Santa lost his sleigh and borrowed a Civic

A few weeks before Christmas we went to the Tempe Town Lake Boat Parade with our friends Steven, Sandi and their nephew Josh. It was so much fun to see how creative people got in decking their boats out with lights, and they also bring in snow machines, and piles of snow for the kids to play in as well as a small fireworks show to finish off the parade. I was afraid Malia might be frightened by the noise of the fireworks but to my surprise she was fascinated with all of the lights. One of the most hilarious parts of the evening were the Santa's in the Civic cruising down Mill who stopped for me to snap a quick picture. Good times!

A new tradition

A few weeks ago we had dinner and made gingerbread houses with most of our small group, we missed you Steven and Sandi. Stephen did most of the work while I entertained Malia. As you can see Stephen has a creative side and I look forward to making the gingerbread house an annual tradition.

Saga of the petite baby

Thank you Lord, I was able to get Malia into a pediatric allergy specialist this past week. The wait at the other practice for a consult was 2 months. The dr. decided to do a skin test which is not as scary as I had imagined, it doesn't even break the skin. The test revealed that Malia is not allergic to dairy, eggs, oats, wheat, soybeans, or peanuts. Thank you Lord! The specialist said that it sounded like she had a severe case of milk protein allergy and that she has outgrown it like most babies do, and to go ahead and introduce dairy slowly. So far, Malia has had cheese, yogurt and a mixture of 1/2 formula, 1/2 milk and she is doing great. Another comfort to me was that the chances of another baby having such a severe allergy to dairy through breastmilk is rare, so that gives me hope that I will have a better experience nursing if we are blessed with another baby. So it looks like we have a petite baby on our hands who is digesting all of her food wonderfully. Stephen is so excited that she will be able to have pizza with him sometime in the future.

T.P. Queen

Often when I post pictures we are doing an activity and Malia is dressed and her hair is combed, this is a picture of what life at home looks like. I found this hidden gem in my October pictures so I don't remember the circumstances, but something similar to this (the t.p. now sits on the countertop) happens if she is out of my sight for more than a minute. It is like she has radar and knows when my attention is not completely on her because she will leave her toy hat she was happily playing with and either she is at my feet attempting to say "up" or finding something fun to explore. Stephen pointed out that the cats used to do this to the t.p. as well, what do you say to that. Side note: I think someday the rooster hairdo will fetch a pretty penny when future husband comes around and we pull out the baby pictures.

Malia's Birthday Celebration Pictures

Make a Smilebox slideshow

One year stats

This morning Malia went for her 1 year well baby visit and did fantastic. She had 3 shots, which of course she was not happy about, but she rebounded quickly and is currently recovering by taking a nap. :( The Dr. was satisfied with her weight because she hasn't fallen off the growth curve, but does think it is time for allergy testing. I was sure she had put more weight on because she is such a great eater, but she is also extremely active. It seems like when I am with babies her same age she is always the most active, sometimes I wish she would sit on my lap and cuddle, but she is an explorer and I am thankful she is healthy. Speaking of exploring last night I snapped these pics of her dragging the boxes from her birthday presemts around the family room to climb on top of whatever she could find, yes of course the boxes are gone now that I know what she can do.

Malia's Stats: Weight 18lbs 2 oz (10th percentile) Height 27.5 in (10th percentile)

Happy Birthday Sweet Baby Girl!

