so many ways to make me smile

Lily is now fully up and walking- she believes it is faster than crawling and I am beginning to agree. She will now walk from room to room without a second thought of needing a prop to guide her. This means she can now get into something much quicker than we are used to and our eyes are glued to the little monkey at every moment {most of the time}.

10 things I have realized about her lately:

1. she thinks the vacuum cleaner is almost as fun as the dog
2. she would rather play with the smallest piece of garbage on the ground than with her baskets filled with toys
3. to her, toys do not belong in baskets, every last one of them should be taken out and spread around the room
4. she can always make me smile no matter how mad or upset I am...even after finding out a rock was thrown through the back windshield of our car :(
5. she loves piggy back rides- a sure way to cause a giggle fit
6.  shoes are just toys attached to her feet
7. she definitely has her favorite "blankie" but will carry any blanket around everywhere with her if she finds one
8. she eats food much better if she can pick it up off of her tray rather than eat it with a spoon
9. the living room table has become her track- she runs around it in circles over and over
10. her giggle is the best sound in the world

a little peak into the last few weeks:

we LOVE our baby legs.... every baby should have a few pairs!

she looks pretty annoyed that I want her to eat so many healthy things at once.....

I rarely get to sneak into a picture... and still its only our backsides :)

Nana and Papa came to visit! Lil loved listening to Nana read!

She got to go walking outside for the first time... 

a whole different ball park on the uneven ground!

The first dirt on her teeny tiny shoes :) 

L.O.V.E.

Fall already!

Time is flying by so fast I can't even keep track! I completely missed taking Lily's 8 month photo, so I suppose there will have to be a blank spot in the photo album for the month of September. Fall is in full bloom and October is well on its way! Unfortunately the  nice brisk fall weather is typically accompanied by rain, so we haven't been outside quite as much as we've been used to. Its always a little harder for me to have the urge to take pictures inside- but its a perfect time to get used to it before the Holidays when every photo will most likely be inside! Heres a few of our last couple of weeks

Her head of hair is filling in quite nicely... hopefully it will be long enough for clips and bows just in time  for the Holidays! 

 Different angles are necessary- she now comes straight for the camera when we're on the ground.

Such a big kid! She has started wearing shoes, which to her are just toys attached to her feet...

Sleeping Beauty takes up more of her bed as the days go by

Loves her toys; which are now taking over our tiny apartment!

Walking toy to get her used to putting one foot in front of the other- although she enjoys it from the wrong direction... whatever keeps her entertained works for me! 

we're in trouble now!

Lily took her first steps this week! It is such a huge milestone, and just reminds me how fast she is growing up.  Kolby and I took a number of videos trying to capture the moment, but didn't get any really great ones. However,  he did make a pretty awesome montage of the best parts of each video, all from his iPhone using iMovie. He did a pretty good job constructing this mini video for us to remember the first time Lily walked!

From here on out she will just get quicker, stronger and even more curious! I had guessed she would be walking by Christmas, but I think she will have a good grip on it by Halloween! She will be 9 months old on Monday, which I can hardly believe. I feel like I was just pregnant with her enjoying my growing belly, and now I have this beautiful tiny person to make me smile every day. We are beyond lucky and are reminded especially in these wonderfully exciting moments.

just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming, swimming!

Nothing like a little finding memo to enjoy the afternoon:) My mom and I took Lily swimming for the first time (hence the title)! She was very unsure for majority of the time, enjoying herself more on the rocky edge of the pool as opposed to the water. Either way, she was styling in an adorable bathing suit I found last minute and a matching little sun hat!

Hopefully by getting her in the water at a fairly early age, she will enjoy the water like I did as a little girl. Maybe she will end up being a little mermaid in the future summer seasons!

she was a little nervous at first... 

LOVE this face :)

I call these her model lips:

 possibly the happiest she was the whole day, with her toes dipped in the water securely on my lap.

 of course her favorite toy all weekend was an empty container from Nana.... cheap fun :)

once she found the stairs, the pool was a whole different kind of fun!

My little girl is 8 months old tomorrow! I absolutely can not believe how fast it has gone by, soon enough I will be planning her 1st birthday, and such an amazing journey it has been. Each and every moment means the world to me whether she's giggling at my little songs or screaming at the top of her lungs. I can not imagine life with out this perfect tiny person, and am so excited for everything to come.

A Little trip to Bend

Just a quick 3 hour drive away is my parents, Kolby's parents, his Grandparents and his sister and her 3 adorable kids... although Bend seemed a little further by myself with a hungry baby squealing in the backseat. Lily actually did surprisingly great in the car, just one short fit and asleep the rest of the time, lucky momma! We had such a wonderful weekend, and both Grammy and Nana got to spend a nice chunk of time with their little Lily bug. The past few days made me so thankful I had such an incredible and fun childhood in the beautiful Bend, Oregon. Summers spent running through sprinklers, riding bikes downtown and the smell of fresh strawberry shortcake as an after dinner treat. If we can provide Lily with a childhood she looks back on and with a huge smile across her face, I will have done a job well done!

 Nana blocked off the entire hall way as a play place... lucky girl!

Thank you Grammy for saving Daddy's favorite toy when he was little!!

 playing in the grass with mommy and Papa

Mommy is the BEST jungle gym :)

Cousin Aizlynne sharing her toys

such sweet little kisses!

IMPRESSIVE:4 children looking at the camera all at once and not one of them is screaming, crying, wiggling or attempting to escape!

play dates, play dates, play dates!

Lily has gotten to an age where she not only takes interest in other babies, but LOVES them! She thinks these other tiny people are so much fun and just the right size to play with! I have 2 girlfriends close by each with a little girl, and it has been so much fun to see Lily interact with them. One friend, Emily, has an adorable 5 month little girl {Claire} who is getting so much more aware of Lily- which makes play dates a little more fun every time:

Baby Claire!

Lily got a little jealous when I played with Claire... and what do you know, they both looked at the camera at the same time- something that is hard to come by!

Lily just wants to play!

Cheeks!

my little girl is growing up faster than I ever could have imagined! She gets everywhere by crawling, pulls herself up on everything possible and a turns into a very stubborn baby when anything other than a toy is taken away and out of her mouth. She has become so much fun, giving mom and dad plenty of opportunities to take her picture :)

 Gorgeous baby blues!

one of the few items she automatically quiets down for (also included:keys)

I love this tiny toes!

she's about to get reallllly mad...