4 Months!

I finally managed to take some 4 month pictures of Karly (okay, so they're technically 4 1/2 months). Luckily, she didn't poop all over her cute outfit today.

Here's her monkey comparison picture. They're almost the same size! :)

I love how aware she has become of everything around her.

And how strong! "Get that monkey out of my face!" (Nacho Libre anyone?)

Gotta love the drool down the chin. Did I already mention she is so stinkin' cute?!?

She loves being naked and thinks it's hilarious when we say "you're naked!"

Karly loves chillin' with dad and watching TV (usually football)...

Sometimes in the most awkward positions... (oh, and she LOVES playing with her binky. NEVER does it just sit in her mouth. She's always pulling it out and playing with it and putting it back in.)

Also, just like her mommy, she likes to take her sweet time waking up in the morning

But like her daddy, once she's awake, she's happy! :)

And last of all, this video demonstrates two of her current loves: her Exersaucer toy and screaming...(yeah, that's mom's favorite to0...sigh)

"Rise and Shout - the Cougars are out!"

We got all sports passes this year and have been enjoying (and sometimes NOT enjoying...cough - FSU - cough) the football games! These last two games were really hot for the first half but PERFECT in the 2nd half.

Here are some pics to show just how much fun we're having! :)

(May I just say how much I love this picture?)

We got tickets with our friends Jake and Mekelle (and their baby Bridget) as well as Kim, Trav and Rachel.

She really is a happy baby. :)

See?

Well, at least one of us is happy to be taking pictures...

This picture is for the sole purpose of making my in-laws extremely jealous that Darin got to hold Karly bug. In the words of Nate - "oh, how the tables have turned!" :) (Dan and Kippy were giving Darin a hard time that they got to hold Bridget, so he had to rub it in when he was here).

Tour of apartment for mom

My mom asked to see pictures of our new apartment once we were in and settled. It still isn't as clean/organized as I'd like, but I'm not sure there is anything else I can do about it right now.

Also, since I had a couple of requests for the story of WHY we moved, I'll share a little of that too. Skip the next paragraph if you already know or don't care. :)

If you didn't already know, we were renting our last apartment from Nate's great-grandma. She gave us a terrific deal for rent if we would act as managers - mow the lawn, take care of any issues with the other apartments in the triplex. We were so grateful to be able to live there for pretty cheap. Once we had Karly though, there were a few things that started to be worrisome. For example, the windows are about 30 years old and let a lot of cold air in during the winter. It was fine when it was just Nate and I and we were at work all day and could just turn on a space heater at night. However, with Karly in the picture now, we didn't want either an outrageous heating bill or a freezing baby. :) Another reason was that the neighborhood wasn't all that safe OR quiet. It was on a pretty busy (and noisy road) and we had a lot of really noisy neighbors. Nate also wanted to be closer to campus and since he is so busy with school, he really didn't have time to manage the apartments anymore and it was getting more and more crazy to do so. So we decided to move! We really love where we are now. It's very quiet and while the apartment is much smaller, we think that's a plus not a minus! Less space to clean and it forced us to get rid of the junk we don't need. We like our new ward, but definitely miss our old ward and all our friends there!

ANYWAY...here's the tour mom!

Walk in the front door and turn to the left and the living room

It's a good sized area and we really like it

Dining room which is basically just part of

the kitchen! (fridge is across from the stove in an alcove)

down the hallway to the right is...

the bathroom (LOVE our shower curtain :D) And to the left is...

Our bedroom

We put curtains over the closet because there aren't doors. Straight down the hall and next to our room is...

Karly's room!

Also known as "the where everything that doesn't have a place goes here room!"

So there you have it!

She's a petite little one!

Karly had a rough day today.

1. Mommy got baby wash in her eyes during her bath.

2. Mommy bent her hand funny while trying to feed her.

3. She exploded her diaper and it dripped down her pants onto her super cute outfit mommy put her in to take pictures.

4. She wiggled so much in the bathtub (yes, the 2nd bath) that she slipped from mommy's hand a little and bonked her head.

5. She's teething.

6. She went to the doctor for her 4 month checkup and got prodded and poked and REALLY didn't like it.

7. At said doctor's visit, she got two shots.

So this is the only picture you get of her:

And her stats (for those who care):

Height: 24.4 inches -- 49%

Weight: 13 lb 6 oz -- 39%

Head: 16 in -- 49%

Her head finally caught up to her body! And she's no longer super tall - that's more like her parents.

And hopefully tomorrow is better.

(I'm really not a bad mommy - the day was probably worse for me than her because of all those things. Please don't call child protective services...)

