Time

This morning while finley and I were doing our morning cuddles/ playtime out in the living room I was reminded how quickly Finley is growing up. We were doing the same mundane Monday morning business (eating breakfast, Finley doing floor time, chillin like villains), and I was just picking my nail polish off of my fingernails, ( I know, disgusting, this is one of the reasons I NEVER wear nail polish on my fingernails!), when all of a sudden Finley starts busting out laughing. S I picked at my nail again and the giggling continued to bubble out of her. She thought it was hilarious. Then I was helping her play with her toys and I stuck one of them on her head and again she just started belly laughing. So I stuck the same toy on my head and she stopped, looked at it on my head and once again exploded in little giggles. She knew that the toy didn't belong on our heads and that it was silly to put them there.

Seems like a funny thing to write about, something so simple, but it just opened my eyes to how fast she is learning and recognizing her world around her and how it works.

She is waving now too, and she imitates Ben and I all the time, especially when we stick our tongues and and blow to make that funny noise. She loves to copy that one. :)

I was reading a talk by elder cook from this past general conference the other day and this part really stuck out to me,

"Parents, the days are long past when regular, active participation in church meetings and programs, though essential, can fulfill your sacred responsibility to teach your children to live moral, righteous lives and walk up rightly before The Lord".

This really struck me hard. I am so aware how much Finley imitates me, and how she watches me, even when I don't realize she is watching me. I need to be so much better. I have A LOT of growing to do. So many imperfections, but I know I'm not the only one I suppose.

She is growing, and learning, and picking up on my habits already. She is my constant reminder to be the best that I can be. Study my religion more, grow physically, emotionally, spiritually, be the best version of me that I can be.

Thank you Finley, for reminding me of this today!

Chicago with the Arnold's

After our lovely Washington vacation we flew back into e Chicago airport instead of the Milwaukee one. While talking with one of my bestest friends we realized that she to would be in Chicago at the same time! (Her husband, Bobby's, family lives in Chicago and they were there visiting them). It was so so great to see them and getting to go to dinner and have them meet Finley! Finley seriously loved them! I loved watching bobby with her too! He will be such a great dad, and harmony will be the best mama! She is having a baby girl in April!

It was a super quick visit but a much needed one! Love you momo and bobby!

Washington

As mentioned before, we were able to go to Washington to see family and so we didn't have to spend Christmas alone, which I was kinda dreading ( thanks to my amazing parents! Love you mom and dad!) we got to see cousins, and grandparents, great grandparents, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces... Lots of people!

All of my family came to Seattle for Christmas this year! There are 7 kids in my family, and we are all married and we all have kids! So let's just say, it was a little crazy, but super fun too!

Here are a few pics I was able to get...

I kinda stunk at getting pictures.. Kicking myself now. Especially for finleys first Christmas, but that was not my choice since I was sick with the flu and fever literally all Christmas Day :(

Mini trip to seaside Oregon

Ben is a little obsessed, ( understatement of the year), with the ocean. He checks the ocean swells in Oregon daily, because he is in love with surfing. He will bring up how much he misses the ocean on a regular basis so I decided I was going to surprise him while in Washington.

I flew to Washington a week earlier then Benjamin so he could study for finals without any distractions, aka, Finley and I wanted an extra week to be visiting family! While I was there without Ben I was sneaky sneaky and planned a little trip down to the Oregon coast for a trip down memory lane, and so Ben could get his surf on! I booked a hotel and let our friends who live there know we were coming.

He flew in on Saturday, and we left on Sunday! He was so shocked and surprised after church when I handed him the hotel reservation! It was an early birthday present!

Unfortunately, the surf was out of control that day. There was no way you could surf anything while we were there, total bust! Good thing we still had a blast! We got to see some really great friends who we miss dearly. They had us and a few other friends come over for dinner and we got to chat and catch up. It was as if we had never left. Those are the kinds of friends that are keepers, ones who you can not see for years, but when you do it feels as if things had never changed. They are keepers.

There was a HUGE storm and we stayed in a hotel ( we call it " our hotel", because we lived in it half of the week for a couple months while I was working in Oregon and Ben was still working in Washington in 2010). Tis hotel is literally right on the beach so we could see the storm on the water, and it was throwing the sand everywhere! It was pretty cool! Our room had a fireplace in it, so we just snuggled up and watched the storm. The next morning our friends came up and we all went swimming in the pool, then Ben and I went out on the town like old times. We reminisced and talked about how fun it would be to go back there when he is done with dental school, just for a few years. We want to work for one of the dentists there possibly.. But who knows what will happen! We got to visit some more people and a few more of our favorite spots before heading back to Washington.

6 months old!

I know I say this every time, but really? Has it really been 6 months since I brought my sweet baby Finley into this world?! It has hands own been the BEST 6 months of my life. I have never had time fly by as fast as it does now that we have our Finley. And I know this is because of how much Finley changes on a day to day basis. I guess I notice the time now that I have someone to measure it against.
We grow more and more in love with her everyday.

I am in LOVE with the stage she is in right now. Her personality is blossoming, and she just thinks she is hilarious (which she is)! She will start randomly cracking up, or full on belly laughing at the littlest things! It makes me laugh just thinking about it.

She has become quite the cuddle bug, and oh how I adore this! She will just snuggle right up to me and hug me so tight. She does it most often when she is getting sleepy, but she will do it randomly throughout the day just because too.

She can sit up on her own but I need to be close by still because she likes to jolt her body back out of nowhere, so we are working on stopping that.

She can stand while holding things for short periods of time. We were gone in Washington for 3 weeks so her tummy time and working on her skills time kinda took the back burner :/

She smiles all day now.. She will find me a crossed the room and just smile at me, or Ben, until we look at her. It is the cutest

SHe got her first tooth!

Ben was on his school break so he has gotten to spend way more time with Finley and she has loved this! He has bonded with her while feeding her rice cereal, doing tummy time, story time, ECt.

she is growing so much everyday now which is so exciting but sad at the same time! We don't want our babe to grow up to fast! ( Ben sad this one and I agree!)

She has become super social even just in the past week! She smiles and laughs at strangers now, and is showing off her cute personality to others which we are diggin on.

She communicates really well with us by making different cooing sounds. She has a different coo depending on what she wants, if she is excited, hungry, about to loose it, bored, or happy, we know which coo is what.

Her cousin Zachary makes her laugh so so hard! She loves him!

She officially eats rice cereal now and she gets so annoyed if we aren't giving it to her fast enough! It is so funny, between each bite she makes little squeals letting us know she wants some more. This baby girl is like her momma and loves to eat!

She has the prettiest little sing song voice. It is just so sweet.

She is VERY vocal these days, she makes the funniest noises, I think she just likes to experiment and hear her own voice ha

We love our little Finley with all of our hearts.
Happy 6 months baby girl!

Seattle Aquarium! Glub, glub, glub

While in Seattle my parents took the fam bam to the aquarium! It brought back tons of good memories because 6 months prior I had gone to the same aquarium with my family and it was the last day before I had baby Finley! Right after the aquarium we raced to the hospital and there I stayed until she was born :)

We had fun having our little miss with us this time, and she LOVED starring at all the little fishies.

We even found some fish we want for our future dental practice! Look at him cheesin it up!