New Recipes

I was just recently directed to this awesome website. Here are the reasons why I LOVE it:
1) The meals are super easy and quick to make. Most involve less than 10 ingredients.
2) They are cheap recipes. They actually give you an estimate at the bottom as to how much each meal would cost you.
3) It's created by moms, so the meals are typically very kid-friendly. I tried this one tonight. I have never seen Amy completely clean her plate at dinner time. She's more of a snacker, not a big-meal eater unless it's something she ADORES (which to date has been potato or tomato soup and chicken divan). But she absolutely loved dinner tonight and kept asking for more!
4) The recipes sound like things we would actually eat! The ingredients are actually things I recognize and as I read through them, they sound good to me! That's hard to find in a new recipe.
5) They give photo directions at each step so that it's clear what you need to do. The directions are really simple anyways, but it's still nice to look at your food and say "Hey! That looks just like the picture! I must have done it right!"
6) They post a new recipe practically every day (except sometimes Fridays). I seriously sat here going through all of their old recipes because I loved them all! I think I'll have a new morning ritual - get up, go to the bathroom, get Amy some breakfast, check the recipe of the day!

Anyway, that's all. Let me know if you try any of the recipes and either really like them or are not a big fan.

Mommy! I Cookin'!

Anyone who knows my daughter knows that she is absolutely, 100%, completely obsessed with food. For example, the fake french fries she got in her food set from Great-grandma Knight that she still carries around and fake-eats all the time. So we decided this little girl would probably get a big kick out of a kitchen to put all her food in and then she could just fake-cook and fake-eat all day long (are we giving into her obsession? Is this healthy?). Since we were going to Utah for Christmas, we weren't overly concerned with getting it beforehand because we knew we couldn't take it with us and we figured we'd find better deals after Christmas was over. So this week we finally found one we liked on Craigslist. It's a really nice size with lots of doors and buttons and noises. Mike had brought it back from orchestra rehersal late Monday night when Amy was still in bed, so we set up all her food in it. The next morning she came into my room (ridiculously early in the morning, like normal) and I asked her where her kitchen was. She started looking around the room and I took her out to the front room. I have to admit, it was better than Christmas morning! She jumped up and skipped around singing "My Kitchen! My Kitchen! It's my kitchen!" She ran over and started opening things and moving things around. It was adorable. I should have woken up Mike so he could have seen her.

The one thing we didn't have for the kitchen were pots and pans and cooking utensils. So Mike, being the good daddy that he is, came back from his doctor's appointment today, having stopped by Toys-R-Us, and surprised us with the cutest little set of pots and pans and more fake food. It was Christmas all over again. She immediately said "open it daddy!" and as he took things out one by one, she put them in her food basket, hauled it to her room, and has been in there ever since. He also got her a little phone (that was the one thing missing from her kitchen) and she randomly picks it up, opens it up, and says "Hello Grandma."

One other cute Amy story I want to share (am I sounding too vain yet?) happened last week. I woke up after Amy (as usual) and she had pulled out of her room 3 plates, 3 utensils (1 knife, 1 spoon, and 1 fork), and 3 cups, along with a pepper shaker and a couple pieces of food. She was sitting in her chair, and when she saw me, this is how our conversation went:

A (pointing to the Sleeping Beauty plate): It's Amy's plate.

M: Yes, that's Amy's plate.

A (pointing at the Cinderella plate): It's Keaton's plate.

(meaning Keaton Becker - who, remember, is not here)

M: Oh, it's Keaton's plate.

A (pointing to the Snow White plate): It's Lillee's plate.

(meaning Lillee Becker, who is also not here)

M: Oh, it's Lillee's plate.

A: Oh! Where's the chairs?

Amy then proceeds to run to her room and get a chair for Keaton and Lillee. Then she walks around the table, shaking "pepper" onto each of their plates. To this day, if you hold up the Cinderella plate and ask her whose it is, she will tell you that it is Keaton's plate. In the same sense, the knife is always Keaton's, the fork is always Amy's, and the spoon is always Lillee's. She spends a lot of her time setting up little parties like this. In fact, she found the fourth plate (the Belle plate) and I asked her whose it was. My daughter, who has been OBSESSED with watching Peter Pan ever since she got it for Christmas, cries out "It's Peter Pan's plate!"

So Amy and Keaton and Lillee and Peter Pan have tea parties every day. I love having a little girl!

Introducing...

