Some Recent Pictures

Here are a few pictures taken recently...

My new haircut. It's pretty short, but I really like it. I get pretty bad bedhead though. : )

Can you see those teeth? She's got 2, bottom front.

Amelia LOVES her food! At this moment she had knocked my hand trying to grab the spoon. And I believe was preparing to make a "raspberry" noise. Yikes!

I'm sure you could guesss that this was taken on my birthday. : )

Love those smiles. : )

Those too! Doesn't she look like a big girl?

The girls...

Here's a video of the girls taken the evening of my birthday.

They days pass so quickly

Wow! I can't believe that Amelia is already 6 months old! We thought you might like to know how she's growing...

Amelia is such a happy baby, at least when she doesn't mind that I'm not holding her. We're getting into a mommy-centered stage, unfortunately. Otherwise, she's a content little girl, very smiley and curious. She has 2 teeth now (bottom front) and is eating lots of different baby foods and smashed up fresh foods. She loves to eat and drink water from a cup and gets quite upset if you won't share.

Amelia can sit up on her won without falling over, roll over front-to-back and back-to-front, and turn in a circle and scootch around on her belly. I'm expecting that she'll be close to crawling by Christmas. LOOK OUT CHRISTMAS TREE!!! : ) She's pretty average in size, in the 50-60% for both height and weight. This has worked out perfectly for clothing, as Kaiyah was one season and size ahead of her.

But most of all, she loves her sister! The smiles she gives her are like nothing else. I hope they'll be great friends.

Finally some pictures of our trip to Indiana

The girls and I went to Indiana in September for the week so Chris could get school work done without distraction. (His last class is next week! Hooray!) We had a great time with everyone and the girls enjoyed seeing their "greats", cousins, and friends. Here are a few pictures:

"Papa holding me!" is what Kaiyah says everytime she sees this picture. She loves and prays for her Papa.

I was amazed by how similar Evie and Amelia are becoming. Beside Evie being so much bigger, they could really be twins! Evie is in the green shirt, Amelia in the pink.

Great-Grandma Reid with her two newest grandbabies! She loved having them both there. Too fun!

Kaiyah and Great-Grammie had a great time hanging out, walking outside and swinging.

Smiles from Amelia

She's such a happy girl! At least most of the time. : ) Amelia is teething right now; the two front bottom teeth are right under the surface. She's rolled over a few times and is nearly sitting up. (She can sit up as long as her arms are propping her.) We have given her baby pears and applesauce a few times, which she absolutely loves. She cried when we stopped feeding her last time! And she loves, loves, loves her big sister! (more pics of the two of them to come)

It's been a long time...

Sorry for the long absence. I am hoping to get a bunch of pictures posted this next week, as Kaiyah will be staying with her grandparents by herself for a few days. In the meantime, here are some pictures taken in the last week.


Kaiyah loves being outside, especially helping me dig in the dirt. I transplanted a bunch of stuff and am getting ready to plant over 100 bulbs (under wire so that the squirrels may have a harder time eating them all). I've missed working outside in the garden!

Swinging with her water doll. She loves taking care of her baby dolls and having them do the same things that she does.

This picture was taken during our nightly reading time before bed. I think it's one of Amelia's favorite things to do. She gets so excited when she sees a book! Yeah!

Our sweet little girl! Amelia is so smiley and pleasant (most of the time).

Reading books! This book, Monkey and Me, is one of our favorites.

For Cortney

A message for you from Kaiyah:

Just one year ago...

I was just thinking that one year ago we were in the hospital in Pittsburg with a traumatically burned little girl. The LORD has healed Kaiyah in such amazing ways. We are so grateful and thankful to you, O God.

Potty Training

Since Kaiyah is fully in a big girl bed (for nearly a month now), we/I decided it was time to begin potty training. She's been using a potty on a regular basis since her first birthday and has been telling us when she needs her diaper changed, so it was time to take the next step. So, the last few days we've spent lots of time outside while Kaiyah initiated her big girl undies. She's doing well with it all, but doesn't tell us if she has to go (she's done that before though). We just set a timer and reward her for dry undies and going potty (with stickers and marshmallows respectively). I think that it will be a process, but we're starting off well. She stayed dry with no accidents until after nap yesterday (I forgot to make her sit) and so far today. We still put diapers on for naps and bedtime, but we'll get there too. I can't believe our little girl is getting so big!!! But I guess she will be 2 in a few weeks... YIKES!

