walking

Last week Hallie took some steps, but did it without really realizing it. Today she started walking in between things and did so with more confidence. Today we saw her walk and stop to catch her balance then continue walking again. Everytime she walked a little and got to where she wanted she'd laugh and squeel in celebration. Crawling is still her main mode of transportation. Here is a bit of her walking as she goes after the camera. Aren't her little wobbily legs so cute?!?! Sorry the video is so dark.

videos and this morning

Hallie has a teether that vibrates when you bite down on it. After she tipped over her toy basket and started playing she realized she was sitting on this teether and when she leaned back it would vibrate. Here she is playing with it.

Hallie loves playing with the alarm clock. She opened it for the first time and wasn't quite sure about it and had trouble closing it up again. She seemed almost distraught about it. It doesn't show this in the video but she was happy and dancing before the thing was open and went back to dancing when it was closed again.

Early this morning Berret and I had to do wellness testing at Melaleuca so we could get lower insurance rates. We had to wake Hallie up way before she normally wakes up. She did great while we were getting the testing done but was very anxious to go back to sleep when we got home. Look how cute she is all bundled up and trying to look around her hat. Oh and my hair is dark now, it is fun to try something different once in awhile.

november 10 months

Hallie's tricks:
-lots of freestanding
-going in between furniture that needs a step to get to
-walking very confidently with using one hand for support ex. walking along side us holding a finger or walking along walls with one hand touching
-taken about 5 good walking steps on her own but then realzed she wasn't holding on to something and switched to crawling
-says mama and dada, she uses mama more though ;)
-lots of babbling
-loves to dance and jump
-becoming a picky eater
-likes to grab the spoon while being fed with crazy quick reflexes which tends to fling food
-favorite right now seems to be slow cooked roast with veggies or grated cheese
-loves baths but hates getting dressed
-never wants to miss out on anything even if it means losing sleep, like an entire nap
-I think she understanding "NO" more and more and seems to like to test it and make games out of things that shouldn't be
-we see her personality developing more and more each dayShe has liked attacking the calendar but this month she REALLY went after it.It was time to put it away but she wasn't quite done yet.

halloween

When we got into Rexburg we first stopped by Warren and Allison's so the girls could play around in their costumes together. In this picture Hallie is free standing and just starring at all of us. In these first 2 pictures she actually had the duck feet I made for her on.Our friends Liz and Grady invited us to the ward party in our old ward. Here is Berret in a donut eating contest that he won.Liz dressed as Captain Crunch.After the ward party we went and hung out at Brad and Ally's. The guys took Hunter and Hallie trick or treating. Hallie only wore her duck hat trick or treating so she could be in her warmer clothes. For more pics at Brad and Ally's go HERE.

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween, we sure did! Now on to the REALLY fun holidays Thanksgiving and Christmas.

aaaaannnd....GO

When Hallie and Danielle are together we like to do little races with them. They take turns winning and usually really only depends on how badly they want the object we're offering. The races are always fun to watch and the cotumes just add to it.

The video is from yesterday but on Friday had some Halloween fun too. Melaleuca had the made office decorated as a haunted house for trick or treating. Some of the departments went all out with their decorations and costumes. It was lots of fun and Hallie enjoyed seeing everything.I managed to get done sewing Hallie's costume just in time on Friday. I have more pictures to come from our other festivities Saturday that I'll hopefully post soon.

beautiful fall day

I'm so glad we've had some nice weather here again so we can enjoy fall!Hallie really loves to play with leaves. She is constantly finding them, crushing them, and trying to eat them (I'm a mean mama though and take them out of her mouth).Today she noticed her shadow and tryied to crawl after it and and reach out to it. It was really funny but them she turned and lost it.Here she is using my legs to stand herself up.She did some free standing but I was only able to get a pic as she was crouching down to sit. She looks so cute though, I love how she balances herself with her arms like this.

halloween decor

I don't usually decorate for Halloween but this year I had the time to do a few things. I did some projects that were really simple and I will explain for anyone who cares to try them out.These pumpkins were grown in Warren and Allison's garden. We all carved pumpkins together this weekend. Berret's pumpkin is on the right and mine is on the left.To decorate our entrance I just cut out some silhouettes on black cardstock and a poster board. The tree was done with the poster board. The rest was cardstock. Everthing was stuck to the wall with ticky tack. The owl and crow silhouettes were just googled, printed, traced onto cardstock and cut out. For the tree I found a tree silhoette I liked and freehanded it then used an exacto knife to cut it out.The bats are from HERE. I used cardstock instead of stiffened felt because it is cheaper. I just had to shrink the template a little bit to fit an 8 1/2x11 sheet. The BOO! and the spider added to the wreath in the first picture are both from the clearance at Real Deals.I got the idea for the spooky portrait HERE. I didn't want to bother buying lights for it though and just colored in the red eyes instead(but they don't really show up that much).Three little pumpkins because I still haven't figured out what to put on this big open space yet.These were fun little projects I did while Hallie was napping. Give them a try if you'd like and let me know if you do. Happy Halloween!

it is getting cold in idaho...

so Hallie got some new winter stuff. Hallie loves her new hat; its soft, warm, and so cute on her. It happen to come with some mittens too. ( click on and enlarge the first pic you can see her teeth)Some new shoes...she was too facinated with them to look up.

