Nine Months

These months just keep slipping by too quickly. Yes, Miss Sydney is 3/4 of a year already. Still no sign of any teeth, but fully crawling now. She is on the move and I'm getting a little worried about her being able to walk. She's already trying to run when we hold her hands and help her. For her 9 month birthday today she tried to pull herself up on the couch, thankfully everything in our little apartment is a little too tall for her to be able to really do that. She is also really starting to babble. She's usually a very quiet baby and content to just watch and explore things without making a noise, but now she's really starting to find her voice, which is fun to hear. We love waking up to her little squeals. We are starting to see some stubborn behaviors, instead of spitting food out that she doesn't want to eat, she simply won't open her mouth and will kind of ignore you until you give up. Sneaky little girl! Well, mom's got her own tricks too.

I got to hang out with my Auntie Sara 

Meeting new friends at mama's Girl's Weekend with her college friends

Yum, I sure do love peas!

Dad and I went to watch the long-horn bulls run through the base at Altus AFB, can't you just see the excitement on our faces

Watch out, here I come

Who is that baby, she's pretty cute

Lovin' the Johnny Jump Up

Umm, I got in here, but can you help me get out?

Mom, you're so crazy

Grandma B got me this new floaty, it's pretty fun

Eight Months

As each month passes, it's hard to believe that Sydney is getting closer and closer to being a year old.

8 Month Tidbits:

* Still not crawling but very close. Her activity level is really ramping up and I'm getting a little scared for the day when she does figure out the crawling

* Still no teeth, fine with me

* She's eating all sorts of food and is really starting to bulk up

* She is still proving to be quite the trooper, as our life has yet to settle down. The latest was a trip to Oklahoma where we are now. She did a great job on that 3 day trek down here.

* Sleeping has been good and bad this month. We had a great schedule going at G & G Robbins, but since we've been in OK, we're trying to get back on the schedule.

* Her little personality brings us such joy, she is so fun to have around and we're so blessed to get to hang out with her so much!

Hiking Mt. Si with mom, dad, and friends

Meeting my Great-Aunts and Great Uncle John, he's taking the picture

I can be serious, too

Sleepy baby

I still love bath time, especially now that I can sit up and splash around

Having fun at Grandma and Grandpa's

Easter

All dressed up for Easter

We had a great little visit from our friend Allie, all the way from Colorado Springs. Allie was on the team with me the last time I went to Sierra Leone. It was so great to see her and catch up a little bit!

And you know she looks like such a little angel, but underneath, she is one tough cookie...

Fairbanks Part II

Here are the rest of the pictures from our Fairbanks weekend...

unfortunately my eyes are closed in this one

another cool sculpture

we really do live in an igloo

just making a call

oil pipeline,

hmm, makes me wonder why our gas is $4.13

Fairbanks

The first weekend in March (yes, I know is the last day of March, better late than never), we headed up to Fairbanks; a trip we have been intending to take since we've lived here. During this time of year they always have an ice festival going on. It is also great place to view the Northern Lights (usually), and they have some hot springs that are good for warming the bones after a cold winter. So that was the plan, and we were successful on two of the three. It was really a fun weekend, there were 5 families that went (minus a couple husbands). All I can say, is that we have definitely made the effort to see the Northern Lights, and if we leave here without seeing them, I'm not going to feel bad, because I've really tried!

Here are some pics to recap the weekend.

Back side of Denali

Start of the Iditarod

(Sydney was not happy)

I realized after I started this post that most of the pictures from that weekend are on John's camera, which is in his possession right now! I guess you'll have to wait for Part II.

Winter Camping

In case you were wondering, we did not get trapped out there in the wilderness of Alaska. We survived our over night stay in the cabin. We had a great time with friends and enjoyed some awesome chili to keep us warm. Sydney did really good, although I was paranoid the whole time that she was too cold. She actually did the best she's ever done with sleeping through the night. She almost did it, which I was very appreciative that I didn't have to nurse her in that cold weather (our cabin did have a wood stove, but for some reason it just wasn't kicking out the heat). John got to check snow machining of his list and we did a little x-country skiing in the morning, but we were both pretty cold and didn't got far.

all bundled up

our little cabin

the beautiful camp fire

but we all ended up inside anyway!

Let's give it a try

Tomorrow we are off for a night in a cabin out on the Army base. It's our first practice round of travelling with Sydney. I'm expecting to not sleep much (which I usually don't anyway) and hoping we don't give up at 4:00 in the morning and just head home. We'll be out there with three other families and will do some snow machining (snowmobiling in AK language) and some x-country skiing. Hope it goes well and I'll have some fun pictures to post.