7 Month Old Delilah

Another month has flown by for little Miss D. She's continuing to grow, change, and develop at lightning speeds!

Here are some of her stats and fun facts at 7 months old:

• Size 6 month, 6-9 month, and 6-12 month clothes
• Size 3 diapers 
• Breastfeeds about 7 times each day for about 10 minutes on one side. Eats solid foods twice a day and likes to snack on puffs or crackers too.
• She's really opening up to new flavors of foods. She'll eat green beans and other yellow/orange veggies now without an issue. She will eat a few bites of peas, but those are definitely not her favorite. She'll basically inhale anything sweet, including peaches, pears, apples, bananas, prunes, and oatmeal mixed in apple juice. She has also tried her first bit of ice cream and LOOOOVED it. That's my girl with a crazy sweet tooth!
• She has tried formula, and initially she absolutely hated it and would gag and press her lips together in protest. But now she's opened up to it, especially if it's mixed with breastmilk. But, if she's hungry enough she'll take it straight up. It just has to be warm enough and coming through a slow flow nipple.
• Naps 2 times a day. One nap usually lasts 1 hour or less, and the other for about 2 hours. One mid-morning, and another mid-afternoon. 
• Bedtime is at 8pm. She still usually wakes up consistently once a night (around 1 or 2am) to eat and goes right back go sleep. Wakes up between 7 and 8 in the morning.
• She's great at falling asleep on her own and won't cry very much if we put her down when she's still awake. Although, her favorite way to fall asleep is while breastfeeding, of course!
• Excellent at rolling over, getting on hands and knees and rocking, and she has even started figuring out how to lift one arm at a time and place it back down.
• She has figured out how to sit up on her own for long periods of time! Yay Delilah! She loves to sit and play with toys or watch her crazy brother.
• She's getting extremely good with her hands. She can pick up most anything in front of her, making it nearly impossible to eat or type with her nearby (for example, right now as I am typing she's sitting on my lap grabbing at the keyboard and mouse!)
• Her pincer grasp is getting good... She's been practicing by picking up her little puff snacks from her tray on the Bumbo.
• She's such a little babbler and I love it! Some sounds that she has been saying is "ya ya ya", "wa wa wa", "da da", "ba", "ga" and all sorts of fun little baby talk. She'll even try to copy a sound when you make it first, and has successfully copied "Dada" a few times, which melts all of our hearts, and especially Trevor's. :)
• She loves to get in the car and talk to herself in the little baby mirror strapped to the headrest. Sometimes she'll just be babbling away at herself, and one minute later she's sound asleep! 
• Getting a bit more hair! I think the bald spot on the back of her head is starting to fill in!
• She still loves bath time and jumping in her jumperoo and being around her family.
• She's a huge mama's girl (mostly because I provide the milk) and will start whining anytime she sees me and I don't give her enough attention. It's cute. ;)

Sometimes I think it's really appropriate that we named her Delilah because she really is such a "delight" to have in our household! :D

Family Pictures 2014

We managed to get our first professional photos taken as a family of four in November. And they were taken by none other than Meghan Sonnenberg herself, of course! And, as usual, I love how they turned out! Enjoy this selection of some of my favorites:

And may I just mention that Charlie was the one who made getting a good photo really difficult. He had a hard time listening to the directions to "look at the camera and smile" as he was far more interested in exploring the plants and leaves in the woods. Oh well! Meg's amazing anyway and got some really great shots of him as well as the whole family! :D

Christmas Festivities 2014

Our Christmas festivities started this year with our tradition of going to see the lights on Temple Square with Trev's family the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The weather was wonderful (not too cold at all!) and the crowds were huge, as usual. Our little family split off from the rest so we didn't have to slowly muddle through the crowds just to keep up with everyone else. It was a lot of fun! :) 

On Black Friday, I got a good deal on a new 9 foot Christmas tree that was delivered to us in the first week of December. Once it arrived, I started a decorating frenzy! :) Here's a picture I snapped the first night the tree was up, decorated, and lit. Charlie was smitten by it, and has been obsessed with touching, playing with, and moving around the lower ornaments every day since. I had to let go the control of "perfectly placed" ornaments pretty quickly. Haha.

