MESSY

A day late again! She LOVES corn bread but man is it messy!!

I am thankful I had the opportunity to nurse Amelia. The more people I talk to, the more I realize that it is not something a lot of people have the privilege of doing. We made a couple weeks shy of her first birthday and I know that it was the best choice for us. There were times when I got frustrated, but now that she is done it makes me sad! It means she is turning into a big girl! I am grateful for those moments where we could snuggle back to sleep in the mornings and for the bond it created for us. I know she still needs me, but it is kinda sad to think that physically she doesn't actually 'need' me anymore! Can't believe it has almost been a year already, where does the time go?!

Out with the Old, In with the New

These are basically in chronological order.. We got a pinyon pine Christmas tree so we of course had to put it where the old decorated tree was! :) great window view! That meant playing with ornaments, shattering ornaments, and lots of vacuuming! Good thing we can laugh about it! So excited to get our real tree decorated!!

Partners in Crime

Sorry if any of my blogs get redundant! If has been a long month and I forget sometimes!

I am so thankful for the relationship Amelia has with Lole. They are so cute together. In the mornings I have to be very strict with Lole so she doesn't open Amelia's door and wake her up. When I put her down for a nap, Lole also takes a nap right outside her bedroom door the whole time. She can make Milly squeal and get so excited like few other things. She lets her do whatever she wants, and sometimes it is so funny to see the look on her face that says something like, 'help me!' Lole loves to beg at the high chair because she knows she can weasel any food out of Amelia (except for maybe a few of her favorites). I love spending time with my girls all day, always an adventure!

Sisterly Love

Lole is so good to let Amelia climb all over her!

First Tithing Settlement!

This one was for you Grandpa!

I am so grateful that Amelia will be raised in the gospel. I know that is a huge part of why Brent and I are the way we are today. I love that our parents raised us by taking us to church every Sunday so that we could learn stories about Jesus and how to be better, honest, loving, christlike people. She is already so blessed to be part of a ward family that have taken her under their wing. She gets so excited to see familiar faces at church and it is so fun to watch her interact with them. I am so grateful for the gospel in our lives and the knowledge it gives me that my family will be together forever! I wouldn't have it any other way!

Go Jazz!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4smntpeOpo

She had so much fun at the game! She loved the take cues from the crazy drunk guy next to us on whether to cheer or not when there was lots of noise going on. She is going to be our little cheerleader!

Sent from my iPhone

Go Jazz!!

First Jazz game for all of us together (for Brent and I too)!

Cold Weather

Is that not the cutest pink marshmallow you have ever seen??

I am thankful for kisses! I love that she loves to give kisses (especially when she is tired), and has learned how to blow kisses too! Tonight at the game some lucky stranger was lucky enough to receive some blown kisses from this cute girl!

Kiss for the win!

Such a trooper! She was amazing for the whole game!

Go Jazz!!!

Mesmerized

First Jazz Game!!! she loved every minute of it!

Spoiled

Hahaha this makes me laugh! She would cry unless I would give her some of my breakfast, that little stinker!

Favorite Ornaments

'What do you mean when you say these are not real cupcakes?'

I accidentally missed a day this weekend, so here it is. I am so grateful that I have had the chance to post every day something about Amelia that I am grateful for. In Relief Society today the lesson was on President Uchtdorf's talk about Regrets and Resolutions (amazing talk, go read it for a great reminder!). She talked about enjoying life no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in and it just made me realize how much my grateful blogs have helped me this month. With everything going on with my dad there were some very stressful days during the last few weeks. We were worried and we didn't have a lot of answers. Some days were so hard and at night I would remember that I still needed to blog about Amelia. Reminding myself of the blessings I have in my life and the happiness of being a mother to such an incredible daughter really brightened my spirits at the end of the day. No matter what life hands us, Brent and I are so blessed to have her in our lives. She is almost a year old and we have over 600 posts on her blog already, I'd say that is a glimpse of how proud we are of every moment with her. I hope she will always know that!

