Saturday, June 28, 2008

Summer is my favorite season because...

Amanda comes to visit us for longer periods of time!!! Yipeee! It's only a matter of hours now before our girl's flight arrives. We will pick her up from the Pasco airport at 6pm. I can't wait to give her a huge hug! I wait all year for this extended period of time when she is with us. I LOVE being able to see her every day, to be able to hug her, to tell her I love her in person and just share everyday life with her. This summer will be even more sweet because I will get to watch my girls interact and bond as sisters. I can't wait for Amanda & I to have our girls day. We are going to Walla Walla for a day of pampering and adventure. We will get a pedicure and do some window shopping. John already has some vacation time saved up so he will be able to take a fews days off in the middle of 2 weeks rotations and that will give him 2 7 day breaks. One at the beginning of the month and one at the end of the month. John has projects in mind that he will need Amanda's help with as she is trying to earn some money. He also plans to work with her on her driving and teach her the joys of driving. Ya know like chaining a tire, changing the oil, paying for gas, paying for maintenance and repairs. Where does the time fly? I remember the day we met like it was yesterday. I remember the first time we went camping and certain 6 year old girl said "can you stay with me until I fall asleep, you will know I am asleep when I start to snore". I am still amazed such a loud noise could come from such a small body. LOL! Another fond memory I have is leading Amanda to make the decision to accept Jesus as her personal Savior. I remember her saying will you come to my bedroom with me and pray that pray. Oh so precious. How quickly they grow up. Well I hear my little girl waking up... We are going to the Lavender fair today in Waitsburg with G-ma marcia, Aunt Katie and Grandma Nana. I'll be sure to take pictures. Daddy's home so I am off to make him some breakfast before he goes to sleep.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

She's pulling up onto EVERYTHING!

WOW! I tell ya once LeAnne starts to get something she just gets it and excels QUICKLY! It was just last week she started to pull up and now OMGosh she is pulling up onto EVERYTHING. She loves to stand in the window, especially when it's windy and the screen is open. She's getting pretty good! She is also taking steps sideways and forward holding onto our hands. Look out! I think we'll be lucky if she makes it to 10 months not walking. EEKS! She's so proud of herself! Way to go baby girl!!! Here is a video I took this afternoon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPgRCZ56DXI

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Video of LeAnne with her teddy bear

Grandma Marcia got LeAnne this teddy bear last weekend! She LOVES it!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc1QxrjDjtA

On a side note LeAnne got a big girl car seat today and we got a bunch of stuff to baby proof the house. :-)

Love ya'll

Jana

Here come the boo boo's


Okay so can I put a force field around LeAnne so when she falls she will just bounce and not get hurt? LOL! Where do I find the magic Band-aides then? The cute ones that take away the pain. I know we have lots of bumps and bruises in her future. :-( So yesterday she was being really crabby so I just put her in her crib with her music box. She got really quiet so I went to see if maybe she was asleep. Oh no I walk into find her standing up, holding onto the side of her crib. WHAT? Are you kidding me? So daddy lowered the crib to the last notch. She can still stand but can't fall out of her crib. The pictures are her standing after the crib was lowered. Not a minute after this pic was taken she fell HARD. OUCH! Then this morning I woke up to her screaming because she fell down. EEKS! Look out. She wants to pull up on everything. Oh boy

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Daddy's are important!




One day earlier this week John called me into the living room, as I rounded a corner I saw LeAnne holding onto the window ledge with daddy sitting behind her -- arms reached out to, ready to catch her if she fell. She was so proud of herself. What happened next speaks volumes. LeAnne lost her balance and hit her lil bum on the floor. John says I've been letting her fall down on her butt because she will be doing that a lot. He did quickly add but I don't let her fall all the way down. I smiled and thought to myself "what an important physical and life lesson he's teaching her." As her mama I am don't want her to get hurt so I tend to be over protective (I am working on it). I really appreciate that her daddy is teaching her it's okay to fall down and how she needs to get back up and move on with whatever she is doing. I am very thankful for my husband! He's an awesome husband, and daddy!

Today my mom and I went to church in Walla Walla, took a quick trip to Walmart and then we took lunch to John at work. We sat outside under some big shade trees and had our first picnic. LeAnne was thrilled to play with the french fry box, and paper bags from McDonald's. LOL! She left her mark with daddy -- ha ha -- finger prints all over his sun glasses and badge.

