11 months

11 Months

Clothes: The 6 month clothes are starting to get a little snug, but I'm in denial that my little girl is growing up. How is she almost already a year?

Sleep: She will have a couple great nights and sleep until 3 or 4 in the morning and then nurse back to sleep, but then she will have some terrible nights and be up every couple of hours or get up and want to play in the middle of the night. I'm hoping that one day soon the whole sleep thing gets better.

Milestones: She walks all over the place. She says "woof" "moo" "quack" "ooo-ooo" (monkey). She can sign eat, milk, all done, and we are working on please. She tries to mimic me when I make sounds. Waves hello, and bye.

Firsts this month:

• Walking
• Pointing to everything she wants
• BYU football game (gotta start them young) 
• Trying to use a spoon to eat food by herself

Likes:

• Reading books
• Being outside
• Taking baths
• The vacuum cleaner
• Getting into EVERYTHING
• Watching Curious George
• Climbing onto everything
• Watermelon, Nectarines

Dislikes:

• Going to church for 3 hours
• When I leave the room, she is fine when she leaves the room
• The blender
• Wearing a bib

Things I want to remember

• Lacey always scrunches up her nose and squints when people try to talk to her when we are running errands. She is super playful and waves at everyone she sees. 

10 months

10 Months

Clothes: She is wearing both 6 month and 9 month clothes. She will probably only fit in the 6 month clothes or a little longer.

Sleep: Sleeping is the one thing that I don't know if we will ever figure out. She will have a good night followed by a few bad nights. I'm really hoping that this whole waking up a few times a night is something that she grows out of sooner rather than later.

Milestones: She pulls herself up to stand everywhere she can and is starting to let go and stand by herself. She is crawling all over the place and she is quick. I look away for just a couple seconds and she is in another room. She took her first couple steps. She will give High Fives if you hold your hand out.

Firsts this month:

• Babysitter
• First Steps
• First PB&J sandwich
• Finger Painting with Yogurt

Likes:

• Reading books
• Being outside
• Green Beans and Peaches
• Taking baths
• The vacuum cleaner
• Swinging at the park

Dislikes:

• Going to church for 3 hours
• When I leave the room, she is fine when she leaves the room
• The blender

Things I want to remember

• Lacey was in the tub, and I had to run out of the room to grab something. I came back in 15 seconds later and she was out of the tub playing with the spring on the back of the door. I guess I need to be more careful.

It's been a great 4 years!

It's hard to believe that it has been 4 years since I jumped all in and married my best friend. I remember waking up early and trying on my wedding dress. I remember how nervous and how excited I was that I was getting married. I remember the chaos of getting pictures done, being late to our luncheon, and rushing around trying to get our reception set up before our guests arrived. I remember stopping at Taco Bell on our way to our hotel... and then realizing that Taco Bell probably wasn't the best idea on our wedding night. I remember thinking back on the day without any complaints, and being overwhelmed with the feeling that I had the perfect wedding day. I got to marry the person that I loved most in the world and still love with all my heart!

The past four years have lead us on an adventure that I could have never imagined, and this last year together has been my favorite so far.  We were blessed with the most beautiful little girl and changed from being a family of two to a family of three. We were able to make a couple trips back home to Utah and have some people come out to visit us in Milwaukee. We were able to move into a new (bigger) apartment. We were able to officially reach our half-way mark with Scott's schooling. 

Scott, I love you so much! Thank you for choosing me to spend the rest of forever with. Thank you for sticking by my side through thick and thin. Thank you for always supporting me, believing in me, and encouraging me to be my best self. Thank you for being such a wonderful daddy to Lacey. I can't wait to see what the next year brings us! I love you! Happy Anniversary!

9 months

9 Months

Clothes: She is finally out of her 3 month onesies and is now wearing both 6 and 9 month clothes. She is a little shorty so the 9 month bottoms are still too long for her.

Sleep: Sleeping is the one thing that I don't know if we will ever figure out. She will have a good night followed by a few bad nights. I'm really hoping that this whole waking up a few times a night is something that she grows out of sooner rather than later.

Milestones: She pulls herself up to stand everywhere she can and is starting to let go and stand by herself. She is crawling all over the place and she is quick. I look away for just a couple seconds and she is in another room.

