8 Months

Dear June,
     It's that time again to make another post about how much I love you, and how I think you are the best baby ever! 8 months! Each month is going by quicker and quicker! I hate time, but I love watching you grow and discover new things. It's a new thing every day and at this age it's so fun to watch you discover and explore and see your little body so focused on putting a cheerio into your mouth. Love.
     Starting out at your 8 months, you want to touch and feel everything. The house does need to become baby proofed because of your little exploring mind. You love clapping your little hands when ever we get excited for you, and you are constantly rubbing your little feet on the carpet, in the water, and really any surface. You love just moving your feet. Because of that, Diaper changing has literally become a comedy show watching me try to get your diaper changed. One time a whole bum cheek was sticking out, because I put it on so crooked! Oh dear mother...
     You continue to sleep fantastico! You do have, on occasion, nights that you wake up, but you don't cry, you just start talking to yourself, saying Da Da Da Da over and over again. June watching you sleep literally melts my heart. It hurts, because of how much I love you. You still go down at 7 and wake up about 6:30.
     No Teeth yet, but you are teething like a little stinker. They will come when the're ready. We are not in any hurry, just as long as they do come eventually. Dentures at one year old, might be an issue. :)
     We are in the hot summer months of Texas, so you are enjoying splashing in the pool and soaking in the sun. I do admit I love that you have Tan lines around your chubby rolls. Adorable.
     Daddy is more in love than ever with you. Should I be Jealous?! Heck ya! He loved you so much from the moment you met, and it's only getting better. Me? I had to work hard for that love! ha ha it doesn't matter, watching him with you makes it all worth it. You two are going to be best pals. You love dancing with him, and being tossed and flipped around.
     You are a TALKER! Holy smokes you are a little chatter box. You laugh and smile all the time (except when your tired, understandable) and you use those lungs full force. You're going to be just like your mother. Loud and obnoxious!
      You are trying so hard to move. In fact as I am typing this, I am watching you reach for a book that is just a little out of grasp and you are working and concentrating so hard. You're close, VERY close!
     Eating has gone very well. You hate the green crap, but so does your dad, so he feels its ok to not eat it. I think other wise. The fruits and little bits of food we give you though, you suck in like a vacuum!
     Well Ju Ju B, that is all I have to report for this month. I cannot, literally cannot say how much I love you. My heart can't take it, but I will say it anyways. I love you.
You are just so funny!

Love you Juniper,
   Love mom

6 months in, resolution checkpoint

Holy smokes its June. I LOVE the month of June, because every time someone says the month, I get to hear my daughter's name and it just makes my day.

We have been busy. Very busy. Non stop swirl around your brain, kick you in the crotch kind of busy! I feel like June has spent the last month of her life in her car seat. Poor thing. Things aren't going to slow down anytime soon. Summer is upon us my friend and I am so excited for the many trips we have planned and getting to go to Idaho a couple times, one of those for the annual Triathlon!

Since we are already half way done with this year I thought I would give a little checkpoint to where I am with my new years resolutions. Ya that's right I am keeping them this year!
What my new years resolutions are:

Be in a house before June's first Birthday CHECK!
As you probably know we are in our house! In Love once again. We are still living at two different places, but we are sleeping at the house, and just getting the last odds and ends out of the apartment, which I pray will be the last shared wall experience I will ever have to encounter! 

Read through the Book of Mormon PROGRESS...
We are reading the Book of Mormon together, and well we miss nights, and sometimes we both fall asleep while reading, but we are trying and it's actually been going pretty well. 

Hit my pre- Dan weight. CHECK!
I look back at those pictures of when Dan and I were dating (5 years ago) I looked so tiny. I can't believe I ever complained about my weight back then... I have matured and my face,I feel,will never look that young again, but I can successfully say I have lost all my pregnancy weight, and I am proud to say that I went down 2 Jean sizes and I am keeping it off! Of course I still have the blob! My love handles will NEVER disappear. 
Be more consistent with Family Home Evening FAILURE! 
Oh man we really struggle with FHE. Unless we do it with friends it seems to slip away from us. We do try when we remember, It's one of those things we want so badly in our home, and we are hoping that with our attempted tries it will happen.  

