Vivian is 11 months old!

Here's our sweet, happy girl today ~ 11 months old!  We are very excited to celebrate her 1st birthday next month!

My Mom captured Vivian hugging a baby doll.  She is very good with babies so far; she watches Shelby very carefully.  :)

Some stats on Vivian:

• Still just six teeth - four on top and two on bottom.  Although I am pretty sure she is getting two molars on top.
• Still lacking hair
• Great crawler and starting to walk on her own!
• Says Hi and Bye and sometimes Mama and Dada
• Loves animals
• Claps well
• Gives Hi-5's
• Plays peek-a-boo (randomly and on her own!)
• Loves to climb up on things
• Loves to swing
• Gets into lots of things
• Loves to move to the music
• Very good at giving hugs and starting to give kisses

We are really enjoying her!  And we love her so much!!!  ~ We have two sweet girls, Thank You, Lord! ~

Gymnastics with Anna

Ever since the Olympics Shelby has been doing "gymnastics" which means summersaults.  So when we were getting ready for Colorado we got Shelby set up to go with her cousin Anna to a gymnastics class.  Shelby was very excited!  Aside from about 30 seconds prior to entering the gymnasium, Shelby did great and had a blast!  Here are some videos of the girls taken from the parent observation deck where Kelly and David, and Vivian and I (and other on-lookers) watched from.  Shelby's in the white shirt and purple shorts and Anna is in a leotard with pants on. Yes, it is 13 minutes, but oh so cute.

First is the floor exercise, then bars and finally the balance beam with a long trampoline (which Shelby had been looking forward to).

Doll stroller

We always tell Shelby NOT to sit in the doll stroller, it isn't made for real people.  But we couldn't help but laugh as the girls pushed each other around the house.  We LOVE it when they play so well together!

Can't touch this

My Grandma Griffin had this little dog and apparently it made her laugh a lot!  Now my parent's have it and the girls (Shelby) played it over and over and over!!!  Vivian just couldn't help but start dancing each time Shelby started it up.  And I love how Shelby breaks out her Mini-Wheat's dance!!!

RING! And some other fun things

Josh surprised me for our 9th wedding anniversary and got me some more sparkle!  I love it!

Here are the girls, helping Daddy "pack" for Colorado.

The girls got new PJs in Colorado and they wore them in our hotel on the way home.  Here are our two little owls.

And here is Shelby, "horsing around".  Hehe.  She has her little horse's bridle on...with her boots!

Colorado for a week

Josh has had a hunting trip with this brother planned for quite some time.  A few weeks ago we determined that it would be best (wink, wink) for the girls and I to be in Colorado visiting family while he went hunting in MN.  Yep, it was great!  :)

LOTS of playing 

Shopping - of course - new shoes (and cowgirl boots!), shirts, dresses, pants, leggings, etc... The girls did great while on our shopping sprees.  Thank you, Grandma, for going with us and for everything!

 Pumpkin Farm!

 Awesome time with cousins and family

 The Pumpkin Farm crew!  

Aunt Nancy, my cousins Melissa and Beth, and Melissa's daughter, Hailey, rode the monster truck!!  :)  

One of my greatest friends, Amanda, came down from WY for a surprise visit.  We had such a great time together catching up.  LOVE that lady!!!  And her sweet little girl, Chloe.

Some highlights from our trip:

• Shelby playing with all of her cousins, which she calls her friends  :)
• Anna and Shelby washing dishes at Grandma's house
• Gymnastics (video on a later post)
• Pushing each other in the doll stroller (video on a later post)
• Making carmel apples
• Going to a Bounce place with Aunt Kelly, Anna and baby David, and Lindsey and Sophie
• Getting to see my old co-workers at the Bank
• Going shopping - Shelby got some great stuff!
• Dentist  :( 
• "Salon haircut" for Shelby and me (just couldn't wait for Thanksgiving and Aunt Kim to cut Shelby's hair ~ but a lady named Kimberly did cut Shelby's hair at the salon we went to!)
• RING!!!! (pic on a later post)
• Pumpkin Farm!
• Church - loved it!
• AWANA - Shelby enjoyed it!
• Colorado weather ~ wow, couldn't ask for better weather!
• Sleeping and playing and eating and being at Grandpa and Grandma's house ~ AWESOME!

We sure did miss having Daddy around, but he had a GREAT time with "Uncle I" hunting.  And we are so glad that he enjoyed his trip to MN.

Walking!!!

Tonight Vivian took her first steps on her own!  Just shy of 11 months and she is walking.  We are very excited and really enjoying this time in her life.  What a sweet little girl we have!!!


Also notice the clapping and peek-a-boo while standing on her own!

And I am VERY behind on blogging, so I will attempt to catch up tonight.  :)

Caught

Yes, I think all kiddos do this.  Caught this sweet little Vivian emptying the diapers and wipes.  I was a little quicker catching Vivian than I was catching Shelby a few years back.

LOVE THESE GIRLS!!!

DONE!!!

I can hardly believe it!!!  I made a diaper bag!  Back in July I purchased the pattern, then in August/September Josh encouraged me to order the fabric and everything I needed.  After a very long night last night (2am!), other hours here and there, and several hours today, it is done.  I am so excited and I LOVE THE BAG!

WOOOOHOOOOOO!

9 years!

Josh and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary yesterday!  He worked, but we were able to get the girls to bed early so we could eat the best cake ever and watch NCIS together.  :)  It was a good evening and I sure do LOVE MY MAN!!!

Hayride and campfire

Last Friday night we went on a hayride!  We spent the evening at our favorite ranch, the Dimple Hills Ranch.  Walter and Janet sure have become special people to us.

The hayride was a blast!  Josh rode with the girls and all the other kiddos.  Here are the pictures on Facebook that our pastor, TJ posted: HayRide to the Dimple Hills.  Once at the Lodge we had a campfire where we cooked hotdogs and s'mores, and we ate lots of yummy food.  Shelby had fun running around with all the kids and she was SUPER excited to get back on the hay (in the dark) to ride back to the Ranch Headquarters.  It was a wonderful evening!  Looking out over God's creation from the Lodge was breath taking.  Excited to go to the Ranch again!

Food!

When Shelby was 10 months old we started feeding her food, and we have started with Vivian as well.  She has had licks of apples and banana and she slurped down some broth from some Griffin Potato Soup the other evening; she has also had Cheerios and cornbread and some of the whole wheat honey bread I make.  She likes the fruit she has tried, but with everything else she typically gags.  So today we stared Vivian on Super Porridge and all had a good laugh.  (I made my Super Porridge with brown rice and pinto beans.)

First bite 

Sour face - we think she maybe swallowed a bit of it 

Trying water as a chaser 

"This is NOT yummy!" 

"Alright, I am gagging now!"

Hopefully tomorrow and the following days Vivian will get used to it!  I think we'll add a banana or some breast milk to see if that makes it tastier for her.