6 months and then some!

Yes, Makaela is now 6 1/2 months...nearing 7 months! We see our new doctor here in a week and a half and we are so excited to meet him! We have heard such awesome things about him that we can hardly wait! We are also so curious to get Makaela's stats now! She's been on cereal for about 3 months now and baby foods (veggies only so far) for about 2 months. She is also completely bottle fed now so she has definitely filled out more but is still just the cutest button!

Lets see new things--where to even begin. She is not technically crawling, but she moves around like an inchworm and she's fast! So while there is no official crawling, she is a very mobile baby. Life as we know it will never be the same. Sometimes we will purposely move things she is trying to get so that she has to keep moving and its funny because sometimes she gets tired and just lays her head down for about 10 seconds, then is back up and moving again. It's so cute! She has also just recently started going from her position on all fours to sitting. I should mention that her position on all fours is sometimes hands and knees and it is sometimes (more often) hands and feet. She has nearly perfect push up form!! She gets a good workout and stretching time in for her calf's everyday. Anyway, when she is on her hands and feet, she will bend one knee which puts her hip on the ground. Then she twists around so that she is sitting. She's amazing!

Still sleeping wonderfully--although has recently gotten into a spout where when I put her down for a nap and she sees me walk out she cries. It's so sad :( She typically wakes up somewhere in the 7:00 hour after about 11 hours of sleep which is also wonderful. We have decided that her efforts to laugh result in her panting like a dog. When we laugh, she starts panting.

She finally fits into her 3 month clothes--yes that's right--3 months. Hopefully by Christmas time she will fit into her 6 month clothes...or at least 3-6 month clothes :)

This is one very sleepy baby trying to eat.

Just hangin' out on the couch

Not sure why this picture uploaded sideways, but its just a cute outfit she has that fits her now and that she can wear because the weather is cooler!!

Hanging out with Grandpa

This is a new toy that some friends lent to us (probably because its one of those noise making toys ;) But Makaela has loved it and the noise of the piano hasn't bothered me or gotten annoying at all. Plus since she loves it, I can't complain!! :) Bella on the other hand does NOT like the toy piano.

More Comparison...just for fun

Here are just a few more pictures of the house. These are all of the ones that I have comparison pictures of...I don't have that for any of the bedrooms but they all changed just as drastically. Hopefully one day we will be able to sell this, but currently we are so thankful to the Lord for providing a renter for us so quickly!!

This was the front of the house before the trim was re-painted.

It was really windy that day thats why i'm not looking at the camera :)

Trying to get my hair out of my face.

Old view of the kitchen

New view of the kitchen

A Little Comparison

Only a year later, I finally have the pictures to do the before and after post of our house! Too bad we had to move before I put these up...on the flip side both sets of pictures contain an empty house so you can get the full effect of the transformation that took place. For any new readers to our blog here's a quick recap. We purchased a home in May of 2009 which was a foreclosure. We did a lot of work on it (as you will see in the pictures). The home came with wallpaper galore, nasty gross mangy mauve/rose/pink carpet. Horrible lanolium...the list goes on. We tore down all the wallpaper, painted everything, replaced ALL of the flooring as well as ALL of the baseboards. We put in laminate hardwood throughout house except in the bedrooms--those got new carpet. Additional projects that came later were repainting the trim on the outside of the house and all of the little jobs we left to do "later." We didn't know that "later" would be so soon so we replaced most of the light fixtures, replaced bathroom fixtures, installed venting fans in both bathrooms, replaced hardware on doors throughout house and many other things. Anyway, here are pictures of the house from before and pictures from after. And there are more to come in the next post.

This picture is looking into the dining room which is off of the kitchen...pre-remodeling.

The new and improved dining room!!

Looking into family room from hallway...pre-remodeling

Family room Post remodeling.

This picture includes seeing the trim all repained :)

I don't remember how to do this.....

Hello blogging world! I feel like it has been such a long time (which it has) and there is so much to update on (which there is). It is going to take a bit of time for us to get all caught up but it will happen hopefully in the relatively near future. Sad part is there are not a ton of pictures of Makaela to share from the past few months but I will share what we do have. Life got just a little bit hectic pretty fast...and before we knew it our summer was/is over.

