9 Month Mila

Mila is now 9 months old. Holy cow we are so close to the year mark. She is growing crazy fast as always. At her doctor's visit her numbers/stats were off the charts as usual. The dr said that her stats are above average for even an 1 year old. No surprise there. She's huge. Felt kind of good being validated for being exhausted carrying around such a huge kid. She is 21.5 lbs, 30.5" long, and her head is huge too.

What she is up to now:

• Crawling since 7 months. Now its more like a bear crawl on her feet. 
• Pulls her self up on anything she can and can walk with the support of furniture
• Seems to prefer crawling over walking while holding mom or dad's hands
• Got her first tooth on her grandma's birthday (same day as election) at 7.5 months old
• 6 teeth in 7 weeks and we are working on 2 more. The teeth don't stop coming!
• Can crawl all the way up our flight of stairs, with mom and dad right there of course. 
• Is so happy all the time. Gives giant cheesy, teethy grins for the slightest thing
• Will crawl after mom & dad when we leave the room. Which is so nice, because now I don't have to carry her around the house I just have to tell her to follow me. 
• Loves peek-a-boo and she loves uncovering your face herself
• Favorite part of the day: When dad walks through the door. Never hear her squeal louder and crawl more frantically
• Understands "NO" and definitely tries to test her boundaries 
• Such a good eater. Eats almost everything but doesn't seem to like applesauce or apple juice.. weird..
• So good at eating crackers. It cracks us up when we hear her bite down on a cracker with her little teeth

She is becoming more and more fun everyday. We love her and are excited for the holidays and get to share her with our family.

Six Months

Mila just turned 6 months old! Holy cow where did the time go? We are so bad at updating and taking pictures so we have a lot of ground to cover. Mila is a pretty big baby, but I guess we knew she would be from the beginning. She actually isn't fat just really really long. Off the charts in fact. Here are some of the things she does now:

• She knows her dad is for playing and mom is for comforting
• Can sit on her own, with a toy entertaining of course
• Eats solids like a champ and starting to learn how to feed herself puffs 
• Prefers to always be standing 
• Loves walking around while holding mom and dad's hands
• Can stomp her feet on command
• Babbles and blows bubbles like there's no tomorrow. Seriously sometimes her babbles get annoying...
• Favorite toys? None specifically... unless you count soda cans... LOVES soda cans :/
• Likes tummy time
• Narcissistic, loves seeing her reflection
• Can give bashful smiles and flirts
• Loves her 3 little pigs book and Brown Bear Brown Bear. Both can get her to stop crying in a heartbeat 
• Can spot an electronic device (cell phones especially) across the room
• Loves being splashed in the face with water
• Likes her Dutch lessons with Oma- mostly singing Dutch Christmas songs
• Sleeps pretty well at night (fingers crossed)
• Been swimming a few times and LOVES it. Loves baths too, but hates getting out. 
• Goes crazy when we put her in her crib to play. She learned the mattress can bounce so she kicks and rolls and squeals
• She knows mom & dad can see her through her camera baby monitor and knows to look up at it and smile, flirt and put on the charm for mom & dad to come get her 
• Loves trees, babbles and coo's whenever she is under one 
• Gets sad when she see's another baby crying. Does her perfect little pouty frown.
• Loves being outside

She's just starting to grow some hair, but she'll still be bald for a while. She's a really happy baby and pretty well behaved, rarely gets cranky. We are so lucky and love her so much. 

Blessing

In her beautiful dress thanks to her very talented Grandmother

We blessed Mila on Sunday May 27th. We did it over Memorial weekend so all of our family could come. We'd like to thank those that were able to come out and support our little family for the blessing.

Oh and for those that were there and notice my outfit was different than what I wore at church... well we totally forgot to take pictures of Mila in her dress on the day so we had to recreate the next sunday. Opps. :)

Baby update + family photo

Mila is doing so well. She's a pretty happy baby as long as we feed her and keep her entertained. She is constantly wanting to be in a position where she can hold her own head up and check stuff out. She will hear mom or dad's voice and crane her head towards them. She definitely knows her mamma and papa and loves us.

