9 months

In a couple of days poppy will be nine months old. I can't believe how fast this time has flown! We have been in Canada for six weeks now and we had home tomorrow. I am sad to see our time come to an end. I wanted to talk a little bit about poppies progress over the last six weeks since we have been here.

She started her crawling by doing some sort of a "worm" or she would slam her belly into the ground and move around. She was also spitting up quite a bit when we first got here experiencing with different formulas. I think we finally have found a formula that sits well in her tummy. She also has taken a huge liking to table food and loves to eat with her hands. She has not turned her nose up at anything we have given her although she definitely has favorites. 

She is still in 3–6 month clothing but I think soon we might be able to move up to 6 to 9 at clothing.

So her crawl has moved from a worm movement to a full on crawl. She gets around and loves to go explore. She loves to suck on my legs and find what she can on the floor. She fell down her first stare this morning and luckily it was just one stair. We are going to have to teach her how to go up and down stairs quite quickly as it is hard to put up the gate at my house.

This morning when I reached into her mouth I found a little sharp piece coming out of her gums. She got her first tooth officially! 

She has been an extremely good sleeper and eater. She goes down for bed around 830 every night and sleeps for a good 12 hours or more. She still loves her bottles. Her favorite foods right now our bread, bananas, blueberries, watermelon, oh and spaghetti! She absolutely loved spaghetti!

She has learned how to wave "bye-bye" although she says "die die" she also says dada and I think she will forget who he is, even though he was her favorite person before he left. She can give kisses and occasionally will clap. I feel like she only clapped for a couple weeks and then she was over it. Your kisses are wet and slobbery and she goes right in for them! They are the sweetest.

The kids can't get enough of her, all three of them are completely obsessed and if they could would be holding her 24 seven. It's very sweet but at the same time they don't realize she is still just a baby and not a baby doll or a big kid. I do feel like I need to watch them quite closely.

I'm anxious to get her to the doctor for her nine month appointment and see where she is Wayne on the percentage scale. Before we left six weeks ago she was barely Wayne 14 pounds and was still quite low in the percentile. My guess is she is almost 16 pounds but that is a total guess! 

It has been so much fun for mom and dad to get to know her and spend so much time with her. She is such a sweet baby and brings so much joy into our lives. We would have a completely different family without this little angel.

Nat is trouble

I never knew an 8 year old could be so hard. This girl is trouble I tell us. Sassy as can be she and I butt heads like no other!   She can be sweet as sugar when she tries but if you cross her or give the wrong answer or tell her what to do... I should say if I do... She turns on you. She turns crazy on you! I have really struggled to know what to do about it and how to react to her. I don't seem to be doing it right. Parenting is so hard. Each new step and each new age is difficult. 

She isn't bad with Brian but me?? Ohhh yay! And babysitters and even nana! I hate when she is disrespectful to nana. I am kinda at the end of my line here and don't know where to turn or what to do. Anger, screaming, crying, threats, etc. I worry about my girl. 

Don't get me wrong, she is still very sweet and happy and fun most of the time, but the bad times tend to take over my mind. We are in Canada right now and so maybe it is that Brian isn't here with us and she reacts to that? Whatever it is we need to figure it out. Together her and I. I love this beautiful girl so so much and I want nothing but happy for her. 

She is so funny with posing. Always needing to pose to pictures! She is way way way into sporty shorts and has been hating wearing underwear. (Not a shocker, she hates all clothing) yet still lives to dress up a and get pretty but won't admit to it! 

Here is an embarrassing picture for the kids. They were all fighting and crying and screaming so I made them all sit together to work it out and they threw a fit when I took out the camera to take a picture. I only did it cause nat was being totally immature and ridiculous. 

She was mad, but I have to laugh sometimes! 

This girl LOVES poppy so so so much. She is always trying to hold her and love in her. She is a great helper with her but can be overbearing at times. If I were poppy I would hate it!! She just loves her so much and I feel bad denying her some sweet poppy. 

Birthday spotlight

This guy. Boots is the most precious little man. He is kind, thoughtful, caring, loving, snugly, funny, crazy, active, and on and on and on. He isn't selfish, mean, rude, or sassy. He is a dream... But a crazy monkey of a dream! Haha 

I honestly don't know where I would be without him. 

He turned 7 this last week and I just think he is the sweetest. 

We celebrated up in Canada where we are spending the summer. Out at the  ranch on the tree house and in the trees. He is happy just getting dirty and helping grandad. He loves bacon, milk, Sharks, Star Wars, and Chocolate cake! He loves his sisters and would do anything for them. 

He had the WORST morning breath always and is fast as can Be! He is strong and is so smart. He retains knowledge and has a testimony already. He is pure joy. 

Dating scene

I like to think of Brian and I as a couple who has a lot of fun. We love to go out on dates and we love to go on group dates. We like to do different kinds of things and we know that some of our friends don't always love to do that. We decided to go to comic con this year. I have always wanted to go! You always see it in the movies and I just thought it would be something fun to go and see for myself. We went with our friends Jake and Celeste and had a great time! There were a lot of weirdos there but we had a super fun time. We bought boots this super awesome light saber and no joke two months later he still sleeps with it every single night. He loves that thing!

 Eric and Kathleen moved down to Houston so we had one last big dinner out as a family. It was really fun to go out as just adults! I really truly am blessed to have married into such a fabulous family. I love my in-laws and all my Inlaw siblings! They are the best. We will miss Eric and Kathleen as now they are four hours away instead of 30 minutes. 

Another fun date that we went on was driving up to the winstar Casino resort and going to a Weezer concert. It was a small venue so we were about four rows back. We had awesome seats and an absolutely fabulous time! We went with her friends Ben and Katie Holme and really just had so much fun rocking out to Weezer! Totally brought me back to 2001 with some fabulous memories. 

And I can't leave one of my favorite people to go out on dates with! Brian and I love to go out with Libby and Sean. I'm really lucky to have my sister living so close! We always have so much fun and have way too many laugh attacks. We are sisters twins without being actual twins. We Twiner on our clothing, the way we talk, the way we laugh, and the way we think! I love this best friend sister of mine with all my heart! I'm just sad that she moved from being 30 seconds away to being 13 minutes away. It's kind of a lame problem to have but I am bummed that the kids cannot longer walk to each other's houses after school and ride bikes to get a cup of sugar or an extra stick of butter. I can't go over in my pajamas and just lounge on her couch as easily as I could've. My rant is done now, at least she only lives 13 minutes away!

Last day of school

In June Courtney had her last day of school. She had a little graduation where they sing a song. She was very sad to be leaving her teachers, she really bonded with them especially her music teacher this year. We have decided to not put her back in preschool next year which will be pretty hard for me as she excelled so much there this year.

The other kids had their last day of school as well. My friend ordered a whole bunch of colored chalk and we had a fun "color" celebration!! I can't believe another year is gone and they will be starting 2nd and 3rd grade!!! What's even more crazy is that Courtney still had another year at home!