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January = Month of Milestones

January proved to be a big month for Jorja. Not only did she turn 6 months old but she hit many milestones. What is amazing to me is how quickly things happen. If you blink your eyes sometimes you can miss the milestone. I had decided back in November that I wanted to be at home with Jorja full time but I was still working on a part-time (sort of) basis at WOF until they filled my position. However, in January was when it became very obvious that it was time for me to be at home with Jorja... when I almost missed her rolling over for the first time because I was at work, I knew I wasn't going to be able to work much longer and miss out on any milestones in her life. I feel SO blessed that I am able to be at home for all these little "firsts". 

Jorja sitting by herself for the very FIRST time! I had sat her up to play with her octopus but I was sitting behind her to hold her up and I let go and she just kept sitting there. I started FREAKING OUT - literally, you would have thought I was a cheerleader again I was clapping and screaming and laughing so hard. I quickly grabbed the camera sitting on the table next to me to capture these moments for the first time. 

She's not quite sure what to think about this whole sitting by herself thing...

Daddy feeding Jorja her very FIRST solid food - CEREAL! As you can see, Jorja was VERY excited about this new experience. 

Verdict is out... she LOVED it. 

Jorja rolling over. This isn't the VERY first time for her to do this but one of the first times for me to capture on video. And I was a little late in starting the video so she is already on her side when it starts but, you get the idea and she gets so excited about her accomplishment. She is the cutest and happiest girl EVER! 

Jorja's first plane ride to San Antonio to visit her friends Joey and Hadleigh Lankford (their mom Jennifer is one of my best friends ever). She actually did extremely well on the flights. We were a little nervous but since she pretty much ate the whole time she was super happy. The only "problem" we ran into was on the flight home. We had just introduced her to veggies (you will see below) and her tummy was upsetting her and towards the end of the flight she started to get pretty fussy and absolutely did NOT want to eat. But, we were afraid her ears were bothering her so we had no clue what to do... then, we realized she wasn't upset at her ears but she needed to poop and boy did she have to poop. oh my! She got all red faced and kept grunting until almost at the same time Shane and I went "whoa" as we smelt what the cause of the fussiness really was. The man sitting in front of us sat up and turned around to give us a look and all I could say was "I'm sorry, are you sitting downwind?" He didn't say a word just gave me "the look" and turned around. Luckily the plane landed quickly after, before everyone passed out from the smell! HA! 

Jorja eating her first veggies... peas...

yeah, she wasn't all that impressed with the peas...

so we gave her sweet potatoes and she LOVED those. Now, she eats anything and everything... I mean, have you seen her cheeks and belly? homegirl is not starving or picky! 

Daddy helping Jorja drink from her sippy cup. This is the first time she held it all by herself. 

Jorja's first time in the "big girl" tub. We had been bathing her in a smaller tub and once she learned to sit up on her own we thought we'd try her out in our tub - clearly she loved it - and daddy loved giving her a mohawk. :) I'm not kidding when I say she is the happiest and cutest baby ever. She is LOVING life so far! 

Celebrating the Holidays!

In another attempt to keep you in the loop of the last 7 months of Jorja's life I've decided to post one blog on all the holidays up to date... it's amazing how much more I love holidays now that I have a kid. She brings so much more excitement to the celebrations! 

My sister and I met up in Flower Mound at the Pumpkin Patch with our kids to celebrate the Fall Festivities. Here is Jorja with her cousins: Olivia (holding Jorja) Evelyn and Harrison. 

she still couldn't sit up very well so she's a little frumpy and not too sure she likes the pumpkins - this is the best picture I got of her that day... next year she'll enjoy it much more I'm sure. 

We don't celebrate halloween in our family so I won't call this her halloween costume. However, we do celebrate fall so, here is me and Jorja at our church's Fall Festival. She went as the most adorable chicken known to man. Seriously, we got stopped all night for people to make comments. Her cheeks were just perfect for that chicken head. 

