Pumpkin Carving

This Saturday we (and by "we" I mostly mean Nathan) got around to carving Makaela's pumpkin! I have this thing with the sliminess of pumpkin innards, and I thought with my current pregnant state, it might not be wise for me to try and gut the pumpkin unless we wanted to clean up more than just pumpkin innards :) I suppose that's enough, if not too much, said :) So, I was the designated photographer and Nathan and Makaela gutted the pumpkin. Since she seems to have no fear of anything, I figured she'd have no problem with the feeling of the pumpkin innards, and she didn't. She had fun pulling out pumpkin seeds when they weren't slipping out of her hands :)

Dada got busy carving the cutest ladybug on the face of the planet into her ladybug--all freehand!! We found a cute picture online to mimic and Nathan did an AWESOME job!! Here are pictures and a video of the festivities :)

Probably more excited about eating and sitting on top of the

table than the actual pumpkin and the task at hand :)

Assessing the situation

She saw mama cut the top off the pumpkin, so she decided to

pick up the knife and "cut it" herself...saying "cut it, cut it" :)

her latest "smile" :)

Getting the template on the pumpkin

helping dada clean out the inside

Picking up the seeds off the table

Back up to the table for some more action!!

Working hard and Hardly working--which is which? :)

Checking out the progress

Hard at work

checking out the candles inside

hm...what to think about this whole pumpkin thing??

The proud maker, and proud owner :)

Showing off her pumpkin :)

The finished product--way to go dada!!

Pumpkin Time

A few weeks back, our friend Rosie invited us to a "mommy fellowship" group at her husbands old church. The event for the day was going to a local farm and pumpkin patch :) Makaela's first experience with pumpkins and pumpkin patches, but not her first experience with farms and chickens. She had fun talking to the turkey's and the chickens, and enjoyed looking at all the different pumpkins. The girl has no fear, I tell you. She was ready to just tear through the patch no matter how wet it was, no matter what vines tripped her, she just kept going :) Unfortunately, dada had to work, so our first experience in the pumpkin patch wasn't with him, but we went again to a different one 2 days later to have a family pumpkin event :) Here are some pics from our time :) Pumpkin carving post is coming next!!

Checking out all the pumpkins

Gotta choose just the right one :)

For whatever reason, this was a favored face for pictures during the day :)

19/20 months

I cannot believe how fast this little girl changes! Every day new things happen or new words are said. It is crazy to think about everything she has learned since she was a baby, and it hasn't even been 2 full years!!

Now, she is quite the talker and has made our communication much easier (for the most part) :) I can decipher most of what she is saying or asking for which is really helpful. I did have my first instance of the "guessing game" in trying to figure out what she was saying the other day and after several wrong guesses she very frustratedly said "no!!" then said it one more time and PTL (praise the Lord) I got it right :) Some of the things she talks about constantly are:

milk*juice*dilla (quesadilla, which she asks for almost every day)*bars (little healthy snack bars we have)*crackers*banana*apple*orange*melon*Gunnar(s), Rowen, Canon (Patterson Boys)*Rosie and Pravis (Travis)*Big Truck (any time she sees a truck on the road, although her rendition of "big truck" sounds A LOT like "peacock")*ABC's*Twinkle Twinkle Little Star*Stairs (big step)*Bama and Pepaw (grandma and grandpa)*soggy diaper*'toot'ing*potty*

.....and a whole slew of other things. I could go on and on! Like I said, it is so helpful that she is talking so much because it makes communicating a lot easier :) Here are just a few random (and funny!!) pictures from September.

She LOVES Blackberries and we had several bushes nearby our house so we picked some and she ate them faster than I've seen her eat anything before. Seriously, within 30 seconds, she had eaten 10-15 berries. She cannot shovel them in fast enough :)

She loves to pray and that is such a delight to us! Before we eat she always says "pray" and we pray before bed. We also pray after times of discipline. It is cute to hear her pray on her own where she just gets out a few random words that we often use while praying. One night, during dinner, her prayer went something like this "Dear God, thank you...Jesus...obey...spankins" Last night in the car she kept repeating herself over and over saying to us "obey dada, obey mama". :) She is starting to understand how that all works, and now we're working on responding the right way to obedience. I like what my sis in law has taught her daughter--to "obey all the time, all the way, and with a happy heart" We're working toward those things--meanwhile being humbled and convicted myself. Parenting is such a joy because in the process of striving to teach and bring Makaela up in the ways of the Lord, I am convicted myself of my own shortcomings and failures. My gracious Father is using me teaching my daughter to teach His daughter (me). I'm reminded of and thankful for his mercy and lovingkindness every day. Praise the Lord for parenting :)

