Lots going on!!

Hi Everyone!
Life has been so crazy this month, it has been hard to find enough time to sit down and write. Sarah is growing so quickly, it's getting challenging to keep up. I don't have a whole lot of time so I will just list some points of what's going on....

* Sarah had her 6 month checkup at the beginning of the month - was 14.10 lbs and 25 inches long. She was in the 15% for weight and 25% for height. Perfectly healthy though, and AS ALWAYS, did not like those shots.
* She is just about completely out of every 0-3 month outfit... she's mostly in 3-6 months. Oh yeah, and SIZE 2 diapers :-)
* She is starting to crawl, although moving around on her stomach still gets her around faster. She is getting the hang of crawling though :-) She moves around the apartment so quickly now, it's funny. Sometimes she even does this little "bunny hop" when she is trying to get somewhere quickly. Sarah also found her toes!!! She loves to play with them and even suck on them, yes, suck on her toes. She is teething more and more. She is starting to drool more and cannot keep toys or her hands out of her mouth.
* She eats real baby food 3 times a day now. She LOVES her outmeal, applesauce, carrots, and green beans. This week we tried giving her a fruit medley and she also really loves that. Doesn't care much for peas at all, and she is on and off with squash.
* Work for me has been pretty busy - lots of changes going on.
* We had some visitors - Grandma Diane, Papa Howie, Auntie Kristina, and Auntie Danielle came out for a visit. It was very enjoyable and was fun seeing them interact with Sarah :-) We went and toured Nashville... Downtown, Music Row, and Famous people's houses. We also had a blast going downtown for the 4th of July fireworks. Sarah did very well with them - didn't cry once... actually she sat and watched them.
* One of Brandon's family reunions was this past weekend. We got to see his grandparents which is always great. Nanas could't believe how much Sarah has grown just since she saw her a little over a month ago. Grandma Tamela couldn't show her "grandbaby" off enough :-) Sarah is very loved!!!
* Brandon, Michelle, Sarah and myself went to the Country Music Hall of Fame and out to dinner for my birthday. It was a very enjoyable day. Sarah was so good that day. She didn't fuss once while we went through the Hall of Fame. It was cool seeing some old country stars outfits, cars, etc.

Well, I think this is all, in a nutshell. Below are lots of pics that have been taken this month:


Sarah at the Country Music Hall of Fame
One of the plaques on the wall in the Hall of Fame

One of MANY of Sarah's faces
I love Daddy :-)

Sleep Baby - Naptime
This is what happens when Sarah feeds herself
And more mess
Another one of her faces - she also found her tongue - LOL!

Daddy and Sarah inside the Opryland hotel - it looks like the "outside" inside... very awesome!
Mommy, Daddy and Sarah
Sarah got a new toy - Yes, it's a baby laptop!!
She likes her new toy - She says, I'm a big girl and have a toy that looks like mommy and daddy's

She also like to play in her exersaucer
Sarah loves to eat.......
......... and sleep

another silly face :-)
Pretty baby!!!
Bathtime - she has just learned how to splash in the bath. She thinks it's funny till it gets in her eyes
Auntie Shell showing off Sarah in her headband

Busy, Busy, Busy

So Sarah turned 6 months old last Sat. I can't believe how time is flying! She has grown and learned so many things already. She loves to talk and screech and roll over. She is starting to get the hang of starting to crawl. She has been creeping for a while and she loves doing it. She can creep a good distance now. You turn your head for a couple mins and she is gone! Now she can get up on her hands and legs and rock back and forth. She really wants to start crawling. When she is laying on her stomach, she lifts her head up and starts moving her legs and feet as though she is crawling, but hasn't QUITE figured it all out yet. Since the last blog, she has tried a little bit of bananas. Not quite sure yet if she likes it or not. She always makes funny faces when she eats her baby food. It is a different taste than her formula. She loves to try and feed herself. She is sitting up a little better now too. When we work with her on sitting up without anyone holding her up, she knows that she needs to put her arms out and hands on the ground so she doesn't fall frontward. Sometimes her arms give out though and she falls forward anyway. She is chewing on her toys and fingers A LOT more now, so I believe she is teething more and more. She starts sucking on her thumb too when her gums are bothering her. She likes chewing on the teething ring too.

