Some fun videos

Now that we are unpacked and have the internet up, here are some videos that we've taken over the past couple weeks:

Daddy/Daughter time jammin' out to the Dave Matthews Band:



Lila's First taste of Bananas:



Lila playing in her pink GT walker:

Five Months Old

3 posts in one day!!! I've had so much to share on this blog but had no time to do it until today thanks to all of our boxes (except about 5 with some random things I can do without for a few more days in them) being unpacked!

My little baby girl is five months old today. I don't know why five months feels so much older to me than the rest of her milestones, but for some reason it just does! She has changed so much in the last month and is able to do so many new things!

She weighs a little over 14 1/2 pounds and is 25 inches long. She is eating rice cereal mixed with some sort of fruit (bananas, apples, or pears) once a day in addition to the 5-7 ounces of breastmilk every 2 1/2-3 hours. She loves to hold the bottle or spoon when feeding her, which makes for a VERY messy solid food feeding because instead of grabbing the handle everytime, she usually is able to get a hold of the spoon and gets food all over her hands, and then whatever else she touches-which makes her dog Chevy very happy!

She is sleeping through the night on most nights (anywhere between 6 1/2- 9 1/2 hours at a time). However, she still wakes up on occasion after 4 or 5 hours, which we're still working on letting her cry it out at these times so she can put herself back to sleep (even though this doesn't always help...).

Her personality is starting to shine through, and she loves to laugh and smile. She belly laughs when people sneeze which is really funny! She also loves to be called a "big girl" and gives us the biggest grin when we do. She loves the water: the pool, the ocean, and her baths.

She loves her pink car walker, and walks all over the place while playing the music and honking the horn. I'm so glad our new house is mostly tile and hardwoods so she can roam free! She also loves to roll. We have to strap her down so tight in her swing and bouncy seat because she wants to roll right out of them. Also, no more sitting her in her boppy pillow on the couch! She rolls all around on the couch. We even tried surrounding her with tons of pillows, but she breaks free! She is definitely mobile, and we have to always watch her so carefully!!

She is starting to be able to sit up by herself for longer periods of time. She loves to feel things and is always trying to feel the floors or the couch or whatever she is sitting on as well as clothes, blankets, mirrors, and pictures. She also loves her feet! She entertains herself for at least 30 minutes at a time while she plays with them and puts them in her mouth (so gross and so cute at the same time!).

She still loves to grab at objects, but she is able to make contact with them everytime now. She loves to pull on her animals in her playyard as well as the bugs that hang from her infant seat. She is also able to pull the tabs on her animals in her bouncy seat to make them play, and loves to hear the music over...and over...and over!

We are still having the time of our lives with our little angel and I thank God for such an amazing blessing!!!

Lila's New Nursery

Here are some pictures of Lila's nursery in the new house. I'm still waiting on a chandelier that I ordered from Pottery Barn Kids to complete her room:

Her side of the Jack-and-Jill bathroom

Crib and changing table

Top of her bookshelf

Side of her room by the door

Close up of the table by the door

Her packed closet

The shelves above the glider

We're Home!!!

I feel like it's been forever since my last post! Since then we've had quite a few eventful and busy days! We packed up the car from the Destin condo early Wednesday morning and headed out on our 10-hour car ride to League City, Texas. Josh had Chevy in the car with him while my mom drove Lila and me in my car. Surprisingly, we only had to stop four times, one being solely because Lila had a diaper that desperately needed to be changed! I thought that we would have to stop more often to use the restroom and to eat...I mean, 10 hours is a LoooooNG time! I really hate to be in a car for a long period of time, and I used to dread our 6-hour drive from Florida to Atlanta, but this drive wasn't so bad. I think the fact that I knew I only had to do it once helped a bit. We drove over 500 miles on I-10 alone which was pretty neat because we got to see a ton of little bayous in Lousianna. I-10 was mainly bridges the whole way through Lousianna which my mom and I were discussing must have cost a fortune!

