Amara Turns 1!

Last minute I decided to throw Amara a "little" birthday party... but got a bit carried away and invited 10 moms to my house for a little after school get together. But after I invited I realized that each mom comes with 2-3 children. And so I was fortunate enough to rent out our church building to hold her little party. It was so fun and very stress- free. As I was able to rent the church for $10 an hour, got to set up our bouncy castle and Thrifty's gives free birthday cakes for the first birthdays. So I threw together a veggie try, our babysitters mom brought another and we called it a party. I am so very blessed with so many wonderful friends!!!

I seriously cannot believe that she is already 1... this year has truly zipped by in a blur! 

My little bundle of JOY!!!

Sharon brought me a Starbucks coffee as she said that we should be celebrating the mother who made it through a year with 3 children as the baby doesn't know the difference yet! I like that philosophy! ;) 

YAY... Steve was able to take a bit of time off work and come for the cake eating!

It took her awhile but once she squished the piece of cake between her fingers it disappeared quickly!

And it's gone!!! 

So many sweet little girls at the party, all wanting to help Amara open her presents!



AMARA STATS...

- She weighs approximately 16.5 lbs
- She is short... she is still wearing her 6-9 month old clothing, a very petite little thing
- She is so very happy
- She is very ticklish, especially under her neck
- Big sister, Adessa loves to tickle her
- She has 4 teeth on the top and 2 on the bottom, and she likes to grind them... ick!
- She LOVES to eat and only will eat if she feeds herself
- Her favorite food is bananas and now cake!
- She has thrown her first temper tantrums this week... once over an ice cream cone that she wanted SO bad and another time she got my cell phone and I took it away... full out temper tantrums, thrown herself on the floor, kicking and screaming.
- She has rolled her eyes at us several times... oh no Steve... just you wait! ;)
- She is crawling everywhere! Pulling herself up on everything and letting go to see how long she can stand before falling.
- She has recently pointed out puppies while reading story books.
- She sleeps 12 hours at night, but still wakes up once to nurse
-Yes... I am still nursing
- She loves her big sisters more than anything, no one makes her smile like them!
- Her vocabulary includes- Mama, dada and all sorts of sounds
- She still naps for an hour in the morning and 1-2 hours in the afternoon
- She is an excellent traveler, just content to sit in the van as long as we need her to!
- She LOVES her soother... our first child who does
- She has been such an amazing blessing to our family and we cannot imagine our lives without her! 

Mexico trip....

So today is the day to leave for Mexico... I didn't sleep at all from fear of missing the alarm clock and amara wakin up to nurse and adessa goin to the bathroom. So I got up at 5:30 got everyone ready, cleaned up the hous and we were on the road by 7 am. Right on time! However when we got to the airport we discovered that our flight has been delayed 4 hours!!! And we aren't even quite sure why- apparently it was still in Mexico or something! So with our wonderful friends Amelia and Nathan Lowe who met is at the airport to take our van we went for our free voucher breakfast at white spot within the airport. But you can only sit so long before everyone goes stir crazy! So we got up and walked around awhile which led us to 10:30 am... When we were supposed to be boarding!!! Our friends the lowes are house sitting near the airport so invited us over for a bit- which we happily obliged! 

It is a gorgeous old heritage home with ocean view and i am sitting here on the couch looking at this.... 

I just put amara down to nap in a playpen already set up and the girls are happily playing with the numerous toys! 

It is so awesome how God always provides for us! So as upset as I am by the delay in making this an extra extra long day and not arriving until super late... We will make the best of it as He always provides for us!!! Hopefully there are no more delays and both girls sleep on the airplane and hopefully my next post will be in Mexico!!!! 

Trip update... Back at the airport for 1 pm to go through customs, flight delayed another 1.5 hrs!!! Argh!! So we are sitting at the airport in the play area with the girls for 2.5 hrs 😩 

The lady at the gift shop recommended this book... So hopefully I get a chance to sip on my chai and read while breathing deeply... This is going to be a looooong day!!!! 

No school today!

Today was a day off of school for Danika. We actually didn't send Adessa to school at all this week because we are leaving for Mexico in 2 sleeps. And there is a nasty flu going around the school. We are getting so very excited with squeals every morning this week as the countdown is on! 

I have been slowly packing all week and trying to organize the house. Packing for a family of five is quite the feat, it has been challenging trying to pack for 2 weeks away with an infant. 

