6 Months

Carly is as cute as can be!  She is learning so much each day and growing.  Her cheeks seem to keep getting bigger and bigger which makes them even more fun to kiss!  She is truly a happy baby that has a melt your heart smile.  We just can't seem to kiss her or squeeze her enough!  Here are some fun pictures and memories about Carly from the past month:

-Carly is starting to knowingly cuddle.  It is the best to just have some quiet time with her cuddling on the couch in the morning... until she starts grabbing my hair.

-Carly LOVES her daddy.  Her face lights up with the biggest grin when daddy walks in the room saying "Good Morning!" or  "How are you?"  She squeals and gets so full of joy she starts to shake a bit.  It is precious and makes me so happy.  I love those too!

-She is getting better at grabbing toys.  When toys are put in front of her it takes her a few seconds but she realizes that she can move her hands, grab them, and shove them in her mouth.  Her favorite toys are her butterfly and blue duck.  The other day I had her sitting on the floor with a boppy around her and she was holding her butterfly and occasionally would put it in her mouth and she all of a sudden started laughing.  I don't know what it was but something was funny about that butterfly.  It brings me so much joy to see that my baby is happy. :)

-Nursing is still going well, the only problem is that sometimes Carly just comes off and stares at me until I look at her and then she goes back to eating.  It's so cute that she just wants to check in with me. Oh and she sometimes tries to wiggle her thumb in while nursing.

-Carly has a play mat that has animals on it and a few times I have had her stand on each animal while I say the name of the animal and then make the animal sound and she just cracked up at the sound "rib-it".  Oh the things that make her laugh!

-Sometimes Carly will play with her binky and chew on the side and then suck on it and pull it out.  A few times she has pushed her thumb so far in the hole of her binky it has gotten stuck and she starts to fuss until we get it off.

-Carly loves being surprised.  She jumps a bit but smiles and laughs.

-She is fascinated with clapping and loves it when I clap to the beat of the "Cups" song.

-She loves forts!  I just drape a thin blanket over her play mat and she just jabbers and plays with her toys.

-Carly likes to buzz her lips and spit.  I'm fine with the spitting most of the time, just not while eating and then her food ends up on me.

-Sometimes it looks like Carly is chewing gum but it's just air.  Not quite sure why she does it.

-She loves it when Nick speaks Spanish to her.

-When Carly finishes nursing she is usually pretty happy and content and just lays in my arms jabbering with her fingers in her mouth.

-Sometimes when I do dishes I put her in her highchair by me and she will often just stare at the running water.

-She likes paying tag.  Sometimes I hold her and we chase Nick around the apartment.

-Carly does really well around other people.  When in a large place she is pretty quiet as she takes it all in and looks at her surroundings.  She still goes to others pretty well and didn't have a problem when my mom and step-dad came and visited for Thanksgiving.  She warmed up pretty fast and was smiling and laughing with them.

-When my mom was in town and feeding Carly some sweet potatoes she started to move the spoon all around and Carly started laughing pretty hard.  It was really cute to see her laughing with her grandma. :)

-Carly is sitting really well but I still put pillows around her for when she gives up and falls.  Sitting up is probably her favorite position... and on her stomach is still the least.

We sure love her!

Carly's Nursery

 I finally finished Carly's Nursery!

This is the crib I slept in when I was a baby.  It is still in really good condition since it was only used for me and then any guests at our home with babies.  It is cherry wood with lace bedding.

I had some leftover white lace fabric and wanted to use that in her room so I got these 8 x 10 canvas boards and spray painted them watermelon pink which happened to perfectly match the chair fabric and bins in her room.

Nick's sister Allison was so generous and gave us her old super nice glider.  The cushions were actually blue and with her having had 5 kids it looked pretty worn so I bought some fabric on sale at JoAnn's and made slipcovers.  (I still need to make slip covers for the armrest cushions.)

I already had the mirror but it was black so I spray painted that as well as the picture frames (from the dollar store) which I still need to put pictures in.  I made the wreath with some light pink tulle I already had and tied strips of it around an embroidery hoop.

I still had more tulle and lace and I saw this idea on Pinterest.  I have the lights plugged into an outlet that's connected to the light switch so it works perfect for easy low light midnight feedings.  I got the white LED Christmas lights since they are supposed to last 22 years 3 hours/day.  I cut 6 inch squares of tulle and 6x3 inch pieces of lace and then between the lights I tied tulle, lace, tulle.  It is draped around the window and looks adorable whether the the lights are on or off.