Trevor and I worked together the weekend after Thanksgiving and got our Christmas lights put up on our house! We were so glad we did, too, because it got pretty cold a couple days later and stayed that way. Being up on the roof is definitely adventurous and slightly terrifying. Actually, going up and down an old rickety ladder is the really terrifying part. We won't talk about the one time the ladder slipped a bit while I was on it and I saw my life flash before my eyes .  .   .   But regardless, I have to say the end result was worth risking my life! (Pardon the grainy iPhone photo)

Here's a "finished" picture of most of the Christmas decor in my living room, complete with handmade wood crafts and the brand new canvas print of our family that I got for our mantel! <3

Friday, December 19th was our ward's Christmas party! We had cookies and hot chocolate and Santa even showed up to tell jokes, sing songs, and take pictures with the kids. I was MORE than pleased with how our picture turned out. I loved that neither kid was afraid of him: Charlie was enamored by his candy cane and Delilah by Santa's beard. Haha!

We also did some pre-Christmas goodie making. Charlie, Trevor, and I all dipped pretzels one afternoon while Delilah was napping. I even made a batch of homemade fool's toffee to pass out to neighbors with our annual Christmas card (photo courtesy of the ever-talented Meghan Sonnenberg!):

My ceramic nativity was finally completed this year with the addition of the camels! 1000 thanks to my amazing, talented, and loving parents for all the hard work and care they put into finding and painting these pieces so I can own a beautiful piece of family tradition forever! <3

Delilah has been rolling and scooting around a bit. Once, I caught her under the tree, mesmerized by the sparkling lights. Christmas is truly magical at any age!

I dressed up little D in a cute little cream dress and an oversized red bow for church the week of Christmas. She looked SO cute that I had to snap a picture. :)

Then, later in the week on Christmas Eve, we went to Trevor's parents' house as is customary. We had a grand time eating taco salad and way too many treats, spending time with loved ones, and opening up gifts! At the end of the night, we snapped a photo of all the cousins (minus the Andersons who stay in Las Vegas for Christmas) in their new Christmas jammies! :) It's really hard to get 6 young, tired kids to all look and smile in the same direction. Haha!

Charlie fell asleep on the way home and we tucked him snug into his bed before Santa Claus came down the chimney and left heaps of toys and treats for us:

Here's my Charlie's excited Christmas morning face. This moment makes me so SO happy.

We spent the morning exploring Santa's gifts, opening the gifts under the tree, and making an absolute wreck of our living room with all our new goodies! :)

Santa left a yo-yo in Charlie's stocking and Trevor showed him some tricks! He thought it was great! And Trevor had a pretty good time brushing up some of his old rusty yo-yo tricks as well. ;)

Delilah was there, too, happily bouncing away in her jumperoo. Santa brought her this cute new red leather hair bow:

More pics of my Christmas morning kiddos! If you look closely enough, you can see the hint of leftover chocolate around Charlie's mouth.

I love that they love each other, and that Charlie will go over and make sure Delilah is having fun!

One of my favorite Christmas gifts I got this year was this new Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag from my Mom. Love love love! I feel so stylish carrying it! 

Our first real snow of the season came on Christmas morning. We had a gloriously white Christmas, and it wasn't too cold to go out and play in it... so we did! Charlie was in heaven, of course. We had a snowball fight and I even showed him how to make his first ever snow angels. 

