Christmas in Iowa

We hit the road on Wednesday, December 23 and returned home on Monday, December 28! I didn't have school on Wednesday and Jason had a client to see in Madison, so Macayla and I went "to work" with daddy on our way to Dubuque. We got very luck and didn't hit bad weather until about 30 miles outside of Dubuque. We did receive some not so good news on our way to Dubuque, my Grandma Danner was being admitted to the hospital. She had an infection that started in her thumb but spread up her arm. It was decided that she needed IV antibiotic. My parents and sister Melissa slowly but surely made their way through the yucky weather and arrived in DBQ late Wednesday night. We had a great time with all of my aunts, uncles and cousins. Grandma unfortunately was not released from the hospital until Saturday afternoon and missed our Christmas celebration, but she loved all the attention she got in the hospital will all of her visitors. Being over Christmas, almost all of her grandchildren were in town so it was rare that she was alone at the hospital. Tricia and Jeremy decided the roads were finally okay to drive down from the Twin Cities on Saturday late morning...so we were able to have our immediate family Christmas Saturday night.

Sunday we hit the road for Mukwonago to celebrate Christmas with the Skurulsky side of Jason's family. It was great to see everyone! Instead of driving back to Green Bay Sunday night we decided to spend the night at Jason's Grandma and Grandpa Starke's house in Oconomowoc. Once again we were able to make the most of the holiday season visiting family!

Christmas at Jason's Parents

Peek-a-Boo & standing in the crib

Today when I put Macayla down for a morning nap, she crawled into a ball and cuddled up with her blankey. I thought for sure she'd go to sleep right away. About 5 minutes later she started crying. I did not go in by her right away because usually the crying doesn't last very long and she falls asleep. Well, her crying (more like whining) lasted longer so I went in to check on her. When I entered the room, she was standing up in her crib! This is the first time she has done this. I think she might have been crying because she couldn't figure out how to sit back down?!? After taking pictures of course, I layed her back down and went into the other room. After a few minutes she started crying again, I went to check on her and sure enough...she was standing again!

Macayla has learned another new trick. She takes a blanket, holds it above her head, then pulls it down real quick. She has learned how to play Peek-a-Boo!

9 Month Pictures

9 Months Old!

Today Macayla is 9 months. I tried taking her "9 Month Pictures" but now that she is crawling she doesn't sit still. It will have to be a two person job this weekend. The pictures here are from last weekend in Minocqua.

9 Month Accomplishments:

• Says "mom" "mama" and does it specifically when she wants me
• Says "dada"...but not quite directly for Jason
• Says "buh buh" and waves bye
• Has conversations with us as if we should understand what she is sayin :)
• crawls ALL over the place, including over our legs
• pulls her self up anywhere she can
• walks with assistance
• has 4 teeth (2 bottom, 1 eye tooth and 1 front upper tooth)
• eats finger foods (puffs, yogurt melts, pinwheels)
• facinated with other people's ears, eyes, eyelashes, noses
• loves cell phones and remotes
• pushes the button on the remote and then turns toward the tv to see what happens
• has had "chicken & gravy" "chicken and veggies" "turkey and gravy" baby food, but will gag and throw up unless it is covered with her veggies. Not sure if its a texture or a taste thing

Just relaxin'

Macayla's 1st Pony!

Oh My!

This has been quite the week for Macayla! She started the week by starting to crawl and clapping her hands. As of this weekend she is starting to independently pull herself up to a standing position, wave bye-bye, and as she is waving says "buh-buh"!

She is also starting to play more games! I try my hardest to keep her away from our fireplace edge...but of course because she knows I do not want her there that is where she wants to go. She will start crawling slowly towards it and then when she hears me get up to get her she crawls as fast as she can to get to the fireplace before I get to her! It is very cute :)

On a side note, volleyball season is officially over. It went very quickly. Although these past few months have been crazy, I wouldn't have changed a thing. I loved coaching and couldn't have done it without the support of family and friends. Thank you!

Crawling & Clapping

The video started out with the purpose to show everyone how she was clapping everytime we cheered for the packers. At the end of the shot she decided to crawl!

Happy Halloween!