Firsts this month:

• Brewers Game with Grandma and Grandpa Wright
• AJ Bombers, Sobelmans
• First step all by herself, but she hasn't done it since...
• Eating chicken
• Swimming in a pool

Likes:

• Reading books
• Being outside
• Green Beans and Peaches
• Taking baths
• The vacuum cleaner
• Swinging at the park

Dislikes:

• Going to church for 3 hours
• When I leave the room (She is fine if she is the one that leaves the room)
• Loud Noises
• Peacocks

8 months

8 months

Clothes: Carter's 3 months clothes still fit her, but I think that she will be growing out of them in the next couple weeks. She fits pretty well in 6-months clothes too.

Sleep: Every time I think that she is progressing in the sleep department we all get sick again. I am pretty sure we have been sick just as much as we have been healthy over the last 3 months. We are definitely going to have to do another round of sleep training. I need more sleep.

Milestones: She is starting to pull herself up into a standing position. She is crawling around and getting faster at it every day.

Firsts this month:

• Eating green beans and she loves them!
• First move to a new apartment
• Crawling
• Starting to clap, still will only do it 50% of the time
• First time pulling herself up by herself... on everything she can reach
• Going to the the splash pad

Likes:

• Standing up against things on her own, she is so proud of herself
• Being outside, she always calms down the second we open the door
• Going on walks in her stroller
• Riding in the toy car outside
• Any attention she can get from her mommy and daddy 
• Kisses from her mommy and daddy, she giggles and squeals the whole time
• Taking baths, now that she can sit really well on her own bath time just got more fun
• Feeding herself
• Loves the vacuum, if she is crying all I need to do is turn on the vacuum

Dislikes:

• Going to church for 3 hours
• When I leave the room, even if I wasn't playing with her at the time
• Sleeping longer than 2-3 hours

Things I want to remember

• When she gets excited she claps her hands or slaps her leg
• She is starting to understand anticipation and she gets so excited and squeals when you when you say "I'm going to get you"

7 months

7 months

Clothes: Lacey still fits really well in Carter's 3 month clothes, but I have been slowly adding her 6 month clothes into the mix because I am tired of her 3 month clothes.

Sleep: We recently just went to Utah to visit, which threw off Lacey's sleep schedule. We are working to get her back on track. I feel like our battle to get Lacey to sleep a decent amount is never going to end.

Milestones: She is great at sitting up all by herself. She is starting to "crawl" if you can call it that. She is also doing really well eating solid foods.

Firsts this month:

• First tooth
• First time eating cheerios
• First time eating watermelon
• First time sitting by herself in the tub
• First time meeting her uncle Parker, uncle Steve, and aunt Heidi
• Meeting her great grandma Nevada

• Playing soccer

Likes:

• Looking at herself in a mirror and giving herself kisses
• Being outside
• Being in her stroller as long as the sun isn't in her face
• Any attention she can get from anyone
• Eating food all by herself

• Kisses from her mommy and daddy, she giggles and squeals the whole time
• Sitting in the tub by herself and splashing. 

• Walking around, holding mommy's fingers
• Eating in her big girl chair (making a mess, I haven't let her get this messy since, haha.)

Dislikes:

• Going to church for 3 hours
• Green baby food
• Being held by other people when her mommy is standing there
• Being sick

Things I want to remember

• We watched our neighbor's little girl one day. Lacey was asleep when they brought her over, and when she woke up I put her down next to our neighbor. This was her reaction, she did this for like 10 minutes straight. 

• Lacey thinks that she is one of the big kids. Every time she sees any kids playing she starts kicking her legs, smiling, and giggling. She is so ready to be able to run around with all the big kids.
• Lacey absolutely adores our neighbors, Max, Luke, and Jack. Sometimes we can hear them in the hall when they are coming in from outside and Lacey will get a big smile on her face and start kicking her legs. 

Max, Lacey, and Luke

Jack and Lacey

Luke and Lacey

My Laundry Helper

6 months

6 months

Stats

Length: 24.5 inches

Weight: 13 lbs 7 oz

Clothes: Carter's 3 months clothes fit her really well right now, but the 6 month clothes are a little to big. Pajamas must run smaller because she is in the 6 month pajamas already.

