Gretal - 6 months old

MY BIG GIRL!!


I really can't believe Gretal is 6 months old already. People always say that it goes by fast so enjoy each milestone...to be honest though, I enjoy the most recent one of sitting up all by herself the most. She can play by herself, pick up toys and put them in her mouth of course, play with the puggles (they even play back), and sit up in a highchair! Don't get me wrong I've loved watching her grow, when she first started smiling I thought I was going to cry everyday with joy. After awhile she started watching me walk around the room, then she rolled over for the first time by herself and I was so happy. She finally giggled at me about a month ago(she still mostly still does it at the puggles but every once in awhile I can get her to giggle at me)and I started jumping up and down and clapping my hands (I think it scared her). But now that she can sit up we can do so many more things, for example today we went to the library and watched a puppet show. She sat in front of me all by herself, she smiled and laughed at all the kids.
Gretal is also starting to scream. Fun stuff! Out of nowhere she will just scream while she is playing and then stop like nothing happened. Silly baby. She is also grunting a lot. I guess she found her voice :)

The most amazing Gretal pictures ever!!!

Remeber my Seattle post where I said that my friend Bethany took some amazing pictures of Gretal...well her husband Jeramie edited them and posted them on his blog...take a look and while your at it become a fan of his on facebook :)

www.blog.shodaphotography.com

"The Dans"

Uncle Dan


Lunch at Snowbird on Sunday



Irish playing RockBand with John's leg

Irish holding Gretal while wearing his new "killer deal" ski outfit

Please excuse the Puggle butt...

"The Dans"

This last weekend John's brother Dan and our friend Dan (Irish) came to visit us. Well mostly they came to ski but whatever :)

On Friday they went up to Park City and it ended up being a really nice day for them. When they got home we (by we I mean Irish) wanted to go to Sushi, but it had to be all you can eat, John and I haven't had sushi here yet, so we googled it and found Sushi Yah. They had this silly rule that if you don't eat your sushi rolls that you order then you have to pay the all you can eat price plus the price of the roll you didn't finish...Of course we all ordered more than we could actually eat so we made ourselves sick and forced down part of the rolls. We ended up not finishing some but when the waiter brought our bill, they didn't charge us. We made ourselves sick for nothing...it was actually quite funny :)

On Saturday we did some shopping at Gateway and the Park City Outlets. Dan, John's brother ended up finding a great deal on Lucky Jeans, Irish got a killer deal on snow pants and coat, and John finally found a coat that he liked that was on clearance. Then we ended up going to dinner at Tucanos Brazilian Restaurant...another all you can eat place. A little side note, the last time John and I ate here was with my parents and we did not feel very good afterwards, we ended up having to stop at a gas station to go the bathroom...don't get me wrong the food is amazing, but we ate way too much. Ok so knowing this we still went and we enjoyed the food, and yet again ate way too much. Plus since Irish ordered dessert, I had to order dessert too. By this time it's 11 at night we are all way to full...again, and I had to get Gretal home. I drove myself so the guys could stay downtown. I got home and about 20 minutes later so did John and The Dans...:) I think our whole house stunk all night :) We all got a good laugh from it.

Overall we had a great weekend. We hope they come back soon...maybe this summer for hiking season:)

Giddy Up Cowgirl

When we were in Spokane we dressed Gretal up in her Wrangler Baby outfit that my parents got her for Christmas, and this is what happened...

Seattle

I love Seattle and the reason I love Seattle is because Bethany, Jeramie and Evey live there. I was there this last weekend and had a great time (although Gretal was a turd most of the time we still had fun). On Friday night we went to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner,. I love just sitting there and listening to J and B talk... they are hilarious! They can find funny in everything. On Saturday Bethany, Evey, Gretal and I went to the Tukwilla (sp) outlet mall. Of course we had to buy matching outfits for the babies, and they were only $1.99! On our way home we stopped at Frost Donuts, which I now know that they are the best donuts ever. One of the employees made us some fresh salted, caramel donuts...OH MY GOSH...YUM!! We were talking about how everything makes us cry, so we were both pretty much crying in the car on our way to dinner. We met up with some friends of theirs, the Criddles for Thai and then went back to their house for playtime and dessert. Guess what we had for dessert...Donuts :) The Criddles bought donuts for dessert too. Bethany and I tried every donut I think, we were sick. On Sunday Bethany wanted to show off her photography skills...she is pretty good, but I think she has a great teacher (Jeramie is a professional photographer, check him out on shodaphotography.com). Bethany took amazing pics of Gretal, and actually Gretal did pretty good for most of it, but then we put Evey and Gretal into their matching outfits and Gretal was done. I will post some pics if Bethany sends them to me :)

Anyway we had a great time and I always love to see my favorite Seattle people. Now it's their turn to come to the ever dry Salt Lake City (that's for you Jeramie).

4 months ago

I can't believe it has been 4 months since Gretal was born. It seems like just yesterday I was changing diapers, and feeding at least 12 times a day. I remember thinking I don't know if I can handle much more of this, and that's about the time she started sleeping 6 hours at a time...and oh man that was a relief.
I love when she reaches for her toes and actually grabs them. I love that when she sees me she smiles so big that her whole face lights up. I love her big cheeks, big blue eyes and roley poley thighs. I love when she rubs her face in my neck when she's tired. I love that I know her tired cry, her hungry cry and her whiney cry...finally. She is starting to giggle now, except not at me, only at John and the puggles, and my dad...little turd :) I love when John comes home she gets really excited and starts kicking her legs and waving her hands for him to hold her. I love that she is a great baby.

2010 Wahoo!!

Last year was filled with so many adventures... it's going to be hard for 2010 to top it.
This year we have many things planned...who knows if we will get through them all but ya never know. Here's a list of goals/resolutions we have:
Go to Germany- we are planning a trip to Germany in September to visit Megan, Ivan and Anton. The kids will be one so we are hoping that will make it even more fun...hopefully :)
Pay off our Jeep- we have been meaning to pay it off for a few months now but something always seems to come up so we never do...
Build a deck- The deck on our house right now is about ready to fall down, plus it's kind of small, so we want to build one that goes along the whole back of our house. So if anyone feels like helping let us know :)
Explore Utah- This will be easy since Utah has so many fun things to do. For sure we are going to Arches National Park for Easter and Bear Lake in the summer...
Save money- This will be hard to do since we have so many things planned but we need to save money in order to do them...right :)
Get in Shape- Ok so having a baby really took the shape right out of me...and John :) We are looking into a hiking carrier for Gretal and maybe a pull behind trailer for our bikes so that will help.
Eat healthier- Since we moved to Utah we have been eating a lot of crap. So we are going to get back into the swing of things and eat healthier. We are also going to try new recipes. Once a week we will pick something out of a cookbook or online and make it...we will probably be ordering out a lot too then :)
Have friends come visit- Everyone is welcome!!

This year will be awesome...I just know it!