8 Months Old!

It is really hard to believe that Mina is already 8 months old, every month seems to pass faster and faster!

Height: 25 inches
Weight: 15.8 pounds
Diaper: Size 2 and holding steady!
Clothes: She wears mainly 6 month sized clothes now, there are still a few 3-6 month cardigans and pajamas in rotation. We are sad to say goodbye to few pairs of pajamas that are too small, especially her leopard print pajamas from Christmas!
Sleep: Her bedtime ranges from 7:30-8:00 most nights.  There have been a few times that she has gone to bed closer to 7:00 but that usually only happens if she didn't get a good afternoon nap.  Mina usually wakes up around 8:00.  There are usually one or two feedings during those 12 or so hours.  She usually takes 2-3 naps a day.

Noises: "Ma ma ma" and "da da da" are pretty common but not really directed at anyone in particular.  She also jabbers a lot and screams to get attention.
Teeth: Mina finally cut her first tooth, bottom left side.  We've tried to take a picture of it but she hasn't cooperated yet.
Skills: Mina has become a rolling machine lately! She pivots and then scoots on her back to her desired destination.  It's pretty funny to watch her move.  Mina has also started to pull herself up by grabbing on her crib.  She hasn't figured out how to pull herself into a sitting position though.  I think as soon as she can do that, we are going to have to break out the baby proofing supplies!

I made Mina's romper out of leftover fabric from one of my dresses.  I wore it to Jordan and Lindsey's reception.

Easter! Hair! Pictures! More pictures than your blog has room for!

I realized after I uploaded a bunch of pictures from my phone that I probably should have divided this into a couple of different posts rather than cram it all into one. Meh.
First up, Mina isn't crawling yet, but she is on the move.

Notice her position on the rug, not the awkward arching of her back but her location.

She would arch her back, scoot along her head and then roll over.

Obviously it didn't hurt because she was so happy her arms were just blurs.
She has been experimenting with balancing.  She balanced long enough that I was able to take a picture with my phone. 

Her hair is growing in, slowly but surely.  It is surprisingly blonde!  I tried putting a baby clip in but it just looked weird. 

We celebrated Easter with James' side of the family.  We alternate Sunday dinners and they wound up with it this year.  I put a basket together for Mina.  I put her outfit in the basket along with banana puffs, tights, socks, baby toothpaste and a gum cleaner. I figure she won't remember it so it doesn't matter that the contents were kind of lame.  Oh well!

Mina lasted a few minutes in Relief Society/Priesthood and we wound up in the Mother's Room.

She fell asleep after a little while.

But after a short nap she was ready to hear her Grandparents speak in Sacrament Meeting!

After church we took some pictures of Mina outside on the grass.  We didn't take any with my camera beforehand because its a challenge enough to be on time to church at 9 o'clock.  Luckily Mina's dress wasn't really wrinkled even though she took a few naps in it.

 Mina wouldn't put her arms down, we think she doesn't like how the grass feels!

 Oops.

 Mina and her funny Dad!

 We had fun throwing Mina in the air.  She liked it too!

 This one is great of Mina, not so great of me.  Oh well!

 Fun with Dad!

 And last up, two funny pictures of Mina.  I took them on Monday when we were playing in her room.

 I don't know what this face is called, she does it quite a bit.  It's really funny!

And Mina's cute smile!

Life with Mina (LOTS of pictures!)

Sometimes it is hard to believe that Mina is almost seven months old. She is such a challenging joy and I have learned so much as I take care of her. Our days are usually filled with reading books, eating, sleeping, jumping (LOTS of jumping!) and other kinds of play.  This week we rode the Frontrunner twice, I painted our toe nails and I made Mina's Easter dress. It was a really nice week!

Mina is making progress to standing up in her crib.  Luckily she is a ways away because she can't pull herself into a sitting position. Yet.

Giving it a try!

We got out and enjoyed the sunshine on a short walk.

I painted our toenails and then promptly covered them with sock because it's cold.

Mina has started to wear 6 month onesies, they fit so well in the sleeve.  Not so much in the body.

Mina on the train, she loved looking at all the people!

I was making our bed and I set Mina on the ground, surrounded by pillows.  Then this happened:

She slid under the pillows until all I could see was her little eye!  She was fine.  I promise.

Some sketchy ideas for Mina's Easter dress and cardigan. Mina took a long nap this week and I was able to get a really good start on her dress.

Stitching the bodice

An Instagram-ified picture of her almost finished dress.  We had a fitting earlier, I had some issues with the sleeves and the shoulders and the skirt.  It looked a little like a Seventies Pioneer baby!  NOT the look I was going for!

We established that skirt was too long and needed a grow tuck or two.  I love her little dress!

I love taking pictures of us in the bathroom mirror, Mina LOVES looking at herself!  This is also a good documentation that I really do put some effort into my appearance sometimes.

We were wishing for warm weather, Mina has some really cute outfits! The ruffled shorts are ridiculously cute!

And one last picture, Mina stuck both of her legs through the slats.  She thought it was really funny. 

Blessing day

I put my design/patterning/sewing skills to good use this past week and made a dress.  A blessing dress.  I knew that I wanted to make a simple but beautiful dress for Mina.  After I sketched the basic design of the dress I went on the hunt for the fabric.  Ideally I would have used something really beautiful like silk dupioni but I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a subpar piece of silk.  There just aren't a whole lot of places in Davis County to buy beautiful fabric.  (Does anyone know of any?  I love hearing about great sources for fabric.)  James, the best husband in the world, braved a trip to JoAnn's and we picked up a yard and a half of a really pretty embroidered and appliquéd cotton.

The fabric, totally wrinkled but you get the idea of the embroidery

After that I made the pattern for Mina's dress.  Before you get too excited I will say that I had a basic dress pattern that I found here.  I modified it according to my design and Mina's measurements.  It was a little tricky trying to draft such a small sleeve but I managed.  

After that I cut out the pieces and sewed them together.  I WISH it had been that quick and easy.

The finished dress

We had Mina's blessing in the Relief Society room at my parents church.  We had wanted to bless her in the Providence ward but we moved.  The following pictures are courtesy of my Mom (thanks Mom!)

Grandma Arbuckle, Grandma Keller, Mandy and Brandon Callahan

Grandpa Arbuckle, Trish, Cole, Travis and Carson Thorpe

Jed and Missy Bradley, Randy Bradley, Missy, Lucas and Jonathan Bradley

Candice, Perrin and Hutch Jorgensen, Liz and Waylon Gomez, Rob and Jake Brimhall and Jolene Bradley

Bishop White, James, Me and Mina; introducing everyone

More family!

There was a HUGE circle for Mina's blessing:

Jamie Bradley, Brent Beardall, Rob Brimhall, Hutch Jorgensen, Randy Bradley, Alex Jacobsen, Brian Bradley, Bishop White, James, Jed Bradley, Jordan Keller, Brad Keller, Grandpa Arbuckle, Chad Glover, Jeremy Deetz, Brandon Callahan and Travis Thorpe

 James did a wonderful job and gave our daughter a beautiful blessing. I was so proud of him and I love him so much!

There were a lot of cameras taking pictures, which explains that we aren't looking at the camera