Tis the Season!

Putting the first ornament on the trestle the year!

I am so thankful for sign language. I am so glad I took the classes I did in college and the knowledge I have about how it helps babies communicate so much earlier. I have loved teaching Amelia ASL and it is so fun to have her be able to communicate what she wants. Instead of rubbing her heat for please she has been rubbing her hands together. It is adorable and since I know she is trying to say 'more please,' I am just so pleased that she is trying to communicate the best she can. Today during Sunday School she wanted more snacks and signed please the correct way!! I was so excited and wanted her to know how excited I was so she would do it again! Well this is hard to do in church... I did it as quietly as possible but still got a few laughs from the adults around me for my excitement! Love to see that girl learn and grow!!

Hilarious Girl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJziR8SVDFU


Sent from my iPhone

Helping Light the Tree!

This is from yesterday... Thanksgiving and Black Friday take a lot out of ya, and I totally forgot!

I am grateful for such a pleasant baby. This may be redundant, so sorry! But yesterday we got up and went to lots and lots of places for Black Friday with Granny, Grampy, Steph, Bubba, Amy, and Anders and she was such a trooper the whole time! She didn't get her usual early afternoon nap until about 4 when we got home, and was so happy to make everyone smile and laugh. I love to see her interact with others and to see her personality shine and she makes others around her happy. We love our happy (And very silly) girl!

Hey you! Yes, YOU!

Let me out of here! I want more pie!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am so grateful for first holidays! With Amelia turning 1 in less than 3 weeks, this was her last first holiday besides her birthday! It has been so fun to watch her experience our family traditions this last year! She definitely experienced Thanksgiving today by eating mass quantities :) I would be shocked if she didn't have a tummy ache today with all she consumed!

So grateful for our little family, I love these 2 more than words can express! They make me feel like the luckiest girl in the world!

Aunt Boo

This picture makes me smile, she is so silly!

I am grateful that I get to see he make progress every single day. At the end of the day I can't help but just lay there and think about the adorable things Amelia did that day. For example, she had started mimicking me more and more. If you watched the video of her wiping the floors yesterday, she also likes to 'help' me fold laundry, and yesterday was helping me take the clothes out of the washer to put in the dryer (it was very nice to have the help haha). She loves to put her toothbrush (or Brent's) (haha sorry babe) in her mouth too. We are finally getting her to take a step or two, but she is still very reluctant to try. But when I think about it day by day, she has made so much progress since just a couple days ago!

Fun Hair :)

These days Milly keeps her headbands in for about 4 seconds, so we have been trying out some new dos! :)

I am thankful Amelia is ticklish. It is so fun to tease her and tickle her, and she will get the funniest belly laughs and it completely makes our day. She will anticipate you coming to tickle her and will start flailing and laughing and it makes me laugh so hard. That girl really knows how to make me smile! (Just in case you haven't figured that out already :)

Wanna Get Out?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6uHrECWqwc


Sent from my iPhone

My Cinderella

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYIA-zuixSE


Sent from my iPhone

Woops!

Don't be fooled... There are no elastics in her hair. ;) we may have accidentally slept in our pigtails last night!

Fleeing the Scene

The basket of clean clothes that I folded and placed outside her door while she was napping proved to be too tempting I guess!

I am grateful for the fact that she can entertain herself while I do lashes. Most of the time she is amazing and I am constantly having my clients tell me what a great baby she is (which I obviously already knew haha). Lately she has decided that pulling my lamp cord out of the outlet and putting I back in is really fun. Also, shaking my lamp from the base and making it hit me in the forehead... As frustrated as I get sometimes when she does these things, I can't help but laugh when she looks up at me and grins or giggles. :) she also loves to tease Lole at the baby gate if she is downstairs, play with her books, walk along the side of the futon, tell stories, put stuff in the bathtub (now we keep the door closed ha), eat snacks, give me kisses on my leg, and snuggle up to me while I am doing lashes. Occasionally if she is cranky and doesn't want to go down for a nap, I will put her in her crib with a few of her friends (stuffed animals) and within a couple minutes we can hear her chatting away with them! She is so sweet and so good to put up with me on busier than normal days especially! I know that most babies wouldn't allow mayo do what I do, and I am so grateful for the wonderful girl I was blessed with!

