Nine Month Portaits

A Few of My Favorite Things...

Darren brought up the point the other day that almost all of Savannah's favorite things are not actually toys. Its true.

She loves keys...


And spoons...


And the telephone (call me, baby!)...


And last but certainly not least, she loves the camera (gimme that, Momma!)


There are a few of her favorite things! :)

More Race Day Pics

Savannah met Louie the Lightening Bug...



And clapped for everyone who crossed the finish line...



My cheerleaders... :)

My Mom Can Run a 5K...

Momma ran a 5K race today!



It was the AEP Festival Run in Downtown Roanoke. We had fabulous weather for the run and it was actually quite enjoyable (although you wouldn't have wanted to ask me that two miles in... haha!) Emily was my running partner. We decided six weeks ago to train for the race because we have both been wanting to run a race for a while now. There were some hardcore runners that were super fast, and I was kinda slow, but I was just relieved to be able to run the whole way and finish! :) I think slow running is better than having to stop and walk. :) Em could've gone faster, but she was super nice and ran with me the whole course.

Here are the runners taking off at the sound of the gun!


And the whole crowd running past...


There we go (near the double yellow line)!



Here we are when we were running up the hill to the finish line. Who puts a hill at the end of a race?!

Here we are crossing the finish line! Yay, we finished the race!!! Em's time was 37:57 and my time was 37:59. That wasn't terrible considering it was our first real race and we apparently can't read maps and had been running what we thought was the race course in training, but it was actually a half mile shorter than the course. We passed the part where we usually turn around and there were no signs of anyone turning around. We were like "uh-oh!" So we kept running about a half a mile further and there was the turnaround. :) So we ran farther than we've ever run before!

Two of my favorite girls :)

Momma's biggest fan. :)

I'm thinking I am glad its a long weekend, cause I need to recover from that! :) (My recovery plan = a big bowl of ice cream and a dvd of Grey's Anatomy!) But I am so glad I did it and I'm looking forward to training for another 5K sometime in the future. :) I might just become a runner now. Anyone wanna join me?!

My Daddy Built Your Daddy's House

After another full night of sleep (hooray!), Savannah was ready to get up and wear her new shirt! I found this online and thought it was a perfect way to show how proud Savannah is of her hard working Daddy!



However, just to make sure she didn't look like a boy in it, I had to dress it up with a bow and a skirt! :)



She wouldn't really sit still for a picture, but she clapped! :)



And then she spotted something she wanted, and off she went!



She did turn around to wave to me though, and her sweet smile reminds me how very blessed I am. :)

Sleep "Bootcamp"

A friend inspired me to "take" Savannah to sleep bootcamp.

I was not real comfortable with this idea when we tried it back at 6 months old, but now at 8 months, I was ready! :)

We began bootcamp on Friday. After going to sleep at 9pm, Savannah woke up at 1am wanting a bottle. Well, we had spoken with her doctor, and she really does not need to eat through the night anymore unless she is underweight, which she isn't. So he said it was okay to break her of the bottle habit as long as it had been less than 8 hours since she had eaten. So we shut her door, shut our door, and buckled down for the long night. Every book I've read about this says that the child typically cries for about 20 minutes and then goes back to sleep. Well those kids have nothing on Savannah! :) She went strong (by strong I mean screaming as loud as she could) for 55 minutes before drifting back off to sleep. I knew that she didn't really need anything though, so I stayed strong and she slept until 8 am after that.

Night #2, Saturday, she woke up at 1:30am and we stuck by our bootcamp mindset. This time she cried off and on, in and out of sleep, for 20 minutes, and went back to sleep until 8:30am. Whew, that was much easier.

Night #3, She slept all night.

Night #4, She slept all night.

Night #5, She slept all night.

Night #6, She woke up at only 11:30pm! She fussed off and on for 10 minutes and then went back to sleep. Woke up again at 5:00am and talked to herself for 5 minutes, and then went back to sleep until 8:30am. I noticed her gums were red and swollen when she got up, so I'm thinking little teeth are messing with our bootcamp success.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes from here... I'm not sure if it was the teething or what last night, but it is still going pretty well considering she only fussed a little and went back to sleep and I did not have to get up with her.

Her naps are going fairly well too. We've said goodbye to those pesky 30-minute naps and she is now taking two 1-2 hour naps! Yay!

Sleep bootcamp seems to be working out for us!

And who wouldn't want to wake up to this smiling face in the mornings?! (Yes, she has pulled the bumper down and has her hand on her hamper...what a kid!)

Girl's Best Friend

Would you believe all of the excitement in this video is over Sasha jumping up and licking Savannah's toes?!

Hope your Thursday is just as exciting! Just think...tomorrow starts a long weekend! Hooray!

Pearly Whites

Well... being the somewhat ditzy person that I am, it dawned on me the other day that I probably needed to be brushing Savannah's two teeth, duh. (Hey, give me a break, I'm new at this being responsible for someone else's personal hygiene thing!) So, we went out a bought a baby toothbrush and some baby toothpaste (with Elmo's picture on it).

Savannah was not real sure about it at first.

