Another FotoFly Experience

We went back up to FotoFly in Draper for Lily's 6-month pictures. They are amazing!! If any of you reading this blog live in Utah, I highly recommend them. It's seriously the best deal you can get. The photographer this time was just as incredible as the one for her 2-month pictures, and Lily thought she was the funniest person in the world! She never fussed during the 45-minute session even though we changed her outfit 3 times. The pictures we got were amazing...the truly captured Lily and her personality. I'm including some pictures here (b/c along with great pictures, you get the copyright too!), but it's hard to choose because they are just that awesome. Enjoy!

1/2 a year...already!!

Lily turned 6 months old on Friday, January 13th (she's destined to have lots of those "bad luck" days for birthdays...sorry bug, but it's your fault...you came early). She is just growing like a weed! She weighs 16 lbs 4 oz and is 27 inches tall. She's in the 90th percentile for her height! We celebrated by going to dinner at the BYU creamery...we hope to make this a long-standing tradition for our little ones :) While Lily couldn't eat thefood there, we did give her her first vegetable - peas. She made some funny faces, but ate them really well. I'm sure they have more flavor than rice cereal! I'm so happy that she's eating solid foods and getting to the point where she can try new things, but I'm also sad that the days of nursing her will be over eventually. I think back to when she was first born and how hard it was for those first couple weeks...it hurt and I felt like that's all I was doing!! Now it's a special time for me to be with her. I'm glad she's growing up, but it's happening so fast (although I agree with my sister-in-law that it doesn't always feel like it's going fast!).

Some things Lily likes:

-bath time (she has started splashing the water!)

-peas!

-Daddy (this has always been true, but I love seeing her light up when he comes home from work!)

-playing in her pack-n-play (thanks Papa Noyes!)

-rolling over

-pushing up on her hands

-looking at herself in the mirror

-light switches (she thinks they're awesome!)

-riding in the car

-snuggling with Mommy

-playing with Mommy and Daddy

-looking at the tree on her wall (thanks Paola and Carlos!)

-sleeping (she's a great sleeper)

-her musical Lily doll (Leap Frog Lily...thanks Grandma Irvin!)

-Daddy's phone

-sitting up

Here's to many more great memories!

Happy 6 months Lily Bug!

A new addition

There's been a new addition! No, not to our family. Our wonderful friends Carlos and Paola welcomed their adorable little boy into the world on January 2nd. He was heavier and longer than Lily...and has tons more hair than her! He is just the cutest thing!! We're very happy for them and wish them the best on their new adventure.

Lily and Martín...destined to be great friends!

Christmas

This Christmas was the third Faiver and I have spend together, but the first with our little princess. We were so excited to go visit my family in North Carolina! It had been a while since I'd been with my family for Christmas, so I was very much looking forward to it. Let me preface our trip little: Lily is a very calm, mellow baby. She doesn't fuss very much and usually just goes with the flow. Even so, I was a little worried about howshe would handle flying. It wasn't just the fact of taking off, spending hours in one position, or landing, but we also had layover times, and let's face it, that's not fun for anyone. However, I shouldn't have worried. She didn't mind taking off or landing (I tried to time feedings so I could nurse her during those times to reduce the ear discomfort; but even when it didn't line up, she was not phased by it at all!), and she slept almost the whole time we were in the air. She was an angel! If traveling with all our future kids will be this easy, bring it on!

Posing for a picture...what a happy baby!

When we landed in NC, the flight attendant let us take a picture of Lily in the cockpit

For those of you who have never experienced a winter in the South, temperatures do not get too low. However, this Christmas was exceptionally warm! It stayed in the 60s the whole time we were there, except for the last day where it dropped into the 40s with lots of rain. I hardly even needed to wear a light jacket. It was heaven! Usually I would be devastated that there wasn't any snow (never had a white Christmas before), but after leaving the frigid temperatures of Utah, I was basking in the Spring-like weather.

It was good to have almost the whole familytogether (Nathaniel and his family couldn't make it) and I was especially excited to spend time with my nephew Alexander.Lily was super excited to meet him! When we went over the Phillip and Heather's house, as soon as Lily saw Alexander she got excited and made cute baby noises and touched his face. Alexander wasn't sure what to think about this new little girl who was touching him, but he just went with it. You should've seen the faces of confusion! It was the cutest thing to see them together! Hopefully these cousins will be able to get to know each other well in the future.

Playing with cousin Alexander

Christmas is definitely not the same with little ones around; it takes a lot longer to get through presents! Lily was interested in playing with the paper and the bows...she liked her presents ok, but what are they compared to things NOT designed for babies?! It was a great day!

opening some presents ... thanks cousin Trey for letting Lily use your Bumbo chair ... it was a great help!!

On the last day of our trip, we were able to visit Muriel's neck of the woods. She is finishing up her college degree this year at the University of North Carolina - Greensboro. We went up on Monday evening and stayed at the house where she lives with 2 other girls (they weren't there at the time). She showed us some of her favorite spots (a yummy restaurant and the international food market) as well as the beautiful lights in her neighborhood. I wish I had taken pictures of it because it was incredible! It was great to spend some special time with her!

Lily and Aunt Muriel!

Now we're back to normal every-day life, but it was a wonderful, memorable first Christmas with our daughter!

Merry Christmas! (I can't get over how cute Lily is in her red dress, white socks and black shoes!!)