My little baby is ONE year old today!! Where did the past year go?! I could never have comprehended the love that I have for her and I can’t imagine what I would do with out her. I mean who would make Ben and I laugh, who would we stare at, who would we talk about ALL the time, and who would I spend my day with? She is the craziest and busiest little girl. She NEVER stops playing!! Wow, I love her! Happy Birthday my little Lover!!

Watch my little girl grow over the last 12 months.

At Birth. 7 lbs 12 oz  21 1/2 inch long

One Month

Two Months

Three Months

Four Months

Five Months

Six Months

Seven Months

Eight Months

Nine Months

Ten Months

Eleven Months

One Year!!!

P.S. The baby emails I get now say Toddler! What the?!

While we were in Utah we had our family pictures taken. Our photographer Britney posted a sneek peek on her blog if you’d like to take a look. May I just say that my little lovey is so cute!!!!

Britneybphotography

This past weekend we drove up to New Jersey to see some of Ben’s old friends and to go to the beach. Ben’s friends Josh and Jul just had a baby girl (seriously JUST. Elsa is like a week old) and we were excited to go see them. They were gracious enough to let us stay at their house and cook us some great seafood. Ben was in heaven!! We were able to drive through a beach town called Wildwood (I guess it lives up to it’s name) and actually go to the beach in both Ocean and Atlantic City. I loved it!! Ben decided that even if we lived by a beach he wouldn’t want to go regularly unless he could surf each time. Plus he hated the crowds on the boardwalk. I on the other hand soaked up the sun and loved it all. (Although I agree with the surfing aspect-love it!!)

Hallie at 4 am when we left VA. We switched her to a front facing car seat and she loved it. (thanks Stacey) She did great on the trip,we only had to stop a few times.

Our little family on the Ferry from Delaware to Jersey

The Ocean City beach. Hallie hated the feel of the wet sand under her feet. Plus the water was freezing!

Holding her feet up so they wouldn’t touch.

Hal did LOVE playing in the sand in Atlantic City.

Getting buried by Dad with a smile on her face.

Despite her face in this picture she loved it. Although she did unbury herself shortly after this picture was taken. lol

Funny Story- we decided to put a regular diaper on Hal for the ride back from the beach. When we got to Josh and Jul’s we decided to put Hal in the pool to wash off all the sand. (She was a mess!!!! Sand in every single fat roll!)  This is a picture of her diaper after getting out of the pool. We laughed so hard! It couldn’t possibly hold anymore!!

We had tons of fun and fell in love with New Jersey. It is beautiful!! Thanks Josh and Jul for letting us stay with you.  We REALLY appreciated it! Elsa is a doll!!!

Hallie decided to walk on Monday. Wahoo! She crawled at 6 months and has been walking along furniture since 6 1/2 months. We had no idea it would take her so long to walk. I guess she wanted to do it at her own pace and we couldn’t push her. Ahhh my baby is growing up!!!

Also, my old roommate Brittany came into town yesterday and my other old roommate Lindsie and I were able to go see her. It’s not everyday that three old roommates from BYU-Idaho get together across the country! I was proud of myself for riding the metro and going into DC by myself. Two pats on the back please. haha 🙂

Linds, Me, Britty.  Ahh the memories!! I love these two. (Linds is a nanny here in D.C.)

Lunch

Hallie on the metro. She loved it-so many people to watch!!

So it’s been a month since we’ve moved and I’m just now posting pictures. PATHETIC I know! Better late than never.

We moved from a TINY one bedroom apartment into a three level townhouse. It’s a beautiful thing!!!! 🙂

We had so many friends show up to help us move. The actual move went SO fast. The guys just kept loading and before we knew it we were on our way to the new place to unload. Here are some pictures of SOME of our stuff boxed up.

So how do you keep a busy, busy 10 month old (at the time) out of your way so you can pack? Let me show you…..

Trap her in a box!

Distract her by putting cheerios in her path.

Let her play!

Thanks everyone who helped us move. Especially Stacey for unloading my kitchen even though she was 9 months pregnant, Lindsie, Susan, and Dana for spending your day cleaning my apartment and Anna who watched Hallie so we could clean. I REALLY REALLY appreciated it!

Here’s our new place…

We LOVE it!

IF you are interested here is part of a journal entry I wrote after we moved. It includes a list of reasons we love the new townhouse and the space it provides.