What is this thing?

What am I supposed to brush with it?!

Seriously, Momma, what in the world is it?!

Oh, I get it. The toothpaste tastes good.

I'm a pro. Give me a toy so I can multitask like a real woman now. :)

Have a great day!

A Time to Celebrate

Sorry we got a little behind on posting! Its because we've been celebrating!

First, on Friday, some of Momma's classmates from college came to town and they had a one-year reunion get together.

Here are the three honors students that finished their four year degrees in three years. :)

Then, on Sunday, we went to another wedding! Momma's high school friend Deborah got married to a guy that she met in college named Corey. The wedding was outside and even though it rained a little bit, it was still beautiful!

Look how cool their cake was!!!

Corey and Deborah Brown are going to be missionaries in Bolivia and are leaving as soon as they raise all of their support, so you can add them to your prayer list!

Momma enjoyed seeing some of her friends...including her "fabulous four" favorites! :) (There are actually five in this picture...Katie is going to introduce us to little baby Audrey this October...another thing we'll soon be celebrating!!!)

We've also been celebrating the fact that Savannah started crawling on Friday! :) She is now into EVERYTHING since she can move! Check out what she did after she got a hold of the tissue box when I put away some laundry yesterday.

Literally, shes into EVERYTHING. :)

Yesterday, Savannah was taking a nap and she woke up and started talking. I finished up the report I was typing and started up the stairs. Then, I heard a loud crash! I ran up the rest of the stairs and to her room only to find that the little monkey had pulled the bumper off of her bed, reached her arms out through the slats, and knocked over her clothes hamper! She is really keeping me on my toes now. :) And ps- we lowered her crib this week to prevent her climbing out, but I'm still not too sure that won't happen at some point with her adventurous curiosity. :)

That being said, I've been trying to get some footage of her cute, slow crawl for you all to see. Here it is! Enjoy!

We hope you have a great Tuesday and that you have blessings to celebrate as well! :)

Bad Day, Good Ending

Well Savannah has officially had her first ouchie! :( And Momma officially got a few years scared off of her life!)

Momma sat her up on the bed in the very middle and turned on the Elmo tape, like every morning. Then Momma turned around to put in her contacts, standing next to the bed and using the bedroom mirror. Momma put them in really quick and then turned around only to be horrified at seeing Savannah tumbling off of the bed! Momma scooped her up and cuddled her but she just kept crying and crying and Momma didn't know what to do. Maybe she broke a bone or something?! Panic was rising quickly. Well, just a few minutes later, Mawmaw arrived to babysit (Momma was originally getting ready for a dentist appointment) and gave her a sip of coke out of her straw. Wouldn't you know that Savannah turned off the tears just like that and reached out for more coke with a big smile?!

Thankfully, there was no permanent damage done (except to Momma's nerves!) and there will be NO more sitting on the bed, not even for a few seconds! The whole scary fall resulted in only a tiny bruise on her chin, bless her heart.

Momma went off to the dentist a little shaken up only to be told that she had to have a crown and two fillings. YUCK! This day was off to a rough start for sure.

Then Momma called Mimi, who comforted Momma about the whole falling off the bed deal by saying that it happens to everyone at some point and they are just too quick to watch all of the time. Anyway, there will be NO more sitting on the bed...or the couch...or anywhere but the floor!

So then we had an issue because both tv's in this house are located to high to be seen from the floor! How would Savannah watch Elmo?!?! Momma could not do without Elmo's help entertaining Savannah.

Mimi had a solution! :) A portable DVD player! (I know, this kid has got to be the most spoiled kid ever.) Mimi brought it over with FOUR new ELMO tapes! WOW!

Now Momma buckles Savannah in her high chair and sets the DVD player on the table, and everyone is safe and happy! :)

Check out how engrossed Savannah gets in these Elmo tapes...



Elmo says "Hi, Elmo is so happy to see you!" and Savannah waves back at him. Haha.



She loves Elmo!



Elmo, the DVD player, and no permanent damage done all deserve a nice round of applause!



I'm glad the terrible morning had a good ending after all!

The Best Fish are Goldfish!

Savannah has done so well eating table food lately that when she wanted some of my goldfish today, I let her have them. Well, goldfish are apparently the new hit in this house. If you watch the video, you can see her clap her hands after each bite because apparently they deserved a round of applause, and then she gets so excited that she snorts! :) I just love this kid!

Minnie Mouse and Killer Whales...

When Mimi and Grandad returned from Florida last week, they brought Savannah surprises! (Did you think they'd not buy anything in kiddie land for their girl?!)

Grandad brought her Shamoo (is that how you spell it?) from a SeaWorld business outing. She wasn't real sure about him at first...after all, the doll version was almost her size! :) She checked him out...



And looked him over real good...


Gave him a few squeezes...


And then the standard taste test...


And then she decided they'd be best friends. She now pretty much refuses to put him down. My 17-pounder is now attached to a killer whale. :)


Mimi brought her a shirt that says "My First Minnie Mouse Shirt!" It fits her perfect!


Savannah loves her presents! Thanks Mimi and Grandad!!!! :)