Family comes for a visit

Life is all about the small things... a day of simple joys... a smile that brightens the grey world... a moment of togetherness with those you love.

My sister and her family along with my dad came to visit for a few weeks. It was chaotic but so much fun and looking back I have realized that life is all about the family and those small moments that you have with them that makes life worth living.

We went to Liberty Park where they have these 7 pools that is supposed to represent the rivers and lakes of the Wasatch valley. Faith absolutely loved it and the best part of it is that it doesn't cost anything. Who needs to pay for swimming when the kids love this.

This pic is one of my favs because I like to place it next to one of her in the same bathing suit a few months ago. Her little chunkiness is definitely beginning to melt away and that makes me sad. I love her little chunky legs. It makes me sad to think she is growing up so quickly.

The first time we took her here she could barely crawl and move around. The second time was like a whole new baby.. a much older one who was more willing to explore and could crawl more quickly. The sad part for me was that it was only a week and a half later. Yikes!

Faith is the most wonderful thing to have happened to our family and I just love her. She is so loving of others and absolutely adored her cousins. Natalie loves to just roll around with her and tickle her and play with her. Sometimes I would think that Faith was too little and "breakable" to have Natalie play with her but Faith would surprise me and tell me to back off by laughing at everything Natalie would do.

Their favorite game was when Faith would crawl away and Natalie would crawl after her and cut her off and laugh in her face resulting in Faith laughing and going the other way. So adorable. What was just as cute was the way Gavin took to her as well. When she came over to Grandma's Gavin would hop off a lap and want to play with her. They would exchange binkies and take them out of each other's mouths. It was so much fun to watch.

Grandpa sure loves to sing to the little ones. They would just watch him as he did entranced by these old folk songs.

And of course, Grandma is always there when they get tired and need to snuggle up from too much activity. 

Is it really that fun to lay down and kick the basement door? Apparently, it is since Natalie joined in Faith's game.

And here is Grandma's favorite hairstyle. I like to comb her hair to the side but Grandma thinks it looks like a boy. Little does she know that by the time Faith wakes up in the morning it does it's own thing.

Years and years ago I went to Build a Bear Workshop and created a little army/marine bunny complete with flag and walkie talkie and sunglasses. I thought Faith should show her patriotic side and pretend to be her daddy. So I took the clothes off the bunny, complete with BABW dog tags and dressed her up.

After Daddy had finished building the deck in our backyard there was much celebration and dancing in the kitchen complete with stealing Daddy's hat off his head and wearing it herself.

A discovery of another person behind the mirror was made.

And it must have been love at first sight... but I think Faith needs to work on her puckering up skills.

Teething biscuits are the new favorite food. She will stuff as much as she can in her mouth. I feel like telling her to say, "Chubby Bunny" when she does this.

Faith's bedtime routine has changed and she now requires a stuffed animal to cuddle up next to. I love it! Every time any kind of doll or stuffed animal is around she gets the biggest smile and kicks her legs with excitement. Its like Christmas morning for her. I noticed that her favorite cat "Marie" from the movie Aristocats was missing and I couldn't find it anywhere so I went to the store and thought I would test her out to see how much she missed that cat. I help up three stuffed animals... Minnie, Marie, and Thumper. She instantly grabbed Marie and I knew I had to buy another. She will carry it all over the floor with her when she crawls. It made buying a second one so worth it!

Hanging out in the grass is fun! But what I love is that "witchy" tooth as Grandma calls it. She only had one bottom tooth come in. Although the other one just broke through after two months.

Cuddles with Daddy.

We went to Olive Garden with Uncle Charles and she loved to play "hide and seek". Daddy would throw the napkin over her face and when she pulled it off of her, he would say "boo".

And Daddy falls asleep on the job... good thing that she is such a good baby she will just lay there with him... Yeah right!

One night the family decided to head up Mill Creek Canyon and have a dinner camp out for a few hours. I loved it. They have fire pits all set up and they are right next to a creek. Its beautiful!

Too bad it was a little bit rainy but it seemed to stay away from us while we were there. We got out just in time before a downpour happened.

Isn't this the cutest pic of her ever! She was so happy to be sitting on that branch with her dad.

smores!

One night Faith was so tired and apparently sat up after I laid her down. When I went back in to check on her she had fallen asleep in her sitting position. She just used her blanket and stuffed animal as a pillow when she leaned forward.

Faith loves to put anything and everything in her mouth and here is the proof. She was never much of a binkie baby and never seemed to want to take them at night. Now that she has begun teething she wants one all the time. I began giving them to her when her first tooth was coming in but only at night however she would wake up from naps and have it in her mouth. I finally gave in.

A day in the park is always fun and Uncle Charles seemed to be the biggest hit with the kids.

The first time we went to Liberty Park I forgot Faith's bathing suit so she wore her 4 year old cousin's. It was just a little big on her but so funny that it would even fit her at all. What a little cute chunker I have.

Grandma's sandbox was new and fun or her as long as we didn't let her eat it. She didn't seem to think it was yucky like her 6 month older cousin did.

Lunch out is always fun and especially the group hugs!

I love this pose she is doing!!!

Goodbye to Gramps!

And goodbye to the cousins! and possibly the person behind the mirror.

