Goodbye, Costa Mesa!

             Sad to leave our first home as a family, but at the same time, not too sad bc we are excited for the new changes ahead! p.s. i hate the new blogger. someone please teach me why these pictures wont just stay where i put them???

hilarity

ok SO FUNNY:
we try to make life fun, right? if we are going to make bread and homemade meatballs and other dinner items, brad likes to dress the part! today brad looked like this:

and faye started to SCREAM. and CRY. and she wanted to hold onto me and didn't like ANYTHING to do with brad. HAHAHHA i guess she doesn't like his baker's hat!

helping daddy

i love them. look at her little bum! ha.

blue-eyed baby

faye has these beautiful blue/grey eyes. they aren't bluey blue, but have the look of an overcast ocean sky. very fitting for a socal winter baby! i was trying to get a picture of her one tiny tooth, but instead i got her pretty peepers. she is going to be a heartbreaker someday...

 

fun with daddy

they are still bff. makes me so happy. :)

who's under the fort??

there she is!

 

my mom put together this tunnel... 

i ignored it but my daddy thought it looked fun!

playtime!

playtime means basically faye crawls ALL OVER the place, gets into everything and then is either tired or hungry & leaves chaos behind her. so funny. we are always just watching her go from here to there to here to there and say "she is so busy!!" 

i love watching her discover everything. she hits blocks together and makes noise, and bangs books like drums. she also opens drawers, books, sticks her fingers into outlets, pulls on cords, eats remotes, stands up on EVERYTHING and crawls all over. 

 "mom, i'm playing with your tupperware, want some?"

great grandma karren

some family stopped for a visit- these are not great pictures, but the oldest and youngest of brad's family like each other a lot!

happy halloween!!

nothing makes me happier than this little chica. she is so cute & funny!

help moms!

moms/dads out there-
THEN
faye used to go to bed. every night. every nap. she knew her bed was where she slept. she hated to snuggle & just wanted to be left alone to sleep. her evening routine got her snuggled, full, warm, tired & she would sleep through the night.
NOW
she's teething. so would want us to snuggle her a bit more. so we do. we still do evening routine.. but she WILL NOT GO TO BED. she cries like we are torturing her at every nap, every night. TORTURE. i can't just let her "cry it out" bc the longer the minutes, the more hideous the cry. she will cry for an hour, getting more & more upset. then by the time she has fussed & fussed her diaper is full& needs to be changed, we have to de-snot her nose & then it's just a mess.

is it just teething, or just that at 7 months she decided she hates to go to bed?
advice?

Mickey!

Last time we met Minnie, this time it was "Hip Hop" Mickey. 

Not sure about the hip hop thing, but she liked Mickey, kinda. 

Also, I love our family.... :) Remember?

I am 7 months old!

Dear Little Pookie,

I can't believe you are 7 months old!!
How did you grow so fast?? 9 month clothes, 3-6 month shoes. Your feet still can't catch up!
This month you really got on the move. You started to ARMY crawl all over. Nothing is safe!!
You have started to be clingy this month & notice when we are gone- it's kinda hilarious. if we walk into the kitchen & you can't see us for half a second you start to wail like "YOU'VE LEFT ME FOREVER YOU ARE NEVER COMING BACK WAAAAA!" and then we come back into view & you breath all heavy & half cry acting like we left you there ALONE for an eternity. So funny. Sometimes your daddy goes behind the wall like 6 times in a row just to hear you start to cry off & on. HAHA he's mean, but funny. :)

Let's see what else??
You LOVE the bath. LOVE love love love.
You eat everything but straight green beans-ICK- you eat them if they are mixed with cereal. Your parents think they are tricky.
You can pick up little puff things with your fingers & can mostly get them in your mouth the first try. Anything we put on your tray you get into your mouth.
You have a weird affinity for my hounds-tooth bag. You LOVE it. You EAT it. You grab it every chance you get. Aunt Melissa will be glad to know you think she has very good taste in purses.
You sit up by yourself. Like from laying down you get up. This is scary. The first day it happened the crib went ALL the way DOWN.
You have found the shelf where all your books are kept and insist on pulling them out every day onto the floor and don't even clean up, how rude! :)

You have quite the vocabulary these days- BABABA was the original, then DADADADA, every once & a while I get a MOMOM, and I swear sometimes it's like "WAWA or LALA." You talk talk talk. You talk to yourself in the mirror. You talk to us. You talk to our neighbors. And other babies. And when we are in a parking garage or someplace where it echos you shout one short "BA!!" just hear it. So funny. We will go for a walk & you talk in the stroller looking at the world going by. The funniest of all is when we get into the car. We could have gone a whole trip to church or the grocery store & you were tired & silent... but as soon as we get into the car & me & daddy start to talk you IMMEDIATELY chime in. THE WHOLE DRIVE. Apparently you want us to know you are there. And feel the need to tell us everything. Needless to say... you talk a lot. Do you think it will ever stop???????

Anyway, "my little love" you are SO WONDERFUL to have around. We love you. You are so BEAUTIFUL and HAPPY and OURS(the best part of all)!!

