"Hi Daddy"

Last night we had the Patterson's over for dinner. They are dear friends of ours and we are so thankful for their friendship! It was a joy to be able to serve them last night as she is 28 weeks pregnant and they are moving to a different house next week, so not thinking about or having to make dinner was a blessing to them. And it was a blessing to us to serve them in that way! While Paige was holding Makaela, Nathan said to Makaela "Hi Baby" and Makaela said "Hi Daddy". Not quite so enunciated, but we could definitely tell that was what she was saying. Similar inflections as well. So this morning I tried to get a video of her saying that. Its always different when the video camera is out :) But she does say it a few times. Its SO cute!! I will still try to get another better video of it sometime :) But for now here is Makaela saying "Hi Daddy"

The choo-choo train

For Makaela's Birthday, we got her this little multi-faceted train. She LOVES it! She will sit and laugh at it for great lengths of time! We totally scored which we are super excited about!! So this train sings, and it says colors, and numbers and letters. The letters are super cool because you can put a little cube with the letter on it into a slot and the train says "A is for Apple. A A A" Then you can also turn these little pages with letters on them and they say the letters on those pages. Each letter has an object with it so it also says the name of the object etc. Then, you can sit on the back of the train and ride it around, or you can detach the back part and walk around with the train. Its a really great educational toy that she will be able to have fun with for a long long time.

So, here is a video of her walking down the hallway with the train.

Please excuse the horrid baby talking :)

Bounding Bella

If I didn't know any better, I'd think we had a deer, not a dog. Often when she runs across the backyard she goes bounding. It is so funny. So yesterday, I finally decided that we had to get a video of it. So while Nathan threw little rocks (yes, rocks, not a ball, not treats--rocks) around in the backyard she would bound to go see where they landed.

Bella's New Hiding Spot

Several weeks back, I noticed that Bella wasn't lying on her bed. I started walking around looking for her and low and behold she came crawling out from underneath Makaela's crib of all places! I have no idea how she fit under there, but she does. It's pretty ridiculous. Here's how she does it.

Bella Vs. the Easy Button

Yes, thats right, the easy button. You know those red buttons from staples that say "that was easy" She was extremely frustrated/annoyed/perturbed that when she would pounce (yes, pounce, like a cat) on the button it would say "that was easy". So as usual, video was necessary and here it is :)

1st Birthday

I still can't believe it. I can't believe I'm posting about her 1st birthday. Where has the time gone?!?! I'll give you some stats on her, then I'll jump into the big party and the pictures :) So She is just shy of 20 pounds and 28 inches long. I'd say more like 28 1/2, but I'm not always fond of how the nurse measures her length. So I never think its quite accurate. She has 5 little teeth now. One popped through without any knowledge of ours until we were at the doctor and we noticed all of the sudden there was an extra tooth in her mouth!! She is eating pretty much everything we eat and loving almost all of it! She definitely is a texture girl and doesn't like some things based on texture--like hard boiled eggs and puff pancake. Although I'm sure that she will come to like that at one point :)

She isn't walking yet, but she is doing some more walking with a few little toys she has to aid that. She seems to be so afraid of taking steps. She even refuses to stand for any longer than a half of a millisecond. I know she could stand longer if she wanted to because she is very controlled when she sits down, but she is just scared. But I'm sure before long I'll be posting videos of her taking steps :)

She loves bathtime and splashing as much as possible. She loves to go up and down stairs. She loves the song "Until the Whole World Hears" by Casting Crowns. We call it 'her jam' and whenever we turn it on she gets a big smile on her face and kicks her legs.

Onto the first Birthday. We had so much fun! We invited the staff from church and a few related families and had a blast! There were a good 36 or so of us here all very cozy in home but I think everyone had a good time. We had burgers and hot dogs and Cupcakes. Due to the expertise of my mother, we decorated 48 ladybug cupcakes and they were SO SO cute. Makaela thoroughly enjoyed the frosting and a little bit of the cake. We were so thankful to have such good friends to celebrate with. Here are pictures and video :)

Even though we were busy busy busy all day, Grandma still found some time to get her hands on Makaela. Grandma was such a huge help and blessing!! Thanks so much Mom!!

The Cupcake Creation. We did a few grass cupcakes. I saw the "recipe/pattern" for the cupcakes online and we tried to replicate that as close as possible. I think ours were a little cuter, but I'm probably biased. Anyway, we had a lot of fun doing them and they turned out so cute!!

Before :)

During

More During

After

What's left of the Ladybug

I was a little disappointed with the video only because I totally forgot to take the chocolate chips off her cupcake before she dug in so I had to do the old mouth sweep to make sure she hadn't put one in her mouth. Then I had to take the rest of the chocolate chips off. But you'll still get the idea. She just went for it!!

January/February Come and Gone

Wow January flew by and here we are at the end of February!! I can't believe it. Time has gone so quickly. When we got home from our Christmas Vacation, we had just 5 short weeks before Makaela's birthday. We got right back into the swing of things with Choir and Band and my Bible Study and College group and other various activities. Ihad one chance to blog while our computer screen was working a while back and haven't been able tosince then. My parents, however, graciously gave us my Grandma's old (which is actually quite new) laptop so we are able to be online again. Thank you so much for your sacrifice Mom and Dad!! Especially when your own computer is down right now!!

So I thought since I had access to be able to blog, I would

go ahead and update on things. Mostly pics and videos of Makaela (like usual), but our life is pretty routine. So she is the most changing thing to update

on :) And, as always, we'll throw in a video or two of Bella :)

So here are a few pictures from Late January and I'll do a February/birthday post next :)

Enjoy!!

This one I just had to post because the camera caught her in the middle of a funny movement with her face. And its just too funny not to share :)

This is what Makaela did one day while I was working on cleaning a refrigerator. At least it was just the toilet paper :) Its a pretty harmless thing to keep her occupied :)