Kyera Hope - January 16th!

Congratulations to our friends Rachelle & Josh on their new baby girl Kyera Hope! She was born at 8:45 pm on January 16th (my birthday!). She was 8 lbs, 12 oz! I don't think Zoe weighed that much until she was a month old.

A couple weeks ago I wrote about baby Trey, he is the son of Rachelle's best friend Rachel. Here is Trey with his new friend Kyera and both of their Daddies.

Congrats again to both sets of new parents!! I'm so excited to get to know these babies in the future. :)

Baby Trey!

I want to say Congratulations to my friends Rachel and Rob on the birth of their first baby - a son named Trey Wayne! He was born on December 30, 2008 at 5:53pm, 7lbs, 15 oz. He came a few days early, he was due on the 3rd of January (Gage's birthday!). He's adorable and I can't wait to meet him!

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Time Warp!

My Daddy and Me (1985)

My Daddy and my Daughter (2008)

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Zoe's 6 Month Photos!

Last Thursday a local photographer (Stacy Shmidt from Expressions By Stacey) was taking pictures of babies at a local store called Elegant Mommy. All she charged was $35 for a 20 minute photo session and at the end she put all the pictures on a disk and gave them to us! Talk about a blessing! We haven't had any "professional" pics of her taken yet so I was hoping to get some done at 6 months, but we didn't have the money to spend $100 or more at Sears or JC Penney.

Zoe was in a pretty good mood, but she didn't really do any of her big smiles while we were there. Babies are very unpredictable! I'm so glad she wasn't crying the entire time.

I played around with a few of them in Photoshop ;) Here are a few of my favorites!

Teeny Tiny Fingernails

The most difficult task of parenting so far has not been the dirty diapers, the baths, the changing of their clothes - sometimes many times in a day -, or even getting used to someone needing my attention 24/7 ....no, its trying to cut those little fingernails! It becomes increasingly more difficult as Zoe gets older because now she is a constant wiggler and she grabs and anything and everything she possibly can.

Everyone says, "Just bite them off!"

Yeah... I'd like to know just how you get your giant adult teeth (which are bigger than the entire nail itself) around those teeny tiny fingernails in order to actually bite them off, and doing so without taking off too much! And then there's the baby clippers. Again, the nails are just too tiny! And if you do manage to cut one, it is uneven and then what to do you?

My solution has been the baby scissors. Seems like the last thing that would work right? Well with the baby scissors I don't have to worry about accidentally cutting her skin because I can see what I am doing, and they are not as sharp as the nail clippers.

Even with the best tools and the best strategy, it is still nearly impossible to clip their nails once they reach about 4 months old because by then they realize... it's no longer fun to just sit there!

First Solids

Yesterday Zoe turned 6 months old and so to "celebrate" I decided to start feeding her solids on that day. She sits up on her own now, she watches us very intently when we eat our foods, and she opens her mouth like she wants to eat our food sometimes. All of these are signs that she's ready to start eating solid foods.

I bought some Organic Whole-Grain Rice Cereal and mixed that with breast milk. She seemed to be a little confused at first but she actually opened her mouth for the spoon a few times! Most of the time I had to kind of put the spoon in her mouth, then some (or most) would fall out of her mouth... it really is a messy job! She did push it out of her mouth a few times but I think that is normal, even for a baby that is ready for solids. I know some people say that if a baby consistently pushes the food out of their mouth it means they are not ready (because it is a natural instinct for a baby to push stuff -- other than milk -- out of their mouth up to a certain age), but she actually consumed more than half of what I gave her, which tells me that she is in fact ready for solid foods!


Part of me was a little sad yesterday because I am no longer her only source for nutrition. Honestly it is an amazing thing to know that she survived 6 months on Mommy's milk alone. She was *completely* dependent on me for nutrition from the day she was conceived until yesterday. A little heart wrenching, but its a good thing that she is developing normally and ready to start eating foods :) In addition to her food, I do plan to nurse her until she is a year old though.

For those of you with babies that are ready to begin solids, here are some recommendations. They recommend rice cereal because it is mild, but you certainly do not need to start with cereal, you can do anything you choose, but for a baby's first foods it is recommended that it be something mild. It is also good to wait 3-4 days until trying something new just to make sure your baby does not have an allergic reaction, it makes it easier to determine what caused the reaction if they do have one.

Here is what you need:

- Rice Cereal (or something mild like Avocado or Banana)

- Soft Spoons

- Small Bowls

- Formula or Breastmilk (you can use water if you don't have these things available at the time)

For your baby's first solids mix 1 Tbsp of cereal with 3-4 Tbsp's of formula or breast milk.

