School Starts

Today is the first day of school for Joe. It has been a great summer having Joe home more than previous summers. With only 5 weeks of 1/2 day summer school, and 1 week of training, it allowed Mia to spend mornings and a few weeks having daddy home. Plus we were able to do a lot more this summer, and I feel like we were always on the go. We are so thankful for the nice long summer, and will try to keep ourselves busy while daddy's at work. On Wednesday, football will start, so I need to get started on Mia's "cheerleading" onesie. Her and Parker (Coach Stecher's son) are going to be the team's and their daddy's biggest fans. Today I also will continue my training to teach a deep water fitness class at the YMCA. I'm excited, because it will give me a break in the day from 24 hour baby care, and will be a good way to get into shape. The pics are from our last minute trip to the Quad Cities for one last fun day before school.

St. Louis

Early Monday morning, we took a trip down to St. Louis to visit the St. Louis Zoo as well as Grant's Farms. We arrived around 1:00 pm, and spent 4 hot hours at the zoo. They had great exhibits, including the elephants and the penguins which were our favorite. Mia even had her first ride on a carasel.

After the zoo, we checked into our hotel, ate dinner, then spent the evening in the indoor/outdoor pool swimming. We had a great stay in the hotel, and then left to go to Grant's Farms, which is where the Budweiser clydsdales are. They had lots of cool animals like tortoises, goats, elephants, yaks, buffalo, etc. Joe's favorite part were the 2 free beer samples per person! We invited the Marlin family, and had a great time spending time with them too. It was fun seeing their two girls get excited over the animals.

Summertime

Yesterday I got a few cute pictures of Mia with Taylor. She loves that girl!

Just a little while ago, we got back from a photo shoot with Jodie McNally! We got some family pictures, Mia pictures, and even some Joe & Amanda pictures. Just from looking at a few on her camera, I know that they turned out awesome, and I can't wait to see all of them! Mia was a great little model, and looked beautiful in all of her outfits. She didn't start to fuss until we got into the car, and then crashed when we got home. Smiling and looking pretty wears you out!

Tonight is Mia's first Maple City Cruise Night. We're going to go to the car show to volunteer at the Rainbow Riders food booth, and also to hang out with friends. Joe wants to get a picture of Mia on the hood of a car...we'll see about that! The summer is slowly fading away, and soon Daddy will start school back up. His official first day is a week from today. But we have had a fun summer, and it was been great having him home more compared to summers in the past. Next week we're taking one last mini vacation to St. Louis before school starts.

Amelia's Dedication

On Sunday, August 1st, Amelia was dedicated to the Lord at River of Life International Church by our new pastor Robb Duffie. We had over 20 guests in attendance, including my parents, Joe's parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and close friends. It was great to have everyone there, and Amelia looked absolutely beautiful in her dress! We were able to get lots of good family pictures, and afterwards, we had all of our guests over for lunch. Amelia had a busy weekend with Grandma & Grandpa Havens visiting, and now she's taking a long nap to recover!

Squash!!

Two nights ago, Amelia started eating vegetables! Joe wanted to start with squash, so we tried that, and she loved it! She likes it a lot more than rice cereal, and even opens her mouth now to get ready for the spoon. She's eating about 1/3 to 1/2 of a 4 oz. jar each feeding. We'll stick with squash for a few more days, and then we're going to try sweet potatoes. She gets so messy now when she eats too. I practically have to give her a bath after she eats, because she'll put her hands in her mouth and then touch her eyes and hair, and eventually she's covered in a combinations of spit, squash, and cereal. But luckily, at this age, it's still cute!

Sleeping through the night...

Two nights ago we started "ferberizing" Amelia, which basically means we let her cry herself to sleep with hopes that she eventually stops doing it and falls asleep! The first night, we put her down at 9:30 pm, and she woke up at 11:30, cried her eyes out for about a half hour, then fell asleep until 8:30 am. WOW! However, the half hour of crying was pretty tough on Mom...not su much Dad, because I think he slept though most it! Last night we had company, so Mia didn't get to sleep until 11 pm. Thinking that she was going to wake up two hours later and cry, we were pleasantly surprised when she slept until 7:30 am! Hopefully the 3rd night goes just as smoothly! Right now, she's even taking a nap and it's been about and hour and half. Lately, she's only been taking 30 minute naps, so I'm thankful for this long nap. Today, we're also going to start vegetables! Joe wants to start with squash, so we'll see how that goes!

Our surprise company was my cousin Doug and his family (Renee, Jessica & Spencer). They are from Hudsonville, Michigan and stopped by on their way to St. Louis. We had Los Ranchitos for dinner, and then they spent the night. It was great to have family visit, and we were happy to house them. We all had fun catching up, and that might be the reason that Amelia is so sleepy today. That and maybe her 3 shots yesterday...SO much excitement!

6 Month Check-Up

Can you believe that Amelia is 6 months already?! Today she had her 6 month check-up and was a whopping 17.1 pounds, 27.5 inches long, and her head had grown 2 inches!! So, for that one person who voted for 17 pounds, you were the closest (haha, that might have been me!). The doctor gave the okay to start other foods, so we are going to start vegetables tomorrow, and then add fruits. She's also doing great with all of her motor skills, and he had no concerns about her development. She was such a brave girl too and didn't take long to calm down after her 3 shots (notice the band-aids...). Now she's fallen asleep in her bouncy seat after a tiring hour at the doctor! Poor girl!