6 months!

It's amazing how fast time goes by!  I can't believe Chelsea is already 6 months old!  Her "bday" was actually last Saturday, but I saved this post until ater her 6 month doctor appointment so I could post her stats.  She is 16 pounds 4 ounces (50-75th percentile) and 26 1/2 inches long (75-90th percentile).  The doctor was VERY impressed with her.  She said that Chelsea's motor skills were more along the lines of a 8 or 9 month old!  Our baby girl is growing up so fast. 

We've had such a fun time with Chelsea as of late.  She is really entering such a fun stage that all I want to do is play with her all day and show her off to as many people as I can :-)  It's amazing how fast a baby learns and progresses.  She sits up strong on her own, scoots on her butt across the living room floor in search of the toy she wants or to get closer to mom and dad, is up on all four trying to crawl (she can't figure out how to go forwards yet!) and is chatting "ba ba ba ba" and "da da da da" all the time now.  I love hearing her actual voice instead of just crying and "baby noises". 

Next week I have Chelsea and I signed up for a baby swim class at the YMCA.  She is going to be a sea turtle :-)  The class is a half an hour a day four days a week for two weeks.  There are 5 other babies signed up for the class and I'm hoping to meet some fun people in class.  I am really looking forward to it and know that Chelsea LOVES the water so it should be a great time!

Below are some 6 month pictures I took as well as some pictures of Chelsea attempting to crawl.

Happy Chatty Girl!

A short video of Chelsea.  We haven't taken a video for awhile so it's fun to see her sitting so strongly on her own and laughing and chatting a bit :)  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw10MZaEi7c

Loveland Family Reunion!

Last Saturday Ben, Chelsea and I attended the Loveland Family Reunion in Clearlake Iowa.  Almost 50 people attended and it was so much fun to see everyone.  Living in Minnesota we rarely get the chance to see my extended family and I so wish we could hang out with everyone more often.  Chelsea was the youngest person in attendance :)  It was so much fun to see her "interact" with a couple of my cousins' children and to have the family meet her. 

Everyone seemed to be healthy that day at the reunion but both Chelsea and I came down with a pretty bad stomach flu Saturday night / Sunday AM.  Ben started to feel ill Sunday PM as well.  Then I see on Facebook and emails that my parents, my aunt and uncle and a few of my cousins' children came down with the sickness as well!!!  What a nasty virus that was going around!  Yesterday was a tough day for me to take care of chelsea while she was sick while being sick myself.  When Ben walked thru the door after work yesterday I was so relieved! A relaxing bubble bath and an early bedtime was calling my name. This morning we seem to be 100% thank goodness!!!

Here are some pictures from the Reunion!

Week long vacation at the cabin (Lake Mina)

Ben, Chelsea, the doggies and I went on a vacation away from the city to stay with Uncle Steve July 8th - July 17th.  We stayed with my parents (who live on Lake Carlos just outside of Alexandria) the first night.  Before we went to my parents house we stopped by the cabin to introduce Chelsea to Doug and Tammy (Ben's Uncle and Aunt) who were staying with Steve and leaving the next morning.   We were so happy that our schedules overlapped and we could catch them before they headed back down to Iowa! 

 We left my parents house around 10AM on Satuday morning to go meet our friends Ryan and Steph at the cabin.  My parents offered to babysit Chelsea overnight Saturday night so we could have a "night off" and were able to relax and enjoy our friends.  Ben's brother Jon and his girlfriend Shanna were also at the cabin that weekend so we had a full house!  It was definitely for the best that Chelsea was staying with Grandma and Grandpa.  She does SO well over there and I can tell she really enjoys being at Grandma and Grandpa's house!  I do have to say, my parents are lifesavers when it comes to helping us out with random night's out and short periods of time of watching Chelsea.  I don't know what we'd do without them!

The rest of the week it was slower paced with just Ben, Chelsea, Uncle Steve, the doggies and I at the cabin.  Chelsea really seemed to enjoy herself up there.  She got lots of fresh air, took longer than normal naps, "swam" a lot, went fishing with us, etc....   

We went over to visit Great Grandma and Grandpa Fisher (Ben's Grandparents) on Thursday of our vacation week.  It was a short visit but we really enjoyed seeing them and were happy that they could spend some time with Chelsea as well.  That Friday we went out to eat with my parents and brother and family.  Saturday Kent, Julie (ben's aunt and uncle), Lili and Luci Sandvig came to the cabin.  They were overlapping with our stay and were planning on staying with Steve for the next week.  So, once again, Chelsea met more new people!   We were so thankful to have been able to see as many people and visit as many people as we did over our vacation week.  and once again, we did not do a good job at taking pictures thru out the week of everyone, but I will post some that we did take!

Steph, Me & Shanna 

 Ryan & Jon

 Steve & Mina

 My often neglected fur baby Mina

 Chelsea, Steve & Ben

 Chelsea and her lemon :)

 Daddy & his "Mini Me"

 I love the cabin!

 Steve is fun!

 Chelsea's "car"

 Swimming with Daddy

 oops!

 Drying off



Texas Baby!

This is a little overdue!  Chelsea is at Daycare today so I'm using today to catch up on odds and ends.  Chelsea has become way more active and curious so I spend most of my days at home with her playing and interacting with her and it's becoming increasingly more difficult to spend time on my computer.  She is sitting up very well on her own and is rolling all over the place.  She is even getting up on all fours and attempting to crawl!  She can only move a little bit backwards while on all fours and always goes SPLAT when she tries to actually crawl.  Her favorite new game is peekaboo...  i can hide behind anything and pop out at her and she cracks up laughing every time.  She is so much fun to be around!

Ben, Chelsea and I went to visit the "Texas Fishers" the weekend of June 25th.  This was Chelsea's second flight and she flew wonderfully.  We are so blessed to have such a "calm" baby.  She seems to be so laid back and just goes with the flow.  Ben and I are always on the go and Chelsea is constantly visiting new places.  Thankfully she isn't set in a strict routine so she doesn't fuss when her schedule changes. 

We stayed with Steven and Becky and were able to visit with Bryce, Sommer, Bruce and Pat as well.  We had an absolutely wonderful time and the weekend flew by WAY too quickly.  Fortunately we will be able to see Steven, Becky, Seth and Audrey in a week and a half when they are here visiting us in MN. 

Pictures!  Unfortunately we did NOT do a good job at taking pictures of a lot of the weekend, but here are a few that we did take!