She is learning to do so much. A couple week's after she began crawling she learned to pull herself up and stand up. Now she does it with ease. Just a week before she turns 10 months old she finally learned how to sit down while standing instead of just falling down. Jeff and I watched her struggle as her little legs would shake with tiredness and we could see her contemplating how she was going to get her bottom on the ground without falling on it. After nearly 10 minutes she finally was able to get her body to squat down. Once that happened it became a breeze. Now she is up and down and all over the place. I'm sure she will be walking soon!

Its these little moments that make me smile and realize how important family is both immediate and your own. Family is what makes life joyous and full of happiness. I'm so glad that our family has grown with our little girl and that another one is on the way.

Growing up!

Faith and her Easter dress! I love having a girl and being able to dress her up. Its so much fun!

She is such a doll and looks just like her dad its almost unreal. I can't believe how cute she has turned out!

At 6 months of age, she had her first taste of solid foods. She seemed to love the mashed up banannas. So we moved on to some vegetables and had her  taste some peas. This picture shows exactly what she thought of them. It makes me laugh whenever I see it!

I went to visit my sister in Denver and Faith loved watching and playing with her cousins. Although Gavin and her seemed to fight a bit over this toy. Or rather Faith just wanted to play with it and Gavin wanted to take it away. But look how big Faith is compared to him. Gavin may be a bit taller but she sure seems to be right on top of him with her size and they are 5 months apart.

When she was seven months old we decided to take her to California where Jeff and I ran the San Diego marathon together. It was Jeff's first marathon and my 7th. I loved it! It took us forever which made Jeff hate it but I was ready for another one. I seemed to recover fairly quickly in comparison to all the other marathons and to think I was pregnant on this one. 18 weeks pregnant. I was pretty proud of myself.

Faith absolutely loves this. She sits on her dad's shoulders and grabs tufts of his hair to hold on and she does it with all her might. You can't pull her off. She thinks its so much fun.

Besides going for walks her next favorite recreational activity is swinging. If you stop the swing she will get mad and start to cry. Doesn't she look so content?

It was fun to have her grandparents around (Jeff's side of the family) and have them help out too. They couldnt' believe how great Faith is and to be honest I am one lucky mom to have a baby who is so easy going. She hardly ever cries. She even had a tooth about to break the surface and she still doesn't cry much. Grandma was afraid that she would cry during the marathon day when we left her but of course she doesn't care who she is with. I have tried to take her out a lot so she will not care about being left with others. She does fantastic for her babysitters too.

On the way home Jeff and I stopped in Vegas to break up the drive. Faith does pretty well in the car especially with Baby Einstein for those moments when she gets a little bored. We took her swimming in the pool for the first time. She seemed to love it!

I think this picture shows more than any other how much she resembles her dad.

This is my favorite. I saw her standing like this with our help of course and couldn't get over how cute it was with her chunky little legs. As my sister says, its the only time in a girl's life you can rock 'em. And its so true! I just love it!

What she is doing in here I don't really know other than that Jeff put her in there. She is now sitting up really well on her own and when she is sitting next to you, she will grab ahold of your shirt and try and heave herself up even though she can't stand yet. Its hilarious. She is such an agressive progressor.

She is rolling all over the floor and learned to roll from back to stomach about two weeks before she turned 8 months old. Now she is trying to learn to crawl but hasn't gotten it down yet. She can hold herself up on her knees. The funny part is when she will get on her toes and support herself up. She looks as if she is getting ready to do a push up except that her bottom is way high in the air.

Her first tooth broke through at 8 months. The second one hasn't come in yet and I don't see any sign of it. She barely cried much at all. There were about 2-3 mornings that she would wake up crying and then the next day it broke through. There hasn't been a peep since.  And thankfully for me she is now sleeping through the night which is great because I need the full nights sleep being pregnant again.

We took her on her first camping trip the other night. It was awful for me because we were sharing an RV with a friend of Jeff's and it didn't allow me to have a quiet space to put Faith to sleep but she did well considering everything. She went on a hike with her dad and seemed to really love that.

My favorite part of the trip was when Jeff went fishing and Faith and I stayed in the RV. She got up on her knees and kept trying to get this fly that was stuck in between the window panes. Then she would look out and just watch her dad and the dogs. It entertained her for hours.

I am excited for our new daughter to come and for Faith to become a big sister. I know its going to be hard but I am looking forward to it. I love being a mom (even on the hard days). Faith and I go out a lot to stores and we take lots of walks with Nala. We had to give Minnie away and I was absolutely heartbroken over it but she just wasn't good with babies and I couldnt' chance that she would bite Faith in the future when our new little one comes and I can't be around Faith as much as now. But I will admit it is easier with only one dog around and Nala seems to love it because she gets to go on walks with me. The other day the 3 of us went on a picnic in the park. I even brought an actual picnic basket.

It was there I really noticed how much Faith loves to beg for food. She is my little begger. She was finished eating and I was eating my sandwich when she kept grabbing at it. So I gave her a small piece of bread and she kept looking at me intensely with her big blue eyes as if she was going to stare me down until I gave her some more. Then she would lean in and try and grab it again. The other day I had a blanket in the front lawn and we were enjoying the day when our neighbor's daughter came over with a bag full of goldfish. Faith kept trying to grab her bag. And when I eat cereal she knows those little marshmallows are in there and she will stare me down until I give her one. What a cutie!

I can't wait to see what else she has in store for us!