12 months!

Wow!! We finally made it to the 1 year mark! It came by soooo quickly and she is growing up so fast. She has brought so much joy, fun, laughter and so much more into our lives and we seriously wouldn't change it for the world.. She had her 1 year check up and she is 22 pounds at the 81 percentile and 30.5 inches and at the 91 percentile she grew 2 inches from her appointment in January, her head circumference is 18 inches and at the 72 percentile..

She's learned so much over the past month.. She started walking here and there before we left for vacation, but once we got to my Mom's she really took off, must've been all the extra room she had.. :-) She is fully walking now and crawling still too, but it's so fun to watch her walk. When she sees something on the floor she picks it up and gives it to us. She says Hi and waves to people, we'll be walking somewhere and she sees someone all of a sudden you hear her say Hi and see her wave so funny. she says Yeah, She started saying doggie, she now has 6 teeth, 4 on top and 2 on the bottom, She learned how to do this thing where she looks at you then turns her head away and then looks back quick at you again it's hilarious she was doing it on the airplane to the lady behind us. She points to everything, she's learned to climb up stairs and is a pro at it now and climbs up so fast. She got her 3rd cold of her first year, stuffy and first time with a cough...poor baby...  She learned how to stand up by herself without holding onto anything. Trying to climb up everything she is such a little monkey..

We had a Birthday party for Elycia in Wisconsin with friends and family! We did a Minnie Mouse theme she loves Mickey and Minnie so it fit perfect. Auntie Tara made her birthday outfit and put her first pony tail in on top of her head. We spent a long weekend in Wisconsin then, Auntie Chelsea, Auntie Hallie, and Grandma and Grandpa flew back with us and spent the week with us and Chelsea went back home. Elycia enjoyed her time with them. It was a rough time flying back home with Elycia she was so tired and think her ears were hurting from the plane cuz she screamed and screamed with her eyes closed and of course you can't get up and walk around with her, so Gil rubbed her ear and put her to sleep poor baby...

Gil started his new job over the past month and has been pretty stressed out with it, but hopefully over the next month or so he will be able to figure out what he's doing more and be able to be more comfortable in his new job and position.. He's already gotton 2 emails from his employees saying that he's doing a good job, so that was good for him. He's finishing up his semester of school then taking the summer off so he can focus on his job and get it all figured out so in the fall he knows what he's doing and can do school at the same time..

Starting off the first month of her first year and things are a little crazy. When she went to the Dr. she said she had a little bit of fluid in her ear and that it wasn't infected and sometimes it doesn't get infected. So the Doctor told us to watch her and if she gets a fever to bring her in cuz that would be a sign of an ear infection. So I went to work Friday morning and came back home and my Mom told me that she had been crabby and warm, so we went to my Aunts and did a little Easter Egg hunt and she would walk up to them and pick one up then sit and open it and go to a next one. She was still pretty crabby and didn't want to eat much. So we took her temp cuz she was warm and had a fever of 101. So I went to get her some meds, and decided while I was out that we needed to take her in cuz of what her Dr. said. So we took her to urgent care and found out she does have an ear infection so we picked up her meds, and have been fighting with her to make sure she gets it.. Hoping she's getting enough that it is helping her, she's not a big fan of her meds. I need to make a follow up appointment in a few days to make sure she's doing better. That was pretty rough for me, especially since Gil told me that his brother Logan is allergic to penicillin and looked like a tomato and when we picked it up from the pharmacy some guy in line was like is that amoxicillin and I said yup and he told me that his son had it when he was about her age and he broke out in hives and looked like an alien and I was like great...thanks guys for freaking out a worried mother.. Ha. But she seems to be doing fine with it so that's a relief. No tomato aliens over here! :-)

Now onto the good news! So many of you probably know from reading my blogs that Gil and I were looking into purchasing a 2 bedroom town home in Wellington which is about 10-15 mins away from where we are now and about 30 mins from his work, anyway we FINALLY found out our loan was approved about a week before our closing date.. our closing date is actually tomorrow Wednesday April 23rd. So we go sign our paperwork and then it is all ours! We are so excited!! This is definitely not our forever home, but at least until he's done with school and then we shall see where he gets a job at and go from there. So my Mom and Frank helped pack up a few boxes while they were here which was nice, so now I have to started getting everything packed up so we can move this weekend. should be fun.. Ha. We are excited for this next chapter in our life... We will be saving money and have our place we can make our own. :-)Now to get things packed up and figure out how we are gonna get everything packed up and moved over to the new place. so stressful.. Who wants to come help us?! Ha

11 months

Wow!! How can it be that our little girl is 11 months old already!?!? We are 1 month away until 1 year old....It's crazy how fast time is going by (Gil has some theory about it a space/time continuum/ temporal siphon blah blah blah or something...ha ha), but I wouldn't change it for the world. It's amazing how much love you have for someone so little and watching her grow is my favorite thing to do...