Zoo Day

Hello blogging world! It's been such a long time since I've visited you :) Sorry friends and family, again, for the long dry spurt in posting :) I suppose if I loaded our pictures onto the computer quicker, I might be inclined to blog more often :) Needless to say, we finally loaded the pictures onto the computer, so I can update on a few things with some pictures :)

A while back, probably in August, Makaela and I took a trip to the zoo with our dear friendsThe Pattersons. Makaela had been to the zoo once before, but it wasn't with me so it was fun to go with her and see her enjoy all the animals! I'm sure if we went back now, she would be even more chatty and interested in the animals!! It is crazy how much changes in such a short time! Anyway, here are a few pictures from our outing.

You can't really see it so well, but she is sitting on a Seal :)

After you've gone through to see all the animals, there is a fun little play area with a handful of gadgets for the kids to play on. One is a large bird nest which she was checking out.

Also, a little set of "rocks" to climb on.

They had a really fun water feature that M was a little apprehensive about at first, but once she saw Gunnar and Rowen running around having a blast, she decided to join in the fun.

This was the end result of her playing in the water :)

And here is video of her checking out the little water fountains.

18 Months

I know I say this almost every time, but I can hardly believe we've hit the 18 month mark! Where has the time gone?!?! We are absolutely loving this age! We're having so much fun with Makaela and all her talking and decoding some of her language :) We just had her well-baby check up and got all her stats! She's had several growth spurts in the last few months (for her height, at least).

Weight--22 pounds 7 ounces--around the 25th percentile

Head--47cm--also around the 25th percentile

She seems to hang out around these percentiles for these two categories :)

Length--32 inches--around the 57th percentile! What?!?! Where did that come from? What I realize is that now she is finally hitting an "average" height but it seems so big compared to her 18th percentile and 22nd percentile from before :) The doctor said if she continues to grow at that rate she will probably be about 5'5". I told Makaela that's not allowed because then she'll be taller than mommy :)

Other things that are new are:

Extended Nap Time--this is mommy's favorite! She goes down between 12:30 and 1:30 and is usually in her bed until between 3:30 and 4:30. Wonderful time for mommy to have uninterrupted productivity!!! yay!

Her talking/words have really just blossomed in the last 3 months. I think around 15 months she had about 3-5 words down and now she says more than we can count--she is above average in that category :) She talks all the time and she is hilarious! She doesn't talk in sentences yet, she will occasionally babble out the sound of a sentence, but otherwise she doesn't speak in sentences. But the girl can talk and repeat anything and everything she hears!!

She has started to recognize and remember people which has been super fun! She talks about our friends Travis and Rosie Larsen ALL THE TIME! She also talks about our youth pastors kids as we see them almost every day for a walk. They have 3 boys, and she knows all of them by name. She is also recognizing grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles, and cousins in pictures and saying their names.

She currently counts from 1-10 by herself followed by "yay" after she says ten :)

She also can do almost all of the abc's skipping just a few here and there. I'd say she gets about 20 of the 26 letters.

She sings parts of twinkle twinkle little star--with a distinguishable "how I wonder what you are"

I think that's most of the update on her. She is going to be so disappointed when the weather turns yucky and we can't go on a walk like we do nearly every day right now!! But she loves being outside. We're having tons of fun with her right now and are so thankful for the ability to communicate relatively easily with her. We're also just so thankful for her!! She continues to be a joy and blessing in our lives and we can't thank the Lord enough for blessing and entrusting her to us! We're praying for her to come to a saving knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from an early age as we strive to train her in the ways of the Lord. Such a huge responsibility we've been given and we are thankful for the Lord for his graciousness and lovingkindness to us as we learn how to parent :)

Only by His Grace..........................

ABC's

Makaela has started singing the ABC's minus the actual letters of the song :) But she's got most of the tune down! She sings it all the time! It's so much fun to listen to her sing and talk all day long. It's fun now...I am sure it will be a bit challenging when she is actually trying to communicate with me and I have no idea what she is saying. But for now, her babble is cute and fun and she loves it!!