Experiment more with different foods and make a new meal once a week PROGRESS...
Enjoying being in my new kitchen, and trying different foods. I have even thrown fish into the mix. I feel like my cooking skills are minimal at best, but it's a working progress. 
Read more CHECK! 
 I make sure to always have a book to read, and of course I read with June every single day. I have finished some great series including "The Great and Terrible" and I am on the fifth book of "Fablehaven" I love series. It just means I always know what book to grab next. So if any of you have a good series let me know! 

Take more photos and videos of June  DOUBLE CHECK! 
With I phones, a point and shoot camera, and my SLR I always have a camera at hand. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't snap some sort of video or picture of June, mostly to send to Dan at work, but also for the keep sake of how fast she is growing. 

Play the guitar together a lot more   FAILURE!
 Oh man, we haven't picked up our guitars in over a month. In fact they are still at our apartment, but maybe once we really get all settled in the house we will pick it up again. Dan used to play for June all the time, and I miss that music in our home. Im hoping it starts back up again really soon. 

Eat the blizzard of the month every month  CHECK! 
Of course we are reaching this new years resolution. How could we fail this one? There have been some delicious blizzards in the past six months and some major busts, but good all the same.


Well That's where we are at. I feel pretty good about the progress in this year. I'm sure failure will be written a lot more by the time we are done, but hey we are working and doing our best, and kicking some serious new years resolutions trash!

7 Months

    Dear June,

           Yep, another month has passed! 7 months old. You are just as cute as ever, and getting cuter! I think you really are the cutest baby ever. We just hope you left some cuteness for your siblings! 

June you are continuing to make everyday so much fun and exciting. I never knew watching you learn a new skill or hear you talk would be such highlights of my life. I love you. 

     Starting out for 7 months you are learning new things everyday. You are sitting on your own completely, and can stay that way for a while. You love being placed in front of your big basket of toys and go crazy with any toy that you choose. It's a game to see how quickly you can pull out every toy. 

     You are a great sleeper. You rub your little eyes when you are ready to go down, and start rambling on. You are still Sleeping through the night and we finally got your naps down. That was a little troublesome but you figured it out. Thank goodness! You are sleeping from about 7pm to 6:30am. The 6:30am was a little rough to get used to, but now Daddy gets to see you before he leaves for work, and it gets me up and going, so it's actually made for better days. You take 2 long naps a day and usually a little cat nap in the morning in your stroller while we're running. 

     You are going through a separation anxiety phase right now, where no one is good enough but your mom. Sometimes daddy will do, but you would love to be in my arms at all times. I do love holding you, but I do have to get things done, so don't ask my why, but if I put you in front of mine or your daddy's shoe's, you don't mind being on the floor. You really love playing with shoes. Playing with you is so much fun! You are starting to interact a lot and responding to things we do. You laugh so hard when daddy dances for you. Even if you are in the worst mood, you start laughing hysterically, to the point you can't breath when daddy dances. I adore it. You still are enjoying sucking on fabric and playing with Ranger. You are starting to get the best of Ranger, pulling on his hair, grabbing his toys from him... It's a constant battle between you two.  You LOVE water! Splashing in the bathtub and in the pool make you so happy, which is great, because we want you to grow up to love swimming! 

     We finally started you on solids, and boy do you love them! We thought you would start at 4 months, but with lots of opinion, lots of research and recommendation for your Ped to wait till 6 months, we decided to wait.  It's been so fun trying new foods with you. The faces you make are priceless, and  I always have to have the camera ready with a new food. You eat very well and so far haven't had any problems digestion wise. You are an eating, pooping machine! 

     As far as movement goes, you are flipping back and forth, but are quicker to roll from back to belly. You are scooting all over, but still haven't figured out the hands and knees position yet. No rush, but it's still fun to watch you scoot on your belly. 

     It's been so great so far! I don't know how it keeps getting better, but it does. 

I love you Juney Toons! 

    Love mom.

We Signed the dotted line...