I got her some other stuff that was on sale but she wasn't interested in modeling everything. ;)

mixed berries part II

october 9 months

At 9 months Hallie weighs 17.6 lbs (31 percentile) and is 27 inches tall (35 percentile). Whats new with Hallie?
*She is dancing more and more and getting some new moves. Moving her head side to side or bouncing like crazy seem to be her current favorites.
*Copying movements we make with our hands.
*Learning to wave bye bye.
*Figuring out how to make all sorts of new sounds mamamam and papapapa. She is also mixing these sounds and some of her old ones together.
*She says mama alot when she sees me. I'm not entirely sure she means to say it for me but sometimes it seems like it.
*Copying things we say the best she can. bum bum= baaum baaum(she says it really slow and kinda quiet) pop pop pop= PAPAPA(this one is usually pretty loud) ball= babaa and etc.
*While leaning against furniture playing with a toy she will stand up straight and freestand whith out realizing it.
*When freestanding is still very short periods but she can crouch down on her own when she is done (she doesn't have to just fall).
*Berret started playing hide and seek with her and she loves it. She will crawl all over the apartment looking for him. She looks behind doors and everything. She gets distracted alot though but will continue looking for him when I ask her where he is.
*She really loves to eat peas. She has tried lots of different things but seems to enjoy peas the most.

two teeth

{you may have to click on the pictures to enlarge and see everything}ok, ok...here they are.

80's party + some random

This last Saturday we went to Rexburg for Ally's 80's birthday party. It was lots of fun to see our friends that we haven't seen for awhile. We sure did miss them! (For pics from the party go HERE) It was really fun dressing Hallie up. She knows how to work it!Hunter stealing a kiss from Hallie. Those two are going to be heartbreakers when they grow up.The random begins... Berret had this head wrap from Guatemala and put it on Hallie even though it was huge on her.If there is an open cupard, Hallie will be there. This is the huge cupard we got from Ikea a while back. It has been working great because it has lots of storage and Hallie can't open the doors at all. The tv is now mounted to the wall on an arm that makes it so we can change the direction of the tv however we want. Mounting to the wall also makes it safer ensure the tv when get knocked off.I had my birthday on the 19th and it was an awesome day. Warren and Allison babysat for us while Berret and I got to go to a movie. It was a nice break. Before the movie we got to watch Danielle for a little bit. For the first part she was in the bean bag looking at Berret for the longest time like this. It is so cute how she is peaking over.I went jogging one Saturday morning and found this when I got home. Hallie loves pillows so Berret put the pillows from the bed in the pack and play and was playing with her.

mixed berries

september 8 months

This post has been in draft waiting to be finished and posted for far to long and is very late. Sorry. Hallie's new skills etc.-
*faster crawling speeds (meaning she can get in to trouble faster than I realize sometimes)
*pulling herself up on ANYTHING even where there isn't anything to grip like flat walls
*she is a steadier stander after she pulls herself up (she doesn't get bruises all the time now)
*cruising along furniture, she is even starting one handed cruising
*free stand for a couple of seconds at a time
*she loves to play peek-a-boo with anything she can (even the flap of her onesie when she is being changed
*loves talking recently she been making alot of the babababa noises
*she is a tricky little thing - (example) we will tell her not to go somewhere, she'll look at us and if we are coming to stop her she just crawls faster to try and get there (example) we tell her "no fingers" and she puts her finger tips to the corner of her mouth with a smirk on her face waiting to see if we'll take them out
*she actually likes eating solid food now and can handle some stuff that isn't mashed up like peas, banana chunks, bread pieces, etc.
*she will let us spoon her mashed up food but anything else she has to feed herself (if I try to help her by putting a pea or something in her mouth she will spit it out and grab one herself and eat it)
* she has TWO TEETH
*right now she is taking 2 naps a day but can actually skip a nap entirely if we are out and there are alot of people to interact with and she won't seem at all up set until all the new people are gone (she is a very social)

This month she discovered that the calendar was made out of paper and started attacking it making it hard to get pictures. Hallie is so much fun and is regularly wearing Berret and me out!

playing, playing, and some more playing

This little girl is so fun. We just love her little laugh and all the new ways she has been interacting with us. We do anything we can to get her to smile and laugh again and again. Just look at that smile, I think anyone would do the same.

Here is some peek-a-boo and then playing with her bottle.