We went from the tiny one bedroom apartment and moving Hallie’s pack and play bed back and forth from bedroom to front room, to three floors with us each having our “own” room. Hallelujah!! (Ben keeps his clothes in the office closet and so refers to that as “his” room.) haha  Anyway, it has been fabulous and we don’t ever want to go back to apartment living. Before we moved as I would lay in bed I would make a list of all the positive things that moving would provide.

Here is my list:  1-Hallie gets her own room, which means no moving her bed or worrying about waking her up and being trapped in the opposite room. 2- more space to have people over. Before we could have one couple over at a time but no parties or large families because we simply could not fit them in the apartment. 3-Bigger kitchen to cook in! (A nice kitchen just makes me want to cook.) 4-Quiet. The apartment was in an ideal location for commuting (right next to the freeway) however the noise was almost unbearable. We got used to it in the year that we lived there but I would still cringe every time something was so loud it woke one of us up-especially Hallie. 5-People above us being loud. Hearing them and worrying that they can hear us. 6- With the noise of the street came the lights of the stop light and the cars head lights. It was so bright it was like noon day at midnight. We were able to hang black curtains to block out most of the light which fixed the problem but still, come on! 7-More space to do crafts. 8- More space for Hallie to play. 9- More space so it doesn’t look like a tornado hit our house every other day. Even after cleaning it just got messy so fast. 10-More space so things are not piled high in the corners. 11- A yard! I love flowers.

Hallie turned 11 months old last week but I haven’t gotten around to taking a picture of her until now.  So she is now 11 months and one week old. 🙂  I swear she gets cuter and more silly every day. I also swear she can’t be 11 months old. Didn’t I just go through labor a few months ago?!

I was thinking the other day about what word I would use to describe her. I have heard several of my friends call their babies sweet or an angel. Not that Hallie isn’t those words but I think that FUN and ENERGETIC describe her perfectly. She honestly never stops going. She loves peek-a-boo and playing with her toys and all of mommy’s things around the house. It is impossible to keep the house clean with her around. Hallie learned how to go up and down our stairs this past Friday. She’s very profiecent at it and does it just for fun most of the time. She has also started to stand up by herself without anything to hold on to. Plus she can bend down and pick things up from a standing postition without sitting or knealing down. Pretty impressive!  Hal loves to watch people. Often when we go places she will get in this serious mood and just observe people. So many people are like “wow so serious” and then they try to get her to smile and she rarely does. It’s pretty funny watching her stare at them like “stupid people I’m way smarter than you.” Her serious moods are only while we are around people these days which too me makes it even funnier. Hallie has also started talking quietly. She mumbles all this funny stuff constantly and she always talks back when we ask her a question or say something to her. It’s cute!!  She absolutely loves climbing and will try to climb anything she can, which often gives her bruises. She eats and sleeps good these days which is such a blessing for me.  The only time she gets cranky is when she needs a nap-big change from her earlier in life!!!! And last but not least she loves to laugh. Our favorite is her fake laugh which she does when other people are laughing. You have to hear it!!!!

This was our second fourth of July in the Nation’s Capitol and we can’t think of anywhere better to be on our Nation’s birthday. We love living here, especially on holidays like this one. Our wonderful adopted family the Stoker’s took us down town to the national mall where we spent the day filling our belly’s with Carol’s yummy food and chatting away with good friends. Last year it was soooo hot but then again I was also sooo pregnant and that in itself increases your temperature by like 10 degrees. 🙂 Anyway, this year the weather could not have been better. It was over cast for most of the day with a slight breeze yet it never rained or got unbearably hot. PERFECT! We were worried about how Hallie would do staying up way later than her normal bedtime but she did really good-that is until we got in the car to go home. Poor Stoker’s having to listen to Hallie scream herself to sleep.

The fourth of July is one of my top holidays. Second only to Christmas and tied with Thanksgiving. I love the history of our Country and I love fireworks! I am so grateful to live in America and enjoy all the freedoms that we enjoy. I just hope we don’t give up too many of them hoping to be safer. Anyway, I won’t get political on you. haha

Here are some pictures of our fun day.

Our spot

My new favorite photo

Hallie Bug

Hallie finally taking a nap in Dad’s arms

Hallie and Gabe playing

Hal discovered that now with 4 teeth she could eat an apple!

And boy did she eat it!!

That’s amazing!!

Hallie got nervous when the fireworks started, but she never cried. I’m covering her ear in the picture not restraining her. 🙂  She looks miserable in these two pictures-poor thing. At least the fireworks kept her attention she couldn’t take her eyes off them.

My old mission companion Sarah was in town and spent the afternoon with us. I love her!!

Most recent family photo

Thanks again Randal and Carol for bringing us along!! We loved it!