Happy Half Birthday to You, Shiloh!

Holy moly! We have celebrated your half birthday! Now you are on the upswing to a year! Because you are a small baby, I sometimes can trick myself into thinking you will always be a baby, but you have secretly been growing when I am not looking. You're getting so big! It's like you change dramatically overnight at times. I think this because on the same exact days, your dad and I will notice that you got bigger.
As is custom, I have already been thinking about your first birthday party for like the past 2 months and now that we are that much closer, I can think even more seriously about it-your momma likes to plan parties:) But in the meantime, we celebrated your half birthday yesterday by having lunch with daddy, going to the zoo, and getting yogurt with daddy after work. You didn't get to try the yogurt, but you did get to hold the spoon, which you enjoyed.
We started giving you some "solid" food this month. 1. Avocado, 2. Banana, and then 3. Rice Cereal. We can't honestly say that you like any of them. More like you tolerate avocado the best. I've tried seasoning these items a bit for you, but you still like to scream throughout the process or just suck your thumb. Practice will make perfect though.
Your mommy can be silly at times wondering if you will sit up soon or start adding some consonants to your vocab. But then I remembered that once you are up and mobile, you always will be, so I've been soaking up some holding time while it lasts. Then you started out with some consonants like the day after I reported my concern to daddy.
You had your first Christmas season and new years this past month. You were really good at opening your gifts-tearing the paper and pulling out tissue from the bags. I think this is a trait that you got from me. We love gifts!
New Years was less exciting for you as you did not want to stay up until midnight. But you did make a couple of resolutions: Be the cutest and sweetest baby mom and dad have ever seen. I think that's an easy one, seeing as how you already are!

Now on to some pictures:

 Hugs with Ryder-she got lots of those on Christmas Eve:)

 Spending time with Grandpa

Tearing into some Christmas gifts

 Sam and I got to have a "getaway" to Fort Worth and went ice skating (first time in like 8 years and it showed:)

 Breakfast at La Madeleine's the next day. We don't care what Tim Hawkins says, we love this place!

 So sweet!

 Shiloh loved chewing on Uncle Frank's hand

 Shiloh got to meet Derrick and his cool glasses!

 Shiloh LOVED spending time with Rachel. Her beautiful singing and movements probably helped:)

 Doing laundry with daddy (Daddy's idea:)

 Watching the Bowl Game-Go Bears!!!

 We spent New Years at the Bonows. We pretty much just watched youtube videos until midnight.

 It just wouldn't be New Years without our sparkling Welches!

 Sheryl and I have spent the past several New Years together, but nothing tops the year that we threw a party  that no one came to...

 Griddler for Christmas-thank you Dad!!!

 New Years Resolution: Eat 1 panini everyday. Doing good so far on that one!

 Shiloh on our New Years walk

 We soak up our visits with Auntie JC!

 At the zoo for Shiloh's half birthday-staring at the bubbles and lion fish in the top left corner

 Celebrating with fro-yo

 I love this picture!!!

 And pretty much the highlight of this past week-a squirrel got on the garden yeti's head. It really made my day.

 First attempt at some 6 month pictures. Can you tell that we decided that we should do it on another day?:)

We love you sweet baby Shiloh!!! Thanks for reading friends!!!

5 months old!

Dear Shiloh,
I've been keeping note of things you have been doing throughout the month so that I could blog about them later. You only continue to sleep better and better. God is helping us with this one for sure-we pray every night for our sleep to be sweet and it is very much so. You sleep so peacefully that at first, mommy and daddy would come in and check your breathing and if you weren't convincing enough, I'd give you a little poke just to be sure. One of my favorite things to do is come peek at you before we go to bed. You are so cute when you sleep! (or when you do almost anything!) Thankfully you can sleep through us tiptoeing on our creeky boards. I must admit, I sometimes miss you because you go to bed before us and then you nap a long time during the day! But it's nice to get things done around the house too.
Another favorite thing for you and I to do is play on the big bed. I'll lean over you and make ridiculous faces and sounds and you LOVE it! This is the only time I can get a laugh out of you at this point, so we do it a lot:)
People often comment on how alert you are-again, I interpret this as "Wow, your daughter is a genuis!" But really, it is so fun to see you take in the world around you. You seem so fascinated by new things. Like we went to the zoo this past month with Pops and you loved looking at the animals-especially the fish at the aquarium. You were wide eyed and growing in your intellect-I just know it!
Other fun things you did this month-finding out that you can put your feet in your mouth. This, of course, is very cute.
Things we find funny: Daddy created a song a while back that we often sing. Simple lyrics: "eat, eat baby, eat, eat, eat baby" And repeat that over and over again. It's more of a chant than a song, but we think it is funny when we do it.
And final funny thing is when we try to get your attention and you want to look everywhere else except for at us. Daddy will make crazy noises in an attempt to get your eye contact, but often to no avail:) But don't get me wrong, you LOVE your daddy! You get to sit with him almost every night at dinner because he has missed you all day while he is at work. Isn't that sweet of him?
Now for the past month in pictures...

Getting ready to go to the Homecoming Bonfire

So, we made Shiloh an adorable "Lil' Bear" shirt, but she was not excited about showing it off:)

I think all that crying from the aforementioned photo shoot, wore her out for that evening:)

One of my most proud moments of the month: homemade donuts with Nutella on top!

Love having a pile of pink laundry

SO SWEET!

So, I hear Shiloh crying unusually hard before a nap the other day and this is why. She could not get her lovie off of her face. This is why they have the "Back to Sleep" campaign people:)

Bundled up for a walk

Fun with Daddy!

Shopping at Round Rock to celebrate Abigail's birthday!

Reading with Daddy before church

Q: Courtney, can you enjoy a latte at a cutesy coffee shop and feed Shiloh at the same time? A: Of course!

Q: Does that make you cool? A: Probably not.

Good company

With Nani, G-Nannie, and G-Papa before Mimi's concert in Dallas

I think the shirt steals the caption:)

Shiloh loves her great grandmommy!

And her great granddaddy!

At the zoo in the aquarium (photo courtesy of Pops)

Know why this picture gets on here? Not just because it looks delicious (and it was), no. This picture is on here to show you what Sam made for us so I didn't have to cook (which made it taste that much better!)

5 months old!!!

She's getting better acquainted with her mermaid:)

She still loves her thumb!