11 Months!

I just can't believe we have already had 11 months with Darcy. At first it didn't really go that fast for me. Every day felt so long because I was so tired, but the last few months have flown by now that I am more rested. :) We have little challenges here and there, but every night we go to bed talking about how lucky and happy we are to have this sweet little person in our home, and how much extra joy we have in our lives because of her. The hard times make the good times that much better. We love this baby girl!

Things we want to remember about Darcy's eleventh month:

- 20 lbs. 8 oz. 28 1/2 inches. Finally some growth! This was all just according to my scale again though, so hopefully this happens at her appointment next month too.

- Two 1 1/2 hour naps. One in the morning. One in the afternoon. Goes down for the night around 7:30 and wakes up around 6:30.

- She pulls herself up on everything and has started letting go for a second every once and a while to stand.

- She has started folding her arms when she sees us doing it for prayers. We didn't even try to get her to do it. She just came up with it on her own. She used to clap whenever we said amen at the end of prayers.

- She loves to climb the stairs. We follow her up the stairs so many times every day. She hasn't figured out going back down yet.

- Her new dance moves are rocking back and forth on her hands and knees and swinging her arms side to side really fast while she's sitting. We get a serious kick out of her dancing.

- She loves the piano and our laptops and always wants to pound on the keys.

- She has started throwing little fits. I did not expect that this early. If anyone has any advice about how to nip that in the bud that would be great!

- Now that she is getting more mobile she is starting to have all kinds of injuries. No fun!
The close-up.
Darcy is not friends with the camera anymore. It is close to impossible to get a picture of her smiling anymore without Drew behind me doing something awesome. I got her some cheerios to keep her happy for a full-body shot. You can tell she's just thrilled.
Darcy decided to give me a little present for her 11 month birthday. She was playing in the kitchen on the shelves she always plays on. I had moved everything I thought would be dangerous or potentially messy (or so I thought.) She got really quiet and I have heard a million times from other moms that that is a bad sign, but I thought I had removed any threats. I was WRONG! She had gotten into the shortening! I had no idea she would be able to take the lid off. She has never done that before, and I will be moving the shortening so it will never happen again. I'm afraid my kitchen floor is doomed to be a slip-n-slide forever more.

Drew's First Father's Day!

Yesterday was Drew's first Father's Day and according to him, and I quote, "It exceeded all of my greatest expectations!" Haha! So I guess it was successful. To start off the day we had some German pancake. They were delish! While Drew was upstairs getting ready for church I snuck his present downstairs. When he came down and saw it I snapped a picture of his reaction. It turns out the reaction I got was not the right one because he didn't even notice it at first he just saw I had the camera so he was just being crazy for a picture. :) Is the suspense killing you? It was a little grill! Maybe it's not that exciting to everyone else, but he was really excited and surprised and I am pretty excited to have it too. So I secretly had some steaks marinading in a marinade I found online that was called "the best steak marinade in existence." After church Drew grilled our steaks and we actually ended up believing the title of that marinade. They were awesome!

Drew's other present was just a picture of Darcy I took a couple days before. I was being so sneaky about it and feeling really proud of myself, but on our anniversary when he was setting up the camera for a picture he went through the pictures on the camera and saw them and I was pretty bummed. Oh well I guess. He still thought they were so cute.

I have always thought the world of my dad, and because of him I have always had a soft spot in my heart for dads. They are the best. I don't know if there is anything sweeter than a man who loves his babies/kids and treats them that way. I had no idea how into being a dad Drew would be and he has "exceeded all of my greatest expectations!" I feel so lucky and grateful that my kids will all have him as their dad, and he had to learn from someone so I am giving his dad some major credit too. I am so happy Drew had such a great example. We are both lucky enough to have two grandpas each that are awesome and brothers and friends that are great dads too. Happy Father's Day to all you fabulous fathers out there!!!
Drew's fake reaction when he came down the stairs.
Drew with Darcy before church.
When Drew first lit the grill up Darcy crawled over and touched it. We did not realize it would be so hot so fast so we weren't being that careful. She burned her hand and we felt SO bad! So then she had to stay inside and she was not very happy about it. Here she is looking longingly at Drew outside grilling.
I saw a tutorial on a blog about how to fold napkins like a man's dress shirt. Aren't these awesome! Here is the link, you will have to copy and paste it because it's not working to just add the link: http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2010/06/fold-napkin-shirt-for-fathers-day.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HowAboutOrange+%28How+About+Orange%29
Here is the picture of Darcy that I took for Father's Day.

Beach

I have been dying to get in the water this year. I do not love humidity. I think if you live in a humid place the only way it is comfortable to be outside in the summer is to be in the water. Some friends in our ward told us about a lake close by where they brought in sand to make a little beach area. Saturday we packed up and headed to "the beach." It was nice and hot so it was a good day to go. There ended up being lots of people there and most of them were a little sketchy. I thought it was OK but Drew was pretty unimpressed so I don't know if we'll be going back, but it was fun to go give it a shot, and once again Darcy loved the water.
Darcy has always been really sensitive to the sunlight since she was born. She seems really bothered by it so that is why I bought her sunglasses in the first place. Over the last few months though she would always pull them off. Just last week I tried them on her again when we went for a walk and she reached up and touched them and slowing took her hand away and left them on. She has been wearing them ever since. She finally realized she can keep her eyes open in the sun this way.
At the beach with her shades on again.
Playing in the water with Drew.
We were laughing at how she was sitting with her feet crossed on the blanket while she was having a snack.
She has lots of curl in her hair when it's wet. I wanted to get a picture of the little pile of curls on the top of her head.

