Cheerleaders and Ear Piercing!

Joanna was so cute today in her Badger cheerleading outfit! What made her even cuter is her new earrings! That's right, Jodi, Karly and I took her to get her ears pierced today! We had a few moments of devastation but all in all, she took it like a champ! You can't really see both ears at once because she's got such big chipmunk cheeks but they still look great! She has heart shaped gold earrings with little diamonds in them! Good bling for a nearly 7 month old!

Joanna's first 6 months of growth!

It is so fun to see how Joanna changes from month to month. Being with her every day, I notice the new things she does, but she never really looks different to me until I see old pictures of her. Here are all of the monthly pictures we have taken of Joanna.

Visiting Minnesota

Recently we went way up north in Minnesota for the wedding of one of Jason's high school friends, Ryan. We stayed in Lutsen which is up near Lake Superior. We got to go to the lake, go hiking and see waterfalls while we were there. Here are some of my favorite photos from our trip!

 This was Joanna's first time playing in grass! She was so interested we couldn't get her to look up!

Building our Family Home

We are actually doing it! We are building our dream home and it sure is coming together fast! Six short weeks ago we had a lot that looked like this:

Weeds up to my shoulders!

A day later it looked like this:

And then this:

In the next few days, it continued to progress:

And then, after about 10 days after we had that lot covered in weeds up to my shoulders, we had this:

And this:

Now we have a second floor and all the interior walls are complete!

Time to start working on the roof!

A few quick facts about the house:

• It is being built on a 1 acre lot in a small neighborhood just outside the city of Baraboo. It is actually about 5 minutes away from the house we are currently living in!
• It is a 2 story home with 3800 finished square feet. We will finish off the basement ourselves down the road!
• It is currently 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths (we plan to add two bedrooms and a bath in the basement)
• We are hoping to move in by Thanksgiving but will definitely be in our home by Christmas!

Joanna is Six Months Old!

Our little Joanna has hit the 1/2 year mark!!! Here are some facts about our little six month old cutie:

Weighs 15 pounds

Sitting up on her own, not yet crawling but face planting quite a bit!

Eating lots of solids - 3 or 4 meals a day! Her favorite food is applesauce

Loves to ride her horse!

Makes lots of noises: her favorite being "raspberries"

She also has started saying "DaDa!"

Always smiles big at the sight of mommy or daddy!

A Million Reasons to Smile

I'm pretty sure that I have wanted to be a mom since my second birthday when I got my first cradle and I rocked my little baby doll to sleep for the first time. Now that I am living out my lifelong dream, I couldn't be happier. I have a husband whom I absolutely adore, a beautiful daughter, a sweet cuddly puppy and a house on its way towards becoming my dream home. I am so blessed to have the opportunity to stay home with Joanna every day to teach her new things and watch her grow. For the first time in my life I feel like I am exactly where I am supposed to be doing exactly what I am supposed to be doing. Raising my family. And I couldn't be happier. I truly have a million reasons to smile.