Lia loves to spend a little time in her bouncy seat while I work during the day. She is really smiling a lot, and I wish I could include a recording of her laugh because it is awesome! She loves the little toys that we hang from the seat so Brendon and I have named them George, Bill and Ed....there's a butterfly, a bumblebee, and a ladybug.... you can decide which is which :).




and she LOVES taking a bath...

Lia has always loved her bouncy seat, but would rather look at things going on than to play with the toys that hang from the bar over the bouncy seat. Yesterday a package came from Aunt Victoria with some new toys so I gave them a try... they were an instant hit. She is very intent on the toys and is even starting to grab at them...

The big news of the day is that we got YARD OF THE MONTH!


Definitely due to Papa B and Daddy's hard work in the yard and a little rain that finally made the yard green :).
Here's a picture from their big work day during their visit! Thanks for your help Papa B - you can come back any time!

Each day we have more and more fun watching Lia grow and change... check out all the new faces we got today...







but of course, growing and changing is hard work...

Tummy time is a strange thing... See, when I was a baby the doctors told moms to put their babies to sleep on their stomachs, but NOW.... there is a new recommendations... and a whole campaign to go along with it..."Back to Sleep".

We follow the rules and put Lia down on her back most of the time, but there is a flip side....Tummy time...and they even added a tag line for this...."Back to Sleep, Tummy to Play".
It seems that kids are on their back so much that they are not developing their neck muscles as fast and are slower to crawl and walk. So, we are doing some tummy time each day and getting stronger and stronger...

Lia didn't like it at first, but I think she's beginning to like looking at the world from a new angle!

She is also finding her tongue and enjoys sticking it out now...


Oh, and we are trying to start a new routine in the morning... we go for a walk and then come back and do pilates in the morning. Lia is really getting into it!

We had a visit from Aunt Virginia (Belle).... this is Rachel's dad's sister and #2 in the line of "Belles" and Suzanne (Rachel's cousin).


...for those of you that didn't know the significance of Lia's name...here is the scoop.
Lia's first name is all her own... and it means "bringer of good news", but her middle name is a family name in Rachel's family....there is Victoria Belle (Rachel's older sister), Virginia Belle (Rachel's dad's older sister) and Sophronia Belle (Rachel's grandmother's (Dad's mom) older sister).
So, Lia is the fourth generation ding-a-ling :).

We took a roadtrip to Charlotte for the 4th of July weekend to visit Nana, Papa B, Aunt Alissa (aka Aunt Mackie) and Uncle Geoff.

We had fun visiting and playing the whole weekend. Mommy and Daddy even got to go on a date, but I don't know why they left b/c we had more fun at Nana and Papa B's house if you ask me.




We even got to see Mr. Wayne (a friend of Mommy and Daddy's from college)


We had a lot of fun, but we were really tired when we got home...

Daddy is 30!!!!!


Can you believe it?!?!?!?!?



We had a fun party for Daddy's 30th brithday so I had to take a bath....

and get ready for everyone to come over!

We had a great time eating Texas bar-b-que and visiting with some wonderful friends from Atlanta and Nashville. My friend Ben came

and the Biggs and Mooneys came all the way from Nashville for the party (thanks!). I had a lot of fun meeting them all and can't wait to meet Baby Mooney in September!

G-Mommy and Papa came by on Father's Day weekend to see how much I had grown...

I had a very special visit from Mommy's friend, Miss Em'ly, this week. She came and hung out with Mommy and me on Tuesday for the WHOLE day. I sure hope she comes back for another visit soon!

This week we had a visit from Aunt Victoria, Lawson, Laura Grace and Hope. We had fun playing at the Boeckmans, going to a puppet show (Jack and the Beanstalk), playing outside and going to church with all the kids, I did determine that if we ever had four kids (unlikely) the kids and I would have to go to another church b/c it is QUITE a feat to get four kids to their classes on sunday morning.
We missed seeing Uncle Kimball, but we go to see him the next weekend when Lia and Mommy drove to Cartersvile to see him at Cracker Barrell.
Here are the pictures from the visit...

LIA SMILED AT ME!!! and here's a picture to prove it...

This was a big week for us full of visitors... Lia met her cousins... Hannah, Sarah, Benjamin and Isaac AND Aunt Angela (not pictured) when they came to the house...


Nana and Papa B came back to visit and helped us out with a few projects the biggest of which was the landscaping in the front yard.
Look at the great job Brendon and his dad did!


Also, it was our first mother's day...

Bathtime

Lia got the ceremonial first bath with GMommy before she left to go back to Nashville....Thanks for coming and helping!






Also, we got our first glimpse of Terrin (Lia's cousin) who was born an hour after her. Isn't he adorable???

Coming home is always nice, but coming home from the hospital with Lia was the best! It was a busy first week of docotr's visits, jaundice problems (more info below) and not a lot of sleep. my mom stayed with us the first week and I can't imagine trying to navigate those first few days without her. Thanks G-mommy!

As for the jaundice.... Lia's levels were in the higher risk range when we left the hospital and kept climbing the first few days at home. Consequently, the doctor decided to put her on a bili-bed to help lower her levels until her liver got strong enough to do the job itself.

so, here are some pictures of her "Blue Bed"...pretty cool, huh?!?!?