Last year around this time, we posted our pregnancy announcement featuring a little pumpkin. So when I saw a little pumpkin beanie I knew what Scotty was going to be for Halloween this year. Today, her 6 month birthday, we went to a garden center that has a fun pumpkin patch and Halloween activities to celebrate.
David said before he thought taking pictures of her with pumpkins would turn out to be a Pinterest fail. Then he was the one who orchestrated this shot. Scotty can't sit up by herself for than a little bit or balance on a pumpkin... it's magic ;)
She thwarted our attempts to get her to look at the camera but I still love this family shot :)
Scotty is a daddy's girl for sure. She's always watching him and smiling like crazy. She already knows who the fun one is.
Scotty picked a pumpkin for us and even taste-tested it too, as she does with everything these days.
She seemed to enjoy the giant trough of corn for the kids to play in. Two little girls kept coming by to inspect Scotty and she loved watching them swim through it. I was amazed she didn't try to eat any, I think she was too mystified by her situation to think about it.
I couldn't have dreamed a more perfect little lady last year when we found out on Halloween we we're having a girl. We sure love our girl and can't believe it's been half a year since she joined our family!
Now Summer's over, I'm finally posting Oceanside pictures. For a while I thought I only had three cell phone pictures of the entire vacation and then I remembered I pulled my camera out the last day!
Having never been to Oceanside, I didn't realize the beach house was on the beach until David mentioned it right before we went. It was such a pinch me moment to look out the windows at the ocean and have to close the window in our room because the waves were too loud for Scotty!
Scotty got passed around and had so much cousin time. It was so fun to see and get excited for her to have so many fun cousins to play with as she gets older.
I love Charlie's face in this picture. He looks so proud and mischievous haha. The Meservy guys in Utah have been so awesome to the kids when they come visit Aunt Sandra. It's like they have a bunch of extra fun uncles.
And Karl and Amanda's girls were so stinkin' cute as usual. Looking at them, I can't help but think it would be fun to have another girl next.
I can't get enough of this cherub or this hilariously luxurious outfit made from baby alpaca wool (I kid you not- baby alpaca wool. Also it's not ours but I'm seriously considering splurging). As her 5 month trial period draws to a close, David and I have officially decided to keep her.
Speaking of amazing knit outfits, here she is wearing a keepsake made by Great-grandma Varin. She's lucky enough to be the fifth girl cousin to get to wear it. It's so cute I wouldn't mind having a few more girls just so we can keep the tradition alive. Or maybe we can petition some siblings for some more kids? ;)
As you can see, church is a place where we look cute and act like a wiggle worm. I ask you, how do kids know church is the designated place to lose their cool? As soon as you leave, a calm comes over them and they settle right down again. No, she's actually pretty good, but I can't even imagine what's going to happen when she starts walking.
Now let me answer the question everyone asks: how's she sleeping? Well guys, let's talk about the four month sleep regression. That struggle is REAL. At three months she was sleeping like a dream, getting up one time to eat but that was it. Then right at four months she was getting up every hour or so after midnight.
I read everything online and got sucked into the belief it was just a growth spurt and to deny her food was just mean because she really was hungry (I know, I was such a newb). After a few weeks this, we bought this magic sleep sack off Amazon in a desperate attempt to "gear" our way out of the lack of sleep. I also read that sleep begets sleep and followed some advice to move her bedtime up to 7 pm. I read about the importance of a bedtime routine and followed ours religiously. NOTHING WORKED.
After more 3 am internet research and a new caffeine addiction I developed at the office, I decided to try the Ferber method and let her cry for 3 minutes, then go in and soothe her, then 5 minutes and go soothe, then let her cry and soothe her in 10 minute intervals after that. She actually never made it to any of the ten minute intervals, she always feel asleep after I soothed her after the five minute cry period. In the middle of the night I would drop every-other feeding and just do the Feber method and after 3 nights, she was back to her three month sleep patterns! And falls asleep on her own!
I gave myself mastitis with the crazy amount of milk I no longer needed every hour of the night but hey, now I sleep. Plus now she fits into her 6-9 month clothes really well so I guess all the feedings made her a giant.
This face she's making just made its debut and I.can't.even. Look at her! She looks so angry and disgusted the way she purses her lips and scrunches her nose. But she's never angry, just animated. She also breathes really loudly through her nose when she makes this face. You want to have a fun time, hang out with Scotty and her stink face.
Daddy's commute is a tough one because some nights he doesn't get to see her before she goes to bed but I sure enjoy having my little buddy to hang out with. She's learning like crazy with her rolling, trying new foods, standing up, grabbing things, etc.
Basically I love all the new developments and wish I could stop time. Parenthood is such a paradox. David was being funny and said, "Isn't it weird we gave ourselves extra chores?" but then we're both obsessing over how cute and fun she is the next moment. We're enjoying this journey through babyhood and fully expect to keep internet parenting ;)
*This has been sitting in my drafts folder for way too long!! But it was wonderful!*
It was awesome to celebrate the most recent wedding in the Clark Hatch family. Jake is such an awesome guy and we're really excited he found the perfect person for him.
The wedding festivities started the evening before with a dinner hosted by the Kellis family.
Family weddings are such a fun reason for cousin time as well. It was cute to see all Scotty's older cousins take an interest in her.
With the time in between the luncheon and the sealing we hung out in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.
After the sealing I got a four-generation picture in front of the temple.
And the obligatory family picture as well.
Grandma Sandra and Grandpa Larry got in on the fun.
David kept Scotty occupied.
And everyone tried to stay dry.
It was a few hours until the reception so we ran back over to the Joseph Smith building's family history center and played there until it closed. Nathan and David had gone disc golfing so I caught a ride with Colleen and the kids. We drove to a park to hang out by the reception and the boys decided they needed to go potty (we all cracked up at Gideon's initiative).
We hung out in the car until it was time for the reception. But the reception was packed because it was originally an outdoor reception and it had to be moved inside to Jessica's neighbor's house. We took off pretty quickly to free up space so I didn't get an more pictures but it was fun! It will be so fun to watch Jake & Jessica's lives together progress and we loved hanging out with them at reunion.
