1 Year Photos

 I just got Adelyn's 1 year pictures back yesterday!  It was perfect timing because I have been wanting to do a post about her so I can remember some things that she has been doing lately.

I have always heard the phrase "a mother's love" but never understood it until now!  I seriously love this little baby so much!!  I can't even express how much I love her and how happy she makes me!  I kiss her about a thousand times a day!  I just can't get enough of her and how cute she is!  I wish I could just freeze time!  I love babies/elementary aged kids but don't know if I can handle the middle school years!

Next week she will be 14 months!  She grows and learns something new everyday!  We have been trying (not very consistently) to teach her sign language to reduce frustration from not being able to communicate.  This week she has started doing the signs for "more" and "please."  I don't thinks she knows what they actually mean.  She just knows we give her some of our food when she does it!  Her favorite thing to beg for is chocolate but she also loves raspberries and blackberries but isn't picky!

This past week she has started walking backwards!  It is so funny!  She will walk backwards across the whole room and just laugh or smile while doing it!

She is turning into a big mama's girl!  She hugs me all of the time, wants to cuddle with me often (one of my favorite things in the world!), climbs all over me and is constantly trying to make me smile.  I love all the attention!

She still loves dancing anytime she hears music with a beat and she loves to climb on everything!  She is learning how to actually play with toys and loves her new play kitchen (thanks Ashley)!!  Something I also find funny is that she loves carrying things around.  She loves putting things in baskets and carrying them around.  She will gather as many odd little things that her fingers can hold and just walk around if she can't find a basket or bucket.  This includes things like receipts, dryer sheets, pens, socks, etc.  She also loves to carry longer things draped over her arm.  Quite often I will find little stacks of random things that she has put somewhere.

 She is still curious and wants to be in the middle of everything, whether it is Travis lowering the crib, me doing a craft, one of her friends playing, she wants to be in the middle of it all!  She is very inquisitive and likes to figure things out.  She is also very alert!  We can't get anything past her!  If she hears the dogs barking or kids playing she goes to the window to see what is going on!

 This past week she had her first real scare.  She fell down a few stairs.  She didn't get hurt (not even a bruise) but it scared her...and me!!  After she stopped crying she went right back to them. 

We have also reached the stage where it is fun to make messes.  She pulls all the books off the shelf, all the clothes out of the drawers, all my shoes off my hanger (she loves shoes and will carry them around everywhere) and dumps all her toys.  It is not my favorite thing she does!

 I almost forgot!  Adelyn is getting really attached to her blankets!  She has two that she switches between.  They are made of minky and have a silky border.  As she is falling asleep, she will rub the silky edge on her nose.  When she does that, I know it is time to put her down for a nap.  She hugs her blankets anytime she sees them laying around and will drag them all over the house.  She is also becoming motherly and hugs all her stuffed animals and dolls before carrying them around in her wagon. 

I can't think of much else right now.  She just has the sweetest personality!  I think these pictures show the true Adelyn!  She really does smile all the time!

Mother's Day

I wanted to say Happy Mother's day to my mom!  I talk to her almost every day so this Mother's Day wasn't much different.  I am lucky to have such a great relationship with her.

I am also grateful to have such a great mother-in-law.  She loves me and supports me!

 This was Mother's day a year ago!  It was my first real one as a mother!

 This one is from Sunday!  It is amazing how much babies change in one year!

 She did not cooperate so these are the best photos we could get!  She just wanted to get down and play!  She is independent, strong willed and knows what she wants!!

 I feel so blessed to be Adelyn's mom!  It is really the best job I could ask for!  I love her more and more every day!  She has taught me so much about love, learning and joy!  She is always happy and can make me smile on a grumpy day! I love being a mom!

c

Teacher Appreciation Week

Teacher Appreciation week is scheduled at a perfect time in the year!  We are past the high of starting school, we are done with state testing and everyone is looking forward to summer vacation!  It is this time of year that I start a count down to the last day of school.  I think it is put at this time to give the teachers that last boost of energy to finish off the year!

Since I don't have my own classroom, I wasn't necessarily looking forward to this week.  I would be surrounded by teachers getting gifts and cards from their class.  I didn't expect anything!  I was wrong!  This has been one of my favorite years yet!

On Monday, our AWESOME PTO president brought me a bucket of goodies!  It seriously made me feel so special!  I almost cried.  It was so thoughtful of her to include me!

On Tuesday I got some sweet cards from the fourth graders!

Wednesday we had lunch catered in to us.  Yum!  Thursday I found this adorable caterpillar in the hall!  It had nice things written about me!  Seriously, it was so cute!

Today we had an ice cream bar at lunch!

I have felt special all week with nice cards, treats and extra hugs!  I may not have a classroom full of students, but I definitely have students and they are some good ones!  I love all my kids and the opportunity to work with so many of them! 

