Amaya and Junk Mail

I"m not sure why she is so fascinated by this, but she loves playing with junk mail. She takes each piece out, one at a time, inspects it, bends it, twists it, rips it (if she can) and then discards it on the floor. Maybe there is a job as a Postal Inspector in her future?

Amaya's Cousin, Friend and Playmate...

I'm sure that over the years, there will be a lot of pictures on this blog of these two - Amaya and Miles - who are only 3 months apart in age.

Happy little girl...

Like I mentioned in the last post, here is Amaya most of the time: curious and happy!

Poor little girl...

We hear from a lot of people (family, friends and even strangers) that Amaya is such a happy baby. Which is true - most of the time! However, sometimes when Amaya doesn't get what she wants she gets so frustrated and mad.

Here is a picture of her, very obviously unhappy!

I'm probably a horrible parent to even say this, but this picture kind of makes me laugh. She is expressing such utter futility, such hopelessness, that I can't help but laugh. I know, I'm a bad parent!

~~ Steve

Cutest baby ever? says Proud Daddy

I know I'm terribly biased. I can't help it! I love these pictures of the cutest baby I have ever seen! She just learned how to give her baby kisses!

Decorating for Christmas!

LOVE-LOVE-LOVE this tree! Perfectly symmetrical, really full, and fragrant.

Family room - Amaya's stocking is the one in the middle. She's hoping we'll fill it with Gerber Yogurt Melts and Banana Puffs.

The picture of our tree all decorated was too fuzzy, so you'll just have to use your imagination as to what the rest of the tree looks like. Notice Amaya's new Christmas dress!

Checking out the tree... being a "good girl"and not touching!

Amaya's first Christmas ornament.

Dining room.

Banister railing.

We can't have Christmas without snow!

Our Christmas tree all year long!

Wrapping Presents

Amaya and I were able to get all of the Christmas presents wrapped. Amaya's job was to put the bows on. I think she did an awesome job. Unfortunately, there were a few presents that she took a bite out of the wrapping paper. Oops...

Oh! And just an FYI - IKEA has the best wrapping paper! It's double sided, good quality, really pretty, and relatively inexpensive.

Snooping

Amaya comes from a long line of snoopers. Grandma Gustafson, Aunt Carol, and me. So it shouldn't have surprised me when Amaya decided to do some snooping of her own.

She's soooo busted...

O Christmas Tree...

With Amaya being sick on Saturday, I sent my dear husband to pick out our Christmas tree. I think from now on, I'll always send Steve out by himself to pick it out. He brought home the most beautiful 8 foot Premium Frasier Fir Tree!! We probably won't buy anything other than a Frasier Fir and I place most of the blame for this on my mom. She has expensive taste when it comes to Christmas trees... actually, she has expensive taste when it comes to most everything and great taste she has!

Last year at this time, I was very pregnant and Steve volunteered to string the lights on the tree so I wouldn't have to bend, twist, and reach. I guess Steve didn't like putting the lights on the tree, because this year I'm back to the task! We usually have 1200-1400 lights on our tree and this is my sister, Carol's fault. Several years ago - pre-Steve, while I was visiting Dan and Carol in Nebraska, I helped decorate their church. Carol taught me how to put lights on the tree. You shove the lights WAAAY back to the trunk and then wrap each branch with lights and repeat. It's A LOT of work, but the end result is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!

We weren't sure how Amaya would do around the tree. Would she pull the ornaments off? Would she try to eat the branches? Would she knock the tree over? So far, so good, she's hasn't gone near the tree. She was fascinated with the lights and liked to play with the ornaments while they were in the box. I thought maybe we'd have to only decorate the tree half-way up, but I put more "baby-friendly" ornaments on the bottom, so if she does decide to explore we'll be okay.

I'm relieved that we've gotten the house and tree decorated, however my "to do list" still feels like a mile long. We have two more Christmas presents to buy for, wrapping, baking, and our Christmas cards left. Manageable, right?

We're about to receive anywhere from 6-10 inches of snow in the next 24 hours. I'm anxiously looking out my window at work waiting for that first snowflake. Bring on the snow!

Finally a Healthy Household

We've been horrible at blogging since Thanksgiving simply because it's been crazy busy and 2 out of 3 of us have been sick at some point. Amaya had a fever right before Thanksgiving that lasted 5-6 days and a few days later, Steve got a fever and chills. Then on Saturday, Amaya threw up once in her crib, (that went unnoticed until that morning) and then again two more times covering both me and Steve. Ugh... We're finally on the upswing and all feeling healthy -- for now (fingers crossed).