Baby Boy Laudie! That's right! The ultrasound is pretty clear that, come this June, we will be welcoming a little blue baby into our family! Mike is very excited (although he's a silent celebrater because he's afraid I'll laugh at him later if he gets too excited, and because he doesn't want to act like he wasn't as excited about Amy), and Amy likes to tell me she's having a "baby brudder," although she still thinks she has a baby in her belly too, and that dad has a baby in his belly. We can already tell he's going to be stubborn because he wedged himself into a corner so the ultrasound tech couldn't get the spinal reading she needed. When she went back to take some more pictures so we could have a couple copies, he had moved (thinking she was done) and she got him! He's a sneaky one!

The strange thing is that my mom will now have more grandsons than granddaughters, because my sister Calli is having a boy too, bringing the total to 3 boys and 2 girls. That's strange only because we came from a family of ALL girls, so this is a new adventure. No names picked out yet, but we'll keep you posted!

Pretty Amy!

I finally decided to curl Amy's hair for church the other day. It was super cute (much cuter before she rolled around on it at church, but still cute nonetheless). Here is "Princess Amy."

Are you done yet, Mom?

Happy Birthday to Me!

I had a birthday last week and it was very nice. I've reached the ripe old age of 25 (yuck). But, in the end, it doesn't matter how old I get - Mike will always be older!

My day was very nice. The birthday fairy came and decorated with streamers and balloons. Then my mom took me and Amy out to lunch to Applebee's and then took us shopping for new maternity clothes. Thanks Mom! I had a relaxing afternoon of napping and playing with Amy. That night Mike took me out to dinner to Carraba's and then made me a delicious cherry cheesecake. Thanks to Nikki for watching Amy so we could go out! I got several nice presents, including a new cell phone (mine was HORRIBLE because I had lost the nice expensive one I got when I signed up), more maternity shirts, and a couple new games. I also got a great book from my mother-in-law. Thanks everyone for making my day special!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas!

We drove up to Utah to spend Christmas with Mike's family. Amy was actually pretty good on the trip, taking a couple naps each way and watching Finding Nemo, and of course eating (because my child eats 24 hours a day if I let her). She liked pointing out the snow all the way up there, because we had been telling her that the snow was at Grandma Laudie's house, so she thought that meant we were almost there... but we started seeing snow in Flagstaff, so it made for a long trip of "Look Mom! Snow! Grandma Laudie's House!" We were so happy when we finally pulled up to the house, mostly to see the family, but also to just get out of the car. Amy was much more affectionate and less shy towards the Laudie's this time around. She has gotten over most of her stranger-danger screaming she used to do when someone she didn't know very well would look at her and/or pick her up. She figured out really quick that the Laudie house was chock full of Christmas goodies, and there were enough people around that SOMEONE would give her what she wanted if she asked the right people.

Utah was definitely COLD, but the snow was beautiful. We got snow almost every day leading up to and including Christmas. We got to take Amy sledding with her aunts and uncles across the street from the house on a little hill. We just kept calling her Randy whenever we had to bundle her up (Thanks Emilie for the snow clothes!) because she looked like the little brother from A Christmas Story. She also loved making snow angels and "stompin in a snow."

Mike's favorite story to tell is that, while we were out sledding, he through a snowball at Amy and it hit her right in the face. Well, mostly on her hat, which kept falling over her eyes, but stuck right to her face/hat. She stood perfectly still, bawling. I looked at Mike and said, "Go save your baby!" to which he quickly replied "Not until you take a picture!"

Another funny story happened at church that first Sunday in Utah. Amy went happily to nursery and Mike and I went on to Sunday School. After Sunday School, a woman came up to me and asked if I was Amy's mom. She said she had heard that a cute little blonde girl in nursery named Amy had stuffed playdoh in her ear, and she just wanted to make sure I had been told. I went over to check it out, and sure enough, there was playdoh in her ear. There wasn't much I could do there because it was so deep, and it wasn't bothering her, so I let her finish out church, deciding to get it out while she was asleep so that she would lay still. Well, being a bad mom, I totally forgot about it until the next day. I had a sudden "oh no!" moment and enlisted the help of my mother-in-law and sister-in-law (Joy) to hold Amy down while I used Mike's mom's smallest tweezers to carefully pull out the now solid rock in Amy's ear without poking anything important. Sigh of relief.

