Oh, she KNOWS!

I promise you that I really do have the smartest 7 month old baby on the face of the earth. And I'm pretty sure she really does know the meaning of the word "NO."

Why else would she give me the coyest little smile when I tell her "NO"?

Case in point: tonight we were going to try the whole self-sooth thing out. (Whoever invented that must have been either deaf, or without a heart... or maybe both? ;) ) So, Jade was crying, well mainly complaining in her bed. After a while, I could not take it anymore. I tried patting her while she was in her crib. Miss Priss wasn't gonna settle with just that. So, I picked her up. Her head crashed onto my shoulder and she was just about out.

I may make it look easy with my insanely toned arms (note sarcasm there <--), but holding a 21lb chunkster really isn't all that easy. So, we rocked for a few minutes. Jade would rare her head back, look around and then put her head back down. After she did this for a little while, I told her "NO" each time she did it. And do you know what she did? The little stinker would look right at me after I told her NO, give me this little delerious grin and cut her eyes at me!

I tell you.. the Lord wasn't kidding when He said that we are born with a sinful nature!

Happy Easter

Yes, I know this is a little late! But Hallelujah that He is risen and we serve a LIVING Savior!

We had a very wonderful Easter! We enjoyed worshipping with our church, fellowshipping with most of our family and of course eating all the scrumptious food.

The Easter Bunny treated Jade really nice this year. He even brought here the same dress to two different homes! HAH! Along with her dress, she got a tiara to wear on Easter morning, a mini-stuffed animal, a Baby Einstein movie, a remote, and a play outfit.

I don't think we are going to make it a tradition to do quite so much every year. But chubs is getting bigger every day and needed a few new outfits.

Here are some pictures from the day!

Teething Much?

Our Happy Little Fam.

(DH took picture BEFORE our car ride to church, the car being where I do my makeup 99% of the time)Pretty Little Princess

7 months and growing

To My Sweet, Little Princess,

You are 7 months old now. Can you believe it?!?! Mommy and Daddy barely can. Not too terribly much has changed in the past month. We are still falling more and more in love with you. You are getting more and more beautiful every single day. And you are getting stronger and smarter every day!

Sitting still really isn't your thing anymore. You love to move, move, move. You want to crawl SO BAD you just can't stand it. Any day now you will just do it. For now, you get up on all fours, then you either crash down or move backwards. You get so frustrated that you aren't moving forward.

And I just know that sooner than later you are going to completely refuse your baby food. You want real people food all the time. But with only two chompers, it would be sooo hard for you to try and eat it. For now, Daddy and Mommy will still have to giggle at you when you open your mouth for every bite we put into our own mouths. Don't worry baby girl, you'll get to eat table food soon enough! We won't torment you forever.

You've learned to smile and laugh at our smiles, not just funny noises. Just the other day, you started cracking up at Mommy for no reason. When I started laughing, it made you laugh even harder. So, we just sat there giggling with each other for a few minutes. I so wish I could have that moment on video. It was beyond precious!

You are also smiling in response to kisses, hugs and loving touches. When I put you in your bed at night, sometimes you will reach your hand up. When I kiss it or cradle my face in it, you give me the sweetest little smile ever. My heart almost literally melts.

Just how many ways are there for us to tell you that we love you? I don't know for sure. But if we ever know, you better believe we will do them a bazillion times each!

With all our love,

Daddy & Mommy (and Sampson too)

Ahhhh, the joys of Mommy-hood!

One thing that I love about Jade is just how laid back she is in the mornings! (Well, she's a pretty low maintenance baby all the time actually.) She just loves to cuddle a little bit, look around, play in the bed, and of course laugh at Sampson. While I'm getting ready for work, she just kicks back in the bouncy.

Today was not unlike any other day. We woke up, laid in the bed a few minutes, then went into the bathroom so I could get ready. After I'm all put together, we go downstairs.. let Sampson eat.. put him up. I get Jade out of her walker.. and smell a little something. No biggie, just another diaper change before she is off to see her KK for the day. Get to KK's.. notice a smudge of a little dirty on my pants. No biggie, just frantically wipe with a wipey.. don't have time to stop by the house and change my pants over a dime size spot. Get to work.. day is going AWESOME. I'm standing at the fax machine, when one of the girls tells me.. "Hey, you have something on your shirt."

Do I even need to give you more than one guess as to what was on my shirt?!?! A brownish, orange-ish smudge about the size of my palm.. just above my hip. A little stinky memento from my baby girl this morning!! I nearly died, half from embarrassment, half from laughing so hard.

Needless to say, I couldn't just get away with wiping that one away with a wipey!! Praise God that my sister-in-law and I wear very close to the same size. I made a mad dash for her closet at lunch when I went home to visit Jade!

Thank you Jade for making Mommy's day so eventful and laughable yet again!

Another First!

Saturday we celebrated Nana's birthday with the majority of my husband's wonderful family. (I only call them my husband's family as a technicality.) We were blessed to have a beautiful, sunny, just-the-right-temperature kind of day. It was so nice just to sit out on the deck, watching all the little ones run around like little heathons! =) And so nice just to actually sit back and relax for once on a Saturday.. instead of running about 8 errands, while trying to clean the entire house and make sure all the laundry gets done! (*Please note that Matt helps tremendously with all the housework, but weekends are his man-chore time.) We had gone by WalMart that morning to pick up a few things, when I saw the sunscreen. I'm convinced Matt and I must be part-fish, because of the amount of time we spend in the water. So, I picked up a tube of it for Jade. (The price in and of itself is just a whole 'nother post!)

With that said, do you think that I lathered our sweet, baby girl in the stuff before enjoying the gorgeous sunny day on a deck with minimal shade? NO I DID NOT!! Poor baby girl has a little sunburn on the top of her back and the tops of her arms. Praise God that she really hasn't been affected by it though! She doesn't cry when its touched and hasn't run a fever or anything!

For real this time!

Jade has 2 teeth now! So maybe the title of this post really should have been, "ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS MY TWO FRONT TEETH.. FOR REAL TWO THIS TIME!!"

So.. maybe this should be 2-fer-Tuesday! 

Jade went to the doctor today just to follow-up with that yucky ear infection. AND NO MORE EAR INFECTION!! WOOHOO!

All I want for Christmas is...

MY TWO FRONT TEETH!

Yes, I know it is nowhere near close to Christmas-time. But that is the only song I could think of at the moment related to teeth!

And I'm sure you know what I will be telling you next! Jade cut her first tooth sometime during the night. Well, at least I think it was during the night....because this morning was the first time I noticed it. She loves to chomp on EVERYTHING in sight. (I caught her trying to chew on Sampson's ear one time. BLEH!) So, this morning, she grabbed my hand and started chomping. And I thought I felt a little rough spot. After a few minutes of inspection, I was convinced! Then, I miraculously was able to catch a glimpse of the little bitty nub popping up when I was putting her into her carseat. The sun must have hit it just right! (You'd be suprised how hard it is to try and see a nub of a tooth inside a 6 month's old mouth!)

I can't wait to post pictures of it. But I think we may have to wait a little while.. otherwise the pretty princess may be blinded from the flash of the camera! Because we would probably have to stick the camera right on her face to even catch a glimpse. =)