Some additional 8 Month Accomplishment:

• Just 1 day shy of her 8 Month birthday, Macayla is officially crawling! This was first seen by Grandma and Grandpa Starke. Last night Jason and I had a Halloween Party to attend so Macayla had a sleep over at Grandma and Grandpa's. When we met up with them at church this morning they told us that this morning Macayla had crawled across the living room! She is slow...still figuring it all out...but she is definitely crawling!
• At church this morning Macayla clapped her hands together and said "Yay"

8 Month Accomplishments

• Can go from laying to sitting on her own
• Has 2 teeth
• Eats veggies, fruit, cereal and yogurt all in one day
• Gets up on all fours, rocks then reaches...no crawling yet, but very close
• Can pull herself up to her knees...feet will be soon
• "Clicks" her tongue
• Makes many more sound combinations
• Had her first sleepover without mom and dad at Grandma and Grandpa Danner's house along with Aunt Tricia, Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Melissa
• Can entertain her self for an hour on the floor...rolling, playing and looking for Mom and Dad's approval and excitement
• Can wave bye-bye...but not quite on demand :)

8 Months!

Tooth #2

Macayla's tooth #1 is about half way showing. This morning I put my finger in her mouth to feel around and sure enough, tooth #2 is starting to poke through!

7 Months Old!

In between Volleyball practice, picking up Macayla, making dinner for 6 and watching the first half of the Packer game I mananged to take some pictures of Macayla. Her biggest accomplishment is getting up on all 4's! Won't be long before she'll be crawling. I know I haven't shown any house pictures...I just want to wait until we are settled with pictures on the wall and stuff. Slowly but surely we are getting there.

So So Sorry!

As most of you know, our lives are crazy busy right now! Between work, Macayla, coaching, buying a house, moving into a new house, and settling into a new house I'm sure you understand why I have not posted any new posts lately. So here is the short version of what has been going on:

• Macayla's 6 month stats: 28" long (98th %tile), and 15 lbs 4 oz (28th %tile)
• Macayla is eating cereal twice a day and having 2 servings of veggies and 2 servings of fruits a day
• She is loving being at the babysitter!
• Volleyball is a challenge but I'm loving every minute of it!
• Macayla has cut her first tooth!
• Two weekends ago with tons of help from both my parents and Jason's parents almost every room in our new house was painted...Thanks to them doesn't even begin to show our appreciation
• This past weekend we moved into our new home with the help of Jason's parents, our brother in law Dave and friend Ron
• We are now settling in and loving the space. The neighbors are very nice. There are tons of kids in the neighborhood. We just love it!

I have a tourney this weekend, but it is my hope to post pictures of the house as well as take and post Macayla's 7 month pictures. It is crazy to us that she is over the half way point to turning 1 years old!

Labor Day Weekend

Almost every year for the past 30? years my mom's side of the family has gotten together for a family reunion. We have been all over the Midwest, but this year we gathered in Wisconsin Dells. All 20+ of us took over an old farm house Scandinavian bed and breakfast. We had a great time!

6 Months Old!

Although Macayla doesn't turn 6 months for a couple more days, as I look at my schedule over the next few weeks I decided I needed to take advantage of this last day at home before school starts. I was really wanting to take Macayla in to get professional 6 month pictures, but like I mentioned our lives are in fast forward right now!

6 Month Accomplishments:

• Both Jason and I have sworn that we have heard "da" and "mom"...of course we know she didn't say it with any meaning behind it, we know we have heard it on a few occasions
• Besides those sounds, Macayla is always "talking"
• She easily rolls all over on the floor...she starts in one spot and it doesn't take her very long to get to where she wants to go! Roll, Twist & Turn!
• Macayla has started at the babysitter full time and has adjusted incredibly. Although in the past few weeks, school age kids have been around, she will have a little boy who is 4 weeks older and another boy who is 1 1/2 years old to play with
• When on her belly she can push up with her arms really high
• She recognizes her name...most of the time
• In the past week, Macayla has been able to sit on her own for up to 1 minute at a time
• She smiles and gets excited
• Her hungry, sleepy, and bored cries are definitely distinctive
• She reaches to us when she wants us to pick her up
• She loves to stand, and will do so whenever we let her
• She loves the exersaucer
• This weekend she started on baby food...so far so good with green beans
• Continues to have rice cereal
• Went on her first camping trip to Washington Island, which included her first ferry ride

We are buying a house!

Several weeks ago we got an accepted offer on a house. Before sharing this with all of you I wanted to make sure that actually getting the house was going to happen. All of the contingencies have gone through so I think this is truly going to happen! We close on September 18 with the plan of cleaning and painting that first weekend and moving in the following. Now you will understand why I have been behind on the blog. I've been busy being the communicator between the realtor, the loan officer, Jason and my dad (our lawyer :))....on top of that I've been busy starting my first season as Head Varsity Volleyball Coach at Bay Port High School (we won our first match on Thursday!), starting my 4th year teaching, being a mom and wife! So far my stress level is too bad...we'll see what happens when students start school on Tuesday!

Here are a few pictures of the house. It is 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, has daylight windows in the basement (which isn't finished yet), beautiful location and great neighborhood. It has a Green Bay mailing address but is in the small town of Scott. This town is near UW-Green Bay which is on the base of the peninsula of Wisconsin. We are up on a hill and can see the bay of Green Bay from the backyard.