I spent the first half of my Christmas vacation finishing Christmas projects. I had to finish a blanket I was making for Mike's sister Hannah for Christmas, put some finishing touches on his other sister Jane Anne's paper dolls, and finish Mike's Christmas stocking that I had finally put off to the last minute. It wasn't until Christmas Eve morning that I finally got around to starting our family's Christmas pajamas, which got finished just before the Christmas Eve festivities started. We enjoyed watching A Christmas Story and reading the scriptures and remembering the real reason for Christmas. It's easy to lose track of that when there's so much fun to be had with the commercial end of the season.

Christmas morning was a bustle of people and presents and wrapping paper. With 6 kids still living at home with Mike's parents, plus the 3 of us, there were a LOT of presents under that tree. Every time I was sure I was done, someone else would stick another present in my lap. We were definitely spoiled. Mike's highlights were Cities & Knights (the expansion set for Settlers of Catan), new movies (Dark Knight, Transformers, and Prince Caspian), a C.S. Lewis compilation book, and a new drill. Amy's highlights were a marble run (handmade by Santa himself! It's beautiful!), new movies (Peter Pan, Kung Fu Panda, and Wall-E), games (Chutes & Ladders and Candy Land), and a playdoh play set. I got several movies too (including Mama Mia), some new maternity shirts from my unborn child, and several new games (including Set Cubed - Thanks Jessie!). We also got a lot of amazing books from Mike's mom and dad, and lots of holiday treats and presents from his siblings.

I also thought I had gotten an ice cream maker (since that's what the box said). I was excited because my last one had been ruined. After all the gifts had been unwrapped, Mike's brother Ben came over and asked to see my ice cream maker (come to find out later, he was a plant and already knew what was in the box). Anyway, I opened up the box to find another box inside... and another box inside that... and another box inside that... weighted down with fax paper rolls... and finally, in the smallest box, was a piece of paper. I had to answer some Christmas trivia, use the answers to decode the password to a website that would show me what my present was. After conferring with the family and making a couple incorrect guesses, we finally did it and found the website. It was a new vacuum! Woo hoo! My old one was HORRIBLE and actually had stopped working weeks before because of a hole in the hose. It was too large to bring to Utah, so he created a website that even demonstrated Mike's vacuuming abilities. Thanks for the Christmas fun Mike!

Amy had a lot of fun that week playing with her aunts and uncles and cousins. Reed and Ivy (and baby Blake) came over to play a couple times and she loved following them around and playing in Grandma's adorable playhouse (They took the empty space under the stairs and had a friend of theirs paint a cottage on the side of the wall, complete with small door and shuttered windows). We also got to spend some time with Mike's older siblings Jim (& Emilie) and Jon (& Carrie). We missed Liz, who was stuck in Texas, having just had a baby a month before.

Our visit ended with a beautiful family musical number in church the Sunday after Christmas. Luckily for me, it was a vocal piece, which means I got to bow out gracefully (I haven't been allowed to bow out of instrumental numbers yet, but for some reason I don't get pushed into vocal pieces... I wonder why...). It was absolutely beautiful! Thanks so much, Laudie family, for letting us come spend the holidays with you! We wish we could see you more often and feel so loved whenever we talk / see you. I feel blessed to have such great in-laws. I feel bad for those who may not get along with theirs, because I truly feel part of the Laudie family when I'm there!

We had a million pictures from this trip, so enjoy the slide show!

Christmas in Arizona

We decided to spend Christmas in Utah with Mike's family this year, but we did get to spend a little time with my family before we headed up. The 19th of December, the day we drove up, was my dad's 50th birthday! Holy cow dad... you're old. Not like mom, who will be 44 forever!

So we went over to my parent's house for a delicious fried chicken dinner, followed by our imitation of "Things that are older than dad" (anyone else seen that Cosby Show episode?) - which ranged from dirt and fire to Michael Jackson (who turned 50 this past August, in case anyone needed to know). Afterwards, we took a family trip to look at the Temple Lights. Every time we go, we take gloves to keep our hands warm and I always think back to the year that my mom carried around a couple extra pairs in her pocket to give out to unprepared missionaries who looked cold.

The Sisters (Jessie, Calli, Lisa, Summer, and Me)

Grandma, Papa, Amy, and cousin Taylor

Amy & Taylor

The whole family (minus TJ, who left to drive up to Utah with a friend after dinner)

We slept at my parent's house that night and drove straight out the next morning to Utah. We definitely were sad to miss out on the Lewis family Christmas festivities, but we know what they survived without us!