We got to the hotel at around seven o' clock and met my dad who had flown from Atlanta to meet us for the house closing. Of course we had to eat some Tex-Mex for dinner! I definitely have to join a gym asap because of all these delicious restaurants around here! We closed on the house Thursday morning, and later that afternoon, Robert (my mom's handy man/mover) brought over a truck full of some furniture from my parent's house that we are using in our house as well as my First Grade teacher supplies and materials. I know my mom was thrilled for me to finally have everything in my house rather than her garage. We were able to get two rooms set up before the moving truck with all of our other things showed up on Monday. We didn't have any moving to do Saturday and Sunday so we were able to enjoy the area with my dad before he had to fly back to Atlanta. We drove around Galveston Island, ate at Kemah Boardwalk, and showed my dad all of the ball fields around town (he puts family-centered shopping centers near ball fields).

The movers came with all of our things from the Florida house on Monday, and everything was unloaded from the truck within a couple of hours before the rain started. The next three days were an unpacking blur! Finally, today, five days later, we are somewhat settled in! There are just a few things left to organize in the nursery and playroom (I'm waiting on a chandelier for the nursery for it to be complete), Josh has to install three of our tvs, we have to take five huge boxes to Goodwill, Christmas boxes need to be put in the attic, and there are about 5 more boxes of random things to unpack in the garage. I'm so ready to be DONE with everything, but as my mom says, "moving is a marathon, not a sprint." Wise words!

Here are a few pics of rooms that are mostly finished:

Breakfast room

 

The study

 

The Playroom

 

Guest bedroom

Last Day in Florida!

We are officially residents of Texas as of tomorrow! We will be leaving bright and early tomorrow morning to make the 9-hour drive to League City, Texas with Josh and Chevy in one car and my mom, Lila, and myself in the other. I'm so thankful that my mom was able to come down here to ride with me so that we didn't have to stop and feed Lila every two hours! One of us will sit in the back with her and feed her bottles when she acts hungry (which is quite often!) while the other drives. We close on our house on Thursday morning and the movers aren't bringing our things to us until next Monday, so we will all be staying at the Hilton in Clear Lake/Houston area until then. It's right on the bay and is really nice, so I'm excited for the next couple days. My dad is already planning to rent jet skis if the weather is nice. 

We went to our house today one last time before heading out to Texas. My mom took pictures of us in front of our house so that we can show Lila where her first house was and what it looked like. We all said goodbye to our poor little house and will really miss it!

See you next time in Texas!!!

Entrance to our old neighborhood

Our empty living room

We saw a beautiful rainbow as we were driving back to the beach condo from our house on the Mid Bay Bridge. It was as if God was wishing us well on our new adventure to Texas. It was a perfect way to end our last drive over the bridge and our last visit to our house!

Trust in the Lord and do good; so you will live in the land, and enjoy security. Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him. (Psalm 37:3-5, 7a)

Father's Day

We spent Father's Day on the beach here in Destin, Florida. This morning, Josh and I went to breakfast at a cafe down the street from the condo while Mamu watched Lila. It was so nice to walk to the cafe and eat outside near the beach. The weather has been so gorgeous here the past week, minus the 95+ degree heat, but it felt wonderful on the beach! Once we got back, we got Lila ready for the beach and headed down to spend the afternoon in the sand and ocean. Lila went swimming in the ocean for a long time, napped under the umbrella, and swam again in the pool before going in for a nap. Josh and I got ready and went to dinner at Bonefish while Mamu babysat for us again. It was our first date that we've gone on since Lila was born! It was so nice to eat a nice dinner, drink some wine, and just talk to one another without being interrupted by our (precious) baby. In the middle of dinner, we heard a baby that sounded very similair to Lila behind us. We asked the mom how old he was, and she said 4 1/2 months (just like Lila). Seeing another baby made us miss our sweet baby, but we weren't gone for long. I hope that Josh had a wonderful first Father's Day! Happy Father's Day to all of the other daddy's, especially my dad and my grandfather, Pop!

