An Amazing Week AwayWe have had such a great vacation week, just returned from staying in Chelan, wonderful time together! Part of the week was spent with some wonderful friends and fabulous weather topped it off as the perfect time away. Mya's new favorite things are ducks, squirrels and birds (other than singing). She gets SO excited to see them all! During our kayak adventure, 2 ducks (we named Bo and Luke Duck) really liked hanging around us, they stayed really close and kept her very interested. She sure enjoyed a great show! Between time on the playground, in the pool and in a kayak on the quiet lake we had a great time together.

Blueberries! YUM!

Making cookies...with lots of help.

"Num, num!"

LOVING THE SUNSHINE!!!

We have been enjoying sunshine this beautiful spring. Last weekend we commemorated the first day of spring by having lunch outside. We fired up the grill, pulled out the patio furniture and umbrella, it was such a lovely day! Mya didn't want to go back inside.

SPIRIT WEEK

This week at daycare is spirit week. We can't let this fun pass us by! So, we've been ready with the daily outfit, you'll have to check back again later this week for the other things Mya has in store.

Monday: Hippie Day

Tuesday: Hawaiian Day I couldn't believe she still had her outfit on when I picked her up, I think she enjoyed the attention her little coconut bra brought! We had not idea that this little costume would be something that could be used again, but proved to be a fun little investment from our trip to Hawaii a year ago! Wednesday: Pajama Day (Daddy forgot to take a picture and the jammies suffered a casualty on the playground, so they came home in the laundry bag... you'll have to visualize this one) Thursday: Silly Sock Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We had a nice St. Patty's day celebration- early. We all participated in the St. Patrick's Day Dash on Sunday. Rob did a great job at running while pushing Mya in the stroller... up hill 1/2 the distance! Little Miss has become a camera ham, learning to pose with a smile. She's pretty sweet!I may be the first parent in history to not be ready for potty training. I'm actually not too anxious to be done with diapers... I'm not ready for my baby to be so big! Mya is sitting on the potty at school now, so we are following suit occasionally at home. It's more of a novelty at this point- she isn't exactly connecting the feeling of going potty with sitting there... but she has successfully done it a couple times at school. I think it may have been luck, but ready or not, I've gotta accept that she's growing up to be a big girl! On March 5th we celebrated the wonderful day of being DEBT FREE for the first time since we've been married!!! In 2.5 years, we eliminated $48,500 in debt. Crazy, right? The fact that we had so much debt is ridiculous, but after a lot of tears, disappointments and a whole lot of discipline- it's finally gone! We still have our wonderful mortgage... but the only bills we have beyond that are utilities. Amen to that!!! To celebrate, we enjoyed dinner at home (a meal out wasn't in the budget :)) and Mya even joined in with "cheers!" to toast the big accomplishment.

Happy Sunday

Today our lunch conversation went a bit like this: Julie: "Mya, say okay Mom." Mya: "No Mom." It may be the first time I hear "no Mom," but I'm pretty sure it won't be the last. Rob was hiding his laughter the whole time! I'm sure he'll get his little nugget of defiance soon enough. Such a stinker! But a sweet little one at that. She's giving friends a family kisses and hugs lately, it's a good thing she's so cute to cover some of the spice!

Mya has started to notice letters in signs and other things, and when she sees them, she points and starts to sing her rendition of the alphabet song. She' pretty good at identifying a few specific letters, usually "y." She only did part of it here, but you get the idea! I also got a second take of Heads & Shoulders, Knees & Toes, it's just so darn cute! I got more help than I realized... it took me about 15 more minutes than normal to vacuume the living room. Such a helper!

Can't ever be too comfortable, right???

Our Sweet little Mya has learned Head & Shoulders, Knees & Toes at daycare, she's pretty good! Sorry about the lousy camera shots... I was too interested in what she was doing!

A Wonderful Weekend

We had a great weekend- sunshine and family time! Since it was so beautiful, we decided to go to the zoo... Mya ha a blast! She was so sweet looking at all of the animals, we all had a great time watching her!

Fun with an 18 month old... The past four days have been wonderful. Thanks to President's day and a vacation day, Mya & I have been able to hang out a lot together just at home. Unfortunately Rob has had to work both days, but I needed some re-group time. We've been taking Mya swimming once a week (she's been really afraid of water), and she's gotten much more comfortable in the pool, we'll have to post pictures of her swimming in one of our next posts. We went for a run yesterday and visited some friends as well. It's been great to catch up on life! Rob & I have decided to train for another half marathon. We've been doing well to get started, and are planning to run the St. Patrick's Day dash in March. The Rock-N-Roll 1/2 marathon that we're going to run is in June and then in August we're planning to do the Run For Children's. We'll be raising money for that one, and Mya will be joining us in the stroller. We'll be donating our funds to the Seattle Children's heart center. We just had Mya's 18 month pictures taken by our friend, Brea go to http://www.cyephotography.com/blog to check them out. She's a great photographer, I'd definitely recommend her if you're in need!

