9 months.

June 4th- 9 months old! Aisley Pearl now weighs 13 lbs. 5.5 oz and is 25 1/4 inches long- she is in less than the 1st percentile for everything but her head which is in like the 60th percentile! Tiny girl- big head? Ha, ha. Aisley is still working on sitting up- but is so, so close and can really do it on her own she is just a bit wobbly! She has been working on crawling though and does the cutest little army crawl. It won't be long till she is up on her knees and crawling all over the place I'm sure- she is one determined girl when it comes to being mobile and getting what she wants! (Especially if it is one of her brothers favorite toys! Ha, ha! He hasn't been a big fan of that new trick of Aisley's!) Aisley hasn't been sleeping the greatest over the last month or so... she has been waking up 1-2 times a night and sometimes more! Silly girl. We are really hoping that once we get to Utah next week and she finally has her own room that that will help her sleeping habits out a bit. Aisley usually takes about 3 naps a day- 2 big naps and 1 little nap. She loves baby food- especially vegetables- but doesn't at all like baby puffs or yogurt melts yet and gags when you try to feed them to her. I just bought her a tiny pink sippy cup with handles and after only a few tries she had it all figured out and has been drinking water from it everyday since and acts like such a big girl about it. I still try to give her a bottle everyday- some days she drinks a tiny bit from it and some days she doesn't. Aisley waves "hello" and "bye-bye", loves to play on the floor with her toys, still is a momma's girl, adores both her dad and big brother, and is happiest when she is getting lots of attention from them. She still smiles and giggles all the time, but it is getting harder and harder to get a good picture of her since she is now always on the go!  

A final day trip to DC...

May 31st- This past weekend was our last weekend in Maryland. (I don't even want to talk about it- it is so hard to say goodbye! We have really loved our year here. We have made all kinds of friends and have loved just about everything about living on the east coast. Even the humidity has grown on me a bit.)

Bright and early Saturday morning we drove to the DC temple. (I love how the temple just peeks itself up over the tops of the trees as you round the corner on the freeway... such a beacon of beauty and light. We love the DC temple.)

Before heading over to the temple we dropped the kiddies off with Justin's great aunt, Janet Weeks (her and her husband Fred Weeks are serving a mission in DC right now)- and she so kindly offered to babysit for us! Thanks again Janet! You are the best! And, both of our children LOVE her!

After doing sealings in the temple together (which was so great, as always) we met our friends from Utah- Wade and Sara Jacobsen (who currently live in PA) at the visitors center and picked up their little boy, Lucas, so that we could watch him for them while they went into the temple. We took Lucas with us back to the Weeks apartment and were able to visit with Janet for a while, while the kids played. It was a great visit.

After the temple and visiting with Janet we went with the Jacobsen's to Cafe Rio for lunch and then headed to the National Zoo in DC. It is a super fun (and free!) zoo and we are so glad that we got to spend some time with the Jacobsen's there before moving back to Utah.

Cute little Lucas!

The National Zoo is the only zoo that has Panda bears! Our new favorite animal to see at the zoo by far! They were so cute!

Keaton also loved the monkeys!

And we saw naked mole rats for the first time ever! They are soooo weird! (Remember the show Kim Possible where the boy had a naked mole rat for a pet?! Ha ha.) I wish I could have gotten a better picture, but until you see them in real life you can't really get the full affect of how strange these blind and naked creatures are! They have long fang teeth that hang unnaturally out of their mouths and they live in these tube burrows and all snuggle up together... they were so weird, but fun to see at the same time! Ha, ha!

 Our family with the gorilla. (Who seemed to be posing just for our pictures!)

We also loved this cute and super playful orangutan who was tucking himself into his blanket and bed of straw for a late afternoon nap. He kept fluffing his blanket and tucking it in around him- it was so cute! (I don't think I've ever been to the zoo when the animals that we saw were so interactive/fun to watch! The gorillas and the pandas were also super fun to watch! It was great and so fun for Keaton and Lucas.)

This happy girl was just content to be along for the ride in her stroller. :)

Wade and Lucas with the big dinosaur bone.

Thanks Wade and Sara for such a fun day! We are so glad we had a chance to let the kids play together and catch up with you guys!

We ended our day the same way we started it- as we got another glimpse of the temple on our drive back home.

Justin's Birthday in PA!

May 26th- Monday, Memorial Day, and Justin's birthday we spent in PA.

After a fun breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts we picked up Sister Bonnie Beamer in Williamsport, PA. (We also got to visit with Sister Beamer the night before, Sunday night, at her home. It was great spending time with her and she was so sweet with the kids and even gave Aisley a beautiful baby doll that she made! I'll have to take a picture of it to post later- maybe along with my baby doll from Sister Beamer from years and years ago when Justin and I visited PA with his parents shortly after he got home from his mission...) and drove out to her and Brother Wayne Beamer's old house (from before Brother Beamer passed away 4 years ago) as a chance to remember all together how wonderful Brother Beamer was and to remember the great time Justin had teaching the Beamer's the gospel while on his mission. It's an amazing home by the lake and it was a beautiful drive up there and back and we all had a good time catching up with Sister Beamer.

The kids during our drive to the lake...

After saying goodbye to Bonnie we headed to Danville, PA. where we had lunch at a pizza joint called OIP (a favorite of Justin's while he was on his mission) and after we celebrated Justin's birthday together by going to Knoebels- an amusement park.

Happy 28th birthday Daddy! 

Knoebels has free admission and you just buy tickets and use them for the rides you would like to go on. We spent about $25 dollars and Keaton was able to ride about 10 rides total- (he was in heaven!) and a couple of those rides we all got to ride together- like the Ferris Wheel. It ended up being such a fun way to celebrate Justin's birthday together as a family. Happy Birthday Justin!

The Shiner's!

May 24th- Saturday morning we drove to Scranton, PA (another bucket list to-do) to visit Gary and Lenore Shiner! (A amazing couple that Justin taught and baptized while on his mission.) We had such a great time with them. They treated us like royalty (to say the least)- we were fed fabulous food, given their room to sleep in the night we were there, and they had everything and anything us and the kids could have possibly needed while we were there.

The wonderful brunch Lenore served us as soon as we walked in the door mid-morning on Saturday.

All of us (including the Shiner's youngest daughter, Carla and her little boy). It was so much fun to catch up, relax, and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Saturday night we went to dinner at an amazing Italian restaurant that Pat, Carla's husband manages. It was so delicious!

Gary and Aisley. :)

Both of our kids warmed up to Gary and Lenore right away and just loved being held and spoiled by them!

And this is Eleanor- a friend and neighbor of the Shiner's who joined us for dinner and then came over to visit with us at the Shiner's house after. What a sweet lady Eleanor is! And I feel so blessed that I was able to meet her and get to know her a little bit. She loved the kids, especially Aisley, and held her the whole time she was at the Shiner's house and just kept saying over and over, "What a good baby she is! I could just hold her all night! I could just keep her! What a good girl! So happy, so sweet!" It was the cutest thing!

Gary and his cute little grandson.

May 25th-

My new church shoes- that turned out to be too small! (But aren't they sooo cute?!) I was in pain all throughout church with the Shiner's on Sunday and ended up exchanging them for a bigger size the first chance I got once back in Maryland.

My naked babies. :)

 We LOVE you Gary and Lenore Shiner! Thank you soooo much for a great visit! Until next time!