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?

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...

And the Play Group Grows

Baby Ellie makes her inaugeral appearance at our play group gatherings. What a sweetie! Sleeping beauty.

And Jaxon makes his inaugeral appearance, too. Along with his puppy. Will's so happy to have a fellow boy join the group!Here are the original members of the play group catching up...
...and patiently waiting for their grilled cheese sandwiches.
Amaya enjoyed her grilled cheese. Will enjoyed playing with Amaya's placemat. Amaya enjoyed watching people get their soda.
Will enjoyed Ellie's soft hair.

All four kiddos together. The only current member not able to make it was miss Emma. Hopefully we'll catch her at the next gathering.
Here the boys are putting the moves on the girls. No kidding. Will couldn't keep his hands off Ellie and Jaxon couldn't keep his hands off Amaya. How funny.

I guess that means Jaxon likes "older women" and Will likes to "rob the cradle"...literally in this case.

Amaya update

O.K. I had intended on taking more video footage of Amaya this weekend and posting a clip because she has just gotten to be such the little walker. As daddy says, "she's officially retired from crawling." She walks any and everywhere she wants to go now. It's so fun to watch her. But, the weekend flew by as always. So that's my mission for this week. Stay tuned...

Spring is in Bloom

O.K. This is our second spring in Arizona and I've officially decided I love it here. Arizona is definitely growing on me. The longer we're here, the more I love it. And now that we've discovered how close we are to a winter wonderland during the winter months, we realize we can have our cake and eat it too. And spring in "the valley" is the best. It reminds me of May and early June in North Dakota, and April, too, those years when we had warm springs. Everything's starting to bloom. The air smells sweet. Temps are perfect. No humidity. Cool evenings. Perfect outside weather. We start to live on our patio this time of year. We even have a t.v. on our patio. Though we discovered we tend to not use it much. Just last night Scott and I went outside before bed to gaze at the stars because it was a beautiful, clear night. We can see the stars so well in AZ compared to Chicago. Less city light interfering. So, anyway, spring is in the air, and we're loving it. Check out some blooms from our blue hibiscus. It's finally giving us lots of blooms. Yeah. Will post more pics once everything is fully blooming.