Julia's First Halloween (and other fun)

What a fun week we had!  The Saleskys came to visit and we had a non-stop week of activity.

 In just 6 days we:

Celebrated Halloween twice (the first night was to visit a local haunted house and the next night was actual trick or treating).  Julia was a butterfly but was asleep in the stroller as soon as we walked out the door to the first house at 6:30pm.  The older girls had a blast though I enjoyed eating their candy for the next 3 days :)

Went to the zoo - The biggest hit for the big girls was the playground.  Julia slept through the whole thing...

Went to the aquarium - The Florida Aquarium in Tampa is awesome.  We highly recommend it.  Julia slept through it.

Had family pictures taken - Stay tuned for the results...

Went to DisneyWorld - Best. Day. Ever.  Some would question the wisdom of taking an 11 week old to Disney (and to be honest if we had to purchase tickets we would have passed - Thanks so much Christina and your cast-member passes!) but it was amazing.  We saw princesses, Mickey and Minnie, and other Disneyish stuff.  Baby J alternating sleeping in the stroller, staring at the passing activity, sleeping in Chad's arms, being the subject of a zillion cell-phone photos.  She never cried or fussed the entire 11 hr day!  Infact, I think she thought it was pretty much the perfect day - Mommy and Daddy just hold and stare at me all day and I never had to do tummy-time - FTW!

WOW - What a busy week!  Julia loved meeting her friends Nya, Sage, and Ayla.  She just watched them with wide eyes.  Sage was her special helper all week, bringing her toys and singing songs to make her smile. Nya kept explaining that Baby J was Ayla's 'baby friend' since they weren't big like Nya and Sage.  Cuteness all around :)

Moving to Miami

Oh boy... here we go!  Chad got transfered wo we are off to South Florida.  We will probably live in Boca Raton instead of Miami proper and spent lat weekend looking for houses.  Julia was PERFECT the entire weekend riding with the realtor and viewing 20 houses in 2 days!  She napped, ate, and compared neighborhoods like a pro :)  We haven't found the perfect house yet but she will make sure it has a good pool and plenty of garage space for all her trikes :)

9 Week Visit to Atlanta

Chad had meetings in Atlanta this week so Julia and I rode along and spent a fun week with Oma! Julia I'd a champion traveler now and slept the entire 8.5 hrs in the car except for a quick stop for dinner and a diaper change. The short times she was awake she just enjoyed staring at her (obviously amazing) wiggly fingers and the dogs who were riding on the seat next to her.

At Oma's house she:

Had extra tummy time

Visited with our good friends Amy and Mike. (And their practically-all-grown-up awesome son Justin. Who is such a nice young man.)

Decided she didn't need naps

Got a custom car seat canopy out of cool bicycle fabric made by Oma

Got lots of snuggles from Oma and Uncle Andrew

Slept 9 hrs straight for the first time!

It was a great visit and we are always sad to see Oma in the rear view mirror...

Happy Birthday Skip

It was Skips 80th birthday last week so to celebrate we met up with his family in Bonita Springs. Mike and Brenda were gracious hosts as always. We had a delish dinner and got to hang out with Julia's buddies.

Brantley and Colton are 8 and 4 weeks older than Julia and are so cute! Julie, Courtney, and I loved seeing the kiddos together for the first time. The boys are so much bigger/older but soon the weeks difference will seem like nothing. We hope to keep documenting their growth together and hopefully they will grow up to be good friends :)

7 Week Photo Shoot

A few quick pictures I snapped earlier this week.  I have developed a love of all things pink and girly :) 

 She is very tolerant of my photo obsession - to a point...

7 Weeks

Not much to report this week...

Julia is making more sounds and is starting to use facial expressions to initiate contact with Chad and I. She doesn't just wait for us to smile, she will start first. It's especially tough to resist her grins after the 3 am feeding. I know I should just put her in her crib, pat her, and walk away but she is so darn cute and sucks me in for extra kisses every time...

Chad was out of town for work for 2 nights last week. It was the first time J and I were on our own. (Chad has been gone before but my Mom was visiting then.)  We did fine but boy were we glad to see him on Friday!  He even surprised us by coming home midday instead of dinnertime.  J is an EXCELLENT baby but it's mentally exhausting not having another adult to back you up occasionally. I am awed by single moms. My hat is off to them!

A few random pictures from the week:

Julia Video 6 weeks