We have been trying to take meeko for lots of walks this week and today we went out to the dog park and as we pulled up there was a huge frenzy with a pit bull attacking a lady's dog who we always see there. It was scary, eventually they pulled the dog off and the lady drove off quickly quite upset with the dog. I was so thankful we weren't out at that time! 

It was a fun walk... I love watching my girls play outside together as they have been fighting a lot at home, but outside they seem to forget their annoyances with one another and just have fun.

Big sister holding her 'baby sister'

Danika's 'present' to Adessa in their home at the beach

This Kid is just awesome

Whenever we walk to the beach at Osborne Bay the girls pretend this area is their house... I stay at the beach and play fetch with Meeko during this time!

Cool fog on the ocean... it was a lovely afternoon!

Amara is 11 months old and she just realized that she could start moving around her crib and for the past 2 weeks I have found her sitting up in it and sleeping on her tummy. It took her awhile to figure it out, but now that she has she is so proud of herself! 

She is also picking up speed with her crawling and trying to follow me around the house, but has a forehead with bruises because her head gets going ahead of her hands, poor little girl! 

My morning greeter... such a happy baby!

Pizza party with the girls. Amara is trying to eat the pizza!

I finally got around to making Amara's blanket. It took me FOREVER to remember how to work my sewing machine... it has been awhile but I was shocked not to be able to remember... thank goodness for youtube!

The first 2 have their blankets that they are attached to... I am hoping Amara finds comfort with this one!

Amara's hair every morning and after naps. We have had to cut out a few of her dreadlocks, but it is hard to keep on top of untangling them!

A few random shots from our Christmas Season

Our Christmas tree... we bought it on clearance at the end of the season last year as our first real one came with so many creepy crawlies!

Annual Christmas in Crofton parade... it was actually really good. The few stores in Crofton were handing out goodie bags, Santa was on one of the floats, there was popcorn, hot chocolate and Christmas carols put on by our church. Small town living at it's finest!

It happened... my husband got his vasectomy. And our wonderful friend the vet brought over a little gift! 

Just a day hanging out with Dess

Adessas darling preschool crafts- baby Jesus made out of nylons and a manger scene out of tongue depressors! 

One day right before Christmas I came into the living room to see Amara had scooted her bum to grab the Christmas tree!

And then she learned how to scoot herself backwards... not fun for anyone...but especially not her, no way to direct herself!

My 2 little elf's!

A couple days after Christmas we took the ferry to Thetis island to visit the Brownley's. Steve and his crew just finished tearing down their home and rebuilding it on their existing foundation. It has been quite the overhaul and quite the headache having to deal with getting supplies over on the ferry as Thetis has zero amenities on it! But they have moved in, and we wanted to bring over a moving in gift. There are still the finishing touches, but I have never been over to Thetis before and I was anxious to see it. Thankfully we went over on another gorgeous day on the island!

Once the place is completely done and they are fully moved in, we will get our friend the photographer to come over and take good photos...but here are a few from our phone! The quality of the place is absolutely amazing! The view is unreal, they overlook the ocean, with their own beach and it is like having the discovery channel outside your window. 

They said for us to pick a weekend in the summer and they will go camping and we can come take over their home... I am very much looking forward to that! 

We started a few new traditions this year. One was to drive around and find the coolest lights... this one took the cake. They had their own radio station that you tuned into right outside their house and their lights went to each song... it was pretty amazing! I can't imagine the amount of work that went into it... or their power bill for the month!

Adessa on Christmas morning... she got a new Maplea Doll named Leonie, a backpack for said doll and new goggles... she had to try them all on and give them a try outside. She is pretty awesome!

One comment she made this holiday- in the car one day she straight faced said. "You know what I want for Christmas? A new born baby so it can suck on my nipple." Totally straight faced... Steve and I could not keep it in and have been laughing ever since! Crazy kid! 

Fun Saturday!

Yesterday we headed out to our good friends Chris and Sharon's for the afternoon. As soon as we got there Chris took Steve off for the afternoon on the quads. They had a blast and were gone a couple hours. During that time Sharon and I prepped dinner- she had already spent the morning chopping veggies for Chinese food that evening. Then we took the kids out for a long walk. It was a gorgeous day, and all the puddles were frozen over so the kids had tons of fun cracking them all up! It was fun watching the kids having so much fun together! 

Sharon- the awesome hostess loaded me up with a hot chai before heading out. 

Baby snuggles! This little monkey didn't nap all afternoon! But she was still in such a great mood! 

Such a great day, we always have so much fun with this lovely family!