New stuff

Julia turned 5 months old last Tuesday. 5 MONTHS! I can't believe how fast this last month has gone. I had just gotten used to telling people she was 4 months old and the 22nd just snuck up on me. I think it went so fast because it has been the easiest month so far. Julia is getting on a little schedule and has been sleeping more and eating less often. This has made her time awake so much more fun! Her true personality is really starting to show itself and she is so much fun to be around! At least I think so (and I'm the expert because I'm around her pretty much every hour of every day.)

Here's some new stuff she's doing:

babbling a bit

blowing raspberries

going to the beach!

golfing (indoors) with her dad

rolling everywhere!

sitting (slumping) in her new high chair

sucking on her toes

getting her first stomach bug (this one stinks)

And here is a selection of the hundreds of pictures and videos we have taken in the past couple of weeks. You guys just don't know how many I edit out.

cool morning walk

Practicing standing up with LOTS of support

New high chair!

Golf session

Hanging out with her Grammy and Aunts Jeannie, Pam and Whitney and Uncle Jeff. She had a blast with them!

First time in the ocean!

Yum.

She's a little cuddlebug when she's sick.

A little of everything

It's so hard to keep up with everything that's been going on in our lives on this blog. I don't want every detail recorded but I would like to get the big stuff because I know how much I will love looking back on it later and because inquiring minds and out of town relatives want to know. So I end up with these large and infrequent posts that are full of random but good stuff (often forgetting important things like the awesome deck Nick worked so hard to get finished). Bulk blogging as Annie calls it. It feels a little disorganized but it's practical.

So anyway, here is the latest news, in no particular order...

This weekend Julia met her Uncle Andrew and Aunt Emily for the first time. They live in Virginia Beach and came for a visit so we all got together for a big family dinner.

Here she is meeting their puppy Romeo...just minutes before she dissolved into tears. She seems to be scared of most dogs that aren't Jack.

Finally got some good pictures with her G-pa and Memoe. She is with them so much, I just never remember to pull out the camera.

I love this picture. She was smiling up at Tim and Ellen caught her off-guard.

This was going to be an awesome picture before G-pa ran to get the door. It's hard to slow this guy down.

Meeting our friend Porky for the first time. She looks pretty tiny here. :)

Look at this sweet picture. Never noticed how much Ellen looks like her Aunt Whitney.

And, at the end of the night, when things are getting a little crazy and maybe you're a little fussy, Memoe's lap is a great place to be.

Okay, onto the next subject:

Our new deck!

I love this! Nick really did an awesome job on it! Those mums are still waiting to be planted because it has been raining during naptime for the last few days. Nick is also going to do a couple more things like move the steps. But it's pretty much done. It's definitely made our backyard a lot more fun. I know I said I would also update about the garden but there's actually not a lot of good news to share about it. Let's just say this wasn't really our year for produce. But we did learn a lot and next year it's going to be awesome!

And, finally, let's end with some sweet potato goodness.

We've been busy!

Here's what we've been doing:

Eating rice cereal and bananas and loving them,

Drinking water for the first time,

trying out a sippy cup,

Hanging out with Aunt Jami,

Posing for ALL of her pictures,

Entertaining Mimi and Pops,

Doing lunch with friends,

And loving the cooler mornings!