Hiking South Mountain

This post is a little bit late, but I wanted to post the cute pictures. While my parents were here a couple weeks ago we went hiking up on South Mountain. It was a fun hike and it was nice to go a little farther than I usually do because I had help carrying Montanna in the pack. Help.... I guess they just did it for me. Dad carried her up on the way up and Mom carried her down. I would have taken my turn, but Dad and I decided to go a little further and we were worried about Montanna getting sunburned so Mom and the babe went back down and met us at the car. It was a fun hike, but the only disappointment was that when we finally got to the top we realized that it was a parking lot and absolutely anyone can get to the top by just driving a car. I love taking hikes where you have to work for the goal of reaching the top because you get a view that no one else is going to get unless they hike up there themselves. Oh well. We had a great time and it was good exercise. I was a little bit sore the next day. Montanna had a blast with her Grandma and Grandpa and she keeps telling me how excited she is to have a whole bunch of people here at Easter. I just can't say enough how much we like visitors. Anyone is welcome here in Phoenix!

9 Months old!

Yesterday Montanna turned 9 months old. She went to the doctor for her well baby check-up and only had to have 1 shot and 1 finger prick. She did very well, but gave a really good scream when she was getting her shot and then she was back to normal in just a few seconds. What a good baby! She now weighs 19 lbs even, 28 inches long, and 42 cm head circumference. She is in the 50% for both her weight and height and 25% for her head size. We have thought that was interesting from the beginning. I guess her head is a little smaller than normal, but we know there is a big smart brain in there.
She is creeping around the coffee table now. I will set her up at the coffee table and within a minute or so she is around on the opposite side. She is going to be walking before we all know it. She is pulling her self up into a standing position, sitting up from a laying down position and doing one heck of an army crawl. It seems as though she gets stronger and smarter each day. We love this sweet baby!
Aunt Britney is here visiting this week and was there to hold Montanna's hand at the doctors office yesterday. We love visitors. We are also looking forward to both Grandmas and Grandpas visiting for Easter. It is going to be a party here in Arizona. We are also looking forward to Aunt Lesley and Aunt Lauren making a trip this summer! Lesley has never been out to visit AZ and we are excited to show her around. It has been about 2 years for Lauren and so I am excited to see them and spend time with them here in the heat. Maybe it will make the hot summer seem a little bit shorter?

Grandma and Grandpa Visit Arizona!

We had so much fun when Grandma and Grandpa were here last week. They stayed from March 11-16. We were so sad to see them leave. We packed as much sun into their vacation as possible since they told me it was -9 degrees in Bigfork when they left last Wednesday. They enjoyed the wonderful weather we've had here the last couple weeks.

Montanna is babbling all of the time. Her vocabulary consists of: Baa Baa, Maa Maa, Daa Daa, Naa Naa, Tttt Tttt, and an occasional click of the tongue. We were trying to get her to say Pa Pa while her Papa was here, she is close, but not quite. Maybe in another few weeks. Montanna is now army crawling all over the place and can go from a laying down position to sitting up and can even go from sitting to standing in some parts of the house. She is going to be all over the place here in a little while. Grandma and Grandpa had fun doing the human taco (rolling her up in a blanket and swinging her from side to side) and playing catch with the ball. She is actually really good at catching that big ball. When she is laying down, she uses her hands and feel to grab the ball and play with it. I think if Grandma and Grandpa were here all the time, she would be walking and talking by now.

We spent time hiking on South Mountain, playing in the parks and taking lots of walks around the neighborhood. Grandma, Montanna and I spent a day at Ranch Market, Costco and Joann's Fabrics. It was fun to get out and shop around with them. We were so sad to see them go and I think Montanna misses them already. But... not for long. We are going to have company this next week when Aunt Britney comes to Visit on Saturday and then we have Gran and Pa coming to visit for Easter. Grandpa may be coming down for another visit then too. We welcome any and all visitors. We love you guys!

We had so much fun and can't wait to see you again soon.

Fun at the Park!

Montanna and I have been enjoying the nice weather the last couple of days and having fun outside. She loves feeling the breeze on her face and squeals every time something surprises her like a bird flying in front of us or a dog barking. It is so much fun. She pulls herself as upright as possible while she is sitting in the stroller and almost acts like she wants to jump out. Thank goodness for those restraints...... not that she could really go anywhere since she has decided that she just wants to roll around and stand all day and never crawl. I'm just kidding, I am sure she is going to crawl soon. She gets up on her knees sometimes and then she gets too tired and flops back down in her stomach and rolls to where ever she wants to go.
Yesterday I had Darby for the afternoon and so we went over to two different parks and played on the playground. She had a blast. I think both Darby and Montanna had the most fun on the swings, but then Darby is a little monkey and was crawling all over and going up and down the slides and ladders. It was so fun to be out in the perfect weather and enjoy these kiddos. Here are some pictures.

Biker Baby

We went over to Mesa this weekend to visit Frank, Hillary and Darby. While we were there Montanna found Darby's bike and loved it when I set her on the seat. She did really good balancing herself there and Darby was really good about sharing her bike. Especially since Darby's bike is one of her very favorite things. I am sure it was hard for her to watch someone else playing with it. We had a great time visiting and Hillary and I were able to go shopping for a little while while the boys stayed back and watched the babies and a movie.