The Hills: First Birthday Party Plans Already?!?!?!

Hello Again Everyone~

I hope this finds everyone doing well. Things are going great in the Hill household. Our little girl is just growing like crazy.

Being a teacher and having summers off is really such a blessing! I have enjoyed these past couple months so much! It has been wonderful to spend so much time with her, play with her, and have her make me laugh and smile each and every day. I only have 2 weeks left before we start back at LMU and it will be bitter sweet. I treasure every minute I spend with Lorali, so I will miss being with her all day... but I also really really love my job and am looking forward to getting back in the classroom and interacting with the students.

Will got a "lateral promotion" - if that's what it is called, I'm a little business-talk ignorant :) - a couple weeks ago. He did not move up in rank at Enterprise, but he did double his fleet size!!! He went from having one main branch and two satellite branches that totaled about 85 cars to now having two main branches and two satellites with about 185 cars!!! The extra commission on the larger fleet size will be nice but it does mean longer hours for him. You should see the look on Lorali's face when she hears Daddy's keys in the door!!! It is one of the sweetest things I have ever seen. If she is playing on the floor when he gets home she will stop whatever she is doing, look at the door, start clapping her hands, and bounce up and down!!! As soon as he walks in she starts waving and saying "hi". She loves her Daddy!!!

I took her to her 9-month check up earlier this month. Dr. Feld said she looked great and was perfectly healthy, but she did drop a percentile in weight. He wasn't too concerned about it but wants us to start giving her some PediaSure every day just to give her some extra calories. We call it her "milkshake" and she seems to really like it. When I told him that she stopped eating her baby food a few months ago he wasn't surprised that she hadn't gained very much weight, but our little miss independent needs to put on a few more ounces before her 12-month check up. Now that she is older and can eat different foods it shouldn't be too hard to put some weight on. Before all she could eat was Cheerios, and Gerber puffs, etc... and those things have very little calories in them!!! She had to eat 70 puffs for one serving and still only got 35 calories!!! Why don't they make adult snacks like that :) Anyway, now she is eating yogurt, pasta, animal crackers, teddy grahams, goldfish, and whatever she can have that Will and I eat. I am still nursing her but the countdown to the day she can have cow's milk has begun! Breastfeeding has been a HUGE BLESSING!!! I am so fortunate to have been able to nurse her for this long and have such a great milk supply, but I am also kind of ready to have the freedom of being able to leave the house without my pump!!! I plan on starting the weaning process pretty soon, but I need to call my lactation consultants because I don't really know the best way to go about doing it! It will be bittersweet when she is weaned, but it has to happen. She is also about to get some top teeth, so that may speed along the process :) haha

Since my last post we have gone on a couple trips/vacations. We went to Ohio over the Fourth of July for my annual family reunion. It was great to catch up with all the family that we don't get to see that often! Unfortunately it was rainy for most of the day, but we still had a really good time. I even got to play volleyball for the first time in about 2 years!!! It was really fun to get out there and play, even if it was on the grass and just for fun.

A couple weeks ago we took a family vacation down to Lake Mitchell in Alabama. Will's dad has a house/cabin on the lake and we stayed there for 4-5 days. We got to spend a couple days with Summer, Jason, Colton, and Catelyn! It was great to see them before they made their move to South Carolina! Lorali loved spending time with her cousins :) We had a cookout over the weekend and some of Will's friends and their families came down. Kenny and Linda stopped by on their way back from the beach and spent the afternoon with us too! We had an amazing time. It was great to get away and just spend time together. There was no TV, internet, or cell phone service... and guess what... WE SURVIVED!!! :) Lorali absolutely LOVED the lake! She would just sit and ride in the boat. She would clap and point to people as they rode on the wakeboard or tube. The water was really warm and she would get in and splash around. We would put her on the platform on the back of the boat and she would fall back into the water! She had such a good time!!! We will definitely need to make that an annual trip!

My mom, Robin, Caitlyn, and Grandma Dusty are coming down this weekend. Lorali's best friend, Molly, turned one last week and her birthday party is Saturday. We can't wait to celebrate with her. We have started making some plans for Lorali's first birthday party. I cannot believe my baby is going to be one in less than two months!!! We have put together "Wish Lists" for Lorali at Target and Kohl's. I realized when we started making our invite list that there is no way I can come up with gift ideas for everyone and this would give people an idea of what she needs. I hope no one thinks this is "greedy" or "faux pas", it is really just easier for me to make a list than try to come up with ideas off the top of my head! I also thought it might help avoid getting too many duplicates of outfits and toys. People certainly don't HAVE to get something off the list, but I know when I'm buying a gift I like to know what the person wants/needs. Hopefully it is helpful and people don't get upset... Everyone I mentioned it to thought it was a good idea!

I have already mentioned some of the fun things Lorali is doing these days, but here are some of the milestones/fun things she is up to. She is crawling all over the place. She is standing by herself for up to 15-20 seconds! She is maneuvering herself all over the furniture. She waves, says hi and bye, mama, dada, and anything else that jibber jabbers out of her mouth. :) She claps anytime someone says "yay" or she hears clapping on the TV. She is pointing at objects. I'm almost afraid to say it, but she is back to sleeping through the night (I hope I didn't just jinx myself!). She is beginning to take lids and try to put them on the objects they belong with. She thinks she can walk, but when she tries to take a step she falls to her bottom. She wants to walk to us soooo badly, but she just isn't quite ready. It won't be long though!!! She has taken a couple steps to the side and couple mini-steps forward, but nothing that would really classify as "walking".

Well, I think that is about it... If I forgot anything I will be sure to include it in the next post. Here are some pictures from the past few weeks...

Love and miss everyone,

Ahleasha, Will, and Lorali

She woke up early last Saturday and came to lay with Daddy... she was sooo happy :)