has a bucket that has a lot of different colored shapes in it. If she gets the blue circle, she will put it up to her mouth and blow into it over and over. Sometimes she will just be sitting on the floor and she will breath in deeply and then let it out quickly a few times, like she is listening to the air coming out.
-She loves to rub things on her lips, including our fingers. She will grab my finger while I am feeding her and she will get the top of my pointer finger just barely sticking out of her fist and rub it on her lips. She did this with Daddy's finger the other night before bed.

I came home with groceries the other day and set the milk down next to the fridge and she crawled right over there and pulled the milk towards her and started playing with it.

Here is what happens when Dad gets her ready for church, she had a bath right before this and when he took her leggings off, her hair was everywhere that we had to wet it down again to get it under control.

Another hat pattern, I am hoping she will learn to like wearing these hats. It was cold today, and I don't want those little ears to freeze.

She was so happy taking off the pillows to the couch.

My visiting teachers came over and Julie was so content just playing in her pile of toys. They were just strewn across the top of her. She loves playing with her little Minnie Mouse that her grandparents brought her back from Disneyland.

She adjusted to the new time change very nicely as well, she is a little more tired earlier in the evening.

I came home from Young Woman's tonight and Rob was downstairs with all the lights off and a blanket over the window. Our activity was a Bigger or Better activity. We had three groups and they each started out with something small and they have to go to houses and ask for something bigger or better. Well, Rob didn't want to have to answer the door and so he was hiding away downstairs. Crazy guy, anyways one group came back with a TV and a big box. Another group came back with a Patio chair and the last group came back with a TV and a pair of skis. I was surprised with what they brought back. They seemed to have a good time and we had hot chocolate and cake treat waiting for them when they arrived. When I got home, Julie was so excited to see me, she gave me a big smile and dropped what she was playing with and came crawling toward me. That just made me so happy. What a little sweetie, we sure do love her so very much!

Into the Cabinets!

My babe has discovered that their are secret treasures to be found inside the cabinets! She has yet to pull anything out, but she loves to open and shut the cabinet doors and pull things halfway out and then push them back in. Her favorite place is right by the stove and cabinet.

It might be time to put the locks on the cabinet doors so that she cannot get into them.

I love it when kids just lay on the floor while they play with their toys, just studying them. Julie was doing this the other day, she was laying on the floor right in front of the recliner playing with her baby monitor.

 Here is another place she likes to be, although I don't like her playing right here. It is right by the garage door. She loves it here and I am constantly moving her away which she then crawls as fast as she can right back to it.

 After getting her dressed in the morning I put her on the floor and let her play while I wash my hands. She will stay in her room for awhile just playing with her toys for a while. I heard her laughing and having a good time so I went in to see what she was doing and she was playing with this toy(don't know what to call it) and having a great time. The funny thing was that she had it on her lap, she has never done that with this toy before, I thought it was too heavy for her to lift.

 She can now wave "hi" and "bye", and it is so cute, it is a whole arm wave. Very cute! It seems like my baby just grew up overnight. She is so much like a little girl now, just her own little person and I love seeing her personality come out.

Halloween

 Here is our little Bumble Bee! 

My sister informed me later that on Magic School Bus that bees use their 'tongues' to suck up the pollen. So, Julie was just getting into character with that tongue of hers.

 For Halloween we didn't do anything really special. I did go to BBI(Bridgerland Band Invitational), where I watched my sister perform in the Color Guard. I met my mom and sister at the stadium parking at around 5:15p.m. and then we met my dad once we got into the  stadium. We had to dry our seats off since it had been raining. Right before Sky View was to perform it started raining(my mom brought me a poncho, if not I would have been drenched), I was so bummed for them. It is not fun to perform in the rain. The performance was awesome though, I really liked the show this year. I was going to get in on video, but with the rain and wearing a poncho and not wanting to get the video camera wet, I was not able to get any. After the last school performed, I left and made the wet trek back to my car. I got home around 7:00 and Rob was home with Julie handing out candy to the trick or treaters. Last year we did not get so many kids, so this year I bought the candy Saturday afternoon and bought 4 bags. I debated whether or not to put a baby back, but didn't and we went through pretty much all of it. I bought caramel apple suckers, sugar babies, and snickers. We stuck Julie in a Bee costume that I borrowed from a friend in the Ward and we headed over to my moms so Julie could trick or treat to one house. We didn't stay long and then headed back home to get Julie to bed.

 For the 20 minutes or so that we were gone, I am sure we would have been able to finish off all of our Halloween candy. After about 8:30, we had no more kids come to the door. There were a lot of fun costumes!

Random

 For the past few days Julie has been sticking her tongue out ALL THE TIME! It is so cute! I just hope she doesn't fall and bite her tongue.

This is a hat that I made with no pattern, although it is my first attempt and it didn't turn out like I planned. But I love it and am excited to go at my 2nd attempt. It is supposed to be an owl face, I just need to make the eyes bigger and change a few things. And I need to get Julie used to wearing hats since it is getting a little colder outside. I will put one on and she will pull and pull until she gets it off.

We have been watching a lot of the "Baby Signing Time" videos, and Julie loves them. She has not actually done a sign yet, but she will walk along the coffee table and dance when they start singing. I know a lot of signs now too, which is cool! The only problem, the songs get stuck in your head, which is not so good when you are trying to fall asleep after finally getting your baby back to bed at 2:00a.m. and all that was going through my brain were these songs. They are very catchy!

 And after her crying episode during the night, she woke up with puffy eyes(can't really tell very well from the picture), sorry girl, you inherited that from your mom.

 She got her first owie the other day, she was over by the fridge, or rather she was everywhere but I noticed her by the fridge before she came over to the dishwasher and climbed up. I was at the sink and looked over and noticed to little blood streaks on the dishwasher, I hurried and picked Julie up and tried to figure out where the blood was coming from. I finally found it on the underside of her pointer finger. There was a few spots on the floor and cupboard handles. The only thing I could figure out was that she got a paper cut. Trying to get a band aid on was fun. After getting the band aid on she kept sucking her finger and rubbing the band aid against her lips. I didn't want to get blood everywhere and by the time she sucked the band aid off, it was done bleeding. 

She loves to play with the little door stopper in her bedroom. After feeding her I will set her on the floor and she will play and roam around her room. She usually always ends up by the door and will close herself in her room. Kind of hard getting her out when she is either standing on the other side of the door. Today I was in her room sitting on the recliner when she was playing with the door stopper and the door started to close slowly on its own and she noticed and started to move so that she could stop the door. She was unsuccessful and when the door closed she started crying. So I picked her up and opened the door, and then she was a happy girl again.

She is now eating string cheese and yogurt and loves the string cheese. She will eat the yogurt, but she is not a huge fan. And we are trying to teach her how to suck from a straw or sippy cup. She hasn't figured it out yet.