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.

Giveaway Craze

Yep, posting again! Just came across another awesome giveaway from Mommy and Me Giveaways that I had to share! Also, blogging about it gets me a few extra entries, so I blog about the ones that I really want. Who doesn't want awesome free stuff?!?! So this is a diaper bag (big whoop) but it sounds awesome! Great amount of space, with a insulated compartment for storing cold breastmilk or just cold milk or juice, and it also has lots of padding so if we wanted/needed to use it on a trip where we also had our computer, it would be well protected. AWESOME!! So, hoping I win this one too, but will be happy (and probably slightly jealous) of whoever does win it :)

More Giveaway Fun

Well, here I am again trying to get as many entries as possible for an awesome giveaway. Let me first say that Mommy and Me Giveaways is awesome!! The last thing I blogged about trying to win was Microsoft Office Suite and I won! I was so excited I had to call my parents and tell them immediately. I actually cheered out loud which I rarely do for anything!! So, this giveaway which seems like something that would be wonderful and helpful in the not too distant future is a portable DVD player from Radio Shack! I'm thinking some possible long trips to CA to see family with a Toddler---a DVD player might not be such a bad idea. So, here's to hoping and we'll see in a few days if I'm still as lucky!! :)

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..........................

Ocean Shores

A few weeks back we headed over to the coast for the day. Still enjoying nice weather here and taking advantage of the sunshine!! We had a lovely day enjoying the beach and the warm weather! Much to my surprise, at Ocean Shores, you just drive onto the beach and park!!! That seemed a bit crazy to me, but normal to everyone else, I'm sure :)

Makaela adjusted well to the sand this time around--she actually loved it! She had so much fun wandering around and she even had fun playing in the water! We had heard it was supposed to be a little on the cool side, but still pleasant, so we didn't take our suits, but I bet Makaela wished we had! She ended up pretty much all wet anyway and she had a blast in the water with Dada!

We also found a fun little park to play at for a little bit and Makaela enjoyed swinging and playing on the playground set and going down the slide! Such big girl things she can do now!!! Here are our pictures from the day. We've really treasured these family times together and are looking forward to many more!!

Adventures in Washington

We live in such a fun place! It's not often that when we drive around we don't mention how thankful we are to be here living in this wonderful place!! God has packed this place full of His beautiful creation and we get to enjoy it all the time! How wonderful!!!

A few weeks back, we headed to Seattle for the day. My dearest friend and roommate from college, Emily, was visiting and so we thought it was a great excuse to head to the city for the day. Of course, even after I had talked about it, I still forgot the camera so we don't really have any pictures from the day accept what we got on our phones. But we had a great time! It's so fun to live just a quick ferry ride away--it eliminates the hassle of a car and parking and all that. It doesn't eliminate the tired feet at the end of the day, but its worth it and so much fun!! Makaela had a blast and she even took a nap in her stroller! This was a huge blessing to us and made the whole day much more enjoyable and endurable :)

Last weekend, Nathan, Makaela and I headed up to Sequim to take in the sight of the Dungeness Spit. The weather has been beautiful and we've wanted to take advantage of all the fun and relatively close things to do before we get into the busy fall. It was such a fun and wonderful day!! I found myself basking in the blessings God has showered on me and us. Despite me being completely unworthy of all of these, my God is still so gracious to me and blesses beyond description. What an awesome God I/we serve!!!

Makaela had a great time riding on dada's back in a carrier and checking out the seaweed. She didn't so much enjoy the sand on her hands, but she got used to it eventually--nothing a little brush of the hands wouldn't fix :) Here are a few pictures from our adventure. Tomorrow we're headed to Ocean Shores which I hear is beautiful!!