I got this dresser on Craigslist a month after we moved in.  The paint was in bad condition and the woman I got it from first told me it was $20 but then wouldn't accept our money so we got it FREE!  People here in Omaha are so nice!  So I sanded the whole thing and then painted it white (I wasn't brave enough to paint it a color).  I tried to clean the pulls but they were too tarnished/rusted.  I didn't plug the holes so if I wanted new ones I was limited to selecting pulls 2.5 inch and apparently that is a thing of the past so I just spray painted them dark walnut.  Although it was fun to do this project, it was harder than I anticipated (sanding) so the next time we need furniture I'll just save up.

I had these pink flowers and soda bottles so I just painted them watermelon pink and then hot glued the lace fabric around it.

I have lots of bows and headbands (thank you mom!) and desperately needed something to organize them so I could see all that I had.  I bought a large picture frame from Good Will and popped out the back and glass and then I painted it white.  I then glued on the ribbon that I already had and screwed in the hooks.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  I wouldn't have been able to have such a nice nursery for Carly without the generosity of family members and random people (dresser lady).  I am truly grateful.  Also, props to Pinterest for all the inspiration!

Halloween 2013

For Halloween Carly was a little Lady Bug.  She didn't mind wearing it or having the hood on her head at all!  Halloween night we had a few couples over for chili and to take pictures of the kiddos.  It was really fun and the babes looked adorable in their costumes.

It was a bit difficult to get all the kids to look at the camera. Parker (8 months) was really happy and accidentally poked Lucy (2 years) in the eye so she was a little sad for a bit and then Carly was a bit overwhelmed by it all and started shaking when the flashes went off so we wrapped up that photo session pretty quick.

Parker, Lucy, and Carly

5 Months

I can't believe how fast time flies by!  Carly is growing up so fast.  I feel like she is learning and doing something new and more advanced each day.  It's so exciting to see what she discovers next!  Here are pictures, videos, and some things that Carly has been up to this past month:

-She goes to sleep in her crib great!  I hum "I am a Child of God" as I swaddle her and carry her to her room, give her a kiss, and lay her down.  She falls asleep within a few minutes while sucking on her binky.

-Carly goes to sleep at about 7:30 each night and wakes up once during the night to eat.  She doesn't really look up at me until I am changing her diaper and although I am so tired and don't want to get her excited I find myself smiling back at her.  It makes her so happy that she starts to kick and arch her back.

-Sleeping other places doesn't really happen except for in the car.  This makes 3 hour church difficult but I have been able to have her sleep for 30 minutes for the past few weeks.

-Carly is now rolling over from her back to her tummy!  When she plays on the floor she lifts her legs in the air and then lets them drop to the side (usually the right) and will play on her side for a bit and then go to her tummy.  She doesn't like being on her tummy that much still so if she can't get to her back again she gets a bit upset.  A few times I have found her sleeping on her side while in her crib.  I'm not sure why but she looks even cuter sleeping on her side than on her back.

-Carly loves eating!  I started feeding her rice cereal at the end of the month because she was getting a little jealous of Nick and I always eating in front of her and she started waking up twice in the night to eat.  Her first feeding was hilarious!  She was a little confused with the first couple bites but then she realized it was pretty good and was smacking her lips!  Every night when I feed her she gets so excited.  She jabbers and smiles and is really good about opening her mouth when I come close with the spoon and sometimes she will move forward and chomp down on the spoon.  Unfortunately she thinks that it's a good time to try eating her hands and then things get messy.

-She likes to look at her hands.  For a while she looked at her fist but now she will open and close her fingers and rotate wrist and just stare.

-She has always enjoyed her baths but she is starting to get excited and kick while in the tub.  She cries a little after I take her out, probably because she gets cold but she always calms down when I put the baby lotion on her.  It probably feels like a little message.

-When she is tired she rubs her eyes with her hands and rubs her face into my shoulder or chest.

-She likes to eat her fingers.  She doesn't really suck on them but she sticks them in her mouth and drools everywhere.

-She is starting to grab toys and put them in her mouth.

-She will probably be sitting up on her own by Christmas.  She can sit for 5-10 seconds on her own and then starts to lean to one side.

-When rocking Carly before putting her in her crib for the night she likes to makes little sounds to sooth herself.  It is the sweetest sound ever!