The day after she turned 6 months, was Father's Day. We had a good day. Sarah gave her daddy her card. She signed it herself and ate the corner for the envelope to "seal" it! She was proud of her card - ha ha ha! For a late lunch we went to a Japanese Steakhouse. We were able to get seated at a grill instead of a table. This was really cool because Brandon had never sat at a grill before. The "master chef" puts on this whole entertainment show while they cook your food in front of you. It's always interesting to see how they make the food. Sarah slept just about the whole time we were there. At one point, the chefs made HUGE flames on the grill and you could really feel the heat. Since the grills are so big, they sat us with another family and the mother at that table turned to Sarah to see if the flames woke her up. Of course they didn't and we were laughing. That mother made a comment about Sarah being a good sleeper. She has ALWAYS been great at sleeping in restaurants.

On weds Brandon took Sarah to the pool again. I was planning on going down there to take a couple pics when I got off work BUT as soon as I locked up the apt and started heading down the stairs, Brandon was walking up with a fussy Sarah so I missed it ..... again! The next morning when Sarah woke up her left eye was swollen shut - she couldn't even open it. It was all red and watering too. Brandon gave her a scrub down in the tub to see if that would help and didn't do too much. So I called and scheduled a dr's apt for that afternoon. They came and picked me up so I can go to the dr too. Her new Dr was very nice and seemed pretty knowledgable. They drew a little blood from Sarah so they could make sure it was just an eye infection and not a skin infection. Her blood test came back fine so they sent us on our way with a perscription of amoxicillan. We will be back there in a couple weeks for her 6 month appt. It has been almost 2 days since she has been on the medicine and her eye seems to be completely better. I almost forgot a critical piece of information..... she weighed in at 14.10 lbs and height is 25 inches.

Yesterday, Brandon's uncle (who lives an hour away from us) moved into a new home. Brandon, Michelle and Sarah went to his house to help them out a little. Brandon's grandparents were there so they got to visit with Sarah some.

I have been sooooooo busy at work. It is actually draining sometimes. A couple weeks ago, my boss talked with me about helping me advance in my underwriting career and I am working my tail-feather off to show her that I can do it. Right now I am working on getting my level 1 underwriting back - I had this before, but Countrywide says I have to qualify for it all over again since I was gone more than 6 months. That alone is a challenge and will take a little while. Then, my boss talked to me about going for my DE underwriting. DE stands for Direct Endorsement... it is an underwriting delegation that allows you to sign off on FHA government loans. You go through classes, lots of test cases and then FHA gives you an assigned number that belongs to you to sign off on loans. So, the number goes with me to whichever company you go to. The only thing that you have to do is take that company's test cases. SO - in a nutshell, if I can pull this off, my boss will be sending me to an FHA class that is in Plano, TX for a week. There is a class in August and Sept (and almost every month after that), so hopefully I can make it to one of these classes.

Well, that is all for now. We will write more soon!
Love,
Sue, Brandon, and Sarah

Sarah pulls off her socks all the time - she is so flexible

Sarah and her carrots
She loves those carrots
she is still so tiny
this is her at the computer - she loves typing

Daddy and Sarah in the woods
Michelle and Sarah on a walk in the woods

Quick Update!

Hey everyone, this is just a super quick entry to post some pics. I will write more this weekend (and hopefully have a couple more pics). A BIG milestone - Sarah went in the pool for the first time last week. It has been extremely warm here so the pool heated up pretty quickly. This weekend we went to the store and bought Sarah a little hat to wear so it covers her still lightly haired head - ha ha ha! She just looks so cute in it (pic below). That sad thing is that I missed her first swimming experience. I was working when Brandon (and Michelle) took her to the pool. I guess I will be missing a lot of things working full time. Hopefully we will all go again so I can get some pics of her in the pool..... since we live in an apt complex there will probably be a lot of people there. Well, like I said, I will write more this weekend. Just wanted to get these pics posted.
Love to all!

Sarah looking up at her daddy
On a stroll
Sarah made a new friend on her stroll in the park today. It followed her for a good while but she didn't want to have anything to do with it
This is usually what she does when she is on a walk

We let her try and feed herself and boy did she make a mess - she had fun though
she knows the spoon goes in her mouth, but how does it get in there?? LOL

Hello Everyone - So sorry we have not written in a while. We have been so busy and Sarah is demanding more and more time as she gets older and more mobile - not to mention her lack of naps most days. I started my job on May 5th and boy was it exhausting working full time after so long of not working, but it is comforting that at least there will be a paycheck coming my way. Work has been kinda busy so there have been a couple days that I have been able to work overtime. And this past week was the dreaded month end - always the worst (busiest) time of the month for processors. I forgot how rough it could be. It is still a little funny to work with a bunch of people who "talk" differently than me, or to dial out and not be dialing 720 or 303. In fact, they still only dial 7 digits here.
The weather is getting warmer and warmer everyday and man is the humidity starting to really get up there. I walk outside and sometimes I feel like I can't breath.... you feel like you need to take a shower all the time. It doesn't bother Brandon too much, but Michelle and I are really going to be in for it this summer, especially our hair. People at both of our works are already making fun of us because they say "This is nothing yet" - AHHHH!!!! Sarah also has started sweating. Sometimes after taking a nap she will wake up sweaty.... what a little person she is.
Brandon is staying home with Sarah right now and looking for the "right" job. It is saving us lots of money on daycare anyway. As she gets older the more our rate should go down. He had a job interview this past week and he said it went really well. It is a sales job at a wholesale flooring company. The good news is that even though it is sales, he still gets a base salary which we need now that we have Sarah. The manager said that he is still trying to even get the position approved, but thought he would start interviewing now anyway. Brandon told him that he is in no rush since he is at home with Sarah, so he will be available when the position opens up. This company is only a couple blocks away from where I work. Hopefully this job pans out!
Now for what is probably most interesting for everyone.... Sarah!! LOL! She has changed so much in the past month and a half, I don't even know where to start. First of all, SHE'S MOBILE!! Which is a good, and sometimes not so good thing - LOL!! She rolls over allllllll the time from her back on to her tummy. She cannot do it the reverse very well. If she is more on her side that her tummy she can do it just fine. She also has her legs perfectly prepared and her arms prepared for crawling, she just cannot figure out how to coordinate them together. Every once in a while she will figure it out for like one full crawl and then her arms give out on her. Her legs are so strong and her arms are good at pulling her forward that she "scoots'' around the floor and crib and bed all the time. She does not like to stay still very long now that she has discovered that she can move. She can sit up A LOT better than when we moved, but she still has a little work to do on that. Her head is soooo heavy compared to the rest of her body that when it starts to lean one way (mostly forward) she has a hard time picking it back up. She loves to lay on her stomach and lift up on her arms and look around. She reacts very well to her name now as well. She laughs and she absolutely talks up a storm. She really uses consanents AND vowels in some of her words. And this past week (or a little longer) she has learned how to sqeak. Before she would do it every once in a while, but she didn't know how she made that sound. Now she knows how to make it and usually decides late at night to sqeak nonstop. Lately when she is tired and before she falls asleep she will just talk away and start sqeaking. I tell you though, you can never get tired of those sounds. As for food, she still is mainly on formula, but she gets applesauce and cereal and applejuice a couple times a day. She is put in her bumbo sit (which we got a tray for) to eat her food (except for bottle). She does pretty well with the spoon. She tries to hold it herself. One day Brandon let her hold it herself and she flung applesauce across the kitchen. I would have liked to have seen that. He said he had to give her a bath after that mess. A website I signed up with the sends out weekly updates says to let them have their spoon and to also get them used to drinking with no lid before letting them get used to drinking from a sippy cup (yes, starting this early). Supposedly it is better for their development, but she actually does very well drinking from a cup as long as we pour it for her. Sometimes it seems that things don't stimulate her for very long, so she definitely enjoys trying new things... whether it be a new way of eating or what she is eating. One last thing on Sarah - she is still mostly in the bigger 0-3 months size, although we have been putting her in some of the smaller 3-6 months size. I bet in the next few weeks to month, she is going to be fully in 3-6 months. What a little pipsqeak :-) When weighing her this past week, it seems that she is about 15 lbs. She is still in size 1 diapers, but they fit her perfectly, so who knows how much longer that will last.
On another note, my brother Joe is coming home to Iraq tomorrow and we all couldn't be more thrilled! Joe - "WELCOME BACK!!!! WE LOVE YOU SO VERY MUCH AND GLAD TO KNOW YOU ARE BACK IN THE STATES!!!" Hopefully we will be out in the next month or so - I am so excited to introduce him to Sarah. When Joe was home on leave in Oct, him and I went to Ft Carson and I got Sarah this adorable onesie with matching pants to represent her uncle. It is pink camouflage and has Joe's emblem on it and says something about how her uncle fights for her freedom. Anyway, I bought the size 3-6 months and I was originally afraid that he wouldn't get to see her in it in person, but since she is growing slowly she will be able to wear it when we go visit him - I'm so excited :-)
Anyway, I think I have rambled on enough this blog. We will definitely be writing more often so I don't have to rack my brain so hard remembering all of her milestones since my last blog. I have to reteach Brandon how to use the blog, ha ha ha!
Love you all!!! Sue, Brandon, and Sarah
PS - Gizmo and Gracie say HI and they LOVE all these trees!!