Red, White, and Blue

We had a wonderful holiday weekend. A ran the Firecracker 5K in City Park on Saturday morning and Charla and I enjoyed cheering him on. My parents arrived for the weekend around lunchtime. You can bet Charla spent the weekend being held and loved on!! We stayed around home all day and grilled out hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner. That night we drove to a hill a couple of miles away from City Park and watched the fireworks from there. We woke Charla up for the outing so she was in her jammies. We're not sure if she actually saw the fireworks but she liked looking in their general direction!

Yesterday we stopped for donuts on our way to church. After church Charla took a nap so we went out for a`late lunch once she got up. My parents left for home late in the afternoon and we just hung out at home, enjoying the rest of the weekend.

We are so proud to live in the USA and are grateful to all the soldiers who have fought to make it such a great country!

Three Months Old

Charla is three months old!!

Charla, here's what you are up to at three months...

You weigh 9 pounds, 11 ounces - our growing girl!

You sleep through the night (an 8 hour stretch). Sometimes you are "screamy" in the early morning - anywhere between 4:00 and 5:30am. Other nights you sleep straight until 6:30 or 7:00am. No matter when you wake up, you always want to take another little nap after you've had your breakfast.

We think you are getting close to rolling over. You kick your legs into the air and then roll onto your left side, which is as far as you get right now.

You grab onto things so well! You can reach out for the rings on your activity gym and I found you holding the rings on your Spidey toy the other day. You love that Spidey guy!


You smile at anyone who smiles at you. Daddy and I get the biggest and best smiles, but you sure know how to charm others with your smiles too. Everyone says you smile with your eyes.

Your hair is getting a little longer and lots of people comment that it looks a little red. Except of course for the bald spot you've rubbed on the back of your head. :)

You are such a good baby! Your grandparents think you are so wonderful and well behaved when we go out with you - and you are!

You are still very, very active. Your arms are moving and your legs are kicking almost anytime you are awake.

You love when we read books. We have a bedtime story every night and I've recently begun reading to you more throughout the day. You like to look at the pictures in the books and listen to Mommy and Daddy read the story.

We're not sure how we feel about this, but you LOVE TV. If the TV is on you are captivated by it. We have to hang a blanket on your activity gym or point your bouncy seat away from it so that you look at other things! Even at church you love to watch the big screens.

We can't wait to see what this next month brings! We love you little girl!

Coming soon to a blog near you...

She'll be writing her own blog before we know it!

Two month recap

First trip to a restaurant - Red Robin

Four generations

First Mother's Day
Me and my girl

Ready for summer!

After her 2 month checkup and shots
8 lbs, 9 oz
22 inches

Hanging out during tummy time

What happens when Daddy dresses the baby

We have been busy the last couple of months!! As expected, there have been lots of firsts for Charla and for us as a family. Charla is such a sweet baby and a total joy 95% percent of the time (let's be honest - we all have our moments). In the first few weeks of her life I thought I'd never be able to leave the house and do "normal" things again. Instead I've developed a new normal and have found that I'm still able to do many of the things I did before I was a mom, they just may look a little different. We try to get out most days of the week and Charla is a great little shopping companion. She enjoys looking around the grocery store, Target, and Walmart and usually ends up falling asleep while we're shopping - which is great since it affords me a little more time to browse if I feel like it. In the past couple of weeks we've taken several day trips away from home and she has done amazingly well.

We are excited that summer is here and are looking forward to lots of evening walks, picnics and barbecues, and hopefully our first weekend away as a family. Happy Summer everyone!!

Easter photos

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend. Saturday afternoon was pretty nice here so we took Charla on her first walk. Is is silly to take three pictures just to commemorate the event?




She had three Easter outfits so I had to get a photo of her in each one (there are only two below - the third is her Easter dress from yesterday's post). Grandma bought her this "Baby's 1st Easter" outfit before she was born. I love it paired up with her green ruffled pants. Her face cracks me up in this one...I think she's excited about her Easter goodies!


I found this little Easter ensemble at Target a couple of weeks ago and thought it'd be too cute on her. Our little Easter bunny...


Here's the back...


And her true thoughts about the outfit and our photo shoot...

Easter dress

Happy Easter!!

Here is Charla with her Easter basket and lamb. She's really looking forward to enjoying that candy. The Easter bunny knew to bring Mommy and Daddy's favorites instead... :)

The dress I bought for Charla before she was born is a 3-6 month size - to say that she swims in it is a severe understatement. So she's wearing this Classic Pooh dress that I bought off of ebay as her Easter dress instead. She'll just have to grow a bit and wear her other dress this summer.

We are off to church this morning and then will have Easter dinner with A's family tonight. We got up earlier than usual to be ready and on time for church so an afternoon nap is definitely in order.

Easter Blessings to you...

"He is not here; he has risen!" Luke 24:6

Baby Days

We are doing good - still adjusting to life as a family of three! Charla is gaining weight right on schedule and was up to 6 pounds, 7 ounces this past Tuesday. She sleeps pretty well at night - we get up every three hours or so. Every now and again she pulls a four hour shift and we are thrilled when that happens. Hopefully those will be occurring more and more often before much longer. :)

We are enjoying getting to know her and discovering a little bit more about her personality each day. She is a lot of work but keeps us laughing and smiling every day!

Here are some photos from the last two weeks:

Sleeping on Grandma