10 Months

Hylie's on the road to toddler-hood, that is for sure.  Now that she's mobile, her curiosity has sky-rocketed and mom's ability to distract Hylie with toys has plummeted.  She is loving her new-found independence of following mom around and getting into anything and everything.  She also loves to have books read to her and even helps turn the pages.  Hylie's favorite toys are not toys.  Hand her a spoon, plastic lid, keys, etc. and the kid is entertained for hours.  Hand her a baby toy and the thing is abandoned in .02 seconds.  Ha ha!

Hylie continues to love solid foods and is getting to be a pro at grabbing bite-sized pieces from her tray.  Her current favorite foods are strawberries, string cheese, and spaghetti.

She also loves styling her hair with sticky fingers!

Teething has been a little rough this month, only 4 teeth are out which means many more are still to come!  When she's not teething, she sleeps really well, so mom and dad are hoping the future teeth pop out quickly and painlessly.

Taking pictures is getting trickier and trickier.  Hylie no longer finds interest in looking at the person calling her name because there are too many other interesting things that need to be checked out.  If we get a smile, it's amazing.  If we get a smile while looking at the camera, it's a miracle.

Not very many amazing miracles happened during this last photo shoot...

Happy Father's Day!

We weren't able to take a picture on Father's Day due to someone's crazy nap schedule...

For Geoff's first Father's Day we celebrated with one of his favorite meals (tacos!) and Hylie and I presented him with his favorite presents: EDIBLE GIFTS!  Ha ha!  We just loaded him up with chocolate and candy to thank him for being such a sweet father.  Truly, Geoff has embraced fatherhood and brings so much joy to Hylie and me.  He is a wonderful provider of not only our material needs, but of great laughs and comfort, too.

We have also been deeply blessed by our fathers and grandfathers.  What a legacy we have and we are so grateful for the wisdom and examples they all share.  Thank you for enriching our lives in so many ways through your love and support.

Box Building 101

When Hylie was born we got her a handy-dandy "Travel System" which included a stroller, car seat and base.  This package deal has worked out wonderfully for all our traveling needs...until recently.  The mechanism that makes the stroller collapse stopped working.  (And yes, I was at the store when that happened so I had to figure out how to fit a large, upright stroller in my compact car while it was raining!)  When we contacted the company about our problem, they let us know it was not repairable and they would pay to ship it back to them and then we would receive a refund.  Great deal, right?  There was a catch.  We had to package the thing.  Finding a box to fit all three clunky items was impossible, so we had to make our own box.  Joke. Town.

We were worried when the FedEx guy came to haul it away, he would die of laughter and we'd be stuck figuring out how to get this thing back to its company.  But the FedEx guy was actually pretty impressed with our handy work. Ha ha!

For some Hylie news, she's starting to figure out how to pull herself up and is pretty proud of herself for it, too!

A Very Happy Birthday

Monday was my birthday and I was so blessed to celebrate the occasion with friends and family.  My ENTIRE family was able to sing "Happy Birthday" to me via video chat the evening before and they even took the time to contact me again on my actual birthday to wish me a good day!  Some gals from the ward got together for a lunch--it was a lot of fun to catch up with them.  Then Geoff and I were able to enjoy a delicious dinner at the Cheesecake Factory sans Hylie!  A good friend offered to watch her while we dined.

Thank you to Geoff and everyone for making my day so very special.

Hylie's Crawling!

As of Tuesday, May 28th, Hylie is officially mobile!