The house progress so far...

Hali in her future bedroom
Travis and Hali in the living dining room
An inside view

9 Months Old

My internet has been down for the last little while, and before that Travis and I got the worst stomach flu ever! I hadn't thrown up in over eight years until last week! Luckily it only lasted twenty four hours. Thank goodness my for my in-laws, they took Hali all day from 1:00 in the afternoon until 9:30 that night because Travis and I couldn't even get off the couch to feed and play with her (yeah it was pretty bad!)

Enough about that, yes another month has past quickly and it is time yet again for Hali's monthly update. She is doing so many fun things right now. She is crawling all over the place and getting into everything! She has mastered pulling herself up to a standing position on the couch, chairs, us, her crib; so she is getting very strong. One of my favorite tricks she does now is she blows bubbles out of her spit. I don't know that I've ever seen another baby do it before (not saying there aren't any). She opens her mouth really slow and blows huge bubbles. It is so funny and she does it all the time. She is now saying "ma ma", "ba ba", and "bye bye" pretty consistently. Hali loves to play peek-a-boo. She puts her blanket up to her face until you say "where's Hali?" then she pull her blanket off her face with a big huge smile. She is getting really attached to her mommy and daddy, but warms up to others after a while. Hali is constantly jabbering and even more consistently putting everything in her mouth. She is my little vacuum; I try to vacuum every few days just because she finds the smallest pieces on our carpet or rug and sticks them all in her mouth. She also loves to eat paper, and I think she has almost consumed a whole book. Now that is what I call talent! Hali is getting to try more and more grown up food, and one of her favorites now is a nice juicy pickle! She still loves it when anybody is talking on the phone, and she is starting to jabber whenever I let her talk to someone on my cell phone.

I put these pictures of Hali on because this just gives you an idea of how mischievous she is. I had all of the toys spread out on the floor for her to play with while I went to take the clothes out of the dryer. When I came back (it couldn't have been more than three minutes) she had taken the vent off the wall! I have no idea how she did it. Then I look at her again and she had taken the door stop off the wall and had it in her mouth. Let's hope our new house can survive this little girl!

A fun little weekend vacation

Last weekend we made a quick decision to take a weekend vacation to LA. Travis' parents, sister, aunt, three cousins, Hali and I took off on Thursday evening. Friday we went to Hunnington beach for a few hours in the morning, went to dinner, and then the girls headed to Wicked while Dan and Travis watched the babies (Crew and Hali). Hali did not enjoy the beach at all. She didn't like that the water kept moving, and she hated even touching the sand. I think most of us got quite sunburned, and as you can tell from the pictures my face got absolutely fried! Wicked was awesome, I loved it! It was a lot funnier than I had expected, and of course the singers had awesome voices. I felt bad that Travis didn't get to go because I knew he would have enjoyed it, but I guess that just gives us a good reason to go again.

On Saturday we went to the swap meet which is always fun. We each found little cheap treasures. After the swap meet we headed to the mall to do some more shopping. Shellee really wanted to ride a roller coaster, so after the mall we headed to Knott's Berry Farms. Travis and Shellee rode a lot of the big roller coasters while we watched and waited (I am not a roller coaster girl). It was actually relaxing just watching everybody and eating my cotton candy. Hali got to ride her first ride. She rode the coal mine ride and her eyes were huge through the whole thing, it was pretty funny. Sunday we headed home. It was so nice to just get away from the everyday things, and especially to have Travis with us all day everyday. Good times!

Sorry there are a ton of pictures...
Getting introduced to the water

She sat like this on Shellee and I forever, I guess it is as far from the ocean that she could get


This was her reaction to the sand



Our world revolves around this girl!
Giving kisses

The guys tending the babies or Baby Einstein?
Silly Girl
Hali's first ride (yeah I'm fried)

She loved the duck

All ready for church
Just hanging out watching people
The crazy roller coaster Travis and Shellee rode
Looking for Daddy and aunt Shellee with Grandpa Hoopes
Exhausted from a long day!

Exciting news...

We are building a house! I have wanted to share our good news for a while, but needed to wait until it was all official. We had our plans done about two months ago, purchased our lot a month ago, and just last week our construction loan finally went through, so we have officially started building. Because of the economy it took a little longer to get approved for the loan and everything, but we are happy to report that the building has begun. We went and took some pictures of our lot and the subdivision we will be living in. We are the first house that is being built in Cottam Fields. My father in law, who is a general contractor, is building it. I know it is probably not that exciting for anyone but us, but we are thrilled and wanted to share. So here are some pictures of our lot.

Crawling

Hali has officially learned how to crawl (well on August 1st). Not crawling in the most conventional way, but crawling none the less. She moves her hands well, but she pushes off with her feet so it is more of a little froggy hop, so cute. Once I take the time to figure out how to put video on my blog I'll do that. I can see that I am definitely going to have to go through my house and find out exactly what she shouldn't be getting into because she is already finding things that I didn’t know I had.

I finally got a picture of her showing her teeth you just have to look closely!

Well?

So I am very curious to hear what you all think. Come on I know I can't be the only pathetic one who has already finished the book. Without giving anything away, in case you haven't read it, I will give my quick opinion. I thought it was slightly predictable, but that in no way means I didn't enjoy it. I loved the action but of course my favorite was the happy ending. I now have a great sense of closure on the whole Twilight saga. I can now officially get on with my life!! However, I am very excited to see the movie in December. I am also curious to see if they will be making movies of each book, if so that could be very interesting! So what did you think of the book?