This video has a few funny spots to it. One in particular, Bella comes over to check out the camera and sniffs her little snout right in front of it :)

Bonding with Bella

Makaela has taken a particular liking to Bella lately which has been really fun!! She loves to "play" with her, and sweet Bella is so gentle and patient with Makaela. She is constantly sitting on her trying to ride her, or checking out her feet or her mouth or something. I see a budding friendship here :)

Our Little Break Dancer

I really think we might have a break dancer among us--and No, I'm not talking about Nathan :) Makaela LOVES to dance, and she busts out some pretty funny moves!! Every time I play this video, she starts dancing right away. It is soooo funny! Enjoy!

waaazzzzzz uuuupppppppp!!!!!!!

While we were on vacation in CA (which I will put up pictures of and blog about next) grandma and grandpa taught Makaela how to say Wuz Up! Enough said.

Dancing Machine

These two videos have a few slow spots, but like most videos with kids, sometimes they've gotta get their second wind to continue entertaining :) Makaela has developed quite the repertoire of dance moves!! I think you will see just about all of them in these two videos. She seems to favor the break dancing moves, but seems to throw in some kind of ballroom move every now and then too. She loves music and starts dancing anytime she hears any kind of music. I'm sure you'll see that here :)

Don't mind the basketball game in the background :) Or the cheering or yelling

Fun in the Sun

On days with nice weather up here, I try to get us out for a walk to enjoy the sunshine while we have it. Those days seem to be happening more often now, however, as I look outside, today is the epitome of June Gloom as its cloudy and rainy and cold. But we spent some time outside yesterday.

These pictures are from an outing about a month ago. Just a walk to get out and so mamma could get a little exercise. I got her really souped up for this walk with sunglasses and everything!! She had such a fun time! :)

On a separate occasion, we enjoyed a little picnic on our front lawn complete with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Well, Makaela enjoyed that, I didn't. I had already eaten :) But dada came home for a voice lesson and got to join us for a few minutes in the sunshine too!!

Beginning of Walking

Here is the video I got not too long after she started walking. It's definitely not her "first steps" but its within a few days :)

Fun at the zoo

Back at the end of April, Nathan and I enjoyed a nice short time away for our anniversary. Our dear friends the Larsens graciously (yeah right! more like eagerly!) agreed to keep Makaela for us. They love her so much and she loves them too! They came and stayed at our house while we were gone and we both had a great time!

Nathan and I went to Leavenworth which is a little Bavarian town here in WA. A dear sweet friend from church offered us a night at their timeshare there which we gladly accepted as the rate was much cheaper for us that way! We enjoyed walking around little main street. We tasted some fudge which consequently lead to buying some fudge. I never knew fudge could come in so many flavors and kinds! We bought 6 quarter pound blocks each a different flavor and that wasn't even half of what was there!! We haven't gotten around to enjoying the fudge yet--it is still in our freezer as we have been on a diet and haven't been able to indulge yet :) But possibly more about that later. But our time was wonderful and refreshing and relaxing! It was a perfect time after having come off a busy busy Easter weekend!!

Makaela also enjoyed her time with the Larsens. Rosie took her to the zoo with her mother in law and a few other kids her mother in law watches. This was Makaela's first time to the zoo and from the pictures, it looks like she had such a fun time! Now that she is walking, I'm sure that she would have even more fun!! We're looking forward to going back sometime when we have a nice day and when we don't have something else scheduled!! Here are a few pictures from her time there. It's really hard to get Makaela to look at much less smile for the camera these days! She is much more interested on whats on the other side of the camera--usually a picture of herself. But in these pictures from the zoo, she is completely enamored with everything she is seeing! Such a fun time!!

Playing in the Toys

More playing in the Toys:)

Checking out the fishies

From what I hear, she was extremely distraught when the fishies swam away from her.

She tried to follow them along the glass until they swam away and then she cried :)

Wish I could have been there to see that!!

Fun on the Merry Go Round. First time!!

14 Months

Our sweet Makaela is 14 months now!! And actually, as I type this, she is closer to 15 months than 14 months. That seems just crazy to me. The past month, a few fun things have happened. The most fun thing is actually for Mom and Dad and that is that we moved Makaela's little cubby-hole shelves of toys into her room. And now instead of having to always pick up all her toys for when company comes or when piano/voice students come, we don't have to worry about it!! It's so wonderful! Especially since her way of "playing" with her toys right now is to take them all out and leave them on the floor. :)

Recently (within the past week) she has started to stand a lot more voluntarily! She even tried to take a few steps toward mama!! So, now, I seriously think she will be walking soon. Before, we were coercing her to stand by having her stand then putting something into her hand to distract her, but now she will just let go of furniture and stand or let go of us when we move and stand. She is a smart girl though and she probably also realizes that the quickest way for her to get anywhere right now is to crawl since she does that at turbo speed. :) But, I'm sure before too long she will be walking...maybe even before our trip down to California!!

