Magnificent!

Heading home tonight, we were traveling on Valley View and there was the most beautiful rainbow I have ever seen. You could see the full arch. I cannot even describe how wonderful it was to see such a sight. It was almost a double rainbow. Wow, I wish you all could have seen what I saw, truly amazing! This is one thing that I love about this rain that just keeps coming down. Sorry, no picture, and I wouldn't have been able to get in all in one shot anyways! Then afterwords, the sunset made the sky a yellow orange glow. What a fabulous night!

I will post more, but just want to say Happy Birthday to my Hubby, you are wonderful! Love ya!

Rice Cereal

Tonight was Julie's first time eating Rice Cereal, and it wasn't quite a hit. We did get some down, but I don't think it was very much. I don't know if it was just something different or the fact that she was in the process of messing her pants(which we didn't know until afterwords). She would not open her mouth, we had to use our fingers just to get the spoon in her mouth.

First attempt, not so great, but we will try again tomorrow.
The faces she was making were just too cute.

4 month Stats

We went to Julie's Dr. appointment today and she did fabulous, she got her shots and only cried for a second and then was happy as ever. Here are her measurements:

Weight: 16lbs 8.5oz (97%)
Height: 26 1/4inches (off the charts)
Head: 16 1/2 inches (80%)
He said with how tall she is, she should definitely start on cereal. So, I headed off to the store to get some rice cereal, infant Tylenol, prescription vitamins, and some Reisens for Rob.
First I dropped Julie off at my parents, and then I headed to Wal-Mart, didn't have her prescription in yet, so I checked for Tylenol, with the recent recall, Tylenol was nowhere to be found and I should have just got the generic, but I drove around town first just getting myself frustrated. So, I picked up some cereal and Reisens and headed to Sams, and then to Lees, and then lastly to K-Mart. No Tylenol, I came home and checked to see if the one we had was recalled and it was so I will have to go back out and get a generic brand.Julie is happy and healthy and growing like a weed and we love her so much. She is really starting to get loud with her voice, she will mimic really anything that you do. If she is just blowing bubbles and I will get really high pitched and then she will do the same, that girl can hurt your ears. Whoa! She is so much fun!We had dutch oven at my parents yesterday for memorial day and Julie needed a nap so we set her on a blanket on the grass and she fell asleep, she looked so cute just laying there all snug.

She has a fun laugh that she does all the time, it is short and quick. I got these pictures while she was in the process of doing her laugh.

And I got another one of her smiling, she is getting so big and can sit if she is propped up to something.

My mom got this swing for a really good deal at a garage sale and cleaned it up and washed it and so we tried it out when we were over. She seems to like it.

I will post pictures of our first attempt with cereal tonight.

Important Ingredient!

I LOVE Baking Powder Biscuits, so while my sister has been here, she has been making dinner about twice a week. For one of her dinners I decided to make some biscuits. I did not promise anything since I don't make them very often. I got them mixed and cut out and put on the baking sheet and then I went and fed Julie while Kerri make the rest of the meal. She popped them in the oven and when they came out, they looked like they did going in. Just flat and hard. They tasted like biscuits, they were just dry and did not rise at all. So, I was trying to think of what I had done wrong. I figured I needed to add more milk next time. Then, I looked over the recipe to see if I had missed anything, yeah, the most IMPORTANT ingredient, Baking Powder. Hence the name, so I attempted to make them again a couple nights later and I remember the baking powder this time. Yeah, success, they were Heavenly!

And one of the best ways to eat them a day later is with a piece of melted cheese in the middle.

Baking Powder Biscuits
2 cups flour
2 heaping teaspoons oat flour(just oats blended)
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
Mix well then add:
1/3 cup butter
Mix until crumbly:
3/4 cup milk
(I just add milk a little at a time until it is just slightly sticky)
Roll out on lightly floured surface about a 1/2 inch thick.
Bake at 450 for 10 minutes

So gooyummy!
(In the words of my sister this means, "It's as if you were going to say it's so good but good just wasn't good enough so you decided to say yummy instead.") Thanks Kerri, now we are all educated in the ways of delicious food! ;)

4 Months!

We have made it to 4 months, seems like it has been much longer than that! We don't know her official measurements yet until next week at her doctor visit, but we have an estimate! She is such a joy to our lives. She is really starting to get fun, she is very talkative.

Instead of crying when she wakes up, since discovering her voice, she now just talks to herself. I will hear her and then go in quietly and peak over the side and say "Hi" and she will give me the biggest grin and high pitched laugh. It just melts my heart. She is a pretty mellow kid, sometimes you really have to try hard to get her to smile. She will give others a lot of this look.

She does this more around others, and I get plenty of smiles like this at home.

She is now wearing he 6-9 month clothes, so I washed all her 6-12 month clothes that have been hanging in her closet and took all the tags off. She is just getting so big, way to fast.
I will post her stats next week.

She is so much fun to hold, I usually will put her down in her crib or swing when she is sleeping, but occasionally I will just hold her. I love holding sleeping babies, and she just looked so comfy that I could not move her, so we had some snuggle time before bed.

Grabbing

Julie has started to reach out and grab things other than her dolly. She has been doing this for about a week or more now. Her grip is getting strong to so that she doesn't drop things after she gets them in her hands.

Just talking away in the bumbo, as she is looking around. Her legs are so chunky that they get stuck when I am lifting her out.

I just love this cute little round face, and her cute round eyes, she is just too fun.

Julie has found her VOICE!

