8 months old

Zoie is growing up so fast. She is now 8 months old. I was reminiscing with my mother-in-law today. I thought I'd share these pictures as a look back over the past 8 months.

8 months

7 months

6 months

5 months

4 months

3 months

2 months

1 month

first week home

Brand New

Growing up = lowering the crib

When I went in to pick Zoie up from her nap, this is what I found. Time to lower the crib. She greeted me with a huge "I'm really proud of myself" smile. Fortunately, I had my camera sitting on the dresser in her room to capture the moment. The only thing missing is the surprised look on my face.

Pretty Dresses

Part of the fun having a baby girl is the pretty baby girl clothes. Here are pictures of Zoie's Christmas dresses. The red one is from my mom. The pink I got from once upon a child. She is just so fun to dress up and of course top it off with a bow.

Ray of Sunshine

When it's cold, snowy and icky out. All you want is a little sunshine. So I dressed mine up in a cute outfit complete with a huge flower. Thought you might enjoy a little sunshine in your day too.

This is the current look outside of our house. It's definitely winter.

Little Family

I just thought I'd share this recent picture of our little family. Thanks Nelson for taking it for us at church on Sunday. My mom wanted one of us dressed up nice for her Christmas card. It's difficult to use a self-timer with a 7-month old so we had Nelson take it for us. Mission accomplished.

New Window

Mark recently installed a new window and window well in our basement so that we have an exit when we refinish it. Here are some pictures.

Zoie "helping" Daddy with his big hole in the wall

From outside above the new window well

The handy man proud of his work

Crying Over Carrots

When we first introduced Zoie to solid foods, she wasn't overly impressed. She'd eat her cereal ok but nothing compared to the drama of carrots. When we'd try to give her carrots she would just sob. It'd almost make you feel bad (obviously not bad enough to forgo taking a picture).

This past week though she has decided she loves her food. She now lunges for it a bit and happily downs her carrots and other vegetables. Glad she is over the initial hysteria.

Gush, Gush, Gush

Last week, Mark was moving a water line so we could install an egress window as an exit when we refinish the basement.

In the late morning Mark comes upstairs with a very worried look and said "I need the phone number for the emergency shut-off for our water." As he is finishing the sentence, I hear the gush gush gush of gallons of water pouring into my basement.

When Mark was moving the line, the main relief valve fell off the wall. We had to have the utility people come and shut the water off from outside our house.

Mark then set off to fix it. After seeking the advice from our Dads and our friend Randy, he got a new valve installed and the pipes put in...at 11 that night, we called to have the water company turn on our water.

When they did, we realized there were a few things that still needed adjusted. The water guy, Steve, only responsibility was to turn the water off or on. But he thought our baby Zoie was too cute to go without water. So he helped us for the next hour correct the issues. He even brought a new valve from his house to put on.

We offered to compensate him but all he asked is that we tell that baby of ours that "Steve said hey." Well anyway...thanks Steve...you were amazingly helpful.

So all is cleaned up, the water is on, and the pipes don't leak. Praise the Lord for our Dads, Randy, and Steve who all contributed to its success.

Here are some pictures of the initial damage.

Bows Bows Bows

Anybody who knows me, knows that I love to put pretty bows on my beautiful baby's head. I have several bows from my dear friend Deanne. She makes some fabulous and very creative things. Here is a link to her blog and her website. Below is Zoie modeling a few of Deanne's creations that I own.

Zoie wearing a mini-korker

Zoie with a pink double ruffle ribbon (I get lots of compliments on this one). I included 2 pictures with this one, as the first Zoie looks much happier, but the second shows the bow a bit better.

Zoie sporting a Marabou Puff and wearing a pink nylon headband

I have several others, all of which Zoie wears regularly. Thanks Deanne!

Little Leopard

For Halloween I dressed up Zoie as a little leopard. She helped me handout candy. Actually I just carried her to the door with me when we had trick-or-treaters...she was probably more work than help but she was awful cute. I wouldn't have probably spent the money to buy her a costume but I found this one at a garage sale this summer for a dime. Hope you had a Happy Halloween.

Bowling in South Bend

On a recent trip (ok so it's been like a month ago but anyway) I had a bowling outing with some of my co-workers from my division. Mark and Zoie came with me to South Bend and were able to join in the bowling fun. Zoie did very good, was held by lots of people, and was a hit as usual. Here are some pictures.

Mommy & Zoie

Watching from the side

Mark with my boss

This is where Zoie spent some of the evening

Zoie sitting with Lisa

I didn't bowl very well but I didn't completely embarrass myself either. We had a nice time and my co-workers got to know my family a bit better.

What does Zoie do all day?

As I'm currently working from home, the common question is what does Zoie do all day. I thought I'd give you a few pictures to illustrate.


Yes she does take naps in her bed, this just sometimes happens when she gets really tired. She is actually a very good napper, which is when it is the easiest to work. She usually takes 2 2-4 hour naps everyday.

She is ok with the jumperoo. She is a bigger fan of the swing...I just couldn't find a good picture of that right now.

She plays a lot on her activity mat. She really likes the toys.

This is her moving away from the play mat. For a child who doensn't officially "crawl" yet, she gets around.

She also likes to sit on our futon to play. She is looking at books here. She probably tries to "eat" the books versus "read" them.

Before and After

A few weeks ago Mark and his brother Ben put a new roof on our house. Since we changed the shingle color, we changed the shutters as well. Here are the before and after pictures.

First Foods

At Zoie's 4 month doctor appointment (which yes was well over a month ago), he suggested we start her on some solid foods. Thus far I've only ventured into rice cereal. She was not initially impressed. Here are some pictures

Daddy thought it might be funny a few days before to give her an apple. Don't worry, all she could do was gum it.

By the second feeding, she was all about her rice cereal. If you are too slow, she lets you know it. We are hoping to start vegetables soon.