Baptismal Blessings for our Sweet Bear Everleigh

When it came time to plan Everleigh's baptism, a few things were certain.  

1. We were going to have it in the valley with a private service in Brownsville 

2.  My brother Omar and sister in law Christi were going to be Everleigh's Godparents

3. Because I'm Addie's Godmother, I wanted Everleigh to wear Addie's baptismal dress 

(blog post on Addie's baptism HERE)

4.  and lastly I wanted to work our trip around Addie's birthday weekend so we could ensure Chad would be able to join in on the fun as well.  ;)  

The day couldn't have gone more smoothly.  Aside from the church being RIDICULOUSLY hot when we first arrived... It was a beautiful ceremony...short and sweet....with a family priest friend presiding over her baptism.  Everleigh cooperated, not a whimper, not a peep...just sheer curiosity about the events happening around her.  She was a perfect angel.  So proud of my bear.. :)

Everleigh, with her Godparents, Omar and Christi

And cousins, Addie and Andrew

Everleigh with my parents.. :)

With my Grandma Nana

With a longtime family friend Sister Gloria and Nana

Everleigh with Christi's parents 

(I love how no one mentioned the BURP CLOTH on my shoulder!! lol..)

Everleigh Isabella Kelley - 7 Months and Counting

Everleigh’s Monthly Photos: This mommy's attempt to capture our Baby Bear's growth in relation to her “Letter E"... Continued.

Right before our scheduled trip to the valley for our sweet little bear's baptism... Everleigh turned 7 months old.  I know I've said it before, but I still can't believe how fast this is all going.  Before her, we had no real basis for time.. it just went.  Months would pass and we wouldn't even notice.  Now, we can see her growth.  Milestones come quickly and she changes right before our very eyes.

Teeth:  Waking up on her 7 month birthday with TWO new teeth, she's almost ready to gnaw on some yummy ribs. ;)  On this day, she has a total of five teeth... with another one coming two days later (for a total of SIX!! Four on top, two on bottom).

Solid foods:  Are NOT a problem and so far (since her 6th month check up on April 8th when we started solid foods) she has tried...sweet potatoes, squash, broccoli, corn, chicken, brisket, pulled pork and loves pears, apples and bananas.  I have a feeling this little one is NOT going to be afraid to try anything new.. lol.  Gotta fill in those cheeks somehow I guess!  ;) 

Sleeping:  Since her last check up, she has been successfully sleeping in her crib, on her own, all night.  Going down between 8:30 and 9:30.. she'll sleep til 7am, sometimes waking up at 4am...but will to put herself back to sleep 15 minutes later. 

Stats:  At her last check up she was in the 90 percentile for height and OFF the charts on weight.. ;)  A "bit" larger than the average bear...lol...our doctor wasn't concerned being that her height and weight were proportional to eachother.  She weighed in at 19lbs 14oz and was 27 1/4" inches long. 

Happy 7 months sweet girl :)

Mommy, Daddy and your furry sister Macie LOVE YOU!!

Seven months later, she FINALLY discovers her gold letter "E" and

quickly decides of better ways to take pictures with it.  ;) 

Everleigh's Professional 6 Month Photo Session

As many of you already know... there's not a day that goes by without this momma taking a picture or two...or a few dozen of our sweet baby bear.  It's almost nearly impossible.  With phone cameras taking such great pictures these days, it's hard NOT to take a million pictures of our everyday life...and with my goal of at least taking one picture a day (to eventually make a 365 day photo collage of her first year).. this mom is on a photography MISSION!  ;)  

I'm sure that the longing to capture her every grin...her sweet baby rolls (the squishy leggie kind).. or her every new accomplishment will fade (eventually... like in five to ten years perhaps..) but for now, Miss Everleigh is leading a VERY WELL DOCUMENTED LIFE.  