July was filled with the process of trying to pack up a house as well as prepare a house for tenants...both quite large jobs. This is the part where I thank all of our family for the endless hours they spend driving and laboring over projects at home! My wonderful amazing selfless parents drove down nearly every weekend in July to help us at home (which while it was hard on them, I know they enjoyed the "projects" they got to do). Nonetheless we cannot express to them how much we appreciate their sacrifices to help us! Nathan's mom joined in on the action of painting the trim on our house...a job that seemed to never end!! I'm pretty sure at one point there were about 6 people all painting the outside trim somewhere (and I might add the weather was at least 100*). My brother came up a few weekends feeling he "owed" us since I helped him move across the country a few times. I tried to tell him sitting in a car and hanging out is way different than painting in the scorching sun and 100 degree weather but he insisted. My sister and brother's girlfriend got quite handy with the boxes and tape gun. Moving day came and we cannot express how much we appreciated our family helping us! Nathan's brother, dad, and brother in law and my brothers and brother's girlfriend (and my awesome roommate, Emily) all came up to help with loading and cleaning and finishing projects. All this to say, there is absolutely no way we would have ever accomplished everything we needed to in the amount of time we needed to without the help of our family and we are just SO grateful to all of you for your love and support and for giving up time with your own families to help us! We love you guys!!

Needless to say the end of July came faster than we knew it would anyway! Before we knew it we were packing up the dog and the baby and driving away from our first home together. That was a weird feeling...but an exciting adventure at the same time. Washington was the destination and while we were very sad about driving away from all our family, we were also excited about what was ahead of us. We're not sure how many times we said "we can't believe we're moving to Washington!!" with such awe and amazement! The Lord was SO good and gracious to us! It has been the most wonderful thing to feel such peace about such a big decision and to know that we are where the Lord wants us to be without any questions or doubts. Praise Him!!

Driving to Washington with a 5 month old and a dog (who is really still a puppy)...we weren't sure how this would go...but again it went great (and again, Praise Him!!!). It was definitely a fun adventure with both the dog and the baby giving us plenty to laugh about. It was a trip I know we will remember for the rest of our lives.

At any rate, we are here now and have been for 1 full month now (my how time flies!!). We are all settled in and really enjoying everything Washington has had to offer--including the weather! We came at the perfect time as it has been beautiful (with the exception of a few 90*+ days and humidity), although probably any weather would seem beautiful after weeks of triple digit weather! But the sun has made an appearance nearly every day which I understand I should soak up while its here. Our home that we are renting was definitely a gift from the Lord and has been such an accommodating space for us! Plenty of good space for us to use as well as for plenty of family to come and not feel cramped (cue to family....come visit us!!!). I should not even get started on how the church has blessed us...probably should wait for a different post otherwise this will become a novel. I will just say that our Savior is so wonderful and so gracious and has many vessels here to use to extend His love to others. What a blessing to be welcomed into such a wonderful new church home! More to come on that....

I will upload a video we took of the house, however we only got half of it. The video stopped when we were in the kitchen and were prompted to open up the fridge which was FILLED with food so that no immediate grocery shopping was necessary. Again... the church has been nothing shy of amazing! But once I get a handle on the house for this week, I'll take some pictures of it and post them so you call can see where we are living.

Also to come...

~Pictures of our old house--all empty--weird.

~Pictures of sweet Makaela

~Videos of sweet Makaela

I suppose I should update on her real quick...she is on the move. Not crawling but scooting like an inchworm EVERYWHERE! She lays on her back for about half of a millisecond before she has rolled over and is scooting around...and her latest thing is to go from being on all fours to twisting and contorting her body so she is sitting. More to come with her...

~Post about Christ the Rock Community Church--because they are wonderful and I just need to tell you about them!

I think that's about it. Like I said, lots of updating to do but hopefully I can get it all done relatively soon. Also, we have Skype so any of you who read this who want to Skype...we would love it!

Love all of you, and miss everyone who reads this. Check back often for updates as we want to keep you informed of our new life and adventure up here in Port Orchard!