Last month I forgot to mention how she plays with her paci and turns it around in circles when in her mouth... She will sometimes put her paci in our mouth....Also forgot to add that she is figuring out how to climb up onto things to reach (like her wipes container she steps up on to reach things on the coffee table), She had her 2nd cold, and is getting more and more sassy of a personality everyday (Gil says it's not his fault....yeah right!) and She's been recognizing her name more... She's been loving to grab the back of her hair and pull it sometimes, silly baby..... ;-)

This past month she is pulling herself up on everything and standing better alone.. Learning to climb up things. When she stands up she hangs onto things and walks she's such a fast walker that way... She took her first steps... We are trying to work on her more with walking but seems it has to be her idea.. She's also eating more foods. She's talking more and recognizing things like dogs, mommy and daddy, she recognizes people she knows... She loves dogs and tries saying dog and she also tries saying Mickey when she sees Mickey Mouse... She's still got her little attitude where she screams at us. We are working on her with telling her no when she does that.. She knows when she's not supposed to be doing something cuz she'll look right at us and smile and then keep going when we tell her no.. She's got her waving down and also clapping. She enjoys trying to make us clap too. We are working on her blowing kisses she kinda just puts her finger to her mouth and licks it.. Ha.. She's always loved being outside (just like her Daddy), so we try taking her out as often as we can when it's nice out whether it's to a park, going for a walk or just outside walking around the apartments. She loves dancing to songs. She loves her Mickey and Minnie still... definitely more and more of a sassy personality everyday and keeps us busy all the time.. She tries doing motions to the itsy bitsy spider song sometimes and patty cake too... We just started doing This little piggy song with her toes.. She learned how to drink from a straw her first time was when we went on a walk and stopped at 7/11 and got a Slurpee and Gil wanted to try to see if she'd drink it (Classic Gil...) she talked and laughed while it was in her mouth then realized she could suck it and boy did she learn quick. Ha. She's been sucking on the apple sauce containers too and loves those and the yogurt tubes.

We are working on planning her 1st B-day party in Wisconsin then another one here in Colorado... We are doing a Minnie Mouse theme for her and I'm so excited, I've got so many ideas I wanna make for it so i gotta get going with it here soon.. It's gonna come by so quickly... :-(

If you've been reading my blogs you know that we are on a search to purchase a home for us and try saving a little bit of money especially since we are paying about a thousand dollars for rent here... We've been looking at this town home in Wellington (10 miles North of us) and we really liked it. It basically fits our needs now and will be close enough while Gil is in school. So when we first started this journey we put an offer down and was accepted so we were trying to get our loan all set up and turns out the bank we were looking into wouldn't give us a loan because of a silly policy they just started in January about investors and how many properties they own in the area... So we started looking at other homes that were bigger with nice yards and would fit our needs and wants for a while, but with Gil not knowing where he will be getting a job after school we decided we don't need anything too big right now even though it would be nice... So we talked with our realtor and she said she found a way that we could get the town home if we still wanted it since it was still available.. So we decided even though it's a little further away from Gils work and closer to his school it would work out.. We put in our offer again and got accepted and got pre-approved for a USDA loan and now hoping everything goes smoothly and with the close date set at April 23rd, everything should continue to work out.. Keep us in your prayers as we make this new transition... ;-)

Gil got offered a new job position too, he will be working at a different hospital about 25 mins away, mostly highway drive from the town home we are trying to get.. He will be a supervisor for the phlebotomy department for that hospital and he starts the end of March. He's nervous about starting it but I know he will do a good job at it. He's still in school right now and he's on spring break this week so that's a nice break for him. We've just been busy with all this new stuff we are going through.. Gil says this is our year of first's that everyone goes through we just happen to be going through it in our 3rd year of marriage.. Our first birthday, our first home, Gil's first supervisor position.. He was given an Ipad along with the promotion and Elycia loves it especially the case to it, we downloaded a few things for her like sing-a-long songs like abc and 123's and she plays with it, but mostly the case she likes. silly baby...We Love her so much! ;-)

10 months

Wow 10 Months we are 2 months away from the 1 year mark.. Hard to believe she is going to be a year in 2 months... She has brought so much fun and excitement each and everyday.. She is just the sweetest little girl ever.

