Summer Fun

So last week Mia and I ventured out for some summer fun with Friends. On Monday we went to lunch and then to the park with Marianne and Jackson. Mia had lots of fun on the slide and swings.

Poor girl got worn out and fell asleep on the swing

Then on Tuesday we went to the neighbors and played in the sprinkler and then with buckets of water. Mia was very brave and was walking around in the sprinkler for a little while but I think she had more fun dumping buckets of water on herself.

You can't see the sprinkler but it was a cute one that flipped water in all different directions.

Enjoying the bucket with her rubber ducks.

Mia and her friend Claire. Claire can always make Mia smile even when she's being a grump.One day while we were sitting outside last week Mia decided that my water was better than hers so she wanted my up. The funny thing was my cup was about as big as her head. She did pretty good drinking out of it (with some help of course) and then managed to dump out the ice water on herself. I don't know if she was more shocked because she'd drenched herself or because it was cold. It was really too bad we didn't get a picture of that because her face was priceless.

Growing Growing Growing

Then...And now...This is the last picture we have of Mia in her car seat. On Monday we swapped out her carrier for her new car seat. She's just growing too fast and got too heavy for her carrier and is now in a big girl car seat (don't have any pictures of that yet). Tuesday she had a doctor's appointment because I really thought she had an ear infection (grumpy grumpy girl lately) and she weighs 20lbs 6 oz. No wonder my arms are ready to fall off after carrying her around. So it turns out she doesn't have an ear infection it's just the 5 teeth that she is cutting and her pulling on her ears is just a coincidence. That's right 5. The 4 middle teeth on top have all finally broken through and the bottom one to the left of her two middle teeth. I'm hoping they all stay through and don't bob up and down anymore. I'm definitely ready for a break in the teething. One thing that seems to help is Popsicles. We have shared a few in recent days. I suck most of the flavor out and then give her the pieces of ice. She LOVES it. Then she enjoys chewing on the wrapper once the Popsicle is gone. We've been spending more time outside since we have had a few nice days and Mia loves it. She is definitely an outside kind of girl. If we could spend all day every day outside I think she would be in seventh heaven. She has also learned that when she's standing and holding onto ours hands that she can walk. I spend a good deal of time hunched over now so she can walk holding onto my hands. She definitely doesn't have the balance or stability to even begin to pull herself up or walk on her own but I'm sure it will come. She's rolling all over the place now but has no interest in crawling. I'm almost positive she'll walk before she crawls.

We've also got things growing in the back yard now. We replaced our dead peach tree and planted a pear tree this spring too. They both seem to be doing pretty good.

I've got the garden planted too. There are tomato and pepper plants and then peas, radishes, and green beans. Hopefully we'll have a delicious crop this summer.

Not much else going on right now. Staying plenty busy with Little Miss Mia.

Happy Easter

So I know it's a little late but I have to blog about Mia's first Easter. She was really rather impartial to most of it but did really enjoy her Easter basket. I think she enjoyed the basket more than she did what was in it.
Mia sat ever so patiently while we colored eggs.Her egg ended up cracking but it said Miss MiaEaster morning. The Easter bunny brought her some new food, a tooth brush, toys, a bunny, and rubber bands for her hair.I have to say I was pretty impressed with myself putting pig tails in a baby for the first time. It's definitely not an easy task but I managed to get them pretty even.
We have started calling her Boo. Monty's family pointed out that she looks like Boo from Monsters Inc with her hair in pig tails and she really does. With just a pony tail it looks like a whale spout. Haven't gotten any of those on camera yet thoughMia's starting to stand really well and loves to stand. Notice her shirt...the other thing she's constantly doing now is drooling. She still only has 2 teeth but I swear there has to be a few more coming.

A couple pictures of Mia a few days after her blessing day. I was bright and didn't have the camera on that day so since Monty had to wear a suit to school one night I took advantage of it. My two favorite people.

AMAZING Weekend!

Two weeks ago, on Saturday, April 9, Mia became an eternal part of our family. She was sealed to us in the Bountiful Temple. It was a wonderful day and we had so much family there supporting us. We also had Mia's birth mom and birth grandparents there as well. It was so nice to be surrounded by so much love and support on such a special day. We were hoping to get some great pictures outside but as you can see from our background, we came out of the sealing and it was a blizzard so we had to settle for pictures in the atrium instead.Our first picture as an eternal family.

Us with Monty's parents. All of Monty's siblings were there as well but our camera died before we got pictures with them so I'll have to get those pictures from someone else.

Us and my parents (Monty is showing Mia her bracelet she got from her cousins.

We also got some pictures with Mia and her birth mom and grandparents but I decided not to put those on the web for privacy reasons but it was nice to see them again and have them there supporting us.

The following day on Sunday we blessed Mia. She is officially Mia Kay Borrowman. Well I guess she already was but it was nice to finally be able to bless her. You have to wait until the adoption is finalized. Mia's birth mom, parents, 3 of birth mom's sisters, and a niece attended her blessing and then came over to the house afterwards to meet more of Mia's family. Our house was a little crazy. After everyone left we counted up how many were there and we had 45 people in our house. We enjoyed fruit crepes and a yummy breakfast casserole. Mia even decided to give a small group of people who were there later a treat. She FINALLY ROLLED OVER! For the first time at 6 1/2 months she managed to roll from her belly to her back. But of course she hasn't done it since that Sunday. I try and get her to roll and she just plays for a few minutes and then gets mad. Sadly I don't have any pictures from Sunday. I'm going to blame it on the weather and the fact that all 45 people were in the house because it was cold and snowy outside and that put my stress level at an all time high for the weekend. However, thanks to wonderful family help it all went off without a hitch. Tomorrow I'm putting Mia back in her dress to get some pictures of just her and some pictures of her with Monty in his suit.

