It's MaMa!

We have had a great time traveling to Arkansas and Missouri the last week. That's why there has been a lack of recent posts. I have many pictures to share and hope to post them tomorrow, but for now I was excited to show everyone that Kiana has learned to say mama! Over the last week she has been working on it, but has been mixing together a lot of "ba la ga ah and ma's". She has been getting better and I swear while I was at my dad's in Missouri she said mama after I leaned over to pick her up off the floor. It was kind of mumbled but I heard it and it wasn't mixed with anything else. She seems to only say it when she is bored and trying to get my attention, which I'll gladly take over her bored cries. Yesterday she got the mama down a lot better, so much so that Grant stopped being in denial and started to walk with her around the house trying to get her to say dada all day. He got one da out of her this morning so I'm sure it won't be long. We went over to Great Grandma Wilma's today and I took this video while we were playing! Enjoy!

Grant's SORT Certification

It's been a long time since I've updated this, but since then Grant has officially certified as a federal SORT (Special Operations Response Team) member. He also certified as a federal MO (marksman/observer) or in other words is a federal sniper. Here are some pictures that were sent to us during his certification. Hope you enjoy, we are very proud of him!

Below is some of him repelling down the 4 story tower.

He is going down the tower inverted!

Here is a better shot of him inverted!

During sniping certification

Running the Obstical Course!

Grant has his back to us as he waits with other members of the team.

Bouncing Baby!

Kiana is starting to get the hang of her bouncy toy, not totally though yet. Her legs are still a little too short to get get enough control to jump. For now she just loves to wack the frog in front and watch him spin around. Just thought I would take some recent pictures of her playing.

Just trying out her new shades for this summer.

Here's a picture on Mother's Day when Kiana and I went to the zoo ! Honestly I think she was more interested in the other kids that she didn't notice the animals too much.

Orchard of Hope Fire Engine Pull!!!

Today Grant and a few members of his SORT team took part in the Orchard of Hope Fire Engine Pull! The Orchard of Hope is a local foundation that provides financial support to families with individuals suffering with cancer. Today they put on a fundraiser that involved getting a team together to see who could pull a fire engine 20 feet the fastest. I guess the fire engine weighed around 36,000 pounds. So between 10 guys they had to pull about 3,600 lbs each. There were probably 15 or more teams put together, a lot more then we were expecting. There were a few teams from the local fire department, police department, other local prisons, the college and people doing it just for fun. Apparently someone on the SORT team was told there would be a lightweight and heavyweight division. They thought they would have better luck in the lightweight division, so they invited all the guys weighing around or under 180lbs. Unfortunately this wasn't the case and they were going up against teams that were made up up guys all weighing over 200lbs. With SORT going last they knew they had to beat a time of 9.61 and guess what they got 9.52! They won!!! Congratulations Grant and to the rest your team! It may have only lasted 10 seconds, but it was a lot of fun watching you!

Check out Grant, he's right in front!


Here's the team with their championship trophy!


At the end they were having competitions to see which team could pull it with the smallest amount of guys, or lowest total weight! They were able to move it in about 14 seconds with six guys. Grant's in the same spot again, pulling the left rope in front.

5 Months Old!

Happy 5 Months Old Kiana! On Monday our little girl turned 5 months already! Time is going by so fast, but its so nice to see her change so much from month to month. We love watching her personality grow, and it's also fun to watch her slowly become more self efficient. At the beginning of last month she learned to reach and grab for her toys, so now if she wants it and it's within arms reach she can get it herself. As I mentioned before this led to her finding her toes. Now that she realized she can reach for things she attempts to reach for everything, sometimes this leads her to stretching and turning to her side if laying down, but if we have her sitting on the couch next to us this has also lead to a few nose dives into the couch. She definitely wants to move and will sometime get impatient just sitting, she just hasn't realized she can't walk/crawl/scoot/roll yet! Were working on sitting up on her own, but so far she just hunches forward so that her hands can be on the grown. She's not sitting completely on her own cause she'll still tip over or throw her body backwards, so I don't dare let go yet! She loves to talk to us more and more, she has started doing this constant humming, Grant likes to call it singing! Either way it's really cute and I love listening to her.

I took her in to weigh her on Monday and she weighed a whopping 12 lbs! She seems to be gaining only a 1/2 pound a month, but last month I was reassured my her doctor that she's perfectly healthy, just small and he has no concerns about her. Some say their supposed to double their birth weight around 4-5 months, but at this rate that won't happen till shes 9 months old. I'm sure once we start her on food next month she'll start gaining a little more. She's reaching all of her milestones, so far, a little early,she eats plenty, and has her baby rolls, so I guess we just have a little petite girl! I think her small weight actually helps her reach these milestones faster. I have done the weigh her, feed her, then weigh her again, and she gets what shes supposed to from me. We think she just has a high metabolism! :)




Last night we had some friends over for dinner, their little girl Brenna is 8 and 1/2 months old, Kiana was trying to pick up some tricks from her. She didn't seem to want to lay down and play while she was around! She also was sure interested in watching her eat...so hopefully we wont have any problems in a few weeks.

So is this the classic baby expression?

Here she is just playing, of course keeping one hand on her foot!

Here's how I catch her every once in awhile. Are we gonna have a roller soon? If only she could get that bottom arm out of the way.

It was Markie's, Grant god daughter, second birthday two weekends ago. It was Wizard of Oz themed and all little girls were supposed to wear red shoes. You know how hard it is to find red shoes for a baby? I was about to buy some glitter or sequins and make some ourselves. Well while we were home I just happened to find a store that still had xmas clearance, and the only red sparkly shoes left just happened to be Kiana's size. She's still in size 1's, a size most shoes don't come in. Kiana loves her sparkly red shoes, I'm sure she would love to wear them everyday!