ONE YEAR!!!!

This is a very bittersweet day for me. My baby girl has finished the first year of her life, and I am so unbelievably amazed at her transformation and growth. I've been looking through all her pictures today, and remembering every moment we've had with her, and I can't believe how fast she grew into her vibrant personality.


Her first weeks were filled with many ups and downs. It was difficult for me to heal from the C-section, and I couldn't have stayed sane if it wasn't for Mike and my mom. They were so patient with both me and Harmony as we adjusted to our new way of living. And after a few weeks we fell into a comfortable rhythm as a new family of three.


It wasn't long before she was showing us her beautiful smile and contagious giggle that made us fall even more in love with her.




She is the the type of baby who isn't afraid to show her many moods! She is strong willed (gets it from her daddy!) but also very sensitive (definitely from her mommy!), and she tells us exactly how she feels- as you can see from these pictures!


She has never been that shy with people- probably because we are so social and always have friends around, but she has an apparent affection for men. She bats her eyes at them and smiles this shy smile that will melt any heart. Here is a picture of her with her "uncle" Shane (who always wants to be the one to hold her- it's adorable), and as you can see, she is using her cute grin to wrap him even further around her little finger. Oh, and FYI, this was the stage in her life where she had crazy looking hair- so we were being silly and put a scarf on her head.


But the one man she adores most is her sweet daddy, who is her ultimate playmate. The moment she hears the door open she stops everything she is doing to go see her daddy. The other day we took her to the park for the very first time, and he was so excited to push her on the swings, and to take her down the slide. I was a very proud wife to see him love her so unconditionally. He is a fantastic daddy, and there is nothing that makes me happier than to see them have such special moments together.


My sweet baby is on her way to not being a baby anymore, and I am feeling very proud but very sad at the same time. Every day she becomes more independent, and more curious about the world around her. It's an adventure that keeps getting better and better.

Happy Birthday, Harmony Joy. You are the greatest gift we've ever received!

It was Harmony's first Halloween, and I was obsessed with finding the perfect costume for her. Aunt Becca and i spent an entire afternoon (and harmony wasn't happy about it!) finding the cutest outfit, and this baby chick costume was the only one she didn't cry in! It was fate!

We went to Trunk n' Treat at The Father's House (Mike did an AWESOME JOB planning the whole event- you're the greatest, honey!) and Allison came up to help out with handing out candy to all the kids. Here is a pic of Harmony sneaking a taste of our candy!



Unfortunately Harmony didn't last very long and I ending up having to take her home soon after we started handing out candy. She just screamed and screamed. She fell asleep on the way home, so i guess she was way to stimulated with everything that was going on. Good thing Aunt Allison was there to man our car! You're the best, Allie!

My baby chick! I love this video because she really does waddle like a duck!

One Smart Baby!

When I was at my parents house last week, we sang this song to her over and over one evening, and she went crazy over it. I guess we sang it so much to her that she started to know the words!

Finally got a video!

She has been walking for over a week now, and has gotten quite good at it. I've been meaning to get a video for a while, but in the midst of the move I couldn't find it. But at three in the morning it came to me and I finally am able to show you how well she walks!

She has also learned a new trick from her grammie- when you say "SO BIG" she puts her hands high in the air. We've been trying to get her to perfect it for weeks and now she does it all the time!!

My Favorite Season

Even though Harmony was born in November, I still consider this her first Fall season, and I am loving every second of her exploring all things autumn. And of course, I am trying to document as much as I can. Here are some pictures I took


This is her a couple weekends ago at my parents house- her first time playing in the leaves.


I am at my parents house this week while Mike is gone on a Staff Retreat, and while they were at work, Jaime and I took Harmony to Pumpkinville for the afternoon to let her explore. We took her out to a pumpkin patch to play, and she had so much fun walking (yes, I said walking!! She learned last week, and as soon as I get a video of it on my camera, I will post it) around and climbing on pumpkins. There was so much to do- they had a corn maze, hay rides, haunted houses, treats, crafts, and petting zoos. We had a BLAST! Here are some pictures from the day:

10 month Update

Time for another Harmony update to let you all know how the little peanut is doing. She turned 10 months yesterday, and Mike and I are amazed at the sudden turn of personality we have seen her grow into these past few weeks. She has become an entertainer! But before I get to that, let me give you some basic updates:

1. She is a little less than 15 pounds now. I took her to her 9 month appointment right before we left Pittsburgh, and she was 14 pounds 2 ounces. She is STILL wearing 3-6 month clothes... insane. She is in the third percentile for her weight, but she always has been between the third and fifth since she was 3 months old. So before I get comments on how tiny she is, let me answer the questions i KNOW you are thinking:

YES: She is small for her age. And from what my doctors tell me, that is just fine. Mike and I are both small people, so she just may be destined to be small too. Seriously, if I got a dollar for every time I tell people how old Harmony is (they always think she is about 3 month younger than she really is) and they get this surprised/concerned look on their face, Harmony's college would be paid for...
well at least her freshman year.