This past month she has been trying new foods. We've been working on her with "real" people food.. She's been eating avocados, bananas, peaches, pears, kiwi, pasta (red and white sauces), toast, pancakes, French toast, Mashed potatoes, cheerios, graham crackers, pickles, and many more foods.. I don't think she eats very much of it we usually find a lot of it on the floor or by her butt in the highchair. She's been a stinker with her milk, not drinking very much at a time, sometimes she does, but usually just a little. We bought her a new baby monitor one that has a camera, usually at night she makes noises so it helps us to see her instead of waking up and checking up on her in her room.. we usually turn the monitor on sleep mode when she sleeps anyway so not like we sit and watch her the whole time.. lol.. She isn't walking yet, but she is definitely holding onto things and walking while holding onto things. she doesn't really like to stand unless it's her idea.. sometimes we can get her to stand, but usually she doesn't want to. Ha. She's been doing better with her nap times and sleeping an hour-2 hours sometimes, just depends how tired she is.. she loves to play in the kitchen with the cupboards, and pull out the drawer under the stove. loves exploring the apartment and follow us when we leave the room.. it's funny when she decided to go exploring and we watch her we will either tell her to come here or no and she stops looks at us smiles and keeps going other wise if we go get her she just crawls faster so we can't get her.. definitely keeps us on our toes.. Ha.  She's got down the waving buh bye, and Hi to people sometimes she just waves for the fun of it.. It sounds like she says Hi to people sometimes.. She's learning how to clap, and she loves to dance to music now.. She gives kisses on her time, when she wants. usually just randomly she opens her mouth and brings her face to you for kisses.. We celebrated her first Valentine's Day the day before she turned 10 months. She loves to find a blanket or pillow and just lay down on it for a little while and we say Night Night to her and she smiles and sometimes stays there or gets up.. She still loves to play peak a boo.. anything she finds her blankets, her shirts she picks up and plays, She LOVES her rocking horse she got for Christmas from Auntie Chelsea and Uncle Luke she sits on it and can rock it forward she doesn't sit long, but she likes it. Gil found a keyboard in our closet he took out to practice his piano for school and she loves playing it she knows which button to press for it to make music and she dances to it.. So funny...She's even learned how to turn around and crawl off our laps to get down off the couch. Sometimes she'll crawl off the couch and then want back up again and if we don't pick her up she gets sad like she doesn't know what she wants.

Gil is working hard at work and school.. We are still in the process of trying to figure out where we are going to be living the next few years while he will be here in school.. We've looked into how much we can qualify for and now we are looking into purchasing a place to live for the next few years until he's done with school and we know for sure where he will be getting a job at. Not anything new with me. just old stuff.. Ha. I am working on planning Elycia's first birthday party in Wisconsin April 12th and then will plan working on doing a birthday party for her here in Colorado too probably beginning of May still need to work out those details too.. We will be in Wisconsin for a short weekend for her birthday party we leave Friday Morning April 11th-Monday night April 14th just in time to come back for her first Birthday. Please keep us in your prayers over the next couple months as we figure out housing situations and work situations as well. Gil is taking Piano lessons as a class for school this semester and so he has a recital he will be playing the first week in May if anyone wants to come watch. ;-) I am thinking of doing Elycia's Colorado birthday party that Saturday as well will be sending invites for that too.. So much is going on right now it's crazy, but so exciting at the same time..

9 Months

Wow! 9 Months old only 3 months left until she is a year old! Hard to believe she's almost a year! Her 9 Month check up went well.. She is 19 pounds even and at the 64th percentile, she is 28.5 inches and at the 82 percentile, and her head is at17.5 inches and is at the 67th percentile. She is growing like a weed. Ha.