-Carly is a talker!  Not as much when we are in public but at home she is vocal and is progressively getting louder.  She often makes somewhat of a roar.  While changing her diaper during her middle of the night feeding she can sometimes get quite loud that I'm afraid she'll wake up Nick.  I try not to react to it but I can't help but smile at her because it is just so darn cute!

-She attended her first service project as a family.  Nick volunteered at ConAgra to bag bread and take it to a homeless shelter.  We tagged along to help him and Carly just chilled in her car seat watching Nick and I bag bread.  The ladies that worked at the company loved her and were so excited to have a baby visit.

-She has a toy bird that squeaks when you squeeze it and when I first started using it to play with her I would squeak it while moving it closer to her until it was in her mouth.  Now whenever I squeak it she opens her mouth right away expecting it to go in but then when I put it in she has a confused and disgusted look. Oops!...but cute!

-I play a game with her where I have her sitting on my knees facing me and I hold her hands and bounce my knees up and down singing William Tell Overture and will randomly let her lean back a little bit and feel like she is falling.  She gets the biggest smile and starts laughing and giggling.  She also really like our "row, row, row your boat" game where we sit facing each other and while holding her hands I pull and push her to the song and at the end I gently let her fall back.

-Every day Nick grabs the guitar and plays and sings for Carly while she sits in her bumbo.  Her favorite is "Here Comes the Sun" and "Blackbird".  With the strum of the very first cord Carly recognizes the song and just lights up.  She gets so excited that she starts to shake.

-Nick occasionally plays the piano and has Carly sit in her highchair and watch.  She of course loves it!

-I have been trying to play the piano everyday so after dinner while Nick studies I pull her over in her highchair to watch and listen to me play.  She doesn't find me as entertaining as her daddy, probably because I play all the slow hymns since they are the easiest but she quiets down if I sing along.

-We discovered that Carly likes listening to us beat box. haha!  She likes it most when Nick beat boxes while bouncing her to the beat and me dancing/bouncing with them.  Kind of weird but it's so fun!

-Another game she enjoys is a mini/safer version of airplane.  I lay on my back and fold my knees up to my chest and lay Carly belly down on my shins with her head poking above my knees.  I hold her hands and I keep my knees bent and lower my feet to the floor and then lift them up to make her go up and down.  She LOVES it!  The other day I had her laughing really hard and smiling so big.  We sure have a blast together.

-So maybe I'm just weird but when Carly starts to fuss I will sing or do anything weird to cheer her up.  A few times the song "La Cucaracha" has come to mind and just recently she thought it was hilarious.

4 Months

Carly is 4 months old today!  We have loved every second with this sweet girl!  I'm with her all day but still find myself missing her cute smile when she goes down for the night.  Here are a few things about Carly:

She loves babbling!  I think she likes the sound of her own voice.  The other week she started doing this cute little dinosaur roar.  She talks the most right before bed, when she is on our laps looking up at us, and on her play mat.

She loves a knuckle sandwich!  Eating her hands is one of her favorite pass times.  It creates a big slobbery mess.

She is starting to get a bald spot on the back of her head.  She has become so observant of everything!  When she is on the floor on her play mat she spots me walking to the other side of the room and then follows my every move.

She is starting to get ticklish up by her neck and on her sides.

When I make a fishy face she gets a little confused and shocked and stops smiling or talking.  It's pretty funny.

She loves to play with her spit and blow raspberries.  This again makes a slobbery mess but is kinda cute.

Occasionally while nursing she reaches her arm up so I kiss her little hand and it makes her pause and smile and sometimes she'll say something (I like to think it's "I love you!").

When she gets excited she makes a gasping sound and squeals like a little pig.

She LOVES her daddy!  She gets the biggest smile on her face when her daddy gets home from school.  Daddy is nice enough to let Carly study with him.  It is pretty cute.  The other day Nick was reading his notes to her in the "baby voice" so it was kind of funny.  She is going to be a smart little kid if those two keep this up!

Carly laughed for the first time on September 6th. I was just holding her on my lap while talking with my friend Janna and out of no where Carly started laughing at her.  It took by such surprise and made me so happy that I almost cried!

Carly also loves it when her daddy sings and plays the guitar for her.  It's one of my favorite parts of the day when we all three sit on the couch with Nick singing and playing the guitar making Carly smile and laugh.  I love my little family!

She gets really happy and excited when he first starts, then she gets fascinated with his hands moving up and down that she just stares, and then she gets bored and eats her shirt. Haha!

I love my little girl!