That evening, Trevor's parents and brother Trent stopped in to say hello. We had planned to make a turkey dinner for our little family, and invited them to stay and dine with us! Trevor was in charge of prepping the turkey before sticking it in the oven. He put a delicious herb butter under the skin and on top of the turkey, and stuck part of an onion inside. The turkey turned out moist and totally delicious. I'm not usually a big turkey fan, but I really liked this one! Yum! We also made mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans. It was so much fun to have an impromptu family dinner! We MAY have to make a turkey every Christmas... a new tradition?!? We shall see! :)

Overall, Christmas was absolutely wonderful this year! It was nice to be able to relax at home and just enjoy a peaceful day together. I am grateful for the true reason we celebrate this time of year: the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He has given us everything we have. I hope your Christmas was as lovely as ours!

Delilah: 6 Months Old

Half a year old! I can't believe how fast it has gone! You'll have to excuse her slightly red eyes in this picture... we took it at night instead of during the day, and she was starting to get a little sleepy-eyed and ready for bed. :)

At age 6 Months, these are some facts about Delilah:

• Weight: 14lbs 8 oz (18.3%)    Length: 25.75 inches (40%)    Head Circ: 16.25 inches (22%)
• Size 6 month and 6-9 month clothes (still fits in a couple 3-6 months, barely)
• Size 2 diapers
• Breastfeeds 8 times a day for 5-15 minutes on one side at a time. 
• Takes 2-3 naps per day. Always a short one in the morning, longer one mid-day, and sometimes a cat nap a couple hours before bedtime.
• Started eating some solid foods! She has tried rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, pears, sweet potatoes, peaches, apples, bananas, and green beans. Her favorites are oatmeal cereal and peaches. Green beans and apples made her gag... but we'll keep trying!
• When we feed her solid foods, she gets so anxious and excited that she'll start kicking her legs and open her mouth wide and try to grab for the spoon. And it seems that as soon as I get the spoon out of her mouth, she's already swallowed and has opened up again for more more MORE! 
• Bedtime is around 8 or 8:15pm. She still wakes up once a night, sometimes twice. Sigh.
• Is excellent at rolling over, both from back to front and front to back
• Has started pulling her knees in and putting her little bum in the air so only her head/hands and feet are on the ground. She can figure out how to scoot forward about an inch at a time. This combined with her rolling skills means I often find her in a completely different place than where I left her, in just a matter of minutes!
• Doesn't want to sit unsupported yet. If I balance her in the right position, she'll sit by herself for a few seconds, but she loves to push off with her legs and it makes her head fly backwards and she falls back really hard and, obviously, she doesn't like when that happens very much. I laugh that she may crawl before she sits! Silly girl!
• Has started being interested in trying to reach her toys that she can't reach by moving around to get to them. 
• Some things she hates: Being hungry, being tired, initially being strapped into her carseat, being left alone for too long, and sudden loud noises in her face. 
• Her favorite things to play with include her rattle, books, her jumperoo, and empty plastic water bottles (oh so crinkly!) 
• She talks the most when she's REALLY happy, like when she is jumping in her bouncer or when I stand her in front of the mirror and she gets to play with her reflection. It makes her laugh and jump and giggle to see herself. Sounds like a girl to me! ;)
• Loves to be in water, whether it's splashing in her bathtub or floating with me in a pool (we took her in for the first time just the other day and she LOVED it!) 
• Enjoys watching shows and movies on TV with her brother. 
• For the most part, she enjoys riding in her carseat, especially when we pull back the canopy and she can see out the window and also see Charlie. He will start giggling at her and she'll start giggling right back. It's literally the cutest and most heart-warming thing I've ever heard. It's little things like that that makes all the tough moments completely worth it!
• Overall, she is a really laid-back baby. She goes with the flow and is generally very happy! She definitely has an intense temper, which can flare up loud and suddenly when she decides she's just not happy anymore. As I have said and thought very often with her: "Well, that escalated quickly!" At least when she gets unhappy, she can be made happy just as quickly as she became unhappy! 

