5 months!

Guess who's 5 months old today? She technically didn't have a 4 month birthday because she was born on October 29th, and we didn't have a 29th in February, so I'm glad I can say she is exactly 5 months on March 29th.

Remember this baby? She was just a few days old in the first shot and about 2 weeks old in the second. Hard to believe she's the same girl as this little sweetie.

I snapped this one this morning before leaving for church. She was excited for Sunday School! We didn't have time for a real photo shoot, so this is the best I could get in a hurry.

Since I have a degree in journalism (and you definitely need one for the following activity), I thought I'd interview the princess to find out what's going on in her life at 5 months old. Since I am the only one who can interpret her answers, I'll paraphrase them for you. (Disclaimer: I am aware that my cheese factor has gone to a whole new level since becoming a mommy. I'm ok with that.)

Mommy: So Amelia, what are some of your proudest accomplishments at 5 months?

Amelia: Well, I'm really proud of myself for not crying every single time someone puts me down anymore, although sometimes I relapse and insist on being held by Mommy for hours at a time.

Mommy: Yes, I'm very proud of that accomplishment too! But even though it's hard to do anything else when you're being clingy, I secretly wish I could hold you all day every day like we did the first 3 months. Since we've been trying baby food for a couple of weeks, tell me what your favorites are.

Amelia: I've warmed up to green beans and no longer make those hideously cute faces when you make me eat them. But my favorite foods I have tried so far are sweet peas and applesauce. Yummy! I'm still a big fan of my bottle with some rice cereal mixed in too.

Mommy: Good job not giving up on the green beans! Just wait for some of the fun things we are going to try next. Sweet potatoes, squash, and pears! So what else is new with you?

Amelia: Well, my hand/eye coordination is getting a lot better. I have finally learned how to pull down my headband and bow! I've been wanting to do that my whole life! I also get excited when you show me my bottle and try to grab it from your hands to feed myself. I'm not quite strong enough to hold it by myself yet, but I will be soon.

Mommy: I was not pleased when I found your bow in your lap and your headband pulled down like a necklace when we arrived at daycare the other day. We are going to have to work on keeping our bows on our head, little lady! So why don't you tell us about your sleeping habits?

Amelia: We've had our ups and downs, haven't we? I have tried to be a good girl and sleep all night in my bassinet since I was six weeks old. But when Daddy kept getting home late and wanted me to snuggle in bed with y'all because he missed me, I realized I like sleeping with Mommy and Daddy better.

Mommy: We like snuggling with you too, pumpkin. But Miss Stacey can't snuggle during your naps at school, so we are going to have to keep working at putting you down awake in your pack n play so you'll stay asleep there all night. It's not our favorite thing, but it's been working this week, so we are proud of your efforts! Thank you for your time, Amelia.

I can't believe it's already been 5 months since Amelia came into our lives. I still look at her newborn pics all the time, and I miss when she was so tiny. But it is so much fun watching her grow and learn new things. Her 5 month birthday is bittersweet, as I'm sure the rest will be. But we are having fun with each new stage we enter. I just wish time would slow down just a little bit.

Update on St. Jude donations

Thanks to those of you who've offered to send donations! I thought I'd post my work address if any of you want to mail something to us. (I'm pretty naive, but even I wouldn't put my home address online, ha.)

Copiah-Lincoln Community College

Attention: Angela Furr

PO Box 649

Wesson, MS 39191

Of course I am still willing to send you a stamped envelope to send it back to us, or I will personally come and pick it up. Just let me know. Thanks again!

And just for fun, here's that irrisistable face asking for your help again!

Spring Break- Part 2

Well, I didn't have as much to tell as I had hoped. Although we didn't go to New Orleans, or Natchez, or the coast, or any of the day trips I was thinking of, we did go to Jackson one day to upgrade Amelia's toy collection. She went from this


to this

She was just over the play gym and was ready to move on to bigger and better things. So far she has enjoyed the exersaucer. She also likes to roll around on the floor, but she has a pretty short attention span, so it gets old quick. She has a jumpy thing that hangs from the door that Papaw Bob got her for Christmas. We'll probably experiment with it this weekend.


Another thing we did to wind down our spring break was to have her picture taken with 2 precious baby Easter bunnies! Amanda did a great job, and I can't wait to see them. She didn't have much to work with, as Amelia decided to play her "I know I smile all the time, but I like to pretend I don't when cameras are around" game. But smiling or not, I look forward to sharing those photos with you soon. Be sure to check out Amanda's new site. She's a friend of mine and Cliff's from our days as students at Co-Lin, and she has recently relocated with her husband and sweet baby girl to Summit where she's getting her photography business up and running.


Gotta run, but Amelia wanted to wish her Grammy a Happy Belated Birthday. We celebrated with her yesterday, but she wanted to tell you over the internet too. Love you Grammy!

Our little philanthropist

If you read my blog, you know that at almost 5 months old, Amelia's favorite hobbies include eating, pooping, smiling at Mama and Daddy (but not for photos) and dressing up and wearing bows. But I bet you didn't know that our little princess is also very charitable.


That's why when her daycare told her about their Trike-a-Thon for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, she just insisted that I help her participate. Here she is insisting.




