Where did this month go...9 months old!!

Sophi turned 9 months old yesterday and had her 9 month check up. Here are her stats:

Weight: 18 pounds 1.5 ounces - 50%
Height: 27 & 1/2 inches - 50%
Head circumference: 17 inches - 25%

This month has flown by! Sophi is so much fun these days, but soooo busy!! She is a much faster crawler than she was last month (although still using the gimpy crawl) and can get from one room to the next in the blink of an eye! Surprisingly Sophi has become quite the babbler. She strings "sentences" together constantly in her own little language and I frequently catch her carrying on conversation with Shiloh (who is always unamused!). She can now say Mama, Dada, More, Bye, Bye, Hi and Shiloh (shiloh is more of "dido").

Not only has she become quite the talker but she is also quite the eater. She LOVES to eat, as soon as we place her in her high chair she immediately begins saying "more, more more." Her new favorites include blueberries, kiwis, yogurt, bread and cottage cheese. She loves to feed herself and if left to her own feeding will stuff her mouth full!

Sophi officialy has a tooth! It is on the bottom and makes her adorable smile that much cuter! She is still cruising everywhere and gets quite the workout everyday doing laps around our coffee table. She has the strength to stand up on her own without support but doesn't quite have the confidence. She can walk holding onto to one hand and I am afraid our crawling days will soon be disappearing, I am pretty sure this girl was born to walk!

Sophi graduated to a big girl car seat this past month. Thank you Lolly and Pops! She loves it and although there are days where I miss being able to carry the sleeping girl in without waking her up I am loving it too!Sophi loves to read these days, especially loves to the turn the pages herself and touch EVERYTHING on the page! I think she is going to be a reader like her daddy...not like her mommy!!
Sophi LOVES her daddy and one of her favorite things to do these days is play and laugh with him! I so enjoy watching them together. So sweet!

Sophi has been spending more time with her new friend Caroline which has been so much fun! It is slowly helping us learn how to play with others. She has not quite learned the concept of personal space and loves to literally climb all over her buddies. Poor Caroline! We are really working on being gentle as apposed to tackling. Who knows, maybe football is in her future?! This past month we have really enjoyed taking swimming lessons with Caroline and her mom Ellen as well as spending time at the park and zoo.

The girls love being together and so do us moms!! Ellen and her husband Jeff moved here from Birmingham, AL and I always feel like I'm back home when spending time with them! Yeah for southern friends in California!

Even though this past month has gone by so quickly our precious little girl continues to bring us such joy and makes every day so much brighter. She is one of the best things that has ever happened to us and we feel so blessed to have her in our lives!

We are about to embark on a 2 week adventure as we travel back to the south to spend time with our families and celebrate my niece Evie's first birthday!

The affects of "No Impact"

So in my previous post I mentioned that Josh and I recently watched the documentary "No Impact Man" in which a man and his family attempt to live for a year without impacting the environment. There were many things about this film that were eye opening and challenging to us both, especially convicting to me being the the constant use of my plastic bags (if you know me at all you know I can't live without my ziplocks!).
Surprisingly one of the things that impacted us most after watching this film actually had less to do with the environment and more to do with family. In an effort to not use electricity and spend more time together the "No Impact" family stopped watching tv for the entire year of their experiment. It was very eye opening and refreshing to see how much the couple and their 2 year old daughter grew closer to each other as a family and more aware of the world outside their living room after a year without tv.

SO...in an effort to remove one of the biggest distractions in our home keeping us from each other and the world outside our own living room we have decided as a family to stop watching tv for a full year. Ok, I know what you are thinking, we are crazy. Honestly, sometimes I think that myself. But hey, what can it hurt, right? At the end of the year we hope that we will be better people with a much richer life for having taken this challenge .
Why I am telling you all this? As a way to hold ourselves accountable! Our contract with Dish Network, although it has been great, will end at the end of August this year and we will not be renewing it. We will be on vacation most of the month of September so come October 1st our year of no tv will officially commence.
I will probably be cramming in my tv time up until that point but once it begins I hope to record our experience through our blog.
If you haven't seen this documentary yet you should check it out. You never know what you might find yourself challenged to change!

May Beach Trip

While Sophi and I were back in the South we headed to Florida to spend time with both sets of grandparents!
First stop was to visit Grammy and Poppy in St. George Island. Sophi loved being with them, taking long walks in the morning and playing in the water and the sand in the afternoon.



Grammy has a unique way of capturing Sophi's great expressions!

Next stop was Panama City Beach with Lolly, Nana (her great-grandma), GiGi (her great Aunt Joyce), Kayleigh (her second cousin), and Jake (GiGi's grandson).

