6 AND 7 months...

I refuse to start ANOTHER blog with an apology of how horrible of a blogger I am...just know, I'm sorry :) I also feel the need to explain that I am actually writing this on April 15th, not the date it has on this blog post. So, since it's been 2 months, I'll cover both og them in this post. you are very welcome. So, in Charleigh's 6th month of life A LOT happened. Why did NO ONE warn me that everything happens over night at this age. At about 5 1/2 months she was rolling from her back to her belly (which she still rarely did because she hates being on her tummy) but, she still had one arm stuck every time she tried it. Officially at 6 months, she got that arm free and was in "crawling" position...oh no! Now every time we put her down, she wiggles and rolls and scoots and ends up across the room :) She now has a new love for Prissy because she is her motivation to move. When she finally "gets" her... we're in trouble. She has also move up to the BIG seat in the stroller...meaning, no car seat any more :) At six months she was still toppling over a good bit when trying to sit up but, she's getting better every day. Here hair is getting a good bit longer and filling in a lot. I'm glad about that. I swear the child has been teething for 3 months now but still no teeth. One new thing she loves to do is crunches! The doctor laughed as she laid her on the table and Charleigh laid there the whole time with her head and legs lifted up....she is gonna have some serious abs! She has really started to WATCH TV now. She has favorite shows that I can tell she is interested in when they come on....Sid the Science Kid is her favorite, Super Why, and Barney are all ones she stares at when she hears them on (I promise I don't let her watch TV all the time...but if it's gonna be on in the background...it might as well be educational right?) Here daytime schedule is as follows:

7 or 7:30 - wake up and nurse

8:30 - solids for breakfast

9:00 - nap

11:00 wake up and nurse

12:30 - solids for lunch

1:00 - nap

2:30 - wake up

3:00 - nurse

5:00 - catnap

6:00 - solids for dinner

7:30 - nighttime bottle with Daddy

8:30 - bedtime

So, first thing first...we celebrated Charleigh's half birthday in style!She had a huge cupcake and the dress Big Mama brought her.Her first taste of icing.

As for eating. At 5 months we introduced rice cereal, moved slowly on to oatmeal cereal and at 6 months, I started making her fruits and veggies. Which she LOVES. Everything except Bananas. I've tried over and over again and this kids does not like Bananas. I am really enjoying making her baby food...I hate to cook, but not for her. It's weird. I just want to do everything for her. It's actually fun. Anyway, as of now, she enjoys Avocado, and Apples.

Eating Bananas.

She loves everything else!

We started off the middle of Feburary (where I left off the last post) meeting Jared, Audrey's new man. After meeting them for ice cream, we were thoroughly impressed and our convo in the car consisted of, "So, when do you think he'll propose?" haha, well, turns out we were SO RIGHT! He did propose! Her ring is like the prettiest I have every seen! I am so excited to be part of their wedding on August 7 this year! I can't believe my little Audge is getting MARRIED! Audrey, if you're reading this, just know I am preparing my speech already...tell PJ not to worry about it :) hahahha!

Next we went to Camden, Alabama with our friends Ben and Ashley Nelson and their little kumquat Emorie. Justin and Ben participated in the annual Hog Stomp...yep, it's just as exciting as it sounds. She is only a week younger than Charleigh so it is fun to compare their progress so far (Emorie is already cutting teeth and Charleigh...not so much).

To start off the month of March we had Justin's 29th birthday...woo hoo. This man is so Awesome! I cannot tell you how proud I am that he was born 29 years ago. To quote our wedding song, "When God made you, he must have been thinking about me"... just know. To celebrate this joyous occassion I made him to go the Purity Ball :) Sorry bout that hun. But, the ball was AMAZING. It was our first year putting it on for my high school girls' ministry (Chosen) and we even opened it up to middle schoolers. We filled every seat and will definitely need a bigger venue next year. The girls and their Daddy's were so precious. To watch the dads act completely goofy while dancing for their daughters to giggle at. And to see the sweet innocent tears streaming down both sets of faces as they kneeled at the big wooden cross and laid their white roses at the feet of Jesus...words cannot describe the blessing you get, just from seeing that. I absolutely cannot wait for next year's ball :)

