Girly Girl

Love this! Juliet got two purses from Aint Leigh today...oh the fun!! She is taking them all over the house. When she sits in your lap, the purses come too. And when it was time for bed, she cried because the purses were put away.

We Have A Walker!

Miss Juliet finally decided to walk and she decided on her birthday! From reading Juliet's "signs of readiness to walk," we thought we would have a "toddler" by Thanksgiving...nope. Then we thought for sure, Christmas, nope. She did began to step out more a few days after Christmas at CeCe and Pops. I have some video of that. And I have some video of her making the decision to become a full time walker and I have some footage from today. Juliet was content walking with a finger. At first our backs were killing us, but between Thanksgiving and Christmas she grew taller, so it wasn't as bad. She wasn't using our finger for anything, but she wasn't confident of her skills yet. At Christmas she would get quite upset if she wanted to walk, but you didn't. Thankfully Granddaddy was there to offer a finger when ever she wanted it. The day before her birthday she tried walking a few steps, but on Tuesday January 5th, she took the plunge! At church the next day we walked from one side of the church to the other looking for Daddy. Once we got to the fellowship hall, she started yelling, "Da-Da, Da-Da !" To cute and a first. By Saturday (the day of her party) she was squatting to pick up toys without falling over! Really I can't say it enough, babies are amazing!!

Pictures of Juliet's Birthday Party

Our Precious Little ONE

Happy first Birthday, sweet Juliet!


I cannot believe today was the day you were born! What an exciting day it was! So much anticipation. You were supposed to be here December 28th and then the doctor thought you might come early. Ah, the waiting! I was worried what it would be like going from just the two of us, to three. When you arrived, a peace and calm came over me. You were a natural addition to our family. We "clicked" immediately!

Your Daddy and I have thoroughly enjoyed you. You have brought us so much joy! And you are such a good girl! From your very first days, you were a good baby. You only cried when you were wet or hungry. You certainly did not like a wet diaper. In this first year, we have only had 2 all nighters! How fortunate we were!

Not only do you bring your Daddy and I joy, but all those around you. Especially your grandparents and aunts! I still can't believe how ga-ga your grandparents are over you! You will have such a special relationship with them all your life. Grandparents are a treasure! You are often complemented on how beautiful you are. Your bright blue eyes and your sweet blond hair. Of course we think you are perfect.

I treasure our time when I'm nursing you. I love our alone time and the fact that I am the only one you need! I love studying you then. Your feet are my favorite. I cannot count the number of times I have kissed your precious toes. They are even a little stinky, but I love that stink!! Your stinky feet you get from your Daddy! But pretty much, everything is your Daddy's! Your mouth, your long torso, your legs, your toes, narrow feet, cubby fingers, your eyes. Most everyone thinks you look just like him! You have do have my nose though. You might have my chin, the jury is still out on that one. You are so beautiful and God created you perfectly!

Now as we are entering your toddler years, we are excited about your developments. Will you have a little raspy, low voice when you talk? Will you be more reserved like your Mama or mischievous like your Daddy? Right now is seems as though you aren't really a risk taker, but sometimes I see a mischievous gleam in your eye! Will your hair be curly? I have envisioned your hair as cute little blond bob with a huge bow, but last night after your bath and your hair brushed, a curl popped up on the back of your head! Will you be a Daddy's girl, wanting to help outside? Will your love of music continue? Will you sing well? So many questions! And we look forward to finding the answers.

The most important thing is that your Daddy and I teach you to love the Lord. We pray for that every night. The best way for us to teach you is through our example and we are working hard to be a good example! You love Bible class already and you love to sing about God. We pray that will always be the case!

Happy Birthday to our little girl! We love you so,

Mommy

Our one year old on this cold, cold day:

Juliet's First Thanksgiving

Juliet spent her first Thanksgiving with CeCe and Pops in Tupelo. We had a great time! Juliet and I spent lots of time with CeCe, while Justin and Pops trimmed and cut down trees. Juliet was actually sick while we were there...her first time for a major runny nose, congestion and quite fussy. She was so stuffed up that she wouldn't even nurse! Fortunatly I take a pump every time we go out-of-town, so she did take a bottle. CeCe was a big help (even though she has a cast on) and encouraged me through the rough spots with Juliet. Now I know that she didn't have a cold, but she was cutting her eye teeth...ouch. Despite Juliet's fussiness, we still had a great time. Grandparents are impervious to fussy babies...at least both sets of Juliet's grandparents are! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal and were joined by good friends of CeCe and Pops. We had good food and fellowship!