Sleep: Just this past couple weeks we have given sleep training another go. Some nights she goes down without a peep where other nights she will cry for 10-20 minutes before she falls asleep. She is still only sleeping 3 hours at a time, but that is so much better than the 30 minutes to an hour that she was giving me. Now I need to figure out how to wean her off the night feedings.

Milestones: She is starting to get much better at sitting up on her own. We still have some work to do, but she does great sitting in a Boppy. She has started reaching for people(mostly me) when she is being held by people that she doesn't know.

Firsts this month:

• She scoots on her back to reach things over her head. I don't think she knows that she is moving, but between arching her back and straightening her legs she moves a little. 
• Swinging in the "big girl" swing at the park

Likes:

• Looking at herself in a mirror, she just squeals and kisses(licks/eats) the mirror
• Jumping in the Jumperoo, especially if there is a mirror in front of her. 
• Being outside
• Being in her stroller as long as the sun isn't in her face
• Any attention she can get from her mommy and daddy 
• Sucking on her bows. I don't know what it is about her bows, but she prefers them to any of her toys
• Kisses from her mommy and daddy, she giggles and squeals the whole time
• Taking baths

Dislikes:

• Going to church for 3 hours
• Green beans, Peas
• When I leave the room, even if I wasn't playing with her at the time

Things I want to remember

• Lacey loves to snuggle with me when she gets tired. 
• She is the most smiley baby that I have ever met, and she has learned how to squeal when she gets really excited. 

5 months!

5 months

Stats:

Length: 24.5 inches

Weight: 12 lbs. 7 oz.

Clothes: 3 month clothing finally fits her really well. She is in 6 month jammies because she's too long for the 3 month ones. We finally packed up the very last of her newborn clothes.

Sleep: Lacey is seriously one of the cutest, happiest babies, but... she needs to figure out how to sleep longer than an hour to an hour and a half at a time. There was a 2 week period that she did amazing, but now she is back to her old ways. We will be sleep training again really soon.

Milestones: She has started passing toys from one hand to the other. She does pretty well putting her binky back in her mouth when it falls out. She now reaches for toys that are out of reach. She is also learning to turn pages in her board books.

Firsts this month:

• First trip to Chicago/staying in a hotel/road trip/parade/temple  

• Eating baby food other than cereal
• Being in a "big girl" stroller

• Going the the zoo
• Eating sweet potatoes, zucchini corn and pears, and green beans
• Going to the dental school

Likes:

• Looking at herself in a mirror
• Her hands, they are always in her mouth, even when she is trying to eat
• Standing in her jumperoo, she hasn't figured out the jumping part yet
• Going for walks outside
• Being in her stroller
• Any attention she can get from her mommy and daddy 
• Reading books
• Sucking on her bows. I don't know what it is about her bows, but she prefers them to any of her toys

Dislikes:

• Going to church for 3 hours
• Being stuck inside all day (We are dying for the weather to get a little warmer so we can go outside more often)

Things I want to remember

• When we went to Chicago she was so happy to be in her stroller. She would just kick and squeal to herself. Her blanket kept falling down and almost dragging because she was kicking so much.

Chicago

We took our first trip with Lacey (other than going home to Utah over Christmas) over St. Patrick's Day weekend. Every year the river in Chicago is dyed bright green the Saturday before St. Patricks day. It was something that I wanted to be sure to see before we moved away from the Midwest. It was such a fun trip. We drove down on a Friday afternoon and were able to go to the temple. Scott and I switched off watching Lacey in the parking lot. I guess she wasn't too happy about me leaving (it was probably the longest I have left Lacey alone with Scott since she was born).

Not the most flattering, but Lacey's first trip
to the temple.

After that, we checked into our hotel. We shared a room with two other couples. Luckily, we found a hotel with two queens in one room, and a separate front room with a sofa bed.

For dinner, we went to the Shake Shack. We loved the burgers, but the custard we chose had big doughnut chunks and was kind of weird. We then went back to the hotel to put Lacey to bed while the other two couples went out to Navy Pier. Luckily, Lacey slept like a champ and only woke up twice the entire night.

In the morning, we snuck off early to grab some breakfast. Lacey is an early riser and we didn't want to wake up the other two couples.

