cribs (and monitors) are beautiful things.

so, penny's about 4 1/2 months and i finally put her in her crib for the first time 2 nights ago. i was totally expecting the worst but instead i had the best night's sleep since i was 6 months pregnant. she slept from 10pm until 7am the next morning. NINE HOURS of uninterrupted slumber! and last night was just about the same. i only had to wake up once to feed her. bless the people who invented monitors. and i think i figured it out - i was waking up so much when she was in the bassinet by my side of the bed because i could hear every little grunt and noise she made. now i only hear her when she's crying because she's hungry. crap, i shoulda done this a month ago.

in other news, my brother and his wife decided to name their baby girl katelyn danielle balmforth. (they didn't really have a choice on the balmforth part...) cute!

in twilight news, i heard dakota fanning is in "talks" to play jane in "new moon." i think she would be PERFECT. she has that innocent, angelic looking face that could also be sadistic and i think she's a pretty good little actress. i found a great blog on "new moon" movie news because i love knowing all the little details - the link is listed on the right. it updates like multiple times a day and is more fun to read than it should be.

my brother's baby!

my oldest brother, jordan, and his wife, kjersti, had their first baby, a little girl (no name yet) this morning at 10am. she is so stinkin' cute and we got to visit them in the hospital this afternoon.




to quote jordan, what a doll! look at those cheeks! those cute little lips! and that curly blonde hair!

with my newest niece.

baby swap: jordan & penny, lana & jordan's baby girl, me & max.

congratulations jordan & kjersti!!!

weekend with the wrens

we hung out with lana and kris this weekend and partook in many exotic adventures such as cabella's, target and the olive garden.

our first adventure was at cabella's, a hunting store complete with stuffed animals and a fudge store. i don't particularly enjoy the stuffed animals but mmmm...fudge.

waiting with max while paul hunted for man boots.

grrr-row.

our "deer-in-the-headlights" pose. (notice the deer behind us).

yep, more stuffed animal impersonations.

the bumbo! we bought this on our target adventure & penny loves it.

sorta falling over but still smiling.

paul enjoys the bumbo as well.

for pete's sake, i should just call this "the penny blog"

i know, i'm sorry. this is my third post about penny this week. i just couldn't wait to post these pictures. i went and had some portraits taken (finally) of her in her blessing dress and then the gold dress from paul's sister's wedding because i couldn't resist.






yes, grandmas, i will be sending you prints shortly.

first rice cereal

this picture is a lie.

this is how penny really felt about eating rice cereal.
now if that's not a look of fury, i don't know what is.

it was awful. it took me nearly an hour to cram 1 tablespoon of mush down her throat and she acted as if i was poisoning her the whole time. any tips?

4 months!

4-month stats:

* still fits into 0-3 month clothing (i'm taking her to the doctor tomorrow to see how much she weighs...)

* drooling alot more

* yells at her toys (it's SO funny when she does this, i laugh so hard - it's like gutteral grunting and random loud bursts of shouting)

* has pooped on every single pair of tights i've bought for her (yes, including the pair in this picture)

* not remotely close to rolling over

* hair keeps getting redder and redder and i LOVE it (i bought myself photoshop for christmas and i didn't even enhance her hair color at all in these pics)

(p.s. if anyone knows how to do the teeth-whitening thing in photoshop, PLEASE let me know. i've tried for hours and it's so frustrating.)

christmas and other stuff

so, we've been gone for about 10 days and we are soo glad to be back. here's some highlights of our trip.

every christmas eve in the balmforth house we get new pj's. yaaay!

(i forgot to take pictures of christmas but i took tons of video which takes forever to upload. sorry.)

my mom treated us to lunch at ruby's on the huntington beach pier.

penny having a jolly good time in her stroller at the beach.

i got to see some california buddies and it was so fun to introduce them to penny. (jessica, me, rubi, and paige).

i also got to visit with my friend kristine who i haven't seen in a while and meet her cute baby anna. (kristine's husband matt, kristine and penny, me and anna, and paul).

we also drove to LA to visit our friends, chad and brittany. (chad and his daughter paige and paul and penny).

i just thought this was so funny. we made a little blanket nest for penny's bed at my parent's house and this is what i woke up to one morning. it instantly reminded me of the wicked witch's legs sticking out from underneath a house.

and last but not least...kenna's wedding!! they got married in vegas on january 3rd and it was definitely a whirl wind weekend. congrats kenna and gabe! (and can i just say that i LOVED dressing penny in that little gold dress. strangers kept coming up and saying how she looked like a doll. when i was changing her in a casino bathroom a cleaning lady came up and kissed her on the head. sorta scary - what if she was sick or something? - but kinda cute.)