Miley's First BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

I honestly can't believe that I am already writing this post! But we celebrated Miley's First Birthday on Saturday night. It was a wonderful time! She ate a really good supper so I felt good about giving her a whole cupcake to dig in to! When we set it on her tray she looked at me like- Are you really giving me this whole thing!?! And then she picked the whole thing up and squished it between her fingers and basically demolished it before she dug into it. She's a really good eater and doesn't really make too much of a mess so it didn't surprise me that we didn't have frosting EVERY where. It was still a mess- but not as bad as some might have been thinking. She got some great gifts and did a really good job opening them up all by herself. Although, with such an audience, she didn't want to leave my lap while opening.

I always write so much in my posts... I think I'll let these pictures do the talking...





















Her actual birthday is January 5, the same as Grandma Pam's. So I am sure they will have a fun day together since Mommy and Daddy have to go back to work. :( (We have been enjoying our time off with Miley) But we will still have a special supper and another cupcake- just for the fun of it, just the three of us.

And- a fun note for me and Miley... since we have had 10 days off together, we have started dropping a few nursings. Lately, it's been me asking her to nurse and when she is offered she will always take it, so this week I decided to wait until she was ready. We have only had to do it 3 times a day now. Morning, between 4-5 and before bed. She likes that evening one the most- that's because that is the time we get home from work and daycare and she misses her mommy- so that one might be a toughy to drop. But I am perfectly fine with where we are right now. I would prefer her to self-ween if all possible, and why would I take away something that is so good for her at this point in time if it doesn't bother me at all- ya know! :) But we did offer milk now and she loved it, didn't even have to mix half and half or anything, so she gets that with her lunch to make sure she is getting plenty of calcium and vitamins.

Her 1 year check up is on Friday- so I'll update with stats over the weekend.

Miley's First Christmas

I've gotten behind on my posts and just uploaded 100 photos to the computer!! We didn't want to miss a minute of Miley's first Christmas!!

Here are some pictures from the week before Christmas. Miley and Daddy love building tall towers with the blocks she got. He builds them high and she knocks them down!

Miley has become very fond of the Swiffer. Whenever we open the laundry room door she goes running to grab the swiffer and pretends to clean the floors and carries it all around. The picture of her and Taylor- she was getting tired and wanted to cuddle with Daddy but wouldn't let go of the Swiffer for the life of her, so he let her hold it while he held her!

This picture is of a bow that Miley pulled off of a package and so carefully set on the tree all by herself. We decided that we are going to keep this 'ornament' and I'm going to attach a little note saying Miley's first ornament she put on the tree- 2008.

We have sort of fallen into the Friday Night Pizza tradition at our house as Miley LOVES pizza and this night- it was a Monday since we were busy on Friday- but we had Pizza and Peaches for supper and Miley thought she was funny by running her hands through her hair and making it stand up straight. She went straight to the bathtub after supper!

CHRISTMAS EVE

We typically, before Miley, had our own little Christmas on Christmas Day Morning- but this year- we decided to change things up a bit so we wouldn't be rushed on Christmas Morning. Since we both have Christmas Eve off and nothing to do all day until Chruch at 4pm- we decided to make our Christmas breakfast of pancakes and breakfast ham and do presents then. It was a lot of fun to start a new tradition with Miley and everything worked out really well. We had breakfast, opened presents, took a nap, and then got ready for Church. It was really relaxing and fun to be able to just take our time.

We got a wagon for Miley- it has two seats, a door, cup holders, seat belts, and storage under one of the seats. She was SO excited to finally get to open it! She loved how BIG her present was!

Miley decided that she wanted to leave a 'special' present for Mommy and Daddy during her bath on Christmas Eve. This was the first time she has ever done this to us. I knew it happened, but I just thought we were lucky since it hadn't happened so far....

Warning: The following picture is 'graphic' Do not look if you have a weak stomach! HAHA

Our Family photo of Christmas Eve. We had to stop by my parents house quick before church so they could see Miley in her pretty Christmas Dress.

So- we went to Church at 4 and then went to Ken and Pam's for the Pagel Christmas. It was so much fun to see Landon, Henry and Miley open presents and to spend time together. Miley got VERY spoiled and by the end of the night she was totally pooped out. I think I had more fun taking all of her presents out of the packages when we got home and Miley was in bed. I wanted to have everything ready for her to play with when she woke up in the morning!







CHRISTMAS DAY

When we woke up on Christmas Day Santa had come!! Miley had fun looking in her stocking. Santa even came for Mommy and Daddy too!!! That Santa- he is soo good! :)




Then we were off to my parents for the Bodette Christmas, again. Since my parents didn't have anything to do and Taylor couldn't be there for the Christmas we had with my brother and his family, we decided to have Christmas again with them on our traditional day. We got there early and had breakfast and Miley needed a little snooze before we opened presents. She got a fun little interactive kitchen and a BIG stuff PINK puppy!! Then we lounged around and watched a movie before we headed over to the Duden Christmas.







Miley did NOT like Santa when he showed up with presents. But, it didn't surprise us as she has a fear of elderly people as it is, not sure where that comes from. She held on pretty tightly until he left.





