Doors: a gateway between the inner and outer worlds

It's been a long and exhausting journey for my father, but an everlasting wait for us.  When we moved into our current house, we were assured to have a door leading directly to the basement put in.  This would allow for Zane and I to only have six downward steps instead of the ten up and approximately thirteen down to travel.  But the wait is finally over!  We've had the stairs and door for a little while now, but the railing is the newest instalment.  It has been a blessing and we can't express how grateful we are to have such a little way to get Adella and groceries into the house!  Thanks dad!



Of course no I have to make a curtain



... and clean the stairs...


Olivia

Growing: Adella's only job

Adella is now 6 months old! 

For being alive for only half of a year, it seems like she has always been here!  As we reach this milestone it's fun to see how far Delli has already come.  She has:

learned to army crawl

sit up on her own

eat baby food and puffs

drink from a regular cup

get her hands on everything she shouldn't

talk and use her voice

say mom (even if it only comes out when she is mad and upset)

It is also fun to see how she responds to certain people.  She absolutely loves her daddy!  When she hears him she will look around the room until she finds him or the phone if he is on speakerphone.  She finds other little people so much fun to scream and talk to.  She adores Anna and babies in our ward are all becoming her friends. 

All in all - 6 months of baby have been great!  We love you Adella!

Birthday: Breading ground of illnesses

My birthday was celebrated on Sunday this year.  My family thought it would be fun to have a BBQ, so we did!  Zane made a delicious one of a kind cake: cream cheese, yellow cake, and strawberry gram-cracker icing!  Fabulous! 

The only downside to this whole thing, the flu ran rampant through the entire family the following week.

Boxes: cheap suitcases to live out of

This week, Adella and I, stayed at my parents' house to help mom go through some old boxes in preparation for a yard sale (maybe).  Just like everyone else, my family has accumulated a lot of junk and memorabilia.  It was fun finding things that have been put away for years.  Rifling through some of my mom's old craft stuff, we found my old ballet shoes.  I never took ballet... but did take dancing lessons and used these worn slippers for that.  I was also excited to find my wood chess set.  It was one of the few things I have been trying to find.  The other is a box of Barbies.  I haven't seen my Barbies in years and suspect someone might have disposed of them.  I wanted to have them for my kids, and now that I have a girl, they would be nice to have on hand.  Oh well...  instead of bringing back Barbies, however, I brought back four boxes of fabric.  I look forward to making things for Delli! 

Water Fight: What happens when two people want the same water.

Speaking of Adella's favorite sneak attacks, here is another:

Zane

Blowing Raspberries: Adella's Favorite Sneak Attack

Raising a child can be difficult at times; hilarious, but difficult. For evidence, I present to you exhibit A:

Zane

Villians: people Olivia finds common ground with

 Friday afternoon, I was getting Adella some food ready by warming up her milk.  To do this I microwave a cup of water and place the bag of milk into it.  As I did this, the cold milk in the overly heated water exploded all over my right eye.  It took a moment, but the burn eventually began to sting. 

This was soon after I had gotten the water on my face.

After the burn began to hurt, I had to have something cold on my face constantly.  Because Zane and I have been watching Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoon I felt quite like the villain Zuko who has a burn scar across his left eye.  Luckily, it was not a bad enough burn to leave a scar.  I only had some slight swelling the went down after I left a cold rag on my face all day. 

This is at bed time that night.  See... something like Zuko... 

Currently, I look like I have a black eye, but that is just fine with me!