8 months

Eva is 8 months today!

At 8 months, she is super close to crawling. She will probably have it down in about 2 weeks. Still no signs of teeth for our little one. She babbles like crazy and has just started to shake her head back and forth for fun. She loves all food that we have given her, unless it is too cold (with the exception of ice cream). She has also started to spit out her food when she doesn't like it or is done and it makes quite a mess. She is still our happy babe, loves to play and laugh and especially loves chewing on paper. We sure love her!

Home Pictures, Tiny Girl and Morgan Starts Law School

While dressing Eva today, I found the cutest purple 6-9 month shirt for her. I thought it might be a little big, but might work (after all she is about 8 months old). So, I put it on her and it is so long on her tiny body. It goes to the middle of her thigh. Periodically I also try to put on Eva's smallest pair of shoes to see if they fit. They are 'newborn' size…and her feet are still half an inch too small (like they have always been).

I think she still only weighs a max of 15 pounds. She is such a little girl, but it's not for want of trying. The little wiggle eats like crazy! She drinks at least 20 ounces of milk and eats at least 2 cups of solids a day.

I also took a few pictures of our town home out here in Charlottesville and thought I'd post them. I LOVE living here. It is absolutely beautiful!

In other news, Morgan started law school!! He has gone a total a 4 days now and he's stayed up on homework and hasn't been called on yet. Here is his first day of school picture.

Last Week of Freedom

We have really been loving our time here in Charlottesville. It is beautiful and everyone is just so friendly. Part of that may be due to the fact that we have the cutest baby girl! Speaking of Eva, she is well on her way to crawling. She follows me around now, but just in scooting form. It is SO cute! She has also finally decided that she loves bath time.

In other news, Morgan got his diploma in the mail. This is his official 'graduation' picture.

Also, I finally finished a project that I started 4 months ago. I saw this awesome sunburst mirror on Pinterest. It is made from paint stir sticks, a quilting hoop, and a round mirror. I just painted the sticks and hot glued them around the mirror. It took me an hour to make the whole thing.

Daniel of the Lyons Den

On Tuesday evening we received some terrible news. Morgan's only brother, Daniel, had passed away.  We promptly flew to Colorado Springs to be with his family. We helped arrange the funeral and Morgan did a great job editing his life sketch. Daniel was such a funny kid. He was always making everyone laugh. He was so accepting and kind to others and really enjoyed spending time with his family, playing games, laughing and visiting (among many other things). His funeral was one of the best services I have ever attended. His life sketch was absolutely perfect and every talk and musical number fit together so well. I especially appreciated the closing remarks that were given by a member of the stake presidency. He just reaffirmed my knowledge that this life is not the end. We will see the ones we love again. I especially love that he said that no matter what we do in this life we will always have the opportunity to repent and come back into the presence of the Lord. We are all prodigal sons who, if we choose to repent and come back, will be welcomed with open arms. 

Loosing someone in this life is always a tragedy, but I am glad that I have my faith to fall back on when it happens. It makes a life that could be full of such misery and heartache one of hope. Through the gospel of Jesus Christ, I have found peace. The Savior died and was resurrected so that we could all be together again. The sacrifice and resurrection of the Savior is a wonderful blessing and why the angels declared at the Lord's coming that they had glad tidings of great joy! In Mosiah 16:7-8 it says: 

7 And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection.

 8 But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.

 I know that my Savior lives! And because he lives we will all live again and be together again! I had the opportunity to sing I Stand All Amazed at the Funeral and the lyrics sum up my testimony perfectly:

 

1. 1. I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me,
   Confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me.
   I tremble to know that for me he was crucified,
   That for me, a sinner, he suffered, he bled and died.
2. (Chorus)
   Oh, it is wonderful that he should care for me
   Enough to die for me!
   Oh, it is wonderful, wonderful to me!
3. 2. I marvel that he would descend from his throne divine
   To rescue a soul so rebellious and proud as mine,
   That he should extend his great love unto such as I,
   Sufficient to own, to redeem, and to justify.
4. 3. I think of his hands pierced and bleeding to pay the debt!
   Such mercy, such love and devotion can I forget?
   No, no, I will praise and adore at the mercy seat,
   Until at the glorified throne I kneel at his feet.

Washington D.C.

My parents wanted to see Washington D.C. before they headed back to Idaho. We drove up on Friday and saw Mount Vernon on the way there. Mount Vernon, by far, was my favorite part of any of our site-seeing. If you do one thing while visiting out east, go to Mount Vernon! It was SO beautiful and was decorated wonderfully. It was interesting, yet again, to learn about another founding father. George Washington was truly a great man! Sadly, I didn't get any pictures. :(

We then went to see all of the monuments in DC as part of an evening tour. It was awesome. The guide told us so many good stories and facts.

The following day we went to Arlington and watched the changing of the guard at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

We then went to the National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The writing on the Declaration is SO faded, you can barely see it. We followed that up by seeing 'thee' ruby slippers at the Museum of American History and then finished the day at the Museum of National History.

We then had to drive up to Baltimore to drop my parents off at the airport to fly home. We were so sad to see them go! We loved having them here in Virginia!

That basically summed up the end of our big traveling this summer. So in 6 weeks we went through Utah, Arizona, and Nevada to get to California. We drove to Idaho twice and then drove through Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Washington DC and Maryland! Whew!! I never want to travel again!

Monticello

On July 17th, we decided to go spend the day up at Monticello. We enjoyed learning more about Thomas Jefferson (he also founded UVa) and seeing such a monumental piece of architecture. It was beautiful from the outside and quite unique and somewhat impractical on the inside. Thomas Jefferson strikes me as the classic Renaissance man who tried to think of everything he could do differently and then try it out. Somethings were cool, and some things were just a little ridiculous (like the super skinny staircases). The grounds were beautiful and it was awesome to see the surrounding area from the hill.