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Over the past month we've done quite a bit.. Last month was obviously Christmas! We took Elycia on her 1st Road trip and drove to Wisconsin to spend her first Christmas with family. She did soooo good...She would sleep most of the time and would cry when she was hungry or needed to be changed. She was totally a ROCK STAR!! On the way back home from Wisconsin we had Auntie Hallie come with us and travel with us, she spent a few days with us once we got back and then she went home New Years Day! It was fun having her with us and she entertained Elycia when she would get fussy which wasn't to often, but I'm sure Elycia enjoyed the company in the back...I failed at Christmas this year because we didn't send out Christmas cards, cuz I was waiting for her to turn 8 months so I could take her Christmas photos and then we got them taken and just ran out of time to make them and get them sent out...So I was gonna make them once we got back from vacation and send out  Christmas New Year cards, but we didn't do that either...oh bother... :-( 
Elycia had her first New Years Eve, and we had our 3 year wedding anniversary, we spent it with Auntie Hallie and our neighbor friends, we even took her to see fireworks and she didn't get scared she just stared trying to figure out what they were.. We made Elycia a shirt that said I survived 2013 and I made her my first tutu..
She had so much fun during Christmas time! She helped un wrapped a few gifts, but mostly had fun with the wrapping paper playing with it, trying to put it on and over her head.. Ha.. We spent some time with Elycia and my family at her first water park hotel, she loved playing in the pool with her floaty tube we got her and the little baby swings they had there too..

Over the past month she's learned how to go from her crawling position to sitting on her bum, she loves to sit on her knees, She's getting more and more of a sassy personality, she likes to scream when she's mad or we take her away from somewhere she's not supposed to be or play with. She's adventured out in the apartment and crawls all over the place instead of staying the living room where all the toys are.. She will follow us around if we leave the room, She is balancing herself standing up without help for a few seconds up to a minute, she's becoming more and more brave and when she stands herself up by holding onto something she will just let go and when she realizes she's standing up by herself she falls onto her butt.. Ha.. She's learned that behind the door in our room there is the door stopper and she likes to sit there and play with it. It's getting harder and harder to get her to bed, but she has been just recently taking longer naps then 30 mins sometimes she sleeps an hour-2 hours it's crazy, but nice too.. She's got 4 teeth she  had her 2 front teeth coming in Christmas time, so now she has 2 top and 2 bottom. When she is standing holding onto something she walks along things. She says Da-Da, everything is Da-Da when she talks. getting more vocal as the months go by.. sometimes we think she says other words when she's talking but just Da-Da.. She's learned how to wave sometimes we catch her just randomly waving it's funny.. She doesn't like to sit still long, she likes to be on the move... She LOVES her books mostly just playing with them (or eating them), then we try reading them to her and she doesn't wanna listen to us read them just wants to play with them...She is becoming more and more harder to change her diapers or clothes for that matter, she hates that the clothes go over her head. Ha. and when we change her diaper she hates sitting still sometimes we have to give her the paci in order for her to sit still or a toy. We have to watch her hands when we change her especially if it's poopy she likes to grab the diaper or put her hand down there in the way.. She's been happier when she wakes up in the mornings and during naps. sometimes she wakes up crabby, but hey don't we all.. ;-) She usually sits in her crib and talks for a few mins it's so funny listening to her through the monitor.
Now that she is 9 months old I asked the Dr. if it's ok to start giving her table food, cuz she likes to grab the spoon as we feed her and she said it was she mentioned a few things we can give her, but said whatever she can gum, she can have.. What kinds of foods did you feed your baby when they were able to get real people food.. Not really sure what to start her on first... She loves to jump when she's standing and in her jumper, she still loves Daddy playing his guitar and singing to her sometimes it sounds like she's singing along with him.. She starting to learn to dance with the music..

Gil is starting back at school, he's taking a piano lessons class and a biology class this semester so he will be on campus at the community college this semester and hopefully be at CSU this fall doing Full time classes.. I am in the mean time gonna look for a full time job so when he goes full time school he will be able to work part time while going to school and we will still make it here.. Ha.. We are trying to get him done with school in the next 2 years instead of 4 years.. Our lease is up at the end of March so we are in the midst of looking for a new place to live which will be cheaper or just staying here.. We did look into a 3 bedroom condo/townhouse, but he was gonna raise the rent higher then we thought and more then we are paying now. So our next option we are looking into is buying a mobile home so we can pay less "rent" and be able to save money too. We are also looking into to see how much we can qualify for to see if we can't get a house hoping our rent will be cheaper that way and save some money. Not really anything going on with me. Not getting many hours at Kohls so that's another reason to look for another job. Please keep us in your prayers that this will out work out for us that I will find a full time job, and we will figure out what our living situation will be, and Gil getting done with school as soon as possible so we can live our life and he can start with his career that he wants to do..

