Family Portraits Nov 2010

Now that Christmas is over I can share the pictures we had taken back in November. I didn't want to share these pictures then because they were our Christmas card. But now all the world can see how cute our girl is!

Oh what a Christmas

Opening presents with Oma!


Eating the wooden spoon Crazy Uncle sam made



Eating the cow ornament that Oma gave


trying on the leg warmers that Oma made

We had a wonderful Christmas and were extremely blessed by all the presents our families showered on Jenna. She is a very loved little girl. I know memories fade over time but I hope I remember this wonderful 1st Christmas for Jenna.

On another note, Jenna had her 9 month appointment today. She is wonderful and healthy. She weighs 21lbs. and is 30 inches long. 30 inches is the max for her infant seat and I have order a new car seat for her. It should arrive on Wednesday. It is a Britax Marathon 70. It will be able to seat her rear facing up to 40lbs and forward facing up to 70lbs with a height of 49 inches. I'm hoping this seat will last us a good long time!

We hope all of you had a wonderful and joyous Christmas! But remember the Christmas season isn't over until Jan 6th!

Christmas present

We were able to capture Jenna opening her very first Christmas present!


Christmas was really magical this year!

Christmas Beauty

Jenna wore her new Christmas dress to church yesterday. Back in November I started looking for a Christmas dress for her. I found several I thought were very cute but not in her size. I was getting very frustrated. I told my mom the problem and we decided she should just make Jenna a dress. So on Oma's November Friday we went shopping at JoAnn's and found some beautiful fabric. Jenna looks beautiful in her dress. I think it is one of the best outfits my mom has made!

Happy 9 month Birthday Jenna!

Jenna is 9 months old today! Our girl is getting so big! The month of December has been a roller coaster but I'm thinking we are getting back on track with regular life.

Jenna loves to looks at her books (or try and eat her books), cruise around the living room furniture and cuddle with her parents. She seems to be mesmerized by present which will be fun for Christmas.

Today we had Amy & Dirk over for lunch and Jenna kept them entertained for quite a while. She is just a good hostess.

New Holiday pics

News and Updates

Jenna is doing all kinds of new things I thought I should probably write about it. She seems to be going through an independent streak with a side of clinginess. I know those are opposite things but this child is doing both. She has decided she doesn't like eating off a spoon. I am having to come up with finger food ideas rather quickly. So she has been experiencing new foods this week. Her main staples have been sweet potatoes and apple sauce. This week we have tried scrambled egg yolks, black beans and yogurt. Everything has been a hit. With the finger eating I did puree the black beans but I spread the puree on Ritz crackers and she loves it. The whole deal is very messy but at least she is eating again. The yogurt she did eat off a spoon but not the beans. I wasn't sure she was going to eat the scrambled egg but when I stopped watching her and did the dishes I saw her eating them. And to top everything off she likes water! Not juice but water. She usually has water with her dinner.

As for the clingy part, she wants to be held a lot! Bedtime is becoming interesting as well. She will wake in the middle of the night and be tired and will sleep in my arms but the minute I put her in her crib she is wide awake and pops back up. I have been rather tired in the middle of the night and have caved to this and let her sleep with us. However it is becoming a problem now so I will have to fight my urge to sleep and make sure Jenna is sleeping in her crib.

So that is our little girl.....I almost forgot Jenna is also trying to stand on her own. She has had several seconds of standing without support. It is rather amazing to see.

Well the Christmas season can start for the Shipp family tomorrow! We are getting a tree on Saturday and the decorations will go up! I'm looking forward to it.

Thanksgiving fun!

Jenna got a lot of playing time in with cousins Lila. I think this is their audition tape for a band!

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we went to VA Beach to spend time with Robb's family. The thanksgiving table held 21. 3 of those people were under the age of 1. As you can tell, our thanksgiving was full of babies! I think Jenna had a good time playing with her new cousins. It will be fun to see all the children next year.

Since we were at the beach Jenna put her feet in the Atlantic ocean. So now at 8 months old Jenna has touched both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans! I guess we need to get this girl to the Caribbean Sea and then on the Indian and Mediterranean.

Enjoy the pictures! Jenna had a cute Thanksgiving shirt "Everyone is Thankful for Me" and a turkey bib.

Jenna at 8 months!

Jenna will be 8 months old tomorrow! Time is going so quickly! She is getting bigger and bigger every day. She really is turning into a little person and not my baby. I think about her as a newborn wrapped in a blanket and fitting in my arms. Now when I carry her her feet are below my waist. When she sleeps she rolls around her crib. She loves to "talk" and it is fun talking to her. It is amazing everyday to be with her and see the new things she discovers!

We had family portraits taken last week. They are for Christmas things so no preview of those. But we also had pictures of Jenna done and while those are being used for Christmas things as well I will give you a peek!

Jenna is clapping!

Jenna has started clapping. I tried several different times to catch video of this. Most of the attempts she would clap until she saw the camera and then wanted to get the camera. So....I had to contain her to get a good clapping video!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Halloween was a low key event for us. I put Jenna in her costume but she was only in it for about 15 minutes. It was a little large and since we weren't going trick-or-treating I let her just be comfortable. However in that 15 minutes I got some cute pictures.