YES: I feed her. She is purely on table foods now, and for the most part she eats really well. You can't put food in front of her fast enough, and if she even THINKS you are preparing her bottle she flies off the handle because she wants it and she wants it NOW.

Now that we have that all settled lets move on.

2. She sleeps great, for the most part. Her bedtime is 8 and she wakes up around 7:30, with the exception of her 5:30 play time in her crib where she proceeds to talk to herself for about 10 minutes, then goes back to sleep. But since we've moved, she is starting to get up in the night again. All she needs is to be comforted for a minute or two, and then she is fine. Sometimes it's only once, other nights it's two or three times. It's weird. I also think she is cutting another tooth (to bring the total count to 7), so that doesn't help. I'm sure the biggest reason is change. She isn't in her crib, and we aren't in our house, so that doesn't help things.

3. She talks up a storm now. She is constantly babbling, trying so hard to communicate with us, and it's adorable. She says, "ba ba", "ma ma", "da da" , and "uh oh". Aunt Becca taught her "uh oh", and now she never stops saying it. That is what we hear her saying after she wakes up from a nap. SO adorable. "Da da" is her most recent word, and it is by far the cutest thing that she says. She just lights up when she says it. She is very proud to finally figure it out. I don't think she associates it with Mike just yet, but she loves saying it.

4. She is starting to stand on her own, but only when she isn't really paying attention to what she is doing. We try to get her stand and walk and she just won't have it, but if she is playing or concentrating, she will stand on her own for 30-40 seconds before she grabs onto us or a piece of furniture. She is SO ready to walk tho. She is constantly on her feet, whether it's pushing her walker, or just using walls or furniture to get her places. I'm just waiting for the day she just takes off and never looks back. Then my life will officially be over. I can barely keep up with her when she crawls. She is a quick little thing, and she crawls EVERYWHERE. She has mastered stairs, and loves going anywhere she knows she isn't supposed to be (i.e. dog cages, toilets, pantries, DVD shelves- her favorite).


Life is most definitely NOT boring with her around. Like I said, we have seen her personality change so much lately. She is doing so much that she never did before. She waves (and by waves I mean hold her arm up in a "Hail Hitler" sort of way) to pretty much everyone in sight- so we've make lots of friends wherever we go- the store, church, the bank- anywhere. Once she gets there attention, she begins to flirt like crazy. she bats her eyes, she smiles, she giggles- it's hilarious. Becca says that she is the best way to evangelize. All Harmony has to do is real em in with her charm, and we'll do the rest... "yes she is a happy baby. It's because she knows Jesus. Do you?". She's going to be a fisher of men in no time (and I mean that in a biblical way people! No boyfriends yet!)

In the past few days she has learned to clap, and she is so very proud of herself for it. If you clap at her she will giggle and clap too. I LOVE IT! I do it all the time just to watch her. And when she gets really excited she starts flapping her arms like a bird and just squeals. I'm telling you, she can entertain a crowd for hours.

She has been awesome since we've taken up residence at the Keller Manor for the last couple weeks. We've only had a few little "mishaps" (she fell down the stairs, and she fell out of the screen door- both on mine and Mike's watch I might add, but luckily she didn't get hurt either time), but for the most part she has loved having two more people in the home to love on her, plus she LOVES Beckett, and shows her affection by feeding him food while sitting in her high chair. Naughty naughty. We leave on Thursday, and our time with John and Amy went by WAY too fast. I will be so sad when we move into our new place.

Obiviously, I'm LOVING having Becca only a few miles away, and we try to see her as much as her busy schedule permits, and one of those times was this past Friday morning when my brother came up to see some friends in Rochester, and carved some time out to have lunch with us. After we ate we decided to take some pictures (shock), and this was my favorite picture of the day:


Harmony LOVES when Mike tosses her in the air, and we thought we would try to get a picture where you just saw her absolute GLEE while being thrown in the air. I think we captured it quite perfectly...

