A Few Forgotten Photos...

I haven't been taking as many pictures the past couple of months, but I did forget about a few that I had on my memory card. I have tried and tried to get the top ones to upload without being sideways, but I give up. Just turn your heads.

What a dollie! The tiny rocking chair is my mom's and was given to her by her grandmother. She loved that it was just her size. And oh, those faces she makes. I love this girl. Even when she's up at night it isn't so bad anymore. Maybe my body is finally adjusting, or maybe I am just learning how to chill out a little? Just maybe? :)

9 Months and Crawling!

Olivia is nine months today! She's more fun than ever and getting around the house really well! And yes, we are bribing her to crawl for the camera with a creamy :)

Chompers

Olivia got her first tooth last Thursday. While we were camping. Lovely. Woke up screaming like you wouldn't believe. I think the other bottom one must be on its way, because she is extremely fussy. AND...I've been mixing the soy formula with regular formula the last few weeks to see if her tummy could handle it. Well, it gave her bad gas, so I went back to straight soy. And she doesn't like it anymore! She got a little taste of the good stuff and won't go back. What a smartie! So I guess we'll go back to the mixing and hopefully her little stomach will get better with time!

Tyler moved down to BYU today. It's kind of sad thinking he's not at home anymore! All grown up. One day my parents will be empty nesters. One day when we all stop coming back. :)

8 Month ABCs

Olivia is officially 8 months old! Most other moms would be saying how fast the time has gone. But it's different for me. It feels like much longer than that, mostly because I just can't remember what life was like before she came to us. Such a beautiful girl, and we are so blessed to have her.

A: Still on her daily antibiotic for her ureter condition. At least she loves the taste of her medicine!

B: Bedtime is getting a little easier each day. Some days are a step backward, but she is mostly making progress in figuring out that we sleep at night!

C: Isn't crawling quite yet, but will be soon, from the looks of things!

D: Daddy's girl. There is a special smile that is for daddy only.

E: Full of energy!

F: Eating all sorts of foods! I haven't tried making my own baby food yet. Usually we have fruit for breakfast, veggies for lunch, and a mix for dinner.

G: Olivia loves being closer to all of her grandma's and grandpa's!

H: Such a happy girl! Smiling and melting stranger's hearts at grocery stores everywhere. :)

I: Not sure how many inches our little smiley is now, but should get that measurement again in a few weeks.

J: There is a jungle mobile that hangs over Olivia's changing table. It spins and plays classical music. It has saved my life because I turn it on and she doesn't try to squirm out of her diaper while I'm changing her!

K: Olivia now has TWO kitties to play with and she has a special noise she saves just for them!

L: I love our baby monitor. It has a camera that lights up for night vision purposes, but also doubles as a night light. Pricey little thing, but it has given me so much peace of mind since moving Olivia to her own room (thanks uncle Bri).

M: Mr. Mom is Ryan's title a few days a week right now...and I'm pretty sure Olivia couldn't be happier about that.

N: Naps are getting shorter thanks to the sleeping better at night. A little sad about that, but I guess I'd rather have her sleep at night.

O: Incredibly obsessed with Elmo. Elmo's song on YouTube has saved the day more than once.

P: Loves to suck on pickles. Probably all that vinegar isn't great for her tummy, but once in awhile when I'm working in the kitchen, it helps to keep her happy!

Q: Haven't weighed in lately, but pretty sure this little girl is up to about 18 pounds now. Growing too quickly!

R: One of Olivia's new tricks is to reach out, grab both my hands and pull herself up to standing. Great. She'll be walking. Soon. :)

S: Went in Olivia's room the other day after naptime to find her sitting up in bed. She's really figuring out how to move, and her latest and greatest is sitting up from a laying down position!

T: No teeth yet...but I think we're getting really close! The drool is EVERYWHERE!

U: Found a pediatric urologist up at Primary's...hoping to get her in sometime before Christmas for some follow up.

W: Gearing up for Olivia's first snowy winter. At least she's not a newborn...but I think I'll still be obsessed with bundling her up.

X: Our new neighbor Xander is a cute, curly-haired, new friend.

I am skipping 'y' and 'z' for obvious purposes. We must not use those letters much in our house, because my mind is completely blank!

Mid-West Trip

Our vacation was so special this year! We visited Grandma and Grandpa in Nauvoo, IL, and then headed to Saint Louis for a few days with Aunt Debra, Uncle Reed and many other of our favorite loved ones. We did a lot of fun things. But, in case you haven't noticed, I love bullet point posts, so here are a few hightlights from each state we visited:

• Nebraska:

Ryan-"That's the biggest John Deere dealership I've ever seen! Maybe we should stop and I'll have you take a picture of me on one of the combines!" I was less excited about the multitude of green tractors.

Jayelle-"Nothing but corn, as far as the eye can see."

Ryan-"Yeah, I keep expecting to see the Green Giant pop out at any moment. HOHOHO!"

Olivia's first hotel stay. Highly recommend the Oak Tree Inn if you're ever passing through North Platte, NE. LOL

Home of the longest stretch of road construction in the country. '2 miles of construction ahead' the sign said. It lied.

Ryan- "Hey! Cabela's! Exit 49!"

Jayelle- "No, I'm pretty sure the sign said Exit 89."

We never made it to Cabelas. I knew it said exit 49.

• Wyoming

Turns out Wyoming is really very anti-climactic after being in such pretty states all week. It was pretty in it's own way...pretty brown, that is.

• Illinois:

Illinois-home of the place in which I swore I'd never take a baby on vacation again. But it really wasn't bad. Olivia loved most everything we did.

Toll bridge crossing over the giant Mississippi River.