Once everyone was awake we walked down to the river and down where the parade was. The river was much brighter than I was expecting it to be. It was really cool. The parade, however, was kind of lame. We were hoping for some fun floats. Apparently Chicago's idea of a float is a truck pulling a trailer with a banner of a politician hanging on the side.

Michael and Christie

Kedric and Kelli

Lacey loved being in her "Big Girl" stroller

No floats, just lots of walking people and political ads

Lacey was amazing the whole trip. She would laugh and giggle the whole time we were walking, and then she would take a little nap. It was so much fun having good weather and being able to be outside.

The streets were packed with people. Of course, since it is an Irish holiday, the majority of people started their day off with some morning cocktails. At one point we were crossing a busy street and the lady behind us not so quietly said, "I would NEVER bring my children to something like this, that's just bad parenting". I wish I would have thought of something witty to say, but instead we just ignored her.

We ended our trip with Gino's East for some Chicago Pizza. The pizza was good, but we prefer Giordano's crust.

4 months

4 months

She was born on the 29th so I don't know exactly when to consider her officially 4 months old (February 28 or March 1?) I cannot believe how fast time is going. Sometimes I am anxious for her to reach the next milestone, but most of the time I want her to stay little forever.

Three Month Stats:

Height: 23.5 inches (8%)
Weight: 11 lbs (1%)
Head: 16 inches (38%)

Clothes: I think we are almost ready to pack up all of our newborn outfits. I can squeeze her into newborn onesies, but the 3 month ones are so much easier to get on. I still use some of the newborn pants that are long enough because the 3 month ones are pretty big around her belly.

Sleep: She has good days and bad days. We are still working on the whole taking naps during the day thing. If she doesn't get a good nap then she is super cranky! Her nights have been going much smoother. I am usually up with her around midnight and then again around 4. That is so much better than it has been, so I can't complain. I still rock her or nurse her to sleep but sometimes she will wake up right when I set her down and she will fuss for a minute and then fall right back to sleep.

Milestones: She started rolling over (tummy to back)! I was so excited when it happened for the first time. She has only done it a handful of times, and I don't think that she has any idea what happened because she always looks super surprised. 

Firsts this month:

• First time rolling over

• Valentines Day
• First time finding her feet
• First Pedicure (I painted her toe nails pink)
• Being laid down awake and putting her self to sleep
• Being left with a babysitter
• Eating rice cereal and oatmeal cereal

Likes:

• Looking at herself in a mirror, one of her toys has a mirror and she just smiles at herself 
• Nursing to sleep, it's pretty much the only easy way to get her to fall asleep
• Her hands, they are always in her mouth, even when she is trying to eat
• Being held up in the air and rocked back and forth.
• Facing outward when being held
• Getting raspberries blown on her belly and thighs 
• Any attention she can get from her mommy and daddy 
• Standing up with help from mommy, daddy or her jumperoo
• Playing in her Swing
• Her little pink elephant that vibrates

Dislikes:

• Being burped
• Getting her diaper changed in the middle of the night
• Loud noises
• Being in her carseat when she is tired

Things I want to remember

• She will talk and talk when she first wakes up. She just looks at me and talks and giggles for 15 minutes when she is nice and rested. 
• She recently started to let us hold her facing us again. When she is super tired she will rest her head on my shoulder and snuggle for a few minutes. This used to never happen, she would scream if she wasn't being held face out (unless she was eating).
• I took Lacey to the grocery store, and got her all bundled up. She was pretty cute in all her winter gear and she was wearing a cute beanie that a friend made for us. We were chased out of the store by a lady telling us how adorable she was and how much she liked her little hat. I think that Lacey is the cutest girl in the world, and I will never get tired of other people telling me that they think that she is adorable too.

3 months

Three Month Stats: She doesn't go back in to the doctor until a little after 4 months,  so I'll update you on her stats then.

Clothes: She still fits in newborn onesies, but she is starting to grow into her 3 month clothes. She isn't drowning in them anymore. 3 month pajamas with the feet fit perfectly right now, so she will probably be too long for them soon.

