A Three Year Old's Birthday Party!

Amya's sledding party was a blast!

We went up to Little John Snow Park for a morning of sledding, coffee, hot chocolate and fruit salad...oh yeah, and cupcakes!

Cupcakes!!

Green Guys

Amya got these cute little monsters from Uncle John and Aunt Danielle. Amya was calling them "the little one" and "the big one". So, I asked her if she wanted to name them. She loved that idea. Now their names are "Carol" and "Nelson".....I couldn't talk her out of the "Carol" part.

(Also, apparently our new license plates are their beds!)

Cards!

I meant to do a post about this last fall when the Halloween cards starting coming in....

Amya LOVES cards...especially the ones that come in the mail (don't get me wrong, the kid loves presents, too, but don't all kids?). She knows her name starts with an "A", so when I show her that she got a card in the mail....and it starts with an "A", the squealing begins! If there is glitter or velvet on the cover, that gets extra points. She carries them around with her and puts them in her bookshelf. sometimes she picks her cards for us to read to her instead of a book.

I don't remember being so fond of cards when I was a kid, but maybe I was. I just think it is funny how much she loves them. Amya says "thanks!" to all those who send them!

Oh No She Didn't!

So, Amya is in a "sassy" stage....experimenting with her language and will (what else is new?)! We were eating at a noisy restaurant this week and she looked at Dan and I said, "It is too loud in here!" Then she looked at the table next to us and called over, "Hey! I don't want your noise in my ears!"

Thank goodness it was loud...they didn't hear her. This incident was followed with yet another conversation about respectful words. Last night I was told, "Now you listen to me." -- don't know were she's heard that before?!

A Hike On Sunday

On Sunday we went for a walk along the Klicitat River with the Hoensees. The sun was shinning and it was a beautiful day to be out!

Here are some pictures from the "Baby Sprinkle" my friends threw for me last weekend. It was so much fun! They made a salad bar and chocolate cupcakes...what could be better than that?!?

Apparently when I don't know someone is taking my picture, I make some interesting faces!

(the beautiful quilt that Shelly made for me!...another picture at the bottom)

The obligatory side view!

...a little bit of practice on baby Eli :)

Happy Birthday, Momma!

. .

We hope you have a wonderful day!!!

This Weekend...

Dan snapped a picture of Amya and I sleeping on the couch...something I do a lot of lately! :)

...dressed and ready to go to the baby "sprinkle" my friends are throwing for me today!

The Virus...

...don't get it!

And if you're pregnant (I think half of my friends are pregnant right now), PLEASE do yourself a favor and DON'T get it! Dan was the only one who escaped this one...and we are keeping our fingers crossed on that.


We're all good now! (a little lighter in our shoes, but healthy!)

My Mellow Man!

Agh!!!!

I keep having dreams that I have the baby and then forget to take care of it or feed it...or I leave it somewhere! This is getting annoying!

5 WEEKS...

...and counting...

Dan, Amya and I are starting to get excited about the next "phase"! "Baby Nelson" is due next month (on it's cousin, Taylor's, birthday) and everything is looking good. I thought I'd share a little bit about the journey...

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We had to wait a little longer than we wanted to get the good news, but it seems just that much sweeter when it finally happens! This past May we all headed out to New England to attend Tracy and Kirk's wedding festivities. That should have been our first clue that there was going to be good news, as we also found out we were expecting Amya while on a vacation. The Monday before the wedding we were visiting our friends, Kara and Jason Tait. We were excited to take a pregnancy test, but in the back of our minds thought it was probably jumping the gun. The test came back negative. Dan was shocked...he just knew it was going to be different. I, on the other hand, had taken so many negative tests that past year, that I wasn't surprised at all.


Friday rolled around, things were getting busy... errands to do, nails to get done, family to pick up at the airport. Dan still held out hope. We decided to take another test, before the "wedding celebrating" began. We were staying at Dan's Dad's house and getting dressed and ready for the wedding rehearsal. I took another test...only one line appeared. I felt a little foolish for spending money on a second test for the same month. Our window for a normal time-line for conception was closing. Should I make an appointment when I get home? As I was putting my make-up on in the bathroom, Dan came in and said, "Honey, I think you should look at this test again."


Yup! Only one line! Oh wait, actually, there was a second, very very faint line. What does that mean??!! We read over the box, over the pamphlet inside the box and looked at each other, confused. It looked like another line wanted to appear, but it was outside the 10 minute window of validation! Were we pregnant or not?! Just then Tracy walked in, ready to go. We showed her the test and asked her opinion. Now all three of us were uncertain. Dan wanted to get excited, I wanted to stay cautious. We decided to bring the test to the rehearsal dinner to show our sister-in-law, Suria. "She worked in the NICU and has two kids, she'll know!" Either way, we decided to keep this on the down low as much as possible. We aren't ones to wait to share baby news, but we didn't want to celebrate a false alarm nor distract anyone from the happiness of the impending wedding. We had a plan, and lots to do, so I shoved the test in my purse and off we went!


While Tracy and Kirk rehearsed their vows, my mind was racing. At one point I realized I'd missed something important, when I heard Tracy say my name and everyone was looking at me. Oops! All I was thinking was ...Baby? No Baby? Wine with dinner? No more wine with dinner for a long time? The rehearsal went on.


Then Dan bumped my arm and pointed. I looked up, behind the priest, over at our daughter who was holding my purse open and handing something to my mother-in-law. Our jaws dropped, Tracy's eyes' bulged, the wedding singer grabbed my arm and whispered, "Is that what I think it is?!" So much for secrets!


For the most part we were able to keep it low key until after the wedding, but had fun escorting our family members out to their cars after the reception to tell them the good news. Did I mention we aren't ones for keeping pregnancy news a secret? I did take another test the morning of the wedding, digital this time! And I bought a two pack! The unused test got slipped into Tracy's honeymoon suitcase! :)

prego photos courtesy of Michael Peterson Photography

011110...

...Today's date!

Winter Fishing....A Success Story!

UPDATE: It was gooooooooood!

Dinner!!!

Once Upon A New Year's Eve...

New Year's Eve 2009/2010

We went to our friends, Jen's and Mark's house for New Year's Eve this year...

Amya and Sadie are infatuated with Cole's Rudolph figurine set!

The men set off fireworks from the balcony

Kristen, Graham and Amya celebrating a "New York New Year's Eve"!!

Sadie, Cole and Amya...watching Toy Story

Me, cute Graham and Jen!

Working From Home...

...with a little help from Amya...

"Such Things"

I really need to go back in time and post about our wonderful holiday...it really was fun! But until then I had to share a story about Amya's newest phrase, "such things."


I think it is from reading "T'was The Night Before Christmas" one too many times (did I mention Amya LOVES Christmas!?).

When she wants me to leave the light on for nap time she says, "I need the light to see such things"

When she wants to listen to music on the computer (always Christmas music), she says, "Mommy, can you put some Christmas music on so I can hear such things?"

The other day it was sunny and we were driving around HR. I asked Amya if she could see "The Daddy Mountain" (Mt. Hood). She got very excited and said, "Yes, Mommy! I can see such things!"

It cracks me up.

Funny Girls!

The Next Project

(and probably last one for a while)

We ripped out our gross stained cream colored carpet on New Year's Eve. Today we started the project of laying hard wood in the living room.

Laying the first row.