Happy Birthday!

Saturday was my sister's birthday AND my Mamo's, too. We had a wonderful time celebrating with a lot of food. We went to Saltgrass for lunch for Mamo's celebration and then to Red Lobster for Kelly's. Glad I wore stretchy pants!

I'm so glad that we did two different "parties". We normally celebrate them together. To honor my sweet big sister I'll share a couple of fond memories of her.....

THEN: One time, when we were little, we were playing out in the backyard on a hot summer day. We had a really cool swing set that had a giant metal slide. Well, I'm not sure if her bright idea came to her because of the heat or because of her desire to be daring. She thought it would be a great idea to cool the slide down with water from the hose while at the same time make out slide down a little faster. Being the smart big sister she was, she asked me to try it out first. I went down. Fast. Like a bullet from a gun. I think I even flipped backwards on my descent. She opted to forego her turn.

NOW: I haven't told her that I noticed this but it's little things like the way she holds Amelia. Monday we went over to her house to take Bluebonnet pictures with Lacey and Ashley and Kelly held Amelia as we walked out to the field. She held her like she was the most precious package. Amelia was so safe and happy in her arms. It was beautiful to me.

She's so beautiful inside and out and she loves with all she has. She's a great mommy, sister and friend.

Mamo turned 88 and she's doing great. She still gets her hair done every Saturday and she loves spending time with family. So many of my wonderful childhood memories took place at her house which is in the same neighborhood as my mom's house. It was a great . We would spend hours sitting around her dining room table playing Uno, Yahtzee, Tripoly and Phase 10. I also took piano lessons at her neighbor's house so I'd sit at the piano and entertain my family by playing Moonlight Sonata and Fur Elise over and over again. I am one of 10 grandchildren and Amelia is the youngest of 13 great-grandchildren. She's a wonderful grandmother and I'm so glad we decided to name Amelia Ruth after her. Irene Ruth.

Happy Birthday, Kelly and Mamo!

I love you!

7 Months Old

I'm a little late in updating this so let me get right to it! Amelia is now 7 months old. Holy Mole! Our sweet baby girl is getting so big. She's in the 92nd % for height and 73rd in weight. At her last dr visit (if I already blogged about this, I'm sorry...I can't remember) she was almost 18lbs. What a little turkey! Here's our monthly photo shoot.....

Here's what Amelia is doing these days...
*Sleeping from about 8pm until 6am, sometimes 7! We are blessed and trust me, we don't take it for granted.
*Waking up soooo happy. I love to go and get her out of her crib in the mornins. I'm greeted by the sweetest smile I've ever seen and by a twinkle in her eye.
*She's trying so hard to crawl. She's got the rolling around thing down. She even started doing full blown push ups and not the girl kind. Straight army style! Occasionally she'll get on all fours and rock back and forth
*She's tried all kinds of new foods as you've seen in previous posts. We're still staying away from those mean 'ole peas that gave her a rash and hives but she's added banana, pears, prunes (now, there's a story!), applesauce and apple juice to her repertoire.
*She giggles and giggles when tickled. Just like here in this video....

Amelia, we love you! Hope you never get tired of hearing us say it!

Baby Contest- PLEASE VOTE!

Hi Everyone! We need your help!
A local photographer is participating in a baby/child contest and I entered Amelia. All I had to do was call and make an appointment for a photo shoot. Elizabeth Homan, owner of Artistic Images, did a fantastic job! Amelia looks so beautiful in her pictures.

To vote go here and make a comment under Amelia's picture/post. It's that simple!
If you have a blog of your own, would you pass the word along to your friends?

If you have FB, you can make a comment there, too. You'll see her picture here.

Thanks so much!
Love,
Amelia

Dinner out these days....

Going out to dinner these days is, um.....well, different. We have to pack stuff for Amelia to eat. Sometimes its just milk and ceral and a bowl and a spoon and a placemat for her. Or, sometimes it's just a Gerber veggie and a spoon. We always have to worry about how we're going to warm it. So far, all restaurants have been very accomodating and our dinner neighbors are graciously understanding. Except for the other night. We were out to dinner with Daryl and Jen and their little girl Whitney. A man sitting at the table next to us at Maggiano's kind of sassed me. His wife had her back to us and when they got up to leave she turned around and sweetly said, "Ahhhh, there are TWO babies." You could tell she was a mommy and appreciated and understood babies. Her husband stood up and said, "Wow, I didn't even know there was a baby next to us." then he rolled his eyes. Total sarcasm.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the fact that when people go out to dinner, a screaming baby is anything less than desirable but thankfully, we've never had a "screaming" baby with us and if we did, I'd take her out- have Nathan get our meals to go- ask for the check and we'd continue our evening at home. Thankfully, Amelia is great when we go out. (Did I really just write that?!?! Did I just jinx myself?!?!?)

Here's Jen and Whitney....

It was a great night out but we of course had a little baby "excitement". There was a little napping, a little fussiness, a little squirming and of course, a little spit up. What's a fun time if no one spits up, right?

Here' s another night out we had. This time with Brad, Joy and Jayla. I'd say we had a little more "excitement" on this outting. Jayla is 11 months older than Amelia. She can grab things really well, she can sit in a booster instead of a high chair, she can drink from a straw and she can organize the sugar packets. Pretty cool, huh?

Until they end up on the floor.

Remember what I said about spit up? It's a must at restaurants. At least, that's what Amelia thinks...we covered it up with a napkin.

Here we are after our dinner adventure which included HORRIBLE service. No, I really don't think it was because of the kids. Our server never came around our table enough to even see we had kids in tow. Yeah, he was that bad!

Happy Bird-Day, Greg!

Last Saturday was Greg's birthday. Greg is my boss and very often the victim of pranks in the office. He's always a good sport which makes it all the more fun. If you watch the office, which we all do, including Greg, Greg is soooooo Michael. It's not even funny.

One time we teased him because of a "fever blister" he had on his forehead. I've never heard of a fever blister on someone's forehead. It looked more like the world's biggest zit but he said it was because of his new cpap machine. It would rub and irratate the skin on his forehead. He had to wear a big 'ole band-aid on his head for weeks because without it, it looked like a red third eye. We tried to start a meeting with everyone wearing a red dot labeling sticker. Never happened. Not sure why. I did hand out all the stickers to everyone. I guess we felt bad.

Another joke was when Joy and I stuck a vinyl scratch on his brand new car. Pastor Tucker was in on it, too. He stalled Greg so Joy and I could go out to the parking lot and place the vinyl sticker on the side of his car and hide so we could watch it all. That was so funny!

I'm sure there are other pranks I'm forgetting but here's out latest....

BEFORE at Greg's house:

AFTER:

All the fun during..

The photo above is Greg's son, Tyler. He helped coordinate all of this while Greg and Jennifer were at a Spurs game. Thanks, T!

I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair

Last night Nathan and I went to see SOUTH PACIFIC at the Majestic. It was a great date and the show was awesome. I have the movie and love just about anything from "Rodgers and Hammerstein".

My favorite number was, of course....

Go Spurs Go!

Yesterday after church Nathan and I went to the Spurs game with Brad and Joy. We had great seats in a suite and enjoyed a nacho bar with quesadillas and cheesecake. I ate way too much! Spurs beat the Suns 113-110. Great game with great friends.