I See You!

Haha the lighting on this pic is a little crazy but I thought it was funny!

I am so thankful for how happy Amelia is in the mornings. When she sees me come into her room, whether she is sitting up, laying down still, or standing waiting for me, she always gives me the biggest grin. It melts my heart every time. Even if she wakes up and cries, she still will stop crying and smile when she knows I have come to rescue her! :) how could you not wake up in a good mood every day when you get to start the day with her beautiful smile?!

City Creek Christmas Trees

I am so thankful for Saturdays. Ever since Brent and I started dating, Saturdays were always our day to be together. Now that Amelia has joined our family we love Saturdays even more because we get to spend all day as a family! Sometimes that means playing in the family room watching movies and football, sometimes that means shopping, but no matter what we are doing, I love that it is together. She loves seeing her dad when he gets home from work, but there is just something special about those days that he doesn't have to leave!

BTW the fountain at City Creek is apparently AMAZING and we couldn't get her to take her eyes off it and smile for a picture haha!

Cute Hair

I am so thankful for our 'hair time' every day. It is hard to see in the pic, but my little Milly is sitting in her bumbo on the counter sucking on a tootsie roll wrapper haha! She was just happy as can be (obviously)! She is so great to let me do her hair every day, whether it is curly, with a headband, or pigtails! I love that she lets me do girly things with her. Hopefully she doesn't get sick of it, just in case I try to soak in every moment I can!

Breakfast

This is pretty much the only thing she was interested in for breakfast this morning. Smart girl, it is my favorite too! :)

Yay for Clean Baby!

We must send out a public apology to Aunt Steph for throwing up on her today! :( Sorry!! She was such a trooper and was still so sweet with Amelia while they waited for me to come get her, even though she hates throw up more than almost anything!! We love you Steph!!! She had a rough day but once we got that yucky smell all scrubbed away she was much happier!

I am grateful for bath time. She really loves to take a bath and it is so fun to watch her entertain herself in there. Lately she has liked to climb up onto the side of the tub. When I ask her if she wants to get out, she quickly shakes her head no, plops herself back down and will start playing with her toys. It is adorable and makes me laugh every time! We usually do this 4 or 5 times before I finally make her get out of the tub!

Thursday Morning Snuggles

Love these 2 so much!!

No, Thank You

This is what Amelia did with the string cheese input in the tray for her. Apparently she didn't want to accidentally eat one instead of bread so she put them all in a pile on the side. Funny girl.

Today I am grateful for the fact that she is such a good napper. As long as we are home during the early afternoon she will nap for 2+ hours until I usually have to wake her up. She does so much better during the day once she has her nap and when I put her down she doesn't even cry. She will just roll over and snuggle into her lovey and close her eyes. We love to play during the day, so I am grateful that I get that chunk of time during the day to clean up our messes so we can start all over again! :) Who knows, maybe one of these days I will try out a nap at the same time! ;) wouldn't that be nice!

Baby Jayden's Bouncer

Loving stealing her cousins toys while Momma was at the hospital all day. Thanks Grandma, Grandpa, and Auntie Carly for playing with me all day!

I am so thankful that Amelia has a father who honors his priesthood. Already in her 11 months she has been able to receive fathers blessings and as she goes throughout her life she will be so grateful for them. Her dad is always willing to get up in the middle of the night if needs be to rock her and bless her when she is having a rough night. I have been thinking about this a lot lately. Today Brent and Val were able to give my dad a blessing as he came out of surgery. Brent and Clayton were able to bless him last week as well when he went into the ER. And earlier this month when baby Anders had his baby blessing it filled my heart with so much pride to see my dad, husband, and my 3 brothers be worthy to stand in a circle together. What a blessing it has been in my life and I couldn't be more grateful that my children will be blessed with that as well.

