Almost there... {11 months!}

Anberlin is 11 months old! <3

  

Wow. These past 11 months have flown by and in one short month we will have a ONE YEAR OLD. I can't believe it. We have been so blessed with this amazing, beautiful little girl that we love so much. Our lives have changed and we wouldn't take it back for anything.

It is so awesome watching this little human grow and change and learn from day to day. Even if it is just little things like her understanding things that we say. Like, we normally have our stair case blocked off with a baby gate (obviously) but when it is bed time or just time for us to go upstairs we can ask her if she wants to climb the stairs and she knows exactly what we mean and will crawl over to the stairs. She is brilliant, I tell you. I started putting these little clips in her hair to keep her hair out of her face and they worked for a few days until she started to notice them and pulled them out of her hair. But she will then try to put them back in by putting her hand up to the side of her head. Haha. Then we ask her where her "pretties" are and she will do the same thing. It's cute.

She isn't walking yet, but she cruises the furniture really well. We try to help her get used to walking but right now she walks mainly on her tip toes when you try. I guess she is getting ready for heels. Haha. But she really just prefers to crawl everywhere. I am starting to wonder if she will ever walk at all. I had this weird fear before she started to crawl, too.

We keep trying new foods with her at least once a week and so far the only thing she doesn't like is avocado. I have even tried mixing it with other things, but she finds it and refuses to eat it. But her pallet is pretty good. She has had avocado, banana, eggplant, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, green beans, pears, apples, mango, blueberries, carrot, sweet potato, squash, rice, cheerios, and oatmeal. We still only feed her breakfast and dinner every day and then lunch on occasion. She has also started wanting to feed herself with the spoon. It's a little messier but so adorable.

She has been sleeping pretty well in her new room. I think we recently had a growth spurt happen because she wanted some milk in the middle of the night. But I have recently decided to not go get her in the middle of the night if she starts fussing but is trying to go back to sleep. We want to start weaning when she hits one year and I think it would be better if she isn't used to getting milk in the middle of the night all the time already. I am seriously worried about this weaning process. Part of me is worried it will be a lot harder than I think, and part of me is going to miss having all these precious moments of just me and her and that bond that we have now. I am so happy that I was able to nurse her and for her whole first year and I know I am going to be a little sad when it is over.

She has been talking more and more. I don't know if we can officially say she has said her first word but she can say "mama", "dada", and "puh" (which is puppy). The only thing that she will associate and repeat back is "puh". We try to talk to her as much as possible to help build her vocabulary. She now has 8 teeth, 4 on top and 4 on bottom. And I am sure that the rest will just keep on coming in now. No stopping those keep from growing!

 Well.... in case you were wondering, YES, we are finally in our beautiful house. We have been in our house for about 3 weeks now and we are sooo happy. We got all of the painting done before we moved in our furniture and we have been fully unpacked for about a week now. We are now in the tedious step of taking moving stickers off furniture and making the house look how we want it to. I know I said I would post some pictures but I am going to wait and do a blog post strictly on our house and even have a walk through video! :) So bare with me on that. But we love it and are so happy to have a place to call our own. I want to say THANK YOU to all of our parents who helped us out in one way or another. You four have been the biggest help the past 6 months I don't know if we will ever be able to repay you! Thank you so much for everything. <3 And also our friends and Brad's brother Bryan who helped us move our stuff and have just been here for us in Vegas. We are so blessed to have you all in our lives.

 Since we have been in our new house, we have taken a few trips to the park and then yesterday we went on a wagon ride with Grandma Ebert. I love being able to take Anberlin out of the house to do these types of things. This is where she is going to grow up and I can't wait to watch that happen in this place we call home.

This month is going to fly by, I just know it. I am going to be busy planning a certain little girl's birthday party! :) Plus it's also my birthday month! So until next month when we finish off this monthly documentation by hitting ONE YEAR. <3 <3 <3

Happy New Year! {10 months}

Anberlin is 10 months old!

Dear 2012, you have been a really busy year for us and our lives have changed drastically during your reign, but we are ready to say farewell and move on to the new year!

Hello, 2013! Wow. I can't even believe that it is 2013. Time has been flying! Anberlin hit 10 months old today and that means in two very short months she will be ONE YEAR OLD. {Cue the tears...} Where has my baby gone?

Anberlin had her 9 month appointment at the beginning of December and she is still healthy as can be. She is at the top of the height and weight chart for babies her age. She is about 22lbs and 28in. Big and healthy. :) She also now has FIVE teeth! Three on the top that are half way down and then the two on the bottom that I think are done coming in. You can see the bottom ones a lot when she babbles and sometimes if you are lucky you can see all five when she smiles big. It's so cute.

Look at all those teeth!

She is getting really fast with her crawling now and loves to get into everything. She isn't standing or walking just yet but that's okay. I'm in no rush for that, chasing her while she is crawling is hard enough, haha. She can go up stairs like a champ though! We couldn't even believe it when she just started crawling up the stairs at Brad's dad's townhome. She went all the way up and then turned around and tried to go down head first. Haha. So we have to work on that with her. ;)

This was Anberlin's first Christmas! She was so spoiled by us and her grandparents and her uncle Bryan. She has lots of things to help her learn and entertain herself now. We are so thankful that our family got her such nice things for Christmas. One of her favorite items she got is this little dog that sings songs and talks to her (it even says her name! well, it says "Bay", haha). It's so cute. And she also loves her old school Jack In The Box. I thought she might of been scared of it, but she wasn't! She also got her own Audi car, just like daddy! :)

First time meeting Santa.

And then she realized I wasn't holding her anymore.

