Eight Months!

We took part in the parent-child commitment at our church . . . a poignant moment for our little family.

Sadie's eight months old and getting busier by the day! Here's what she's been up to this month:

Our good friends the Colliers and Elizabeth Downs joined us at church for the Parent-Child Commitment. We have all been so blessed by their friendship and were thrilled to have them there, celebrating with us.

We had our first family roadtrip! Over Labor Day weekend, we took a short trip to Washington's Upper Peninsula.


We had a great time hiking in the Hoh Rainforest. And Sadie was a hit in her safari sunhat!


Daddy's girl.

Sadie's working on drinking from a sippy cup. I think more water gets on the floor, her shirt and everything else nearby than actually makes it in her mouth, but practice makes perfect, right?

A floor covered in toys, and Sadie's enthralled by the basket of freshly folded laundry.

Social butterfly that she is, Sadie really enjoyed our recent dinner date with my college friend, Sarah, and her husband, Irving!

I can't even begin to speculate about what she's doing here. Silly girl.

Sadie's new playtable has kept her quite busy lately! She loves the lights and music, and I love that it buys me a few minutes to empty the dishwasher or vaccuum the floor!

Crawling!

Sadie started legitimately crawling this week! And, equally exciting, she appears to share her mama's love of shoes . . .

Havin' a Ball!

AF Ball 2010

Happy Monday! I don't know about you, but we had quite the weekend. On Saturday night we attended the annual Air Force Ball. The days leading up to it were a bit hectic as I scrambled to find a dress and the perfect accessories, while Derek made a few trips to the base uniform store for his man-cessories to update his mess dress.

It also meant finding someone to watch Sadie. I had no idea just how big of a deal this was. First, there's the immediate issue of actually finding someone to physically watch her. Then, I had to frantically clean the house since, heaven forbid, the babysitter might see the cobwebs accumulating in the corners now that I have a few - ok, a million - other things ranking higher than cleaning on my priorities list. And I had to shop for and make snacks so the sitter had something to eat while she was here. Oh, and I had to deal with the emotional trauma of leaving our baby with someone else for bedtime. Sheesh!

Fortunately, we found a wonderful babysitter - my friend and fellow AF wife, Steph, who graciously agreed to watch her. Steph has to be one of the kindest people I know, so I knew Sadie would be in good hands, which definitely lessened the trauma a bit. From what I hear, though, everything went well and they had a great time!

And Derek and I did, too. It was fun to get out, have some grown-up conversations with friends - and one another - and enjoy being adults. We left the party around 10 and as we were driving home, Derek wondered out loud why so many people were on the road so late. At 10 pm. On a Saturday. Hmm . . . maybe we need to get out a little more often.

We spent most of Sunday recuperating and enjoyed another ball of sorts . . . football! We had a great time rooting for Peyton and the rest of the Colts in the Manning Bowl. Sadie got into it, too, as you can see . . .

Goooo Colts!

Seven Months!

Sadie attended her first birthday party. Her friend - and apparent crush, judging by this picture - Dane turned 1!

Now that Sadie's over seven months old, life is definitely getting more active for all of us! Sadie scoots, bounces, and rolls EVERYWHERE . . . it's exciting but is keeping us on our toes. Just the other day I put her in the middle of our ginormous king-sized bed so that I could try on a dress. It took about a nanosecond for me to slip the dress over my head, but that was just enough time for her to roll to the edge of the bed and launch herself off of it. She cried for about 15 seconds. I cried for the rest of the day. Bad Mom moment.

Here's a peek at a few happier moments this month:

Willy the Penguin was a hand-me-down from our neighbors. It's a bit weeble-wobble-esque . . . you can punch it, kick it or whatever and it pops right back, with a soundtrack of giggles and peppy music. Apparently it was a hit with their little girl. Not so much with ours . . .

. . . she cries every time she sees him, completely terrified of the guy. Poor Willy has now taken up residence in our garage.


Mastering the oh-so-messy art of feeding herself.

Sadie now has two little teeth! Needless to say, the chilled teethers were a constant companion for a few weeks.

I'm not sure if it's the jean jacket or what, but I feel like this should be Sadie's back-to-school (or in her case back-to-playgroup) outfit.

The end result (no pun intended!) of most diaper changes these days. Maybe this is just preparation for all those calf wrangling tournaments we'll be in when we move to Oklahoma in a few months!

Bookworm

Another teething savior . . . frozen fruit in a feeder bag. As you can tell, Sadie LOVED this remedy.

Photo Shoot

We recently had Sadie's 6(ish) month pictures taken. We've been so fortunate to get to know Sarah Fuccillo - the amazingly talented photographer who also happens to be our neighbor. You might remember her work from Sadie's newborn shots (see the "Cover Girl" post).

Sadie and I had a lot of fun hanging out with her! For whatever reason, though, Sadie refused to smile. Until I was buckling her in her carseat after the shoot was over, that is . . . she was all smiles and giggles then and for the rest of the afternoon. Stinker!

Regardless, we love the shots Sarah got and hope you will, too. Enjoy!

P-P-P-Pucker Face, P-P-Pucker Face

Sadie tried an apple-cranberry combo tonight. She reacted like this with every bite:

Incidentally, that's the face I make every time I eat a sour gummy worm.

Anyway, despite the face, she LOVED it! Pigged out on it, actually . . . also like me with a bag of sour gummy worms.

Six Months!

Lil' Rhino

Sadie is six (and a half!) months old! How half a year has passed in what feels like a minute is beyond me. I look back at her newborn pictures and can't remember her ever being so tiny. At over eighteen pounds now, there's not much tiny about her anymore!

Sadie's so active now and each day seems to bring with it a new discovery or mastery of a new skill. She sits completely unassisted, rolls all over the place, and thinks she can feed herself. Thinks being the operative word. The food splattered all over the high chair, the floor, my shirt and her hair would indicate otherwise, but that doesn't deter her.

She's recently started scooting, as well. Backwards. It's pretty funny to watch, but it typically positions her further from the toy she wants, which inevitably leads to some whining and frustration. She'll get there, though!

Here are some shots of all she's been up to the past month:

A daddy's girl for sure, she loves to give kisses to Derek.

Sadie loves pianos! Maybe she'll take to piano lessons better than I did. . .


Sadie's first time in grass. She's not so sure about it.


Visits with the grandparents! At the airport with Mema and Papa Shumaker.

Fun with Papa Rhinesmith.

Sadie's first wedding, although she seems just as enthralled with my boot as the festivities. (For those of you unaware of my boot, let's just say it's an injury from running. In heels. From a bird.)

Lots of snuggling with Grandma Rhinesmith and cousins Grace and Salem.

Sadie loved all the attention she got when we were home, including from her Aunt hilary, Uncle Javi and cousins Cael and Gabe.

Family fun at Brent's wedding.

Sitting!

Sadie's first pool experience. She wasn't impressed.

Goofy girl!