Mikey B, you might have some competition

..... or I could title this, My Arranged Marriage Idea Might Not Work Out. :) Since the day Isabella was born, she has been promised to my friend Becky's son. Well, we can at least hope right? :) Although Mikey (he's 5, maybe he wants to be called Mike or Michael now?) I think has some "back ups", I do believe we have brainwashed him into thinking he wants to marry Isabella when he gets older. As of Monday, I'm thinking Mike might need to up his game to win my little girls heart. Monday morning we went apple picking with some friends -- actually, there were no apples on the trees due to the frost this year, so the "picking" was done out of bins. When we got to the orchard Isabella and the boys were playing (the only other girl was Amelia who was running like a wild woman) and she and Chase were playing on top of the hay bail, although I heard Isabella say, "let's play pirates - Aargh", she was acting like the sweet little girl so perfectly. Chase would throw hay and some would land on her arm for which she would hold up her arm to him and as this picture to the left shows, he would then wipe off of her arm. What a gentleman. :) On the way up there, Isabella kept telling me she didn't want to go on the hayride because she was afraid of the tractor. I don't know where this came from since last year she loved it. So when it came time for the hayride I told her that everyone else was going, it will be fun, etc., etc. She wasn't totally convinced because she said it was going to be loud. Chase then said "I'll protect you" and she said in an oh so sweet damsel in distress voice "Oooo Kkkk!" This all sounds so sweet, but as you can see in the picture, she took this rather seriously, she really thought that Chase, the mighty 4 year old could protect her from the fire breathing dragon -- urr I mean tractor. His mom, Shelli, and I were laughing and saying how cute this was now, but give them another 10 years..... I'm still rooting for ya, Mike, but we might have to talk to your parents about this "living so far away" thing. :)

Season of Life

I feel like I have been so absent from blogging lately, actually I feel like I have been so "busy" lately and I kept wondering why since I was feeling like I was not getting that much done, or at least what I am getting done seems to take me forever. Then, yesterday I was making lunch in the kitchen and looked over and there was Amelia standing on our breakfast table -- STANDING in the middle of it. And it hit me, oh yes, this is THAT season of life. The last few weeks several ladies have said in passing, all with young babies or pregnant, that they weren't "baby" people. They loved their babies, but they didn't like the baby/newborn stage, they looked forward to when their babies would start walking and able to communicate some with them. First of all, I can't even imagine not thoroughly loving the baby stage. Both my girls were prettty easy though so maybe it was different for these ladies. Although I do enjoy at least parts of every stage, and right now Amelia cracks me up with her little personality, if I had to pick one stage that was my least favorite -- this would be it. This is the age where both my girls have turned into little monkeys and start climbing on everything, EVERYTHING! They go non-stop, I think Amelia was walking at 12 1/2 months and running by 13 months -- and she doesn't stop. And they start doing things that need disciplining, but how do you REALLY discipline an 1 1/2 year old -- its not like I can sit her down and talk to her about what she's done, pray with her, and then hope to see a repentant heart. :) If I had absolutely nothing to do (or if I could get myself up at 4am) then this would not be so bad, I could just follow Amelia around non stop and not have to worry about her even having the chance of taking a nose dive off the couch, bed, computer desk, or table, but as we all do, there are other things I need to do as well. Oh yeah and throw in her very active 3 1/2 year old sister ..... Don't get me wrong, I'm still enjoying this stage. She is so funny as she is learning more words and trying to "talk" to us by using one word she knows and jibber jabber for the rest of the sentence. Its funny to hear her as she picks up books and "reads" them aloud in her own little language. She LOVES shoes, she is constantly bringing me Isabella's shoes to put on her, or yesterday when her cousin Olivia was here it was Olivia's shoes, last night was the funniest of all, it was Daddy's shoes and she will continue to bring them to you everytime they come off (last night I finally had to hide Daddy's shoes because I was tired of putting her in them :) She is actually becoming more of a cuddler, which I love! But, for me this seems like the craziest stage of all, so my time on the computer blogging might continue to be few and far between for a few more months. Oh and as I am writing this, she just pushed the button on my computer so that it "hibernated" and she is now throwing the candles off the coffee table. :) I really do have pictures and things to share, it just might take me a little longer to get them here. :)

1 year ago today......

Amelia "officially, legally" became our daughter --- obviously, she was our daughter before this, but this was the day that her adoption was finalized. Heres pictures from last year -- we had to call in to the courts and finalized over the phone (that's why Amelia has the headphones on :) --I hated not going to court and getting it all on video and picture, but I still cried and we still had a nice day with pictures, trip to Build a Bear and a dinner that night. I can't believe it has already been a year and my baby girl will be 1 1/2 in a couple weeks. Once again I'm reminded of how precious she is and how blessed I am. She is such a sweet little blessing and her little personality is getting even cuter.

I barely recognize the baby in these pictures. I would love to write a nice long post about everything, but right now we have no air conditioner and I'm getting ready to leave, so I am just going leave you with more current pictures of my little diva......