We finally gave her a bath and thanks to the towel swaddling technique she actually loved her first bath. She cried when it was over.
She's also one of the most stylish babies around

My sister came this weekend to help out and took some spur of the moment family photo's that turned out pretty awesome if I do say so myself. Thanks Vanessa.

We've also had so much help over the past several weeks. Rick and Kim came and Kim was such a huge help when I was so sick after delivery... we honestly probably wouldn't have survived had she not been here to help take care of Mila. My parents came several times and were such a huge help and I'm not sure anyone loves Mila more than Opa (besides Nolan and I of course). And once my sister came I felt so good that we were able to get so many projects done around the house and I've never felt more productive.

We absolutely love Mila. Daddy is definitely smitten with his little girl. She already has so many cute little quirks and personality traits. She'll definitely be a happy camper once she's old enough to move around and explore her world. We love her and are so glad she's here, happy and thriving.

She's Here!!!

Mila Rae Garrity. Born Sunday 11:27 pm. 9 lbs 2 oz & 21 in long. She's quite the hefty one but we love her! More pictures and information to come.

Baby shower

Over the weekend my good friends from back home threw me a wonderful baby shower. I didn't think I wouldn't be able to get one because of some pregnancy restrictions I've had over the past couple of weeks. However, my dr finally gave us the okay to travel down to Orem and my friends were so awesome and offered to throw a shower for me.

It was small but with all the people I cared about most and we had such a great time (My mom couldn't stop talking and socializing, she was the star of the show). We got some awesome gifts for lil' girl. We are so excited that we're getting close and so grateful for all the gifts and help we've received thus far. Only 5 more weeks!

Baby bump

Hot baby bump huh?! Thanks to Nolan for being very supportive with everything.

Big Surprise

Nolan's going to need to start getting used to things like this:Because we're having a baby GIRL! We're totally shocked but we're getting excited. Baby bump picture coming soon.

A look back at summer

Since graduation Nolan and I have had a somewhat eventful summer. We took a little trip to Vegas to make up for our first 3 anniversaries always taking place during the middle of finals week. Don't worry we didn't waste our time gambling, but Nolan did win $30 off a nickel machine and he was pretty proud of that. It was a great getaway and Nolan is constantly asking me when we are going back. In fact he wants to go back with some cool friends... so if you're cool.. let us know.

In July we had the awesome experience of going to Guatemala with my family for my cousin's wedding. It was such a neat experience and its always humbling to go to another country where the culture is so different and many live in extreme poverty. Nolan was able to meet a lot of my family from Holland that we rarely get to see and it was great to spending time with them.While we were in Guatemala we were able to see some great things while we were there. Nolan spent a lot of time exploring downtown Guatemala City and making daily trips to the market. Nolan and I were also able to visit the historical city of Antigua which was really cool.In our last day in Guatemala we took a short plane ride to the ancient Mayan city of Tikal. The ancient city was located in the middle of a rainforest and it was cool walking through and seeing some monkeys and some crazy looking insects. We had a great tour guide that really explained the Mayan history to us and helped us understand how impressive all the ruins really are.
We were able to climb all around the ruins and temples which was really neat. At the very end of the tour we climbed all the way to the top of the highest temple which overlooked the top of the rainforest canopy.
When we got back to our normal life we found out that we needed to move out of our apartment as soon as possible. Nolan and I were so excited for the push to get us out of that tiny little basement apartment to a more "grown up" place. Our new place still has tons of quirks but we're finally getting settled in. Its away from campus so we're surrounded by all kinds of people and families, instead of just students.

My in-laws, Kim and Rick were able to come over labor day weekend for the blessing of our new nephew. While they were here Kim shared her talents, and her sewing machine, to help me make curtains for our new place. The curtains look great and our place is starting to feel more homey. We still have a ton of unpacking to do, but we're slowly getting there.

It's been a pretty exciting summer and since we're not in school anymore, Nolan and I don't even feel like summer is even over. We're still having fun and staying busy but I'm pretty excited for the fall.

