Happy Thanksgiving!

This year our little family was able to travel down to PA to be with my family for Thanksgiving.  It has been at least ten years since I was home for the holiday, so it was such a treat for me!  Hylie was excited to meet more of her cousins, Uncle Dean, Aunt Andrea, and Great-Grandma and Pap Pap, of course!  We were also able to finally meet Braddock--he sure is a handsome little fella!

We enjoyed eating way too much food, catching up with everyone, a little bit of crafting, getting hair cuts & being tutored on cutting hair (thanks Andrea!), and a Scrabble game with Janna.

Dean and Andrea had some extra tickets to the Phipps Conservatory and Grandma and Grandpa Nelson offered to baby-sit all 5 grand kids (all under the age of 5) while Grant, Rachel, Dean, Andrea, Geoff and I ventured out for a mid-day date.  It was a beautiful conservatory and as you will see, Geoff couldn't help but get in some of the shots to help 'add perspective'.

Thanks for a great Thanksgiving weekend, Mom and Dad.  We are so incredibly thankful for such a loving family who is always so fun to be around.  Looking forward to more visits!

Cousin Time

On Saturday Grant, Rachel and Eli came over to watch Hylie while Geoff and I went to the temple.  What a treat it was to enjoy a session and see the beautiful Chicago Temple.  When we got back we found out that Grant and Rachel had a pretty easy baby-sitting job, Hylie slept the entire time!

Grant and Rachel then took off to do a session, they came back and we all enjoyed dinner together and then Geoff and I continued to watch Eli while his Mom and Dad enjoyed a night in downtown Chicago.

Eli was a cutie and enjoyed getting acquainted with his little cousin.

After I put Hylie down for the night, I came out of the nursery to find Eli snuggled up to Geoff and was ready to call it a night as well!

Three Months

 Hylie turns three months old today.  Looking back at her pictures from birth to now, she has really grown and changed...and she's only just begun!  We sure love having Hylie around.  She is smiling more and more and has started to give us some giggles when she's really tired.  Another thing we absolutely adore is that Hylie is starting to 'talk'.  She coos and gurgles and just makes the greatest baby sounds that we could listen to all day.  For a while I was feeling pretty special when she'd be looking into my eyes and just jabbering away--thinking, this is great bonding time!  But that special feeling faded away when I watched her carry on a pretty intense conversation with the ceiling fan.  Oh well.

As stated in the last post, Hylie loves to suck her thumb, but she hasn't learned to be very subtle about it yet.  Whenever you hear a sound like someone is just finishing their favorite milkshake, but there are no shakes around, you can be pretty sure it's Hylie sucking away at her thumb.  It's particularly amusing when she does so in the quiet moments of Sacrament Meeting.

I almost hesitate to put this in writing, but she is sleeping really well at night.  To say the least, sleep deprivation was wearing me down, so it has been a huge blessing for now...we'll see how long it continues.  When she wakes up, instead of crying we'll hear her talking and moving around and it is just delightful...I wonder how long this phase will last, ha ha!  She's also started putting herself to sleep for naps.  I used to rock her to get her down, but she's been getting better at staying content in her crib and fading away on her own.  I sure miss the snuggle time...but I think in the long run letting her fall asleep on her own will be the better alternative.

Her typical tummy time position...she rarely lifts her head.

So that's this little lady in a nutshell for now!  

We sure are loving every moment.

Sleeping Beauty

Ever since birth, some of Hylie's sleep habits have caused Geoff and I to giggle.  One of the first things we noticed is that Hylie liked to sleep with her arms stretched above her head.  She STILL does this!

Because she would jerk quite a bit at night, her arms would wake her up, so we found swaddling would help her have longer sleeping spells...but the minute she'd wake up, the escape artist side of her would take over and you'd hear her grunting in her crib trying to work her way out of the swaddle.  It wouldn't be long before she'd tucker out from all the hard work and we'd find her sound asleep and literally 'caught' in the middle of her act.

Every once in a while, Hylie falls asleep while we're on the road...it's amazing how well she sleeps in her little 'bucket'.

One thing we love is that Hylie does like to snuggle.  We're hoping she'll want to do this for a LONG time!

Recently, Hylie's been a little more consistent at going for her thumb.  I was hoping I could distract her with a pacifier...but with no luck.  Yes, it's cute now...but this will be a hard habit to break!