Recipes

I've been trying a few new recipes and I've had some people ask for the recipes, so I've decided that as I try new recipes during the week at the end of the week I will be posting a blog with the recipes so if you are interested in making it yourself you will be able to instead of searching through my Pinteret which is were I'm been finding my new recipes. I've also started a board on my pinterest (if you follow me you can find it)that says Made It! (Food) I will be putting the food I've made already on there too.. So to start off my blog I will post what I've made this past week and the recipes.. I will post the websites that I found them at too if you want to look at those..

Slow Cooker Chicken Pot Roast


 This turn out pretty good and moist.. The only thing about it was the skin was soft not "hard" like it would be at the store if you'd buy one. Gil thought maybe you could broil it for a few minutes after it's cooked it would harder up the skin if you like it that way..
 
http://skinnyms.com/slow-cooker-chicken-pot-roast/


Servings: 6 | Calories: 178 | Total Fat: 3 g | Saturated Fats: 1 g | Trans Fats: 0 g | Previous Points: 3 | Points Plus: 2 | Cholesterol: 37 mg | Sodium: 304 mg | Carbohydrates: 2 g | Dietary fiber: 3 g | Sugars: 3 g | Protein: 16 g




Ingredients
1 large roasting chicken
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons fresh thyme
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
Kosher or sea salt to taste
2 stalks celery
1/4 cup water (optional) We added half a can of Chicken Broth instead of water 1 cup baby carrots 2 medium potatoes, cut into 1" cubes




Directions


This beautifully browned chicken was cooked in my Set 'n Forget Slow Cooker. I love this slow cooker because you simply add the chicken, put the probe in the fatty part of the thigh and set the probe to 165 degrees. The chicken cooks to the set temperature and switches to warm when done. Rinse and pat dry chicken. Rub the outside of chicken with olive oil. Combine spices and rub on the outside of the chicken. Place minced garlic in the cavity along with a little more salt and pepper. Add water to the slow cooker, next the celery and the chicken on top, breast side up. The celery prevents the chicken from browning too much on the bottom. Add carrots and potatoes around chicken. Cover and cook on low 4-6 hours or until chicken has reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees and veggies are tender. Use a meat thermometer to check for doneness or pierce with a fork, to make sure the juices run clear. For extra browning, carefully remove chicken from the slow cooker, place in a large roasting pan and broil until desired color has been reached. Garnish chicken with fresh thyme, if desired. Note: Adding water is not necessary, but I like to add 1/4 cup for additional moisture. Tip: Cook with skin for additional moisture...just be sure to remove and discard before serving. With the Chicken I made up some Potatoes..

http://www.budgetsavvydiva.com/2012/06/parmesan-roasted-potatoes/


Parmesan Roasted Potatoes Gluten – Free




Ingredients
•2 pounds red potatoes, quartered
•1.5 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
•½ teaspoons garlic Powder •Salt – to taste
•½ teaspoon of pepper •1.5 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese




Instructions


1.Preheat oven to 350. 2.Place all ingredients in a medium bowl and stir. 3.Bake uncovered for about 40 minutes or till golden brown. 4.Enjoy!


They didn't really cook to well for me they were kinda hard only a few soft ones.. I might have cooked them to long also I didn't have red potatoes so I used regular brown potatoes, next time will try making them with the Red Potatoes.. Maybe that makes a difference.

The Next thing I recently made was the Oven Toasted Ravioli Recipe: (Serves 4-6)


http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/10/oven-toasted-ravioli-recipe.html




Ingredients:


1 (20 ounce) package refrigerated ravioli (found in the deli section)
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
3/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
Nonstick cooking spray




Directions:


Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Whisk together egg and milk in a small bowl. In another bowl, combine bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese. Dip each ravioli in the egg mixture and coat in the bread crumb mixture. Place on an ungreased baking sheet. Spray ravioli with cooking spray. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden grown. Serve with marinara sauce for dipping. These were good too also another one that I think cooked to long cuz they were hard too.. But still good.. We used the 5 cheese ravioli the ones we bought didn't have much cheese in them so Gil wasn't to big of a fan, but he still liked them.. They reheat pretty well too..

