6 Months of Bliss...

We can hardly believe that our little girl has already been in this world for 6 months. What a blessing she has been and has changed our lives forever in such an amazing way. Lance and I both love her so much and with all the challenges parenting has brought us, we are so thankful to have her. Here are some of her 6 month pictures...she's eating more solid foods (sweet potatoes, pumpkin, applesauce, peas, avocado - so far she doesn't like green things though - and today she tried some Cheerios and sucked on daddy's buttered toast!); her and I go on runs together, which Lilah seems to be liking a little more since I've set her up a little more so she can see out better; and everything is going in her mouth (see the 6 month sign which she got ahold of and it went straight to the mouth). Lilah screeches and screams in excitement and Lance and I make her laugh a lot. It is maybe the best feeling to make your baby giggle. She is all over the place rolling from her back to her tummy, and can pretty much sit up by herself. Most of the time though she'd rather roll around on the floor.

I am loving this stage and only wish we could make time slow down a little, although I'm sure every month will bring about such fun, new things with Lilah. :)

Daddy is the Big 3-2!

We all had lots of fun celebrating Lance's 32nd birthday! The weekend before his actual birth-day we celebrated at the Wiley's house with his favorite Lana Wiley special - ham and cheesy potatoes. Glenn even made his birthday cake this year! Lilah (who usually has a bad case of stranger danger anxiety) was great letting everyone hold her and decided against the pouty-lip-scared-face she likes to make. On Lance's real birth-day I made a chicken parmesan dish he likes and some iced sugar cookies (which unfortunately I like them as much as he does...sigh...). He opened his present of a new wallet (yep, that's what he wanted...BOR-ING!), but with two Seahawk tickets inside for him and Mike to go to the game today. That was the big surprise....I think they are both pretty excited to head out today (rain and all). On Friday grandma and grandpa came over to babysit our sleeping girl so we could go to Daniels, Lance's choice every year for his birthday dinner. It was so nice to get away and have a night just the two of us - although the table right next to us had a baby a little older than Lilah with them which made me miss her. However, it also made me say numerous times to Lance that I couldn't believe they had such a little baby out so late (they left at 9!). All in all, I think Lance's birthday week was a success. He just left in his Seahawk garb to go to the game with Mike, both with big boy smiles on their faces! ;)

5 to 6 Month Pics xoxo

Pre-Halloween Hay Ride

PEPS is so much fun! The mamas and babes all went on a hayride at the same pumpkin patch that we went to a few weeks back. Unfortunately it was muddy and gray this time, but still so fun as always to get together with all the ladies. We did the hay ride (primarily for photo purposes as the babies didn't even know what was happening) and walked around for awhile. I'm so very thankful for this group of moms! I have seen them outside of our normal meeting areas and shared ups and downs. It's been a great outlet and I've been so fortunate to meet this group of girls that I'm sure will be together to see our 2nd round of babies.

Camden Comes to Visit

So now that I'm banging these out, the dates are all out of order! Yikes...I need to keep up with my blogging. :)

Allison and Camden came to see us a few weeks ago (during our sleep training week). It was fun to see him and Allison - both mommy and baby look wonderful. Camden at this stage doesn't really care about Lilah, but she sure was interested in him. She tried to hold his hand and grabbed for him, but I was holding her with a tight grip because I know what she does when she gets ahold of my hair. Ouch! Camden laid on Lilah's Baby Einstein mat and she in her jumperoo...she could hardly jump because she just wanted to watch him. And, he could have cared less. We hope to get together with Cam and his mama again soon!

The Not So Spooky Halloween!

What fun!! Jen from our PEPS group and her little family (Luke and Leah) had us over for a little Halloween bash. It was perfect! We of course only stayed for a short while, as did all the other families, since the babes can only take so many photo sessions. I have so enjoyed my PEPS group and all the moms. It was nice to meet a lot of the daddies we've heard so much about, and of course to see all the cute babies in their Halloween costumes. Lilah was a flower, and the most beautiful one at that. We lined the babies up along the couch a few times to take pictures, and then laughed at them as they touched each other, looked at each other with wide eyes, and then lost it and cried.

Afterwards we trick-or-treated at Brian and Connie's up the street (we go to church with them) and then came home (candyless since Lilah is on a diet of pureed sweet potatoes, peas, pumpkin, banana and applesauce). After we got her to bed that night Lance and I sat on the couch, had dinner together and watched a movie.

Not that I was ever a big Halloween goer-outer, but my how our lives have changed. On the Saturday night of Halloween all we wanted to do was be together as a family....didn't want to go out and get dressed up, but were just happy as clams being at home with our baby girl. Perfect 1st Halloween for our pretty pink flower!

Sleep Training

Well, I won't put a lot about this as I like to forget the week of hell that I went through. And I don't say that lightly, but I feel like it was pretty close to what hell might be like (although I never plan on actually knowing this). What can be worse than hearing your baby cry and scream for hours on end, daily? The answer happens to be: a baby that doesn't sleep. That is worse. But at the time, it felt pretty horrible.

For a week straight Lance and I endured "sleep training" with Lilah. Let's be honest here - the little girl has never really liked to sleep. You know when people say all newborns do is eat, sleep and poop. Well, Lilah ate...she pooped...but she DID NOT sleep (at least not much). After her cold where I held her for two nights in a row to help her to actually breathe, it all went downhill. She didn't like to nap and didn't like to sleep at night. I felt like a zombie and acted like one too, or at least like a very nasty housewife to my poor hubby. After a restless and tough weekend, we went and got a book and started our training.

To spare you from the details I'm sure you've heard (Lana and Krissy)..after a week our baby is doing much better. She is so much better rested and she takes usually 3 naps a day (which would be less if she would actually sleep past about 5:30 - obviously we're still working on a few things).