Monday, April 28, 2008

April 28, 2008 (Venily is 6 months, 2 weeks, 1 day old)

OH MY GOSH, JACKI, YOU WERE RIGHT!!! Venily has been staring at her hand lately (like this whole last week) and opening and closing it and I thought she was just looking at her fingers! Then Jacki said that some babies do that when they are waving at themselves, because that's how it looks to them! Sooo... I started waving at her today like that and she was doing it back at herself, she's soooo cute!!! She used to just wave with her whole arm, but now she's got the hand part down too! I took a video!!




Sunday, April 27, 2008

April 27, 2008 (Venily is 6 months, 2 weeks old)

We just got back from getting Venily's pictures taken. It did not go well, lol. The last 3 days straight Venily has been back to her usually happy self, and she was soooo happy all day today. She was sleeping in the car on the way to her pictures and when she woke up, she was still really, really happy and laughing and smiling. BUT.... once the woman who was taking her pictures looked at her (it was a different one than any she's had) she BURSTED out crying, lol. She was NOT happy! HAHA! We tried for a while, but no luck. We did get a few cute pictures, but most aren't very good. I got them online again anyway (I can't help it!) so I'll put the ones we got up on here when I get them. We're thinking about trying Sears out next time and we're going to go to Sears for our family pics too. Kaitlyn and Landen got their pictures taken today there and they turned out really cute!! Plus with JCPenney, we keep getting the same pictures with the same backgrounds and it will be nice to change it up a bit again! I'm thinking about getting Venily some father's day pics done!

A couple days ago I decided to try and give Venily a sippy cup again because I hadn't done it in so long. I took the stopper thing out so it would be easier for her to drink out of it and she LOVED it!!!! She does it so good, I couldn't believe it! And she can do it all by herself, it's really cute! She doesn't suck on it, she bites it, but it still works, lol! And it's more convenient than a cup because I have to watch her with a cup the whole time so she doesn't spill and make a mess!

I bought Venily the Baby Einstein's "Baby's First Signs" video. Kaitlyn, Venily, and I watched it yesterday! Venily couldn't have really cared less, but Kaitlyn and I learned some new signs. I'm going to start trying to use them when I talk to Venily and see if she catches on over a few months! I hope she does, that would be awesome! :)

Thursday, April 24, 2008

April 24, 2008 (Venily is 6 months, 1 week, 4 days old)

WE HAVE BEEN SOOO BUSY!!!! WOW! I hardly get a second to myself anymore. Venily is currently taking a nap, so I wanted to add a few updates... we have been sticking our tongues out at each other all morning, it's soooo funny! I think her silly little tongue is the cutest thing in this whole wide world, it makes me so happy to see it, lol! Shoot, my typing is too loud, she keeps opening and closing her eyes... Okay, I turned some static on the radio, hopefully she stays sleeping, lol...

Something has been wrong with Venily this whole last week. She hasn't been her self lately and we're not really sure what is the matter. She is usually happy in the mornings and then is fussy a lot in the afternoon/evening. She needs to be held ALL the time and her nap schedule is all out of whack and she's been waking up at night. I can think of a few things that it might be... and it's probably a combination of them. The number one thing I think it is is that she is going through a growth spurt. She needs to eat A LOT! That combined with teething, some diaper rash (she hasn't had it in the longest time, but with all this new food...), and all of the changes with Jason going back to work full time and us moving and all... It makes me so sad to see her sad! I can't leave her for a second or she gets upset! Luckily it's been nice out and she loves being outside, so that is nice. I just hope she starts feeling better soon!

Venily is a little pro now at moving from a sitting position to a crawling one!!! She either goes right to it or first lays on her back and then rolls over to the crawling position. Too bad she can't go back to sitting then after that yet, because then I have to do it for her when she's ready, lol. She's also becoming a pro at the pincer grasp!! She eats her little cheerios and finger foods so good now! I am AMAZED watching her learn new things!

Another new thing she likes to do is THROW things! Not my favorite thing for her to learn, but it sure is funny! I'll put her in her high chair and put a whole bunch of toys on there and one by one she'll pick each one up and throw it! LOL! Oh well, she thinks it's fun, as long as she's not throwing food, I'm happy!

I'm going to try and make her 6 month picture appointment for Sunday, we keep putting it off because we're so busy! We'll see if it happens! We had planned on getting family pictures taken too for her 6 months, but we're probably going to wait a few months... which is fine, maybe I'll get a chance to work on my tan for the pictures! hahaha

We're closing on our construction loan soon (hopefully tomorrow), I can't wait to start picking out all the details for our new house!!!!! I'm so picky, it's going to take forever! Plus Jason and I have a few DRASTIC differences in opinion on what looks good, LOL! Oh, this is so funny.... every time I have Jason pick out an outfit for Venily to wear, he dresses her HEAD-TO-TOE in one SOLID color, because he doesn't understand the concept of matching! Oh my gosh, how did I end up with such a dork?!

