Steve and Jenny Valentine

10 months already!  It has been a joy to watch our daughter learn and explore new things this past month.  I am now at home full time and even in the week I've been home she has changed so much.  She turned 10 months old today and I laughed a lot today with my sweet little girly!  She is a joyful, bubbly little girl.  Most people who see her smile (that don't know her) ask, "is she always this happy?"...to which I normally respond, "yep"!  Now, those who know her well enough, know that of course she does cry (mostly when she's having teething pain or tired).  I seem to be more amazed as each new day comes and goes with the new things she's learning.  I've never seen the day in and day out development of a person before Karis, so from birth watching how babies learn and grow completely fascinates me.  I find myself often just sitting and watching her explore new things until she figures out how to work it. She is becomi...

So I realized I started this post back in December and never finished or published it.  I figured I would find time to do just that now! Back when I was pregnant, we started considering using cloth diapers...you're proabably reading and thinking CRAZY!  Well at least that was most people's thoughts and comments were like when we talked about it.  Even my mom was like, "what?"  My typical response is, cloth diapers are not what they used to be...in fact they are very similar in design to how you would use a disposable diaper.  Karis wore disposable diapers for the first 7 weeks or so of her life (mostly because we were given a ton of newborn diapers AND because she was so little to fit into the cloth diapers).  Once we got to the point where we transitioned into the cloth diapers, I admit, I was a little nervous as to how things would pan out.  Well, I can safely say we are well into the use of the cloth diapers and we are VERY PLEASED with our de...

Well since I wasn't able to upload any pictures in my last post, I figured I'd give it one more go... side shot for you to see her little 'rat tail' that we cut off  playing around happy to be in MN Enjoying time with Grandma...can ya tell?! introducing her to The Cheesecake Factory she was so good on this trip and all smiles during the day something about having her mouth wide open reminds me of someone ;) Helping uncle Dave learn how to use his new resistence bands Loves her Grandma! She had a blast with Uncle Dave Playing with her cousins, Sarah and Abigail me and my brothers (Jon, Dave, Danny) and niece Sarah Being the oldest of four, Sarah is used to being a big helper...she was making sure Karis stayed in the nursery at church! Last but not least...smiley as always and you can see her teeth starting to pop up on bottom

Karis has officially been out of my belly as long as she was in it!  It's crazy to think she is already nine months!  I'm thankful for each new memory I get to create with her and it's been a joy to watch all the new things she is learning how to do. A few things she enjoys: opening and shutting doors (bedroom doors, cupboard doors, play kitchen door, refridgerator door-you name it, she probably has tried to open and close it at least once!) pulling up on anything she can walking along that which she pulls up on "talking" loudly...I try to tell her we need to use our "inside voice" - Steve said she got this from the Lemaster side! she gets into a giggle mode when you laugh and play with her she is becoming clingy...to mommy AND daddy.  When we're in public, she prefers one of us over others.  Steve says when mommy is around though, she prefers mommy playing peek-a-boo...she has learned how to put a cloth in front of her face when we say ...

We just passed the eight month mark a few weeks ago.  We are thrilled to have Karis in our lives and continue to enjoy the true blessing she is in our lives.  Exciting news for month eight, she cut her first tooth!  I had gone for a 6 week post six month check up (more on that in a bit) and the doctor asked if I had noticed any teeth yet, and I said no not yet...however as the doctor looked inside, there was one little tooth peeking through the gums (bottom front right tooth).  Must have come up over night and I hadn't notice yet!  The very next week I was checking out if the tooth was coming up any more and noticed the one next to it was also peeking through!  Such an exciting new phase, well sort of (all you nursing moms can understand)!  She hasn't seemed to have too much fussyness related to the teeth coming in yet, just a few times of having a hard time going to sleep, which as soon as we give her a teether in the crib, she's happ...

I am a needy person.  Most people don't want to admit that about themselves, in fact, I don't really like admitting that about myself, but I am.  Even worse, some people fool themselves and say they are not needy, so therefore wouldn't need to own up to that fact about themselves.  Of course we do this...we live in a culture where we do not "need" anything from anyone.  We can literally provide for ourselves (given that we have the proper resources)... We have stores very close to our homes, where we can buy all the food, clothes and anything we need and/or want.  Or we could just stay in our home and order what we need off the Internet and have it delivered to our home, how about that for service! We have restaurants to serve us Entertainment at our fingertips Theme parks (especially for us Orlando folks) Cell phones (most with Internet access these days) Social media (where we burn up hours of time looking at peopl...

Karis is ACTIVE...and that just might be a slight understatement!  Anyone who tells you that life goes by fast and appears to be a blur when you become a parent, seems to be telling the truth.  As I'm reflecting over the past couple months, I can't help but wonder how did they go by so fast!  I'm really learning what it means to enjoy every moment with my daughter and can't seem to thank God enough for allowing us to be her parents.  She has been learning and trying to perfect several new skills and it's fun to watch her personality really start to emerge! Month 6 The biggest news of month six, was she started crawling (and not just army crawling).  Steve and I celebrated our anniversary and took Karis along to Jekyll Island; after being in the car for 5 hours, she was ready to be out of the car seat and showed us by crawling once we got her out of the car.  We could not believe it was actually happening!  (As you can imagine, we are tr...