Sylvia 7 months

In August, Sylvia turned 7 months old.  She is growing up fast and getting cuter with age.  Andrew always makes her laugh and she is just so curious about the world. She can say, "ma ma" and "ba ba". 

Her monthly pictures are getting more difficult because she wants to lunge off the couch.

Peek a boo baby.  It is one of her favorite games.

One of the biggest changes, which happened around the beginning of the month, was getting her a new crib and sleep training.

As you can see, it was successful and she now loves her crib.  She sleeps there for both her naps and throughout the night.  She wakes 2-3 times still to nurse during the night.

She is in a very easy going stage.  She loves to sit and play with toys.  Or chew on her fingers.

Here we are at playgroup at the Fountain Library.

Here she is again! Everything goes into her mouth at this age.

She is playing in Andrew's crib while Andrew plays in his room.  Sometimes siblings need a little space.

 It is so fun to have a girl to dress up in pretty dresses.  Here she is in her Sunday best.

What a cutie!

The bassinet days are numbered because she is pulling herself into a sitting position.  Look at that smile!

 Big smile girl! You can kind of see her bottom two teeth.

 She didn't quite know how to react to sunglasses

 She loves to sit and play!

Peek a boo! We love you!

Sylvia 6 Months

Our sweet Sylvia Girl turned 6 months old! We love having her in our family and think she is super sweet!  She can sit up by herself and has two teeth.  During her sixth month, we traveled a lot and had lots of family time. 

Daddy and baby girl selfie!

She had been so flexible because her routine isn't that reliable on vacation.  Sometimes she just gets too tired and needs to fall asleep in people's arms.  She still sleeps in Mommy and Daddy's bed at night and takes about two naps a day.  

Here she is with Gigi, Great Grandma Judd in Michigan.  

Sylvia and Granddad in Oregon.  She got sick when we were in Oregon and it was really sad to see her with a fever and not feeling well. But most people didn't even know she wasn't feeling well because she was still a good girl.

Snuggles after bath time from Grandpa.

Mommy loves her kiddos so much!

Sylvia LOVES her daddy.  She always has a smile for him.

Sylvia loves being held and loves playing

These are our colorful roses in front of our house. They remind me of Sylvia because she is a bright, beautiful little girl, who is growing and flourishing.

Sylvia is reading! Actually she likes to chew on books more than sit still to listen to them.

One evening she fell asleep in her bouncer chair.  Don't worry, we did not leave her there all night.  Just long enough to take a picture, poor baby. 

Sylvia spending time with Daddy.

Little miss and Mommy.

 After all our traveling was done in July, we started sleep training her to sleep in her own crib in her own room. This is a picture of Andrew round house kicking (just kidding, he was trying to climb on to ride) a stuffed giraffe while shopping for a crib mattress. 

Happy 6 months in our family, cutie sweet baby Sylvia girl!

* Bonus Picture *

Here is Andrew impersonating Snoopy's alter ego, Joe Cool

Oregon Reunion

One day after we returned home from the Michigan trip, we left for Oregon. We fit a lot of fun into our month of July. It was the month of the mega vacation.

You can see Mt. Hood from the plane

We first visited with Tyler's Grandma Carson and his aunts and uncles on that side of the family in Vancouver, Washington. 

Andrew loved the kitty cat 

Here we all are enjoying a big meal together 

We stayed at Grandma Carson's house the first night. 

Andrew loved helping Aunt Joyce water the flowers. And he loved playing in the fountains. 

Here is a nice group picture, Aunt Lynda is holding Sylvia. 

We then drove to Oregon for the Christensen family reunion.  We rented big houses for the families to stay in. 

Andrew tried corn on the cob and liked it

Here we are hanging out in one of the houses

We played in the park one morning and had a picnic lunch that afternoon

The kids loved spinning around

Mommy with baby Sylvia

Baby Sylvia sitting in a big girl chair!

We tried to play a family volleyball game like in past reunions, but most of us are either too old, too young, or too unathletic. Let's just say the ball didn't get volley'd much

The resort was in the woods and we saw deer a few times walking between the houses

We did lots of eating while we were there.

Here's the Carson grandchildren eating lunch one day.  Daniel and Makayla don't like "Macaroni and cheese" but they found they did like eating "noodles" as Andrew calls it

We spent one morning at the water park. The weather was a little bit chilly but the water was warm

Especially in the indoor pool. Ivan is so much bigger than Sylvia! Ivan is Ragan and Krista's son.

Ivan's older sister Abby is holding Sylvia.  She loved giving her attention.

Great Grandma Christensen watching the anniversary video we made for Tyler's parents

Sylvia loved scooting around in her walker

It was nice to spend time with family we don't see very often.

Big hugs for Grandma Christensen.

Grandma Carson loves her grand kids!

See, I told you so

She never puts them down!

Come on grandma, give someone else a turn!

Family puzzle solving

Each house had bikes you could use to ride around on. Andrew discovered that he LOVES bikes

There were activities for the older kids to enjoy also

Andrew got tired out playing with all of his cousins. He took good naps at the reunion.  He had his own "room" which was the walk-in closet in the master bedroom.

We went to church at the nearby town. It was a good experience

We filled up five whole rows with our extended family

The drove back to Vancouver and passed by lost of cool scenery along the way

We did not see Bigfoot though, despite this sign indicating that he and his family frequented the area

Here's the view of Mount Hood! The weather didn't cooperate with us up there

We stopped by the Portland Temple also, but it was closed for its annual deep cleaning so we couldn't even go on the grounds

Angel Moroni

We had lots of fun exploring the visitors center 

Andrew being reverent at the Temple

Picturesque farmland near where Great Grandma and Grandpa Christensen live

We stopped by Tyler's Uncle Reed and Myra's farm to see the fun stuff there

Cute Sylvia girl

Andrew L-O-V-E-S tractors

Grand dad loves holding his grand kids too

Here's more proof

Grandma let Granddad have a turn too.  They are wearing matching shirts.

Sibling photos at Great Grandma Carson's house. Andrew kept getting out of his chair milliseconds after he sat down to see the pictures we were taking

We had tons of fun this summer spending time at three family reunions. We are so blessed to have such an amazing family and the ability to see them so frequently!

Thanks for the photo bomb Daniel!