3 Months to go

Where we spend a lot of our time- out in the backyard on the trampoline.

We are already down to 3 months until we move to Austin! I have so many things I'm excited about. I have a running list of places to eat, that's my #1 priority, you know. I'm excited to find furniture, we have nothing. Just Amelia's stuff. No bed, no couch, no dressers. I love browsing furniture websites, I am loving this chair:

I do wish it came in a color, something exciting like magenta or teal or mustard yellow. And I wish it was $60 rather than $500, seriously! We did get an apartment! Well it's almost final. It is a 2 bedroom and has a washer and dryer and free cable. Glad to have that out of the way.

I'm excited about this summer. I plan to spend a lot of time playing games with family, hanging out with all of our friends. I want to enjoy the cooler summer nights since I understand I won't get that in Austin, it will be HOT all the time. It's already getting up to 98 degrees in May! Ginger and Sam will visit often this summer, and we have a trip planned to visit Juan's fam in Wisconsin over the 4th. I'm excited to put Amelia in shorts and dresses and not have to worry about her knees getting all beat up from crawling, or her dresses tripping her up while she crawls. As I write, she is walking laps around the basement, stopping in to say hello every now and then. She is loving this walking thing!

Juan is busy again. He is working 30 hours and it turns out his calculus class is a killer. Boo. So a countdown is back on, this term will be over June 17. Then he just has a History class through August. On the upside, we do see him a lot more than last semester, he just should be doing homework a lot of that time. Ugh.

That's all for now.

The dress

A long time ago, when I posted that I was pregnant with Amelia, I used a picture of the dress.

And then a month or so passed, and I found out I was really going to have a girl! And so I actually went out and bought the dress

And now, she is wearing the dress.

I could only imagine what life would be like back then. I daydreamed about my little girl in her size 18 month dress.

She is sweeter and better than anything I could ever imagine.


She is happier, she is cuter, she is smarter, she is more sassy, she is perfect.

Beyond my wildest dreams.

First Steps!!!

She did it! Amelia took her first steps on Friday. And she has been determined and practicing ever since, most of the time all by herself. Enjoy the video.

Our Easter + thisclose to Walking

 Happy Easter! She is loving headbands these days.

 Egg Hunt with all the cousins.

 Maddie was her bff all day.

 Checking out her loot.

 Easter morning, she found her basket all by herself. Juan kept saying I hid the basket in such an easy place, right under her play table. The girl is 1 year old! What did he expect? Ha ha.

 She loved to put the basket around her arm. And I love her cute Easter dress.

 Ginger and Sam came into town for Juan's Graduation. So we got to see them for Easter morning too! Amelia loves the attention.

 Family picture. I love it. Juan thinks he looks like a cartoon, but I think it's just because he's so dang happy right now!

And I just had to share this picture Madison got of her. Those teeth again!

We all got in late on Saturday night. Amelia was tired and delirious. And determined to walk I guess! She stood up in the middle of the room for the first time. And then she did it again and again, with a full audience. We thought she'd never stop!

She's so ready to walk. My next post just may be her first steps!!!

Mr Graduate

 Juan graduated from BYU!!! With his Bachelors of Science in Accounting. We celebrated the day with him and it was perfect.

 We were joined by so much family, I am so happy that Juan had all the support. He sure deserves it.

 He got the royal treatment all day.

 I decorated the car for him. 

 And made him his favorite, fruit pizza. 

 And the most special, having Amelia there to celebrate with him. I want to cry just thinking about it, he did this all for her, and for our whole family. 

I just love how happy he is in all these pictures. He did it! 

Lots of Pictures

Let's start off with a few pictures from our trip to New Hampshire. Let me just say, this was the trip of Itsy Bitsy Spider. Whenever Mills was sad or uncomfortable, Ginger or one of the kids would sing Itsy Bitsy and all was well. She still can't get enough of it.

Brooke, Zack, Carley, Natalie. The kids were hilarious and we had so much fun all together!

Amelia with Brooke and Aunt Kelly. She was really tired this night we took pictures. 

Amelia and Ginger.

Just hanging out.

Out for breakfast.

Amelia with Natalie.

Here we are with all the kids. 

And a game night picture with my sisters Ginger and Kelly, and my mom.

And Amelia on the plane, can you tell she was exhausted? Our flight left at 6 am.

And now we're back home. And finally all settled. Juan graduates this week! He takes his last final tomorrow (he will have 3 classes to finish up through the semester). I am so glad that this semester is over. Finally! And I'm so proud of Juan, he works so hard.

Amelia is so close to walking. She is zooming around with her walker and standing alone more and more often. It is just so exciting!

And as always, we're having tons of fun with friends and family every day.

Amelia and cousin Chris.