Jorja's first Thanksgiving... she indirectly ate the huge turkey through her momma! :) 

We switch holidays between the families and this year we had Thanksgiving with my family so we also celebrated Christmas with them during Thanksgiving. Here  is Jorja and ALL her cousins... Evelyn, Joli, Harrison, Jenni, Olivia, Jamie, Jason & Jeremy. This is the annual PJ picture. Gigi (my mom) always buys the grandkids matching PJs for Christmas. 

Jorja's Stocking is bigger than she is... 

It is a tradition with my family for the kids to put on a play of the Christmas Story. This year Jorja played Jesus. :) 

Fezzik and Jorja went to visit Santa together. 

Jorja is already in love with Jesus! :)

Christmas Morning - first picture of the day before we opened presents. For a 5 month old Jorja sure was aware of the excitement of the day! 

Her Santa Outfit we bought her to wear on Christmas Day. 

Her Excersauser - which she LOVES! 

Jorja and about half of her loot... 

Happy Valentine's Day!!! 

My Valentine Glamour Girl. We took these pictures for Daddy's present. (Her shirt says "My heart belongs to Daddy")

Baby Dedication

On September 29, 2007 we had Jorja Dedicated at our church, Gateway. It was much faster than I anticipated it would be but it was still wonderful! Our church brings up several families at one time and then each family is assigned to a Pastor that will pray over your child as you dedicate them to the Lord. Since my brother-in-law Todd is a Pastor at our church he was the one that prayed over Jorja. Our family came up to the front with us as another Pastor on stage called out our name then we actually handed Jorja over to Todd (as a symbol of us handing her over to the Lord) and he prayed over her and we spoke aloud in agreement with the Pastors that we would give Jorja to the Lord from this day forward (although, the day she was born Shane and I prayed over her and dedicated her to the Lord but this was our "formal" ceremony) Shane and I believe FULLY in giving your first fruits to the Lord - and since she is our first fruit... she's all His. :) We were so blessed to have all the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins show up to support us and Jorja on this very special day. Jorja was so perfect throughout the whole ceremony - no tears, in fact, she slept through most of it. And she looked beautiful in her dedication dress!  

Here we are up front while the Pastor on stage calls out Jorja's name - shortly after this is when Todd prayed over her and the actual "dedication" time began. 

Shane and I with Jorja after Church - she was a little camera shy this day... 

Me & Jorja before the ceremony began

The ENTIRE family! 

Okay, so since I wasn't able to get really great pictures of Jorja in her dedication dress the day she actually got dedicated I had this great idea that I would take her to a studio and have pictures of her made in the dress. I took her to the studio 3 times and she was not very cooperative. After awhile of attempting to get her pictures professionally done she had totally outgrown her original dress so I went out and bought another one exactly like it in a bigger size to take a picture... long story short - here she is in our house many months after the dedication in her duplicate dress and with the pink Bible she received on the day of her dedication. Oh, dear - the things we go through for pictures and memories... 

Month Birthdays

My sister gave me the bright idea to make posters for each month birthday - however, I have learned in doing this that I have ZERO talent at making the posters... however, I have a fun way of tracking Jorja's birthdays and growth each month. And, just so you know - ALL of these are taken on the 23rd of each month birthday. I might not be creative but I'm legit! 

I was a little overzealous with the poster the first month. None of the others are this elaborate. At Jorja's 1 month check up she weighed 10 lbs, 11 oz (95%), was 22.3 in long (95%)

At her 2 month check up Jorja weighed 13 lbs, 2 oz (97%), and was 23.8 in long (97%)

Before you start thinking I all the sudden developed talent, you should know that when we were together for Thanksgiving my sister made the poster for me. Now you understand why she came up with the idea in the first place - she actually has talent. :) Oh, and at her 4 month check up she weighed 16 lbs, 10 oz (95%), and was 25 1/2 in long (95%)

At her 6 month check up she weighed 19 lbs, 5 oz (97%) and was 27.3 in long (97%). Our "little" girl isn't quite so little... 

Oh Forget it...

So, I've figured out that I will NEVER catch up if I try to go back and post everything that happened the last 7 months of Jorja's life. Although, I have a TON of pictures and want to show you everything, I think I'm just going to post some highlights to help get you caught up... so here goes nothin...