Happy 7 months, Faye Barttels.

Love, Mommy

p.s. Im sorry your 7 month pictures did not turn out super cute. I will take some better ones soon!

on the move....sorta!

this is all day everyday around our house. it isn't quite crawling... but she sure gets around!!

excitement galore!

let me preface by saying im sorry you are probably going to be disappointed by the "big news." but in my defense, it is HUGE news to us & probably... only to us. ha!

we are moving.
YES, MOVING!!

our entire married 2 years we have lived in Costa Mesa. it was our first home together. my mom helped me make curtains & we(i) have spent many trips to tj maxx to make this place our home sweet home. we had our first baby here and learned to love the young men & women of our ward & stake. we have awesome wonderful neighbors with little children we have watch grow from babies to talking walking little people. they have seen us as newlyweds, huge & pregnant & now confident parents. losing the youth & our neighbors are really our biggest devastation. rather, our only devastation.

but... it's time to leave.

we will miss the youth we have served & worked with & loved & the few friends we have made. we will miss the ease with which we could get to three freeways. we will miss the santa ana super cheap grocery stores being so close.

the only thing we will NOT miss is the place we missed these whole 2 years...
HUNTINGTON BEACH!!!

back we go- to where we fell in love, where the beach is close & where we feel is REALLY our home.

WE ARE SO EXCITED!!! :)

big change ahead

im so excited!
more info officially TOMORROW! :)

Faye loves FOOTBALL

faye's first football season is upon us & what a momentous occasion it is!! im glad i really enjoy football, that way i don't feel like i lose my husband 4 months of the year. ha. she snuggles with daddy while he watches games & has even attended TWO live football games already!

the first was to see uncle trevor play with his high school team. which was a MAD HOUSE, by the way, it was like going to a junior college it was so expensive & PACKED! neither of my high schools ever had 1/4 of that many people. ever. he didn't play a ton but it was fun to go & see him!

the second was a trip to las vegas to see uncle chad start at middle linebacker for SUU s. UNLV. it was great! family & friends came & they KILLED UNLV which was super fun to watch & faye totally had a blast! she LOVES to watch everything & was so happy the whole time while we cheered :)

 making the tackle! proof!

 not so sure about this guy....

what do you do when you have a diaper rash?

sit around naked of course!!
haha you cute little bummed baby, you :)

 

i wanna pickle!

i wanna pickle!i wanna pickle! hey, hey, hey!!

she loved it- girl after her daddy's heart!

let go, baby

or i'm gonna have to cut 'em!! :)

6 Month Stats

well... doctors & nurses aren't perfect. and measuring babies is not a perfect science, i can tell ya that.

length 26.5 inches- 77%ile
16 lbs 6 oz- 59%ile
head 17.5 inches- 93%ile

notice that her head grew, her weight grew, and despite the fact she's DEFINITELY grown out of all her clothes she wore 2 months ago.... she is the same height. i don't think so! let's say they overshot by .5 last time & undershot by .5 this time & say she grew an inch, yes? :)

6 Months!!

to my darling little faye,

you are 6 months old!!! where did the time go? i look at pictures of you when you were first born- full head of dark, dark hair & so tiny! where did that sweet, sleepy baby go who would scowl all the time & only open one eye at a time? you refused to smile for a few weeks & would fall asleep snuggling with me. i could put you on the couch & vacuum & you wouldn't even twitch. you were calm & a good sleeper & we hardly knew you were here!

now you are a wiggly, jumpy, moving, grabbing, scooting, eating & talking crazy baby girl! you do NOT like to snuggle, nosiree. you'd rather sit than lay down, and stand instead of sit! you are getting good at sitting for a long time & are learning to reeeeeach for anything you see! you have started kicking off with one foot to get you closer to the object. uh oh! crawling is right around the corner!

you are still very observant. you cry when you've been in the house with just us for too long- as soon as we take you outside to watch people or cars & see the world you are much happier. you could watch other kids play all.day.long. but not everyone is your best friend, you are still cautious about giving smiles to every joe on the street, but after a few minutes you are very friendly. it's like you have to decide who makes the cut!

you are still very sweet & calm, but you definitely like to party. we had a few friends over to celebrate a 1/2 bday party & it was like you KNEW it was a party. you love to people watch & hang out & don't want to miss anything!

you are eating pretty good nowadays. you love to eat or suck on carrots, watermelon, applesauce, cherries, cantaloupe, & orange juice(we put some in your cereal- i've never seen you eat so fast & happily!!) and anything else we put in your mouth. or you put in your mouth- you particularly enjoyed eating mommy's copy of macbeth. double double toil & trouble!

you talk a TON & have started this whining thing that is NOT fun. you even threw your first fit this week- when mommy took macbeth away from you. you were NOT happy! you talk to your crib & toys & "bah bah bah" to me & daddy & old men at church. you are constantly making noise. when you take a nap & it's silent it's weird.

basically we think you are the greatest thing that's ever happened to us. thanks for being awesome! the good news is we still are in love with you- the bad news is your are growing up! stop that. right. now.

love, mommy