Monday, March 31, 2008

Amaya's Latest

Hi all. Here are the latest going ons in little Amaya' life. An update follows the pictures.
Saturday morning trip to the AZ Science Center with mom and dad.
Amaya pointing at the cool "water works machine." It shot water in many different and creative ways.

Playtime with Jaxon. They are getting very interactive now, so it was very fun to watch.
Jaxon eyeing his toy. Amaya stooping down to interact with Jaxon.
Mommy is to slow! Amaya was just putting this little pink purse on Jaxon's head like it was a hat. So cute.
Amaya checking out Jaxon.
Jaxon putting on Amaya's lipstick, much to his daddy's dismay. Smile, smile.


Amaya had her 12-month check-up on Thursday. And it's official. She's going to be petite. She weighs 18 pounds 1 ounce and is 28 inches long. Wow. Her boyfriend Jaxon is the same size and he's only 6 months old. He'll be able to protect Amaya at the playground, so that will be nice.

Amaya continues to enjoy walking any and everywhere. She asks to go outside constantly by pointing at either the door or her sandals and saying da-da. Da-da means either "daddy" or "I wanna go outside" depending on the moment. Amaya has also been back to enjoying her pool since early-to-mid March. By her choice. No kidding. Thus her new nickname is polar baby. The cold water doesn't phase her. She loves it. Thank goodness we built a baby play area in our pool so that we can let her enjoy the water without fully getting in ourselves. Because the water is freezing. Even getting our feet and/or legs in is painful at first. Crazy. Disclaimer...we only let her stay in about 10 minutes so that she doesn't get cold stressed or anything. So nobody needs to call CPS on us. Smile, smile. The pool is starting to warm-up now, so we'll be able to let her get in more and more. Will be a fun summer. The water was about 72-74 degrees this weekend, so I got in with Amaya for the first time this season. We had a blast.

Amaya also got to enjoy a trip to the AZ Science Center this weekend, and a playdate with Jaxon. See photos above. So she had a super-fun weekend. She also enjoyed several walks up and down the sidewalks on our street, one of her favorite activities. She likes to walk down and visit the "big kids" who live a few houses down. She just loves them. Once she gets there, she just stands there, smiles at them, and watches them. It's so cute. They just love Amaya, too. So that's nice. Below is a video of this very activity.





That's all for now. Have a great day everyone!

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Happy Birthday Will

A big Happy Birthday to the birthday boy Will. We hope you have a fabulous day. Just look at this sweet little guy! And now he's one! Crazy how time flies. Will, Amaya sends you her love and says to enjoy birthday cake round two. She's soooo excited for your zoo date! We love you little guy. See you soon.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Amaya Celebrates Easter

Happy belated Easter everyone. Scott, Amaya and I celebrated Easter on Saturday with Grandma Cindy, Grandpa Jerry, great-aunt Lynda, great-uncle Layne, and cousins Brooke and Eric. It was a beautiful day out, so we spent a good portion of the day outside. Which Amaya loved! She loves to be outside. She asks to go outside all the time. Even when it's dark out. The dark doesn't phase her. So, anyway, Amaya enjoyed her second Easter lots, as you can see in the pictures below.

These pictures were taken shortly after we arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It's a hour-long drive, so we didn't put her Easter dress on her until after we arrived and had brunch.
Amaya had a ball running around and playing with the Easter eggs.
Amaya must have enjoyed the taste of the plastic Easter eggs. She was constantly putting them to her mouth. Wait until she tastes the candy ones!
A little orange picking before the Easter Egg Hunt. We already knew that Amaya loves to eat oranges. But now we've discovered that she loves to pick oranges, too. Good thing she took a long afternoon nap or the orange tree may be bare by now.


Amaya with her loot.

Walking around, warming up for "hunt" time.
Checking out her Easter basket and...
...swinging it around.
"Easter is sooo fun!"


Easter egg hunt time.
I was surprised that Amaya did pick up a few eggs and put them in her basket.
But for the most part, she just enjoyed walking around carrying them.
"Look at all of these eggs!"
Amaya double fisting it.





Friday, March 21, 2008

Going Green Step by Step

In an effort to continue to do our part to help our environment, we have decided to start sending thank you's via email to those we routinely correspond with via email. So...watch for your thank you's from Amaya to come via the information super highway, and any future thank you's, also. And... we encourage any of you to consider doing the same. It is "our" planet, thus it's all of "our" responsibility to help preserve it for future generations, even if it means a little effort. And heck, let's be honest, this is one conservation effort that is actually easier to do than the original way. So why not? Smile, smile.

Have a good one! SBandA

Amaya's Second Kihle Family Gathering

Amaya got to meet more family members on Wednesday. She had a ball! Especially with her cousins (once removed), Brooke and Eric. She was having so much fun hanging with everyone, she refused to take an afternoon nap. And she never even got fussy. She was having too much fun. And we discovered that she is a ham like her daddy was when he was a baby. She had us all rolling with laughter several times with her dancing, mannerisms, posing for the camera, taking pictures herself, and with her famous appetite. She can put away food like nobody's business.

