Halfway to One

Now as an official 6 monther, Rosie is chowing down on solid food. So far just rice cereal, but to her, it might as well be steak because she seems to really like it.

Rose also loves to pant when she gets excited which is almost all the time (but especially when Daddy is around.)

She still needs to be supported while sitting, mostly because she ends up curling into a ball from whatever position she is in. She does roll over pretty often when placed on her tummy, probably because she still hates it and wants to get to her back fast. Rosie has started a couple of other new tricks. She has started to growl and what I call a snarl. Basically at first I thought she had a stuffy nose, because she would sniff really hard while making a snarly face (Andrew calls it a baby monkey face). But she keeps doing it, so I think she just has fun doing it. The video is only a mild version of the snarl because she didn't perform well under pressure.

Rosie has also learned the sign for milk. I taught it to her for only a couple of weeks when she was around 4 months, and then I gave up because I read somewhere that babies don't learn sign language til after 6 months. But a few weeks ago she started doing the sign out of the blue for the first time. I couldn't believe that she remembered it. I don't know if this is correlated, but she also has been eating much better in general.

Side note: Andrew still doesn't believe she knows the sign. He thinks it's a coincidence when her hand resembles the sign. I obviously disagree. If only Rosie could talk and let us know who is right.

She weighed 13 lbs 3 oz at her 6 month check-up (still working on doubling her birth weight), measured 25.1 inches long and a 16.6 in head circumference. Just the last couple days Rosie has started joining in when I sing her a lullaby before putting her down for a nap. She is such a cute singer!

Happy Six Months!

Temple Ground Breaking

Last month we had the special privilege of attending the ground breaking for the new Provo City Center Temple for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That will make two temples in Provo! It was a beautiful service and Elder Holland from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke. The temple is being constructed from the remains of the old Provo Tabernacle that was partially burned down in December 2010. 

Sad Day!

We actually have a little story about it before it burned down. Although I have lived in Provo for years, I never took the opportunity to go inside the Tabernacle until Andrew and I were engaged. We were just driving around Provo trying to figure out what we wanted to do that night when Andrew suggested we go take a peak inside the tabernacle and see what was going on. It turned out to be a Christmas children's choir concert which was about half way in. We decided to stay and listen to the last half and had a great time enjoying the angelic performance. It turned out to be a very memorable date. We were so shocked, however, to find out just a few weeks later that the tabernacle had burned down. It made me so grateful that I had had the opportunity to go inside before it was too late. But now we are so happy that it is being turned into a temple, a beautiful new house of God.

What a beautiful day!

Elder Holland walked right by us when he made his way to the front.

Here are a few of Elder Holland's remarks.

School's Out for Summer

Andrew's little sister, Mary, graduated from high school a couple of weeks ago, so we had fun celebrating with the whole family. It was a nice ceremony and Mary looked all grown up.

Mary's high school orchestra also performed which was a special treat. It mostly made me nostalgic for my own high school orchestra days which really is my favorite high school memory. Here is a video of Mary playing her cello during the performance:

(Sorry it's shaky, we were sitting far away.)

Rose had a great time during the graduation and even fell asleep amid the loud cheering and clapping.

Here's another video of Mary receiving her diploma: (don't worry--she went over and her Dad took her picture so he was not mad after all)

Afterwards we all went out for dinner. It also happened to be Andrew's older brother Paul's birthday so we got to celebrate extra hard.