OK so I know this has nothing to do with our wonderful weekend but I just have to laugh at this picture of Mia just chilling in her tub. She loves bath time and doesn't even complain if I get water in her eyes while washing here hair. One of these days I'm going to have to take her to Aunt Trina's so we can try swimming in her pool. One final note. On my way to work tonight Monty text me to tell me that Mia rolled over. This time back to belly for the very first time. I guess she just doesn't want to show off for me and needs a better audience.

It's Official!!

On Monday March 28 Mia became an official part of our family. We went to court and finalized our adoption. Everything went very well and considering the judge took awhile Mia was really pretty good in court. We can now order her birth certificate so she exists on paper now and we finally have legal custody of our little girl. We are so excited to have everything done and feel so blessed to have Mia as a part of our little family. The picture we have is a little blurry but hey we had to have a picture to commemorate the moment.

Look what I can do

On Tuesday Mia was 6 months old. I can't believe how fast it has gone by. She's getting so big!

While we were taking pictures she decided that she was a big girl and could sit all by herself. It kinda surprised me seeing as she still hasn't rolled over. I guess she's just not in a hurry to go anywhere.

She's getting more and more playful and is just a hoot. She did this to herself one day. She is always chewing on burp cloths so they always end up in her face.

Sunday we tried green beans for the first time. She wasn't quite a fan and still isn't. She spits them out two or three times and I just keep spooning them back in. Eventually they go down.

Beach babe with teeth

So we had the wonderful opportunity to spend last week in Hawaii with my family. Everything about it was amazing. We had beautiful weather. It was in the low 80s every day. Mia was so good for the flights and was a trooper about being carted all over the place and having her schedule turned completely upside down. To top it all off, she got her first tooth in Hawaii. On President's Day we went to a Luau and they gave Mia a lei. She decided she was going to eat it so I stuck my fingers in her mouth trying to get the flowers out and she bit me. We had no idea she was teething. 2 days later it finally came through all the way and now her other bottom

tooth is starting to come in.

We really had a great time. We were there for Whale Days so we got to go to the whale parade. We went snorkeling, hiking, boating, kayaking, zip lining, went to a luau, and did all kinds of shopping and laying on the beach. My mom was so nice and watched Mia while Monty and I went kayaking, zip lining, and out to dinner one night. It was so hard to come back home to the cold weather and snow.

My brother Shawn is a great photographer and took about 1300 pictures of the trip. I haven't gotten his pictures yet so here are just a few that we took.

This is Mia at the airport while we were waiting for our luggage. She got a new stroller just for the occasion (our other one was just too big to take). She absolutely loved being outside and threw a fit on more than one occasion when it was time to go in. We were too cheap to pay the $30 each way it would have cost us to take Mia's pack-n-play and we discovered she fit very nicely in Monty's suitcase so we just turned that into her bed once we got there. I even took her sheet and puppy so it would feel a little more like home.It was really just too funny to see her sleeping in the suitcase but she didn't ever seem to mind.
We had a gorgeous view of the ocean from our condo and spent most mornings and evenings sitting on the balcony. Most days we could see the whales out jumping and blowing their spouts.
Enjoying the sun on our first day.

Our first full day we went to the whale parade and then spent the afternoon at the beach. Mia slept through most of it. Glad we decided to rent an umbrella for her. It was only $10 for the week and it made it really nice at the beach and I didn't have to slather her with sunscreen quite as much.

Nicky (my sis in-law), mom, and me in the ocean. This water was a little colder than the beach by our condo.

Monty coming in from snorkeling

The family hanging out on the beach.

Me and Mia

We went hiking at Iao State Park. It's a nice little hike that wasn't too bad. There was all kinds of tropical vegetation and a nice river with pools to cool off in. It wasn't cold we're just using a blanket to keep the sun off Mia.

Mia all ready for the beach on the day she got to go in the water. She didn't like sitting on the beach and letting the waves come up to get her but she liked being out in the ocean.

Heading out in the water. (at the warmer beach) Mia and Monty ready for fun in the sun.

Just hanging on the beach with dad.

Monty eating at the luau. Doesn't he just look so excited?

Mia very excited at the luau (with grandpa in the background...why aren't the guys excited to be there?)

We saw these glasses when we were going through some of the little shops and thought they were just too funny. She was a little crabby at times so I guess they are fitting.

When we went out on the boat Mia slept almost the whole time. I think she liked the motion of the boat.

Monty and I getting ready to head out snorkeling. We just took turns heading out since we had Mia with us. We saw tons and fish and a couple turtles. The day before when we went kayaking we saw tons of turtles. They were very friendly and kept coming close. I even touched one. I don't have any pictures from kayaking. Have to wait and get those from Shawn since he had the water proof camera.

Back from snorkeling.

One of our gorgeous Hawaiian sunsets.

Mia in her little Hawaiian outfit grandma got her with her lei from the luau. Shawn took a really good picture of the 3 of us with our leis at the luau but I'll have to wait for that pic too.

While the rest of us went zip lining Mia hung out with grandma. She just chilled on the trunk of the car for a bit enjoying the sun.

The zip lining crew. Monty, Shawn, Me, Dad, Nicky, and Steve.Monty coming down a zip lineIt was so much fun. The course was a series of 5 zip lines, each one longer and faster than the last. By the time we got to the last one the clouds had rolled in and it was drizzling rain. Because we were up on one of the volcanoes, we were in the clouds. On the last zip line most of the time you couldn't see the landing from where you started and we would just watch people disappear into the clouds. Off I go!

So I guess when I gets Shawn's pictures I'll have to do a Hawaii part 2 post because he has more pictures than we did and he has some really good pictures. It was a wonderful vacation and I can't wait to go back. Monty said some day we can.