Pretty simple! I've heard that it is better to start a baby eating solids in a reclined position but we don't have a high chair yet so the Bumbo worked pretty well for us. If you have a Bumbo you can buy a tray for it for about $10.00. We plan to buy a high chair pretty soon so we don't have the tray. Also, if you use a Bumbo and you set in on the table, make sure you are right there with them at ALL times! Babies have fallen out of the Bumbos and because it is not a restraint they can easily get out of them if they really try. They actually recalled them last year and put labels on them telling you not to set them on elevated surfaces, but I think that if you are sitting right there with them the entire time, its no problem. Zoe has almost grown out of the Bumbo though (she tries to get out of it the entire time she's sitting in it and she knows how to sit up on her own now) so we're hoping to find a high chair soon!

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Zoe is 6 Months Old!

My darling daughter is now half a year old today! I cannot believe how fast time flies when you have a child! I saw a newborn yesterday and I realized just how much Zoe has grown in the last 6 months. She still hasn't doubled her birth weight but she is almost there. She is about 13.5 lbs right now. She will be starting solid foods today! I am going to start with some Organic Whole-Grain Rice Cereal and we'll go from there. I haven't decided what her first veggie or fruit will be but I'll decide in a few days. Zoe is learning how to sit up on her own and she's doing very well! She's actually stopped herself from falling a few times. She still doesn't like to be on her tummy so I think crawling will come later rather than sooner.

Zoe is such an amazing little girl. My love for her grows deeper every single day. Last night it was like she was really trying to talk to me! Just before she went to bed, I nursed her and then she was in a very good mood, talking away and making facial expressions that she's probably learned from me, really looking like she was engaging in a conversation haha. She was so adorable and it made me cry! She is only a little baby for a short time and I am enjoying every second of it. Even when she's screaming her lungs out or crying for no apparent reason, it is all a part of being a baby and its her only way of communicating that she's upset and when that happens I just try my best to help her get through the problem. Most of the time when she is upset it just means she wants to change settings so I can usually take her outside and she's fine.

I love being a Mommy!


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Elliott

Elliott's Dedication


Elliott is my cousin Adam's son. He is almost 2 years old now, he was born 4 days after our Wedding. He was dedicated at church (Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, CA) on August 3rd. He managed to entertain the whole crowd the entire time he was up there! This video is so adorable it makes me cry every time I see it haha.

-Shaina

5 Months!

(Zoe Kimberly - 8/12/08)

My dear daughter Zoe is 5 months old now! Time is just flying by. Before I know it, it'll be her first birthday. She rolls from her back to her tummy but not the other way around yet. She smiles a LOT and she has even laughed a few times! She loves to be in new places and seeing new things. She rarely cries when we take her out. I am still breastfeeding her and that is going well. I am so thankful for her, she is such an amazing blessing!

-Shaina

Babies, Babies, and more Babies!

Three years ago I was living in CA and I was adjusting to life without my Mom (who had died one month earlier) and I had no idea what was in store for me in my life. I actually remember thinking, "What will my life be like in 3 years?" I figured I'd be finished with school, I'd have a full time job, and maybe, just maybe, I'd finally have a boyfriend at that time. Hah! Little did I know that in August 2005 I was about to meet the man I was going to marry one year later. At that time I never would have dreamed that I would be a wife and a MOTHER by the year 2008.

It wasn't just me though - many of my friends have been getting married and having babies lately. In fact, nearly all of my cousins and I got married within one year (yeah, 5 out of the 6 that I have! lol). I am at that age now that I always knew would come eventually but didn't think it would all come so soon! Granted I am 23 years old and it is pretty normal for all my friends and family to be getting married and having children but this age kind of snuck up on me. I now know 7 women (friends and family) who are recently married and pregnant! I also have 4 friends who have recently had babies like me. This new chapter in my life is so exciting and all so new! I love being a Mother and I love hearing that my friends and family members are going to be parents. It is such a special time and I am trying my best to enjoy every minute of it.

3 of my friends are having girls for sure (actually one just gave birth a few days ago!) but none of them live in South Dakota. The other 4 friends that I have don't know what they are having yet, but 3 of them live in Sioux Falls! I hope that at least one of them has a girl. Zoe has all boy friends right now haha. I can't believe Zoe is almost 5 months old! Oh how time flies...

My Married Friends with Babies (this year!)

Marie had a son, Luke on February 16, 2008 - her 2nd baby :)
Rachel M. had a son, Jonathan on February 20, 2008 - her 2nd baby :)
Cara had a son, Ezra on March 12, 2008 - her 3rd baby (Born in the same hospital as Zoe, 24 minutes apart, same doctor!)
Christine had a daughter named Cheyenne on Aug 4, 2008

Babies on the way!

Theresa (my 3rd cousin) is due any day now! (Aug 14, 2008)
Christina (Gallagher's sister) is due in September 2008
Rachel K (our friend) is due in February 2009
Rachelle B (our friend) is due in February 2009
Kristie (my cousin-in-law) is due in March 2009 with their 2nd!
Mel (our friend) is due in March 2009



The photo above is of me and Zoe, my cousin Wendy and her daughter Jessie, and my cousin-in-law Kristie and her son Elliott in May 2008 - New Jersey