8 months!

Today is, you guessed it, Jillian's 8 month birthday! Crazy how fast time has flown by.

Her personality is really starting to shine. She's usually happy, curious, energetic and full of smiles and giggles. Loud noises and new things scare her and she looks to us for comfort. New people also scare her and she stares at them and then her bottom lip starts quivering.

Jillian is truly such a source of joy in our lives. Every night before we go to bed, we go in and watch her sleeping. We give her little kisses on her forehead; Jeff calls this his ' sweet indulgence' to end each day.

Here's some things Jillian's doing lately:

~ Puts her feet in her mouth as 'comfort' when she's upset and doesn't have a paci available. This usually happens during diaper change time.

~ Just in the past few days she's realized that splashing water in the tub is fun. I have showed her how to splash many times, but she wasn't too interested.

~ Now when I hold her and she's resting on my hip she holds on to me with both hands. Many times she nestles into me. I love it; it's the closest thing to her hugging me :) Along those same lines, Jillian loves when I wear a necklace.... easy entertainment. When I'm not wearing one, she reaches for it, but then realizes I'm not wearing one.

~ Continues to love eating. She eats just about anything I put in front of her.

~Fits perfectly into 9 month clothing. Size 3 diapers.

~ Definitely in the midst of separation anxiety. She usually SCREAMS if she finds herself being cared for by anyone else other than me, Jeff or Bama. She also is starting to whine/wimper when I leave the room, even when she was happily playing (this happens more late in the afternoon when she's getting tired from the day). I turn around and tell her she's a Big Girl and can handle it. I also try to keep talking to her even when I'm out of sight, so she knows I haven't abandoned her. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

~ Very Curious. She reaches for anything and everything and wants it in her mouth. I'm amazed at how strong she is - she can hold in one hand the remote, my iPhone, and big toys. I can remember a few months ago when she couldn't hold much in those tiny hands.

Of course I had a little photo session with our Big 8 month old today. I couldn't narrow it down, so there are quite a few photos ;)

Jillian, we love you more than you'll ever know. Well, when you have kids of your own, you'll realize how deep our love is for you.

Snow Days!

We've had the highest amount of snowfall in 30 years and I have LOVED it! We have really enjoyed the last 2 days.

Jillian and I were supposed to head to Pam's house yesterday for a BABY Valentines party, but with the nasty weather I decided that wasn't a smart idea driving 40 min there and 40 min back. I really wish we could have, there were going to be 20+ people and babies. So fun! But we decided to enjoy our day snowed in... and we did.

Yesterday when Jillian went down for her morning nap I took Austin out front and we played for about 20 minutes. Austin loves snow, I sometimes think he wishes he lived in CO with my sister where he could play in it all the time.

Then after Jillian got up, we all went out.

I tried to take a photo of us... turned out better than I thought.

Love Jillian's face of "hurry up and get me inside!"

Jeff got home around 4pm, and we all went outside to play - again! Our next door neighbor Bredan just got home from school so we played with him. He is so fun and outgoing; love having him next door! He of course wanted to be in our picture.

Then I helped Bredan make a snowman. He was so proud of it :)

Last night we stayed in and watched TV by the fire. Nice relaxing way to end the day. We were fearful of our power going out. We live in an area with really mature trees and they were snapping and falling. Luckily we didnt, but one of our neighbors did (his house is 46 right now - yikes!). We also saw our neighbor across the street get his porsche towed home by a Jeep Wrangler full of 4 girls. I couldnt stop laughing. Who leaves their office in a low-profile car like that and thinks they can safely make it home in 8" of snow?? We found out today it took him 2 hours to get home!!

Today the snow was so BEAUTIFUL!! All our neighbors were out with their kids and dogs most of the morning surveying all the damage.

Bredan had snowball fight with Austin.

Austin lost.

There was a massive tree branch that fell and is blocking our entire street. Literally, you have to walk in the other neighbor's yard to get by it. That will be a mess to clean up.

Here are a few pictures of our home this morning under 11" of snow

All in all, I loved the snow. It's so peaceful and beautiful. Silently fallling. However, getting me and Jillian all bundled up, going outside, getting wet from snow, coming back in, drying off, cleaning off Austin, taking off my boots so my floors don't get dirty, and feeling my wet cold jeans against my feet......gets old!

Laughing at Peek-a-boo

Jillian loves her daddy. He constantly provides hilarious entertainment for her, and here is one example of him being silly and she is loving it!

He came home for lunch yesterday to help me set up my work laptop, and of course another fun little game ensued.

(I also couldn't resist catching Jeff on video with his high pitched voice... we find ourselves doing the stupidest/most embarrassing things just to see her smile or giggle)

New Fun Things

Jillian has had a few new first lately. This one happened earlier this week. I finally got a shopping cart cover and stuck her in it. She loved it! She loved looking around, and playing with her toys or paci. She's my little helper shopping now :)

Jillian also finally found her feet about a week and a half ago and I think it's about the cutest thing ever!! She loves to grab on to both feet and stare at them when I change her diaper.

Just this morning when I gave her some diluted blueberry juice (for the first time), Jillian grabbed the bottle out of my hands and took over. I didn't help her at all. Luckily I had my iPhone handy to snap a few photos.

As I've mentioned before, Jillian is starting to use her arms more and more to get around. She's not scooting yet, but she's figured out how to move backwards. I'll turn around and she's 3 feet behind where I put her. She hasn't figured out how to move forward much but she can turn her self in circles. Here's a few shots of her playing on her tummy.

Takin' a break (for about 2 seconds) to stare at Austin thru the window

It takes A LOT of effort trying to get those knees under her :)

She always buries her head when she tries.

We brought out the highchair when she turned 6 months, but I hadn't snapped a photo of her in it. She loves it - Thanks Grandma Judy!

I had to include this one of Austin sniffing her diaper. Also checking to see if any food dropped he can lick up.

Bathtime! She loves her big girl bath. We brought it out when she turned 6 months.