We tried again and she still didn't like Santa. But how cute is this picture?!

Opening her first Christmas present, ever.

Playing with her new toy.

Driving on her Audi with daddy!

From our little holiday shoot. :)

So cute.

 She is babbling a lot more now and we are fighting the urge to babble back and actually start using words to help her learn how to say things that she wants. We are still trying to teach her baby signs but she is still only knows "milk" and she really only says it when she is just about to get some milk. Haha. So it isn't that helpful. She can now clap on command. We do "pat a cake" and she will clap along with me. She can also snuggle on command. It's suuuuper cute when she does it. Like omg, heartmelt kind of cute. She is learning how to say that she wants something by holding her hand in it's direction and sometimes waving or motioning it to come to her. I am trying to get her to point at objects but we aren't quite there yet. She can also put her hands up in the air and then back down on command. And she will also hand you things like her binky, a toy, a book. It's sweet.

Sharing her book with daddy.

That face. Swoon.

Other than that, nothing new with Anberlin. She is such a good baby and we are so lucky to have this amazing, happy little girl in our lives. <3

 Now... I am sure you are all waiting on new about out new house. Join. The. Club. No, we are not moved in yet. We haven't even signed closing documents yet. We have been in limbo for the past month, but everything is finally sorted and I think (hope, pray) that we should be moving into our house NEXT WEEK. Yayyyy! It's been a long wait and we are so so so so so thankful that we have had our family by our side through this whole mess and that they have allowed us to stay with them for the past 6 months. So thankful. But we are ready to move into our own place again and give Brad's mom back her house. Haha. She changed her coffee table into a plastic picnic table and the living room is always cluttered with toys. I am sure she will be glad to have her house back to normal again. ;) But the house is done and it is totally beautiful. Next week we will be painting and then moving our stuff in at the end of the week/weekend. So next month we will hopefully have pictures of it put together! Yay!

Until next month!
<3,
Brad, Jenna, & Anberlin

So many milestones! {9 months!}

Anberlin is 9 months old! <3

Anberlin has officially been alive as long as it took me to make her. :) This has been a very eventful 9 months and she has grown up so much. And even though it all happens SO FAST, it's still funny to think that some animals mature by now, and Bay can't even walk yet. Haha.

Well, she may not be able to walk just yet but she is well on her way. This month she excelled at crawling and then learned how to pull herself up on things and stand. She got so good at that, that we had to drop her crib mattress down, even! She hasn't really taken any steps yet but she has stood without holding on to anything a few times. She also climbed up on step all by herself at the townhouse in Vegas. Can my baby stop growing now???

Playing at Hastings.

Obviously this was her first Thanksgiving and it was a very nice day spent with family all watching her crawl around. Then for her Thanksgiving meal she had sweet potato fries, green beans, and some turkey. Most of her meal ended up on the floor for the dogs once she realized that she could drop it for them and they would eat it, but she still tried some new foods and had fun. 

Bay & Anna

Dad making Bay make some noises by bumping under her chin with his finger.

Eating her Thanksgiving dinner!

Our days are still pretty routine. We wake up anywhere between 5-6 now, though, because for some reason she forgot how to sleep in and likes to wake up screaming really early. Then she plays inside until around 9:30, when we give her breakfast and then put her down for a nap. She will usually sleep until 12, or 1 if she is really tired. Then she is up for the rest of the day. Some days she gets a lunch/snack in the afternoon which is usually sweet potato fries or some other finger veggie. Then she spends the day crawling inside the house, outside in the backyard, or trying to get through the doggy door. Haha. I am still nursing her and she gets that 5-6 times a day. We plan to start weaning her after her first birthday.

SO EXCITED.

Not nearly as excited.

Exploring dad's beard.

Baby feet!

Bath time!

Trying to grab the camera.

Helping mom bake cookies!

 In the past week we noticed that she had a new tooth coming in on the top, but it isn't one of her center front teeth. It is one next to it on the left (if you're looking at her). But it looks like her front two are going to follow soon. But she is still a really good teether. We seriously have no idea she has a tooth coming in until we check her gums out because she doesn't really act grumpier than usual. Or many we just have a naturally grumpy baby and can't tell the difference. Haha.

She also has gotten really good at waving in the past few days. At first it started out with moving her arm, but now she can full on open and close both her hands like a normal wave. She loves to wave at everything and she also uses it to let us know when she wants something. She is so smart.

We went out on our first family hiking trip through Sara Park with our friend Kayla, Kenny, and their little boy Roxas. It was so much fun! This was the first time me and Kayle have ever went and obviously toting babies isn't an easy task, but we did it! It was a 2.5 mile hike through the desert, through some rock they call Sara's crack, and then to the lake (and then 2.5 miles back!). I would love to do it again but maybe not go all the way to the lake, haha. It was tiring. When we got home Anberlin took a 3 hour nap. She was pooped. Haha.

Hanging out on Dad's back.

So comfy.

Climbing down the crack.

Passed out!

She was pretty happy after her nap on dad's back.

Our family. <3

We had some ducks get really close to us.

As for our house, we have a walk-through on December 20th, so 16 more days! We probably won't be in the house before Christmas though. It looks like we won't get our keys until December 27th and then we have to paint and move all our things. So hopefully we will be in there before the new year, at least! We are just so excited and ready to be in our own home. These are the latest pictures we got on it though.

Outside

My new kitchen! <3 <3 <3

Master Bathroom

So, I think that covers it for our month. Hopefully next month we will be in our house and getting settled in there. We cannot wait! :)

Love,
Brad, Jenna, & Anberlin