Amelia and Jud, playing under the table.

Griff, Judson, Sami, and Amelia posing on a display couch at Target.

Playing outside. And that is her making the sign for Itsy Bitsy Spider.

Happy girl, showing off her cute little teeth.

Mega Update on Amelia

I know I don't usually write so many words, but I thought it would be nice to do a detailed update on Mills. She was 20 lbs 4 oz and 31.2 inches long at her 1 year appointment. She is 38% in weight, and 97% in height. 

• I ask, where's the baby? and she will go get the baby and the bottle and put the bottle in the baby's mouth.
• I ask, show me the pig, which one is the pig? And she will pick the pig out of a group of animals.
• She throws the ball to me and knows what a ball is when I ask for one.
• She puts the stacking rings on her arms like bracelets.
• She will stand up and play at the table. And then I will ask her to show me how to stand all by herself and she lets go and stands on her own! And then she will clap for herself while still standing.
• She is very good at taking apart the round blocks and then stacking them back together. 2 or 3 at a time. 
• She gives all her toys kisses, almost always near their mouths. 
• She thinks kisses and hugs are the same thing, so I say give the baby a hug, and she gives it kisses. I have been working on distinguishing the two.
• She teases me with her binky. She always gives me her binky when she goes to play and is not going to sleep anymore. Lately I have had to ask for it. So she takes it out and stretches her hand out to me, but then when I go to grab it, she quickly pulls it back and puts it in. And then repeats a few times until I just take it from her. And she laughs, she thinks she is so funny.
• The only word she is cooperating on saying right now is Ba ba, for bottle. And she only repeats it after I say it. I do think she repeats what's that by saying dat, but it's not consistent. 
• When I say, where is it? She'll put her hands out and look around like, I don't know. 
• She is getting very good at walking along furniture.
• She will no longer let me coach her by standing her up and letting go. She goes complete spaghetti legs when I try this. She only stands alone if she lets go of a table or couch by herself, like I mentioned before. 
• She loves when I chase her and give her tickles when I catch her. She will crawl so fast away from me, and then sometimes she'll stop because she wants me to get her, or she'll even turn around and crawl towards me laughing hysterically. 
• She has lately been laying down to play. Sometimes she'll have a toy, other times she'll roll around and kind of hum or sing or babble.
• She will look through a book by herself and 'read aloud'. It is very cute.
• She is very smart with my phone. She was calling Directory Assistance which cost me $1.95 each time. So I changed it to a 2 step unlock so she'd have to push OK and then Clear to get it to unlock. Well within 4 days she figured it out, and I'm sorry to report that she called 9-1-1 last night. She will no longer be touching my phone, at all. On a happier note, she always saves drafts in my text messages of random letters. The other day, I found that she left me ":-)." No joke. A smiley face. She is possibly a baby tech genius.
• Her bedtime routine is ok. I have no idea when I should get her to nap these days. Yesterday she took 2 naps like she used to, morning and afternoon. She screamed herself to sleep for the afternoon nap which she was never doing. And then bedtime came and she was so hyper. From 8 to 9:30, she would not sit still. Juan and I traded off as she climbed all over us, always eyeing something she just had to get to. And when we finally put her down, it wasn't sing a song and lay her down and she's out. She cried for about 5 minutes and then was restless in bed for a few minutes more until she finally fell asleep around 10. She used to sleep from 8 to 8. So she's still adjusting back to her sleep schedule from our NH trip.
• She sometimes wakes up at 7:30 am, she sometimes wakes up at 9. 
• She is a picky eater and it is frustrating. She spits out any food that has a different texture. She loves yogurt, bananas, cheerios. Anything else I have to force unless it is super sugary or super fatty. Like Popsicles she loves, and pizza she has no problem with. Applesauce, mac and cheese, the potato casserole Juan made last night, she will not have any of it. Spits it right out.
• She pants like a dog whenever she wants any kind of food from me. And when she doesn't want it, she makes the same noise but shakes her head. 
• She gets impatient and cries when I'm busy and she wants me to hold her. So I started this thing where I say, Show me happy and I point to my cheeks and smile big. And she does it too now, even smiles when she does it. Sometime she's pointing to her ear and the back or her head, but she's got those pointer fingers out!
• Juan came home yesterday and saved me. He did dinner, dishes, got Amelia ready for bed, fed her. I was in frustration mode, all the struggle with feeding her, it had gotten to me. And so I laid in bed watching tv, determined to be sad. And then Juan walked in the room with a smiling Amelia and I melted. I don't think I wanted to be mad at her, but I just wanted to be sad in general, you know? And in they walked, and I couldn't help but smile and want to snuggle and hug and kiss her. Frustrations and all, I love that girl.