So in addition to the monthly photos that I personally take of her with her gold letter "E", or the daily photos that I Instagram for her 365daysofeverleigh project... we decided to enlist my good friend Shannon of Shannon Skloss Photography to properly commemorate her 6th month birthday!  Seemed only fitting since she so brilliantly captured her itty, bitty newborn goodness just EIGHT days after she was born!  (See her newborn photos HERE)  Crazy how that seemed like just yesterday... And to see behind the scenes photos of that first session... click HERE)

So without further ado.. (Some teaser pictures.. cause Shannon says THERE'S MORE!!! YEAH!!!)  

Everleigh, Isabella Kelley at exactly SIX months!  :)  

Two of my absolute FAVORITES of her sweet face.  Classic Everleigh faces right here..

Everleigh Isabella Kelley - 6 Months and Counting

Everleigh’s Monthly Photos:  This mommy's attempt to capture our Baby Bear's growth in relation to her “Letter E"... Continued. 

I really AM having a hard time comprehending this whole six month thing.  HALF a year?!  Already!?  It really, truly CAN. NOT. BE!  Wasn't I just here posting her 5 month photos??  Hell, weren't we just in the hospital patiently waiting for her arrival?  Funny how those 24 hours in the hospital waiting for the Petocin to kick in, felt like an eternity... now, six months later, everything has gone by SOOOO incredibly FAST.  Makes me sad really.  Yesterday, as I was looking to clear out some photos/videos from my phone... cause I'm running out of photo space (SHOCKER, right..?? lol..), I nearly choked up when I played some videos from her first few weeks at home.  She was sooooo TINY!! Not so much anymore! Hehehehe.. my little chunky monkey is certainly filling out :)  Just like her momma ;)  No WONDER more people are starting to say she's looking more like me?!  Those CHEEKS!! Those THIGHS!!  Squishy little fingers and toes.. I absolutely LOVE IT... and more importantly..I absolutely LOVE HER!  

Happy 6 Months Sweet Baby Bear, mommy and daddy couldn't have imagined how wonderfully HAPPY you've made us :) :)  

Everleigh's New Milestones - Month 5

In an effort to keep up with the many milestones that our little bear has HURDLED over these past few weeks... (because this mommy doesn't even know where Everleigh's baby book even IS... yikes, bad mommy ;)  Here's a list of her most recent accomplishments. 

Holding her own bottle (she's got the 4ouncer down pat... she still needs a bit of help with the 8oz monster bottle though...)  It's amazing how quickly she picked up this little trick.  She's been "trying" to hold her bottle for a while now.. she's just now mastered it without any help at all.. even taking it out and putting it back in her mouth on her own.  What a big girl!!

Reaching for MOMMY and DADDY!!  - I'm putting this in here because I want to remember the first time she actually reached out with INTENT.  She doesn't always do it yet, but I've gotten a few and that's all it takes to make this mommy's heart melt. 

TEETH - She's technically been teething since week 8, when the drool began and her fist almost never left her mouth.  Anything and everything that she could chew on, went straight to her mouth...but on Week 24 (March 12th) her first bottom tooth finally broke through!! SUCCESS!!  The very next day, it's neighbor tooth joined the party and showed it's pearly whites!  :)  Two teeth in two days.. I'd call that a productive week for sure! 

If you look closely, you can see her bottom two TEETH starting to pop up!

Raarrrrr... Anything and everything that can go into her mouth...

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling - The day after she cut her first tooth, and the day she got her SECOND tooth, she also finally ROLLED OVER!!  It was almost too much for this mommy to take.. she seems to be growing, learning and changing so quickly, but I couldn't be more PROUD of my little wiggle worm.  Once she learned how to tuck and roll over that stubborn shoulder that always seemed to be in the way, there was ABSOLUTELY no stopping her. 

Someone SURE IS proud of herself and her new found ability to roll over!  :) 

SUSHI!!! - Just kidding.. no sushi yet, we just love the intense look of concentration on Everleigh's face as she tried to take in all the foodie goodness on one of our most recent visits to our favorite sushi restaurant. One day Little Bear, one day. ;)

And just because my heart skips a beat every time we can succesffuly make Everleigh giggle, here's Everleigh and her daddy being silly goobers. Unfortunatley it's audio only, it was dark in her nursery room and I was afraid a huge light in her face would distract the fun. :) :)