8 Months and so Cute

Guess who is 8 months old now?! Time flies! Brenna is still a super cute and fabulous baby. She's a bit more anxious around strangers and has some separation anxiety, but what can you expect after a move? She sits very well now and leans forward trying to reach things. She is "Little Miss Grabby." Her favorite thing to grab is hair, of course.

Brenna babbles now, though I couldn't get her to do it on the video. She can make "d", "b", "m", and "n" sounds. Ben claims her first words were "daddy da da da". The first time we picked Ben up at the airport after a week in Sacramento Brenna had not been babbling much at all the whole week, but the minute Ben got in the car she started saying "da da da daddy da da da". She missed her daddy.

Brenna laughs a lot now and is ticklish under her neck. She likes "Patty cake" and "This Little Piggy". She loves to eat, especially other people's food. Her favorite things to eat right now are bread and graham crackers. She loves blankets. I don't think she has a favorite one yet. I think her favorite color is orange because she loves Mr. Tickle so much. Perhaps it is just Spencer's antics with Mr. Tickle that she loves so much.

My sweet yet bald baby.

Here is Lauren at 8 months for comparison. I can see a lot of Brenna in Lauren, but I think they are two very different girls. For one thing, Lauren had hair.

Our First Harvest

So exciting to have a garden! Lauren and I picked green beans last night. There were a lot more than we anticipated. We'll have them for two meals instead of one. Next will be some tomatoes and then hopefully a good crop of carrots. We also have some squash growing, but I don't know what kind. We have one apricot that weathered the late frost and a bunch of peaches. Gardens are such fun even if you have to weed like crazy.

Pictures of the New House

Sorry is has taken so long to get these up here. We finally have most of the boxes unpacked and things where we want them. I feel moved in and love, love, love my new house. I took a few pictures of the empty rooms before our things arrived so you can see how much stuff we crammed into our apartment. I'm surprised how much we filled this house. We only really need a bed in the guest room, a sectional in the basement, and some chairs in the room with the piano. I thought the home would feel empty for a long time. Nope!

My new craft room. The two tables we just picked up from Craigslist for $40 total! My Christmas tree skirt pieces are spread across them so I can finish that goal.

The basement family room. As soon as we finish mounting the speakers we wil get that room cleaned up.

The office area.

Kitchen, hurray!!

Master bedroom

Master bedroom before with borrowed air mattress, thank you Timothy and Kristin.

Spencer's room.

Before.

Toy room.

Lauren and Brenna's room

Before. . .

Dining room

Piano room with the last of the boxes to sort out.

Before it was filled with all the boxes. I should have taken a picture of all the boxes in this room. I thought it would take months to get through them. Thank heavens they are mostly gone!

Santa's first stop.

We are loving the area. I've already got the kids in swimming lessons and Lauren registered for her new school today. We are so excited to be so close to family now. We saw my family right after our furniture arrived, literally. They helped move boxes and furniture all over our house. Thank you! Ben's family arrives on Thursday from Hawaii and then we'll go up to Idaho for a reunion there. We just love being around so much family after three years in isolation.