A few days later, I got sick....real sick. After ralphing all night I thought I would feel better in the morning, I didn't. So, Jill volunteered to come watch Charleigh while I slept it off. I cannot tell you how grateful I was for that. I couldn't even pick her up to put her on her changing table, I just weakly laid her on the floor (and laid beside her for a while). But once my calvary arrived I got to snuggle up in bed with the very few drugs I'm allowed to take while breastfeeding. And I was feeling much better by the end of the day. I was extremely weak for the next couple of days and was so glad that no one got the disease from me.....until....Jill mentioned a few days later that Kennedy was up all night barfing. Oh NO! Apparently, this virus has a 2 day dormant period before it strikes. So, it wasn't long until the whole Manny/Wilson clan got it...thanks to me :( But, my husband and child never got it...what tha heck. Well, in order to make it up to Jillian I made her some goodies (it's the only thing I know to do).(I am now selling these collapsible baskets for $35....right now I have hot pink w/lime dots, black w/lt. pink dots, and Chocolate w/aqua dots. Will and can order different prints soon)

I also made little Kennedy a appliquéd birdie onesie cause I know how her mama loves the birdies! We met them at Christian Chicken (cause that is where we ALWAYS meet) and celebrated St. Patty's day with our green lemonade :)

Here is the reversible dress I made for Charleigh to wear. I originally wanted it all green but on the other side added a little pink...we went with the pink side.

Kenndy is a trip...just know.

It was the best Green day ever now that my Charleigh is here to celebrate it with.

That week I worked my tail off to get some products ready for the big Mom2Mom sale at the fairgrounds. I realized that I am good at surrounding myself with thoughtful/selfless people in my life. Sometimes I feel guilty at how much LESS of a servant I am than they are...I'm inspired though. Thanks to Jill, Paw Paw, Jaime, Sharry, and Mom for helping me load, unload, sit, sell, take care of Charleigh...just everything. I am so very thankful for you people and strive to be more like you. With that said, I don't think I'll do this sale again. I made a small profit but, I think it wasn't worth the stress and time I (and others) put into it. But, nonetheless, I am pretty proud of the products I presented, here are a few of my favorites:

The Alabama Onesie, for girls I put ruffles on the butt for $5 extra...so cute (one of my best sellers)

My new favorite thing to do and give as a gift are matching onesies and burp cloths. Here is a matching Alabama burp cloth (with a different kid's name of course).

Another one of my best sellers: The tie onesie and matching burp cloth, here are two versions.
My more girly creations: The lipstick appliqué and matching zebra burp cloth
Same appliqué with different matching burp cloth:
Birdie Appliqué:
I made these Auburn Onesies and burp cloths for my cousin who is having twins...one boy and one girl...how fun!

Some special orders I got from the sale:

Hot pink and zebra pillowcase dress. The O is for the girl's first name (Olivia) and her daddy wanted to add a crown because she's his princess...too sweet.

Texas Longhorn onesie in zebra and hot pink (the butt says "Hook 'em Horns") Owl Appliqué with matching hair bow.
LSU onesie, I like this one because I did the rugged appliqué like you see at Abercrombie and Hollister...it turned out really cute for a little boy.

Well, like I mentioned breifly before, my Mom and Sharry came down for the weekend to help me with the sale. I love when I get to see them because I know that Charleigh is growing so fast and always has something new to show them. Well, it always turns out that mom shows Charleigh something new too. Here she is teaching Charleigh how to wave Bye Bye. (Sorry it's dark, we keep the lights off sometimes) For less than 6 months old, that's pretty darn good I'd say. She has gotten better at it everyday now and does it for fun when she's playing. I still don't think she knows what it means though (at 7 months).

At Charleigh's 6 month check up we had to get more shots :( But, it is getting easier...for me that is. I know what to expect now and how to calm her down immediately. As for her percentiles: weight 75th, head 90th, height 90th. She was 17lb and 8 oz. Her little (by little I mean chunky) thighs are to die for :) That same day Charleigh and I left her appointment and set on the road for BAMA! We just went up for the night in order to suprise Aunt Jessica on her birthday. Right before we walked in, Jessica sent me a message saying, "you are the only one who hasn't called me on my birthday..." hahaha, I wrote back (while driving), "The day isn't over yet". Little did she know me and Charleigh girl were right outside the door! It was great, I think she even cried a little.