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OH! And happy Earth day a little late... I wanted to plant a tree for Venily at our new house, but it's not ready for that yet and it would have just gotten run over! So... I'm waiting a few months!

Friday, April 18, 2008

April 18, 2008 (Venily is 6 months, 5 days old)

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Our new nephew Landen Michael made his way into the world on April 12 and we are so happy that he is finally here! We just love him! He was a big 9lbs, 4 oz and 21.25 inches long! Venily is officially no longer the baby in the family, but she doesn't mind! She loves her new cousin and can't wait until he is old enough to play with! He is so cute and little, I just want to look at him and hold him all day long! It makes me want another sooo badly, lol! It was so cool to be able to watch the whole labor process from another perspective so soon after giving birth to Venily. It was like reliving the whole thing over again! And he was born in the same hospital, in the same room as Venily!



VENILY TURNED 6 MONTHS OLD ON THE 13TH!!!!! Oh my gosh! I can't even believe it! Seriously, where has the time gone?! She's definitely not a baby anymore, she's my little girl and I still get overwhelmed with emotion when I look at her! How can I be a mom? How can I have such a perfect little princess? I still can't believe it! Only 6 more months left until her big 1 YEAR Birthday Party!!!


Venily had her 6 month appointment on Monday and was 16lbs, 13 oz and 27.25 inches long! The doctor says she looks very healthy!

We moved into Grandma and Grandpa's on Sunday and everything is going great with that! I think it's nicer than our last house! Venily has transitioned very well and LOVES seeing all the people coming and going from the house all the time! Jason has already started getting the permits and stuff in order for our new house and we should be good to go with starting the septic within a week! Then it will be working on the construction loan, digging the foundation, and all that fun stuff!

We have been LOVING the weather lately, I'm so glad that Spring is finally here, we needed it so badly! Venily really loves playing outside and going for walks! She played in the grass for the first time the other day! The first thing my little girl does is pick up a clump of dirt and start playing with it! Ahhhh! NO! Then when I took that away she picked some grass and tried eating it, lol! We played with bubbles and she went in the swing all by herself for the first time and swang with Matt and Kaitlyn! We also went for a walk down by our property and I fell in love with Lily Lake all over again! It's just such a nice place to grow up! I can't wait until she gets to go to Wheatland and I get to bring her to her little friends' houses and have her friends over at our house!

Some updates: Venily LOVES to sit and can sit for as long as she wants! She also rolls over both ways no problem. She's still not crawling yet, but I am FINE with that! :) I don't want her to crawl, even though I know it has to happen eventually!!! I already have to keep my eyes on her all the time as it is! She's doing great with finger foods now and can even pick them up and feed them to herself! Sometimes she can't quite get them in her mouth, but it is SOOO funny to watch, lol! She loves the fruit and veggies puffs and bits of my food too! I've been making a lot more of her foods too now, and I like that, even though it's more work. I can make it to the consistency that I want, which is nice! We have yet to find a food that she DOESN'T like!

At 6 months....
Venily's LIKES:
* Eating finger foods, she goes CRAZY for them!
* Other kids and animals- they make her so happy! She's just like her Mommy! :)
* BATHS!!! Yay, she finally likes baths!! Now she sometimes gets mad when we take her out! And her favorite toys now are bath toys!
* Playing outside and going for walks!
* Looking around at everything, she's the most observant little girl ever!
* Playing with anything that someone else is holding, she wants it for herself!
* Being silly, and playing copying games!



Venily DISLIKES:
* Being tired! She is definitely a girl who needs her naps!

Thursday, April 10, 2008

April 10, 2008 (Venily is 5 months, 4 weeks old)

Sorry no updates in a while, we are crazy busy with packing and all... moving out on Sunday, oh my gosh, we're not even close to being ready! I'll try to update on Monday after Venily's 6 month check up! She is getting so big and has learned some new tricks! Her favorite is "so big". I have some videos of her doing it, I'll have to put one up when I get the time, it's so cute!