Best Friends

Beware, I am feeling a little bit mushy right now.  I haven't had a good cry in a while and I feel like one may be coming soon.  I don't think I say it enough, but I have THE best friends in the WORLD!!  They are willing to do anything for anybody! (I wish I had pictures of everyone but I don't!)

Moving here to Ohio was really hard for me.  I was a newlywed (which brings its own changes), I didn't know where anything was, I didn't know anyone and I didn't have a job.  I felt pretty worthless.  It was probably one of the harder times in my life.

I went to church and was surrounded by tons of great people, but still felt like I didn't quite fit in.  Everyone else had kids and their own busy lives.  I remember going to church on the first Sunday and feeling a bit intimidated.  As we were leaving, I was invited to book club.  (I hate reading but ended up going anyways to get to know people.)  Someone else trapped us at the door and wanted to know about us even though she had her own kids.

These were the people I began hanging out with.  At first I felt a little awkward, not feeling like we had much in common.  I would occasionally go to play group...without a child.  I finally figured out that these people cared about me and not what stage of life I was in.  We all got to know each other better and became great friends.

This group of ladies became my sanity that first year here in Ohio!  I figured out who I was...married, jobless and kidless.  Many of them knew each other from being in the military.  Others were like me and just moved in.  These ladies are some of the nicest I know!

Just this past year Kresta moved away.  This summer several more are moving away.  Then next year several more.  I get attached to people and cry anytime someone moves.  This group will be especially hard on me.  They are the ones that were there through my hard times and hard times of their own. 

I am not as outgoing as I used to be so I am grateful to them for pulling me in under their wing.  People are constantly moving in and out so I hope that I can be that friend like they were for me.  You guys are really the best!  Thanks for loving me!

Grandma Visits

A couple weeks ago, my parents and youngest brother went to New York to visit my sister's family.  To make things fair, my mom wanted to come visit my family.  Really she just came to see Adelyn though. 

The last time she saw Adelyn was at Christmas.  Boy has she changed since then!  Mom loved every bit of her time with Adelyn just as much as Adelyn loved having her here!  Mom was wrapped around her little finger before she walked in the door!

It was fun to see Adelyn interact with my mom.  It was also amazing for me to see how quickly she learned that Grandma will let her have her way!  Adelyn came to me to pick her up.  I was in the middle of something and couldn't so she went immediately to my mom!  After that, if she wanted something, she would go to my mom.  I was shocked! 

It was fun to have my mom here to hang out!  Thanks for coming!  We will see you in a couple months!

Easter Egg Hunt

Each year a lady at church puts together an Easter Egg hunt for the kids.  We all bring some eggs and the kids have a blast!  Last year Adelyn was about a week old.  This year she was able to at least participate!

We practiced with her all week so that she would at least have a chance against all the other kids.  She still didn't really grasp the concept.  She liked finding and picking up the eggs, but she didn't like putting them in the basket.  I guess she thought were were taking them away.  She just wanted to hold as many as possible!

Finding the eggs. Notice that she is trying to hold 2 in one hand!

 She took lots of breaks to play with the eggs she found.  She loved this finding Nemo one!

 She is such a girl!  She loves carrying things around like this!  She drapes purses, necklaces, blankets, etc over her arm and walks around. 

 Travis carrying her back from hunting!  It was a lot of work to walk that much!

 She discovered the eggs had treats inside.  I have never seen her sit this still before!

 Just for fun, here is a picture from Easter Sunday last year vs. this year! Babies sure do change a lot in one year!

 

Happy Easter

For some reason, this Easter has felt different to me.  Now that I have a child I think more about what traditions I want to start and how I want to celebrate different holidays.  Do I want Adelyn to focus on getting gifts from the Easter bunny or on Christ?

That being said, we did do a small Easter basket but I was overall more focused on Christ.  Church was amazing today!  The talks in Sacrament meeting were so perfect and I felt the Spirit so strongly!  One lady shared such a raw, personal experience in how the atonement was in effect in her life.  It was perfect. Then the choir sang my favorite song, "I Know that My Redeemer Lives."  It was followed up by a talk that spoke about what we need to do to accept the atonement.  I literally felt like my heart was going to burst because I felt the spirit so strong!

In Sunday school today, I taught about the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  It wasn't my best lesson, but I learned more in preparation for this lesson than I feel like I have known before.  I studied each part of the Atonement and what it means to me.  I learned about the terms that we have to live by to accept His sacrifice.  I learned that every good thing in my life is thanks to our Savior.  I learned that Christ walked alone so that we never have to.  It has been the spiritual kick start that I have been needing.  

After church we did take some family pictures.  Adelyn and I both got new dresses and we had my mom here to take a picture of all three of us!  It has really been the perfect day!

These are repeat pictures from facebook.  
Me and my sweet baby.

 More fun with Easter eggs.  She figured out there are yummy treats inside!

 It is impossible to get everyone to look at the camera.  At least this one none of us are looking so it looks planned.

 My two favorite people!