*One note real quick. LOVE the new blog posting layout. I don't have to go rewrite the code in HTML anymore to make my pictures big! Good job blogger.

Ok.

We signed the dotted line. and signed some more. and signed again. and then again. then one more time. then the house was ours. oh wait one more. OK now its ours. 

The house hunt started in March. We looked all over Dallas and I mean everywhere. We went through a lot of gas in the past couple of months, but it was totally worth it. 

We actually found a house back in April, and we put an offer on it and everything. Oh my gosh the house was so ugly. I don't even know what we were thinking. The offer came through and the house was executed. Oh my panic attack, I gag still thinking about how we almost bought the retro 1970's house. I called Dan the day it executed in Tears telling him that I can't live in this house. He chuckled to himself trying to not hurt my feelings. I think he secretly knew this would happen, but of course I love making dramatic affects like waiting for the house to be executed before I say anything... Dan came home and made a few phone calls and made that ugly house disappear. I admit I rely on men to make my problems go away. One time I got pulled over and was given a $126.00 ticket and my license suspended. I called my dad crying and he too made a few phone calls and made that ticket disappear and my license reappear. Thank goodness he knew the judge and all was solved. Don't worry I solve my own problems and Yes my dad raised a great independent girl, but I see nothing wrong with getting a little help sometimes. :) 

Back to the house. 

So our amazing realtor was very understanding and continued house hunting with us. 

Dan went out of town to Houston for a week but Adrianne and I still went to look for houses. This house had only been listed for 4 days and already had 4 offers. Of Course I fell in love. I told Adrianne to make an offer right away. Oh wait Dan's out of town, still made the offer! This was on a Wednesday. 

Dan came home Friday, we showed him the house and he loved it too. The seller liked our offer, but an open house was scheduled for Saturday. SON OF A.... Two more offers. 

Our price stuck though and we ended up getting the house. We have been holding our breath for about 2 weeks so scared about everything. 

We passed inspection, funding and all other things. 

Today May 16, 2012 we closed on our first home. Let me take you on a tour. 

The Front of the house. Our yard, front and back, will be our only project for the house. Planting flowers, bushes, Trees, it's going to be great! 

So the outside view. Before you go in the front let me tell you that the house was actually a for closure and then a contractor came in and gutted the whole house, so EVERYTHING is brand new! 

You Walk in and around the corner is our living room. The furniture is for staging purposes.

Another view

Can't wait to decorate! 

You turn left and walk into a "Breakfast nook" Keep walking straight and you walk into a GREAT laundry room! I have decided I am going to paint this a random color. It has a door so if its ugly I will just shut it. 

Then off to the left you have my beautiful kitchen. All new appliances and nice space. Compared to our one cupboard apartment kitchen its rather large. I think I might paint the ceiling like a really dark gray. What do you think? 

Another view of the kitchen. 

Dining room. We aren't really dinning room type people. We are more TV tray type people so We plan on turning this into a fun reading room/sitting room or a play room for June. Fun rugs all that stuff. Not sure. I don't think I'll paint this room. But haven't decided. I need an interior designer. 

On the other side of the living room you walk and turn down the hall to the bedrooms. 3 bed 2 bath. It's a great little starter home. 

Guest bedroom/ Dan's office for when he's on call and needs to take an oil well call at 2am. Oh you have no clue what I am talking about. a later post will need to be written. Paint? Not sure! 

This will be June's room. It's very private and very spacious. Both bedrooms have walk in closets. Her room will be painted, YAY FOR FUN! 

Guest Bathroom/ June's Bathroom. The staging people wanted to make this a Sexy bathroom with the satin shower curtain... 

Continue the other direction down the hall and you have the master bedroom. There is a private door that leads to the back yard, so Dan and I can sneak out? We are such dare devils that we needed a secret door to sneak out of our room instead of using the living room door. 

Master bath, connected to our room. Need I say more about this bathroom? 

The backyard. Like I said our outside will be our most work. It's pretty much a blank canvas so the possibilities are endless. First things first is a fence for the pool. A pool is a must in the summer time! We actually were really hesitant about a pool at first, with kids and maintenance, but after Dan's thorough research and everyone telling us having a pool is the coolest we decided to get one. We like to be cool people. 