Lucca Faye

I've been meaning to write about the newest addition to the Blumbling Family for a while now, but with the move and all that entails, I've been lacking in time and energy. But we are all settled into the Keller Manor, and while Harmony is playing well with their dog, I thought I would steal a moment to introduce you all to my darling "neice", Lucca Faye, who was born September 2nd (on the exact day she was due, I might add) at 1:35AM. After almost 24 hours of labor (you are my HERO, Ashley), Lucca finally came. She weighted 6 pounds 2 ounces, and she was 21 inches long.

Mike and I went to see the proud parents that evening, and all were in great spirits. Of course I took my camera along!


Here she is! Lucca is so cute, and looks so much like her daddy!



Speaking of daddy, here is Ryan with his little girl. Isn't she so small!?


Ashley, the proud mama!! She looks TOO good for just giving birth!


One beautiful, happy family.

These three people are a huge reason as to why it was so hard for us to leave Pittsburgh. We've had so many amazing memories with Ash and Ryan. They are family in every sense of the word. Ryan and Mike are what Ashley and I call "boyfriends", when they would get in the hot tub together on Sunday nights after a good meal while Ashley and I would watch a movie inside and wait for them to finish their date. Ashley and I had so many great talks about babies, about husbands (that was the main topic, huh, Ash!), and just life. We share love for our daughters, for our joys and struggles, and for Kimora!!! All of us have had many adventures together, including:


Going to Vegas to see Celine Dion (and the boys lost some money along the way)


Going to the Spa and getting pampered by Billy the Butler!


The boys playing golf while us girls get burned by the pool!



and going to Pinehurst to let the boys have their ultimate golf vacation. Too bad Harmony was a BEAST that week (teething), and we hardly had a meal where one of us didn't have to take her out to walk.

We've had so many other memories, like our Sunday dinners, taking long drives to see Christmas lights, Hockey games, weddings, telling each other we were pregnant (they were the first to know about Harmony- Ryan just came out and asked me if I was pregnant!), and now we share all the stories and advice about having daughters! They are both peanuts who look just like their daddies!



We know a couple like them will never be out of our lives, and we look forward to making many more memories together. LOVE YOU SO MUCH, BLUMLINGS!!!! Kiss that baby for me!

New do!

I've been contemplating for a while now on if I should cut my hair- and I keep convincing myself to keep it long since I can pull it up. But it's up ALL THE TIME, so what is the point of having long hair? So i talked to my "stylist" Ashley, and we decided that since I'm going into another chapter in my life, I should have a new haircut. So today I went into the salon, and chopped up 10 inches of my hair and donated it to Locks Of Love. Here is the finished product! You like it?

A Summer in Pictures

So I truly do have an excuse for not updating my blog:

My life is out of control!

I feel like I have so much to tell you all, but I just don't know where to begin! Life is MORE than hectic, but it's good. I'll sum up what's been going on as best as I can.

1. Weddings are going great. I've loved every wedding I've shot, and I've just had wonderful couples to photograph. I have three more to go for the summer, and I hope they all are as positive as the ones I've already done.

2. We got to go on vacation in July! We went up to Ottawa for a week to see family, and we had a great time relaxing on the beach, and watching Harmony enjoy the water. We also got to meet our niece, London, for the first time. What a doll! I see Harmony in her (which doesn't surprise me since their dads look so much alike). She is PRECIOUS. It was Harmony's first trip to Canada, and she did great. We did a TON of driving, and she was just so great the whole week.

3. I've been not feeling myself for quite a while, and decided to go to the doctor for some testing. I've been dealing with a lot of fatigue(ugh), muscle soreness(double ugh), and weight gain ( triple ugh!), so I got blood work done to see what the issue is, and comes to find out that I have an under active thyroid. So now I have to go in and get frequent blood testing, plus have a lot of doctor appointments to get the results. I am SO happy to know why I've felt so crappy, but it's a pain to have yet something else to do in my already busy week.

4. Mike and I made a very exciting, yet very hard decision over the last month. At the beginning of September, Mike and I are moving back to Rochester! Mike got a job at the Father's House as the Children's Pastor! We were so taken back when the pastor called and offered us the job, and it was hard to tell our church family here at Crossroads that we were moving on because we are TRULY happy here. But we feel we are stepping out in obedience as we make this transition. SO, now I am in the throws of packing, selling a house, trying to find an apartment, and all while trying to keep up with my work, and most importantly, MY DAUGHTER!!