LANDEN IS COMING TOMORROW!!!!!!!!! WE CAN'T WAIT!!! Kaitlyn is spending the night tonight and right now both of the girls are sleeping! I can't believe how grown up Kaitlyn is! It's weird because we see her so much, but to really look at her and see just how big she is...is CRAZY! Jason says he can't wait until Venily is that big! And she is just SOOO hilarious, me and Jason have been cracking up all night! Right now she is sleeping in a tent right next to our bed, lol! She is going to be just the best big sister ever! She is very excited to go see her baby brother tomorrow! We love our neice and nephews and can't wait for little Landen to be here!!!!! :)

Thursday, April 3, 2008

April 3, 2008 (Venily is 5 months, 3 weeks old)

5 Month Professional Pics up!!! Come see under pictures!! Soooooo adorable!!

Monday, March 31, 2008

March 31, 2008 (Venily is 5 months, 2 weeks, 4 days old)

Venily had her 5 month pictures taken on Saturday and was awesome!! She was so happy and smiley the whole time, except at the very end when she was in the bath and wanted out, lol! It was a different photographer than we've had the last two times and I think she really liked her. I liked how these pictures turned out. I'll put them up on here when I get them online in a few days.

Venily had a VERY busy day yesterday! She went bowling in the morning and then went to her FIRST MOVIE EVER!!!! She went and saw Horton Hears a Who!! She was so good too, I thought for sure I'd be going home early, but she was a very good girl. She was a little squirmy at first and really wanted my cup and popcorn, but then ate, watched a few minutes of the movie and then slept the whole rest of the time, lol! Then she went to Grandma Lauren's and Grandpa Don's and got to see her great grandparents too! She loved it!

She has been doing so good with her sitting up now too! If she's in the right mood and there is not a lot of commotion going on in the room, she can sit up all by herself for like 10 minutes at a time!!! I'm hoping the sitting up now will help with her severe spit-up problem. I already think she's getting better, but it's still happens several times a day. We'll see!

We're closing on our lot tomorrow!!! Venily can't wait to start on our new house!

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Thursday, March 27, 2008 10:16 AM

Current mood: amused
Category: Life
Just some videos of my very silly girl!!

March 26, 2008- Blowing with her lips



March 24, 2008- Opening her mouth



Eating off her bib


March 23, 2008- Opening her mouth



February 20, 2008- Telling stories



February 4, 2008- Laughing at Xoey

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

March 26, 2008 (Venily is 5 months, 1 week, 6 days old)

Just a few more updates while I have the chance.

As you can see from the videos, Venily has been going crazy lately with imitating us! She'll imitate us opening our mouths, sticking out our tongues, and blowing with our lips. She thinks it's sooo funny! I'm trying to teach her to wave now. Sometimes she'll do it, she picks things up pretty quickly.

Venily can now sit up all by herself for up to 1-2 minutes at a time!!! She can also stand up all by herself holding onto something. But I don't leave her alone to do it because I'm so scared of her falling and hurting herself, our new house is going to be covered in foam padding for when she learns how to walk!!

Drinking from a cup is going well. We do it every day with breakfast. She looks forward to it! I haven't tried the sippy cup again, I figured I'd stick to one thing at a time!

Venily has been eating 3 real-food meals a day now. She has cereal mixed with fruit for breakfast, usually a half a container of 1st or 2nd food for lunch and a whole container for dinner! Sometimes I'll let her eat or chew on real food while I hold onto it and she's had some fruit puffs too, but Jason yells at me for giving them to her. Believe me, I'm VERY careful, that is one of his biggest fears in life though, kids choking. Venily is still nursing several times a day as well. My goal for nursing was 6 months, but I know I'm going to be able to beat that for sure! I hoping to go the whole year, but we will see what happens when her teeth start coming in (so far no teeth yet).

As far as sizes go, Venily is in mostly 6 month clothes now and some 9 months too. I love when she gets to a new size because she gets a whole new wardrobe I can dress her in! She's been in size 3 diapers now for a while now. Size 2 shoes. She goes to the doctor again in a few weeks for her 6 month check up and shots and she'll be weighed and measured again. She is such a big girl now, Jason and I are amazed when we see how much she has grown each day!

She was supposed to go today to get her pics taken, but that didn't happen because Jason had to work and I'm sick. We rescheduled for Saturday though, so hopefully we'll be able to get them done then- unless Landen decides to come then or something!
March 26, 2008 (Venily is 5 months, 1 week, 6 days old)

More silliness from my goofy girl! Oh I just love her!! :)



Monday, March 24, 2008

March 24, 2008 (Venily is 5 months, 1 week, 4 days old)

This is some of the silliness I have to deal with all day long, lol! Here is Venily eating like a total dork! She does this when it gets on her highchair too, hahahaha, she makes a mess and then licks it off! She doesn't want to wait until I get more on the spoon to keep eating!



