Monday, April 28, 2008

Happy Birthday and So much more



So..........we're ONE now!!

And YES...we've taken steps and NO we are not walking yet. =)

Amaya is growing by leaps and bounds. She says so many words now.
Even today she started to say "buh bye" and wave. SO CUTE!! We've been trying to make this consistent for weeks now and finally it is.

So her vocab is: Reggie, Mama, Dada (or Dadoo), Hello, Buh Bye, Yellow (same as hello), Alice (same as hello) Moo, Love U (sound kind of like hello but a little different), patty (something that sounds like it)
There might be more but that's all I can think of right now.

Amaya's second cake turned out much softer...it was kind of pretty but it took forever to frost and I used soooooooo much frosting. We had a lot of fun with Chad's family. We tried a new "Haystack" recipe with his family - they all loved it. Which is good. =)

Thank you all for making her first birthday so special. Thanks for all the gifts and love!!

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Ahhhhh.....Spring

I absolutely love spring...the vibrant colors coming to life are so amazing. Right now in Bloomington there are so many colors: pinks, whites, reds, purples are all among my favorites.

Driving down the road right now you'll see all these colors and it just feels right. I love how God made so many colors (and good weather to go with it.)
As I was driving the other day I thought of how God created the rainbow and all the colors in it as a promise. I also thought of a life that is devoid of color and how dark (black) that is, but even an ounce of light can quench that darkness...HOW AMAZING IS THAT!!
Even just a little of God's love can pull someone from the pit and into knowing who He is...I am ever thankful for HIS love and light in my life!!

I hope that you enjoy the beauty that God created during this spring time!!

Loving Jesus and enjoying life.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Big Mess..

...and it wasn't Amaya.
Today I was getting ready to do laundry and I opened the cabinet with the detergent and there was detergent all over.
Ugh....the bottle had leaked for about a week now. It was even dry in places and gloopy.
I couldn't believe how bad it smelled too. I guess clean stuff can smell bad if it's mixed with wood cabinets.
I called the company and they are sending me free coupons for more detergent. Too bad they couldn't replace my cabinets too. =) It was the first time I have been really thankful for "caved in" cabinets. These cabinets are so old that the bottoms are caving in therefore creating a nice little well for the detergent to pool in.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Cutie Pie

So I'm about to break a record - two posts in about 5 days...woohooo!!

I just had to blog about what has happened the past two days plus share some pics of the birthday party in Shipshewana.
Yesterday I was washing dishes and I heard Amaya babbling away and I found her laying beside Reggie just a talking away - so cute. She's always loved to play with him and he's always been protective of her since day one but it was just too cute. I tried to capture the moment on camera but this was the best I could do.
Here is another Reggie and Amaya picture - best friends (for right now). =) She's pretty smart too, she'll take one of his toys and play tug of war with him and then if he gets it she gets another one of his toys and tempts him with it so he'll let go of the first one. It's pretty cute.

This morning she decided it was more fun to play with Mama's hair that was pulled back instead of just playing with the hair that was already down. It resulted in this:hmmm....what's life like without a little bit of humor.

That's it for today - here's some birthday pics:The Cake - pretty little doll cakeAmaya trying to figure out what to do with the pretty little doll cake
Not exactly sure what to do with this???Alright now it's fun....


Sunday, April 13, 2008

So much...

Ok so blogging was put on the back burner for a while. I've been pretty busy and have just not made the effort to post anything.
The past few weeks have had some very interesting happenings...Amaya's birthday party with my family, eating dog food, being sick, not sleeping well...to name a few.
So last week Amaya was very quiet and I went to check on her. I find her sitting by Reggie's food with it all over the floor and a lot in her hand. She's happily munching away on "something" (dog food). So I got "it" out and she's still munching...another one came out and she's STILL munching away. I didn't realize the last one was in there until it had started to fall apart and she was swallowing it. =) At least our dog food has only natural things in it. Yesterday she decided she wanted some more and put a whole handful in her mouth. Much to her dismay, I got it all out while she was kicking and crying...maybe I should try it to see if it's as good as she thinks it is.

Amaya's first birthday party...it was a few weeks early b/c we were visiting Shipshewana. It was quite interesting. The cake was super-cute. My sis-in-law Denise helped me decorate it. Amaya was amazed with the doll and reached for that first. She touched the cake but didn't really eat much of it so I tried to see what happened if I tried to "destroy it" like she was supposed to do. Well, I couldn't either. It was HARD! I wanted to be all natural and only use the healthiest ingredients and no sugar...blah blah....it had only wheat flour, wheat germ, carrots, raisins, etc...well anyway, it was just a block of HEALTH (hard block of HEALTH). Not very good to eat or destroy. I helped her get to the inside and she finally started "destroying". She did get it all over herself and the floor in the end but I don't think she liked it very much. (I think for her next party we will use a cake mix that is "unhealthy" but lots of fun to squish and DESTROY!!)

Oh and making the cake and cooling it were quite interesting too. I made it in my pampered Chef batter bowl and when I turned it over on the cooling rack, it started oozing out the middle - it was pretty funny. I was able to save about 1/2 of it but not exactly the experience I was hoping for. I baked it for the time specified and I even poked in a toothpick to make sure it was "done." (Guess that didn't work too well.)

Amaya has been a very healthy baby with just runny noses here and there and a few more major colds but it she is fine for a week and then gets a runny nose and slight cold for 2-3 weeks. Our Children's ministry has a standard of no runny noses for the children so it's been a little hard to keep her in there. She loves to play with the other kids and does not like to sit through a service anymore. She is just too busy. That's not fun for me since Chad has a "job" almost every Sunday - counting money or taking care of his parking team or whatever else you can think of. =)
That's it for now....here's a random pic since I haven't uploaded the other pics to go with this post. =/Amaya is exploring in Reggie's "beddie."