5. Speaking of Harmony, she is 9 months today! AH!!! She is a ball full of personality, and she is just the greatest joy EVER. Here's the skinny on how she is doing.

- She is now 14 pounds, 10 ounces.
- She has 6 teeth.
- She has learned how to crawl up stairs.
- She says "ma ma" and "ba ba" and a bunch of jibber jabber in between
- She seems to favor her left hand while eating and playing with toys... very interesting.
- She has yet to reach the all out clingy phase, which I'm grateful for since she has been with a lot of babysitters over the summer.
-She still takes 3 naps a day, tho she is starting to be able to go into the evening without her last nap.
- Her bedtime is 8ish, and she wakes up at 7 on the dot.

She is AWESOME, and I just adore this stage of her life.

6. I have gotten VERY LITTLE sleep this past week and a half, and I blame it all on the Olympics. I'm obsessed. A little TOO obsessed. As i type, it's 11:30 PM, and I can't stop watching the finals of Beach Volleyball (GO USA!). It's like a bad accident. I just can't turn it off. I don't know what I will do when they are done. I will go through some serious withdrawal.

I think that about sums it all up (at least that is all that I can think of at this late of hour). I will leave you with some pictures from the summer. There are some of harmony, some of London, and some of our trip to the beach. Hope you like them

Harmony and Beckett

This past weekend I went up to Rochester for a wedding (pictures to come on my other blog), and since Becca's house is now in full capacity, I stayed at Heather and Tony's on Saturday night, and John and Amy's on Sunday night. I left on Monday, but I was glad to have the morning to spend with the Kellers. Now that Harmony is mobile, their dog, Beckett, isn't really sure what to make of her. When I was at the wedding on Sunday, Beckett got a little nervous, and went under the coffee table to hide from/observe Harmony from a distance. But Harmony just adored him, and didn't let him stay hidden for very long. By Monday, he had warmed up to her a little bit more, so Amy and I took the opportunity to document their play. Here are some pictures:


Harmony is quickly approaching Beckett, and as you can see, he's not really sure what to make of it.


Harmony then tried to crawl up onto Beckett which caused him to retreat. This is the face she gave when he ran away. So excited to have a big dog to play with.


He went to his "safe place" under the coffee table, but Harmony soon caught onto this, and joined him. (Picture taken by Amy)


This is about as far as Harmony would go before she decided that he probably didn't want to play at that time. (Also taken by Amy)

7 Month Update

Time for another update!

Life is extremely hectic in the Shipman home, so I apologize for my lack of blogging. I feel like I've gotten so behind on letting you all know how Harmony is doing... I am so lucky to see Harmony reach every milestone, and I sometimes forget that you all don't have that same privilege. So I will try my best to fill you in more often.

Off we go.

I officially call Harmony my "Independent Woman". She now wants to do everything on her own, and on her own terms. About a month ago, she stopped wanting to be rocked to sleep at night. It was one of my favorite times of the day because she is not a cuddlier, and this was the one time she snuggled up and I got some good "mommy-daughter time" in. But now she just wants to be put in her crib with her binkie and blanket, and talks herself to sleep. I will admit that it's much easier, but sometimes I miss that cuddle time.

She also is getting a bit tired of her bottle. She will hold it on her own for a little while, but for the most part it takes me about 3 "rounds" to get her to finish it. She gets so bored so quick, that after about 2 ounces, she needs to take a break to play, and then she will get hungry again, and I feed her another couple ounces. Now, the only time that doesn't happen is with her 1st bottle of the day. She downs in in about 5 minutes, and then she is ready for the day.

We've pretty much converted our basement into a play area for Harmony, and she is more than happy to crawl around and play with all her toys for up to an hour. And like almost every baby i know, she also likes to play with mommy's and daddy's things. Our DVD's are right at her reach, so that's what she goes for first. And its so funny because she takes them out one at a time, and actually looks at the box like she is seeing what movie it is. Let me tell you, she has good taste in movies too! The first one she goes for almost every time is "13 Going on 30". She is a Jennifer Garner fan too! That's my girl! She also goes for the Lord of the Rings movies (grandpa would be proud). But after a while, she just goes to town and sweeps them all off the shelf and plays in the piles. So our solution was to empty the bottom part of our bookshelf and put all her books and toys in there, and now she hardly ever touches our DVD's because she is more than happy to take all of those off the shelf.