The damage done from our first day's attempts. Luckily she got the hang of things pretty quickly and the next day only had one accident.

Enjoying a popsicle while wearing undies and sitting in the pool (no water).

A close up of our very special LEGO popsicles from the mold Chris got from Kaiyah last year on his 30th birthday. I believe these are pineapple.

Sitting on her potty in the kitchen and pretending to pull a ball out of her ear, just like the magic trick that Daddy had just done.

Update on Amelia's hip

For those of you who don't facebook and haven't talked to us, we took Amelia back to the orthopedic doctor last week for another ultrasound. Dr. Klingle said that her hip is healing, though not as quickly as he expected. So she is still wearing the harness for at least another 2.5 weeks. I'm not sure if she'll have to wear it any longer than that. We'll see after the next ultrasound. The good news was that she could start taking the harness off for baths (we were giving her sponge baths to this point)! This has been a fun addition to our routines. Amelia enjoys the water, but loves being free from her harness for a while. I think that she's liking it less and less as she becomes more aware of her body (and lack of freedom of movement). The other good news is that we've learned that there is a state agency that will cover the costs of Amelia's treatment after insurance! Even co-pays! Hooray!! I'm so glad that the time is passing so quickly for Amelia's sake and that the weather has been cooler recently. She gets so hot in that thing!

Such a cutie!!!! I love her sweet face and smile. She's cooing alot and even giggled once.
Her eyes are still so blue. I'm hoping for a dark curly haired, blue-eyed girl. I think that we may get it too! At least the hair part.

Sorry, I'll have to figure out how to turn this.

In other news, we weighed and measured Amelia today. She weighs in at a whopping 12 lbs and is 22 1/4 in long.

Strawberry Picking

Every year I pick strawberries and make jam to last us the next year. This year was no exception. Kaiyah is getting old enough to join in the fun, so we took her (and Amelia) on her very first berry picking adventure! And what a memorable one it was. Kaiyah actually did OK. She picked 2 or 3 berries and then played with rocks and complained of stuff getting in her shoes the rest of the time. That's about what I expected. We just wanted her to start getting familiar with the process and to experience working for our food. : ) The downside was that Chris and I were totally sweaty and we had about a billion (literally probably 100) fruit flies swarming our kitchen by the time the day was over. YUCK! So we vaccuumed them up with the hose attachment, which Chris accidently dropped in the sink full of soapy water. What a day! But now we have strawberry jam, so I guess it was all worth it! : ) Next fruit up: Blueberries. Maybe we'll pick those this week or next.

Eating some of the yummy goodness we were picking.
Complaining of stuff getting into her crocks. Note the large rock in her hand.

Amelia slept thru the whole thing. We were grateful. Like the good mother I am, I dressed both girls in strawberry themed clothes for the occasion.

On the way back to the barn after picking.

The fruits of our labor, still in fruit form.

weird...

I posted some more pics of vacation the other day, but they aren't showing up on the blog unless you click on June on the side bar. Then they come up just fine.

More pics of the beach

Chris and Kaiyah enjoying the hot tub. She thought it was marvelous!
Kaiyah did not like the feel of a hermit crab crawling on her hand. It tickled too much.


But she loved being buried up to her waist in sand!

This is how Amelia spent her time at the beach. The sound of the waves put her out!

Calling a seagull on the first morning we were there. She and I went out for a walk while everyone else slept. Good memories!

Two of my favorites...

We're home!

Vacation was great and we all loved the beach. Here are a few pics with more to come later...

Prayer needed...

We got a phone call tonight from Chris's sister, Cindy. Her son, Nathan, has been diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. Cindy had noticed he'd been drinking alot and had sweet-smelling breath, etc and took him to the ER after looking up some info online. Nathan has been admitted to the hospital and his blood sugar levels have been stablized (his levels were over 500, with normal being 80-100). Hopefully they caught it in time and no major damage has been done. It's alot for a 10-year-old to handle.

Happy 80th Birthday, Grampy!

We want to wish my Grandpa Reid a very happy birthday today! We're so glad that we get to be a part of your life!!! These pictures of Grandpa and Kaiyah are from last June.