We drove back the next day in order to prepare ourselves for the crazy busy weekend we were about to have. During which we celebrated Lyla and Gavin's first birthdays!!!Here she is with cute little Lyla. We gave her Auburn and ladybug attire because we hear she digs both :) Charleigh had lots of fun, as you can see, and Justin and Rhett got to talk about fishing sooo...they were happy too. Next, was Gavin's party out on the Bay. I regret not getting pictures of how gorgeous it was out there.Here she is with all the boys once again...I sure am glad that everyone is having girls now!!
And here she is tickling the ivories (that she stole from Gavin). This is one of my favorite pictures of her...doesn't she just look like SUGAR!! I had to send this one to Big Mama since she the piano player of the family (oh yeah, and Jon).

Well, just that same day, Avery Jo Smith made her way into the world. Jo and James were great and after a hard labor, she's here, and just perfect.I'll write more about her later...we went there the very next weekend for EASTER!

But before we get to that, we must talk about Charleigh's 6 month photo shoot with Amy Harrod. I posted most of them on facebook, but here are a few to wet your whistle. They turned out sooo fun. And I had fun making ALL the outfits Charleigh wore!!
Here she is in her Easter dress. I really wanted her to have little white gloves but, no one sells them that small, and I tried to make them...not a good idea.
Here's the all-white portion of our photo shoot. I'd like to do this again on the beach sometime (Melinda Hardy, can you hear me?)
I love this picture because #1 - I didn't know she was taking pictures at the moment, and #2 - I feel like it conveys just a little bit of how much I adore this child....I do...a lot....just know.
And I mean, come on! How cute is she with her Daddy?
This is my favorite family shot we got. We love her!

Miss Personality!

Whew! Do you all have picture overload yet? Well, just wait.

Daddy has started playing church softball again. Charleigh and I enjoy watching him but this night it was WAY too cold so we sat in the car (slash, road to JoAnn).
Okay, I'll stop here to show a few more crafts I've been working on.
Here's a hair bow holder that I thought turned out GREAT. So cute, and it matched the little girl's room perfectly.
Another thing I am starting to really like making are my Custom Hospital Gowns: (Joanna's and Whitney's were BIG hits at the hospital)

Here's one I made for my friend Kristen who is about to give birth any day now.

And here's one I made for a customer. It is one of the favorites I've done, the aqua was so bright and cute in person.And here is the Auburn version of the tutu and matching onesie. I've made a lot of Alabama stuff lately so I had to show off some Auburn pride.

I've had a few dogbed orders lately. I forgot to upload pictures of the others :)

Some cute Appliqué:

A retro dress I made for Charleigh, complete with ruffle butt bloomers.

Alright so, the next weekend (actuall Thursday) we headed to Jax to spend Easter with the Smith's and meet baby Avery!

We arrived a little after midnight and went straight to bed, obviously. And the next morning we woke up to Jon, Angie, Jack, and Big Mama. It was then that the love affair started...Charleigh LOVES Jackson! She has gotten to where she can tell the difference in kids and adults and MUCH prefers the kids! So, Jackson got most of her attention that weekend. We were so glad to meet sweet Avery and Charleigh even got to hold her :)Some great pics we got while we were there:

You KNOW we had to do a pettiskirt photo shoot! I brought Charleigh's newborn skirt and her new hot pink one and Wa La! (they both wore pearls)

It's amazing how much their little butts grow in just 6 short months!

We dressed all the kids in their matching outfits that Big Mama bought for them and had yet another photo shoot.That day Charleigh got to enjoy her first trip to the ZOO! She went with her Daddy, Uncle Jon, Jackson and Big Mama (the rest of us girls and james stayed at home with baby Avery and ran errands). The Jacksonville Zoo is pretty impressive I hear:I love this picture:
Leave it to my husband to try to re-create the Lion King scene while singing "The Circle of Life". I'm sure it was touching...She was tuckered out after the excitement, but Daddy did so good, she didn't have a smidge of sunburn when they got home! Good boy!

