A Big Congratulations!

So yesterday Matt graduated from UTA with a Mechanical Engineering degree! We are all very happy and proud of him! We had a celebration dinner at Casa Rita's, it was very nice. Now he'll be in search of a job, I'm hoping and praying that he gets a job soon!

The graduation was very different from what I'd been to. Very formal, all the graduates were engineering graduates. There was a ticket system that had to be scanned in order to get in and the auditorium was fairly small. The attached picture is a bit blurry but I was trying to take a picture, clap and see what's going on! hehe

First Professional Haircut

FIRST - Sorry I've not written in a while....I've been so busy at home and work that I've neglected to update!

Here is our baby having her first experience at a salon on November 30th! hehe! She was not scared of the water bottle nor the scissors. The lady even put a Baby Einstein video on for her to keep her attention but of course she was curious of what was going on! She's so funny!

On the Move!

So Amelia started walking on October 21st. It was a good day! We were anxiously awaiting for her to walk and she did! At 12 months and 3 weeks. I love that we have this little person just walking around the house, following us around, sneaking into whatever room we may be......it's great! And she actually does "sneak" into the rooms. She loves being chased around but loses her balance when she's really trying to get away.

Here she is getting ready for bathtime.

Trick or Treat!

Here are the girls in the wagon about to go trick or treating. We went to about 10 houses in the Sweetser neighborhood, it was fun!

Here we are at the first house that we trick or treated at, the Anderson's. They were so nice, they had a special treat for Amelia. A cupcake and a Dora ball!

Family Fun Day!

Here we are with our most precious little girl! She's currently 12 1/2 months old. She's not walking YET, but is really trying. She's going from wall to wall to couch to coffee table. She says puppy, hi and momma. She loves to dance and likes to point. One of her favorite veggies are green beans and she likes avocados. She started drinking cow milk this week. She was temporairly drinking Silk Milk or as Matt and I called it "crack" milk.....she LOVED it and would throw the biggest fits as soon as it was gone. We had to have a 2nd bottle ready to go once the other one was done.

Her head measured in the 99th precentile, length 70% and her weight is in the 50th percentile. She's not picky with food or milk. She's also learning to have fun with Millie!

Kiddie Ride?

So we decided to take the "kiddie" train.....OH MY GOODNESS! It was pretty rough but it was sooo fun! I laughed so much and Amelia just sat and took it all in! At one point I thought we were going to flip! HEHE! I still laugh at the thought of the ride! Matt was trying to take a picture of us in action but all he could see is a cloud of dust! HEHE

Halloween Treat!

We just smile everytime we see Amelia smile or laugh. She's such a ham! Matt set her in this pot, seems like most people were just passing past it, but the moment they saw us taking pics they were saying "oh look!" and that's when Amelia just started smiling/showing off..... She's sooo funny! We went to the pumpkin patch in Flower Mound yesterday and had a great time!

Haircut by Momma

So we've been trimming Amelia's hair around her ears, well Matt has. Over the weekend it was suggested that we should cut it and I agreed. I asked Matt if it was okay for me to trim her bangs he said it was okay. Well, he thinks she looks like Jim Carey....I think she looks super cute! The last comment he said was that it's growing on him and does think she looks cute! She ours! She has to be no matter what! HEHE!

Stand Rock

Here we are at Stand Rock. One of the most legendary rock formations in the Dells. It stands 47 feet high. We actually saw a dog jump from the right to the rock and back. I have it on video. It was pretty cool!

The Dells

On our last day of the trip we took a boat trip in the upper dells of the Wisconsin River. It was about 2 hours out into the river and had 2 stops. It was so scenic and pretty. Amelia enjoyed the ride and of course Matt and I did too. I just loved the area, so beautiful!! I want to go back with more time!

Amelia at Castle Rock Lake

Here is Amelia playing in the sand at Castle Rock Lake. The water was COLD! I dipped my feet in it and then dipped hers in. She started wiggling trying to get me to let her go, she enjoyed her feet in the water. She really liked playing in the sand. We were the only ones on the beach, it was very nice and relaxing. Amelia and I spent a lot of quality time together! It was GREAT!

Matt's Invention

Over the summer Matt had been doing some research regarding an inventor's conference in Wisconsin. The deadline quickly came up and so we decided that it wouldn't be a bad idea for him to go since he'd learn things there. At the time of signing up for the conference he also entered his idea into their contest. He received notification from the university on September 9th that his idea was accepted to show. He quickly got to work in getting all his material together and begin the building process of his dog bed.

