River Arts Fest

We ventured downtown this past weekend for the annual River Arts Fest. A half mile of Main Street was shut down and booths full of art (real art NOT crafts) were lined up on both sides of the street. We really enjoyed admiring everything. There are some talented people out there.

There were also 4 stages with live music. Music is such a big part of Memphis. Since we've moved here there have literally been festivals or fairs every weekend featuring local musicians. We stopped to listen for a bit at one of the stages. Willa was as happy as a clam dancing in our arms and listening to the music.

We parked right next to the motel where Martin Luther King was shot so we had to stop for a photo op. There's so much

history in Memphis.

pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere

We enjoyed a visit from my parents this past weekend. We spent our 3 (way too short) days soaking up the gorgeous fall weather.

We went to the farmer's market downtown and my dad bought me these big, cool gourds. They were dried and then stained with leather stain. I love them.

We also hit up the pumpkin patch for a little fall photo shoot.

We ate lunch at Rendezvous for some famous Memphis BBQ. My dad gave Willa her first rib. As you can see, she loved it. She just sucked on it since she's still basically eating stage 2 baby food.

Matt was busy hunting and working while my parents were here which is why he's not in any of the photos. We also ate out a couple other times, went to the park, visited Matt on the gorgeous piece of land he's hunting on, and went to Willa's 9 month pediatrician check up. Willa weighs 17 pounds, 3 ounces (25%) and is 27 3/4 inches tall (75%). We had a good weekend.

Happy Fall and Happy early Halloween. Thanks for coming JoJo/Mom and Grandpa/Dad!

2 new willa bean clips

Standing and growling!?! So scary.
(You can stop the music on the player at the bottom of the page)



A little crawling, a little sitting, and a little da-da-daing.

Arkansas, Check. Mississippi, Check.

We are two states closer to achieving our goal of visiting all 50 states together. We recently went camping in St. Francis National Forest in Arkansas. Apparently, it's cotton pickin' season because we passed over 50 cotton fields on the way that looked pretty ripe. They were gorgeous. It was so neat. The cotton plants were covered in big, fluffy white cotton balls. I didn't realize cotton grew like that. I loved it. It totally made my day to see the cotton up close.

Here's Willa examining the cotton ball we picked for her. Of course, she tried to eat it so we had to take it away.

We camped on Bear Creek Lake in the National Forest. Before we found our campsite, we stopped for a little picnic lunch. The lake was really pretty and peaceful.

After lunch, we drove around the lake and found a lovely camping spot. It had a view of the lake, and there was a nice spot to tie up our canoe just down a little hill.

The evening was wonderful. We took Willa on her first canoe ride (which she hated because of the bulky life jacket). We cooked dinner on the fire and enjoyed s'mores.

We went to bed early and planned to spend the next day canoeing and exploring. Unfortunately our trip took a turn for the worse after we crawled into our sleeping bags. We had to listen to noisy campers a few sites over into the wee hours of the night, Willa woke up and had trouble falling back asleep because of the blaring music, and then instead of waking up to sunny skies like the forecast predicted, we woke up to pouring rain. How can weather forecasts be SOOO off sometimes?

We packed up camp in the pouring rain and headed home instead of spending the day on the lake. We took the long way through the forest and across the Mississippi River into Mississippi. It actually turned out to be a fun drive. We drove along Crowley's Ridge on dirt roads. We came across a bunch of bamboo plants, and we stopped so Matt could cut down a souvenir.

We checked out Helena, Arkansas. (Matt grew up in Helena, Montana). And of course, we paused to pose by the Mighty Mississippi in Mississippi.

hello fall

It has been beautiful here lately. I love that it has cooled off a bit, but I REALLY LOVE that it isn't cold yet.

not a day too soon

Matt and I went shopping for baby gates on Saturday. Willa has gotten pretty good at crawling and we figured it would be a short time before she discovered the stairs. We left Willa downstairs while Matt installed the upstairs gate for less than 5 minutes. I heard her start to cry a bit so I went to check on her and found this...

She discovered the stairs! Willa! This little girl is all over the place and wants to CONSTANTLY stand up by herself. She falls daily. Good thing she is so close to the ground. So now our stairs look like this...

We are so chic! Willa can sit up, lay down, crawl, stand up, cruise, and now climb stairs all by herself. But she still can't roll over from her back to her tummy if she's on a hard surface. Strange!

Finished Nursery

At 8 months old, Willa's nursery is finally done. Her dresser came in last week so I finished decorating and arranging this weekend (with Matt's help getting that HEAVY dresser upstairs. Thanks hubbsa!!!). I'm happy with it. I painted the birdy paintings a couple weeks ago.

some summer videos

I finally got around to uploading our videos from the last few months. Here are a couple favorites...

Happy little Willa & Matt just after Matt came home from work (7.5 months old)

Matt & our little fish in the pool (7 months old) (kind of long and boring)

8 months

Willa’s 8 months old! She's just as sweet and curious and determined as ever. Her personality is really starting to show. She smiles all day long and is super giggly.