We also carved our pumpkins yesterday. This will have to be a new tradition. It was Robb's first time carving a pumpkin. I think he liked it!

Now on to November. There is lots to do this month!

Almost halloween

The Shipp household has been very busy lately. Marching band and football games are starting to wind down for Robb. Jenna is on the move so she is taking a lot of extra work these days. Sometimes it is almost like I have a shadow. I am letting her crawl around a lot. Usually when I walk away she will follow me or come and find where I have disappeared to. Right now her high chair is about the only thing that will contain her (also her crib). She is quickly loosing interest in her bouncer. I have set her in her bumbo chair several times and she knows how to get out of that now. She is starting to explore the house and really likes the soda bottles we have in the kitchen. We aren't planning on taking her trick-or-treating but I think I will dress her up for the kids that come to our house. She is going to be a cow! Oma has all kinds of halloween costumes. At the beginning of October we checked out her costume stash and picked one that would fit Jenna. This cow outfit is a little big but it will work!

7 months

My baby is 7 months old! And she is on the move. Jenna is crawling everywhere! However her favorite thing to do is crawl to something and then stand up. She enjoys pulling up on my legs. I predict she will be walking by Christmas.

Jenna is also eating real food very well. She has tried sweet potatoes, apple sauce, peas, carrots and bananas. I would say the sweet potatoes and apple sauce are her favorites right now. I am making her food. My mom bought us this wonderful baby food steamer and processor from William Sonoma. I am so glad we have that now. It is making things so much easier. It is a compact little system that doesn't require all my pots and pans or a lot of clean up. Now I just need to get some ice cube trays so I can make big batches and freeze some!

This past weekend Jenna and I were helping my parents at Thee Red Barn. Jenna is such a good baby. She is very social and will basically go to anyone and be happy. She is starting to be a little clingy to me but that only happens occasionally.

While at my parents this past weekend I wanted to get some pictures of Jenna in the pumpkin patch. So after we packed up to leave we were going to make a stop at the patch. In the minute it took me to drive from my parents house over to the pumpkin patch Jenna was sound asleep. She had been rather fussy Sunday afternoon so I decided not to wake her. Instead you can enjoy some pictures of her with the pumpkins my mom and I picked. She's not in a patch just sitting on our front porch!

Almost the middle of October

Jenna is doing all sorts of new things. She is becoming an expert crawler. She also loves pulling herself up. She has now decided she likes standing in her crib. The coffee table is now her play table.

I was talking with my mom last night and I told her I would much rather have a small baby versus the stage Jenna is in now. When she was small she was up every 3 hours but the between times she was sleeping. Also I could put her in one place and know she was safe and would stay there. Now she fights naps, crawls all over the place and needs watching 100% of the time. Really my almost 7 month old me more work than when she was a newborn. But I'm learning to enjoy the activity. And she is just so cute doing all these new things.

Enjoy the new pictures.

New adventures

We have a crawling baby! Monday evening Robb was playing with Jenna on the living room floor while I was washing bottles and such. I turned around and she was crawling towards me! It was so exciting! However our video camera was in Robb's office at school. I will try to capture this action very soon! So now I really can't just lay Jenna in her gym and expect her to stay there. She now needs constant watching. Really the easiest place for her to play is in her room. For the most part, there isn't anything she can't play with in her room. Plus the carpet is usually very clean because the dogs don't go into her room.

Not only has she started to crawl but she loves to work at pulling herself up. Robb has really been working on this with her. Her favorite thing to pull up on is my body. If I am sitting on the floor with her she will work herself basically up my body until she is standing facing me. I don't think crawling is going to last very long.

6 month doc appointment

Jenna had her 6 month doctors appointment on Friday. She did so well! She is 19lbs. 9oz. and 27 1/2in long. Now at her 4 month appointment the nurse who took her measurements didn't do a very good job. She said that Jenna was 28in at 4 months. I'm sure she didn't loose 1/2in so we are going to say the 28 was a measuring error. However we have a big healthy girl. She is meeting all her development milestones and even doing some of the 9 month milestones. She had 3 shots and took them like a champ. She goes back again on Dec. 27th but the 9 month appointment doesn't have shots. Since daddy will be off for Christmas break he will be taking her. And the best news is that our doctor will still be at the practice then so we will get to see Dr. Johnson again. He is planning on changing jobs but doesn't know when. I cheer inside every time we go and he tells us he still doesn't know when he will be leaving. He is a great doctor and we would like to keep him.

So there you have it. Jenna has been eating oatmeal for a week and we tried carrots last night. She hated the carrots! I wish i would have had the video camera for that one.

6 months

Jenna is 6 months old! Time has gone by so quickly but our daily lives seem to go so slowly! It feels like yesterday that she was born but our little girl is eating "real" food, trying to crawl and has 2 teeth!

Jenna does so many cute things. We love being with her. She is a very easy baby. She is basically sleeping through the night. She can now sit up on her own but she easily looses her balance. Jenna loves to smile and laugh but many times when our cameras come out the smiles stop. She is just mesmerized by what we have in our hands that the smiling stops.

She has her 6 month doctors appointment on Friday. We will see then how big she is now! I am buying 12 month clothes for the fall.

We have had a great weekend and are gearing up for a new week!