8 months

Our little girl is now 8 months old.. I know I probably say this every blog, but she's getting so BIG so fast and growing so fast.. Can't believe it's been 8 months already.. The last month has been kind of crazy (aren't they all crazy? lol) and I didn't even post the blog I had written so I can going to post it when I post this blog. Last month started off with Elycia getting the Flu as I mentioned in the last blog it was a long couple of weeks as she got better.. Then Gil got it one night I had to make a 2 or 3 o clock trip to the store for some things for him.. I am just glad I didn't get it too.. We hope everyone had a GREAT Thanksgiving. We went to my Sister Chelsea's house and had lunch with her, Luke and Luke's family.. We had to leave early cuz I had to work Thanksgiving Night at Kohls which was pretty crazy.. But we had a good time spending it with them.. Elycia had a bad night while we were there.. We think she just wasn't sure where she was and she feel asleep ok, but woke up a couple hours later and screamed for an hour on and off.. finally we just laid her on the air mattress with us and she cried a little rolled over and laid her head on my chest and then went right to sleep...It was a rough start to Thanksgiving. ;-) Over the past month she's learned how to actually crawl the right way except when she Army crawls cuz she can get places faster, but now she's doing better at the crawing.. She's learned to pull herself up on things, I've seen her try to walk along the side of things as she stands, She learned how to put her paci in her mouth and sometimes puts it in sideways, upside down or right side up too. We've been giving her fruits just like last month but now we are taking it slower and introducing her to fruits one at a time to make sure she doesn't have an allergic reaction and if she does we'd be able to pinpoint the cause faster.. So we gave her pears while she was sick and she liked them, tried bananas and she likes those too, so sticking with those for a while.. She's on 7 ounces of milk, which is either a hit or a miss sometimes, she might only drinks 6 and then sometimes she drinks the whole 7.. We've been trying to give her fruits in the morning and veggies at lunch and dinner.. We moved her bed down all the way since she's standing up in her bed.. We took her to see Santa and she wasn't a big fan of him, not even when we sat there with him.. Ha.. She's a big fan of growling at people or things it's so funny, she's got her 2 bottom teeth in and she started getting her first top tooth now she's getting them both in.. she's reaching more for us when we put our hands down.. Loves looking in the mirror, she is better at holding her bottles and holds them one handed sometimes.. She tried graham crackers and cheerios for the first time and she seemed to like those.. She loves Mickey Mouse all you have to do is show her a picture of him and she gets all excited.. She also loves the Christmas tree, she loves grabbing it and pulling stuff off of it.. She still loves bath time and has learned how to splash in the water and loves it.. She opens things with her teeth like her wipes container and her puffs container. We took her to a Christmas Tree farm with my Aunt, Uncle and their 2 boys.. She wasn't so sure about it at first she was all snuggled up to Gil and then I started talking to her and we were able to get her to turn around and look and then she got all excited and started talking, screaming, and just loving being outside.. Yesterday I was laying on the floor and Gil was sitting near me and Elycia came over to me and used me to help her stand next thing we know she's still a little wobbly and she's standing up by herself as she wobbles Ha.. for like 5 seconds she was doing it.. I'm a Proud Momma! Gil finished his semester of School, now he's done until it starts up again after the new year.. We are heading to Wisconsin tomorrow night to spend sometime there for Christmas (SO Excited!).. We will be driving tomorrow night to North Platte NE and staying the night then we will leave Thursday to drive to Lacrosse to stay the night at Gil's friends place and then head to the Dells Friday afternoon to meet up with my family.. It will be fun.. Please keep us in your prayers for traveling it will be Elycia's first LONG road trip too, so hopefully she will do well.. We hope you all have a Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We are still working on Christmas cards, yes I know its almost Christmas, I'm pretty sure it sneaked up on me this year.. Ha..