Ok, I'm totally kidding of course. I always contribute to this charity because my friends and co-workers have had children in the daycare who participate in this event. But this year I am excited to help Amelia raise money for such a wonderful cause. I'm so thankful that we haven't needed a place like St. Jude yet in her short little life. But for the families who do, I want to do all we can to help.
If you don't know about St. Jude and what they're about, in a nutshell, they basically treat sick children and conduct research to find cures for children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. The coolest thing about St. Jude is that they're the only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatment not covered by insurance. No child is ever denied treatment because of the family's inability to pay.


That's why they need our help. On April 3rd, Amelia and her classmates will be participating in a Trike-a-Thon. They'll trike (or be pushed in strollers) around the track on the football field. Instead of donating per lap, they have asked that we collect flat donations. If you're local, I'll be happy to come pick up your donation (and maybe bring Amelia to see you- can you say bribe?), or if you're out-of-town, let me know that you're willing to give, and I'll send you a self-adressed stamped envelope to send your donation to us. Anything you have to give will be appreciated!


I am excited that we have this opportunity to teach Amelia to give to those less fortunate than ourselves. This blog is essentially my scrapbook of her life, so I look forward to sharing with her how she helped to raise money for sick kids even as a baby. Thanks in advance for your help with this worthy cause!

Spring Break- Part One

Yay for Spring Break! I have been counting down to this week off since I returned to work from maternity leave. I believe it has been what has kept me going and able to leave Amelia at daycare every day for the last couple of months.

Not only have I been able to enjoy spending every second of the day again with my sweet girl, but we have had Daddy home for a change! Cliff has really enjoyed getting to spend more time with Amelia and I have really enjoyed having another set of hands to help out with her. Oh, and I've also enjoyed seeing my husband in the daylight hours again.

Of course I had high hopes for trips, resting and chores to be done, and we've gotten almost none of it done, ha. Well, except for the resting. That's been nice. Some of it is to blame on laziness, and some is to blame on that dang pollen! It has really gotten Amelia and I both down. Bless her heart, her little nose has been dripping for the last few days. Poor baby didn't stand a chance with Cliff and me for parents. We both have pretty serious allergies. Someone please tell me why there is no such thing as baby Claritin?

We did manage to squeeze in some fun things into our week off, but mostly it has been spent just hanging out together around the house as a family. Here's a recap of our week in photos.

It's crazy that last weekend was dreary and cold, and today the temp was in the mid-80s. You can't tell here, but Amelia is very excited about going to eat Mexican with Mommy and Aunt Mar. She was ready for some chips and salsa and didn't want me to put her down for a quick photo in her cute outfit.Speaking of Aunt Mar, I have been informed that I am giving off a false idea that her name is Margo, or Margaret. Her name is Mary Beth, and I pronounce her nickname like "Mare." Well Mare told me that all her friends spell her nickname that way, but she always let me spell it the way I wanted to because I'm the one who started calling her that oh, I don't know, 20 years ago. I suppose I will start spelling it Mare. But I digress...

Monday my friend Courtney brought Amelia's BFF Brantlee over for a visit. Here's what they looked like last time we got them together. And here they are now! Isn't Brantlee a cutie-pie? Such a happy little thing. We even got some smiles out of Amelia this time.
We didn't even make them hold hands like that! They did it on their own. (It may have been because neither of them can sit up on their own yet, and they were holding on to each other for dear life! Oh well, still cute.) Just as they were about to leave, I realized we didn't get a pic of all of us together, so we posed for a quick shot. Everyone was smiling, but Cliff cut my head off. Take 2 got my head, but the babies aren't smiling. Too bad. I forgive Cliff because it's hard trying to capture two babies smiling at once, especially with my amateur camera with the slow shutter speed. At our last check-up, our dr. recommended we start trying some solids, like rice cereal and baby food. I wanted to wait until we could be home to try things out, so this week was the perfect opportunity. Here's Amelia getting ready for some yummy cereal while big brother Cash wishes she would come outside and throw his ball with him! Doesn't she look like a big girl in her high chair?Here she is pretty happy about trying some green beans. I thought she'd love them, since I craved them so much during my pregnancy. I hope she doesn't develop a love for those bagel bites I was obsessed with for a few months. But, if this face is any indication, I don't think she's a fan! Even though we all know Amelia has been able to to roll over for like 2 months now, I have not been able to catch it on camera at home. If you recall, she first did it at daycare my first week back at work. Ugh. For a while, every evening, I'd try to get her to do it again for my camera, and I never had any success. But as soon as I put her down during her happy morning play time this week, this is what happened.
This is the face she made when I started yelling and clapping like an idiot. Ha. Thanks to Grammy for this fun toy. She got it for Valentine's and has discovered a new love for it this week.

I named this post Spring Break-Part One partly because the week's not over, and I have high hopes that there will be more fun and cute photo ops for me to share later. And another reason is that I just realized how long this post is, and I'm tired, and plan to add more later. If I don't happen to get time to post a Part Two, or if we have nothing else note or photo-worthy to share, just know that we have thoroughly enjoyed our time off, getting to love on and play with our sweet baby! If we did nothing else, that alone made my week.