We just love this cute little girl! Although I do wish she'd start growing some more hair one of these days... ;)

The Big 3-0

Well, it's official! We have a 30-year-old living in our house!! For the big 3-0, I really wanted to do something big and surprising for Trevor, but I know he likes his birthdays low-key and with everything we have going on around here, I just decided to nix the idea of planning a surprise party. So, we did a little celebrating at home! The morning of his birthday, he woke up early to go to work and I had taped some colorful paper "30"s all over the house so he wouldn't forget how old he was turning! ;)

He worked a very long day on his actual birthday, so he got to open his presents from us the next day (Thanksgiving day). I was pretty proud of the fact that most of his gifts were surprises! :D I snapped this photo of Charlie wearing these awesome glasses shaped like a 30. Trevor told me I could take a picture of him, but I forgot and when I remembered a couple days later, he had "conveniently" thrown them away. Haha.

His gifts included a Seinfeld "No Soup for You" shirt, a Jazz basketball, some peanut M&Ms (as usual), a nose hair trimmer (yep, he's definitely 30!), and some Obama toilet paper... because who DOESN'T want to wipe their behind with his face? Slightly uncivil? Maybe. Totally hilarious? Yes. :)

We spent the rest of Thanksgiving day hanging out with his family eating delicious food. According to Trevor, that was exactly how he wanted his birthday to go. No fancy parties or attention. Just a couple gifts and some love from his family! :)

Happy Birthday, Hubby!

Delilah at 5 Months

Ahhh look at this little cutie! She's growing bigger, stronger, and chunkier every day! :)

At age 5 Months (which was November 10th), these were some facts and stats about Delilah:

• Size 3-6, 4-6, and 6 month clothes (seems pretty true to size!)
• Size 2 diapers
• Breastfeeds 8-9 times a day for 10-20 minutes on one side each feeding.
• Has started waking up more at night to eat again. Usually just once, but sometimes twice.
• Bedtime is around 8:30pm and she wakes up usually around 7am or so.
• Rolls over consistently from her back to her front! Yay! She's rolled from front to back a few times (on accident I think), but usually her arm is out to the side and she gets stuck and can't turn back over. Then cue the crying. I turn her back onto her back dozens of times every day, and I'm trying to show her how to move her arm so she can roll from tummy to back. :)
• Her signature sound is a loud "Ah ah ah ah ah" when she's talking or happy. Sometimes she'll squeal or scream just for fun, too. Or cough. 
• She's become very "hands-y". She is excellent at grabbing things: her toy, paci, my face, my nose, my hair etc. She squeezes so hard that it usually HURTS! Haha. Especially when those tiny fingernails are getting long. She's just very precise and good with her hands! With those long fingers, I'm wondering if we have a pianist in the making!? :)
• Her favorite things are still watching and giggling with Charlie, getting cozy in her fuzzy pink and polka dot blanket, reading books, rolling over, and just being with people in general (especially sitting in the bumbo while we do things). She doesn't like to be left alone in a room with just her toys for too long.
• Naps 2-3 times a day with the mid-day nap being the longest. She loves to sleep in her carseat or swing, and we're working on transitioning naps to the crib.
• Ever since she was a couple months old, her little body goes through phases where, instead of pooping every day at least once, she just won't poop for a few days. During these times, she passes gas a LOT and it gets more and more stinky as the days go on. I mean, it can clear the room it's so bad!! It doesn't seem to bother her too much, but I definitely worry about it. When she finally does go, her poop is much thicker (more like pudding or paste). And then I'm really relieved! I hope things don't get too stopped up when we start solids! I don't want to have a poor constipated baby like I did with Charlie when he changed over to cow's milk at a year.
• Some nicknames that we call her are "sis", "sissy", "D", "miss D", "sister", and "sweetie".
• Doesn't laugh too often, but usually when she does it's when Charlie makes her giggle or we give her kisses on her cheeks near her neck. I think she's ticklish! :)
• Loves to grab my face or Trevor's face with both hands and pull hard toward her, and then she opens her mouth and sticks her tongue out and tries to "eat us"... or, as I like to see it, give us the most wonderful, slobbery kisses we've ever gotten! :D
• She's just so sweet and wonderful to have in our lives. I can't even imagine that I ever lived without her. She's so calm and fun to be around. The only times she gets cranky (and it can happen fast!) is if she's hungry, lonely, or really tired. But, hey, that's ALL people, right!? Haha

