Kaiya- 7 months!

Month 6 just FLEW by! As she's growing she's developing a lovely amount of independence, which gives mommy and daddy just that much more time to not only get things done, but also to sit and watch her play, which is all sorts of entertaining and awesome. She babbles, studies her toys with intenseness, and follows Cooper around trying to steal his toys (because they're clearly better than any of her toys).

She's not quite "crawling" in any formal way, but she sure gets around! She does this worm like thing where her butt goes in the air, pulling her knees under her and then she slides forward with her arms, thus inching herself in a forward direction. It's pretty effective, if not pretty:)

She's learned to clap:

She started riding in her stroller like a BIG girl!

She went to her first Indian Restaurant (and even tried a mango lassi!)

Mommy made her some new headbands to fit her giant head ;)

She learned to wave, though she only really waves at herself (in the mirror)

She got her first toothbrush!

She got a big girl's high chair:

She finally snuck up on Luna quiet enough to inspect her feet:

She welcomed her new baby cousin, Madeline Maryanne Murphy:

She got her 6 month shots :'(

She learned that being IN her toy box is even better than digging through it!

She watched ALOT of football with Daddy:

She got to spend some time with her much loved Godparents:

She learned to drive. (Thankfully that's not true)

We tried to introduce finger foods:

And she was a chef like her Daddy for Halloween!

Our Trip to Philadelphia- The Mlynek and Wark Wedding

This has been an amazing year for weddings. Our "baby" brother Bo and Leah got married in Tennessee, Our great friends Kevin and Naina were married in Cincinnati and another set of amazing friends, Alan and Emily, were married this month in Philadelphia! I love weddings, but there's is something super special about watching loved ones get married. It's such an honor to be a part of such a special and momentous moment in a relationship!

John and I love Philly, but we didn't do much sightseeing this trip. We spent the entirety of our time hanging with friends, which is exactly the type of weekend we wanted:)

The wedding was simply perfect. It had all the parts you want to see in a wedding: great food, amazing friends, music you can dance to, and just enough tradition to hit on everyone's favorite parts but not so much that it seemed you were attending the same ol' wedding. There was a lot of love in the important details of the wedding, and all the frivolous stuff was left out. Simply put, it was perfect and the love between Alan and Emily radiated in every detail.

I could go on to describe all the moments of our weekend, or I could just show you, so I'll do that. I hope you enjoy my creative use of google+'s new editing functions; I certainly did ;)

Our ride to Philly went like this

Selfies in the hotel

can we say built in play-yard?

Godmommy love

The glowing bride and her parents!

I love this picture of Kaiya and John. <3

Husband and Wife!!

Besties.

Kaiya's 6 Month Pictures AND Her Nursery Reveal!!

I can't tell you guys how EXCITED I am to share this post!! Not only am I head over heels in love with the pictures of Kaiya that Melissa took, but I FINALLY get to share her nursery!! So much love went into the assembly of her nursery, and not just by John and me, but by many of the wonderful and creative women in Kaiya's life.

Prior to Kaiya's birth I sent out a bunch of hoops and accompanying craft supplies to the crafty women closest to me and John asking them to please participate in the decorating of Kaiya's nursery by creating a hoop as a representation of themselves. That it would be something that she will wake up to and fall asleep to everyday in the years to come and that she will know what crafty and caring women she had in her life just by the fact they took the time to make her something so thoughtful and beautiful. I didn't end up getting them all back (you ladies know who you are ;) but I got a good number of them and they are all beautiful, unique, and special in their own way. Kaiya is lucky to have so many thoughtful and creative women in her life!

Of course, it wouldn't have been possible for me to put together a nursery without my own crafts, so I constructed an ombre rainbow of flowers above her crib:

And I took a few stands of string lights, a fallen branch, and made a whole bunch of various paper flowers to create a cascade of flower lights:

It's hard to really get a feeling for how peaceful and serene this room is, but these pics at least show all the pieces; The pictures of all the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, the hand-knit blanket a co-worker made for Kaiya with her name and birthdate, the wooden shelf that my grandpa made me when I was a girl (filled with a nice collection of things from my childhood room and stuffed animals given to Kaiya), and the beautiful sheepskin over the back of the rocker sent to Kaiya by one of my best childhood friends and his family. I honestly love every single piece of this room.

Finally getting some awesome photos of Kaiya's nursery was awesome, but the real highlight of this shoot was, of course, Kaiya herself! They all came out so beautifully that I can't for the life of me pick a favorite!! So without further do: