~A Few Things~

First of all, I think I was about 13 years old when I attempted my first and last dessert by scratch. So this attempt of Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls were a big deal for me...and here you go---they turned out pretty good. I do think I'll add nuts next time though.

Yum, Yum!
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One of my very dear friends Nici told me that babies learn and become independent on their own. You see-her adorable little boy Cooper co-slept (if that's what you call it) with mommy and daddy and she told me one day he just decided it was time for him to sleep on his own in his own bed. I definitely believed her, because I never thought she would lie to me, but sometimes it's just hard to understand what someone says until you experience it yourself. This day is upon me now! Aylah sleeps with us occasionally (okay-a lot) and I've always rocked her to sleep--ALWAYS! But now, when I sit down and want to rock her for her naps or bedtime, she just sits up and points to her crib. So, I sadly beg her to let me hold her just a little bit longer and squeeze her oh so tightly and say not yet, not yet, and I try to sing just one more of her favorite songs....but she insists. So, I put her in her crib and she lays down and goes to sleep all by herself, all on her own. What's up with that?!?! She doesn't need me anymore to sing and rock and sing and rock her to sleep? I'm definitely a little saddened by this accomplishment, but very excited for her too. Anyway-all to say that I understand what Nici meant now!

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FYI! It's suppose to be 15 below zero here tomorrow so all I have to say about that is.....

Texas here we come! I can't wait to see my family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~My Little Drummer Boy~

This is my little drummer boy William! Isn't he doing a fantastic job!

And this is his little brother, Luke, whom I love on all the time!
Aylah sure does love it when these kiddos come over and play and so do I! They are so much fun and so adorable. William always keeps me laughing with his interesting choice of sayings.

~Hug Pugs~

While Aylah is trying to say Hug Pugs---Kisses is outside chasing away the deer in our front yard.

~Christmas Tree~

Here's our Christmas tree. Aylah loves to touch the points on the jumbo stars but other than that, she leaves the tree alone. What a good girl :)

~Christmas At The Sawyer's~

We went to Elkhart this past weekend to celebrate Christmas. Here are a few pics of Belle opening her gifts.

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Aylah opening her drum set with all sorts of musical instruments.

Aylah had a handful of small toys from her stocking and when she saw this mini babydoll, she dropped everything and put the babydoll up next to her neck and gave it a big hug. Aylah is such a loving girl.

She was so interested in her stocking stuffers!

~Christmas With The Family~

Saturday night we went to Mike's grandma's house with his parents, aunt Lisa, uncle Gary, aunt Lori, uncle Dave, cousin Jordan and the newlyweds...aunt Melly and uncle Ean for Christmas since we'll be in Texas for Christmas day! It was such a wonderful time-

If you notice that Aylah is wearing her p.j.'s instead of a nice Christmas outfit...it would absolutely not be because mommy didn't change her diaper all afternoon and she did not accidently leak through her diaper!

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Grandma reading a touch and feel Bible book from Lori and Dave! Aylah is really interested in these touch and feel books. This is going to be a great book for her!

Aylah is also very interested in Little People right now-so when she opened up Little People Noah's Ark-she's was thrilled! So thrilled, that she pretty much threw a fit until they could get the Little People (animal's rather) out of the box! (Thanks aunt Lisa dn uncle Gary)

Yahoo! Aylah's very own "shopping cart" aka: buggy! The only problem with this is, she is always trying to ride in it instead of push it.

Aylah histerically laughing and running from aunt Lisa from playing peek-a-boo!

~Bib Please~

Mommy-please put a bib on me when I wear nice and pretty white clothes so my shirt doesn't turn brown---like this.....

~Cookies~

We always like to bake and decorate cookies when we go to Elkhart for Christmas. This year daddy was very creative and made a very special cookie.

~The Aylah "Belle" cookie~

~Sweet Belle~

I love this girl!

Cute dress??? Huh, Aunt Carrie :)

~Who Am I~

I thought this video was pretty cool. It's a group from a church that perform with white gloves and a black light. It's performed to the song "Who Am I" by Casting Crowns whom I love!

~Playground Fun~

We went to the mall today and Aylah played at their indoor playground for the first time. She had so much fun, she just kept walking around and around the place not knowing what to do next! She's turning into such a big girl so fast!

Aylah also had a blast riding the carousel. Notice the other little girl has the exact same shirt on as Aylah :)

Getting ready to slide down the slide the correct way!

~Read It~

I love MckMama's blog-she's a pretty neat lady! She posted a blog about coping and small tricks that help her out through the day with her 4 small children-I love the one finger rule!!

~Bye Bye~

Aylah has been waving bye bye for awhile now...but I've yet to get it on video. She loves this video and always waves bye bye to the characters at the end of the show!

~Baby Bottle~

Aylah is really starting to love baby dolls.

~What A Weekend~

I spent my first night away from sweet Aylah this Saturday. My dear friend Stephanie was on her way home Saturday night and got a call that her security alarm went off at her house. She was going home alone with her 2 little boys and I offered to stay with her through the night. I'm not sure what I was actually going to do if someone was there or broke in....I guess it's the mental state of security that counts. We slept with a golf club and sword next to our beds:). So, daddy and Aylah had a night to themselves.

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Papa T and Patricia sent us Christmas gifts and we opened them today. Needless to say, Aylah is very excited about her purse and her very own set of keys and a phone! She loves to pick up the phone and say "hey"..then hand it to mommy or daddy.

~A Beautiful Pink Nightmare~

As you all know...it is superly, duperly freezing cold up here, so we've been wearing jackets for a while now. It usually takes me an extra 15 minutes to get Aylah buckled in her carseat with her jacket on, then people tell me it's not safe to put them in their carseats with their jackets on....so what's a mom to do????

