Nine Months!

-Penny is crawling on her hands and knees now!
-Likes to offer you her pacifier and then hurry and stick it in her own mouth when you reach for it! she thinks it's hilarious!
-Really responds to music - she loves to "dance".
-Favorite song is currently "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" (with all the motions, of course)
-Loves to crawl over and play with her carseat when we're home.
-She's gotten the hang of solid food and loves most everything. Her current favorites: POPSICLES (prepare yourself for a food tantrum when it's gone if you choose to give her this), bread and yogurt.
-She's starting to get pretty clingy to me, but still doesn't have much stranger anxiety.

Stats:
15 lbs 1 oz
27.25 inches
17.25 inch head circumference
Right on track with her growth curves!

One of Penny's favorite things to do (mainly with Steve, but occasionally with me) is crawl over to the carbon monoxide detector we have in our hallway. We'll tell her "no no" a few times and she'll just keep smirking at us and playing with the detector or pulling at the plug. When we come over to take her away from it, she just squeals like crazy, flops around and starts crawling away as fast as she can! Steve will tickle her for a second when he catches her and then pick her up and put her somewhere else. She thinks it is the best game ever!

 It was also my birthday in May. I had to work in Amarillo (a town about two hours north of us) in the morning, so Steve and Penny decided to come with me the night before so we could spend the night in a hotel and then play up there once I was done with work. It was SO much fun! They have a little zoo there that we decided to check out since Lubbock doesn't have one and Penny had never been to a zoo - the admission was $4/person, so we were expecting it to be pretty rinky dink. It was not. It was really small, but they had tons of cool animals, including lions and tigers and bears even. They had tons of great informational signs that Steve was fact checking and I think this was the first time he was satisfied with the information. We loved it!

This badger was awesome!

Next we drove over to Cadillac Ranch, just outside of Amarillo. This was just something I felt like I had to see since we live so close! We didn't think to bring any spray paint though unfortunately.

Penny was worn out from the zoo and didn't even wake up when I got her out of or put her back into her carseat!

She really isn't a fan of car rides, so this was hard on her, but she held it together most of the time.

We ended the day by heading back to Lubbock for a Tech baseball game. They are really good this year and it was a fun game. They were playing West Virginia I believe. We won!

Penny conked out about 1 second after Steve put her in the carrier!

We took Penny swimming for the first time! Okay, we just put her in a tiny baby pool in our back yard, but still. We have yet to actually take her to an actual swimming pool. She was NOT okay with things at first, which surprised me since she loves baths so much, but after sitting on the side with her feet in the water for a while she eased into it and ended up having fun!

I mentioned she was getting more clingy, right? :)

 We got her a highchair and she's so excited to sit at the table with us!

 Lubbock had some pretty big rain storms this spring and there was a lot of flooding. People around here were panicking, which was interesting since the same thing happened last year. We're lucky our house is on a bit higher of ground, so there was nothing to worry about with our house. Penny and I walked over to our park to check out the worst of the flooding - there was no park left! People were out there in canoes and kayaks paddling around the park and some roads too!

It got pretty cold during that week. 

 After all the rain storms we had a giant hail storm as well. It was the biggest hail I'd seen ever!

It's rough waking up from naps sometimes.

We planted some flowers out front - they're still alive as of now!

 I taught Penny how to talk into a cup to make her voice sound funny and she thinks it's pretty cool. It's pretty funny because she can yell and talk really loud, but when she does it into the cup she's really timid and quiet with her voice!

Listening to Steve talk into the cup.

 She's become quite the "helper" and wants to get in on whatever project we're working on.

Couponing

"Folding" the laundry (that I'd already folded, I might add!)

 We were lucky enough to have the Wilsons stop by on their move to Utah from Florida. They were only here one night, but we really loved seeing them! We had Brynn's birthday/Kelly and PJ's anniversary celebration dinner and dessert and Penny got to meet her Uncle Preston for the first time.

Lots of video chatting and picture taking going on.

I mean, what else are you supposed to do when your dad is trying to take a Sunday nap?

 My sweet nine month old!

Eight Months

May was Penny's eight month mark. Time is flying and it is so fun to see Penny growing and learning so much! Highlights from this month:

-Now sits in highchairs and shopping carts, which she is super excited about.

-Has been into head butting/bonking us a lot lately.

-When we try to put her to sleep, she grabs her pacifier out of her mouth and chucks it across the room. How dare we assume she's tired!

-She is army crawling (just a few days before turning 8 months)! Ahhhhhhh! And yes, it is way worse than rolling - she's into absolutely everything already.

-She learned to clap and it's about the cutest thing I've ever seen!

I have been trying to convince her that food is good, but she's just not that into it yet. We just keep trying. One day I fed her some applesauce and she was making those sour faces and basically grimacing the whole time I fed it to her (we make it through a few bites before she's done usually). Later that night we were juicing some grapefruit for ourselves and Penny really wanted to try some, so we put some in her sippy cup. She drank it right down without even the slightest sour face. What?! Haha!

So Proud!

Penny will sleep in bed with Steve, but she won't sleep with me in it! Not sure what to make of that, but this picture sure is cute! (*I put a pillow behind her)

She just snuggled up to me and conked out one afternoon.

 First kiss! My friend's little boy snuck some in while they were babysitting her. Steve about died.

Another of her gentlemen friends! ;)

Penny is not a snuggler, so on the rare occasions when she's willing, I soak it up!

Mother's Day!

April Trippin'

April was a CRAZY month for us! I believe Steve and I were apart for a total of 22 days. We kicked off the month with Steve leaving to Oklahoma for almost two weeks to trap more pigs.

One of the traps they use.

This boar was about 250 lbs! (And he's seen bigger!)

Right after Steve got home from Oklahoma, he was heading to a conference in Myrtle Beach. Penny and I decided we'd better head to Utah and visit family while Steve was gone! We had an awesome time!

On the plane - she was a total angel on both our flights out! The flights back home were a different story...

She loved all the toys my mom brought out. This one was her favorite!

I was so glad Penny finally got to meet the Detros!

Oldest and youngest Peper cousins

I wasn't quick enough to get a photo, but at one point Madison was holding Penny on her lap and Peyton (who is very attached to Madison) came into the room. She just kind of glared at the situation for a minute and then climbed onto the couch and began squeezing herself in between Penny and Madison! It was hilarious!

These three will hopefully grow up to be great friends!

Just Afton barking at Penny...

This was Penny's first time meeting Jenna as well - they made sure to get in lots of snuggle time!

First bath in the big tub!

She loved it and actually started splashing in the bath! She would look up to check that Jenna was watching and cheering her on before continuing her splashing. Silly girl!

There was a lot of face timing with Steve during our trips:

Of course a trip to City Creek was necessary!

Penny's first time on a train!

On the way home Penny sat like this for a good 15 minutes just listening to my dad sing and talk to her!

We had lunch with my cousin, Brittany. It was so great to see her!

Drooling over our Zupas!

While we were in Utah, Steve was enjoying his time at the beach (and maybe the conference too, I don't know. ;) )

Shortly after we all got home I went on a two day work trip, which will not happen again in the near future! Penny decided to stop taking a bottle, so Steve was scrambling to get food in her. It was a little scary, but we all survived! One morning she fell asleep playing with her toys since she was so exhausted from not eating. Poor girl. It was sad, but super cute too:

Steve stayed close to make sure she was still breathing, but told me he was pretty sure her chunky cheeks were enough to keep her nose out of the carpet!

We are so excited to be back together again!