That's My Baby

I wanted to share our big news with everyone. On the 22nd we had the opportunity to go to the new temple in Rexburg and have Sydney sealed to us! It was such an amazing experience and we are so happy to have been able to do it. The next day she was blessed, so it was an all around great trip. I want to post more pictures, but at the moment I don't have a cd drive and my camera card has been (most likely) permanently lost. This means a lack of picture posting for a bit, sorry! Hopefully I'll get some more pics on here soon. My mom made her beautiful dress out of my wedding dress material (which she also made) and my sister made her cute bow. She was sooo beautiful!

Big Week

In addition to turning 6 months old, having her first flu shot, and getting her highest fever ever (see previous post), we had a few other milestones/picture worthy events:

Made pizza with mom

First BBQ of the year (at our house)!
First time in court
Sydney also rode the swings for the first time ever but the camera was not present, so we have to go back. Aw, shucks. :)

More about the court photo - on Wednesday we took Sydney to the courthouse and were able to finalize Sydney's adoption. She is now lawfully ours forever and ever. Yay! It was a great day, despite the fact that little Stinky Pete here pooped her diaper in the courtroom. I don't think the judge noticed though - he was too busy admiring her painted toes and she was grinning at all the attention. We now have our final adoption paperwork and can take Sydney through the temple with us! Hooray! What a great week. Also we had Book Club, and I finished 3 books this week, so it was the perfect icing on the cake!

A Little OCD with Organization

This week I got sick of having all of my grocery bags full of food storage just sitting in front of my food storage shelves. (They often get left there when I get back from the store since Sydney has often had it by the time we get home. !) So Thursday while Sydney was taking a nap I went and organized everything. Yay. I need to take inventory more often to see what I do and do not need to buy. For example, we have about 30 boxes of Frosted Mini Wheats, which I really like, but I am buying them faster than I eat them! Definitely do not need any more of those for awhile. But I do need more pickles, peanut butter, and pineapple (alliteration not intended).

I love when all of my food is lined up by type, flavor, etc. It looks so pretty. I think I might be OCD in this way. I love to organize books, cds, etc. My movies are in alphabetical order by category/shelf, Sydney's books are organized by height & type, and now you've seen my food storage.

Tonight I went grocery shopping and ended up buying 30 lbs of ground beef and 20 lbs of chicken. I love sales. I grew up in a family that could have invented food storage - my mom does home canning for everything and has a large food storage room, a garden bigger than my back yard, and 1 extra freezer and 2 fridge/freezer combos. Needless to say, it was sort of ingrained in me. We got a freezer when we were still poor college students and moved it out here with us when we came. I'm not sure what we did before we got it. Where did I pack all my meat? Oh that's right. We couldn't fit anything in our regular little half freezer because it was packed with meat. Hmm, anyway, this definitely holds a lot more, and it all looks so pretty stacked in there. After putting the new beef and chicken away, I organized the freezer my meat types. Ground beef and breads on the top shelf, chicken and turkey on shelf 2, hams, steaks, ribs, and roasts on shelf 3, then pizzas and other various items on the bottom shelf. Too bad it can't stay always so organized!

6 Months Old

Sydney is 6 months old now! It's pretty hard to believe, but it's true. She's now tasted squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, rice cereal, and peas, and beans. She's loved all the yellow/orange veggies, but when she tasted peas it all ended. As you can see below, they haven't gone over so well, both canned and frozen.

Watching her e-card from her Auntie Jessica! Thanks again!
On Monday we took her in for her 6 month well care visit and found out that she weighs 17 lbs 7 oz, so she's gained a fair amount in the last 2 months (she was at 14 lbs 13 oz). She's a big healthy girl and she got her immunizations and a flu shot. She was perfectly silent through the first 2 shots, and on the third one she realized something was going on she didn't like. She started screaming and she was pretty much mad the rest of the day. She ended up getting her highest fever ever that night (102.1!) and not only refused all solids, but actually wouldn't drink a bottle until we got the fever to break with some Tylenol. It wasn't until she wouldn't drink a bottle that I got nervous since anyone who knows Sydney knows that she's obsessed with bottles and has NEVER turned one away in the history of the world. Thank heavens it did pass, although that was a long night. She had a fever the next day too, but not as high, and with some Tylenol, we kept it away until it left on it's own for good. Yay. Only one problem. Since the shots, Sydney will not eat solids. I'm practically force feeding her! I've gotten her to eat a little rice cereal, and she's decided that squash and sweet potatoes are ok again, but she's so incredibly anti carrots and all things green you'd think I was feeding her rotten potatoes. That stinks.

Sydney

Often while laying on my lap now, Sydney likes to push her legs on my stomach and kind of fall off. Here are some silly pictures we took the other day.

Just hanging out!
Everything is upside down! That's more like it!

The Zoo

On Friday the weather was beautiful (72 degrees!), so my friend Karen and I took the kiddos to the zoo! It was so much fun and we really enjoyed just getting out of the house and seeing everything!

Sydney and I at the elephants

Karen and Eli checking out the bears
Sydney being much too busy eating her stroller to be looking at the bears
Eli's favorite animals - the geese!
Two tired kiddos ready to go home!
As we went into the zoo I turned to Karen and said, "This is the cute part of motherhood!" I always imagined going on walks and to the zoo with friends and all our babies. Obviously there's so much more to it than that, but as we went through the gates (and saw some other friends of ours!) I still thought to myself, "I've arrived." :)

We've Had a Busy Week!

Things have been busy at our house over the past week or so! Sydney changes so quickly, it's like something new happens every day! Here are a few things we did:

Ate a whole tub of sweet potatoes (first time finishing a whole one in one setting!)

Tried on my new shorts
Did a bit of sun bathing on the front lawn
Went to the Zoo (more on this in the next post)Read some stories
Tried some carrots (yum!)Grew out of my long johns because my thighs are so big that they don't want to snap.
She also learned how to roll from her back to her belly on Friday and is figuring out the whole sitting up thing. She found her voice - again (she lost it while she was sick and had to relearn how to squeal, yell, and just talk). My how they grow!