Oh no!

My camera is broken! I don't know how I am going to live until I get a new one... and of course it had to break on the very day we had Aurora's little birthday party :( Jacob's family came over and we had tacos and birthday cake and opened all of her great presents and everyone stayed up way past their bedtimes but it was worth it, I think. Anyway, not much else to report here - I'm taking donations for the Camera Fund, if anyone wants to contribute! ;-)

Happy Birthday Little One

Wow - has it really been over 2 weeks since my last post?? Lest you think I'm just a lazy slacker, let me assure you that I have had quite a few good reasons not to be online. Let's see... there's the master bed/bath painting debacle, which turned into the master shower and toilet replacement adventure; then there was the wrecking of my car (not by me) and subsequent 2 week absence of it; then there was the guest toilet tank repair; then there was the truck heater core repair.... Let's just say we're getting all the trials of 2008 over with as quickly as possible and the rest of the year is going to be a piece of cake.

Before:


After:


Yes, she climbed up there herself:


I'm not saying who did it, but it wasn't me!


Speaking of (birthday) cake - one year ago today, a 9 pound, 9 ounce, wiggly pink bundle was brought forth into the glaring lights of a hospital room to meet her anxious and fully unprepared parents. She opened her blue eyes and looked around almost immediately, as if sizing up the situation and determining her plan of action for the year to come. I don't know what plans she had in mind, but the past year has brought so much adventure and excitement to our little home. She's gone from just watching and learning about the world from the comfort of our arms to being a full fledged little toddler - independently careening about the house, laughing and talking to everything she sees. She loves to read books to herself, in fact its the only way I can keep her still long enough to change her diaper - just hand her a book to read while I do it. She still likes to play with socks - anyone's will do, including the ones on her feet. And her new favorite thing is to chase Pepper around the house, squealing and giggling all the way. When she catches her, they take turns licking each other (I know, gross) until Pepper gets tired of it and runs off to be chased some more. She's quite the little mimic - monkeys go AH MM AH AH, cows go MMMMM, dogs go AGH AGH (with tongue sticking out), and tigers go AAARRRRR! And she can 'cough', 'sneeze', 'laugh' and 'fart' (pbbttt) just as well as any grownup around. She's finally sleeping like a little person - 11-13 hours in her crib at night, with just one wakeup to eat, and at least one decent nap during the day. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can maintain that progress during the weaning process that is now imminent. Just one year has brought about changes in her parents, too - we started out as just sleep deprived zombies trying to figure it all out and do it all right, and now we're slightly less sleep deprived but we're still trying to do it all right. Hopefully the year to come will be as great as the first one was. Happy Birthday, my little monkey!

Three videos in one post - Jackpot!

Well, she almost managed to escape her first year without getting sick - the poor baby is currently feeling miserable with a runny nose, red, watery eyes and annoying sneeze attacks. I'm hoping it's just allergies from the big dust storm we had a couple nights ago, but it may be a full fledged cold. She's not running a fever yet, she's still eating and she seems to be in pretty good spirits, considering, so we'll wait and see. Now as promised, here is video of the big girl walking! Please ignore my disastrous house - we're also in the middle of "renovating the master suite" (painting the bedroom) so all of our furniture is crammed into the living room along with all of the fallout from Christmas. So just look at Aurora, not her surroundings :)

Little Drummer Girl
Completely gratuitous inclusion of the cutest thing I've seen all year:

Uh oh...

We now officially have a walker in our family! She's been tentatively walking for a couple of weeks, but as of yesterday she now walks more than she crawls - but it's still pretty freaky to see her come walking around the corner. She even tries to run on the carpet when she gets excited about one of her new Christmas toys! I think the motivation behind her walking was the fact that when she walks she can carry things in both her hands - so now I have books and shoes and balls all over the house! I have a bunch of pictures and video that I will try to get online tonight.

Merry Christmas, Baby

Our friends Chris and Kelley had to go and trump everyone's Christmas presents this year:

	Isabelle
Birthdate	12/24/2007
Birthtime	01:32 PM
Weight (lbs,oz)	8lbs, 6.8oz
Length (in)	20.5
Parents	Kelley and Christopher

Isabelle didn't want to miss out on a white Christmas in North Dakota with her parents and big sister Keira, so she decided to make her entry on Christmas Eve!