And this is her new thing, she used to love to stick her tongue out to make us laugh, but now she likes to open her mouth as big as she can! She's too funny! She can make her mouth even bigger than this, lol! I need to take a better video of her doing it.



Okay, I just took this one!



She likes to stick out her bottome lip and blow with her lips too, haha!
March 24, 2008 (Venilyis 5 months, 1 week, 4 days old)

We hope everyone had a very happy Easter weekend! Venily had lots of fun and got 5 different Easter baskets, lol! She must have been very good... or she's spoiled, haha! She got lots of yummy food and juice, lots of toys, bubbles, sunscreen, clothes, etc. She saw the Easter bunny on Saturday morning and got her picture taken with him and then went to her Grandma Lauren and Grandpa Don's the rest of the day on Saturday. On Sunday she went to her Great Grandparents' house and loved seeing all of her family. While she was there she rolled over from her back to her stomach for the first time!! She decided it was time since there were so many interesting people and toys there, she wanted to get at them!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

March 23, 2008 (Venily is 5 months, 1 week, 3 days old)

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Wednesday, March 19, 2008

March 19, 2008 (Venily is 5 months, 6 days old)

Venily's first mini-vacation to the Dells went good! She had fun seeing all her family for so long and playing and relaxing in the water. She even slept pretty good and didn't wake up Uncle Jake and Aunt Jacki and Kaitlyn too much! :) The waterpark was pretty crowded with it being Spring break and all (something to remember for next year) and the Chula Vista didn't have a great area for infants, but we made it work like we always find a way to do and had fun anyway! I got a few pictures I'll put up later, but I didn't get a lot because for one it's hard to watch Venily and take pictures and for two I got my camera stolen at the Dells last year and didn't bring it with me to the waterpark too much, lol!

Uhhh.... I've been reading a lot about babies again lately and making myself so sick with anxiety!! Venily is going to be the most sheltered child EVER and she is going to HATE me! I don't know whether to stop reading stuff and just chill out or read even more so I know how to protect my little girl from every possible threat there is out there, lol! Then I talk to Jason about stuff and he gets all paranoid too so she is going to have it even worse! :)

We can't wait to get started on our new house. Planning and talking and thinking about it takes up a lot of our time right now! We close on the lot next week and are going to try to start building right away. We looked at the house we're getting again a couple of days ago! We're REALLY excited! I CAN'T WAIT to have it built and redecorate Venily's room all cute and go crazy baby proofing the whole house!!

Baby Landen is coming VERY soon and Venily just goes on and on and on about how much she wants to finally see him and play with him!

We got Venily a new bath seat and I took a bath with her yesterday with it! It's really nice and I finally have a way to give Venily a bath by myself that makes her happy! She loves playing in the water, going after all her bath toys and biting onto them!

We still need to schedule Venily's 5 month pics sometime soon. Hopefully we'll be able to do it early next week! Venily got her pictures taken at the Dells with Kaitlyn and Matt in the Old Time photo place and they were so cute! I'll have to scan it and put it up here when I get a chance! Matt was a sherrif and he was arresting Kaitlyn and Venily for robbing a bank! HAHAHAHA! The kids looked so cute all dressed up!

Sunday is Easter and Venily is going to her Great Grandparents'. I want to make a little Easter basket for Venily even though she won't care! I already made her go to an Easter egg hunt, even though she slept most of the time, lol. I can't wait until she's old enough to understand different holidays and get excited about doing stuff for them! We're going to go overboard for holidays, I want her to have lots of memories of them and start traditions with her that she can pass on to her children!!!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

March 15, 2008 (Venily is 5 months, 2 days old)



I know it's early, but we are going to be gone tomorrow morning until Tuesday night at the Dells! And Venily is in fact Irish! :)

Friday, March 14, 2008

January 14, 2008 (Venily 3 months, 1 day old)

Well, no pictures today! Venily has been pretty fussy all day today and hasn't slept very much at all, so we thought it might be difficult. I gave her some Tylenol because I think she's teething, and she slept for about 40 minutes on the way there, but we had to wake her up to get her pictures and she was NOT happy about that! We tried and tried, but no luck, so we will go back in a few days and hopefully have better luck!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

March 13, 2008 (Venily is 5 months old)


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Venily is 5 months old today! 5 months is my new favorite age of babies! It changes every time she turns a new age, lol! She's just so fun right now. She makes us crack up all day long. And she's so happy and laughs all the time, I love it!

I weighed and measured her today and she was 26.5 inches long and about 16 pounds! The site I use says she's still in the 95 percentile for length (and that's as high as they go!). I knew she was going to be a tall girl. :)

Today was sooo nice out! We went for a long walk around Burlington with Venily in her jogging stroller and she loved it! She was just so relaxed the whole time, looking around at everything. I even had her sunglasses on and she left them on the entire time! It was fun, I can't wait until we can go every day! We're also looking for a bike thing so we can take her with us when we ride our bikes this summer.

