Happy 1st Birthday, Julia!

January 20th of last  year, I had been having contractions on and off for days...a couple of times even time-able but nothing truly painful.  I knew I was in early labor when we went shopping (it was a Sunday morning), went to a friend's birthday party, and stopped by my parents.  We left the boys for the night with my parents because surely, 9 days past my due date, tonight would be the night.

After contractions slowed (AGAIN), I decided to attempt a few hours of sleep so I went to bed.  I woke up a little after 1am with fast and hard contractions and we frantically began throwing things together and getting dressed...in between contractions.  Julia Jane was born (still unnamed, although only for minutes) at 3:36am on January 21st--10 days past her estimated due date, just like her big brother Sam.  So much has changed in a year! 

To celebrate, we had a small party on Saturday with a few friends and family members.  Julia started the afternoon with a cute bow in her hair, soon to be dismissed.  She enjoyed crawling around and waving to everyone present (or, being held by anyone who would take her!)

She did not, however, enjoy the cake (see pictures below).  I think the frosting was too cold as I had stored it in the fridge.  Or maybe she just loves broccoli better--who knows.  Scott tried to convince her that she did indeed like it (by shoving a piece into her mouth) to which she responded by screaming even louder.

She is SO CLOSE to walking and not yet there--she can do 6-7 steps when she wants to and is capable of standing for long periods of time.  Both of her brothers were walking by 12 months but she can out climb them for sure!  (and possibly out eat them too)

Pat's Philly Pretzels (formally a Taste of Philly) made "JJ" out of pretzels, but alas, they made the letters backwards.  Benefit to us--we got to keep the backwards pretzels for free and they made fresh ones while Scott waited.

The pictures are all in random order (some photo credit due to Erin per usual) and I failed to take pictures of all of our wonderful family and friends...some day I will try to make it a priority!  At least I have some of the birthday girl.

For the emotional side--it has been such an amazing year with Julia.  She is truly the center of our family.  We all adore her!  She is so outgoing and friendly, always with a smile on her face.  I am so excited for our mother/daughter relationship to grow, and we are more and more in love every day.

(and a side note...she and Sam could be twins in these pictures!)

 

 

  

 

We had a little party yesterday...

More pictures to come when I have the time to upload them :) Spoiler alert, she didn't like the cake!

Sweet Julia Jane at 11 months

Pictures of Julia from Christmas day. We have pictures of the boys on 12x12 canvases when they were 10-11 months and we needed one of Julia!  Christmas was grey and cold out so we had a hard time finding good light...but managed to capture a few.  Best ones are from outside (brr) on my parents back deck!

 

 

  

 

 

At 11 months, Julia is still such a joy!!!  She almost always has a smile on her face. 
-Learning to walk (cruising on furniture, walks while holding on to one of my hands, and has taken a few steps on her own)
-Eating like a champ, nursing 3-4x/day
-Weighs around 19 pounds, although official stats will come at her first birthday
-One big afternoon nap, and usually a short morning one too
-Says "dada" all the time but not "real" words yet
-Is SUCH a daddy's girl
-Much more social than the boys were--waves to everyone (while saying "haaaa") and lets friends/family hold her
-Still sleeps with fingers in her mouth, and with her "lovie" (small blanket with satin edges)
-Loves her big brothers almost as much as her daddy, and constantly chases them from room to room

Photoshoot

Nine Months!

A wordy update

I just haven't made time for updating the blog lately.  We've just been busy with...well, life!  And honestly, while Julia is the best baby and so easy, the transition to 3 has gradually made my "personal time" disappear...so blogging is often at the bottom of the never-ending to-do list.

We have been busy!  In August we had our house trim repainted...which ended up being a multi-week project.  After the paint was freshened, we decided it was time to tackle the deck...so early in September (I think?) we set aside a whole weekend to scrape, clean, and re-coat our deck with a special deck paint--basically to coat over and fill in cracks rather than replacing all the wood.  We're pretty pleased with the results,and I hope it lasts for years!  We would love to have a stained deck, but since the previous owner put paint on it (which we have tried several different times to remove), we have to deal with what we've got!

Before pictures (Scott starting the paint)

 Our favorite helper...

 After

The spindles took more time than we had planned, and it seriously took 8 hours Saturday and another 8 on Sunday.  Fortunately the weather was beautiful and the kids enjoyed playing outside (by themselves for the most part!)

Another weekend in September, we decided to go camping with some friends to Hardin Ridge (a new place for us).  Our friends the Rudes have twin boys who are Charlie's age, and we also went with friends of theirs, the Uppoles, who have twin 5 year old boys!  Quite a crazy bunch...alas we didn't capture many pictures but managed to get a picture of myself and Scott (a rare thing!)

I totally skipped Julia's 8 month post, and since she's 9 months now, I'm not going to bother :) but these were the pictures I was planning on using...Julia has been busy pulling up on things, eating dog food, crawling into the bathroom, pulling clean clothes out of the laundry bin, eating everything off the ground, and climbing stairs...she can master the step out of the playroom with ease, and has made it up 2 stairs before I stop her :)

Florida/Disney pictures to come...hopefully posted sometime before Christmas :)