Yep, still walking....

This is Journey's evil, I'm proud of myself smile when she is walking a long distance.
Silly girl.
She is gaining more and more confidence in walking around, and is also learning to pull herself up to stand.

WALKING!!!!!!

Yes, it's true! Journey decided that she could walk, and just took off tonight! We were at my parent's house for Mark's birthday dinner, so I have no pictures yet. It was like she realized that she could do it and was so proud of herself. She wanted to walk everywhere.

I was putting off scheduling her 18 month doctor's appointment since she wasn't walking on her own and I knew her doctor would want to put her in therapy, etc. Now I can schedule it :)
Oh, and it will be nice to have her walking for Costa Rica in a few weeks. Never was a mom prouder! Ha ha :)

Progress!

Journey loves to walk behind the couch and look out the windows.
Throwing a fit

Journey is slowly inching her way to walking. You have to understand that she works in baby steps towards progress, but she is making progress :)

She has been practicing balance by taking her hands off of what ever she is holding on to as long as she can. She does this all the time now and is so proud of herself. She has also been taking some steps on her own (between or to different things). One other piece of progress is that tonight, for the first time, she walked with me just holding one hand. She normally insists on having both of her hands held to walk or she will sit down and throw a fit.

Grocery Savings

One of the things I enjoy doing is shopping and spending as little as possible for our food and health and beauty items. I had a pretty great grocery shopping day today. Total spent was $27.88, and I got a ton of food!
Safeway
20lb. bag white rice
watermelon
2 1/2 gal. organic milk
1 jar tahini (used to make hummus)
2 large bags sugar snap peas
2 bottles salad dressing
12 pack TP
2 cans dog food
Total: $7.09

Asian Market
cilantro
ginger
1 sweet potato
2 limes
1 lg. can bamboo shoots
1 pack sushi paper
1 pack salad roll wraps
2 cans red curry paste
1 jar hoisin sauce
1 jar hot chili sauce
1 jar pickled ginger
2 fresh asian dumpling things (not sure what it's called, but it looked good!)
Total $20.79

Dinner Time

I am embarrassed to admit that we have not been in the habit of having a family dinner together. Both Mark and I were raised having dinner as a family, but we have not made it a priority in our own home. There are many reasons for this. Mostly that Aspen is a SUPER picky eater and would never eat anything I cook for dinner. It has just been easier to feed the kids first, then make dinner for ourselves, usually after they are in bed. I just realized within the last week that we need to change that!

I don't have any great pictures, but over all, the change is going good. Well, actually, the first night was horrendous, but we are learning as we go. After the first night, I sat Aspen and Journey down to let them know about the changes and what I expected of them. Since then it has gone much smoother, and I am not as exhausted after making dinner.

New Rules:
1. Aspen sets the table
2. We all eat the same thing. If you don't eat, you go to bed hungry.
3. I need to plan the meals ahead of time.

Yes, I know, they all seem so obvious, but it's new stuff for me.

My Little Ring Bearer

After all the coaxing and bribing, he sure looks good in a tux!

Adrian was the best man
Kassi, the flower girl, with Aspen drooling over the cake.

Aspen had the priviledge of being the ring bearer at our good friends, Brett and Ciara's wedding over the weekend. It was a beautiful wedding and Aspen did awesome. There was a little bribing involved........ but hey, I wouldn't be too excited about putting on that many layers either!

Bubba....Dadda....Love....

That is what Journey said today as we were passing a picture of Mark, Aspen and Journey together! I couldn't believe it. Journey truly loves her bubba. I love watching their relationship develop.

Here they are watching cartoons. All snuggled up on the couch together.
One other story, last night as we were cleaning up after dinner, Aspen started laughing hysterically at Journey. When we looked over to see what was going on, we realized that Journey was making funny faces at Aspen and he was totally cracking up. It was hilarious. Journey was pretty proud of herself that she could make Aspen laugh so much too. I am hoping that I will be quicker at getting my camera out next time so that I can capture what she was doing!