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Here are a few recent videos:
The first one is Adeline's first taste of carrots.  This is the only food we've found so far that she does not like.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

We drove down to Raleigh on Wednesday evening to spend Thanksgiving with Rob's family.  We were so excited for Adeline to see her cousin Cooper again!
We had such a nice, relaxing weekend. On Thanksgiving Day, we went for a nice walk in the morning with the babies and spent the rest of the day cooking and preparing for dinner.

Adeline and Cooper with their Yaya and Papa:

The whole family:

This is the best picture we could get of the babies together!

Cooper and Adeline sat with us at the table.

Cooper was very talkative and had us all laughing!

After dinner, the Smiths came to visit.

We usually get together with them every year, but it's been two years since our last visit because it was too snowy last Christmas!

It was so great to see them and introduce them to Cooper and Adeline.

Cooper runs around in this little walker and keeps us all on our toes!

(especially the dogs!)

On Friday, the girls took the babies shopping while the boys played golf.  Impressively, the babies endured 5 hours of shopping... but we came home empty-handed!

We drove back to Richmond on Saturday and had a fun day on Sunday doing some Christmas shopping and enjoying the warm weather!

It's hard to believe Christmas is right around the corner! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend too!

6 Months Old!

On November 15th, Adeline turned 6 months old!

I can't believe she is half a year old already!

Stats: At her recent Dr appt., Adeline weighed 14lbs, 5oz. 

She can roll from her tummy to back, and from her back onto her side. 

She loves to smile and giggle

She eats rice cereal and baby food once per day.  So far, she has tried bananas, apples, broccoli, sweet potatoes, peas, and carrots.  She likes everything except carrots!

Look how much she's grown!

She's such a happy baby. She smiles like this every time Rob walks into the room.



She laughs when I give her raspberries on her belly.

We are so proud of our sweet Adeline and are so excited to experience the holidays with her this year!

I'll be sure to share pictures from Thanksgiving in Raleigh with the Bantas.

Weekend in NJ

Last weekend we drove to NJ to see my mom's side of the family.  It was a long drive, and Adeline's first long car trip, but it was well worth it!
We left early on Saturday morning.  Adeline was pretty good in the car, but she didnt sleep very much so I sat in the back with her and tried to keep her entertained.  We got to my grandparent's place around lunchtime.

Adeline and her namesake, Adeline

Four Generations!!!



Adeline was very happy to meet her great-grandparents for the first time!

My aunt Lisa, cousin Kalie, uncle Dave, and cousin Ian also came over to meet Adeline. We had a nice dinner together at my grandparents' apartment.

My aunt brought a "busy box" toy that belonged to me as a baby... I couldnt believe she kept it so long! And it was amazing it still worked.

Everyone had fun just playing with Adeline!

This is also the first time Adeline met her uncle Ryan!

Uncle Austin

The next morning, we had a quick breakfast with Grandpa and got back on the road!

We are just so glad we were able to see everyone (except Larry, Jackson, Graham and Ange- we missed you!), and are so grateful Adeline got to meet her great-grandparents!

Adeline's new swing

A couple weekends ago, Rob hung a swing on the tree in our backyard for Adeline.  She loves it!  Luckily, we've had some nice weather so she can use it.

I'll be back soon with lots of new pictures from our weekend in NJ!

Adeline's Baptism

Last weekend, my parents, my brother Austin, and Rob's parents came in town for Adeline's Baptism.  They all arrived on Saturday around lunchtime and we had a fun afternoon just hanging out and playing with Adeline

That evening, everyone stayed at our house for dinner.  It was nice to have everyone together and to catch up!

Adeline with her Grandmothers

Our family and friends were incredibly generous, yet again, with giving Adeline gifts to commemorate her special day. She has so many beautiful keepsakes.

On Sunday morning, we were up early to get Adeline dressed in the gown I was baptized in.

My grandmother started to embroider my name in the slip of the gown, but only got halfway through.

She said sometimes life moves too fast and before you know it, the baby is all grown up.

Hopefully I will be able to embroider Adeline's name before she has children!

Adeline wore the cap from Rob's side of the family.  It was so nice to be able to incorporate heirlooms from both families!

Adeline's Godparents, Rushman and Neal, traveled to Richmond for the service.

We were so happy they could be there!

It was a really nice service.  Adeline was the only baby baptized, and we were surprised by the amount of water the pastor poured over her head!  She was such a good sport and smiled the whole time.

As the pastor introduced Adeline into our church family, I thought back to how far we've come in the past 5 and 1/2 months.  It's hard to believe she has grown from a tiny 3 and 1/2 lb infant into such a bright and healthy baby girl. 

God is good.

Afterwards, we all went to brunch.

 Rob's parents had a beautiful heirloom blanket made for us.

It has Adeline's name embroidered on one corner, with room on the other corners for future children's names.

You can see Adeline's name on the bottom of the picture below.

Adeline with her Godparents

So many of our Richmond friends were able to join us.  Each one of these people were incredibly generous and kind when Adeline and I were in the hospital, and I will never be able to thank them enough.  I don't know what we would do without them!  They continue to provide so much love and support to our family.

What a great weekend!  We are so blessed!