We left for Wisconsin on the 29th (Amelia's first birthday), our poor baby wasn't feeling well. But once we arrived there she was fine. The competition was on the 30th. Since it was only for people attending the conference I was afraid I wouldn't be able to go but he asked for permission and they allowed Amelia and I to be there. There were 7 judges and 14 contestants. There were all sorts of ideas and the majority were ideas that people have invested A LOT of money into their ideas and display. Matt had a simple display and the bed had recently been made by Rosemary's sister, Sara. She did a great job!

Well, once the judges came out they immediately began to announce the winners. There were 4 prizes. They announced the first winner, the Deuce Mop Wringer. Next was MATT!! YAY! He won 3rd place!!! I was soooo excited for him, he was shooting for 1st but of course was happy with placing! He has been awarded $895 worth of research services from the Wisconsin Innovation Service Center.

Our entire trip was a hit! We had a great time and really enjoyed seeing the colors of the fall up north.

Our Little Lady's Birthday Celebration

On Saturday we celebrated Amelia's First Birthday! It was great fun! We had it at Gatti Town in Amarillo. Amelia was unsure of all the singing that occurred but loved seeing the people there. When it came time to cake time she was very dainty (almost lady-like HA!) she ate the icing with the tip of her finger until both grandmothers motivated her to dig in. In the first picture there were so many cameras flashing that we didn't know which one to look at so this is the best I have. The last picture is of Amelia in her toy box that was made especially for her by Grandpa Stokes.

Painting with a Twist

So last night we went to Painting with a Twist to celebrate Kelly's birthday. She'd told me about this place and I immediately wanted to do it! When she decided to celebrate her birthday there I was excited to sign up. So the idea of this place is that they have a picture that everyone will paint for that night. The instructor guided us and showed us which steps to take.....here's the twist: throughout the evening while we're painting she rings a bell that signals us to take a drink of wine. It was lots of fun and now I have my very own piece of art! HEHE!

Amelia is 11 months old!

My little girl is 11 months old, she will turn ONE on 9-29. She's so funny keeps both Matt and I entertained, she even laughs by herself sometimes. She's just crawling and pulling herself up all over the place. At this time she does not seem to be too interested in walking or standing on her own so we're not even practicing with her. We figure that she'll do it when she's ready. She has 2 bottom teeth and 4 are coming out on the top. She sure does like to use those sharp things! I have videos but have not been able to share because my personal computer is on the verge of dying. She continues to enjoy music and loves people watching! If we are out running around she rarely cries unless we're in the car. Last year at Christmas time we spent 9 hours at the mall and no peeps came out of her.....she just enjoys running around! (Like her momma, grandma and great-grandma!) Oh and obviously you can see here that she's a thumb sucker. She's wearing her new headband that a girlfriend of mine made, I love the buttons! Very cute!

Happy Birthday!

My birthday was on Friday and had a pleasant surprise from Amelia. She walked her very first 3 steps on her own that night! It was very exciting and we all witnessed it. It was great! Plus over the weekend she said "Momma" for the first time with meaning. She has been saying "ma ma ma" but this time she actually said "Momma!" Here is a picture of our birthday tradition to have a homemade cake from Matt!

OH! The Face!

Amelia is sooo funny. Here is a perfect example of her throwing a fit. She had Matt's phone in her hand, he grabbed it from her so he could take a picture of them, needless to say she got mad! hehe She gets sooo mad when she wants something or has her heart set on getting something and we take it away, just the other day she did that to my with a q-tip. She didn't even have it in hand I grabbed it before she got to it. She got so mad she had to try hard to catch her breath. AHH! LITTLE GIRL!

Reynosa!

About 1 month ago I was at church and during the announcements see that the group going to Reynosa, Mexico had an ad in search of a "Female Spanish Translator." After the announcements I ask Pastor John who I'd need to talk regarding the "ad." He said "ME." We talked about it and I told him that I'd have to discuss it with Matt. Matt said he would be okay with me going (he was going to be with Amelia all alone all week). I left for Mexico on July 25th and got back on the 31st.

We arrived at Camp Vamonos http://www.vamonos.org/ on Sunday night. The camp was soooo pretty! The people that ran it were so great and the food for the week was authentic Mexican cuisine! It was great! No tv and no wifi. The entire trip was great! I was the translator for the women's bible study group and the eye doctor. Working with the eye doctor was really fun because I immediately saw how the people were being helped with simple fixes such as reading glasses. In all here is what our group did: vacation bible school for the kids, sports team (to reach out to the teens), work team (for the building of the porch and the pouring of the foundation for house #10), women's bible study, children's daycare for women in bible study and the medical team (a general doctor and the eye doctor).