12.9.07 at 12:35 a.m. 8lbs 13oz 20 1/2 in
1 year later

I can't believe that Malia is a year, it is crazy how fast this year went by. It is amazing how many cliches that your hear and think you understand and then they come to life when you have a child. One you hear quite a bit that resonates with me is "it is the hardest thing I have ever done, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. It is hard to explain to someone who hasn't experienced it that yes your life will completely change, it is hard to get used to not being able to do whatever you want, whenever you want. I will be completely honest and admit that those first few months when I wasn't sleeping more than 3 hours at a stretch I had doubts and wondered if I shouldn't have had a child. But once those first few months had passed and I had bonded and fallen in love with Malia, I would not give her up for anything. It is an amazing love that is so strong and it grows. I had these false expectations from things you see in movies and hear from people that I would instantly love her the minute they laid her on my chest and I felt guilty because all I wanted to do after pushing 3 hours was take a glance at her and lay my head down and shut my eyes for a few moments. The infamous "mom guilt" crept in those first few days because I felt more awkward and overwhelmed than in love, but within a month or so I was infatuated. I could happily spend hours just watching her, and I thought it was adorable when she would do the smallest thing, "oh how cute, she sneezed." I know this is the story of thousands of mothers all over the world, but it is my story and it is unlike anything else I have ever experienced. I can't imagine what life would be like without Malia. I may not have my Saturday mornings to sleep in, but I never would have experienced the incredible love and joy of scooping my sweet little girl out of her crib as she smiles and "talks" to me. It is pure joy to watch her personality blossom. She is such a happy, physically active baby who has a bit of her Dad's dramatic and silly nature and some of her Mom's easygoing and independent(some might say stubborn) ways. Thank you Lord for entrusting such a wonderful blessing to an imperfect me.

Thanksgiving Pictures

It has been a busy few weeks with Thanksgiving, Chad's Birthday, My Birthday, Malia's Birthday celebration and preparing for Christmas so needless to say I have not been able to post as often as I would like. Just wanted to share a few pictures from Thanksgiving which we celebrated at the dunes. I was pleasantly surprised at how well Malia did, it was a wonderful Thanksgiving with much to be thankful for. Some of you may think this is strange, but believe it or not we had a full Thanksgiving meal complete with 3 turkeys and 2 hams and all of fixings all in the biggest sandbox you have ever seen. So much fun!

Grandpa and Malia, Malia didn't know what to do with all the buttons

Tanner is helping Malia explore the sandbox

My little speedracer

Happy Thanksgiving!

Make a Smilebox greeting

First word...I guess

Malia has been saying Mama, Dada, and baba for a couple of months with the appropriate person/object. On Saturday she added the word cat to her vocabulary. She says in a whisper c-t everytime she sees an animal. The first time she said it she was pointing to our cat on the other side of the sliding glass door. Since that time she has said it when she has seen all of the below: my brother's dog, my parent's dog, a picture of a dog in her favorite book, a bird, and a duck in one of her books. I am trying to teach her dog, but for now she is content to call all animals c-t, she will learn soon enough, for now c-t is pretty darn cute.

A week of firsts

I am writing...Malia is sleeping the flu away

One of the most rewarding things for me as a Mom has been to watch Malia do things for the first time. Now I know that my love for her blinds me to the fact that some of these firsts aren't so spectacular to everyone else...but I am still going to share them because they are milestones for me. The unspectacular first for this week is Malia's first bout with the stomach flu. Malia is so sick and I of course have a milder version of whatever she has. It is very challenging to clean up vomit when you are feeling nauseous yourself, but I am learning the truth in the statement "mom's aren't allowed to get sick." After a few vomiting sessions I got smart and put a towel in Malia's crib. Malia seems to be feeling better today so hopefully we are done with this nasty bug...but I thought she was better yesterday until about 3 when the vomiting started again. My poor baby, it is no fun to be sick!

The spectacular first of the week is walking! She will walk 3 or 4 feet all by herself to get to us. I haven't been able to catch it on video, but as soon as I do I will post a video of the wobbly walker. It is amazing for me to think about all of the "firsts" that babies experience in their first year and how well they adjust to all of the new experiences. Only God could have designed us to grow so quickly and adjust to so many different variables.

Happy Halloween

Stephen and I had a blast with our little rock star this Halloween, Malia on the other hand was not so sure about the costume. As you can see in the pictures she was not too fond of the sunglasses and I had hoped to put a pink bandana in her hair but she would have no part of it, so we opted for the bow instead. For Halloween we spread out a blanket on our driveway for Malia to crawl on and had a great time greeting all of the kids in their costumes. The funniest part of the evening was keeping Malia out of the candy bowl...I don't know if it was the colors or the sound the wrappers made but she was very intent on pulling every piece of candy out of the bowl...or just maybe she is a chocolate lover like her daddy.

uncle tanner and our little rocker babe

She loved the mic, great for teething

You will have to talk to my agent if you want more pictures

Happy Halloween Part 2

Happy Halloween from our family to yours
Grandma & Grandpa with the little firecracker

Guitar Pumpkin

I want candy

pumpkin carving

Last night was the first year that we had Malia at Chris & Lesley's annual pumpkin carving party, which made the party so much fun. As you can see from the pics Malia was "daddy's helper," she loved the goo inside of the pumpkin. She also enjoyed watching everything that was happening, especially all of the kids running around, she also spent quite a bit of time "talking" with anyone that would listen. Stephen's hard work payed off with an awesome guitar pumpkin for our little rocker, unfortunately in these pictures the tea lights burned out and you can't see our finished product. I will be sure to post pictures of our rock star baby and the pumpkin later tonight.