We got to spend a couple days at my parent's house when we got back in town before Calli's family went back to Kansas. My mom gave us a beautiful Christmas scrapbook and gift card, and she gave Amy a cute doll that is so lifelike that my brother-in-law (Brendan) thought it was going to come get him in his sleep!

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

This was our first year going to Goodyear's Holly Jolly Festival... and our last. I have to admit, I was SUPER disappointed. I understand that it's hard to maneuver that many people fairly, but when the line for Santa is across the baseball field, and we have to convince our 2 year old to wait in line for 20 minutes to play in the snow for 5 minutes, and when there wasn't anything worth doing that didn't have another line to stand in, it just wasn't worth the trouble.

However, Amy did LOVE the snow, which was good practice before we went up to Utah. She thought it was quite funny to throw it at Mike and lay down in it and make snow angels. I guess her happiness for 5 minutes was sort of worth it, but not next year.

The Happy Owen Family - trying to keep Kylee warm!

O Christmas Tree!

I admit, I am a stickler for real Christmas trees. In fact, the year my mom switched to a fake tree (my senior year of high school), my boyfriend bought me a real one for my room so that I could still have one! That's how much I LOVE Christmas real trees. I remember as a little kid driving up to the mountains with my family and the little blue trailer being pulled behind us to put the tree, along with some snow so that we could build a snowman in the front yard in Mesa.

Well, Mike has supported me in my real tree obsession, but we haven't quite made it out to the forest yet - one of these years we want to, but we always seem to forget about it until after the drawing for Christmas trees is over. For those of you not from Arizona, you can't just go out to the forest and pick any random tree and cut it down - you have to get a permit for a specific area of the forest. Anyway, I digress... We went over to Home Depot one afternoon in the beginning of December after Mike got off work (because, for those of you wondering, Home Depot has the best prices for Christmas trees). I hemmed and hawed over which tree was the prettiest and tall enough and round enough, but not too round, and full enough, but not too full... and finally we found a perfect tree for our house. We learned this year that it's much easier to get a tree home with an SUV than with a car. MUCH easier. So off we went to decorate and celebrate the wonderful Christmas season!

I want this one, Daddy!

Christmas Concerts

Mike has been fortunate to get to play in a couple Christmas concerts each year, which really helps to make the season for him. This year was no exception. While his favorite concert to play in is Rob Gardner's Christmas concert, Rob did not put his on this year.

He once again joined the Scottsdale Symphony Orchestra in their Messiah sing-along. As he had to leave church to make it there on time and I didn't arrange for a sitter for Amy, I didn't make it this year, but he said it was quite good compared to previous years and that his conductor, who has a habit of talking for 90% of the concert, actually stayed on task and the concert was only an hour and a half.

Anther concert he got to participate in with the SSO was at the beautiful Lutheran church that the orchestra rehearses at. I was able to attend this one, along with my parents, Summer (who was home for Christmas from BYU-Idaho) and Jessica. It was really a nice concert. They had a couple of their church choirs (divided up by age group), a really good brass quartet, a hand bell choir, an amazing organ solo, and of course the orchestra. They played a lot of classic Christmas hymns, a couple of Mack Wilberg arrangements, and some readings of some Lutheran scriptures and quotes. It was interesting to compare the words in their hymnal to the ones from ours - like a 3rd verse to Angels We Have Heard On High. All and all, it was a nice concert though and Mike did a great job! The orchestra sounded beautiful and Mike looked very handsome!

A-Quadding We Will Go

We have had 3 very fun... wait, 1 of them wasn't fun, so 2 very fun... family quadding trips with my family. Dad is the best and is always willing to take us out and let us play!