I am so grateful that I get to stay at home and take care of my little girl.  While I don't like the poopie diapers I sure do love the beautiful eyes and smile that stares up at me.  We have so much fun together talking, playing, and cuddling.  I love my sweet Carly. :)

3 Months

Each month just keeps getting better and Carly is getting even cuter!  Here are some things about Carly:

• She loves to cuddle as I sing "Families Can Be Together Forever"
• She like to talk to us especially at night
• She sucks on her hands quite a bit
• She is our little drool baby and makes lots of spit bubbles for fun
• She rolled from her tummy to her back at 11 weeks
• She has been sleeping from 10pm-6am
• She is starting to look at her hands

Carly likes to lay on her belly draped over our legs.  She often has kicked her swaddle apart by the end of her nap.  There is just something so precious about a sleeping baby.

She really is such a happy little girl.  This was right after her first time to the zoo.

I love these two!

That smile

I love playing dress up

Her first cupcakes.  It will be fun to have her along side me in the kitchen when she is older.

She has a strong neck but I can only get her to do tummy time on the boppy.

Fist in mouth... Tasty!

I love her facial expressions.  I wish I knew what she was thinking!  I can't wait for her to talk!

2 Months

Carly is starting to do a little more than just eat, sleep, and poop!

The first week in July we went on a family reunion with Nick's family to a cabin in Sun Dance.  Carly was barely a month old so we were a little worried about how she would do or rather how we would do with her.  Prior to the reunion Carly had not been sleeping well in her crib and we had to have her sleep almost the whole night in her vibrating chair.  Surprisingly she slept very well in her pack and play bassinet.  She slept for 5-6 hour stretches at night which was great for me!  Carly was a bit spoiled during the Dueck family reunion because everyone wanted to hold baby Carly which also gave me and Nick a break.

Kate sat next to me while nursing waiting to hold Carly and let me know multiple times that she washed her hands so she was ready. haha!

Right after the Dueck reunion we went to my family reunion up in Sun Valley, Idaho.  Carly wasn't as spoiled there because every one of my siblings had their own baby to take care of and were used to being around the cuteness of a newborn.  There Carly slept 7 hour stretches at night and I thought I was going to burst (grateful for the rest but in a bit of pain).  Well at this time Carly was 5 weeks and started to smile when we played with her, liked to cuddle on my chest, and started to follow our movement more.

She usually falls asleep in the car.  So peaceful.

Carly is starting to stay awake a little more in car rides and on walks.  She likes to look around.
She is really starting to coo and smile so much more.
Some positions that she likes are on her stomach on our laps and when we hold her on our laps she likes to be seated facing out so she can see what's going on.

Sometimes when I lay Carly down to change her diaper she stretches by arching her back and lifting her arms up by her head but still bent at the elbows.  It's my favorite!

At the end of July we moved out of our apartment in Provo, UT that had been home to us for 3 years and moved to Omaha, NE.  Before Carly was born I packed everything that we wouldn't need to use like all our books, most of our clothes, everything in the storage...  The final few days before leaving packing and cleaning took a lot of time.  Carly spent most of that time in her bouncy chair if she wasn't sleeping or I wasn't nursing her.  Aunt Heidi came a few times and helped us by holding Carly which made a great difference and we are so grateful for her love and service.  Carly was a great sport and did great on the two day drive to Omaha.  My mom came with us and kept Carly company in the back seat.  We stopped to feed Carly about every 3-4 hours and she slept almost the whole time while in the car.

Carly loves it when we talk and play with her.  Her eyes get so big and light up and she Oo's and Aw's.  It is so precious.

She sometimes snores.  Isn't it cute!?

Baby Blessing

On June 30th Carly received a beautiful blessing given by Nick.

 Nick blessed her that she would:

• Gain a natural desire to do what is right and discern right from wrong
• Understand the promptings of the Holy Ghost
• Have a desire to read the scriptures and gain her own testimony of Heavenly Father and His restored gospel
• Desire to marry in the temple
• Recognize Heavenly Father's hand and be grateful for her blessings

We are so grateful to have had so many family members join us on that special day for Carly.

My side

Nick's side

Carly is so lucky to have such loving grandmothers

With Nick's parents

All the priesthood holders who participated in the blessing

And my little nephews were just so cute patiently waiting on their makeshift bench.

We are so grateful that Heavenly Father has blessed us with Carly.  She has such a sweet little spirit and has already brought us so much joy.