Venily has a few new things she does now. She loves to bang her hand against stuff to make noise. She also loves to hum. It's funny b/c she has a happy hum and a mad hum! She also says Dadadadada ALL day long. She might not know what it means, but it's her favorite thing to say, I'm positive it'll be her first real word. She says MOM clear as day when she is REALLY mad, haha!


She grabs EVERYTHING in her sight. If she sees it, she wants it! It's hard to eat, read magazines, use the remote, type on the computer, or anything around her, lol. We really have to watch out for her because she grabs everything and everything goes right into her mouth!


She's had green beans now and eats them all up! I'm glad. She eats the first half pretty easily but gets a weird look on her face every time she takes a new bite. Then the last half she eats it and then looks like she is going to gag, hahaha, but she keeps coming back for more bites!


At 5 months....

Venily's LIKES:
* Eating her big girl food!
* Laying face down on our legs while we drum on her back. It puts her right out!
* Uncle Jake! I think she could look at him and listen to him all day long! :) She just loves him!
* Loves to stand and jump around!
* She loves when her Daddy comes home. She just lights up when she sees him! And she smiles and starts telling him all about her day! :)
* Playing in the water with other people, but NOT by herself!
* Looking around at EVERYTHING and touching EVERYTHING and putting it all in her mouth! Haha!



Venily DISLIKES:
* Being tired! She turns into my little crab-apple when she's tired!
* Baths by herself!

-I think those are the only things she doesn't like right now! She's pretty easy going. :)


-3 more days until the Dells! Venily is very excited!

Sunday, March 9, 2008

March 9, 2008 (Venily is 4 months, 3 weeks, 4 days old)

We have a name for our next daughter!!!! LOL, I fell in love with another name yesterday and Jason likes it too! It'll go really well with Venily too! I know I'm a dork, but I'm really excited. Now I want another girl so I can use the name.

...Just like I'm already picking out paint colors for Venily's future bedroom and looking at cakes for her first birthday! HAHA!

*4 days until Venily turns 5 months!
*1 week until the dells!
*1 month until Landen is due!

Friday, March 7, 2008

March 7, 2008 (Venily is 4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days old)

We haven't had a photo shoot in forever!!! So, Daddy was watching Uncle Matt today and we decided to do one! Oh she is so cute! I'd like to buy some more stuff to make better pictures!

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Thursday, March 06, 2008 10:04 AM

Current mood: excited
Category: Life
Exciting news!

We bought a lot in Lily lake (on the same road that I grew up on)!! We signed the papers accepting the offer yesterday! I'm really excited about it. Probably more excited than I should be. I'm always getting my hopes up and then something comes along to destroy them. It's still contingent on financing and a perc test, but the financing for the lot won't be a problem and the rest of the houses in the area tested for a septic, so hopefully ours will too!!
The lot is small but it's perfect for what we want and we'll be able to build a NEW house, lol, ours now was built in the 1800's! All I want is a new house.

We looked at the model homes again yesterday too and know which one we'd go with! It's a fairly small house but oh so cute, and bigger than the one we have now! I really like it. It's a 2 bedroom, 1 bath loft. But we're going to build it above a garage/finished basement and plan on putting another bedroom in the basement along with a play room. And there is another room in the loft that we have no idea what we'd put in it, so it'll kind of be like a 4 bedroom! It's
cool too b/c we would get to pick out so many things that we wanted in the house. Like the carpet, counter tops, siding, roof shingle color, etc and we can move the floor plan around any way that we want. Oh I'm way too excited, I just hope we can get a construction loan, or we'll be out of luck. We plan on keeping our duplex too and renting both sides out since we might be able to make a profit each month and the market is in no condition to sell just yet. We might already have someone who'd be interested in renting out our side! Which means that we'd be living with the in-laws for a few months to save money and put in towards our house! Ahh! I love them and they have an awesome house, but it would definitely be interesting after living on our own for so many years. IF all goes according to plan (and that's a BIG IF!), Jason thinks we could be moved into our new house be the end of July/ or August! I hope so! I want to celebrate Venily's first birthday in a new house!!!!!!!!!

Here's a pic of the floor plan and finished house. We might move a few things around on the floor plan and the house would be a different color and wouldn't have the top windows, but you get the idea. We're also not sure if we'd put a deck in the front or just off the back.(WOW, photobucket has cool editing things now, LOL- too bad I couldn't just resize pictures, it's not working!)


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