Derek, Amber & Hayli: So Many Blessings!

If it isn't one thing then it's another. Our computer crashed about 4 weeks ago, so not only was I not able to update the blog but I thought I had lost every picture of Hayli that we had ever taken. Thankfully my sister Breann hooked us up and her future father-in-law was able to fix our computer and retrieve all our pictures! Such a relief!
So here we are, Hayli is 6 months old!! Half a year!! And she could not be more beautiful!

Hayli is in the 17th percentile, weighing 14lbs. She is happy and healthy! She has two teeth, both on her bottom, and she is sleeping in her crib at night! Up until now Hayli has been sleeping in a bassinet right by our bed, she was starting to get to big for it so I finally got brave enough to move her to her own crib in her own room 3 steps away from ours. The first night I probably got up to check on her 8 times, but I have gotten better since then. Hayli is also sitting up all by herself and she started eating baby food!! I am so proud of myself that I made it the whole 6 months with her solely on breastmilk! I was so excited for her to turn 6 months because I thought that once she started baby food she would be drinking less breast milk,.... I was a little disappointed to find out that she eats the baby food ON TOP of her regular breast milk feedings. haha. Hayli is LOVING her food though. We started her on the single grain rice cereal and after about 2 weeks started mixing in squash or peas. The first time was a little shaky but she has gotten the hang of it now and absolutely loves it!

First bite!

hahaha! Not quite sure how to swallow it.

What a big girl!

hahaha!

So messy!

Dinner time has become her favorite part of the day. We feed her every night around 6:30pm at the same time Derek and I are eating our dinner. I think she just loves to be apart of it, doing the same thing we are doing. After dinner it's straight to the bath since (as you can see) she usually has her dinner all over her face, arms, and legs, we read her a story, feed her a bottle and she is asleep by 8pm.

Hayli's acid reflux is pretty much gone! I did the gluten free diet for 3 weeks with no significant change in Hayli, so I stopped the diet. Soon after that though she started getting better. I think she just needed to grow out of it. Thanks heavens that is over!

Derek's arms are doing much better! He did end up needing surgery on his wrist. I guess because of the way the wrist broke it cut off the blood flow which would have made his bone die causing early arthritis to set in. He got the surgery done about a month ago, and now just wears a brace on his wrist. He will not be able to lift things normally for another month but he is getting some motion back! His elbow has pretty much healed so at least he has one arm back.

haha. This is after his surgery! He had such a hard time waking up!

Derek did just have his best month ever working for AT&T last month, and he won MVP for his region! He has been working so hard, sometimes leaving the house at 7:30am and not getting back till 10pm. I couldn't be more proud of him and all he does for us! He had an amazing experience a little while ago with a less active man in the ward who he home teaches. The man had been having serious health problems and was told by his doctor that results of tests taken showed he probably had cancer. The night before the man went in to get a biopsy done he called Derek and Derek's companion over for a blessing. Derek talked with the man, sharing a scripture from John about putting your trust in God, he then blessed him to be healed if he would put his faith in God. The day after the biopsy, his doctor called and told him that all signs of his cancer were completely gone. His doctor couldn't believe it. I have never seen anything touch Derek like this man touched Derek's heart. Derek told me after, "that man will never know what he did for me through this." It was an incredible experience and made me so thankful to the Lord and to have an amazing guy like Derek as my husband. I'm a lucky lady!