Leave it to super mom Becky to send Aylah such a great birthday gift...

This has got to be the most adorable outfit ever that will keep my baby warm without those jackets getting in the way. This thing covers her feet, hands and head all in one! I'm quite sure that every mom needs to know about these! I just put this on over her clothes and there you have it---a warm and cozy baby or toddler:)
Aylah really enjoyed wearing it and recieving the dozens of compliments about how adorable she is while we were out and about today!

PS--Do you notice that sweet Aylah is in a front facing carseat now! This isn't actually ours-our dear friends Stephanie and Steven let us borrow theirs until ours came in the mail!

Thanks Aunt Becky for such a wonderful and super useful gift!
Thanks Stephanie for letting us use your carseat!

~Thanksgiving~

Please visit Aunt Melly's blog for some fantastic Thanksgiving pics!

~Pinata~

I forgot to put this video up of Aylah trying to break her pinata at her birhtday party!

~Let It Snow~

This is what we woke up to this morning---view from our front yard.

Look daddy---snow!
This is pretty cool mommy!

~1 Year Check Up~

Today was Aylah's one year check up. She did great, of course. Aylah weighs 20 lbs (35 percentile) and is 30 1/2 inches (95 percentile). He said unless she slows down on her height at an earlier age than normal, she's looking to be about 5'7"---we'll see about that. She's pretty perfect except for an ear infection again :(--poor Belle!

~So Much Fun~

Aylah loves her new piano:) from grandma.

Aylah is pretty good at scoring, she just gets a little confused when she sticks her entire arm through the goal to get the ball back---and it doesn't work. Thanks Aunt Melly!

Nothing like having blocks, blocks and more blocks! One of Aylah's favorite things in the world is to knock down towers after I build them with her blocks. Thanks Aunt Lisa!

Aylah is thrilled to have her very own popper! Thanks Aunt Lisa!

What's a mom to do when her daughter gets all these fun toys...??? Play with her of course!!!

~Happy Birthday~

These are pictures from Aylah's official birth "day"!

Aylah loves her new rainforest toy from meme and papa. The monkey is her favorite part!

~Extra~

If you are interested in seeing a few more pics you can visit Aunt Melly's blog!!!

~Lil Lovebug~

I loved Aylah's ladybug outfit so much that she wore it again for her birthday!

She tried to eat her dress all day long!

~Yahoo~

Aylah wasn't quite sure what to do with her cake. She didn't realize what it was until I broke the head into pieces and let her try it. Then she took care of all the rest.

Yummy!

Okay mom, I'm ready for my presents now!

Please don't take my piggy bank away!

Yahoo-a rocking chair. I can rock just like my daddy now!

Aylah also received a cabbage patch kid (with blonde hair), baby doll, purse, clothes and much more! She is terribly excited about all her new toys and adorable outfits!

~Happy Birthday Aylah~

Today was Aylah's first birthday party. We had a great time. Aylah loved it!

Aylah's lil' ladybug cake!

I made these ladybug pictures of Aylah throughout her first year of her life.

Everyone wrote down what month they thought each picture was and then of course a big ole' chocolate bar was the prize for whoever had the most correct!

CONGRATULATIONS STEPHANIE!!!

Many thanks to Stephanie and Kelly for all your hard work and help with the cakes and the party! Shirley for the yummy, yummy punch! My mom for sending all the adorable ladybugs and ladybug balloons (which Aylah loves so much)! Melissa for shopping with me last minute! Ean and Bill for setting up tables! Everyone for the wonderful gifts, love and prayers!!!

~Almost~

The next time I see my sweet baby girl awake....she will be "1" year old!

I'm going to have to say, I'm completely speechless.

There are so many, many mixed emotions that come with this day. I think I was doing pretty good, until I received my weekly update from baby center today and the subject said- "your toddler" instead of "your baby"!

One thing is for sure, I love her so much, I'm not quite sure how my heart hasn't exploded yet.

~Winner~

For those of you who read Big Mama---you might have seen my name posted as the newest contestant winner for the CWDKids gift certificate!!! Well, I guess there are others out there named Shana, even spelled the same as mine! So to my extreme disappointment-it wasn't me. I will have to admit, that my heart stopped for a split second as I read my name that really wasn't MY name.

Congratulations to the real Shana winner!

~Where are your children...~

....at 9:30 pm?

Mine is playing with her daddy!

~Getting So Good~

Aylah is getting pretty good at this walking thing...a little bit better everyday!

~What a Day~

We are having such a great time with Carrie and Sam.

If you have already seen Carrie's blog, then these pics are exactly the same.

If you haven't seen Carrie's blog yet-please click here and take a look at even more fantastic pictures of these kiddos!

This is Aylah's very special beautiful outfit that meme got for her in Texas along with the bow.

(Thank you meme!)

Carrie and I took the little ones on a stroller ride around the neighborhood-

these two are just too sweet.

Sam and Aylah playing under the trees.

Nothing like ending the day with a nice and warm bath!
(These kids love their bath time)

~Yippie~

Carrie and Sam arrived safely and are officially Hoosiers for a few days!

I'm quite sure this is just the 1st of many pics to come! We are very excited you are here-and Sam, I can't wait to play with you all day long tomorrow!

PS--Are these kids cute or what?!?!

~Very Exciting~

One of my very dearest BFF's is coming to visit me for the weekend all the way from Texas! Carrie and Sam will be here in just a few short hours. Aylah is so excited to play with Sam, she didn't want to take her morning nap! Oh-what a blast we are going to have!!!

~Walking the Hippo~

Aylah will walk her hippo back and forth from one end of the house to the other all day!

~Lil' Ladybug~

Our little ladybug is so adorable!