Pumpkin Patch

Our Mother's group met at the pumpkin patch this past Monday. I don't know which Malia enjoyed more...the pumpkins or playing with the hay. Happy Fall!

Our Happy Girl
Kicking back with the pumpkins

Future Farmer...

How can I get to that furry thing?

More Pumpkin Patch Pics

These pictures were taken by a friend I met at MOPS, Meredith. She has a very handy setting on her camera that keeps snapping pictures, just the thing needed for wiggly children. ;) Her daughter Devin and our Malia were born within weeks of each other.

Malia, Charlie and Devin looking too cute
Charlie giving Malia a kiss, she isn't too sure about this,
which will make her Daddy oh so happy


Malia and Devin exploring the pumpkins

Birthday Recap

This past weekend we celebrated Stephen's 29th Birthday. Some of the higlights were: sleeping in, spending Friday with his girls, Texas Roadhouse for dinner, ASU game with Steven & Sandi Saturday night, family celebration Sunday, homemade lasagna, brownies and Blue Bell Ice Cream, opening gifts, watching one of his gifts "Ironman" with Tanner and Chad. Happy Birthday Handsome!

Relaxing with Malia, this was not staged, Malia loves my phone!
First Birthday as a Daddy!

No more pictures

Happy Birthday Handsome

Copy Cat

Today I had one of those moments with Malia that I want to remember, it was just a small tender moment that I know happens to other parents around the world a million times a day but this was so special to me and I don't want it to slip away from my memory so here I am putting it in writing. On our way to my MOPS book study this morning I stopped to say hi and chat about what our days held in store with my neighbor Nicole and her 2 year old daughter Ava. When we were done I said by-bye to Ava a few times and attempted to get Malia to wave but she was much more content to suck on her thumb. As we were leaving the neighborhood I hear by-bye, by-bye, by-bye from the backseat. Silly me, early childhood background and I thought she was just sucking her thumb, I should have known that the wheels are always turning. It is so rewarding to see her make connections and learn new things! Being a Mom is much harder than I imagined, but moments like that make it completely worthwhile and bring so much joy to my day.

look out.....here she comes

Our happy little girl is no longer happy to crawl around, she wants to walk. This likely comes as no surprise to anyone who has been around her for any period of time. Since the day she was born she has wanted to go. I am not saying this as a proud Mama, although I can be obnoxious with the best of them, plain and simple she has always been strong. The minute they laid her on my chest, she picked her cone head up and looked around (that was after being pushed on and contracted all day and being pushed in the birth canal for 3 loooong hours). I was so exhausted it was all I could do to hold my eyes open and there was my sweet little baby holding her neck up and looking around the room. She was never a floppy baby, she held her neck and head steady from the time she was a newborn. We joke that it is a result of being so tightly crammed in utero for 41 weeks, she was trying to push her way out. About the time she was 2 weeks old I would cuddle her on my lap facing me and stare at her beautiful chubby face and she would stand up. No lie, she would push with all of her strength and stand on my lap happy as a clam, I would try to sit her back down because 2 week old babies aren't supposed to stand up and she would fuss and push herself right back up. Several of my friends raved about the swaddle wraps, so I gave it a shot, anything that might result in more than 2 hours of sleep at a time was worth a try. Not for Malia, she wiggled and screamed until she got free of the wrap, I thought maybe it was a mistake. So I tried the swaddle wrap again, scream..grunt...scream...tada... look Ma I've got hands. Fast forward 5 months no longer content to lay and watch what was going on she wanted to be a part of the action and so she decided that it was time to crawl. Fast forward to today we were having a great time playing in the family room she was walking around hanging on to the couch, I took one of her hands and she let go of the couch with the other. I let go of her hand and she took 3 quick baby steps towards me and fell on me laughing. I couldn't believe it...they may have been small and quick but I know my girl it won't be long before she is off and running. Those of you who know me know that I am not overly emotional but I started crying. I have been blessed with a healthy, inquisitive, determined, sweet little girl and it is such a blessing to see her grow. Neither Stephen nor I are adventurous and that is part of the beauty of watching Malia blossom, she is alike us in many ways but she also surprises us with her own unique characteristics and quirks. I am so thankful that Jesus has blessed me with the opportunity to watch this little person grow, I am doing my best to soak it in...because I am quickly realizing there is no rewind button in this story.

