Happy New Year!

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.

Snuggles with Daddy

Getting into the fridge

Christmas outfit

Dressed for the snow

Tippy toes!

Pig tails!

Stinkbug pose on her favorite blankie!

Pretty in pink

This was our Christmas tree this year.

Christmas day

Chicken soup for the baby!

Amberly has been starting to eat solids the past month and she enjoys a good strawberry and likes watermelon, but she hasn't taken a huge liking to most vegetables that we've offered her...until I gave her some chicken soup last week. She absolutely LOVED it! Before adding the noodles and all of the salt, I took a little bit and pureed it for her and she gobbled it up!

Enjoying some chicken soup!

Strawberry face!

Amberly started crawling about three weeks ago and has been on the go ever since! She's also pulling herself up on the furniture and moving along the coffee table or couch to get to a toy she wants or to get to our computers! It seems like she spends a quarter of her day standing up at the coffee table!

About a week ago Amberly started staying "Dada" and has added it to her regular babbling! Needless to say, James is pretty happy about it!

New Sunday dress!

 

Amberly update!

My baby is growing so fast! She’s six months old already. And somehow, as she grows, the love inside my heart for my darling little girl grows and grows as well! Here are some of her recent accomplishments and developments:
-She’s becoming a Mommy’s girl! Although she’ll still go to just about anyone if she’s happy, this little one is sure becoming attached to her mommy. She prefers me to put her down for naps and bed, though Daddy does a good job too. Also, she’ll look for me in a room, will hold her arms out for me when she wants me to hold her (she doesn’t do that for just anyone!) and when she’s super excited, tired, or shy, she’ll turn into me if I’m holding her and burrow her head into my chest or arm. I love it!
-She’s an expert at rolling over now. Anytime she’s on her back she’ll almost automatically roll over to her tummy, pop her arm out in front of her, and push her chest up so she can look around with those bright eyes of hers.
-She’s started scooting around, like a little inch-worm! In the last few days she’s started pushing her little bum into the air and then pushing with her feet to scoot forward. It’s funny because she hasn’t figured how to do it with her head up yet, so she’s just pushing herself along with her face on the carpet! But between her new scooting skills and her rolling over abilities she’s starting to really be able to cover some ground when she wants to get somewhere!
-She’s sitting up on her own! In the last two weeks she’s nearly perfected the art of sitting up on her own. She still doesn’t know how to get herself into a sitting position, but if I sit her up, then she’ll sit and play with her toys, catching her balance with her hands if she tips. She’ll occasionally fall over if she over-extends to reach or toy or if she pushes herself over backwards. At least she only has about a foot or so to fall!
-She loves to walk when you hold her hands. Her little wobbly steps are getting much more coordinated lately. Also, she can really cruise and gets super excited whenever she’s walking. We’re wondering if this baby will ever learn to crawl or if she’ll just take off running one day soon!
-She makes super loud dinosaur sounds (i.e. shrieks and squeals at an extremely high pitch) and has recently started babbling with more muted, conversational sounds. This little girl already likes to get her opinion heard and isn’t shy about it one bit! I love hearing her happy baby sounds!
-She’s still a great sleeper and is getting on a more regular nap schedule as well. She regularly sleeps about 10 hours at night, waking up to eat only once. Thank you, baby!
-She watches everything with her super-big eyes and usually wants to touch everything with her super busy hands! She doesn’t want to miss a thing. I swear she’s taking notes on everything she sees! I love her curiosity and excitement!
-She wants to chew on everything in sight, especially anything that isn’t hers (ex: cell phone, glasses, computer, etc.). Still no sign of teeth, though I’m sure it’ll be soon.
-She’s a little social butterfly, sharing huge smiles, little grins and big laughs with anyone who is funny enough to deserve one! She’s very aware of people and has started noticing cats and dogs lately too. The huge grin she gives me when I come to get her out of her crib in the morning is enough to just melt my heart!

 

Visiting Disney's headquarters

Since James works for Disney we get a couple little perks, like access to Disney's studio lot. Last week we spent an fun afternoon walking around Disney's headquarters. Along with seeing fun pictures of character animations and creations, we saw some original paraphernalia in their archives, including the original wardrobe from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. But, the best part of the day was spending it with Joe and Ellen, visiting from Utah!

With Walt and Mickey

With Minnie Mouse and somebody...

With Joe and Ellen

Little Minnie Amberly

The bear from "Brave"

Happy baby!

Love this face!!

