Hammin' it up

Lately Azure has been a little ham and smiling profusely everytime we pull out the camera, which of course I love. It's a lot better than her blank, wide-eyed stare she has consistently done prior to this stage. If you look closely in some of these pics you can see her 2 little pearly whites.

And here she is pulling herself up to a stand! I won't be surprised if she starts walking at 8 months! This child is EXTREMELY active and would run if she could. Good thing we're entering her into a 5K in 2 weeks.

Who woulda thought?

On Friday Charles and I went snowboarding at Sundance, up Provo Canyon. We both haven't gone much so we weren't sure how well we'd do. Actually that's an understatement, I at least, thought that I would be horrible judging on my past experience. But, we wanted to go since we both had never been in UT (to an actual resort w/ a lift) and have lived here for almost 9 years now and with our upcoming move to hot and humid Georgia we knew it was either now or never (practically). I had been checking the extended 10 day forecast to plan a day to go right after a snow storm so there would be good snow. It was supposed to snow all day Thursday so I thought Friday would be a good day to go. Turns out it didn't snow at all on Thursday so I was a little skeptical of how good the snow would be up there. Friday it started raining down here but once we got up the canyon it turned into snow and actually snowed almost 4 inches while we were up there which made for nice powdery snow :)

Once we got on the lift we were unsure of where to get off. We accidently missed the first stop and kept going higher up the mountain and I became quite nervous that I wasn't ever gonna be able to get down. Gratefully we got off at the next stop. Fell off I should say. The first time down was kinda rough. We both fell about 20 times. Charles explained to me how I could slow myself down without falling. Upon trying his technique I figured it out! After that I only fell about 3 more times and was doing pretty dang good! This was absolutely shocking because I am usually not good at stuff like this. The last time I tried wake boarding I couldn't even get up! So, I tell Charles to take a picture of me tearing it up and then we discovered that the batteries had died. So, I have no photographic evidence of my newfound skills :(

A BIG thank you to Ruth for watching Azure while Charles and I enjoyed our new favorite winter activity.

And the winner is...

Charles was asked to be a judge for a science fair in the Spanish Fork school district because of his expertise in microbiology. I'm sure because of this event Azure will now be the winner of every science fair that she enters, unless of course they refuse Charles' judging skills due to nepotism.

At which point we will change Azure's last name :)

8 months already

Azure is 8 months old today. She reached lots of milestones in her 7th month so we'll see what the 8th month will bring...

At church on Sunday I saw a baby a little younger than Azure holding herself up on the back of a pew. I hadn't given Azure any opportunities to do something like that so was unsure if she could or not so I tried it out and she didn't disappoint me:

Shortly after this newfound freedom she felt upon standing, she actually did pull herself up to a stand! We may have an early walker on our hands!

This little snuggle bear likes clean laundry! She's our bundle of joy!

My new favorite pic :)

And more pics from Zack's 2nd Birthday Party, thanks to Jonathan who took these.

Motility and Restraint

If there's one thing I've learned about babies, it's that they are smaller than we are. And they move around and grab things and have no concept of monetary value, fragility, or susceptibility to the enzymes in drool. If there is one thing I've learned about Azure, it's that she is a baby. "The motility factor" as we call it has created new challenges for us that demand our ingenuity and creativity to prevent the inevitable end product of our humble home left in the hands of a babe-a smoldering heap. Azure is pictured above enjoying "basket time," a preventative measure that benefits both parties.

Teething Biscuit Fun!

Behold Azure attack her teething biscuit, this is serious business!

InfantSEE

I was made aware of a free program called InfantSEE that I wanted to share with all you mothers of children under the age of 1. InfantSEE is a nationwide program where optometerists give a free eye exam for babies under 1 to catch eye problems like amblyopia (lazy eye) or retinoblastoma (eye cancer). When detected early, these problems can be corrected and cured. And it's free so all you have to do is find an optometrist that participates in the program and make an appointment.