Daddy's little nerd!

3 Months! ... a month ago...

I took pictures of Karly when she was 3 months and never had/took the time to post them. So here they are! I will be taking her 4 month pictures in the next couple of days.

She won't be wearing the strawberry outfit for her 4 month pictures...it doesn't fit anymore!

She has her 4 month check up next Tuesday, so we'll find out how much she's grown too!

Yeah...still working on sitting up on her own....

"Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans...."

*Ten points if you can tell me what song that is from....

I've been meaning to post for weeks, but the last couple of weeks have been a little crazy to say the least. In fact, I'm not even sure if all of my siblings know what's happened.

That's how crazy it's been.

You see, we moved.

Nate has 8 more months of school before we'll be leaving the Provo/Orem area for Denver. Why on earth did we move for 8 months? Yeah, we've wondered that a couple of times as we packed up everything and unpacked it again, realizing we'd be doing this again all too soon. (My mom requested pics of the new place, but it's still too messy for that! I'll post those when I get it cleaned up a little more) There were, honestly, a lot of reasons and if you want to hear them all, give me a call or shoot me an e-mail or something. This blog is for better things than long stories!

Like this girl:

She is a silly, sweet, even tempered, crazy girl! It's fun to see her little personality - like the fact that she won't smile at people right when she meets them. She'll just sort of look at them, study them and then if she thinks they're okay, then she'll smile. Or when she gets tired at night - around 8:00 - she gets really silly and will laugh at the weirdest things (like me saying "you're naked!" in a really high pitched voice). Or (her latest) talking in her sleep! (she is like her mama in some ways I guess!)

She's started rolling a little bit as well, though she doesn't do it consistently because her arm gets in the way of the roll and she can't figure out how to move it. :)

She actually seems to like rolling from her back to her tummy more.

She is VERY good with her hands too. For a couple of months, she's been able to reach for her little toys that hang above her and pull them to her mouth. Now she can grab her binky from my hand or the ground in front of her and put it in her mouth (sometimes it's the wrong side, but it's still there!).

Her head is getting bigger too. :) She's actually grown out of some of her clothes, which is SO weird! She can't be getting bigger!

Dream Job

You know how sometimes when you start a new job or are really busy/stressed with work you dream about it?

Well.

Last night I had a dream that I was trying to load the dishes from yesterday into the dishwasher, but they wouldn't all fit because it was already almost full. I was getting really frustrated because it had almost NO dishes in it when I went to bed. How did all those dishes get dirty! I was really frustrated.

The night before, I had a dream that we had basically no food in our house. I went grocery shopping last Saturday and had meals planned for every night and enough food for lunches as well. Where did all our food go?!!? Once again, I got really frustrated.

Ah, the life of a stay-at-home mom.

But, as the title of my post says, this really is my dream job.

That's why I dream about it.

Just TRY not to watch these more than once

This girl is so funny.

Karly has started give kisses. Now, these aren't your cute little pecks on the cheek. These are...well...see for yourself.

She also does this thing that we're not quite sure what to call it. We think maybe it's her way of laughing? (second 10 in the video clip) We're open to any other suggestions.

P.S. We e-mailed these videos to my in-laws and I think they've already watched them about 100 times. Right Dan and Kippy? :)

Guess who went to Floridaaa?!

Hah. I wish.

Nate has been gone since Wednesday for an Ernst and Young Conference in Orlando. They went to Disneyworld and have been mostly playing for three days.

I'll be honest, I'm a little jealous.

But it's fine, because I got my vacation last week! Karly and I drove - yes, DROVE - to North Dakota last week to spend a few days. We drove to Denver last Sunday, then rode with Kippy (Nate's mom) to Bismarck on Monday. It ended up being about 20 hours of driving. And Karly did GREAT! Clear up until we hit Mandan (which is 10 minutes from Bismarck), Karly didn't even complain. Then, I accidentally scratched her and she realized she couldn't handle it anymore. :) She didn't do quite as well on the way back, but let's see how you handle being in a car seat for 40 hours in one week!

Anyway, being the amazing picture taker I am, here are ALL the pictures I took while we were there....

Uhh...yeah. That's all I took.

I think my mom took a few. And she got a couple of cute videos too...I'll have to get those from her.

Anyway, I feel bad about the lack of pictures now because Karly had SUCH a good time with her Aunties Mel and Suzie and her Grandpa and Grandma!

We went to the play "Into the Woods." Mel was in the pit orchestra for it, so we thought we'd go check it out.

