When I do just a day posts I try to capture a typical day so when I look back I can watch Everly growing up and our little family change. The problem with that right now is we have no typical. Ever since moving back stateside our life has been one crazy, amazing mess. For now we're doing our best to embrace the chaos and go with the flow of life. It's scary sometimes, but mostly exciting. Everly was 95% happy today (except that first picture, I think I'd just told her I would be documenting our entire day) and I love days like that. She truly is the happiest baby I know. Now that she's eating (or sucking on) real foods she's even more of a delight. Every new food she tries is an experience for us both. Her favorite food is either a cheese quesadilla or watermelon. She ate both today so you know it was a good day.

xo Sue

In case you've ever wondered how to eat a pancake, Ever is here to teach you. It's fairly simple really. As long as you destroy the pancake, get crumbs in your hair and diaper, and feed the dogs your extras, you're doing it right. This lady would know.

xo Sue

Just over a week ago we went to our family's cabin. It's on a lake (well, technically a reservoir) and it's so much fun. My mom's family built it when she was young and we've been going there every summer since I was born. Some of my best childhood memories are at our Delta Cabin. This was both Aaron and Everly's first time there. It was so much fun to share a piece of my childhood with them. I hope that Everly grows up loving Delta Cabin just as much as I did.

xo Sue

So I definitely planned on doing a "special" picture once a month so I could ooh and aah over house big Miss Everly is getting. As it turns out, life threw me a few loops and it just never happened. But that's okay, right? I still take pictures of her every single day. That's a win to me. I keep thinking she's bald because her cousin Lizzy has so.much.hair. Then I remind myself that a) Lizzie is 8 months older and b) it doesn't really matter anyway. Every month when I write these updates I look back and her previous updates and I realized something this month. She's no longer bald. I know, she was never actually bald, but she had such thin, light hair that it felt that way. Comparing her 3 month picture to now? She's definitely growing some hair. Yay baby!

• Everly sits up on her own now. Yes, she still falls over sometimes, but she's definitely got it down. She just has to want to do it. 
• She's started going to bed at 7:30 (!!!) most nights and after a lot of rocking together in the middle of the night she's figured out how to sleep all night. She still wakes up to eat but she goes right back to sleep afterwards. This I can handle.
• She now sits in her high chair and gnaws on real food. We're trying out baby led weaning (if you've never heard of it, click the link) and so far we love it. She gets to play and make a mess every day at dinner (just in time for a bath!) and I get to eat with both of my hands. Win-win. 
• Everly has eaten (or gnawed on, sucked on, and gummed on) watermelon, green beans, broccoli, banana, noodles, and a pancake. I don't think she's gotten much past her gums yet but she's really been having fun trying.
• She's suddenly decided her favorite thing to say is DADADADADADA as loud as she can. It literally started today and it's amazing. She doesn't know what (or who) it means but she knows I get really excited every time she does it. 

And on that note, when do you count it as their first word? She knows what she's saying now. She knows it means something. She doesn't know it means Aaron though. And she doesn't say dadada to get to him, she just says it. So is this her first word? I can't decide. Seriously, opinions?? 

xo Sue

I know, the title says Friday and it's Tuesday, but hear me out. My sister Shelly and I have decided that far too often we pin things on our pinterest boards and then never do anything with them. My excuse was always that I lived in Japan and I had limited access to things needed for such projects. Great excuse, right? Well no more! We are taking advantage of pinterest and the millions of good ideas on the inter-web (and living close to each other!). Every Friday Shelly and I are getting together and doing a project from pinterest. We trade off picking the project each week. I'm trying to stick with crafts but it's hard when there are so many tasty looking dishes to try.

I picked our first project and it was headbands. I saw these cute ones and decided to make my own. I'm a novice sewer at best but I figured we could handle this. They were easy to make and adorable to wear. Mom and baby alike!

Last Friday it was Shelly's turn to pick out project and she chose these candy covered pretzels. Again, a super easy project. We tried them with hugs, rolos, and mini reeses peanut butter cups. They were all delish! The hugs were my favorite though. The rolos didn't look very pretty (the caramel melted out) but they tasted awesome. The peanut butter cups were tasty but we ended up using two pretzels per cup because even the mini size were a little big.

So far we've had a great time picking, planning, and doing projects. It's my turn again this week and I still haven't decided what we're doing. Maybe something a little more complicated? I always go for the easy projects!

xo Sue

My sweet baby, I love you. Words cannot express how much. Always remember that your mama loves you.

xo Sue

"Making the decision to have a child- it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." -Elizabeth Stone

Thing on my mind: I truly am blessed. We've had such a wonderful transition this past month. Aaron's working and has interviews lined up. We got to visit family in Missouri and we continue to visit family and friends in Utah. There is so much love and support in our lives!

Project: Finding a place to live. Rent/buy? Apartment/house? So many choices! I feel like a grown up.

Favorite moment: Everly has become mobile. She doesn't "crawl" yet but she rolls and scoots as quickly as she can to get what she wants. This is one determined little lady.

Books I'm reading: Lean In and Lady of the Rivers.

Food I'm loving: Hamburgers. Cooked by Aaron on the grill. Delicious.

Songs on repeat: Hurricane and Broken.

Favorite activity: Shopping in America. Seriously. I've missed it so much. To my credit, I've hardly spent anything but I've LOVED browsing and the occasional buy. Shopping here is way better than Japan. And thrifting. I'm in love.

Show I can't get enough of: Under the Dome. 2 episodes and Aaron and I are both hooked. Just watch it.

Daily revelation: The days are long but the years are short. Enjoy every minute.

Favorite Pictures:

xo Sue

So I'm participating in this fun thing right now called Blog Button Design Battle over at Peacoats and Plaid. I was going to share the html of her post but for some reason it's not working so I'll link you there instead. Basically there are 10 blog buttons in the battle and you're supposed to vote for what you think the most eye-catching button is. I'm not asking you to vote for mine (unless you think it's the most eye-catching!) but I definitely think you should go vote!

And in case you're curious, this is my blog button.

Hamburgers, fireworks, and a sunrise celebration sum up the 4th of July in our family. I was only slightly embarrassed that I didn't know the words to the Air Force song. Don't worry though, Aaron knows them all. I tried desperately to get a good picture of Everly and me. They were all blurry, awkward faces, crying baby, neither of us looking at the camera. Then I looked through them again. And I realized that the outtakes and the imperfect photos are pretty great. They show real life. Not a perfect moment but a baby in constant motion and a mama just trying to keep up with her. I really love imperfection. 

xo Sue