Watch Elli Grow!
June 1st-June30th
Weight: 14lbs 3oz
Sleeping Patterns: (These times vary :)) Napping 9-11am and 1-3pm and sometimes a late nap 5-6:30ish. Mostly just waking up once at night. We have really been working on this. It's just so hard when Matt works at night! The end of June got hard again...Praying for a break through and that I can be consistent with her whether Daddy's here to help or not!
Eating Habits: Same as last month--> She nurses 4-5 times a day and eats food with us breakfast, lunch, and dinner!
New Foods: Sweet potatoes, chicken, mango, zucchini. It was tricky to introduce foods with all the traveling during May, June, and July. I feel kind of bad about that because she can really be eating a TON of different things now! It is just taking time to introduce them and make sure she doesn't react or anything. But worse things could have happened! We are so thankful for the time we have been blessed to have with family and friends.
New discoveries: People's mouths, especially Mommy and Daddy's. She loves to feel all around. Future dentist?! Haha... Tons of scooting, rolling, moving in any way she can!
New accomplishments: Reaching for people (6/5), mimicking/repeating back sounds, making more sounds "baba" and others, clapping and waving (6/17-Father's Day). Aunt B taught her how to wave! Army crawl (6/25).
Nickname: I thought there were some but I can't remember!! Forgot to write them down!
Jordan you were right, things really get busy when they start moving so much!
PICTURES!
I decided to really try to narrow down the pictures for this blog. There are still a lot. Hopefully I'll get better at either blogging more frequently or not taking so many pictures! I get so bogged down in the millions of pictures of my child that I stop enjoying this documenting process and I put it off. That is why I'm still working on her 8th month blog when she is in her 10th month of life! Ahh... Plus how in the world would I keep this pace with future children?! Simplifying. Even the blog.
Trip to the Mountains: June 2nd-6th
We got to spend some fun times with our family and friends in Sylva, NC.
Our niece, Barbie, celebrated her golden birthday as she turned 4 on the 4th. We played with glow sticks, went gem mining, visited the Blue Ridge Parkway, played a ton of outdoor games, caught tadpoles, explored Dustin, Amy, and the girl's new house, played with Micah and Jordan (and all the Youmans ladies!), and so much more that I can't even remember!
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| Elli's first time on the Parkway... I think?! |
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| Eating at the Pisgah Inn |
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| Lots of love!! |
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| blessed |
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| best friends (invading Elli's baby blog post :)) |
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| A Few of Elli's Favorite Things: Outside & DaDa |
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| Grandparent JOY |
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| Pa was spinning Elli around in the parking lot....She LOVED it! |
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| Hanging out on the porch |
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| Playing with her cousins |
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| Great Aunt Martha |
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| Great Grandma Bishop |
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| Aunt Amy |
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| Great Pa Bishop |
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| Family Time |
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| Great Grandparents! |
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| Nana with all her girls (minus Michelle, who was still in Savannah with the Girl Scouts) |
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| Michelle, Uncle Dustin, Elli, Aileen |
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| Elli helping fix Uncle Dustin's hair |
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| Elli was not to sure about sitting next to Austin |
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| I love her smile! |
Visit with the Parsons/Youmans
One of my life long friends, Jordan, had a baby boy last August 10th. Matt and I got to meet him when he was just a few days old, Elli met him around Christmas time, and then we had to wait almost 6 months to see them again! It was a fun reunion! They are both so active now! Especially Micah because Elli wasn't crawling at the time! Looking forward to many more "get togethers" in the future! Only wish we lived closer! We love you Parsons and Youmans so much!