This year we are so thankful for family. Our new family. Our parents who love our little one so much. And the knowledge of how much our parents love us!

Love this picture! Daddy's little girl!

The tallest tree pictured is the one of the trees Justin and Pops felled! It is the biggest tree Justin has felled; it was at least 75-80 feet tall. By-the-way, this is Justin's new hobby...yikes.

Hanging with the Laney's

It had been since May since we had seen the Laney's. Juliet wasn't sitting up on her own yet and Drew was just taking his first steps. So since we were in Mississippi for Thanksgiving, we went a few days early to spend some quality time with our best friends! We made cookies, played cards, talked until 3:15 in the morning, ate, and played with our children. It was perfect!! Every time we get together we plan how we can be next door neighbors! We miss them so.

We tried a little photo session with Drew and Juliet. Drew is SUCH a great picture taker, Juliet on the other hand, struggles a bit in that area. Juliet is not into sitting still for a photo. We did get some cute ones with them on the train. It was surreal. Taking pictures of our children together. I am so excited about our growing families and look forward to our get-togethers in the future. They are only going to get better and better! Thank you for having us, we LOVED it. And Drew, Juliet appreciates you sharing your toys; you did such a good job! We love you Audra, Andrew and Drew!!!!!!!!

10 Months

Before she reaches 11 months tomorrow, I better post this! Well, this was supposed to go up yesterday...

Juliet is so much fun! Especially for her Daddy! She likes going to him now and gets so excited when he comes in the door. Who wouldn't like that? She is very social and really loves watching other kids.

Juliet is weighing more since solid foods began. She's eating bananas, peas, avocado, yogurt, whole grain cereal, carrots, sweet potato, plums. Almost every day I make a mixture of banana, avocado, yogurt and cereal. It's her favorite. She also likes drinking water from her sippy cup. She's started throwing it down when she's done. I guess the gravity game has begun! When she is full she'll either raise her hands to her mouth or she'll pooch out her lips and let you touch the spoon to her mouth, but she won't open up!

Sleeping has gotten better. We grew weary and one night we realized, hey, she doesn't want us to rock her! So we put her in the crib and she liked in for a few minutes and then that was it. I tried, Justin tired, I tired again and we let her play. Then when she was past tired I tired again with no luck. So...since both of us were frustrated, we decided to let her cry it out for 30 minutes. After 10 minutes of solid crying, she stopped. For the next 20 minutes she would let out a cry and stop. Finally she fell asleep and slept through the night! Since then she has been going down so easy! And most nights she is sleeping through the night (7:30pm-ish to 5:00am-ish). We'll get her pjs on, sometimes read and then kiss her night and lay her down with her blanket and passy, and she is ready to sleep! Yea!!

Juliet is playing more and more by herself. She is a quiet player and unlike me (according to mama and my sister) if I was quiet, I was up to no good. She is really good! There are a few things she cannot resist eating: shoes, magazines, paper, cell phones. Of course everything is still in the mouth, but not everything can go there! She still loves the touch and feel books and knows them by heart. Books are really her favorite toy.

She'll turn the pages over and over again.

 

She is still crawling and I talked about her "walking" in the previous posts. She likes walking so much that when you stop helping, she cries. One night she was so tired, but kept walking and walking with the push toy. Finally I tried to take her away and of course she started wailing! I stood her back up and she continued to walk, but couldn't stop crying. She was so tired!

This month her church behavior has changed. We have been so lucky that she has been sleeping through most of the service. She is usually out by the Lord's Supper. This month she is still making through services, but not asleep. Yikes! We still have not had to deposit her in the nursery. I'm sure this luck can't last forever!

This parenting thing is fun! We haven't reached the independence or tantrum stage yet though!;)

Y'all, Blogger is being SO difficult, sorry for the messy post. I don't have time to continue to waste! Also, sorry for the misspellings, I cannot find spell check anymore.