Knobs

She discovered how to turn the knobs for our sound system and she is so pleased with herself.

Didn't get to my thankful blog yesterday so here it is!
I am so thankful for the opportunities I get to snuggle with Amelia. As you can see in this picture, she is always going and it is hard to get her to sit still. It is almost as if she has been more snugly lately and Brent and I are enjoying every moment! When she wakes up in the morning, we will usually snuggle in bed for about an hour and it is one of the best hours of my day! :)

(Sorry if this is redundant, I can't remember!)

Church Nap

I am so grateful that Amelia is such a pleasant baby. She is easy to take anywhere. The biggest problem we have at church is that she wants to talk to everyone and crawl around and play with their stuff and climb up their legs! She rarely cries and is quite a hit with most people around us. We miss her dad since he is in the primary, so I am counting my blessings that she makes it so fun and easy to just be the 2 of us! Hopefully she keeps up this great behavior as she turns into a toddler ;)

Visiting Granny and Grampy

Glad to be a good distraction today for Grampy as he is still trying to recover!

Sneak

A Blurry sneak peak at my mom's new haircut!!!

Dad and the Girls

I am so grateful that Amelia has Brent for her father. She is so blessed to have a dad that honors his priesthood and puts his family first. They have the sweetest relationship and it makes me so happy to watch them play together. They love to have dance parties, share milk shakes, and snuggle when mom isn't around. She gets so excited every time we FaceTime him while he is at work. She lights up when she sees his face or hears his voice. She has got him wrapped around her little finger, he is going to be in big big trouble.

Noodles!!!

I am so thankful for that smile. And that laugh. Those two things can turn any mood around and make me so happy in an instant. She can bring out a smile in the gruffest old man or the most tough looking teenage kid in a grocery store. Her happiness is contagious and I am so grateful we get to experience it every single day!

Remembering Old Times...

I knew I was growing, but...

Bath Time!

I seriously cannot get enough pictures of her in the tub. She is so funny!

I am so thankful that Amelia has so many wonderful people in her life that love her. We are so blessed to always have family coming to our rescue when we need them, and they are happy to do it! With everyone going on with Grampy this week, her Grandma took her to play for a few hours yesterday, this morning she got to spend some time with her Granny in the hospital cafeteria while i visited Biggie, and today when Amelia needed some attention while I was doing lashes, her Aunt Steph jumped to come and take her home to play with her sweet nieces and nephews! I have had so many others this week that offered to watch her for me while I visited my dad as well.

Of course she is adorable and anyone would be lucky to watch her ;) but we count our blessings every day yo have so many people in our lives that love her so much!

Sweetheart

Oooooo

One of our favorite faces!

Hello? Grampy?

This was supposed to be yesterday. :) I am thankful for Amelia's imagination. She is getting to the point where she loves to pretend and it is so fun. She loves pretending she is on the phone and when I told her to say hello to Grampy, she immediately put her 'phone' to her ear and started talking. She LOVES the stuffed animals above her changing table and loves talking to them and having them talk back (in all their different voices and animal sounds obviously haha it is quite a show). I can't wait til we can play make believe and have tea parties together!

We Love You Biggie

This face is priceless. This was his face when the doctor told him he still has to wait at least 4/5 hours until he can have his banana malt. Hopefully things only get better from here, we are all pulling for you!

Gorgeous Day

It was so nice outside today, we had to try and soak up a little bit more of the warm sunshine before the storm hits!

Her adorable outfit is from her Granny and Grampy. I am so thankful for the relationship Amelia is able to have with all 4 of her grandparents. She is so blessed to have grandparents that love her so much and that are so close. There have been a lot of trying things in both of our families over the last couple of years, but one constant has remained and that is how blessed we have been with our family.