Last night, she gave herself her first BIG goose-egg! Oh my it was huge! She plays around and crawls all over and climbs all over anything and everything on the couch. She is also very good at getting down from the couch...always going feet first. Last night we were all sitting up on the couch and i got up to move all the laundry that was folded to the laundry basket to be put away. Before I knew it, I heard this thud right next to me and a little shriek, followed by that "silent crying" before the really loud scream. I don't know what she was thinking, but she dove head first off the couch right into the corner of our ottoman. Thankfully our ottoman is one of those leather storage ottomans so it wasn't hard wood that she hit, but she did still nail the corner. I saw the little dent in her forehead and before long it was the giant goose-egg. She was such a strong girl though....only the one really loud scream after the "silent cry" and then she calmed down. She even laid still while mama and dada held her to put ice on it. Today, its a little less large, and a bit more colorful :) But she isn't bothered by it at all.

She is still communicating with us A LOT! She asks questions about what everything is by pointing and saying "a-dah?" Every morning when she wakes up she says "a-dah?" and uses her sign language to tell us she wants her milk. Just this morning I made the connection that she reminds me of the seagulls from Finding Nemo saying "mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine" as she says "a-dah, a-dah, a-dah, a-dah, a-dah" repeatedly (even with the same inflection as the seagulls!!) until we acknowledge what she wants or is pointing at. This morning it was her sippy cup she could see on the counter :) She looks at pictures of all of us and says "dada" and sometimes will even point to him in the picture. She also loves to look at pictures of herself (so vain, I know :)). She will pull down her little photo album and just look through all of the pictures of herself.

She continues to learn new things everyday and is just a bundle of joy and fun!! Here are a few pictures from the last month, lots from her high chair. I suppose that's the place she is most confined which makes it a little easier to snap some shots :) Enjoy!!

A quick bath in the sink before leaving to go somewhere.

I love to throw my mom off and do something that requires

NEEDING a bath before we can leave when it wasn't in the original plan!! :)

Mom, is that you behind the camera??

(she often tilts her head like this trying to see around the camera to see our faces :))

Life doesn't get much better than this :)

Check out my Chompers!! 5 of them total!!

This is my current claim to fame!!

Video Overload

I am just going to throw all the videos into this one post. Here we go :) :)

Just a little fun in the bath.

Makaela wakes up and is in her crib for quite a while before she starts to make much of a fuss wanting to get out. She talks and plays and I think this is what she is usually doing in there. She just loves to play with her blankie!!

She follows the inflections in our voice when we say things to her. For a while she would just repeat "mah" starting low and ending high. Very funny. She doesn't do it as many times in this video, but you get the idea.

13 Months

Going on 14 months. WOW! Time just keeps flying, but of course everyone knows that. Makaela is still not walking--we can see that she totally could if she wanted to, but is just being stubborn. She has just blossomed over the last month or so. Her random babbling has turned into babbling sounding sentences. She is trying SO hard to communicate with us!! It's so cute. We just look at her, give her a "teachable" face like we totally understand what she is saying, and when she's finished we say "yes" like we understood everything :) Cute. She is picking up some sign language pretty quickly. She knows "more", "please", and she sometimes does "all done". Sometimes she claps for all done, but sometimes she does the correct sign. She knows how to wave and does so when she hears "hi" or "bye". She knows how to blow kisses and when we say clap, she will clap. Also, as of late, when we say "love you" she will 95% of the time respond with a 2 syllable sound (sometimes "ra-ra" sometimes "ah-da" something of the like). It's so cute.

She LOVES boys (oh great). At church, often times ladies will reach their arms out to her and she will cling to me, but the moment a man reaches his arms out for her she can't get to him fast enough!! She just loves the attention.

She loves to play on our piano, and lately she's been walking around pushing the piano bench. So much for those fun little toys she has to walk with--she walks with the piano bench :) She's also lovin' on Pooh Bear all the time. She has 2 of them plus a little Pooh lovie and she loves all 3 of them. She crawls around with the Pooh lovie in her mouth all the time.

Anyway, she is just loving life and we are just loving her! Here are some pics from the last month.

Makaela LOVES bath time and has just recently started crawling around and "swimming" around on her tummy in the bath. She just has so much fun!!

Concentrating very hard on standing!!

Makaela LOVES to crawl around and climb all over the couch!!

She also loves to pull down all the pillows and anything else that is on the couch.

All worn out from playing so hard with all my toys!! Sleeping with Pooh