How I spent my winter vacation

Okay, so a few days got by me, but here's my report on How to Vacation On Your Own With an 11 Month Old:

Day 1: Wake up at 2am, shower, load up the car, and pack a formerly soundly sleeping infant into her carseat, praying that she won't notice the interruption and will soon fall back asleep for the upcoming 3 hour car ride. Arrive at Phoenix airport 3 hours later, ears ringing from the incessant screaming and conspicuous lack of sleeping by said infant. Shuffle like a pack mule through security with baby, backpack and carseat, and board the plane. Enjoy an amazingly peaceful plane ride as infant discovers the joys of a window seat and a luxurious free row! Arrive in Dallas to much rejoicing.

Day 2 thru 12: Watch as infant is smothered in attention, affection, hugs, kisses, and more presents than you can fit into your house. Eat a ton of great food, go shopping, play cards, and sleep when you can. If you're feeling particularly brave, fit a car trip down to Houston into your schedule! The food is great there and everyone knows how much the kid loves a car ride! If it happens to rain the entire way there and back, turning a four hour trip into six, just look at it as valuable driving experience. Try to maintain constant vigilance as the infant discovers that everyone elses' home is full of beautiful treasures and fun climbing activities. Wish you had more time to spend with everybody.

Day 13: Enjoy another surprisingly great plane ride (another free row?! Truly a Christmas miracle). Eat lunch with your husband in Phoenix and brace yourselves for the agonizing 3 hours of screaming in the car until you get home. Get home and feel your anxiety melt away as the infant recognizes all her familiar toys and furniture with happy yells and dancing. :)

In all seriousness, we really had a great time. It was so nice to see everyone and finally get to eat at some great restaurants for a change! Aurora did better than I expected with all the new sights, sounds and people - the worst parts were the car trips. But that was because I was alone and trying to drive the car, thus unable to supply her with the nonstop attention she had become accustomed to at her grandparents' house. So all in all, we lived through it and may even do it again on day - maybe when she's 9 or 10.

Here's all the pictures but I have to say that I was a terrible photographer the whole time. So my apologies in advance! If you got any pictures of us while we were there, please email me!

Texas Trip

Home Again!

Didja miss me??

We made it home! We had a wonderful time in Texas seeing all our friends and family, but we are definitely glad to be home. I have a ton of pictures and videos to come, so check back tomorrow!

Over the river and through the woods

Tomorrow morning Aurora and I will embark on a journey to adventure...we'll be flying by the seat of our pants for 2 weeks, but I'll try to get the occasional picture posted up here. But no yelling at me if I forget to!

To tide you over until we meet again, here are two pictures from JoAnn's birthday party on Saturday - it was cold outside!

Random happenings

This past weekend we went to get our Christmas pictures made, and while we were waiting for the appointment in front of us to finish up, we ran around the store taking pictures of our own! And on Monday we went to the Promotions Ceremony at sector headquarters to celebrate Mike's promotion to supervisor! It was very nice, they had the spouses pin the new badges onto the agents' uniforms and they took pictures and everything. I had quite a time trying to keep Aurora quiet through the whole thing, but she did okay. Of course it looked like a goldfish cracker bomb went off around our chair by the end of the day, but oh well!! Here's a picture of me pinning his badge on:Not much else is going on around here - for more pictures go here!

11th Month

Happy Turkey Day!

Today we celebrated Aurora's first Thanksgiving, and she really enjoyed it! I went way overboard with the cooking as usual, but at least we'll have plenty of leftovers. Her favorites were the stuffing and the pumpkin pie - everything else on her tray became a bountiful feast on the floor for the dogs. I hope all of you had a great day off with friends and family - now on to the pictures!!

Yay! Turkey! Dad, come eat!!!
Quit bothering me - can't you see I'm eating pumpkin pie??
Special bonus video for her fans!

Some babies have a favorite blanket, or a stuffed bear, or a doll for a lovey. MY kid has none of those. Instead, she carries Jacob's sock everywhere she goes. Make of that what you will.

Oh and I just found this site - I'm at level 46 and have donated 810 grains of rice so far! It's pretty addictive and it feeds hungry people so go check it out.