Me with my sweet daddy

Empty House

The movers were finished loading up their truck on Wednesday, and I hadn't been back to the house since then until today. Josh got over to the house early this morning to vacuum, clean the counters, and go through the liquids that the movers left, all while I got to sleep in with Lila (husband-of-the-year award, I think so!). I went over to the house after we woke up to help him sort through the remaining liquids to see what to toss and take. The house looks so empty!...and sad! I'm not even going to include a picture because it will just make me more sad. Don't get me wrong, I'm really excited to move into our new house! It's just that we've made so many memories in this house. I have to get used to leaving behind houses, because we will be doing that many times throughout Josh's career, but this one was our FIRST! That makes it extra special! We leave for Texas next Wednesday!!! I can't believe our house closing is less than a week away! Until then, this is the view from my bedroom:

4-Month Well-Baby Check-Up and Moving

On our way to Texas we stopped by the pediatrician for Lila's four-month check-up (her last one with Dr. Keefe). She weighs 13 pounds and 2 ounces and is 24 1/4 inches tall. That moved her up to the 50th percentile for weight and she stayed in the 50th for her height. I can't believe my baby is dead average. What a perfect text-book baby :-) !!!

Some new things that she started in the past few weeks is rolling over from her back to her tummy. It's so funny to watch her as she arches her back waaaay over and then gets her hands under her body as she pushes and kicks herself over. One day she even rolled twice in a row, back to front then front to back. It was so cute to see her rolling across the floor. It makes her so happy to finally be able to accomplish this; she is so determined in everything that she tries to do!

After the check-up, we drove to the Pensacola airport to catch a ride to Texas to do our walk-thru of the new house with our builder. The walk-thru went great, and we have a tentative close date of June 24th. I'm so excited to move into this house. It is in such a neat area of Texas with so much to do close by. We drove around Galveston Island while we were visiting and ate at a neat restaurant right on the beach. The beaches aren't as bad as everyone warned us about either! The water looks more like the Atlantic rather than the emerald water of Destin, but it's not bad. The sand is a little more brown than Destin, but again, not bad! The Coast Guard has some pretty great areas to choose from, so I'm glad that Josh decided on this profession (minus the whole moving us around so often-but it will make for many memories)!

The movers are here today and tomorrow to pack up our house, and they come to load up all of our things to the truck on Wednedsay. I really can't believe that 2 years has already come and gone, and that we will no longer be living in this house! It's so surreal! We spent our last night in the house by doing what we did best in our house, getting a nice bottle of wine and watching a couple shows on DVR. It was perfect! Now, off to my parent's beach condo in Destin for a week and a half while we wait for the closing date of the 24th!!!

Lila's excited to get to the new house and her new PINK nursery!

Fun in the Bath Tub

Lila loves to try to lick the water when we dump it on her head and her body while bathing her. That little tongue is just too cute!

Memorial Day

Josh had to work this past weekend, plus it was raining and stormy most of the weekend, so Lila and I didn't really do much but nap (she napped, I wasn't so fortunate, however). But, Josh got home early Monday morning and picked up breakfast for the both of us on his way home. It was such a nice surprise as I didn't expect him home for another couple of hours! It stormed Monday morning, so we ran some errands, and ate our free spicy chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-A (which was amazing) while we waited for the storm to blow over. Once it cleared up, we packed up and went for a swim at the neighborhood pool. After two years of living in our neighborhood, Josh had never gone to the pool there! We had so much fun swimming with Lila. She is such a little water bug, and loved every minute of swimming in her lounge that her Grammy gave her. After a swimming for a while, she was worn out and took a long nap while we laid out in the sun. It felt so great to get a tan again! Next weekend my girlfriends come visit to go to the beach!

Video of Josh and Lila swimming in the pool. She was enjoying the water and laughing her cute little laugh!