Sleep: The last couple weeks she has had some sleep regression (that might be due to transitioning her into her crib.) Still waiting to get a couple long stretches of sleep at night. We have had too many nights of her waking every 30 minutes.

Milestones: She is batting at objects and it is definitely on purpose and not on accident. She grabs ahold of hey toys now and will put them in her mouth. She is laughing more often now, and is always smiling as long as she has gotten enough sleep. She is starting to roll to her side more often when we put her on the ground.

Firsts this month:

• First time getting a blessing
• Sleeping in her crib

• First time going to all 3 hours of church
• First Packers Game

• Got her first shots (She really didn't like it, but I think that I didn't like it even more than she did)
• First time getting sick, she had a fever and was throwing up. 

Likes:

• Looking at herself in a mirror, one of her toys has a mirror and she just smiles at herself. 
• Nursing to sleep, it's pretty much the only easy way to get her to fall asleep
• Being held while sleeping
• Her hands, they are always in her mouth, even when she is trying to eat
• Walking around the house with mommy
• Being held up in the air like superman and then lowered down for kisses.
• Facing outward when being held
• Getting raspberries blown on her belly and thighs 
• Any attention she can get from her mommy and daddy 

Dislikes:

• Being burped
• Getting her diaper changed in the middle of the night
• Loud noises

Things I want to remember

• Scott often talks in his sleep, but there was one night that he was sitting up in bed and kept flipping the comforter up in front of him. I asked him what he was doing and said he couldn't find Lacey's head. Lacey was in the rock and play beside the bed (where she used to sleep). When I asked him about it in the morning he said that he vaguely remembered it and he was so worried that he was holding Lacey and lost her in our bedding. 
• She always gives me the biggest grin when I go to get her when she wakes up.  She can be crying and as soon as she sees me she stops and just smiles at me. 
• When she wakes up to be fed in the middle of the night she talks from the second I walk in the door until I start feeding her. It is the most adorable little voice ever. 

Lacey's Blessing

Today we were able to bless Lacey at church. We debated about doing it while we were with family in Utah, but decided to do it here in our ward in Milwaukee because this is where all of our friends are now. The plan was to do it last week, but Lacey was a little grumpy because she had just gotten her vaccines.

I was so nervous that she would cry during the blessing. She is a really happy baby, unless she is hungry or tired. If she is hungry or tired, then the only thing that really helps to calm her down is for her to nurse. We got to church a little early so I got her dressed and then I nursed her so she would be as content as possible when it came time for the blessing. She was smiling all the way up to the time that she was blessed and she was perfect for the blessing. She is always so alert and she just looked around at the circle of priesthood holders as Scott blessed her.

Scott is seriously the best dad ever. He did such a great job, and the blessing was so sweet. Here are a few of the things that I remember:

• Know that she is loved by her Heavenly Father and He wants her to be happy
• Have the desire to read the scriptures and develop a testimony of her own 
• The ability to make friends and be an example and a light to them
• Physical Health
• Desire to make sacred covenants with our Heavenly Father, baptism and marriage in the temple.

I am so grateful to be a member of the church. I can't wait to teach Lacey about her Heavenly Father and how much he loves her.

I was able to make the blessing dress for Lacey. It didn't turn out exactly how I had pictured, but I'm a little proud of how pretty it turned out to be. My mom made my blessing dress, and I considered using the same dress for Lacey, but then decided to make her one.

Family Pictures

We had our first family pictures taken right after Thanksgiving. Let me tell you, it was more of a hassle than I was anticipating.

Lacey must have a sixth sense for when I am stressed. I wanted to make sure that Lacey was happy for our family pictures, so I showed up 45 minutes before our scheduled time to feed Lacey and put her in the outfit we picked out for pictures. I sat in the parking lot and started to feed her, but then she decided to poop. Not just a small one, but one that ran all up her back. I was cramped in the car, trying to quickly get Lacey out of her dirty clothes so that I could finish feeding her and get her into a clean outfit. I learned that it's a little difficult to change a baby's diaper on your lap in the car. I finished feeding her with just enough time to put on a clean outfit and get inside. As soon as I put her shirt on, she spit up all down the front of it. Luckily, I had a sweater that went over the top of it. As much of a hassle as it was, I think that we got some good pictures.

She was so happy and content until the end.