Where Do I Begin?

I know I haven't posted in eternity, and so much has happened since then. Things get busy when you are preparing to move between countries. Well, let's see, after our trip to Scotland to visit Edinburgh with my parents (see previous post), we had a nice Mother's day here in Switzerland. Katherine made me a beautiful keepsake with her handprint on it. I am such a blessed mom to have such a wonderful daughter.

This is Katherine with her gift to me on Mother's Day.

Here she is making a cute face.

At the end of May, we took a quick 5-day trip to Atlanta so that we could look for a house. We looked at homes in the city and in the suburbs and decided on one in Marietta, just north of Atlanta. Several other professors live there, and the schools are great. The home has a swimming pool and tennis courts right behind it - added bonus! We will close on July 29th. My sisters and mom met us there, and we had a fun time together!

This is a picture of the front of the house in Marietta.

Katherine on the plane ride to Atlanta - watching Baby Einstein.
My sisters and me, with Katherine and her cousin Carli.
My mom with the grandbabies.

This past month, we have been trying to take care of everything before our move - there is a long list of things that must be done here in Switzerland before you can leave. One weekend, we also went on a hike with some friends from our Bible study. The weather was perfect. Here are some pictures from the hike, which was a challenging uphill climb the whole way.

Us about to get started on the hike.
Katherine up-close, looking cool.
She fell asleep in the Baby Bjorn toward the end of the hike.

Katherine is now over 8 months old, and I can hardly believe how quickly the time has gone by! She is now babbling a lot. Her favorite combos are ba-ba-ba and ma-ma-ma. Sometimes I think she says "mama" but I am not quite sure if she is referring to me yet. She is pretty mobile right now, as she likes to scoot and spin on her stomach, but she has not perfected the crawl just yet. She loves to stand up with support, and her legs are very strong. She has 4 teeth, and I think she will be getting some more any day now - she got the first two at 5 months and the second two at 7 months. She is quite the cutey if I do say so myself, and she is a very sweet baby. She is eating 3 solid meals a day, plus breastmilk. She likes most things we feed her, although she sometimes decides she doesn't like something and then it is a challenge to get her to eat. She is a champion sleeper, and for that I am so grateful! She sleeps at night from 7pm to around 7am (although sometimes she wakes up sooner), and she takes good morning and afternoon naps (1.5-2.5 hours each most of the time). Her daddy always makes her laugh, and she loves him so much! Here are some more cute pictures of her:

Looking like Pebbles Flinstone.
Bubbles on her head (Brandon has on his swim trunks in the tub with her).
Pretty princess.
In her jean jumper.
Enjoying the lake and mountains as much as we can.
With her mommy.

My sister Jayme is here right now for 2 weeks, so I am sure I will soon have some fun stuff to post about her time with us.