Little Miss

I thought I would share some of this little girl's cuteness from the past two weeks. :)  Katie's vocabulary is growing so fast.  One day when I went to take her picture, she said "Cheese!" and made a face.  Ollie and I don't ask her to say cheese, so I am not sure where she learned it, haha.  She has been saying a lot of new words.  Katie says guys, please, thanks, and has recently learned the sound that a sheep makes.  She is working on what a duck says (she loves her rubber duckies and her stuffed animal duckie from Easter last year), but it often comes out more like a tiger.  She LOVES the show Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, which is based off of the show Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.  She is always so excited to watch it in the morning.   She has also been wanting to bring her purse whenever we "go" somewhere now.  If I say "Katie, do you want to go?"  She says "Go!" Then, she brings me her shoes, socks, and coat.  :) 

Katie came with us to go wedding dress shopping for my cousin's fiance, who is a friend of mine.  Katie soon noticed the girl standing on the pedestal got a lot of attention. :)  She wanted to join in the fun!

After Jenny said "yes to the dress," we went back to my cousin's apartment to play some video games.  Katie was chased by my cousin and loved it!

Here is Katie ready to "go" run some errands with her purse in tow.  This was the first day she did this, and the first time she said "Cheese!" for the camera. :)

We are moving....!

We are moving to Orem in a few weeks!  Ollie applied for a part-time live-in maintenance job at an apartment complex, and he got the job!  (No worries, he will still be working at RC Willey.)  The money that he earns goes straight to paying for our rent, which is awesome!  Another surprise is that he knows the Apartment Managers- the husband is the older brother of Ollie's best friend from St. Louis.  We will be living right next door to them.  The apartment has two bedrooms, a private utility room with washer and dryer hookups, and it will have a dishwasher.  (Also awesome, Ollie was able to get a really good deal on a new dryer, and he found a free washer in great shape!)  The RC Willey stores in Provo and Orem are closing and being replaced with a new store in Orem, so living in Orem just makes sense.

If we do a good job, we will have the opportunity to become the Apartment Managers next summer when the other couple moves out-of-state for schooling.  Then, we would have free rent, and we would be paid on top of that for the work that we would do.  This would allow me to stay at home to take care of Katie and help earn some money for our little family.

We are really excited for this new opportunity, and it is a real blessing in our lives.  It fits perfectly in with our future plans.  Heavenly Father really does know what we need.

Mama

Katie just started saying mama yesterday, and it melts my heart every time that I hear it.  Yesterday, it was only when she was upset and wanted me.  But today, she said it just because she wanted to see me, and she army crawled right on over.  She is such a sweet little girl, and her little personality is really starting to shine through.  She has such a happy and friendly disposition (most of the time), and she is learning new things every day.  Ollie and I are pretty lucky to have this precious little girl in our lives!

Align

Ollie noticed that Katie was trying to point with her pointer finger.  To encourage this, he started saying "Align," trying to get her to put her finger to his finger.  She has been doing this for the past several days, and it is so cute!  She gets really excited whenever she does it, and we clap for her.

She is also starting to try to wave whenever we say "Hi."  She is still figuring it out, but Katie will probably have it mastered soon.

Katie is still army crawling, but she gets up on all fours more frequently, so traditional crawling could start happening any day.  Let me tell you though, she can really move with those little arms of hers, and her favorite place to explore....the kitchen.

Family Walk

We decided to go on a little family walk this evening along the Provo River.  I got Katie all ready for the walk, complete with a sunhat and shades.  Katie and I watched Ollie as he fished.  He is becoming quite the fisherman, having already caught a few fish this season.  Even though I am not a big fish fan, I am proud of him.  And if we are ever in survival mode, I know Ollie can catch us some fish.  (If I was starving, I would suffer through the texture and smell.)  Anyway, here is little miss Katie!  I cannot believe she is 7 months old!

Rice Cereal, Not Rice Krispies

Our little girl has had her first taste of rice cereal the last few days.  She tried it for the first time on Friday, which is the day she turned five months old.  (When Ollie heard that we were going to get to feed her some rice cereal, he was like, "Okay, we will pick up some Rice Krispies on the way home."  I had to let him know that it was not that kind of rice cereal.)  Katie is still getting the hang of this new type of food.  When Grandma and Grandpa Lewis came to visit for my birthday, grandpa and daddy gave some mashed potatoes to Katie.  She seemed to like those okay, but rice cereal has been a bit different.  The first day required a walk afterwards to calm her down.  The next two days have been better.  Hopefully, she will get a bit more of it in her mouth soon.  We are trying to make it exciting for her and have let her play with a spoon to get used to it.  Here are some pictures of day two with rice cereal.

Maybe this will be okay...

Oooh, Mommy's iTouch, I want that instead of this cereal stuff.

dadadadadadadada

Katie seems to have a favorite saying lately, "dadadadadadada."  This just led to her saying, "dad, dada," which is what we have been saying to her in response.  Looking forward to hearing what else she has to say!