Disney's animation building....now my hat!

And we bought Amberly Sully from Monster's Inc. We figured he belonged in the family, since his name is nearly identical to James' name!

Ponderings of a Mommy

Today I had a little scare. I was getting Amberly’s things put together for our weekend in San Diego and I had propped Amberly up on the big, soft rocking chair that we have in her room. She had gotten tired of playing on the floor and I needed both hands for a moment. She was happily playing with a toy sitting in the corner of the rocking chair while I was organizing her clothes right in front of her. I had to grab something from the closet across the room so I stepped over and then thought, “Oh, I’d better get Amberly” and just as I turned around I see that Amberly had wiggled and fallen forward on her face on the very edge of the chair and was going to topple off. It seemed like time slowed down and though I jumped as fast as I could, I reached her just as she bounced onto the floor. I swept her up in my arms and she hardly even cried. I was expecting full hysteria and, holding her close, ran to the other room to grab the pacifier. She whimpered and snuggled, sucking her pacifier, but didn’t cry much. My heart was beating so fast and I was worried by her lack of movement that something was wrong. I examined her through my own welling eyes, not knowing what I’d do if something was wrong with my darling little baby. But within moments she was happily playing with her pacifier as I held her close in my lap and stroked and kissed her little head. Tears were falling now as my love for her welled up in me. She is so precious to me, so close to my heart. I thought of my responsibility to protect her and keep her safe. I thought how fragile life is and how fragile her tiny little body is. I thought of the miracle of life. My mind reflected on my experiences of being pregnant and having her perfect little body grow within me and how my love for her seemed to start growing from those first moments that I felt her move. I thought of the pain of childbirth and how my heart seemed to leap in love and joy the moment her squirmy little body was placed in my arms. I caressed her perfectly smooth skin, admired her glowing pink, chubby cheeks and her gently curved eyelashes. I watched her chubby, dimpled fingers adeptly grasp her pacifier and her lips pucker in anticipation as she leaned forward to suck on it. How she depended on me! And how imperfect I felt. Tears continued to come to me as I thought about how much I lack and how I’m not going to be able to protect my baby from hurt and pain and sorrow. My heart ached knowing that she’ll be hurt at times when I won’t be there to soothe and comfort and hold her. And there will be hurts in her life that Mommy won’t be able to fix, even if I’m there. And even in my sorrow at her pain, my spirit was warmed. My soul echoed with the importance of teaching this precious little one that even if Mommy can’t fix the hurt, that Jesus can. That, no matter what pain she encounters, the Atonement can offer solace and healing. How my life has been blessed by the healing power of the Atonement. I’ve felt such strength, peace, comfort through the gift of healing and comfort that Jesus offers us. The Spirit testified to me of the importance of my calling as a mother. He emphasized the love that Father in Heaven has for my little daughter and how perhaps my most important responsibility to her is to teach her of His love for her as His daughter. So, through teary eyes and while clutching my sweet baby in my arms, I thanked my Father for watching out for me and for soothing my worries and fears through His great love for me and for her. 

Our little sickie

Sick, but still loves playing with her toys

Little Amberly came down with her first cold. It has been so hard to see her cough and rub her eyes and know she can't even blow her own nose. Poor baby. Two rough nights in a row Amberly hardly slept unless she was in my arms, which resulted in little sleep for either of us. Last night, however, she slept much better and we both woke up happier. She's finally improving and I'm so relieved. It's not fun to have a sick baby. But we did get some cute sick pictures, at least.

Helping Mommy with the laundry

Big red eyes

Sleeping soundly

On the mend and helping Mommy make the bed

Venice Beach

Last Saturday we went to Venice Beach to people watch, mostly. Venice Beach has beautiful, silky sand and tall palm trees, but you hardly notice these things because of the crowds of people. There are so many crazies to watch! There's a boardwalk going along the beach front that's lined with shops and venders selling things and street entertainers doing all sorts of things. Amberly loves going on walks in her stroller and especially loved seeing all of the people and hearing all of the sounds. We ate a picnic on the grass and walked up and down the sidewalk, enjoying the entertainment, being together and the beautiful weather!

Somebody playing the piano. There were groups on drums, little bands, and dance groups as well.

 Lots of bikes.

 Lots of people. And noise.

Our picnic!

Amberly loved her little beach hat and it helped keep her fair skin out of the sun! Thanks Marnae!

All tuckered out from the excitement. She fell asleep with her binki in her hand sticking straight out!