Yesterday Kristen and I took Vivian to the park for her first time! I am SO thankful for warmer weather. The park was packed with lots of families and Vivian enjoyed watching the other kids play. She also loved the swing!

We met Brett, Jody, and Ansley there (and several other fun people). Ansley shared her wagon so that Vivian could go along for a ride.

Brett took them around the park...I'm sure she loved it, especially just watching Ansley.

Sweet girl.

I haven't put anything in Vivian's hair yet...no bows, headbands, clips, etc. Probably because she's never had the hair to do anything! But I found this cute ladybug clip that Molly sent us when she was born and thought I'd try it out. Hmm..don't know. We'll use this one sometimes, but I don't think I'll go out and buy more. hehe

This weekend Chris and Kristen came from Raleigh to visit and we had a blast. They got here on Friday afternoon and played with Vivian while we waited for Aaron to get home from work, and when he did the guys grilled steaks and we ate dinner. On Saturday morning Chris and Aaron got up early and drove to Snowshoe for one last ski excursion of the season. It was 60 degrees on the ski slopes! They said it was not crowded and the conditions were okay until it got really slushy in the afternoon. It was mid 70s here, so Kristen and I had lunch on a patio at a local sandwich place and took Vivian to the park. While she was napping we just hung out together at the house! It was great to see them and catch up on much needed conversations.We missed Ruthie terribly! Ruthie is their 15 month old...she was visiting grandparents this weekend. But we did talk a lot about Baby Cutch #2, due in September! Last night we played trivia games after dinner. We were all impressed with Chris's vocabulary/verbal skills :)

Thanks for making the trip to hang out guys!

Vivian has been standing on her own for a while (holding onto something), but today was the first time she pulled up and got to the standing position on her own. I was shocked! She was very pleased with herself :)
I got her one of those tables that has toys all over the top, so she can practice standing and moving around it. She loves it!

We are moving right along with this pregnancy and I'm loving every minute. Yesterday I went in for a belly check and the heartrate was around 140 bpm and everything looks great. I am feeling the baby move now which is a dream come true :)

This morning I went to a shower that Jane Cannon hosted for Baby Cyrus! Sarah's due date is about a month away and she got a lot of goodies this morning to get ready. Good friends :)

Tabby and Kristin Sarah, Debbie, and Carissa

We've had a great weekend so far! Last night we went over to Tony and Kelly's house near the lake to hang out with friends and celebrate birthdays. After we ate, the men stayed upstairs to talk about God and the rest of us went downstairs to laugh at each other's crazy stories. We stayed out too late...thanks to Uncle Joey and Aunt Sierra for babysitting!Too bad for Ben...everyone else was having a good time, don't know what he's stressed about! Maybe he was tensed up about the boxing match (see video) :)We compared the way we fold laundry, and even gave demonstrations.There was a small arm wrestling tournament between some of the ladies..

And for a few minutes we were entertained while Jody and Jill went head-to-head in Wii boxing...this is so funny!

On Sunday afternoon we were surprised with a visit from Nat, Shannon, and Graham! They live in Texas, near Houston, but were visiting for the weekend and had extra time so they stopped by. It was great to see them because we know it will be a while before we see them again...they live so far, and also will have a newborn (girl) in May to love on. Their firstborn, Graham, is a handsome little guy! Vivian loved to watch him walk around and play. We caught this picture at the wrong time, obviously, but I had to post this because Graham's GQ pose is absolutely perfect!

Carissa and Keagan also came over, bearing gifts from Starbucks. Carissa, Shannon, and I grew up on the same street.

Attack, attack!

Vivian is showing everyone that it's customary in the pre-toddler world to eat our guests' faces.

On Saturday we took a day trip to Winterplace, WVa with friends from church to snowtube. You can see in the pictures how pretty the day was, and the temperature was just right, too. It was awesome to spend so much time with our church family! It was a lot faster going down than I had anticipated! To consider Baby Fernandez, I sat on my bottom in the tube on all of the runs.Chris and Crystal went and I was glad...we were able to get to know them much better. They are a fun couple! They have an 11 month old daughter, Chandler, that Vivian likes to play with in nursery.This is how we got to the top of the hill (it's like the walkways at an airport, just going up)...a little scary at first because I felt I was going to fall off.But then everyone got brave and had snowball fights while riding it. Here's my hubby, probably starting it of course. I thought for sure we were going to get thrown out of the snowtube park. The guy with the loud speaker had to say something every time our group got on..."DO NOT throw snowballsNathan and Erin were the planners for the whole trip...thanks for doing all the work and inviting us, guys! It was a blast.The only frustrating thing of the day was the line we had to wait in...it was ridiculous! Someone said that it was the busy day that they've had all year. By the last few times, though, we were making it pretty fun. We stopped to eat at Outback in Christiansburg on the way home...what a perfect treat. We also celebrated Lauren's birthday (on the left in the back of the booth). It was a long day but fun, fun! Thanks to Gramme for keeping Vivian all day :)

Yesterday at the grocery store the cashier asked me when my next baby is due. Ahh! I thought she was going out on a limb by asking, but maybe I am showing a little baby belly these days! I'll get Aaron to take a belly shot asap. Baby Fernandez is about as big as an apple now :)

Vivian is 8 months old today :)
-I noticed a tooth coming in yesterday. This time I am sure! I can see it and feel it. It hasn't caused too much of a problem for her (although it could be why her naps have been a little short the last couple of days)
-We have pretty much dropped the 3rd late afternoon nap. However, if she wakes too early from her 2nd nap, I can guess that it will be too much of a stretch for her to wait until bedtime at 7, so she will take the 3rd nap. But lately she hasn't needed to.
-She really likes "If you're happy and you know it" in Spanish, and "The Wheels on the Bus" in English. She squeals when we sing these.
-Sometimes if I pucker my lips right in front of her face and ask for a kiss, she'll give me one! She puts both of her hands on my cheeks and brings her mouth to mine, wide open :)
-She has mastered the pincer grasp when it comes to picking up Puffs and putting them in her mouth. I just introduced Puffs recently as an afternoon snack and she loves them.
-If she wakes up too early in the morning, I can still go back to sleep because I can count on her to just play in her crib for a good 30 minutes, sometimes without making a peep! I'm thinking about putting a stuffed animal in there so she'll have something to play with when she wakes up.
-She's making all kinds of different sounds now. Not so much consonant sounds yet, though. She has recently learned to blow raspberries (I think that's what you call it?) with her tongue. Basically to me it's spitting...yikes.
-Not crawling yet, but she can pretty much maneuver around a room just by pushing backwards and turning.
-We think she is a sweetheart!