Like you saw in the video, she is crawling now, and she is getting quick. Before, I could have her in the main floor living room and let her play while I wash dishes or make dinner, but now she is crawling at lightning speed and I can't keep up. So on Monday Mike took the morning to put up her baby gates. So far we've only put gates on the stairs that go down, but as of yesterday we will have to put more up because she is pulling herself up on the furniture, and it's only a matter of time that she will be crawling up the stairs! I was at small group last night, and Mike and his dad (who is here for the week) were watching Harmony, and next thing they know she pokes her head up over the auto-man just a-grinning! They said the did it 3 or 4 times, and would actually scoot around while holding onto the side of the auto-man until eventually she fell back on her bum. The girl just won't stop! She JUST learned to crawl, and she was happy to be mobile for like, A DAY, and now all she wants to do is walk. That's all Mike and I do now- hold her hands and let her walk everywhere. She looks downright SILLY walking around because she is so small, but she just LOVES it. It's insane. She is just growing up WAY too fast- I feel like I can't keep up. I hardly ever put my camera away because I'm constantly having to document things.


Harmony is very proud of herself! I kid you not, i did NOT pose her like this!

As of her eating habits, she is doing well. She LOVES her carrots, bananas, and sweet peas, and tolerates her applesauce, sweet potatoes, and green beans. She doesn't like plums or apricots much at all, so i usually mix those in with some cereal and she is good to go. It's so funny to watch her face as she tries new foods, but I'm very lucky that she pretty much eats anything I put in front of her. Occasionally we give her "people food" as a treat, and the other day we were making a jello dessert with whipped cream, and Mike let her have the spoon. She LOVED it!


Yum Yum!

Since she has been able to crawl, she stalks Kemper around the house, and he has some mixed feelings about this. Some days he LOVES her as a playmate, and other days he just can't be bothered with her. But for the most part he takes is role as "big brother" very seriously and stays close to her.


Here they are together, watching the birds outside. It was sooo cute!

Mike and I count our blessing everyday, knowing that we are so lucky to have a house full of love. Thank you Lord!

Milestone!

It's official! My baby is crawling, and now I will spend the next week baby proofing the house!

I am so very behind on my posting it's not even funny. Ugh.

In the beginning of May, Mike and I were BLESSED to take a trip with our close friends, Ryan and Ashley, down to North Carolina. We spent 3 days and 3 nights at Pinehurst, which for those of you who golf, is a pretty amazing place.

It was a rough go of it getting down there because Harmony is not used to being in her car seat for so long, but once we got there, she was great. Actually, while we were there, she cut her first tooth! Very historical moment for us Shipmans.

The boys golfed of course, and us girls hit the pool. I have this little "pool-side pack and play", and Harmony hung out in there, took her naps, and while awake, we lounged in the pool. She was sooo good!

At night we would have a nice meal together. And by together I mean that I would eat with Ryan and Ash while Mike walked around with Harmony, and when I was finished, we would switch. Even Ash and Ry would take their turns walking her around. She just didn't like sitting at the table with us. She would kick up a fuss every time. Little pistol. The only time we all ate together was on the ride home when we stopped at Applebees, and that was because she was sleeping. But other than that, we had a wonderful, relaxing time in North Carolina. It was our official first family vacation, and I loved how much Mike doted on Harmony. He watched her a ton while I got to do fun stuff like get a hot stone massage and a manicure. What a great husband I have. I am the luckiest.

Here are some pics of our time.



This is where we stayed- it was so beautiful inside- so romantic... so..... southern.


The last day we were there, it was freezing, and Harmony was more than happy to be snuggled by daddy.



She LOVED the water (once she got used to it), and Mike loved letting her splash around. Isn't she so cute in her bathing suit!?


Everywhere you went there were these old fashioned bikes everywhere. Of course Mike and Ryan HAD to ride them. They looked mighty funny doing it!


The one thing I loved about Pinehurst was that it was all about relaxation. So on each side of the hotel we stayed in had these HUGE wrap around porches that had rocking chairs everywhere. So obviously we took advantage and spent a lot of our free time out there.


Harmony is her two piece, just lounging with Ashley.