Birthday shopping at Kohl's. I now feel a little better equipped in the clothing department for my return to work. Thanks Grandma.

Beautiful historic sites in Old Nauvoo and Carthage.

My first time inside the Nauvoo temple. I'd go back just for that. It was beautiful in every sense of the word.

Amazing performances by Grandma and Grandpa in their musical productions.

Humidity unlike anything I've ever experienced. Thought I'd never be dry again. But it was worth it :)

• Missouri:

Pool at Aunt Debra's and Uncle Reed's home=nasty sunburn for Ryan and slight sunburn for me. Also worth it :)

Going up the Gateway Arch. 630 feet up in a little 'pod' of an elevator. Amazing structure.

Charming Charlie is this adorable little (big) accessory store. It's kind of like a giant Claire's only ten times better and with shoes and shirts. My parent's got me the cutest shirt and shoes for my birthday. It was such a fun store. A little overwhelming, especially for a non-shopper such as myself, but after you get over the massiveness of it all, it's fun.

St. Louis Cardinals baseball game for Ryan. 2 hour rain delay. Turns out the cheap seats are the only ones that are covered in a rain storm. Ironic. LOL

Flat tire on the way home for my parents. Don't try and get into a tire shop in St. Joseph, MO, on a Saturday. Impossible. Luckily, the Blazer has a full-size spare.

As Promised...

Ryan and I were engaged on July 28, 2006. Almost 4 years ago. It was such a wonderful time in my life! It involved early, long, tiring days at hair school and late nights with my sweetheart. Good thing we didn't date for very long, because who knows how long I would have been able to keep up the whole get up super early for school then stay up super late to be with Ryan routine :) My typical habit was to stay late at school to make up for my missed hours (since I was nearing graduation and didn't want to have overtime fees), put a few dollars in my gas tank with my tips from the day and drive to Erda as fast as I could (literally)! We watched movies, sat on the porch, talked. Makes me smile just thinking about it.

We had planned a weekend trip to Ryan's family's property at Bear Lake in late July. We were going to leave on Friday after I got done with school and stay until Monday. I called Ryan on Thursday night to see if our plans were still the same, and he was quite short with me on the phone. I thought for sure he was going to break up with me (Keep in mind that at this point we had been dating for only 2 months). I found out later that the reason he was so impatient on the phone was that he had been talking to his dad about asking me to marry him and didn't have much time to talk at that point.

I woke up with a terrible headache on Friday morning and decided not to go to school. And since I wasn't going to school, why not just go to the lake early? So we did (Ok, maybe my headache wasn't THAT bad). Only problem was that Ryan had arranged to pick up my engagement ring that afternoon before we were supposed to leave. And since I was with him and we were leaving early, he couldn't very well do that! So he had to make secret arrangements for his mom to pick it up. When we met his mom up at the lake, Ryan handed me some meat and asked me if I would go put it in the freezer. I thought it was a little weird, but I did as I was told (They had to get rid of me so that they could do the ring hand-off!).

I don't really remember the rest of the day, but that evening we decided to go down to the lake. Only you're not suppsosed to be on the beach after dark. Rules? What rules? So we started up the four-wheeler to head down the road. But this bike wasn't just any four-wheeler. It was a special bike that had to be jump started every time you wanted to go somewhere, and couldn't be turned off until you made it back home. We made it down to the beach on the noisy beast and left it running while we went for a quick little walk. We looked at the stars. Ryan said something that made me cry. And then he pulled a diamond ring out of his pants pocket. With the four-wheeler humming in the background, he asked me to marry him. :)

7 Months!

Olivia turned 7 months this last week! I am so excited for her to be growing big and strong, but I did realize how much she has grown after holding my 3-week-old niece. She really DID used to be that tiny! What?! She is doing so many funny and cute things! Here are some facts about Olivia at 7 months:

• Weighs close to 17 pounds

• Was diagnosed with VUR (vesicoureteral reflux) early in the month. She came down with a fever, tested positive for a kidney infection and had an ultrasound and dye x-ray to find the problem. Her bladder refluxes urine back into both kidneys, causing infection over time. Repeated kidney infections are not good for the kidneys (obviously) so she is on low-dose antibiotics (not crazy about this) until we can get into the urologist in a few months. Basically, baby with kidney infection=no fun for anyone, so we continue the recommended course of treatment for the time being.

• Sits up really well! She still tips over occasionally, but is better every day!

• We may have officially outgrown the Bumbo, but it will make one last hoorah to Nauvoo. Can't beat the compactness of the bumbo as a seat/highchair on the road!

• Sleeping through the night! Just kidding. Had to throw that in there. LOL (FYI: still waking up four+ times a night. Eats more in six hours at night than the rest of the day combined. Should fix that one of these days. But for now, I just get the bottles ready before bed and go with it. :)

• Eating solid foods like crazy, and loving them!

• Had her first Fourth of July and went to bed early :( The life of a baby. LOL

• Loves other kids. Like, a lot. Loves to share slobber. Delicious.

• Says "Mamama" all the time, but not sure she is really talking about ME. Still, I'd like to think all of that coaching has paid off. :)

• Has one Great Grandma Boehmer that cannot wait to get her hands on her!

• Will be taking her first real road trip this week to visit Nauvoo and St. Louis. Can't wait to meet/ see all of our loved ones!

• Olivia's favorite thing is to watch videos of herself on our phones. Her next favorite thing is to eat paper. I actually had Ryan google 'edible paper' today to see if there is such a thing. Turns out, there is! It's for cake decorating and such, but sounds like the perfect church toy to me. This baby has SO many toys, and yet, she chooses to love the cell phones and the paper. Why even bother buying toys, I say. Yum. Paper.