Another View. The fence leads back to our garage,there is a door that connects the garage through a laundry room.  

I am hoping to have this looking green and very colorful with flowers and other stuff. 

Well There you have it. The new Lancaster house.

We would like to call ourselves the all american family now since we have a baby, a dog, and a house, but we can't because of the Canadian blood.... Stupid. 

I hope you like it! I am very much looking forward to the BBQ's and pool party's this summer with friends, and family! 

Check up @ 6months

June at her 6 month check up! 

Everything is going great for June Bug! She is Healthy and Happy and continuing to grow. 

                 She is weighing in at 13lbs 6 oz which puts her in the 5th Percentile and measuring at 26 inches in height putting her in the 70th percentile. Tall and thin. When Dr. Tomecko told me she was in the 5th percentile I panicked a little. That is really low, but I was reassured that it is completely normal and that she is just a little baby. I feed her, lots and lots and then some!  

6 Months

Dear June,

6 months. a half year old. Where has the time gone? I have people ask me all the time if it has gone by fast and I tell them it's a blink of an eye. I hate and love it all at the same time.

You, my dear, are my perfect baby. You are very content, your laugh is contagious, and you are so beautiful. I love that you make complete strangers fall in love with you just by giving them that smile of yours. We really can't go anywhere without being stopped! Don't worry I like it. The whispers are my favorite, when we are walking by and they lean over and tell whoever they are with, how adorable they think you are. I just smile and keep on walking. Ya your mom is a little prideful when it comes to you.

Starting out in your sixth month you are learning so much and very alert. Brains and Beauty, you got them both from your father. :) You are sitting on your own and can stay that way for a little while, then you get tired and fold in half. You are rolling over like crazy, I can't keep you on your back for anything. You roll over from back to belly, but you're still getting stuck once you're there. It's funny, I'm not sure if you will ever catch on, but at least your rolling, and I kinda prefer it the way you are doing it. It just means you can get in crawling position that much easier. You're scooting your way to things. I think it's just a matter of time before you start crawling, but the scooting seems to get you to your toys and get you in head jams in your crib. what can I say... You love sleeping on your belly ,rolled up in a ball in the corner. I do try straightening you out, but there is no hope.

You are still sleeping through the night. You go down about 7:30-8ish and wake up about 6:30 -7. Naps are a whole other story. You go down at the same time (most days) and you sometimes takes 2 hour naps and then other times its 20 minutes but your happy, so I guess what ever floats your boat. You are teething like a mad woman. Those poor gums of yours feel like they are about to explode, they are so swollen, thank goodness for frozen teethers, and modern medicine. No teeth yet, but they have to be popping out soon!

You definitely know when we have left the room. You don't like being left by yourself. This could be trouble.

Your daddy and me can sing "Row your boat" to you when you get cranky and you stop crying instantly, but you really hate the "Popcorn popping" song. You start crying every time we sing that to you. I hope this isn't a sign of struggling years ahead in primary.

You are getting stronger by standing with help, but balancing on your own. You prefer to be laying on the floor playing, than in your bouncer or swing, but you love sitting in your bumbo and chewing on your blanket.

Reading has become so fun with you. Textured books are your favorite. Regular reading books loose your interest, but we could read textured books forever. Maybe you will be a very hands on type of person. That's how I am, so maybe you get that trait from me!

Juniper, it's been the best six months having you in our life. You are such a joy and a blessing to have around. I still can't believe that you are all mine. That I'm the one who comforts you when you are sad, or who can put a smile on your face no matter how grumpy you may be. I love being your mother. I love every bit about you. I love you.

happy six months June bug.

Love mom.

Bunny Booties

June got bunny booties as a gift before she was born. I knew they probably wouldn't be booties that would be worn all the time, but I had to get pictures of her wearing them at Easter. They were so adorable on her, I wish I had a professional taking the pictures, but mine will have to do. Juney kept chewing on them so by the time we were done, we had fuzz everywhere. We had to take an early bath just to get it all off of her, plus a run of the vacuum but....

Totally worth it!