Here she is with Brooke, Eric, and her new puppy that her Great Aunt Kathleen and Great Uncle Lowell brought her. She just loves puppies. She was soooo excited when she saw it. It will be fun to get her a real puppy someday. Amaya also got two adorable dresses from Layne, Lynda, Brooke, and Eric. She's a lucky lady to have so many people spoil her with gifts!
Here's the whole gang...sans the photographer (aka me). Standing in back is Grandpa Jerry and Grandma Cindy. Kneeling in back is Great Uncle Lowell, whom Amaya had met last July. Seated on the couch is (l. to r.) cousin Eric, Great Uncle Layne (Eric and Brooke's dad), Great Aunt Kathleen (whom Amaya met last July, too), cousin Brooke, Great Aunt Lynda (she belongs to Brooke, Eric, and Layne), and daddy.
Instant replay, only Amaya's looking at the camera and the bunny ears are gone (brothers... smile, smile).
Next time we need to get the entire Kihle clan together. We missed all those not present. Marriage proposal anyone?

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Letter from Amaya to her play pals

Dear play pals,

Thank you for the presents, e-cards, and happy birthday entries on your blogs. That was so very sweet of you all! I love each and every one of you and feel so priviledged to call you all my play pals! And get ready Will and Emma. Birthdays are great! Especially the cake! You get to get all messy and it's so sweet and yummy! I can't wait for you guys to experience it in the upcoming weeks! O.K. Gotta run. I think mom and dad hear me. I'm suppose to be in bed. They don't know that I know how to get out of my crib yet. So don't tell on me. Good night and sweet dreams.

Love always,
Amaya

Amaya's First Birthday

Amaya enjoyed her first birthday. It started off with mommy and daddy singing her happy birthday, which she got a kick out of. She just stood there and grinned. Then it was tub time and off to pictures. Amaya had fun at her 1 year pictures. We were thankful that we were the first appointment of the day, because once Amaya could hear other people arriving and being ushered into other studios, she wanted to go investigate. She kept walking over to the door and peering down the hall. Closing the door didn't help. She just walked over to the door and tried to get it open. So funny. It's a different world with children once they are walking! Once pictures were done, Amaya enjoyed exploring all the cool stuff in the studio, so Scott and the photographer entertained Amaya with bubbles so that she was distracted from all the cool props while I packed up everything. After pictures, we headed back home for her party. We kept it small and intimate. Just Scott, Amaya, Grandma Cindy, Grandpa Jerry, and myself. We wished Grandpa John and Grandma Kim could have joined us, but they had to head back north March 1. We started off the festivities with brunch. Amaya enjoyed her first piece of breakfast pizza, a Hove family tradition. Then it was present time. Amaya was more hands on with that part than I thought she would be. By next year she'll really be ready to tear open those gifts! She had fun with gift opening. She got lots of great stuff and dove right in to checking out her new toys and clothes. She was so excited with her new toys. It was soooo precious. After gift opening, it was cake time. Which turned out to be the most fun! Amaya had her own mini cake to tear into, and she had a ball with that. It was so fun to watch her experience her first cake! So, all in all, it was a very special day! It's hard to believe a year has already gone by! It's been a year packed full of precious moments and special memories. All beginning March 15th of last year. On such a special day as our daughter's first birthday, I found myself reminiscing about our first days days with her and how special that time was and continues to be. We continue to be so very thankful for our little miracle. She's been a joy and it just keeps getting better and better. So, it's only fitting that we give a big shout out to the Ballou family, Amaya's surro family. Thank you for helping us experience this joy!

All ready for the big party!
The gifts all ready for the birthday girl.
The birthday girl, party hat and all.
Gift time
The birthday girl, so sweet.
Mommy checking out the new outfit. Amaya checking out the tissue paper.
Little lady
Amaya tearing into a gift.

Ooh, check this out mom.
Amaya got a porcelin shoe from Grandma Kim and Grandpa John and the first thing she did with it was lean over and put it up to her foot as if she was going to put it on. So cute. What a smart little gal.
Cake time
Fun, fun, fun.


Messy, messy, messy.
Precious, precious, precious.




Amaya Visits the Zoo

Scott took Friday off and we took Amaya to the Phoenix Zoo for the first time. She just loves animals, so she had a nice time. The weather was perfect and we went early, thus beating the crowds. But... we did have to be careful not to get run-over by a group of jogging mommies pushing their kids in strollers. That was interesting. We kept coming upon them. Their were atleast 20 of them, so they were hard to miss. Interesting place to go for your morning work-out. So, anyway, here are a few pics from our zoo adventure. We bought a membership, so I am sure we'll be back lots.

Amaya pointing at the monkeys. Thank goodness she's not old enough to ask questions yet. Smile, smile. If you click on the picture to enlarge it and look closely you'll see what I mean.


Daddy and Amaya checking out the orangutans.

Here they are. Isn't the baby orangutan cute?!

Daddy and Amaya waiting for a camel to come by.

Amaya, Scott and myself grabbing a little lunch...oh wait...