She spends a lot of time crawling around and standing up. She loves buckets and baskets filled with toys and stuff. She'll spend a good 20 minutes dumping out a basket and examining its contents. She prefers "grown up" stuff over baby toys. She would much rather play with a wooden spoon or hairbrush than a fancy baby toy. She loves remote controls, cords, and cell phones. She loves music and loves to dance. Her favorite song is the Wheels on the Bus. Her favorite baby toy is her xylophone.

She loves when we read to her. Her favorite book is Dear Zoo. She's pretty good at lifting the little flaps in the book. She loves water. She loves swimming and loves bath time. She loves to swing...inside, outside, or at the park. I think she'd swing at the park all day long. She sleeps great. Typically, she goes to bed around 7:30 and gets up around 6:30.

Willa adores her daddy and gets very excited when he comes home. It amazes me how her little internal clock is so strong. She knows when Matt should be getting home and starts to get a little fussy if he's late. She also seems to know when it's bedtime or nap time or time to take a bath or eat or whatever.

Her favorite person is her mama though. She refuses to take a bottle. So nursing is still her main source of nutrition. She continues to eat stage 1 baby food. She loves to suck on crackers and pieces of bread. She'll drink a little water out of a sippy cup or an adult cup, but spits out juice and formula. She is very interested in what we are eating and wants to taste everything we're eating.

We love watching Willa go through all of the stages and reach milestones. I have a 0-12 months milestone chart. I am amazed at how much she masters every month and how the chart can predict her next step. For example, the chart said she should be saying da-da and ma-ma to her parents by about 8 months (not necessarily to the correct parent). At 7 and 1/2 months I hadn't even heard her say the /d/ phoneme. I heard the /m/ and /a/ but not directed towards us. We thought for sure, she was going to reach this milestone later than the chart suggested. But two days before she was officially 8 months, she started saying /d/ and within a few days was directing da-da and ma-ma at us. Her little voice melts our hearts. Kids are so smart. They learn so quickly. We love our sweet 8 month-er!

happy birthday to me!

Yesterday was my 28th birthday. I had such a great day. It started with Willa sleeping in until 7. We woke up and talked to Matt as he got ready for work. Then we went back to bed and slept another 2 hours. So nice.

We met a few friends at the library for story time at 10:30. Afterwards, my friend and her two little girls came over for lunch. The ducks, turtles, and fish showed up on cue and we fed them bread and worms. I love feeding the animals from our deck. I think I enjoy it more than the kiddos. :)

Willa took a great nap in the afternoon, and I had some fabulous phone conversations with friends and family. Matt came home from work early with two bouquets of beautiful flowers and a DVD.

Matt cooked a yum-o dinner of grilled pork chops, my mom's cheese potatoes, and steamed broccoli and cauliflower. So good!!! He cleaned up the kitchen while I put Willa to bed.

Instead of watching the DVD, we watched the Office premier (loved it) and ate cake and ice cream. Matt baked the cake to perfection. I got lots of cards, texts, emails, facebook messages, and phone calls. Thank you! Thank you! It was a fabulous day.

a big week for bean

Willa grew up so much and mastered so much this week. She's 7 1/2 months old.

1. She took her first few real crawls.

2. She finally started to get the hang of eating. She started to open her little mouth for me when I offer her a bite. Hooray! Now she swallows more food than she spits out. And she ate her first cracker. (well she sucked on it and chewed it up and then spit it out)

3. She learned how to get into the sitting position when she is laying down and learned how to lay down when she is sitting up.

4. She learned how to stand up. She holds onto furniture or whatever and pulls herself into the standing position.

5. She stood up in the crib for the fist time so we had to lower her crib mattress.

6. She went to bed without mom for the first time. (I was called into Young Women's so I have to go to mutual now. Matt does a great job putting Willa to bed.)

Wow! What a week! We need to baby proof our house. Big time! All of a sudden, Willa's all over the place.

This picture shows Willa's new smile. She's started to scrunch up her eyes when she smiles. It makes her look like a little Asian. (She's laying in a pile of felt)

splash park

Willa and I have been busy exploring Memphis. Matt has been busy working and studying. Memphis is a great city. I have this huge list of things I want to do with Willa and our newly formed playgroup. This week we went to a splash park. It's a playground with water shooting out all over the place. It was super fun. And free! :)


It's a good thing I bought that pink swimsuit at Once Upon a Child for 40 cents when I was pregnant because it gets worn practically everyday. I promise Willa has clothes. She has a closet full of darling clothes ... that she hardly wears.

a little person

I've finally made some friends in Memphis to do things with during the day (which is soooo nice). We went to a toddler story time at the library today. I was sort of apprehensive about taking Willa because I thought she was too young and would be disruptive. But she actually enjoyed it. She sat there with all the other kids and listened to the books and watched the puppet show. She was so good and so happy. I, on the other hand, couldn't stop tearing up. I realized that all of a sudden I don't have a little newborn baby anymore. I have a little person.