7 Months

Our Baby Girl is 7 months old already not only is that crazy, but even crazier to think we've been parents for 7 months too! Wouldn't have it any other way! God has seriously blessed us with her and we just love her to pieces.. Over the past month Elycia has been growing more and more everyday and learning new things...if we thought she was talking more before, well now she's really talking sometimes we think we know what she's saying.. Ha.. She's talking just about all the time at home and in the car not so much when we go other places...We think she's gonna be one of those babies that talk talk talk and then when we go somewhere she doesn't talk. lol.. She has started this new thing when we go places and she hears people talking to us or her she gets her shyness on and puts her head down on us and snuggle it's so cute and funny... sometimes she'll even look at us first to make sure it's ok and then she snuggles up.. She has taught herself how to pull herself up on things and stand up... She's constantly pulling herself up all the time.. She loves when Gil has his guitar out and sits on the floor with her and plays and she comes over and pulls herself up on his guitar. We've put her matress down to keep her from climbing out (hopefully).. She's fully sitting up by herself, she's still doing the Army crawl she gets up on her hands and knees and tries to move and she ends up just face planting and then does the Army crawl.. sometimes she can figure out how to move and move a little.. We've tried her on Fruits, she's not to excited about her fruits doesn't really care for them to much, but she LOVES her vegetables which is good.. I think her favorite is Sweet Potatoes. She's got her 2 bottom teeth in Gil says he thinks maybe some on the top will be coming in soon.. Tried her on the puffs, she wasn't so sure about them and she kinda gagged too, I've decided we need to start breaking them up in little pieces instead of giving her the whole thing like we were doing.. Sometimes it sounds like she says da da and mom and anything else we think it sounds like she says... lol She LOVES to suck on her bottom lip. She sometimes gives kisses.. She'll open her mouth and lean towards your face with her mouth open and kisses. Ha. She's learned how to throw tantrums.. She throws her head back and cries when she's mad or just cuz she feels like it... We took her to a Pumpkin patch and got some pumpkins, she loves being outside! We dressed her up as Cinderella for Halloween took her out trick or treating with some friends of ours and no-one would give her candy they would all say how cute she is, but didn't have anything for her.. lol.. We carved a pumpkin with her hand and foot prints. Elycia and I have been going to MOPS every week, they say she does good in the Nursery. It's been fun for us to go and meet new people and kids. It's a little late post just because it's been crazy here.. We started off her 7 month off with the Flu which was pretty scary for me.. Gil was at work and I was feeding her carrots, and she ate a few of them and then started gagging so I stopped and tried her bottle she wasn't to interested in it so I gave her the paci and she just laid with me sucking her paci for a while then I decided to try her milk again and she didn't want it, next thing I know she's throwing up all over me.. and then I cleaned her up and put her to sleep on me when she woke up she puke like 4 more times. Then as soon as Gil walked into the door his welcome home gift was more puke and he says get her to the tub I said you drop everything and come get her cuz I was so scared. So I told him I was calling urgent care since her clinic was closed and explained everything and they said they wanted to see her to make sure she wasn't dehydrated. So we brought her in and they gave her a shot of Zofran to help with her nausea and told us to give her Pedialite.. We gave her some when we got home and she went right to sleep poor baby was tired between that shot and puking.. I had called the nurse the next day to make sure how much pedilite she can have and how often. she told me basically as much as she wants as often as she wants and wanted to try like 3 ounces of milk little at a time to make sure she could handle it.. she seemed like she handled it ok, so Saturday we tried giving her more and she wasn't to interested in it.. I was afraid to give her the milk since I got puked on all that time so I made Gil do it.. so when I got home from work that evening and she woke up we tried giving her more, but she wasn't to interested so we waited until dinner was done and then I tried giving it to her and she didn't want it and then she puked again.. SO we had to start all over on the pedialite and give it to her for a full 24 hours to make sure she was ok.. So Sunday was a day full of pedialite and a some sweet potato puffs and a little bit of pears.. and she seemed to do well with those. so we have slowly added milk back into her diet a little at a time until she can handle the full 6 ounces she was getting again.. She seems to be doing better with her milk so that's good.. a little spit up here and there, but not to bad.. Then Gil got sick Monday Night! ugh.. Ha so he stayed home from work yesterday and is now feeling better (Gil would like to point out that it was his first call-in in over 2 years).. Just hoping I don't get it now.. So please pray I don't.. we are heading out this evening in a couple hours to drive to Chelsea and Luke's house for Thanksgiving tomorrow then we have to leave after lunch around 2 or 230 because I have to be back to work at 7 since they are opening at 8.. :-( I decided to work that shift since it would get me some extra money since I haven't been getting many hours.. and that 2 years I've worked the beginning shift and kinda liked it compared to during the day on Black Friday...So hopefully It won't be to bad I have to work until 4am Friday morning unless I get set home early who knows.. should be interesting.. We are just gonna stay home this weekend with Elycia and Gil being sick just having a low key weekend and putting up our Christmas Tree and decorations.. SOOO Excited!! I LOVE this time of the year it's my favorite! Elycia, Gil and I will be coming back to Wisconsin leaving here on the 19th I believe and staying until the 27th I think we are gonna drive so it should be fun.. ;-)