The first time (the not so fun time) was a couple weeks before Thanksgiving. We went out by Saguaro Lake (which is our new favorite place to go since Bushnell tanks is closed) and started riding around. We had 2 quads - the automatic, larger quad and the smaller, manual quad with the slow leak in the tire. Mike decided to set off on the smaller quad up the road. Now, you have to understand, we're not hard-core riders. We usually ride around for 10-15 minutes down trails and down a couple hills and then we come back and give someone else a turn. About an hour later, we realize that Mike is not back yet. Of course this is the one time that we forgot to bring the walkie-talkies. Jessie drives around for a little bit to see if she sees him. Then Dad goes for a while longer. By now it's been about 2 hours and Dad comes back without Mike. This is when I basically go hysterical and start thinking about worst-case scenerios. My mom keeps telling me that she thinks he's fine. She has a good feeling and doesn't think anything's wrong (my mom's amazing like that). TJ goes out for a while to look for him and my mom calls us all together to say a family prayer (again, my mom is amazing!). We have since asked several other riders around who know the area a little better than us to be on the lookout for him. After about 2 1/2 hours, my dad gets in the truck to go find the Sherriff and a ranger's truck pulls up. He phones the Sherriff's department and 3 different vehicles pull up. That was quite the sight. We described Mike to them - he was wearing a BYU t-shirt, an ASU sweater, and a USU hat. The guys (clearly 2 of them at least were LDS) asked if he was wearing any other LDS paraphenalia, if he was an eagle scout (to which I told them his mom was!), and whether he was a full tithe payer! Okay, that was pretty funny, even in my time of hysteria). They tell us that the fastest way to find him will be using the heliocopter. They wait about 20 minutes and right before they send the "bird" up in the air, an SUV pulls up and out comes Mike. Apparently he had gone down a pretty steep hill, but the quad's tire had gotten low and the battery was dying whenever he tried to go up the hill so he was driving around trying to find another way back. He got pretty turned around and didn't realize how far away he had gotten. For a while, there weren't any quads or vehicles around at all, so he got pretty worried, but he was blessed to be able to find some people in an off-road vehicle that he could follow out to the main road (so he didn't have to lead the quad in the middle of nowhere) and then they gave him a ride back. Mike explained what happened to the Sherriff's and we were lucky that the helicopter had never taken off (otherwise we would have gotten a BIG bill!). Talking about it later, we were remembering Elder Holland's talk from conference about angels on earth, and we both agreed that the people who found Mike were our angels that day. It was definitely a stressful day.

The next 2 times we went were much more enjoyable. Once we went with Jessie's friend and her dad, who brought 3 quads with them, so we got to go on some fun, longer trailrides (we actually went down some washes that Mike realized looked pretty familiar from when he was lost). Amy decided she doesn't completely hate the quads anymore, although it does take some coaxing to convince her to take a ride.

The next time we went quadding after Mike got lost, the Sherriff's department drove past, so we had to take Mike's picture with the truck in the background! We tease him that they were just checking in with him. The is definitely the most tease-worthy thing in our family right now - it even beats TJ running the quad into the wall! Way to go Mike!

Amy loves her Papa. Especially when he has pop!

Amy & Aunt Jessie

Happy Quadding Family!

The best was when Mike took Amy out for a ride (long after her nap time of course) and comes back with her dead asleep in his arms. So cute!

My dad got a phone call so he walked to the front of his truck for better service. Amy followed him and when he leaned against the truck, she totally copied him. It was so cute!
This is from our most recent quadding trip. We had just gotten back from the snow and Amy had finally grasped the idea of snow angels... she just didn't realize you needed snow. She just plopped down and started moving her arms and legs.

Thanks Dad for all the fun times! You're the best!

Turkey Day

Not a whole lot to report about Thanksgiving (And no pictures! How sad!). The day started off with Mike going to the ward turkey bowl (this is after he burned his fingers badly on the hot chocolate he was making to take). He caught some good passes, while I enjoyed part of the game from my chair on the sidelines and Amy played at the park.

We spent the rest of Thanksgiving with my family. Thanksgiving lunch was over at my grandparent's house this year. We ate lots of food. I made a pumpkin roll for desset (because Summer really wanted it and I love her) and sweet potatoes as a side (didn't turn out like Grandma's... I need her recipe. More butter and sugar I think!). I did make a pumpkin pie too, but that was for Mike because he always wants more pumpkin pie afterwards. We had a relaxing day. Amy got to run around and some of the cousins played volleyball. We didn't have a ton of my cousins there (everyone seemed to have somewhere else to be this year), but it was my Grandpa's sisters and their families too, so definitely a lot of people. This is actually the year of the Lindsey Family Reunion (my great-grandma's maiden name was Lindsey), which means we usually get together with my great-grandma's siblings' families all the way down. Because of the large numbers, we usually go to Pioneer Park for lunch (across the street from the temple), but this year we broke up into smaller groups, hence just my Great-Grandma's family met at my grandma's house (confused yet?). Anyway, we still got a lot of the groups together for the annual (are you ready for this?) FAMILY DANCE. That's right, growing up we would go to this dance every other year and dance with our cousins. A little weird, but the line dancing was always fun, and now it's a tradition (although I heard rumor that it's going to turn into an Easter dance instead of a Thanksgiving dance).