I laughed so much throughout the week! I think we all came back to the U.S. with interesting stories to tell. I know I did! Glad to be back with Matt, Amelia and Millie! I missed them! I managed to talk to Matt everyday of the week so that was good because I was thinking I wasn't going to have access to a U.S. tower but I was able to find them!

FYI I added all the pics from the trip to my shutterfly shared account on the lefthand side of this page.

Moving to the Beat

Amelia is showing her moves. She hears music and begins to move to the beat....she just started doing this infront of the stereo last weekend. I turned the music on, she crawled to the front of the stereo and started moving to the beat.

Getting Around

We went to the Sweetser's for a small get together. Amelia was racing with Carlos across the living room. Pretty much this is how she gets around, so no white clothes for Amelia!

The Price Is Right!

So on Saturday I was reeled into auditioning by Shannon for The Price Is Right. There I was in line at 8am on Saturday morning along with all the other nutties! The auditions started at 9am. We were given a number I was given #26! We were all herded into this area where there were chairs set up and a stage. The MC gets up and tells us that the person they are looking for needs to show ENTHUSIASM and cheerfulness. YIKES! I can be enthusiastic and cheerful but can I do it on stage and infront of a crowd!!??? NO WAY! I am in Toastmasters for a reason! I tell Shannon "I can't do this" she goes "STEP OUTSIDE THE BOX" ......and so I was not looking forward to this....my number was coming up. Once I signed my name I was committed, I was a bit nervous but I got over it once my number came up. I semi-run up on stage waving my hands up in the air, I see Shannon so it was a sigh of relief to see her friendly face. The MC asks me "So why do you want to be on The Price Is Right?" I said "To win prizes!" He goes "What do you want to win?" I said "A CAR" he asked me in which game.....GRR I DREW A BLANK so I said "In the showcase showdown".......he goes "Oh so you just want to get to the end" I nodded and that ended the audition.

After that I stood around to watch the other auditions and gosh they were so entertaining! I laughed so much. In between the auditions they were giving out t-shirts and GOSH I sure did want one. He was giving them away by shouting out a random number between 1-150.....I was standing on the sidelines shouting as loud as i could "TWENTY SIX!!!!!!!!!!!!!" EVERY TIME.....and no luck. Finally, I gave up and decided that I needed to go home. I gave my number to Shannon and was calling Matt to let him know that I was coming home. THEN the guy goes "I'm going to give a t-shirt away"......I asked Matt to hold on a second.....the MC goes I'm going to give away to the person that has the number to this highway "121!!!" the audience all shouted back "NO!!! the number has already been called" so he then goes "Well how about this highway over here and he points at the highway" I SHOUT! "TWENTY SIX!!!! TWENTY SIX" He goes "THIS highway? are you sure?" I said "YES!!! TWENTY SIX!!!!!" I'm not too sure what else he said Matt could probably remind me because he was listening to all this even though he had NO idea what was going on. I kept telling him this highway is TWENTY SIX!!!!! Finally he goes "OKAY NUMBER TWENTY SIX!" SO I jumped with joy and got my t-shirt!!!!!! IT was soooo funny!

In between all this the MC had asked us all to stand infront of the stage at one point and shout out at the count of 3 "WE LOVE THE PRICE IS RIGHT!!!!!!!!" so we did and I saw myself on CBS 11 news! We shouted and then jumped with joy!

I go home and later find out that 15 minutes AFTER I left Jack FM drew my name for two Brett Michaels concert tickets, BUT had to be present to win! BOOO!

Happy 4th of July!

Amelia would not leave her hat on so it was difficult to get her photo and as you can see she has her hairbow in her hand.....she looked very festive! We bought Amelia a little pool so she could cool off. Matt cooked out while Rosemary and I enjoyed the shade! He did a great job grilling!

Mashed Taters!

Matt is enjoying himself too much in the kitchen.

**Also please make note that this was trash day so we were letting our trash fill up that day, please don't think we maintain our garbage in this condition.

Getting Stronger By the Day

So here's Amelia pulling herself up. She started doing it last week but as of today she has been doing it a lot more....she really enjoys it when Matt and I celebrate so she does it more and more.

Belly Laughing

I just love to see Amelia belly laugh....it is soo funny. Here is a video where she is super belly laughing with Matt. (As you can tell I have finally figured out my video camera after 11 months of having it!!!)

Sort of a Crawl

Here she is semi-crawling and getting into things she's not supposed to.

Mariachi Music

And so it begins! Last night we went over to Juan's for a birthday party. He had mariachis come sing "Las Mananitas" to Iris' mom. It was Amelia's first time up close and personal with mariachis I hope Amelia enjoys them as much as I do.....the music is lively and a pleasure to hear just makes you want to move. Here she is dancing with Juan. I listened to a lot of mariachi music while pregnant....so we'll see. She had a late night.....didn't go to bed until 11pm! So maybe she did enjoy them?