5th Anniversary

For the last four anniversaries we have really gone all out. We usually make it a day long extravaganza. This year because Drew had to work and because Darcy is still not ready for a babysitter (or maybe I'm not) we decided it would be OK to keep it low key. Not every anniversary can be a major production I guess. Drew skipped having a lunch break and came home early which was awesome. Then we headed downtown to go to dinner. On the way there our car started sputtering and the check engine light came on. We pulled over and got up under the hood in our dress clothes. I was kind of like a mechanic in high heels! (Let's be honest, everyone knows it was really Drew doing most of the work...but I really did help.) We did a few things and looked in the owners manual and it said it was OK to drive but just to take it in soon. Drew was especially frustrated by this situation because we have put far too much money into this car, and this was another thing on our list. Thankfully though it lasted the rest of the night and we got to have our dinner. We went to a Philippino restaurant that Drew had been eying. He really loved his food. Mine was a little boring, but still good, and it was a really cute little place. Darcy loves going out anywhere where there are people around to watch and if there is food that's even better, so she was great. We were happy to make it home safely.

Being married is the best. We have learned so much from each other and we are excited to keep growing together forever more. I love you Drew!
Drew and I after diner.An anniversary picture with our favorite tag-along!

Woodsy Photo Shoot

The other day it was overcast and rainy, and in between rain storms we sloshed through the mud outside to have a little photo shoot with Darcy. Strangely enough this time it was Drew's idea, and it was a really spur of the moment thing. We were so impressed with how the pictures turned out. We have the perfect little spot right outside our back door to take pictures. We took our last few pictures as it started to rain again and you can see Darcy holding her hands up to feel the rain. There are a ton of pictures of basically just the same thing, but I love them all.

Talking

I just got a video of Darcy talking to herself. I think this is so funny. It is so funny to me that babies will just go on and on like we know and they know what they're saying. She was born to be a baller I guess. Look how she palms the ball! :)

West Virginia

From Washington DC we headed to Baker, West Virginia. Drew's Grandparents are there helping his Uncle Dana build his house. They are staying in their awesome motor home in an RV park there. After staying with them we are thinking we might just buy a motor home instead of a house. That is living!! :) We planned on only staying one night, but we were having too much fun so we stayed an extra night. There was a pool at the RV park so we decided to take Darcy swimming. The water was cold, but she loved it anyway. I am so excited to take her swimming more this summer. The last night we were there we played a game of Farkle with Drew's grandparents and we all ended up laughing so hard and having the best time. I ate a ridiculous amount of sugar and lots of other good food while I was there and have been trying to recover ever since. It was so great to get to chat and spend time with them. Family is the BEST! Thanks Bob and Joann!
Darcy hanging out in the shot gun seat of the motor home.
The brave swimmers. I was only half-brave. I only went in up to my waist.
Drew playing with Darcy in the pool.
Darcy sitting next to the pool.

Washington DC

Our next adventure was Washington DC. It was fun to get to go see everything there. We took a bus that started at Arlington Cemetery and dropped us off at the different sites around the mall area. I hope I get to go again some day when I am not carrying a baby most of the time so I can take my time checking everything out and reading descriptions. Both nights we were there we got together with Drew's Uncle Dana who lives there. He showed us around Georgetown and downtown DC and took us to dinner. It was cool to get to see those parts of town that we wouldn't have gone to if we were alone, and we really loved the places he took us to eat.
Our first stop was the Air and Space Museum. This picture of Drew is so telling. He was fascinated.
Drew and Darcy in front of some planes. I think Drew told me they were significant for some reason but I can't remember what it was at the moment. :)
Did you know the Wright brothers actually started out making bikes? I didn't! I want a bike like this!
In the Air and Space Museum in front of Orville and Wilbur Wright's plane. I loved this part!
Drew touching the moon rock in the Air and Space Museum.
The Jefferson Memorial at night.
Changing of the guard in Arlington Cemetery.
Drew and Darcy on the bus in Arlington Cemetery.
Drew and Darcy in front of Robert E. Lee's Arlington House in the Arlington Cemetery
Here we are in front of the reflecting pool with the Washington Monument in the background coming straight out of Drew's head. :)
Posing with Lincoln.
Vietnam Memorial. The guy who took our picture didn't warn us and just took the picture. I guess it is appropriate that I look so upset in front of a war memorial.
Drew served his mission in the Philippines so we had to get this picture at the WW2 Memorial.
We had to get a picture in front of the Washington part of the WW2 Memorial.
WW2 Memorial. There was a big gathering of WW2 Veterans there and they were giving some of them flags. It was pretty cool to see how patriotic they were.
In front of the White House.
We went to the Holocaust Museum which for me was the most interesting, but of course, also the most depressing. I came away from there feeling sick to my stomach.
Drew and I in front of the Capitol. Darcy was sleeping in the car. We set the camera on the car and set the timer.

Pirates Game

I have three new posts I have to get caught up on about Drew's break. There were too many pictures in Washington DC to put them all together.

Drew got tickets through his school to go to a Pirates game. The tickets were $5 a piece and they came with a t-shirt and $10 worth of concessions each! We thought it was a pretty awesome deal. We really only watched about five minutes of the game which was no big deal because the Pirates are terrible. We spent the rest of our time there just walking around checking out the park and getting and eating some food. We didn't stay the whole time because Darcy was getting tired, but it was fun to get to go.
Here we are in front of the PNC Park sign. Drew looks so awesome with his Darcy pack doesn't he?! :)
There was a cool view of downtown Pittsburgh from the stadium so we had to get a picture.
Darcy and I watching the game.