Happy Easter!

We enjoyed having Lilly's first Easter. Although we were all sick, Lilly was adorable and happy most of the day. She got a couple of Mr. Men & Little Miss books, 2 stuff animals & her first couple bottles of fruit to try, which she was a little weirded out at first by the new flavor - but she loves her banana's now.

Of course, she was ADORABLE with her bunny ears on, but as you can see below - Maggy didn't enjoy them as much. :)

5 Months OLD!

It's crazy to believe that Lilly is 5 months old today! What's even more amazing is how much she has changed over the past month. We started the month off with feeding her some rice cereal, which she found to be interesting, but not very tasty. And of course, being the best Mom I can be - I tried it too...just so everyone knows, it was nasty! I don't think it helped any that I made the cereal with formula. yuck.

Lilly has been trying so hard to roll over from her back to her tummy and after finding her in her crib a few times mysteriously on her tummy (when we had put her in there on her back) we finally got to see her roll over and it was AWESOME! It's so exciting seeing her do all these things for the first time. Luckily, she has only had a couple nights where she rolled over and was furiously crying to have someone help her get on her back again, besides that she's just fallen asleep on her tummy after she's rolled over.

Then sometime in the middle of the month, I decided to try taking a shower with her - the whole time I was worried she would either wiggle out of my hands or worst of all, poop on me! Luckily, neither of those happened! But it gave me an idea that she might like to lay down in the regular tub while I showered. She was actually really excited to be laying in the regular tub. She was free to kick and squirm as much as she wanted - ever sense then, I have given her baths in the real tub and she's just all over the place. I figure she's trying to do the back stroke and will probably end up being an Olympic swimmer...just sayin'.

Now it seems that she might be teething, but we really have no idea. She use to hate it horribly when we would try to have her suck on our finger if we didn't have a binkie close by, but all of the sudden she started going to town sucking on my wrist - and she's started taking her binkie out of her mouth and sucking on her first 2 fingers. Anything she can get her hands on, goes in her mouth.

This month we also enjoyed celebrating St.Patrick's Day with our baby girl. She was all decked out in her cool shirt that said "This is my LUCKY SHIRT" and had a cute little green head band and green socks. She also got a present from Grandma Childers, some super fancy sunglasses!

Lastly, we ended the month today with feeding her carrots for the first time. Up until now it was rice cereal and she wasn't really liking that too much. Once she got those carrots in her mouth though, she ate half the jar!

March has been a fun month and we are loving spending all our time with our daughter. When we're done from running errands or going to work, we just want to be home alone with Lilly. We've waited so long for this, and it may seem selfish, but we are spending as much time alone together as a family as possible. After my husband and I have been away all day at work - all we want to do is be with our daughter. It's been easier going to work everyday, but there are still a few times when I am driving her to my moms in the morning to drop her off, and Lilly is babbling away in the backseat - those are the mornings when it's the hardest to leave her. We feel so lucky to have been blessed with this sweet gift - not a day goes by that we don't think of all the encouragement and support and love we have been given through out this journey. We feel it even more now that Lilly is here - so many wonderful people love her and care about her, it's everything we had dreamed of - Lilly will always be surrounded by love.

4 Months Old

I can't believe that Lilly is 4 months old! She went to the doctor today and is 14.02 lbs, 25.5 inches long. There are so many things that we love about her. The way she smiles when we get her out of her crib - how she has started laughing when we clap her hands - watching her watch everything around herself and seeing things for the first time through her eyes. Everything is so exciting with her! She started rolling over from her tummy to her back and wants so badly to roll over from her back to her tummy. She sleeps through the night (all because of that book we got from one of our friends - Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth, M.D.). We just lay her in her crib and she gets so happy to be in there - we turn on her music and then kiss her goodnight. She is so sweet and adorable, we absolutely love every second with her!

It's been so hard though to leave Lilly everyday and go to work. Luckily, my parents moved here and my mom is able to watch her everyday. It's been a huge blessing to not have to take her to daycare. But I wonder, how do you other working mom's do it? It's so hard. I worry that I am missing out on so many of her little moments.

Brandon and I also keep talking about our next baby. What would it be like to have TWO babies! We have focused so much on getting Lilly, I never thought about what we would do after we had her - how long would we wait until we started "actively" searching for our next little one? It's hard to imagine loving another baby as much as we love Lilly, our lives are so blessed because of her - I can't even imagine what it would be like to have that dream be doubled!

3 Months Old & Back to Work

I had to go back to work on Monday, January 31. It was probably one of the hardest things I have had to do. It is so hard to leave Lilly - the only nice thing is knowing my mom is taking care of her while I work. I think it makes it a little easier not having to drop her off at a daycare or something like that. Hopefully, someday I can live my dream of being home taking care of her. The past 3 months have just been so wonderful. Lilly is such a beautiful and sweet baby. She is just usually always so happy - we have been truly blessed.

Our amazing little 3 month old - I weighed her today and she was 12.6 pounds.

The view on my drive home from work.

The view from our front door - love the sunsets here!

Surprise Visit to Utah!

I decided I wanted to get to Utah and see all of Brandon's family before I had to go back to work. So I was talking with Brandon's sister, Aimee, and I had found a really good flight there for Lilly and I - so we decided that we would surprise Brandon's parents and Lilly & I would just show up at their house. It was so hard to keep that secret for 3 weeks, I could hardly contain myself! Lilly was just perfect on the plane ride there and did really well most of the trip - she was just overly exhausted the first night there and a bit for the next morning, but then she got use to everyone and we all had a good time. The 3 posts below are the videos from us surprising Brandon's parents (who will be now known forever as Grandpa & Grandma Ungricht) and then the surprise to the Great Grandma's. One of the main reasons we wanted to get out there, was because we wanted the Great Grandma's to meet Lilly, especially Grandma Ungricht. She told me as we were leaving her house that she just didn't know if she would still be alive to ever meet Lilly. We really enjoyed our time spent with all our families. It was a blast!

2 Months Old

Lilly had her 2 month check up and I can't believe it - she's 10 lbs 14 oz & 23.3 inches long. Our baby girl is growing up too fast. We were thinking back to only 2 short months ago right now, we were probably about to go into our room and be alone with Lilly for the first time. It feels like it's been longer than 2 months, but then again the time is flying by too fast. We were so worried about a lot of different things with the adoption just 2 months ago, and now all we're worried about is trying to make sure we are bonding with Lilly and that we're the best parents in the world - so it shouldn't be too difficult the next 18 years, right? Seriously though, we are just so excited that we have been blessed with little Lilly - now we just have to decide when to start trying to find baby #2, maybe we'll wait a few more weeks. lol! :-)