GRADUATION!

WE'RE GRADUATED! We did it! We wanted to thank everyone for their love and support over the years, and a special thanks to all those who came out to support us at graduation. We really appreciated everything anyone has done for us.

THANK YOU!

My parent's came and champed it.

Almost all of Nolan's family came.Yay! We're done! Now, we are going to take the summer to figure out what to do next in our lives. Hopefully relax, and spend our last few months in Logan living it up.

HEY! Remember us?!

We're back! Over the last several months we've been far too busy to do anything blog worthy. But good news, our last semester is almost over. Nolan and I only have a few finals left and then we get to figure out what to do with our lives. Trust me, I'm not looking forward to making that decision.

Our anniversary this year fell in the middle of finals week again. Boo. Honestly though, Nolan and I were so busy and had so much other stuff on our mind that we didn't even really remember till my parents reminded us about their anniversary (which happens to be the day before ours). Because times were so hectic we didn't expect anything from each other and we didn't even feel bad about it. The morning of our anniversary I had my first final bright and early and when I finally got home from it I found some flowers, our picnic blanket, and a cooler full of food ready to go. Despite us being so busy and deciding not to do anything, Nolan snuck away during my final and packed us up an afternoon picnic. It was perfect. It just so happened to be the first sunny and relatively warm day we've had in Logan in months!

We love going to first dam and feeding the ducks and geese. I think they're getting spoiled and picky because this time they were not digging our chips. Usually they will eat out of the palm of your hand.
Not sure what I was laughing about but at least you can see how beautiful the day was! We were so lucky too, because now its pouring outside.

Nolan and I will be graduating on Saturday. Both our parents are coming to support and we're excited to get to spend time with them. As to what we are doing next, we have no idea. Wish us luck!

Christmas in February

I know it's really late to be posting about Christmas but what can I say, Nolan and I are professional procrastinators. Nolan and I were excited to finally spend a Christmas in Portland with his family. It was a much needed break and it worked out perfectly. We were there for a week and did a lot of exciting things, like go shopping downtown, games with the family, a visit to the Nike Headquarters Employee store, and visited VooDoo Doughnuts. Nolan and I saw an episode of Man vs. Food that featured VooDoo Doughnuts so of course we had to check it out since it was famous enough to be on TV!VooDoo doughnuts is famous for their original voodoo doughnut with raspberry filling and a pretzel stick. It was delicious. And of course only in Portland would you find a place like this. They also offered other "specialty doughnuts" which we have a funny story about that but probably not appropriate for my 'PG' rated blogger audience.

But of course Christmas itself was great. We had great food, great conversations, and made great memories (I feel like I should stitch that on a pillow). I officially participated in my first Christmas tree cutting experience. The Garrity's were shocked that I had been deprived my whole life from cutting down our own Christmas tree. I definitely think it was worth it. Real trees do look much better and it's a fun tradition.It was also a treat to have the twins there with us. They served as constant entertainment which made it that much more enjoyable.Rowan really loved the swiffer, as well as a giant cardboard box, and break dancing on the kitchen floor. I loved Keegan's comment about putting Rowan to good use and buy him a metal detector.
We were sad to go. Christmas break is never long enough but we were glad we were at least able to be there.
On another note we came home and spent some time with my mom who had been in the hospital. She seems to be making a good recovery, even though she would say she isn't. We are so happy that she's doing well and so thankful especially around this time of year for our family.This picture was technically meant to send to Sawyer on his mission, but I think it applies to everyone.
Oh and I just thought this picture was funny. This is us getting lost on one of our many adventures in Portland.

Happy Halloween

Nolan's tender side

The following was not staged in anyway. This is honestly how I found him asleep.

Cuddling with his teddy bear.

So sweet.

Nolan + Deseret Industries = Sweet Find

Sometimes my husband's infatuation with D.I. is frustrating, but sometimes he knows how to work his magic. Like when he found me a legit brand new Louis Vuitton for $15.00 and now another amazing find for only $3.00.

A Dutch national soccer jersey. He was so proud.