Baby Crockett!

Amelia started crawling on Saturday! She's not "mastered" the skill yet but she's getting there! Here's her Davy Crockett picture.

I Love Hats!

So I really like hats if I could wear them on a daily basis I WOULD...but I don't ..... just in the winter I wear them at any opportunity that I get. I think they look so cute on Amelia. I especially like her sun hats. I got her the cowgirl hat at Buckskin Joe's so when she goes to see the mini horses she'll have the hat to wear. We did the old timey photo and they put a bonnet on her. It was cute except it kept covering her face for the photo.

Royal Gorge Bridge

We decided to take a short trip to Colorado. We had a great time....it was a great week off for me, much needed time! Amelia had many "firsts" this week. She now rolls around and sits up after rolling, I learned the hard way that she has become VERY mobile. She waved "bye" for the very first time to the lady at Buckskin Joe's, it was her first time to a volcano, first time out of the state of Texas and her first time on a train. Here are some pictures from our trip.

McGehee/Weiland Wedding

Today we went to David and Bonnie's wedding. It was sooo hot but the place was SOO PRETTY! We had a mishap on our walk from the car to the ceremony/reception area. As we were walking Matt was carrying Amelia and goes "we should have checked Amelia's diaper before leaving the car" I said "let's go sit down and then I'll take her to the bathroom." I was just in hurry to go sit down. Maybe 1 minute later Matt said "what is this?" as he showed me his hand.....UGH! Amelia had a spill out of her diaper!! She dirtied her bloomer and Matt's yellow shirt. Poor Matt. We were able to clean everything/everyone up pretty quickly.

Overall the wedding was fun and it was so beautiful out there. Coincidentally, David's parents were the longest married couple in the crowd (44 years) and him and Bonnie the least, so they were all asked to dance. The photographer took pictures of Madison and Amelia, so I'm looking forward to seeing how the pictures turn out! Oh and they had a cartoonist so we had a photo done, will post once I scan it!

Feather Head!

Just a random picture of Amelia with a handmade headband from El Salvador.

Three Years, 12 days and going......

Matt and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary on May 12th. He had a great idea of going to the zoo. So I took the day off and we spent the whole day at the zoo! It was soooo great!!! We had a great time! We've been doing a lot of family stuff on the weekends, been great. We are even planning a mini vacation! YAY! Stay tuned for the vacation pics!

Grabby

So I may randomly add pics on here because I'm trying out new things with my camera. Of Course my goal is to get better at portraits but seems as though I need to start off with objects. Here is a picture of Amelia doing what she does best right now....GRAB GRAB GRAB!

My Gift

Matt decided to make a handprint and footprint of Amelia as my mother's day gift. He didn't have a way to surprise me so he told me, I asked him to do it on Mother's day so him and Amelia worked on this after our lunch. Matt grilled, we had Rosemary come over and she also brought a delicious Mocha Rum Cake http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/. She said the cake was pretty easy to make.

Matt's Goal

Matt's goal with Amelia is to find a new way to make her belly laugh. He tries one thing and it is the funniest thing ever for her, he calls me to come see, I show up and by that time it's no longer funny.

Pet Psychic

Over the past weekend we were busy with bowling, FidoFest, swimming and Mayfest. Matt beat us all, he sure was proud of his strikes! HEHE! On Saturday, Amelia went to swim class and is now at 7 seconds underwater! She's doing so well! We then went to FidoFest with the fear that Millie would act up, BUT suprisingly enough Millie was a perfect angel! We took Millie to the pet psychic and she told us that Millie still loves us. We asked about Millie's past so she closed her eyes, nodded her head and said "It's too sad, you won't want to know"....HMMM??? I can just IMAGINE what was going through Matt's head as he was listening to her! HEHE! We topped off the weekend with Mayfest. We weren't impressed, it was our first time and most likely our last time there.

The Donut Stacker

We decided to take Amelia to Target last week to buy her a "big girl" toy since she doesn't have any. Matt and I were showing her all the different toys, showing her the lights, sounds, music of all the different toys......at one point she just looked at us and just stuck her thumb in her mouth and looked away, so uninterested in what we showed her. Then I got this little donut stacker and Matt had a different toy, each of us held it out and she reached for the donut stacker. I was about to put it up when she started crying, we decided this was the one!

Attached pics are of today. Amelia will be 7 months this upcoming week! She's sitting up on her own and just chatting a ton!