I'll be honest. I thought it was really weird. It had moments that I enjoyed, but overall...weird. Also, it was acted by high school students and they tend to overact...but it was fun! :)

Other than that, we were pretty dang lazy, but it was really fun to be home. Thanks mom and dad for letting us burst in on you last minute!

(By the way, I'd like all of you who think mom can't keep a secret, she found out we were coming about 4 days before and didn't tell dad, Mel or Suzie. So there! She can keep a secret! :D )

Anyway, since Nate's been gone Karly and I have just been chillin' together. I've been trying to get some things organized around the house and get some projects finished I've been working on. I haven't had much luck though, because look how CUTE she is!

I keep trying to get a video of her talking to her little bug and this is the best I've gotten so far. When she's in a good mood, she will just talk and talk to whatever/whoever will listen! We're thinking she's going to be an early talker and that she's going to be a chatterbox like her dad! :)

Also, she's getting so close to rolling over!

She sorta got stuck. She got her arms over but couldn't get her legs over. So, being the great mother I am, I grabbed the camera and laughed (until she got mad, of course). :D

Oh, and remember when I was pregnant and I said I either had a boxer or a soccer player inside of me?

I think she's a boxer.

Look at that hair!

2 months...and more!

This is going to be a major Karly overload, since I've been such a slacker this month.

I've tried to be good about taking pictures and videos - hopefully we got a good amount of the cute things this little munchkin does. It's so fun to see her personality coming through!

We had her 2 month check-up this week and she got her shots. She was such a trooper! She cried, of course, when they poked her little legs, but only cried for a couple of minutes (got to love the pacifier!). The worst point was when she looked at me like "Mommy, why would you let them do that to me?!" My sister AJ says it only gets worse as they get older. Wonderful. That night, I went visiting teaching, so Nate stayed home with Karly and apparently, the pain set into her legs while I was gone - she cried for about an hour! Luckily, she's got a terrific dad who took VERY good care of her.

So here are that stats:

Weight: 10 lbs, 13 oz -- 42%

Length: 23 1/4 inches -- 76%

Head: 15.2 inches -- 38%

Still tall and skinny with a little head! :)

I took some pictures in her strawberry outfit - to compare to her one month pictures. I also took some pictures next to her big monkey, so I can compare every month how she compares to him. Apparently, I should have done it while she was sleeping because she was SO wiggly. It took several attempts to get something decent.

It's so fun to see Karly's personality coming out. She's a VERY happy baby - I've had several people ask me if she ever cries. She really doesn't cry all that often. Usually, she cries if I wait too long to feed her or when we take her out of the bathtub. She loves the bath.

She's also a very talkative little munchkin (such a girl) :D

This is a little donkey that attaches to her car seat. She'll just stare at him for like 20 minutes. She also likes to make him move - she'll bat at him and then watch him swing around. She's got really good hand/eye coordination already! She also does that with her little toy in her bouncer chair - looks at it and hits it. Too cute!

She started doing this kind of fake cry lately - it's her precurser to really getting mad. :) We think she sounds like a dying cat when she does it.

Did you notice the major slobber at the beginning? This girl is a drool queen. She is also an expert spit bubble blower.

Speaking of girl, as you can see she's got quite a bit of hair. One of the funniest things she does I can't really get a picture or video of, because she only does it when she's nursing...yeah...so I'd rather not have that on the internet. But she'll take her hand and run it along the side of her head, like she's tring to fix her hair. And she does it over and over again. It's hard to explain and hilarious to watch. Sorry you don't get to see. :)

She's discovered a new best friend too!

Herself!

I'm not sure if you can tell in this pictures, but she's smiling at herself.

(Also, I just noticed this, but she's in her strawberry outfit again. I swear she doens't wear it everyday. Just often...)

Karly's quite a social butterfly - she doesn't like to be by herself and she loves interacting with people. She also likes to be up and looking around; she hates being held cradle style and would rather be standing than sitting or laying down. It's gotten to the point where, if you hold both of her hands, she'll pull herself up:

Remember how I said she has good hand/eye coordination? She's also got a killer grip.

"Hey dad! Can you help me get this back in my mouth?!"

Okay, last thing for today. She hates tummy time. I've been really bad about doing it since we've been so busy the last month and all she does is cry when I do it. At her doctor's appointment though, he said I need to do it for 20 minutes 3 times a day. Are you kidding me?! I told him she cries basically the whole time and is there anything I can do to make her like it. He said strip her down to her diaper or put the toys that sounds like paper near her so she can play with them. I've tried both and she seems to be doing better...a little...

Except this morning.

I guess she was tired...

So that's our little Karly bug! I'll try to be better about posting now that I've kind of caught up and I'm figuring out how to get stuff done with her around. :)