A little bit of zoo fun

I picked Lesley and Charlie up at 7, stopped for bagels and coffee and headed to the zoo. It was Malia's first trip to the zoo and for the most part she was content to ride in the stroller. She did get a kick out of seeing the orangutans, she did her best to communicate with them by growling and squealing. She was also pulling on the bars to the exhibit, not sure if she was interested in the oranguatans or teething. The highlight of the trip for me was the monkey exhibit, we were the only ones walking through the exhibit and the monkeys were very friendly, some of the little guys were within arm's reach. A nice new addition that opened in Sept. is the splash pad and cavern which was our last stop and was very refreshing as it was already warming up at 10:30 a.m. Then it was home to nap in preparation for our girls night later in the day
(pedis, manis & cheesecake factory) with everyone at our MOPS table. Thanks Lesley for a fun day at the zoo and a much needed girls night out.

Charlie pretend kissing the goat, he also hugged every single goat in the petting zoo

Malia and I splashing around

So much for splashing, time to soak

Lesley and Charlie who is having too much fun to look at the camera

We are all ready to go home, too cute look at Malia and Charlie holding hands

Autumn is here

I know, I know it is 101 today, but I am going to choose to look at the bright side of things. This is the first official day of Fall and that means...my favorite time of the year is here. Here a few of the reasons I love the Fall

1. it is cooling down at night time, and I have been enjoying walks with my
fabulous neighbor Nicole
2. Halloween is just around the corner, and I can't wait to get Malia's costume
in the mail and try it on my little lady...hint, hint ;)
3. Stephen, Malia and I all have birthdays to celebrate in the upcoming season
4. wow, I can't believe my baby is going to be 1!
5. Tanner is graduating in 2 short months, go little brother
6. it will be cool enought to turn my oven on for one of my favorite hobbies,
baking!
7. homemade chili with a dollop of sour cream on top
8. time with family at Thanksgiving...and I am not going to lie the food is tops
9. Stephen and I can take Malia to the park
10. My Mom is healthy
11. caramel dapples (it is spelled that way on purpose, I love ya Kalli & Becky)
12. the smell of tea lights burning in a pumpkin, I know strange
13. time to drag out the sweater boxes that have been itching to come out from
underneath the bed

Climber, Climb On

I apologize for the cheesy title but those of you who have done any rock climbing know the phrase. Like rock climbing I am beginning to wish I had some sort of pulley and rope system that would keep Malia from tumbling down whatever she is climbing on. I am not exagerrating when I say I was only out of the room for 1 minute. I was packing her diaper bag for the gym and when I returned this is what I found. My heart started racing...and then I ran for the camera. It is so cool to see her personality develop, she is very determined and as you can see very adventurous. On the other hand my Mom tells me that I was so cautious I didn't walk without assistance until I was 16 months old. Every day is an adventure...and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Happy 9 Months Malia!

Malia turned 9 months today and her friend Mattox in Utah turned 1 year old. Happy Birthday Mattox! My sweet baby got a great report from Dr. Z, which I was very happy about and Malia was very pleased that she only had 1 shot, instead of the usual 4 or 5. Malia weighs 16lb 14.5 oz (25th percentile) and is 26.25 inches tall (25th percentile). She is just a little peanut! I thank the Lord that she is healthy and growing well.

Maraca Mama

It is so much fun to see Malia doing her best to imitate different things that Stephen and I do. I have been showing her for a week or so how to shake the maracas, with not a single shake from Malia. And then yesterday after I emptied her bath water and returned to the family room there she was shaking them like a pro and giggling. Now she won't put them down! As you can see from the second picture she is also beginning to get curious about how things work, she was trying her hardest to pull the maraca apart. So much fun!

Shake, Shake, Shake

So Curious

Such a Happy Girl