A few more pics from the weekend

I was so busy getting things ready for Sunday that I didn't take a single photo all weekend. Can you believe it? Luckily, Aunt Katie always has her camera handy and captured a few shots while she, Uncle Chris and Aunt Kathryn were hanging out with the baby. I had to post these for y'all, Chris and Kathryn!

I love classic baby toys such as these keys. Amelia likes them too.


Love how you can see one of the many framed photos we have of her in the background. I'm trying to not to let them take over the whole house, but it's hard. At least I can't afford giant canvases of every print. That would look ridiculous. Not affording them is probably the only thing that is stopping me.
The aunts and uncle took her for a stroll Sat. afternoon while I cooked for Sunday. That stroller puts her right to sleep. I can't get enough of sleeping baby photos.

Rare pics with Aunt Katie on the other end of the camera.

She discovered her toes! Hasn't tried to eat them yet, but I'm sure it's coming soon.

Hanging out on a pallet on the porch.

There's just something about Uncle Chris' fingers that look like a delicious teether.

Ok, that's it for our busy weekend! Next week we have Spring Break- yay! One of the many perks of working in education. I remind myself of these perks when I'm sad that I can't afford a giant canvas of all my baby's photos (among other things I can't afford). I can't wait to spend the whole week with Cliff and Amelia. We couldn't plan to do much ahead of time because there was a chance that Cliff would be at the national tourney in Kansas, but now that we know he'll be home, we'll find something to get into. Photos to come later!

Amelia showing out

We enjoyed having Cliff's brother Chris and his wife Kathryn in town this weekend. They hadn't seen Amelia since Christmas, and a lot has changed since she was 8 weeks old! She was in rare form practically all weekend showing out for them. Luckily Katie captured a lot of the cuteness on video.

Enjoy our silly girl!

In this one, she is talking to her keys. She seems to have discovered her voice and likes to hear herself. It's funny seeing how loud she can get.

loving her keys from katie furr on Vimeo.

This one is my fave! I discovered that she thinks it's hilarious when you make a surprised face and breathe in loudly. Katie tried it and got some great laughs on video. We're all standing in the background trying not to laugh too loud. I've tried this since then, and I think she's over it. That baby is a tough crowd when it comes to her laughter. She's fickle on what she finds humorous!

Laughing Mimi from katie furr on Vimeo.

More of her enjoying the sound of her voice. Uncle Chris helped her make some funny noises with her mouth and she couldn't get enough.


too funny! from katie furr on Vimeo.

Amelia's dedication

Sunday was Amelia's dedication service at church. For those of you who don't know, a baby dedication is the Baptist version of a christening. We believe that baptism is a choice that is made following a personal decision to follow Christ. So, we celebrate our babies' lives by having a service to display our desires to dedicate our children to the Lord and to commit to raising them as He would have us. Some churches do one big service for several babies, but ours lets each child have his or her own special service.


We couldn't have asked for a sweeter service or a better-behaved Amelia. She was so good through the whole service and was quite the performer for all her fans over lunch. I'll just let the pics tell the story. (As always, thanks to Aunt Katie for being the official photographer for the event).

We were so glad that out-of-towners, Chris and Kathryn and Ann and Joe were able to share the event with us. I'm also glad my brother Jeremy was able to make it after drill. He will be leaving for his second tour in Iraq soon. Please keep him in your prayers. We were sad that Nana was sick and had to miss seeing Amelia. We'll bring her to see you soon, Nana!

Here we are in front of the church listening to Bro. Ken's words. He led us in a vow dedicating Amelia to God and a commitment to raise her as the Bible teaches.

Then my dad sang a special song called "Always be a child."

Cliff's dad said a prayer. Posing after the service.

Kisses from Daddy

Running into one of our BFFs, Adalyn after church. Their birthdays are a week apart.

Making a face at her friend Bryce's mom, Erin!

Getting some love from Daddy's former baby-sitter, Bethany. (It was too bright for her to open her eyes!)



Then we invited everyone over to our house for lunch. My first attempt at entertaining for a crowd this large. It was a success! (With a little cooking help from my mom. Thanks again!)

A couple of sweet pics. My brother just loves Amelia. And she loves him too! She will have to send him videos while he's in Iraq.

Sitting with Uncle Chris. He hadn't seen her since Christmas and hardly put her down all weekend! He shared a little with Aunt Kathryn.

At long last, a few smiling shots! She was such a little ham, just grinning at everyone. She knew it was her special day!

You can't see her, but Amelia is on the couch while everyone around makes goo-goo faces and noises trying to get a laugh.

It was finally time to come out of the precious white dress. But not without a photo of her in just her bloomers and a bow! New comfy outfit, and of course a new bow!

Papaw Fred finally gets a turn to hold the baby.

As you can see, we had a wonderful day. We're so blessed to have Amelia in our family and to have so many people who love her. When everyone left, the three of us took a nice Sunday afternoon nap and worked on getting our lost hour back. I have a few more cute weekend pics and some adorable videos to post later in the week, so check back for more Amelia. You know in our lives and on this blog, it's all Amelia, all the time!