We had a wonderful Christmas with Miley. It is mine and Taylor's most favorite holiday and it makes it so much more fun now sharing all the excitment with her. Now, I'm off to work for two days this week and then we get to spend another 5 whole days together as a family getting ready for our little baby's FIRST birthday! I can't believe it!!! It is coming way to fast!!

Our Christmas Celebrations Have Begun

Today was Miley's FIRST Christmas Celebration!! It was very exciting! We had Christmas with Mike, Trista, Dylan, Jordan, and Danielle at my parents house as they will be heading south for Christmas to see Trista's Granny so we decided to celebrate early with them. I thought Miley would just tear open her presents but she was really kind of afraid of them. It could have been that she wouldn't take a nap in the morning but once I started to open them for her she would peak behind the paper and point at what was in there, it was pretty cute. She got a toy basket full of big legos, even pink and purple ones, from Mike, Trista, Dylan and Danielle. Daddy will have a BLAST building houses for Miley's dollies with her! And since we are celebrating with just us and my parents on Christmas Day- so they have some company that day- Miley only got to open one present from them. It was a piggy bank with big plastic coins that she puts in the slot and it counts and sings songs. She impressed us all by putting them all into the slot on her first try! I thought it was going to take some learning- but she figured it out right away! Then we went to my dad's side of the family to see everyone and enjoy yummy food. It was a great First Celebration!





And to update you on the Miley stuff-- she now has all four molars in finally! So- that means- four top and four bottom front teeth and four molars for a total of 12 teeth all before she is 1 year old! And her walking skils literally improve overnight. She now walks more then she crawls and in a two day span she figured out how to stand up from a sitting position without pulling on something to get up. Taylor taught her on a Tuesday night and by Thursday she was doing it like and old pro! She can even squat down to pick up something and then stand back up again and take off walking! It is crazy to think that this time last year I was as big as a house and now only 1 year later our baby is walking all around and growing up literally before our eyes! What a special thing- the miracle of life! It truly is God's most rewarding and amazing gift!

11 Months Old!!!!

I write this a little sad... My baby is 11 months old! Where has the time gone!?!? It honestly just feels like yesterday that we were bringing her home from the hospital and now she will be having her first birthday next month!!!

Even though it is kind of sad that she's almost One it also brings on some new and exciting things. Miley's walking skills are improving more and more every day. She has now mastered turning while she walks. She can walk pretty far now too. She can start from the couch in the living room, walk around her toys, go into the kitchen and turn to go towards the dining room and back out to the living room! It is fun to see how much she can improve almost over night it seems!

She is really starting to communicate with us now. Her new favorite sign lately is for Nursing- she now does it on her own to tell me she is thirsty. She still does More and we are working on All Done right now. We would prefer her to do that sign when she is done eating rather then throwing a fit or throwing her silverware or cup on the floor. And she can tell you what a Chicken says if you say it first and also a Lamb, and If you ask her to say Thank You- it certainly sounds like that is what she is trying to say to you!

We are working on getting her ready for the move towards some whole milk. At the beginning of December we changed her 3 ounce bottle in the afternoon to a sippy cup with a snack and she took to that very well. She is still getting a 5 ounce bottle in the morning but this week Taylor had her on Thursday and he misunderstood me and he did the same thing for her morning bottle and she did very well with that too so we might be transitioning both bottles to a sippy cup so it will be easier to add in whole milk when the time is right. She is still nursing 3 times a day (during the week- 5 to 6 on the weekend) Morning, 5pm and before bed. I'm hoping also by the time she turns one we can cut out that 5pm feeding- I think it will take some time because we have tried having supper right at 5 instead of 5:30 or 6 and she still wants to nurse by 6 so for now-- we will just leave it in there because it is VERY obvious that she isn't ready to start weaning yet, which is totally fine with me. :)

Miley is also starting to help with dressing and undressing. She'll try to help you pull on or pull off her shirt- I know dressing is a hard thing to learn but at least she is taking some interest now and starting to realize how to do it. :)

She still LOVES music- she has a percusion set and it comes with two drum sticks and she can drum REALLY well, for her age. Her percusion set is a drum that opens up and more instruments are inside and she is really good at taking the top off and taking things out and then putting the top back on.

She is now interested in the fridge and magnets so I got her a Leap Frog alaphabet set and you put the letters in the little music box and it tells you how each letter sounds. I thought it might be a bit much for her but she surprised us when she figured out very quickly how to take out and replace the letters in the box! It's pretty impressive!

We are looking forward to Miley's first Christmas- she still isn't fond of the tree and she HATES all the Santas and Snowmen at my parents house- she about clawed me to death trying to crawl over my shoulder when I showed her one tonight. My parents said she did that to all of her Christmas decorations that they had out. I wonder what it will be like when we take her to see Santa at the mall......

Here are some photos from Daddy Daycare on Thursday. What a wonderful Daddy!!!

The Simple Things in Life

It is true that the simple things in life are free.....

We all just thought this was soo cute. Miley's teeth marks in a piece of Christmas Fudge. Enjoy....

Miley Playing in the Snow