We made pancakes together for dinner one night.

Our little sweet pea is a master at using utensils, her favorite breakfast now is cheerio's with milk. Such a big girl!

Since blogger is having issues with videos, I've posted the next few to youtube, hopefully that'll fix the problem.

Happy Valentines Day From our Family to Yours!

Superbowl Fun!

We had a great time celebrating the game day with 2 other families. We hosted- Six adults and five kids total...it was fun and crazy time! Three of the five kids are toddlers... amazing how busy they all are! They got to ride bikes in the garage and eat a lot of junk food, the Dads might have been able to watch the game while the Moms were able to play a board game.

It's so wonderful to have a Seahawks picture without a feeding tube in Mya's nose!

\

Aunt Michelle, don't worry about getting Mya a drum, this watering can works just fine using her kitchen utensils!

STOP GROWING!!! Our little sweet pea is getting to be such a big girl! She has been wiping up her spills lately, such a good helper!

Decorating Valentine Cookies

Tonight while the Dads went out for wings and beer, the Moms and kids were at our house for dinner, a movie and decorating Valentine cookies! Holidays are so much better with kids around! Poor Rob, it takes a lot for me to make him cookies, but for the kids? No problem! Regardless, we had a great time tonight with Carter, Elliott and Andrea. The above cookies were decorated by Carter. One was made specially for his Daddy to take home, pretty sweet. Bryan, I hope you like sprinkles! Mya had a great time with visitors over. It's amazing how sweet kids are to one another, they were so gentile with her!

I think this is one of those things I said I wouldn't do... allowing my daughter to eat a bunch of frosting and cookies before the age of 2! Who can resist when it's enjoyed so much?

Elliott got some frosting on his cookie...

Carter with his finished cookie masterpieces.

Thanks for coming over!!! Dad's have to go out more often!

Mya's current favorite past time... reading books.

Good news for Mya's heart, things are looking pretty good. It isn't totally normal, but as of Friday we are able to wait 3 months until our next cardiologist appointment. This is the longest time away we've had in 1 year. Hooray! We continue to pray that it'll get back to a normal kid's function soon so we don't have to put her on a blood pressure medication. Rob & I have decided to get back into running after taking a 2 year siesta. We've signed up for a 5K and a 1/2 marathon this spring. Its been nice to get outside and start training again! My job has finally chilled out so that I'm able to work out on my lunch, and Rob is doing the same. We're looking forward to training together- as a family! I just have to get our flat tire fixed on the stroller, and we'll be set to run together on the weekends. Its a great way to spend time together and to not spend money!!!

The joys of a 17 month old

I don't know if God is giving us a break from the chaos of the last year or if he doesn't think we can't handle anything more, but I think we have the sweetest little girl around. She is so good, we're having a great time with her right now. It may be a stage and the terrible twos are just around the corner, but until then we'll enjoy what a wonderful child we've been given. Right now Mya seems to learn a word a day (from what we know), she's mimicking everything, and is full of her own little perosnality. She listens really well, cleans up without a fit, goes to nap time and bed without crying and pretty much complies with most requests. I love this kid! She's really good at animal sounds right now, I think the cutest ones are her elephant & fish sounds. I really need to capture them on video! A favorite new inheritance is her kitchen and food that were given to us by my co-worker Kim, and some pots, pans and food were contributed by her cousins. She's doing great with pretending and playing with the new toys, it's so sweet! What a blessing she continues to be to our family.

Daddy & Mya chillin on the floor... Our little chef...

Snuggle time

PEEK-A-BOO!

A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year...a Bit Late!

We enjoyed spending time with both of our families over the past couple of weeks. Here are a few photos of our fun! We got to enjoy Christmas morning at our house, just the three of us. It was so much fun, Mya is a great age. She got a tricycle, doll house and sled from Santa, and they were a hit!

Mya signing "more"... Mommy push me around the house MORE!

For the afternoon, we went to Rob's parent's house. We spent time with his family for the rest of the day. Mya got some fun presents, including a hand knit sweater by Aunt Michelle.

Mya also enjoyed some of the toys Grandma & Grandpa had at their house for her.

We closed the Christmas weekend by attending the zoo lights at the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma. Mya learned how to make elephant sounds on the visit.The next weekend, we travelled across the state to spend New Year's weekend with my family. Here is Mya with 3 of her 4 cousins (and one more on the way!!!).

Uncle Rob worked pretty hard to get the highly desired Zhu Zhu hampster for miss Allison. What did people do before ebay? We both had fun trying to get ahold of the most popular toy this Christmas season. What a great uncle, hua?

We went swimming too, the kids love the pool time. Mya needed about a 1/2 hour of warming up to the environment and to feel comfortable in the water. Definately time for us to go to go swimming more often. We brought in the new year with my family. We wish you all the very best in 2010! We look forward to a HEALTHY year! God bless!