Happy Father's Day!

Julia enjoyed spoiling her daddy today for his first Father's Day! She had a little photo shoot earlier this week to make a special gift for Daddy.  We framed these pics in a 3-photo frame to give to Daddy for part of his gift. 

We went to church this morning and then hung out at home.  We had planned to go to the parade in town, but the rain came pouring down just as the parade was supposed to start.  Oh, well. 
Julia and Daddy hanging out on the floor... oh, and Gus has to be close, too.

Daddy and his kiddos (yes, Gus counts, too!) relaxing in the afternoon.  What a great Daddy Julia has! We are so thankful for our dads (Grandpa Don and Grandpa Mike) as they are such great examples of wonderful fathers.  Happy Father's Day! 

A Little Sleepy and a Big Kiss

Julia is getting to be such a big girl.  She absolutely loves to sit up (she can't quite do it on her own, yet)... so she gets a little help from the Boppy, the Bumbo or Mommy and Daddy!  We weighed her the other day and she is at about 17 pounds and 26.5 inches tall (of course, these aren't super scientific measurements from the doctor's office though!)

"Oh, dear," says Julia. Gus is coming after me...

"and he got me... Mom, help!"  Actually she didn't care at all.  This is the first big slobbery kiss I have seen Gus give Julia. I just had to take a picture instead of push him away! : )  Too bad it wasn't in focus.

Julia must have been really bored with mom and dad's dinner conversation.  She was a sleepy little girl.  I decided to come into the office and update the blog while she slept.  I left the dishes on the table to be cleaned up when she wakes up.  NEVER WAKE A SLEEPING BABY! : )

Julia spent some time at our friends' house this week and last week while Mommy went to work for curriculum writing.  Daddy watched her on Tuesday morning last week so Mommy could go into work for the last staff day of the school year.  Otherwise, not much else is new.  Julia is still doing great with out her pacifier.  She sleeps for 10-12 hours at night... with one bottle sometime between 4-6 am.  One word: awesome!  We just love our little peanut and can't believe how big she is getting.  She misses her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins and can't wait to see them again.  It has been too long! 

Loving Life...

We can't believe Julia will be 5 months old on Thursday!  We have been so blessed to have her join our family.  She is getting to be so much fun.  I miss the little infant we brought home from the hospital, but each day gets better and better with her!  I remember when she first started giving us smiles and now she is smiling and giggling all the time!  She loves her jumperoo or as we call it... her "jump-jump."  She likes to play with all the fun toys, and is so into exploring things now.  She spins all the spinny things and of course jumps a lot.  You can see that she is thinking about what she wants to do and intentionally will go after something. 

 I know this picture is blurry, but it is because she is hard to catch with the camera when she is so busy!   This picture shows just how much fun she is having (arms wide open, jumping and giggling/talking)!!!

 All smiles in her "Jump-Jump"

 She has been sleeping in her crib at night since May 10.  We stopped swaddling her on May 24 and the next day she had a really big change... no more pacifier.  We had to be the mean mommy and daddy at some point and take away the paci... we decided it would be nice if she wasn't attached to it (especially to the point that she needs it when sleeping).  She has done amazingly well without it. In fact, I am surprised how well she is doing.  We are all sleeping better at night when we don't have to go into her room in the middle of the night to put her "lost paci" back in her mouth!  Oh, and now she likes to surprise mommy and daddy by moving around in her crib, too.  She has often done a 90 degree turn, 180 or sometimes even a complete 360! This morning when I went to get Julia out of her crib she was sleeping on her tummy.  I guess she had rolled over! : )

 One of the newest milestones is rolling over from her back to her tummy.  She did it for the first time on June 1.  Since then she is a rolling machine.  She has rolled over from her tummy to back since Easter, but now that she can do both she is a mover.  She doesn't stay in one spot for very long when we put her on a blanket on the floor.  She is either rolling or scooting/inching her way to somewhere. 

Some other things about Julia at 5 months... she loves to sit up in the Bumbo seat, everything goes in her mouth, she likes to grab things, she is purposeful- knows what she wants, she wants to hold her bottle, she rocks herself in her bouncy seat (with her left leg kicking), she loves to touch faces and pull/hold mommy's hair. 

She is a wonderful and sweet little girl.  We are so thankful.  

Mommy's First Mother's Day and Julia's First Twins Game!

I had a wonderful first Mother's Day yesterday. Jeff and Julia spoiled me with a new cover for my phone and a dozen beautiful roses. We were also given tickets to the Twins game against Toronto for Sunday's game. We couldn't refuse the amazing seats. We sat 3 rows behind the visitor's dugout. It was a beautiful afternoon. Julia modeled her hat she got from Grandma and Grandpa Rudebusch when they were in Florida. We kept the sun off the little girl as much as we could and then I went in to the lounge for the middle of the game to get in the air conditioning for awhile. She was very alert for the last few inning and enjoyed standing on Daddy's lap while watching the players on the field and all of the other surroundings!

My day was perfect as I got to spend it with my sweet little girl and the best husband ever!

The only thing that could have made it better would have been to see our moms, but at least we were able to wish them a Happy Mother's Day!

You can see she is staring at the field, it was fun to see how interested she was in what was going on!

Not only did we have a great view of the game, but also of the downtown skyline! Beautiful!

My first Mother's Day!  I love being a Mommy.  It is the best job in the world!

Jeff carried her in the carrier.  She liked taking in the city on the way to the game, but fell asleep against Daddy on the way back to the car.  We put the sleeping baby in the car seat and she slept almost the entire ride home, too.

Happy Birthday Daddy plus Visitors from WA

Daddy turned 30 minus 1 (29) on Thursday!  We helped him celebrate by making a reallly yummy "Oreo" cake, going out to eat and opening gifts!  We love you and Happy Birthday!

Steph, Logan and Elaine spent the afternoon with us on Friday!  It was so good to see them. 

Logan and Julia were getting to know each other.  It seems Julia was more interested in her feet!

Logan liked Julia's flower and he also thought Julia's feet were pretty neat!

Sitting like a big girl!

Steph, me and our babies!

Getting to know Gus!

Before Julia went to bed last night she wanted some cuddle time with Gus.  She has started to become very interested in what he is doing and even tries to touch him.

Up until this point we have not really let Gus get close to Julia, but now that she is showing some interest we decided they could get to know each other a little more!  Gus came right over and cuddled with her.

"Wow, that dog is amazing!  : )  Give me some time to process all of this new information!"

A little of this and a little of that!

I have really started to pay attention to Gus and what he is doing. I even will giggle at him when he starts barking!

 First piggy back ride.... it must have been a rough ride as I am missing a sock!

 These were some pics to show how big I am compared to the teddy bear (I'm a little over 3 months old in these pics)

 I really like to chew and suck on my fingers now. They sure are tasty!

 Can you believe I can hold my head up like this, mom?

 Sometimes it gets to heavy, though!

I got really tired reading my book from Uncle Paul and Auntie Brieann... so I had to take a little nap!