9 Months!

What a happy girl to be 9 months old!

We can't believe how much she is growing!  She went to her 9 month check-up, so we have some official stats:

-28.5 inches long (78% percentile)

-18 lbs 12 oz (50% percentile)

-50% percentile in head circumference (her body's caught up with her head!)

The doctor said she is healthy as can be!

Now that she's constantly on the move, it's hard to get a picture of Eve holding still!

 

She climbs up and grabs everything!  I can't believe some of the things she can reach and get into. 

Some other fun stats:

-Can stand on her own

-Getting faster at walking along the couch/other furniture

-LOVES looking at family pictures of Mommy, Daddy, grandparents, etc...

-Claps her hands when she's excited

-Shakes her head no (this one we're less excited about...but it is super cute!)

-Eats Cheerios!

 

 

And apparently she can kneel.  Although good luck to try to get her to do this during prayers!  :)

She loves having our attention at all times - it doesn't matter what she's doing, she wants us to be watching her do it.  A wonderful treat for Andrew all day!

I mentioned the Cheerios - this was her first taste.  A fan right from the start!

And misses her diaper more often than ever!  We're starting potty training next week!  (Ok, maybe not...but please, Eve, stop making me clean your changing pad!)

She is fascinated with the dishwasher - this is very exciting!  Time to get her on the dish rotation!

We caught just a bit of her shaking her head - what a cutie!

 

 

We also bit the bullet and got her two new toys.  All we had for her were infant toys (rattles, chew toys, etc.) and stuffed animals - nothing really age appropriate or entertaining.  So we found just a couple on sale at the store...

And apparently the other toy picture somehow got deleted...I'm too tired to insert it again...and Andrew's breathing down my neck to make me get off the computer (it's past my bedtime so I'm in trouble...)  It was a picture of an alphabet barn where you put the letters through the appropriate slots in the roof.  And it has a chicken, pig, cow, and sheep!  None of which she can swallow - hooray!

And, just for proof (at the request of Grandma Smith) a picture of Eve standing!  These are hard to get because when she's standing and you pull out the camera, she immediately sits down and comes to get the camera....

Happy 9 months Eve!  We love you!

Labor Day Finale

When she was awake, this was Eve's temperment almost the whole time we were in Chicago - happy girl!  She was so excited to be around Brooklyn and Lily!  She's to the point where she's shy around adults, but she loves kids!

And I shared her excitement when we got back to Kevin & Naomi's and ordered this:



Chicago deep dish pizza!  Yum!

The next day we went to church then spent a quiet afternoon letting the girls play.  We tried for one posed picture.  Too hard to keep them all still at once in their Sunday clothes!



Eve was so tired by Sunday because she had hardly napped the previous three days.  But the weather was beautiful and....



...before too long we had girls itching to go out!



This is her, "come on Mom, please let me go outside" face:



I promised she could go out after dinner so she was content.



While we ate our delicious dinner (see the next picture), Eve caught up on her correspondence...



We had the yummiest food!  Delicious crock pot pork (so tender!), rice, homemade rolls, and baked zucchini - with all kinds of fancy stuff on top!



Looks like I didn't take any pictures of our outdoor time on Sunday.  We all went for a nice walk around a near-by pond and Eve snoozed through it.  I told you she was tired!

But not too tired to do some Sudoku with Dad before bed....



Monday was another day of cool, beautiful weather, so again we had girls eager to play!



Eve was SO happy to be outside.  It really is a shame that we are in a condo with no good grass.  We do have some bit of lawn in front of our building, but it's dead and pokey grass and generally filled with dog poo.  Not optimal for babies who have a tendency to stick everything in their mouths. 



It was chilly enough that we all needed jackets, but Naomi did bubbles so I don't think any of the girls noticed the cold!



And finally, Brooklyn and Lily got blanket rides!  I was the mean mom who wouldn't let Eve have a turn.  Maybe when she's older...



We'd only been there for 3 1/2 days, but we did so many fun things!  By noon on Monday, it was time for us to head home - and for Eve to catch up on some much needed sleep.  I think she slept for two straight hours when we got in the car! 

Thanks to Kevin & Naomi for a great long weekend!



Chicago!

Ok, I warn you now - we took a TON of pictures over Labor Day weekend - so many that I need three separate posts to cover them all!  And this one's kind of a long one....

After our Friday in Nauvoo, we spent Saturday in downtown Chicago with Kevin, Naomi, and their daughters.  We rode the train in - a double decker train!  What fun!

We emerged from the train just across the river from the Sears Tower and were greated by this view:

I like the city instantly!  We started the day by taking a water taxi.  We got a great view of the downtown and saved our feet some walking!  And cooled off a bit.  Win, win, win!

Some views from our boat -

I guess this building (below - the round one with the curves) is a really famous apartment building?  Looked cool to me!  Worthy of a picture :)

This is how Brooklyn spent the ride: 

A closer view of the sprirally buildings - I've never seen ones like it!

Eve had fun with Andrew on the boat ride!  So much fun that she skipped her nap!

But she did relax and kick back a bit....

After we finished our water taxi, we got the jogging strollers set, buckled the kids in, and got to walking!  Kevin records that we walked 6 miles in the next couple of hours!  In the heat!  But it was totally worth it! 

Our first view after getting back on land:

No, we did not peak up her dress....the line was too long.... ;)

2 dads + 3 little girls = 1 busy day!  Eve's examining the brochure to see where we should go next.  She didn't have time for pictures. 

We took turns pushing her and tried to stick to the shade as much as possible - not always an option!

Our next stop was a large....I don't even have words to describe it...two huges walls with faces that had a stretch of concrete between them with water - like a wading pool with an inch or so of water. 

But that's not all!  The faces spit water every few minutes! 

Eve had crashed by this point, but I got the chance to cool off by dipping my feet.  And you can bet Brooklyn and Lily got wet!

Next, we headed to the "silver bean".  Which turns out to be in AT&T Plaza!  Can't get away from those guys if I try!  ;)

It was HOT with the sun reflecting off the bean in every direction - we started sweating instantly just coming near it!

From there, we walked past this large outdoor amphitheater where they hold concerts, rallies, you name it!

And across this silver bridge (also hot!) towards the water front. 

At this point, we were all running out of enery - and time!  We had to get back to the train in order to catch one that would get us home for the BYU football game!  So Andrew ran across the street and toko this picture of the water for me while Kevin and Naomi gave their girls some ice cream to cool off. 

Then we started our walk back!  This was our destination - the Sears Tower (the one with the two tall white pokeys on top).  Or rather, just across the river from the Tower...

Some awesome views on the way back!

Kevin still had the energy to run all over this field with his girls in the stroller!  Andrew and Naomi walked.  And I trailed behind to document!

Couldn't leave Chicago without a picture of the "L"!

This is the restaurant which claims to have originated the Chicago deep dish pizza!  We ordered from them later that night :)

The tallest building in the Western Hemisphere!  The Sears Tower up close!

And finally, after a fantastic time in Chicago, we boarded the train to head back to Kevin & Naomi's - just in time!  A cold front with a large rainfall hit the city literally just as we left!  By the next day, the temperature had dropped about 30 degrees - which made for a beautiful last couple of days of our vacation!  To be continued!