Exciting Week!

It has been an exciting week here at the Heald house! Matney has had lots of firsts this week and you are hearing ONE PROUD MAMA! Matney taking a nap on the couch. She slept 30 minutes all by herself.
Matney FOUND HER TOES!!! Is that not the cutest thing? I love it when babies grab their feet and have been anxiously waiting...and I got the first "catch" on camera. How incredible!
Mr. Matney meet Miss Matney.
I can put my entire fist in my mouth! Matney actually can fit both fists in at a time but it often causes her to gag. She hasn't figured out yet that it is her own hands causing the problem so she keep shoving them in and gagging again!
Proud parents!!! The other excitement for the week is Matney learning to "talk". It is the cutest sound...except at night. Now when we lay her down for bed she spends about 10 minutes with her feet in the air and talking pretty loudly to herself in the dark. She eventually falls asleep without any fussing so I'm not complaining.
And the most exciting. This morning I put Matney on her belly and she rolled over to her back...not once but 5 times in a row! We got it on video for anyone who comes over in the near future. We are so in love with this growing girl.

First trip to the Aquarium

We spent Thursday at the GA Aquarium and had a great time. It wasn't very crowded and we were able to take our time at each exhibit. Matney was SO well behaved. She was wide eyed for the first hour and a half taking everything in. Matney's first picture with a large cartoon creature. I am constantly amazed how I've changed since having a child. Three months ago I would have not run up to a large orange fish and pulled his tail fin for anything. Yesterday I grabbed that tail so that Matney could have her picture taken before he could "swim" away!
Family photo in front of the big tank. Jared was having a great time, can you tell?!?!?!
This is Matney's favorite fishy friend. He was hanging out right at the glass the entire time we were in the room. I guess even fish know a beautiful baby when they see one!
This is how Matney spent the last hour of her day at the aquarium. In the sling fast asleep.
Matney and Daddy taking a break to have lunch. There's that tutu again!

The Matneys are in GA!!!!

After months of waiting the Matneys have survived the drive from West Texas and are here in GA! We are having a blast and are going to be so sad when they leave! Connie, Wayne and Sandra Matney...with Stacey, Jared and Miss Matney! If you blow up the picture you'll see Matney's still kind of crazy hair and her super cute new outfit from Aunt Connie. Every girl needs a built-in tutu! I wonder if I can wash it each night so she can wear it every day!!! Aunt Connie bringing Matney to meet Aunt Sassy.
Jared and "Unc" hanging out on the couch. They are surrounded by girls!!!
Aunt Sassy with a passed out little baby!
Family picture of the Matneys with Miss Matney.

Happy Father's Day, Jared!

What an exciting day for our family! We had a great, relaxing day yesterday for Jared's first Father's Day. After church Jared went to the driving range to hit some golf balls. We played with Matney all afternoon and then our friends, the Harveys, came over. We all went for a walk and grilled burgers for dinner. Their daughter, Mylee, is 6 weeks older than Matney and it is exciting to see what Matney will be doing in just a few weeks.

Entertaining two little ones is hard work! Just about every toy we own was out on the floor (actually our fun zoo blanket made by "Monkey Kim"!) by the time we were ready to eat. They were a lot of fun. And, p.s. guys, Allison and I did spend time working on the timeline for our next babies. Maybe next Father's Day you can each have two little ones on the blanket!

Matney at 3 1/2 months

She is getting more difficult to photograph everyday because she is moving so much more. Those feet were really kicking!

Sleeping on her tummy...for the first time. She fell asleep on my chest and I slid her onto the couch to try and trick her. She didn't last long but it was a start. Normally, any time she is on her stomach, she screams immediately. Tough stuff! She has to learn to lift her head if she's ever going to roll over and crawl.

Fun in the sun!

Matney and I got out of the house on Friday to go hang out with our friends Erica, Jack, Jen and Paige. We had a great time! Erica has a big pool on her back deck and one of my best friends, Margo, sent Matney the cutest swimsuit when she was born. When the phone rang we grabbed her suit and headed out the door! Check out this baby...how cute is she!?!?!?!
Jen kept the kiddos entertained in the pool. Matney loved watching the big kids play. Paige and Jack are both two years old and full of energy!

Jen was really enjoying the day. And I was SO GLAD to be out of the house!
Thanks for having us over, Erica! Can we do this everyday???

The Matneys are coming, the Matneys are coming!

Yes, that is right. The Matneys are on their way now, driving from TX, to meet Miss Matney. They arrive tomorrow and we are so excited. In preparation for their visit Jared's sister Jessica came over last week to play with Matney so that I could clean up the house. Jess fed Matney a bottle and she, Matney, was crying really hard a couple minutes later so I took them from Jess.

This is picture taken 30 seconds after I picked her up.

And this is a picture of Jessica in the same 30 seconds....Now I am not normally one to post a no make-up, pre-shower picture of myself but you really must click on the top picture to get the full effect. I think Matney saved that just for me. I am so blessed.

What a big girl!

What a big girl...and belly! Isn't that cute sticking out of her diaper!
Her first CATCH!!! YEA!!! If you look close the best part of this picture is her face. She looks JUST LIKE HER MAMA trying to stick that tongue out. I promise it helps to concentrate. You should try it sometime!
If you look back at her pictures in the car seat you can really tell how much she's grown.
Big laugh for Fox in Socks! He is the best toy ever. I am not sure what we'll do when he gets too gross. If she can get him close to her mouth she'll suck on him. NASTY!
Matney's friend Bryce came over to play. Bryce is 7 months old and sitting up on his own. His hair also goes down on its own! Not Matney's!!!!

Hard work at the Heald house!

When we haven't been changing poopy diapers or washing spit-up covered clothes, Jared and I have been hard at work on several at home projects. They'll have to be on two posts since all our activities won't fit on one!
We went to a friend's house the other day and saw that she'd painted the picture boxes in her foyer...and I liked it! I got paint a shade darker than the wall color and they were done in a couple hours!
After the picture boxes were done I tackled the downstairs bath. Much better! Jared has been out working in the yard. When we moved in last year we couldn't run our sprinklers because of the drought and lots of our sod died. This is Jared's new grass in the backyard.

More exciting projects below!

Busy times at the Heald house! continued

Finally a new light in the foyer.
Jared spent his Sat. under the sinks in the hall bath switching the faucets. These are MUCH better and functional than what we had.
We are so proud of this! Matney's room was all pink but Jared (again spending a Sat.) added chair rail and a fake bead board below. I stayed up after they went to bed for a couple nights and painted it. We love it and the room isn't so pink anymore.
Matney's walls were still bare but my mom came up for a couple days and we are working on getting them covered. She found cute fabric covered boards at Pottery Barn Kids...and we copied the idea and made our own for about 1/3 the cost! The aren't finished (see all the stuff on the bed!?!?!) but you can get the idea.
And best of all...MATNEY HAS A FAN IN HER ROOM! I know everyone was concerned about that!!!