Since Jon, Angie and Jackson had to leave on Saturday (instead of Easter Sunday) we wrote the Easter bunny a letter and asked him to come a day early. He agreed so we dyed eggs the night before. Check out Charleigh's first time dying Easter Eggs, with the help of her Daddy:

We made a pink one, with her name on it ;)

We also made our tradtional Easter Bunny cake:

Then the next morning....

The Easter Bunny came!! Charleigh and Avery both got a little Leapfrog puppy named Violet. It is Charleigh's favorite toy by FAR! You program it with your computer to learn her name, favorite food, favorite color and animal, and even SONGS! She smiles every time it says, "Char-leigh".

The next morning we got all dress up in our Easter clothes and headed off to First Baptist Jacksonville. Jo, James and Avery stayed home as she was not even a week old...duh. So it was just us and Big Mama.

When we came home we had yet another photo shoot to capture the memories.
This was when we were setting everything up, it seriously cracks me up...both of their faces.

We wanted them to participate in their first Easter Egg hunt so we piled all the eggs up on a blanket, strategically placed their baskets beside them, added their bunny ears and what do you know...they found ALL the eggs! hahhaha

Then Charleigh stole Avery's ears and ate them.

Our first Easter as a family of 3!

Everyone on Easter Sunday.

It was sad saying good bye to sweet Avery but...Justin did have to work the next day. So, we headed home. But right when we pulled in, we took off down the street because while we were gone....Isabella Corinne Lloyd was born! I could not believe my ears with Whitney told me she did the whole thing with NO DRUGS...but, she was lucky enough to have a quick labor and delivery sooo...you go girl! Bella is just precious. Charleigh is not allowed to close as she tries to grab her, sorry Bella.

The next weekend we headed back up to Bama for Sharry's suprise party. (Are you starting to realize tht we are NEVER home on the weekends?) We had fun cheering on my nephews at their ball games on Saturday and totally GOT Sharry with her suprise party!Charleigh dressed up for the occassion.

We came home Sunday and on Tuesday, Jessica drove down to visit for a couple days. We headed straight to the beach of course!charleigh is so cute in her new bikini that the Easter bunny brought her, not mommy!

She has been to the beach before. When she was one month old. But she basically slept through the whole experience so this time was SO much fun. She LOVES the beach. She wouldn't even lay down in her tent during nap time...she wanted to be in the sand!


And even though the water was FREEZING, she seemed to love it too ;)

Too bad mommy or Aunt Jessica weren't in any pictures...haha.

Now that she is 7 months, some things have changed...between the 6 and 7 month mark, she started liking Bananas! Yay! At 7 months her food includes, Avocados, Apples, Bananas, Sweet Potatoes, Green Beans (which she doesn't love), Peaches, Squash, Pears, and Carrots. She sits up by herself now, although she does sometimes get excited and throw herself backwards bonking her head :) She actually likes flipping over to her tummy because she knows that is her most mobile position. She can roll and wiggle across the room, and turn herself in circles but no crawling yet! She doesn"t get her tummy off the ground. She is starting a small bit of separation anxiety, it's weird though. She doesn't care if I leave her with someone else. It's only when I leave her ALONE, like when we are home together and I walk out of the room. I'm sure it will escalate before it gets better.... As for teeth...she is showing ALL of the signs that one is about to erupt but, no teeth still! I read that it's genetic and my mom just told me that I didn't get my first tooth until I was 12 months! I guess she may take after Mommy?? I weighed her at her 7 month mark and she was 17 lbs and 11 ounces....so her weight gain is definitely slowing down these days, I wonder why? I'm in the process of chaning up her schedule a bit this month. I am gonna try to cut out her late afternoon catnap and just put her to bed earlier (at 8:00).

So, I think that is all. But, here are some fun pictures I had to share:
sitting wedged between Daddy and the couch...such a cute face.

Smiling in her springtime outfit.