Sophi loved playing in the water with Jake and staying in the shade with Nana. I really enjoyed getting to catch up with Kayleigh and hear all about her first year at Lipscomb! Pops came down to the beach a day or two later and we had fun playing and goofing off with him too!


My best friend from childhood, Kathryn Baird, and her family were down at the beach that week as well so we got to hang out for a bit. I was able to meet her precious new baby boy Miller. He is gorgeous and so tiny. It is hard for me to remember Sophi being that small, they change so quickly! It was so good to see them, I just wish we had more time! That is always my wish when I see Kathryn, we just never have a enough time to spend together!!

We came back to Atlanta Saturday and spent some time with Graham and Ashely, Great Grandma and Great Grandpa and cousin Evie. It was so fun to see them interact. They enjoyed "sharing" everything, even their food!

Even though our week was jam packed we had such a great time and can't wait to go back in a few weeks for Evie's 1st birthday!

On a side note, Josh and I watched "No Impact Man" last night, a documentary about a family who tries to go for a year without impacting the environment. Needless to say it had a big impact on us and we will be making some big changes in the next few months. More details to come.

A little late...8 months old!

Sophi turned 8 months old about a week ago. I was just reading over last months blog and can't believe how much she continues to change in a matter of weeks. This is all moving way to fast for mommy!

It took us several attempts to get a good 8 month picture because Sophi is SOOOO busy. Can you tell?!!Sophi is now crawling everywhere. She has what we call a "gimpy" crawl in that she pushes off with one foot on the floor and drags the other leg behind her. It is quite humorous to watch, however, she gets where she wants to go and seems to have no intention of changing. She is pulling up on everything and cruising from one object to the next. My mom got her a "walker" toy and she loves to walk around the house with it. We call her Benjamin Button when she starts using it because she looks just like a tiny little old lady! Too funny!

Our little girl has started talking. Most of it we can not understand but she loves to babble at us any ways. She just recently learned "Mama" and "Dada" and although she is not consistent if you point to a picture of either Josh or I she will often say our names! So precious!

One of the biggest changes over the past few weeks has been her personality. Sophi is fearless! She falls down and often pops right back up, hits her head and keeps on going, and would crawl right off the couch or chair if you let her! She loves people, loves to smile at them, play with them and watch them. She does not quite understand the meaning of the word inconspicuous though, in that she will turn around in her high chair and stare at those sitting at the table behind us while eating out. She has the best laugh in the world. She is a little feisty and you can tell by her face that she knows when she is doing something she shouldn't!

Other things she has started doing this past month include swimming lessons, playing in the ocean, eating finger foods by herself, going for runs with mommy and daddy, visiting Malibu for the first time, flying first class to visit Lolly and Pops, hanging out with her cousin Evie, and discovering her love for swings!

Our lives are so much richer with her in it and we love when our home is filled with her sweet sweet laughter! Looking forward to seeing what this next month will bring!

7 months old!

Sophi turned 7 months old yesterday. This past month has flown by and brought with it a whirlwind of changes.Sophi officially started crawling about a week ago. She's not super fast but she can get wherever she wants to go without any problem. She may, however, think she is a dog. Her two favorite places to crawl are currently Shiloh's kennel and food bowl. She is most interested in these two items when Shiloh is either eating his food or is in his kennel! They are learning to play together, though, which is pretty cute to watch!

Just in the past week Sophi has learned to pull up on things. She is still getting the hang of it and although I have not found her standing up in her crib I anticipate this moment taking place very soon!

Several other firsts for Sophi include taking baths in the big tub, which she LOVES and constantly wants to crawl and stand up while in the tub, going to the beach and eating sand, going to the nursery during church (much harder for mommy and daddy then for her of course) and eating lots of new foods. Her favorite food right now is avocado, she is a California girl after all! She also enjoys sweet potatoes, green peas and bananas.On one of our recent trips to the park Josh and I both commented on how much fun this stage of Sophi's life has been. Her sweet smile and cute giggle just melts our hearts and we love discovering her sweet, and sometimes ornery personality! I have enjoyed staying at home with Sophi this last month giving Josh more time to focus on his school work and teaching. We both love what we are doing and love the time we have with our baby girl. Life is good.

A day at the park

i love this girl!

Two of my favorite men

I love these two men! They play a huge part in who I am today and who I will continue to become. They mean more to me then I can put into words. And I am SO glad that Sophi has the opportunity to know them, be shaped by them and be loved by them! She is one lucky lady!