Naomi at 8 months

Today we took Naomi to see the doctor. She wasn't very happy to have a stranger talking to her. She is definitely a Mama's girl. She is on the move and loving every minute of it. She is slowly starting to explore the house more. She now knows that if I leave the room she can just follow me.

At 8 months old Naomi is:
7870 grams (17 lbs. 8 oz.)
71.5 cm (28 inches)

She is growing and learning so much each month. She loves her brothers and sister. Her eyes light up when she sees them. Her favorite foods are anything orange (carrots, squash, mango, and sweet potato). She now waves "bye bye" and tries to sign "more". Naomi has pulled herself up to the couch twice. She has a new found love for the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and freaks out when she hears the "Hot Dog Dance". Naomi's signature move below (up on her hands and feet in a bridge):

I feel so blessed to be Naomi's mom. I feel like I waited forever to have her join our family. She is a pure joy and blessing to us.

Pictures with family

The night before everyone left we made sure to get some pictures. Devon will leave on his mission very soon, so I wanted to get a picture of him with the kids. We had such a nice time with my family visiting. Maybe next time everyone can come!

Visit from family - part two

On our second day of outings we headed down to Washington DC. We wanted to explore somewhere new. Robyn heard that the Postal Museum had some interesting things to see. It was actually really kid friendly and they all had fun picking out stamps to bring home.

always getting smashed penny souvenirs 

Next we headed over to Capitol Hill to see if we could tour the Capitol building. They had some space in a tour, but we had a bunch of stuff we could not bring in from our picnic lunch. Michael was amazing to volunteer to stay behind. I took Miriam and Simon inside for the tour.

Levi insisted on walking, so Grandpa hung back with him

Visit from family - part one

My Mom and Dad have come for a visit to Virginia. Luckily they also brought Ashley, Eric, and Devon. We decided to have a couple of days of outings. On our first day trip Michael had to work so I took the kids to a visit to Maymont. It is an old estate near Richmond, VA with some really pretty grounds. The kids loved running around with cousins although it was really hot. I didn't get too many pictures because I was busy chasing Levi who insisted on climbing everything.

After a picnic lunch we took the kids to the science museum in Richmond. It was fun to watch the kids explore the museum with their cousins. I wish I would have taken more pictures.

trying out a wind tunnel

It was a very full and fun day spent with family.

I took the kids bowling

Since we signed up for the free summer bowling I figured I better take the kids even if Michael couldn't come. They always have so much fun while bowling. They are all getting really good. Miriam even scored over 100! I love these three and making them happy is the best.

Going Downtown to Celebrate

On Saturday Trevor and Robyn invited us to go downtown to celebrate mine and Trevor's birthday at Fogo de Chao. We are not ones to pass up a delicious meal of meat. After we ate we decided to walk over and do a little sight seeing at the White House.

It was fun to go out with Trevor and Robyn. We love having them live close by.

Across the state of New York

The next part of our road trip was the drive from Niagara Falls to NYC. On the way we wanted to stop and see the church sites in upstate New York. We made our home base Rochester, New York. We stopped at the first Wegmans for dinner one night, walked along the canal, had ice cream at a local dairy, found a park, and saw a double rainbow.

Over the course of two days we saw some amazing Church History sites. We were able to spend time at the Sacred Grove, Hill Cumorah, Joseph Smith's childhood home, and the site of the Church being organized. I'm so glad we had the chance to take the kids.

Our last stop of our road trip was New York City. We went to the Top of the Rock, American History Museum, and the Statue of Liberty. We had fun exploring the city, shopping, and eating. We were hoping to see the fireworks on the Fourth of July, but the rain sent us back to the hotel to watch them on the TV.

(POST-NOTE: I am really behind on the blog. I am actually posting this over a year after this happened. I am SO, SO, SO sad... I somehow lost all the pictures from this trip. All we have are these pictures I grabbed from Instagram. Thank goodness I posted there.)