First steps!

On April 1st, Jillian decided to change her world and ours by taking her first steps. We now have a walker on our hands! They funny thing is that she was with Paul all day and didn't show too many signs of really taking off. Paul worked that evening and as soon as Abby got home with Jillian, she took off walking. Just like she had been waiting for her Mommy. Guess it was an April Fool's joke on Daddy!

A Few Favorite Pictures...

" Someday I want to brush my teeth just like Daddy..."

"I love watching the neighbor's kitties outside!"


Jillian often waits with Grandpa by the window when it's close to the time Mommy should be home from work. Jillian just lights up when she sees Mommy...and Mommy lights up too! :)

Jillian LOVES "helping" with laundry. She can say "socks" and likes to always go for those first.

I feel like this is a shot a 16-year-old would have by their first car. Jillian is so proud of her lion walker and is constantly wanting to walk with it.

Birthday Celebration

Jillian had a great first birthday party! She was lucky enough to have a birthday party with each side of the family so she got to celebrate twice, even have birthday cake twice! This was her first time having cake and frosting but boy did she dig in like it's something she has every day. She didn't even bat an eye! Here are a few pictures from the celebrations:

Jillian had a smash cake but everyone else had cupcakes.

Cousin Leah showing Jillian how birthday parties are done!

Jillian with the Hovey girls: Alyssa, Kailey, and Brittney

"I'm One!"

"I'm one!" is the line Paul and I have been working on with Jillian today. Can't believe our baby girl has been with us a whole year...and what a blessed year it has been. Thankfully the weather was nice enough today for Paul to take Jillian on an afternoon stroll down to the park. Tonight Jillian also got to do a little shopping with Mommy. Next weekend will mark the true birthday celebration with family so we are looking forward to watching her dig into that smash cake! More pictures to come then...

One year ago... Today..."I'm one!"

Our Big Girl

It's hard to believe that in about 3 weeks, Jillian will be one already! Seems like she is doing something new every day. She is getting more and more curious and crawls at lightning speed throughout the house, opening doors that aren't latched, cupboards, drawers, and standing up to anything that seems intriguing! Still one of her favorite things remains looking at books. Today, she crawled back to her room and began unloading the books off her bottom book shelf. We walked in and saw her sitting on the floor turning the pages of one of her books...having an "introvert" moment.

We also have a big change we are making...moving to a forward facing car seat! Yippy! We hope and pray this helps Jillian enjoy traveling more as she hasn't liked the rear facing experience. Can't say I blame her. Gram and Grandpa Glew got the car seat for Jillian as an early birthday gift. We haven't taken her out on a drive with it yet but are excited for her to experience the world from a different angle!

Notice the cup holder and all!

First trip to the library

Paul had the whole weekend off so we enjoyed some family outings together this weekend. One of them was to the Bettendorf Public Library. As many of you know Jillian LOVES books so she was in heaven at the library. She loved taking all of the books out of the bottom shelves and paging through them. We even got to take a few home!

December

Jillian has been crawling like crazy since she was a little over 9 months old. This has allowed her to discover all kind of new things like tags on the bottom of rugs in the kitchen...

...and STAIRS!

We really enjoyed our first Christmas with Jillian. We spent Christmas Eve and day with Paul's family and then got together with Abby's family the following Tuesday. Jillian was given a bib by her three-year-old cousin, Kailey, who insisted she should be wearing a bib letting all know it was her first Christmas.

Jillian and Mommy on Christmas morning.

Jillian started to get the hang of ripping the wrapping paper but like we were warned, was mostly interested in the boxes. Some of Jillian's favorite Christmas gifts were books, a ball popper, a lion walker/rider, and baby dolls.