It is the cutest thing ever, Julie has found her voice and I just love it. She just talks away all the time. She has been doing this for the past two days, whenever she is awake you can expect some noise out of her mouth. She really gets going right before bedtime when I am changing her diaper. She will laugh and talk and squeal, last night she got my ears good with a good squeal. It is so fun to hear. She also talks when she is upset, she doesn't cry a lot unless she is really upset and hungry, but she has an upset talk that is so cute and sad at the same time.

She is mesmerized by the TV, in the pictures below we went downstairs to watch a movie with my sisters, I set Julie on the floor and she was glued to the TV screen. You can also see that she is drooling a LOT, and my sister caught this drool on camera.

During our movie night, Rob came home from Nebraska after 3 days and I was so glad to see him, as was Julie. He missed us to! We are glad that he is home.

Julie loves her hands, now instead of just licking them to pieces, she will hold them in front of her face and move them around while studying them intently. So fun to watch.

And her legs are super strong and can now hold her up in a standing position. She loves to stand whenever she can. I will take her into the bathroom after changing her to look at herself in the mirror, and she just looks so big and grown up. She loves to laugh at the girl in the mirror.

And, I am happy to report that her hair is growing back, already. I thought it would be a couple months before anything would grow back, but it is filling in already.

Happy Mothers Day! (late)

I just wanted to quickly say that I have the greatest mother and mother in law. Just wanted to wish them a Happy Mothers Day, and thank them for EVERYTHING they do for us. What would we do without our Mothers.

It was also fun to celebrate Mothers Day as a new mom myself, it still is a little strange to think that I am a Mom, but I love it. No picture of me here, I need to get Rob used to picking up the camera so I can be in some pictures as well.
For Mothers Day, Rob is taking me to Chili's, we have not gone yet, Rob has been on a business trip to Omaha, Nebraska and came back last night, so maybe we will go on Friday.
Also, my brother Jason went to Salt Lake over weekend and he bought me a calla lily, I love calla lilies. Thank you Jason.

Standing

The last couple days, Julie likes to stand. Her legs are now strong enough to hold her up for quite some time. With this, she looks a lot older. From our measurements, she is a little over 26 inches long, and weighs. . . 16lbs, holey moley!
Her cousins were over this past weekend and we stood Julie up next to Allie who is 1, and Julie is getting near Allie's height. It was crazy to see how big Julie is getting.

I have been waiting for her to fit into this dress, and yesterday was the day. She looked so cute in her pink polka dot tights with her pink shirt and pink headband. These pictures are awful, late at night and the flash, but she looked so cute.

Her schedule has changed: She wakes up at 6:00a.m. and I will feed her and change her diaper and then we go in and wake up Daddy. They play together and then around 7:00a.m. Daddy gets up and ready for work and Julie will go down and sleep usually until 10:00-10:30, then I will feed her at 11:00, change her diaper and get her dressed for the day. And then we will go for a walk with my mom and when we get back from our walk Julie is tired and ready for a nap. She will then sleep for 2 hours, and I will feed her again at 3:00p.m., after changing her diaper we just play and have fun together and she goes down again about an hour and a half after she wakes up. I just watch for her to rub her eyes. She will either get held by Robert or get put in her swing or crib and take another nap while dinner is cooking. I will feed her again at 7:00 and then after her diaper change, we play and she usually gets held and rocked to sleep( since she is usually a little fussy around now), and we either watch a movie or just relax. So, I only feed her 5 times a day. She will generally take around 4-6oz. of milk at each feeding.
And I am sure lucky I don't have a spitter upper. She will give you a few burps after she eats and that's it. There was a time though that she would projectile throw up, and we got that figured out. She was getting too much milk. She only did that about 3 times. We are super lucky, she eats well, she sleeps well, she is just a good little gal.
Sundays are just so tiring sometimes. Rob and Julie took a nap together before church, Rob was getting over a cold so he was a little extra drowsy anyways and Julie decided she would take a nap with him. On Sundays I don't get Julie dressed until just before church at 1:00p.m. so that if she has a blow out she doesn't get her dress dirty. So you can see her chunkster legs, she is starting to get a few rolls on those legs of hers. And everyone told us we would have a skinny baby, definitely not, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

The End of Work

My first day back to work was May 3, and my last day was May 5. Three whole days, and they were very tiring days. I was getting up earlier and my days were just crazy going from work to home, feed Julie, get her dressed and take her to my moms, go back to work, come home and pump and then feed Julie, get something quick to eat and then head back to work and then come home after work and feed Julie and pack everything up from my moms and bring her home. What a crazy day, and I was just so tired. So, I went in Wednesday and quit. My supervisor called me on the bus and informed me that I needed to turn in a letter of resignation and that I needed to give them a two week notice. I was bummed, and emotional anyways. I didn't know I needed to do that. To not go into detail, he was understanding and since the sub that was taking over my when I left was able to come back and do it again, he let the two week notice go and told me to get my letter of resignation in tomorrow, and he also told me to go home and enjoy my baby. Which I gladly will, I took my letter of resignation in today. So, I now have another full time job: MOM! I am loving this job already!

Now for some pictures!
Julie has really got the hang of grabbing and holding onto her toys, especially her little dolly. She will grab her and eat her up and give her lots of loves, while jabbering away.
She also still really loves her fingers, and constantly has them up by her mouth.

My sister was on the floor with the computer and Julie was having tummy time next to her.
We scooted Julie up next to Kerri.

Julie lifts her head up the best while laying on Daddy's chest.