A Fruity Little Halloween

We had a fun-filled Halloween this year! More than anyone else, I know Charlie totally loved it. He hasn't stopped talking about "trick-or-treating" or going to "Meghan's house" for over two weeks now. I first found Delilah's costume, the little strawberry, at Costco for pretty cheap and knew I had to buy it. Then, trying to figure out a common theme, I convinced Charlie it would be pretty fun to be a banana and ordered his costume off Amazon.com. The first time he put it on I almost fell over laughing at how dorky/awesome/adorable he looked. And that's how this year's "fruity" Halloween theme came about. Trev and I are mainly just fuddy duddies and didn't dress up. Or maybe we're dressed up as good-looking parents in their late 20s. I'll let you decide ;)

As far as pumpkin carving goes, we didn't do it this year. Instead, I found these awesome sticky face-making kits at Target and Charlie and I just decorated our pumpkins a day or so before Halloween. It's totally a win-win-win situation. Win because I didn't have to spend 1-2 hours scooping and carving pumpkins (I've decided I'm really not a fan), win because the pumpkins turned out super cute, and win because our pumpkins are still in great shape halfway through November!

This is also the first holiday since having our new fireplace where I've taken time to decorate my mantel. I'm very happy with the results, especially the dried tree branch that's hanging out in my glass vase. I had taken the kids to the park one day earlier in October, and a couple of older kids from the neighborhood accidentally broke the branch off of an aspen tree nearby. Instead of just leaving it there to wilt away, I decided it would be a fabulous idea to take it home, let it dry out, and use it for decor! After spending 20 minutes cutting off all the little dried leaves, I was in love with the finished product!

And here's the decor on my porch. We decided to keep it simple, but the light-up witch and spider on the pillar are this year's new decor additions. Also, we left out a bucket of candy since we went to Springville for trick-or-treating. I left a sign that said "Please take ONE! (We are watching you!)" and I think it actually worked because we still had about 1/4 of the candy left in the bucket when we got home! Haha!

The week before Halloween, our ward at church had a Halloween get-together where we got to enjoy a chili and cornbread dinner followed by a trunk-or-treat. I signed up to hand out candy, but didn't have time to decorate the trunk beforehand. The whole night was a blur. By the time we got our food after talking and waiting in line, I barely had time to eat before rushing out to the car. The trunk-or-treaters had already started before I even had my trunk open. It was a mad rush to try to get some decor put up and open my bags of candy. Basically it was craziness and next year I'm not volunteering to hand out candy if it's optional. Haha ;) I didn't get any pictures of that night, but Charlie and Delilah had their same costumes as on Halloween night.

And now here are all the quick iPhone photos I snapped when we went trick-or-treating in Springville on Halloween. The weather was so nice! It got just a bit chilly near the end as the sun started going down and the wind picked up. I wish it were that pleasant every year! Also...I'm just loving my cute little strawberry girl! Charlie really hated having to stick his face through the hole of his banana outfit, so we just pulled the face hole all the way over his head and called him a "partially-peeled" banana for the rest of the night. :)

He was so excited to get his candy at every house! And also to show Grandma his spoils. Even though he walked the whole time, he could barely keep up with his speedy older cousins. By the time we walked around a block or two, he was asking when we could go back to Aunt Meghan's house. I think his poor little legs were done!

We finally arrived back at Aunt Meghan's house where we got to enjoy our candy and some Krispy Kreme doughnuts. (We also had some delicious soup before going out to trick-or-treat.)

Delilah got to spend some quality time with Grandpa and Grandma. Look at that adorable strawberry bum! Haha!

And we changed Charlie into his skeleton PJs (from last year!) and let him sort his candy and eat a little, too! No wonder he hasn't stopped talking about it... Halloween is a little kid's dream come true!