Here's a shout-out to all of my junior high friends - remember the guy who used to DJ at all the stake dances every saturday night? You know - the guy with the Brittney Spears microphone over his ear and we were all a little weirded out by - yeah... he was the DJ at my family dance. It was pretty funny. Anyway, Amy had fun dancing with the little girls that were running around in circles, I got to waltz with my Daddy and my husband, and all and all we had a fun time being goofy with my family! Those of you who don't go to this every year like we do, you are totally missing out.

Black Friday

5:00 am: Friday, November 28th: Nikki and I set off on our annual Black Friday expedition. We hit countless stores, spent countless dollars (but not as much as we saved!), ate lunch at P.F. Chang's for lunch (Yum, yum!), got our much needed pedicures afterwards, and 12 hours later came home with a car full of stuff. I know some people think this is a crazy day to go shopping, and some people take this WAY too seriously, but we go for fun. We're not obsessed about getting everything on our list - it's not worth shoving people and running through stores to get it. We go and if it's there, great! If it's gone, too bad. Definitely a memorable day!

Benefit Concert with Chevy Chase and the SSO

Mike got a call at the beginning of October from the Scottsdale Symphony. He had played with them previously, but with school keeping him busy and gas prices going up, he hadn't made it over to play with them in their more recent concerts. They called looking to fill out their orchestra for a benefit concert they were hired for - hired meaning a paid gig! That was pretty exciting in and of itself. The other cool thing about it was that Chevy Chase was the M.C. (sorry about the picture - the lighting was not conducive to my camera). I think the benefit was for some kind of alternative medical treatments - I didn't really know. I did end up getting to go attend though because Mike found out the week before that he was getting one complimentary ticket. It was quite a fun concert. They had a lot of musicians and singers, most of whom I hadn't heard of but that were very good, come and play along with the orchestra. While, I have to admit, Chevy Chase was a little disappointing. I guess I was waiting for "My little buttercup...", but life goes on. It was a very elegant event none the less and a fun experience for Mike. The orchestra sounded very nice and the other musicians in the group were very impressed by him. It also made his transition into the Christmas concert scene quite smooth (more on that later). Good job Mike!

This video is of the SSO and this amazing pianist named YongMei Hu. I had heard her at another one of the SSO's concerts and was absolutely impressed again. She's very talented.

This video is of the SSO with Bobby Caldwell (one of the few names I did vaguely recognize).

My Amy Baby is 2!

I can't believe I have a 2 year old! I know it's so cliche to say, but time just flew by this year! I can't believe how much she's grown. She is a chatterbox! She talks all the time and quite well. She is stringing together sentences much better now. She can count to 10 and knows all of her colors. She has started showing a lot of imagination too, as she plays with her toys and dolls and creates scenerios with them. It's so adorable!

Because of the chaos of Halloween, we never did get her friend party put together, which made it for a much needed, low-key birthday. My mom, dad, grandma, and sisters (Jessie and Lisa - with TJ), as well as the Owen family, came over for a dinner of potato soup, salad and rolls (thanks for the salad and rolls Mom!). We really appreciate all of you making the drive out here.

Amy got a beautiful blue and white dress from Grandma Laudie.

Grandma Lewis gave her a beautiful purple and black dress and a princess castle (as Amy calls it). Lisa and TJ gave her the cutest little coat.

She got several movies, books, cereal, Elefun, and plastic princess shoes from me and Mike.

Great-grandma Knight gave her $10, which she happily spent at Wal-Mart later that week on play food - if you saw how much she obsessed over this play food, you'd think it was real. She constantly carries something around in her hand and is always pretending to snack on something.

The night was complete with cake and ice cream.

Happy Birthday to my baby! You're such a big girl!

For Amy's first birthday, Mike and I took Amy with us (just our little family) to Bounce U. We thought that would be fun to do again the Friday before her birthday, but the Bounce U by us was closed, and by the time we would have gotten to the other ones, the preschool open bounce times would be closed. Instead we took her to Jeepers (aka Jungle Jim's Playland). She definitely had fun and even flew the rocket ride by herself.

Not quite enough room for the 2 of us!

We went to Gecko Grill for lunch afterward! Yum yum!