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| Micah and Elli sharing |
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| Look at those cute faces! |
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| Micah is such a sweet boy! So full of life! I wish we could be around him more! |
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For some more pictures check out Jordan's wonderful blog:
Celebrating Father's Day
We did a lot of little things to celebrate Matthew first year of fathering his child beyond the womb. I didn't call it his "first father's day" because I was pregnant over Father's Day in 2012. And Matthew was every bit of a Dad then. He made sure I ate well & exercised, he prayed over & read the Bible to his baby almost every single night, and he worked hard to provide for our needs. Matthew continues to be this kind of man and father. I am so blessed that he is/will be the Daddy to our children. He is a picture of the Heavenly Father to Elli and me. He provides diligently, leads faithfully, serves sacrificially, and loves unconditionally. While he is not perfect like our God, he is humble and quick to repent. Setting an example for us to follow. What a gift this man is to me and his child(ren)!
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| Goodberry's (Elli is sleeping) |
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| Sweet Frog (after Red Bowl) |
I guess by "lots of things to celebrate father's day" I meant ate dessert as many times as possible! I thought we had more pictures of other things... haha
Trip to the Bluegrass State: KY
June 14th-19th
We went to Kentucky to spread my Mamaw and Papaw's ashes. We laid Mamaw to rest at the farm where she grew up and Papaw at the Lowry cemetery at Asbury University. We had to beautiful, small ceremonies. I hope to make a blog soon. It was a wonderful time with family (we missed Matthew/Dada of course). I am so grateful Elli and I were able to tagalong with Dad, Mom, and Bethany for the trip. We enjoyed time with Uncle Josh too. Elli got to meet so many family members! Including all of her great Aunts and Uncles on my mom's side! Lots of cousins and great, great Aunts and Uncles! Here are some pictures!
(I couldn't get all of my pictures to load of the family members! Sorry if I left you out! I really tried to get them to work!)
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| Oh before we get to the important people here is one of my other favorite things about going to KY... I love this soda so much! haha... this is outside of Wal-Mart :) |
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| Elli and GAL (Great Aunt Leesa) |
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| Ell and GUN (Great Uncle Neal!) |
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| From left to right: Me, Elli, Aunt Bethany, Great Great Aunt Mary Jane (Mamaw's sister), Grammi, & Great Aunt Leesa |
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| GUN & GAL with Elli |
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| Great Great Uncle Will & Aunt Mary Jane |
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| Great Great Uncle Charles and Carlene |
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| (2nd) Cousin Sarah |
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| Great Uncle Lloyd (Grammi's brother) |
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| Great Aunt Jan (Uncle Lloyd's beautiful wife!) |
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| (2nd) Cousins Sarah and Mark (2 of Great Uncle Dale's 4 amazing children) |
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| (2nd) Cousin Rachel (Great Uncle Dale's youngest) |
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| Elli with Great Great Uncle Will (Great Great Aunt Mary Jane's husband) |
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| Great Great Aunt Mary Jane |
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| She played so hard... |
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| Cornhole! |
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| My little KY baby! Her Great Mamaw and Great Papaw would be mighty proud! Oh how I wish they could have met! |
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| at the farm |
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| Sleeping on Great Great Uncle Charles' bed! |
These are pictures from the journey... on the train to Charlotte, in the car, and back home to Raleigh!
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| Talking to Dada and eating toes... |
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| on the train |
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| Looking out the window |
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| her own seat on the train |
About five minutes after I took this picture we were in a car accident... you can read some about that
here... We were planning on staying in our Toyota Matrix for a couple more years/kids but since we were at the place where we needed a new vehicle now (since the Matrix was totaled) so we decided to see if we could squeeze a mini van into our budget, with some help from some very gracious/generous family members we made it happen.
Now we are in debt for the first time ever, which neither of us are too fond of, but hopefully we can pay it off quickly!
All that to say... we are ready to fill this van up... :) And we are working on it!!!
See a future post for the fleshing out of that thought!
Spoiler alert: it's probably not what you think it
Oh yes back to our sweet 8th month old... I'm not sure how I did on "cutting back" on the pictures! There are so many more but I need to catch up on these blogs in a serious way! So moving on to the 9 month blog and the blog referred to above :)
