Ordinary Adventures: January 2013

Happy New Year! I can’t believe that we’ve started another year again. This past year has been the most wonderful and the fastest year of my life! I can’t even remember what life was like before our little Amberly angel came to our family. She brings us so much joy and happiness every single day. Lately she’s been extremely entertaining as well!

Here's a (somewhat) quick New Year update for our family.

James:

-Finished another tough semester in BYU's Accounting program. This year he's doing a mixture of undergraduate and graduate classes.

-Still found time to learn a difficult new Chopin piece on the piano! I love listening to him.

-Loves to play with his little girl and is thrilled to see her excitement whenever he comes home.

-Listened to over 20 audiobooks this year while commuting to work and biking. We also listened to 4 books together over our three trips to California. Yay for audiobooks!

Me:

-I love being a mommy to Amberly. We have lots of fun together every day and she's constantly making me laugh.

-Started working from home doing some writing for an online marketing company. It definitely keeps me busy.

-Did a little bit of painting.

-Took waaay too many pictures of Amberly.

-Sewed some adorable Christmas stockings for all three of us.

Some of Amberly's newest cuteness includes the following:

-She literally runs all over the house and loves to carry things in her busy little hands. Anything will do. Small things are best.

-If she finds something she particularly likes or thinks is funny, she’ll shriek and laugh and try to haul it around with her.

-She LOVES crackers. Fishy crackers and graham crackers are absolute favorites.

-She is a good eater and is slowly weaning herself from nursing. Although she still nurses a few times a day, she often doesn’t have the patience to actually concentrate on nursing! Her main food staples are chicken soup, lentil soup, sweet potatoes, and fruit.

-Recently she’ll put a cup or an empty baby food jar to her mouth and talk into it because she likes the sounds it makes.

-She’s been talking up a storm! Although we don’t recognize any words yet (other than “Dadada”), she is definitely trying to communicate. She’ll turn to you, ask a question, with all the right inflection while holding something up to show it to you. It’s adorable!

-She’s still sleeping wonderfully at night and for naps. Although she wakes up once to eat at night, she sleeps about 12 hours a night and will happily play in her crib until she falls asleep for naps.

-She adores cats and dogs, although they are usually afraid of her!

-She’s still in love with her little blankie. She hauls it around with her, bites it, hugs it, rolls on it, does the stinkbug pose on it, and plays peak-a-boo with it.

-Her hair is getting longer and she wore pig tails for the first time. So adorable!

-She’s learning what things are for and will hold sunglasses up to her head, hold my cell phone on her face, or rub her little comb all over her head to try to brush her hair. She will often bring the brush to me or James and rub it on our heads too!

-She’s learning to share and gets a real kick out of offering her food to me and trying to put it in my mouth. It’s usually food that’s already soggy because it’s been in her mouth!

-Has eight sharp little teeth.

-Is starting to really enjoy reading stories, especially stories that have flaps to open and close. She loves a barnyard story that we have and will flip the flap covering the pig’s face over and over.

-She likes stuffed animals and will give them hugs and laugh at them almost anytime she sees one.

-Is starting to get really ticklish and erupts in peals of giggles if Daddy throws her into the air or if Mommy tickles her neck.

-She insists on being in the middle of everything I’m doing and will hang on my legs with her head thrown back and moan until I pick her up if I’m doing something on the counter that she can’t see.

It’s been a wonderful year and we ended it with a fun Christmas celebration with my entire family and then headed to San Diego for James’ cousin’s wedding to continue celebrations with James’ entire family. Then we spent the last week of the break in Santa Maria with James’ parents. It was definitely fun to enjoy some warmish California weather and get to spend lots of time with family. James’ mom also spoiled us by babysitting two days in a row so that we could go see The Hobbit and Les Miserables, both of which we loved! Now James is gearing up to start a new semester tomorrow and I’m determined to get back to exercising and eating better after the holidays. Amberly is probably planning on learning to run even faster and learning to talk in the next few months. We’ve been so blessed this past year and look forward to all the new things that the coming year will bring. And finally, some pictures for you.