It's GREAT to be a FLORIDA GATOR!!

Wow! What a great day and year to be a Gator living in Gainesville!

Congratulations to the Florida Gators--2006 BCS National Football Champions. And for being the first school in NCAA history to hold both the basketball and football titles at the same time. Incredible.

GO GATORS!

Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa P. and Dancing with the Stillers

On Christmas day, we celebrated with Jonathan's family in Clermont/Groveland.


Rosemary with Grandpa P. and a cow.
Before heading back home, we visited with Bennett and Sara. They had just gotten a dance game that has Christian music that we all played again and again. Who knew that Jonathan and Bennett were such good dancers?

First Christmas (at home)

We celebrated Christmas with just the three of us on the 23rd before heading down to spend time with Jonathan's family. She seemed to enjoy it, but she wanted to open daddy's presents even more than her own.

Pulling up

A few weeks ago, Rosemary was sick so I brought her home early from daycare. I laid her down in her crib and when I walked by again, she had pulled herself up all the way to her feet in her crib! We had lowered the mattress because we knew it was just a matter of time!

Pebbles

I put Rosemary's hair up like this one time when we were with my parents and my mom commented that when it's like that, she looks like Pebbles Flintstone. She kinda does. :-)
This was one of the last times Rosemary took a bath in her little plastic baby bath. Once she started pulling up to her knees, it was just a matter of time before she started trying it in the bathtub. Here she got up on her knees then started turning the hot water on! Since switching her to the big bathtub though, her enjoyment of bathtime has steadily decreased. I think we need to get her some bath toys for her birthday. Maybe they will help.

Butterfly Rainforest

Janice, Richard, Elizabeth and Ezekiel came to visit us early in December. We took them to the Butterfly Rainforest (where we take all of our visitors). It was cold out, but we still got to see a lot of butterflies. And they kept landing on Janice and Elizabeth!


Rosemary and Ezekiel are very close in age. Ezekiel is 2 and a half months older. We credit Ezekiel with teaching Rosemary how to pull up. She'd been trying to, but after his visit she mastered it.

I thought this pic of Elizabeth and Ezekiel was adorable. You can see their blog here. He is such a happy little boy!
This butterfly landed on Janice during the butterfly release. It stayed there all the way until the end. You can see Richard with Ezekiel on the other side of the bridge. The man on the far right of the picture was the one who released the butterflies. Essentially he just picked the up out of the mesh cage and threw them and off they went.
I think that Rosemary was trying to catch a butterfuly here. That or touch one of the flowers.

Ten months, new cousins, and an early Christmas

Rosemary is ten months old! Apparently, she's giving her alligator a tooth exam. Maybe she'll be a dentist. Not that she has any teeth herself though!

This is Rosemary's newest cousin. Sarah Grace. She was just a few days old in this picture.

We celebrated Christmas four times this year. The first time was with my mom and dad in Longwood. Rosemary donned her Santa suit for the first one. She did well with the presents this year and tried to help open them.

Thanksgiving Dinner

My mom and dad came to Gainesville to celebrate Thanksgiving with us this year. Mom and I cooked then we had our first Thanksgiving meal in our house. Rosemary loved the sweet potato casserole.

Up to 9 months

I'm going to try to catch up a bit with our blog over the week.

Below are a few pictures around when Rosemary was 9 months old.

Let me explain this one to you. Rosemary had been getting over a cold and we were playing with her in her room. The toy in front of her is in the shape of a fishbowl and it has little balls that roll around inside. She was taking them out then putting them back in. At one point, she leaned over to put her head in then came up with that look on her face!

This was one Sunday after church.

Rosemary's 9 month Gator pic. She's in her jammies and ready for bed. I think this was shortly after a bath, which explains the crazy hair! She's a happy girl.

A few more

I had tried adding this pictures when I uploaded the others but for some reason it didn't work.

I think this is my favorite one from that day.

Jonathan and Rosemary

Eight Months

Rosemary is now eight months old. In last few months she's started talking--mainly da-da-da, ba-ba-ba, and such. Although last week, my mom and dad and I could have sworn that she said apple juice. She also occassionally tries to sing and when she hears music, she starts to clap and dance. It's quite cute.

She's also a very good sitter now, however, getting down to her tummy from a seated position still poses a problem, but she manages to get it done.

Most recently she's started scooching. If we set her down the floor and she sees something she wants on the other side of the room, she heads for it. This mainly occurs in the living room though. If she finds herself on the wood floors in the kitchen or foyer, she tends to just spin in circles since she can't get very good traction. I'll try to get some pictures of how she moves. I wouldn't call it crawling, but it's not far away from that.

Last weekend, we went to a butterfly festival over on campus at the Natural History Museum. Rosemary and I were both getting over colds so it was nice to be out and it was a gorgeous day for a festival.
Rosemary's showing that pacifier who's boss. If you look close, you can tell the Gator head is upside down. It doesn't appear that she cares. :-)
A hug from Rosemary.

And now a smile!

Check out that crazy hair.

Mmmm...lunch!

In early October, we had a Campus House reunion. Rosemary got to hang out for the evening.

Janey and Rosemary.
It's Rosemary's 8-month birthday (9-30-2006). It's also her very first Gator Game experience. She didn't go to the game, she stayed at the Campus House with Grandma and Grandpa Peine, but she was in the middle of all the action!

Many Firsts...(Disney, beach and daddy's birthday)

Hope that you enjoy the many pictures below. I think we're almost caught up!

Rosemary is taking everything in during her first Disney trip. She waited on Jonathan's shoulders for her first ride on It's a Small World. She rode Pirates of the Caribbean, It's a Small World, the Peoplemover, and Buzz Lightyear. Oh, and of course, the Monorail.

In mid-September, we headed down to Disney for a conference that I attended with work. We took advantage of staying at the hotel and went down a day early to visit the parks, courtesy of Becky and Steve. Here Rosemary is hanging out on one of the beds at the Contemporary with her very first Minnie Mouse doll.
This was the view from our hotel window. We had an incredible view of the Magic Kingdom fireworks.

Monday night we ate at Disney's Wide World of Sports. Rosemary just wanted to share daddy's drink!

This little girl is tuckered out. We were heading over to ride the carosel, but she didn't quite make it.

It's a Small World started out well, but she didn't make it all the way to the end. She just snuggled into her dad's arms and took a little nap.

Welcome to Disney, Rosemary!

Her first set of Minnie Mouse ears. What a sweet girl!

Here we are with my mom and dad right before going on Main Street. Yes, we are wearing matching shirts. Yes, we are from Central Florida. And yes, it was so much fun!

Splish, splash! Rosemary can sit up now in her little tub and she splashes while we wash her. Bathtime is one of her favorite times.

Rosemary's giving kisses!

Me and Rosemary after church one Sunday

Happy Birthday, Daddy! For Jonathan's birthday and Labor Day weekend, we joined his family in St. Augustine.

Rosemary's hanging out with Grandma P. during her first beach trip at Anastasia Island.

She's not a huge fan of the ocean just yet. Staying in Jonathan's arms was just what she wanted.

Tennis, anyone?

Hey, check me out, I'm seven months old! (8-31-06). Is it me or is this gator getting smaller?

I'm taking after my grandpa and starting to read the newspaper.

Look, I'm sitting up without any help!

I'm six months old! (7-31-06)