SOOOO BIG!

She's doing new things, all over the place. On vacation Grama Trudi taught her the "How big is NEEEEELY?" game. She just held her hands and helped pull her up to standing, while asking "How big is NEEEEEEEELY?". Then once she was up, she'd say "SOOOOO BIG!"

After the first or second time Neely knew the game, and started pulling up to standing all by herself, while looking around the room proudly, to make sure everyone was seeing her accomplishment. We didn't have to help at all, other than keeping our hands stable for her to pull up with them. So I guess maybe one of those was her first time pulling herself up, but today she pulled herself up on an overturned toy basket, so it was the first time another person wasn't involved.

I missed it, and Jess came to get me. So he did the "How big is Neely" game a few times to try and get her excited...
...so she'd use the basket again for me to see. It didn't work, but she had fun playing the game.
I tried to get a picture of her first little teeth. It's blurry but you can kind of see the white.

She Calls Me Mama

My baby girl called me "mama" yesterday. She's been making the sound a lot lately, especially when crying, but I was never sure she was talking TO me. Yesterday though she and I were in my bed, and I was reading a book. (The Wind in the Willows Skye, and it was so cute) She started to get bored, and was starting to fuss a little. She wasn't really upset yet though, and I only had a few sentences left in the chapter, so I was trying to finish it so I could find my place when I wanted to read again. So I made her wait a few seconds. Jess walked in while she was fussing, and she kind of rolled over to her side to get close to me and said "Maaaamaaa" in a really cute pleading kind of tone. I was glad Jess was there to confirm that it counts as her first word. She's so cute and special.
She had another first yesterday too, the first time we saw her officially crawl, moving all four limbs forward without losing her balance or stopping to sit or lie down again.
She's ALSO 7 months old as of yesterday. Since we were taking Paige to the doctor anyway, because of her eyes, they weighed Neely for me. She's 19 lbs 14 ounces, and 28 inches long.

Paige AND Neely have conjuctivitis, and Paige is suddenly pretty sick.
I don't know if it's the same cold she was getting before the wedding or a whole new one. I guess Jess and I don't combine well when it comes to our immune systems. They've all been really healthy as babies, but it seems like we all catch every cold and flu possible.

Paige puts up a RIDICULOUS fight when we do her eyedrops (4 horrible times a day). It's like wrestling a 40 pound cat, minus the scratching and biting thankfully.

Cason's feeling better though, he's having fun...
..and being as sweet and lovey as ever.
He and Jess are making a fort out of blocks(and some books), for his "tough guys", together right now,
and Jess just told me Cason knocked it down and then said "Dad, you should fix the fort. I can't do it, I'm too tired." Haha. He tells me that all the time. He's too tired to go get some toy he wants, and needs me to do it for him. Or he's too tired to beat a hard level on Mario, and needs me to do it. Ha. Two years old, and already so tired.

Neely's Arsenal

On two different occasions yesterday, I left Neely for a minute and returned to find her with a weapon.
TODAY, I just gave her her first "sitting up in the tub by herself" bath.
She's a pretty big fan.

Part 3: Wedding

Oh, and there was also a wedding while we were there. :)

Lauren looked beautiful.
She and Kyle are so cute together. But none of my pictures of the two of them turned out. :(

I loved her wedding colors, grey and yellow. Her cake was really pretty, and REALLY delicious.
I managed to do a decent job on Paige's hair. Too bad I can never do my own.
Cason was definitely still tired, but seemed to feel a little better, so he was willing to do his duty as ringbearer, with a little help from Paige.
Neely looked pretty, too.
We had fun.
And Aunt Mollie was gifted with Neely's shy sweet cuddle once or twice.
Cason spent most of it playing Angry Birds with Noel. He was so funny to watch.
The next morning we had a little shower for Michelle and Ryan, who are having a baby boy in about a month.
And the babies had their last play session together. Baby train.
I noticed Michelle and Neely were matching in grey and white stripes, so I made them pose.
And she got another version of the shy cuddle.
Neely made friends everywhere she went the entire trip, and she was even working on teeth. She got her first one on Friday-the bottom left incisor, and the second on Sunday-the bottom RIGHT incisor.

We had so much fun with everyone, and I wish I had lots more pictures. We're torn now, between moving to Colorado or out east. :) Jess found my dream home during the rehearsal dinner too, while he was walking Neely around in the neighborhood by the restaurant when she got bored with us sitting at the table.

We had some time to kill before our flight left on Monday, so we found a family fun center.
Then we flew home. The kids were REALLY good once again.
We had fun the whole trip with Dad, Trudi, and Colton. Colton had Jess and I cracking up most of the time. It was the first time in a long while, that I got to really spend a lot of time with him. It was fun.
Even though our luggage didn't make it on to the second plane, and we had to hang out at the airport until like 1 in the morning waiting for it to arrive. We'd have left it behind except our carseats were a part of it.
At least the airport has a giant horny toad.