Thank-you to my dad for listening to me babble tonight about parenthood! Thank-you for sharing what was said at your church today -- Children are the prefect gift -- in my frazzled state I LOVED what you said next...something to this effect --if you want to really learn about life, about patience, sacrifice, work, joy, love and so on then have a child. I was rambling on and on about my frustrations. Telling you how I love my daughter beyond measure, I love being a mom, I feel so blessed to have her, but WOW being a parent is a lot of work, the learning curve is STEEP and I am always questioning if I am doing it right. She is one busy, busy girl! Into everything and a bit on the impatient side! I wonder if I am letting her control my life too much, is it normal to get this frazzled, to I feel these ways because she's my first -- I told dad tonight that right now she might be our only child. Dad reminded me to stop and pray. So tonight as I attempted to get LeAnne to go to bed, (when she's exhausted she fights big time to go to bed) I PRAYED for God's guidance -- just then I looked back at LeAnne and she was rubbing her eye with her FOOT -- it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen. Thanks God -- this mama needed that precious moment! Just now I felt God nudging me to remember a verse that's been on my heart for a while now -- Isaiah 41:10 -- "Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand". Amen!! Well John's on his way home with KFC for dinner! Any and all parenting advice/encouragement is welcome! LOL!!

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Our 8 month old beauty


Our 8 month old beauty is quite the cutie! As I am typing LeAnne is playing in her walker, babbling up a storm, squealing with delight and boy did she ever think it was cool to catch a glimpse of herself in the oven door. Oops mama spoke too soon -- she just screached with disapproval as she can't quite reach something she wants to play with. She's discovered the I am ticked off screach this month --that is not a fun noise. She's back to blowing raspberries and still chewing on anything she can get her mouth on. She still just has the 2 bottom teeth but more must be gonna pop through soon. Poor baby girl! OUCH! She is sitting by herself most of the time but still get a little wobbly. She is starting to pull herself up and loves playing on the bottom shelf of our book case. Mama just about has a heart attack everytime because I know she's gonna whack her head good one of these times. She definitely knows her name and is learning what no means. The picture here is of her sitting in her toy basket at Grandma Marcia's house. LeAnne & I spent a few days there while our water was shut off due to a broken pipe. Thankfully John and a co-worker fixed it today! Yahooooooo we have water. Little miss LeAnne has an independent streak a mile wide! Most of the time she will refuse the pacifier if we give it to her but will put it in her own mouth. She loves eating ice, watermelon and apple in her little net thing. She tried cantaloupe grandma's this week and isn't sure what to think of that. We've been trying some of the 2nd foods with her -- her new fave is Banana & berries. We got to see daddy at work this week and met the Chief. John said the chief thought she was pretty cute. LeAnne loved daddy's badge and mama thought daddy looked mighty handsome in his uniform. At the moment she is doing whatever she can to stay awake. I just put her in her swing because she was fighting me something terrible. The swing and car rides work like a charm to get her to sleep. I feel so very blessed. I am so thankful God gave us our little girl. We love her so very much!

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Fun family day!




We've had some challenging days with lil missy teething and mama just plain missin her man so I wanted to share about a fun day we had. Today was the Waitsburg community yard sale and this mama was feeling the need to get OUT of the house. LeAnne & I woke up daddy and before we knew it we were picking up grandma Marcia and off to Waitsburg we went. (Waitsburg is 10 miles away) We spent a few hours driving around town stopping at different yard sales and admiring the neat old houses. LeAnne was such a good girl and of course we got lots of comments about all the hair she has. We didn't have any huge scores but we all found a few things that had to come home with us. :-) Then we grabbed lunch at DQS (Dayton Quick Stop) and headed to Grandmas for lunch. Have I told her how good LeAnne was today! She LOVES being outside. Then later this afternoon the whole family (fur-babies included) took a walk around our neighborhood. It was so much being OUT of the house, taking in the sites (nature & wild life), talking to my hubby, talking to a few people and listening to LeAnne babbling. It was a very nice day -- I LOVE my family so much! I am truly blessed! Here are a few pictures of our little climber. LeAnne has taken to pulling herself into the book case, has almost pulled herself upright and has pulled herself up one stair with. EEKS she's on the move. I helped her pull herself up so she could see out the window yesterday and she was loving that. She gets so proud of herself. She's defiantly an independent one! Love ya'll !!!

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Some cute pix







Okay I had some insightful thoughts to share but that will have to wait because its really hard to put my thoughts together with a certain someone testing out her voice in the background. Really quick though I'll share some cute pix. John was home yesterday and we went to the park and LeAnne had her first swing ride. She LOVED it! She needs to get a little bigger to fit in the swing more securely so we can push more. Her newest things are pushing up with her back legs, but in the air, trying to crawl and shaking her head -- where not sure but think it must feel odd or she feels her hair moving. LOL! It's pretty funny! Well John is home today so we are off to Walla Walla to go grocery shopping and then plan to spend some family time together. Love ya'll !!