Tonight has given us a reminder of how much this is true. She loves all over her grandparents so much. We love you Grampy, you are in our prayers!

We Voted!!!

Embarrassed to say the first time for both of us!! But not that last! :)

Helping with Dishes

I am thankful that Amelia is so smart. She picks up on things so easily and is constantly amazing me. She knows exactly where to find things and how to make them work. I have heard a few stories about been when he was a baby about being able to figure things out, and Amelia is just like him. She likes to crawl under my eyelash chair and unscrew the screws. She likes to play in the pantry and every time I make the mistake of leaving the door open she rushes there as fast as she can to try and beat me. She has figured out how to work an iPhone and knows that she needs to use one finger and tap it or slide her finger. She knows when people (an animals) are coming and going and will wave accordingly, and will shut the door when my eyelash gals leave. She is learning her sign language but knows that even if she doesn't sign something she can get it anyway! That girl has us wrapped around her little finger and knows it! I can't say that we don't love it!

Snuggles with Dad

I am so thankful that Amelia has always been a snugly baby, there is nothing quite like having your child burrow themselves into you. I love the relationship she has with her dad. He is her true snuggle buddy. We love to snuggle early in the morning but at nights and when we are not at home, Brent can get her to snuggle up and pass out. I can't blame her, that is my favorite way to fall asleep too! ;) It never fails at church when she gets fussy and Brent takes her, he can calm her right down. It had really made me appreciate him since he got put into the primary and so now I am left to fend for myself during Sunday school and Relief Society!

I always feel bad when someone goes to hold her and she turns into me instead, but secretly I love those shy moments because I enjoy holding her close!

As she gets close to the one year mark, I wonder how much things are going to change, I hope she still has a few food years of snuggles in for Brent and I!

Nap Time

That little stinker hates it when Amelia's door is closed. Our little baby sitter :)

My girls watching some football after dinner

Pancakes!

We made pancakes this morning and Amelia was so excited about it! One thing that definitely describes Milly is that she LOVES to eat! She isn't really interested in milk in any form because she would always prefer big girl food.

We are so thankful for her health. From day 1 of our pregnancy we have been so so blessed with a healthy baby. We have for sure had our first parent panic moments when we were afraid something was really wrong and every time we have taken her in they simply tell us how healthy she is!

It is so fun to watch her discover new foods that she loves (which is most food honestly). Lately if she had something she particularly loves, she will reach out and pretend to share. Some of her favorite things to eat are chicken, peaches, pears, sweets in any form, pirates booty, tater tots, cottage cheese, butternut squash (with brown sugar of course), and coke/diet coke/juice/any sweet beverage! This girl can keep up with the best of eaters!

Thankful

I realize today is the 2nd of November and I am a day late, but I would like to use this month to share some of the things we are grateful for with our sweet girl! Hopefully some day she can come back to see our blog and realize how much she is loved!

I am thankful that she is so fun. I thought she was fun when she was you get when she would make silly faces, but I had no idea, and I am sure I will say this again a million times thought her life. We have so much fun every day. She loves to tease me, and as she gets older she loves to play. I am so thankful to get to spend every day with her. I find myself smiling most of the time because she is doing something so funny. Here are a few examples of things that she does to make me laugh:

She catches me spying on her in her crib, as soon as she sees me she will start to giggle, and then I can't help but giggle. She loves to dance with Brent and I, and the more obnoxious the song, the more she likes it. She loves to play peek-a-boo. She loves to climb everything. She loves to laugh; if she hears or sees anyone laughing she wants to be laughing to. She loves to be chased, whether it is on her way to Lole's dish or bed, or up the stairs, she gets so excited when she knows you are on her tail. She loves to talk to, climb, swat at, and play with Lole.

I could go on and on! Time is going by too quickly but we are so excited for this list to continue to grow with our favorite girl!

Bubbles!

That is some wild hair!

Diving in the Bumbo