8-9 Month Update

During her 8^th month, Amoriyah started saying “dada”! Of course, Brandon was thrilled. We don’t really think she connected that word yet to him, but it was still fun to hear!

Shortly after that, she started waving bye-bye. As with most things, when she first accomplishes something or figures something out, she does it a lot or all the time and then just stops. She definitely did that with waving. In fact, she just very recently started it again, at 14 months.

She also was officially “army’ crawling toward the end of April. It was so funny to watch her scoot herself across the room. Welcome baby-proofing. :D

My mom and I took her to Target On April 21^st to have her 9-month/Easter pictures taken. They are so cute!

Also, in early April, Brandon was offered a job at Wyndham Worldwide in Springfield, Missouri. After months of praying and seeking advice, we had decided that moving to this city was the best move for our family, as God has been calling us to church plant. So, we made the big move from Texas to Missouri. His first day was on April 11^th, but Amoriyah and I weren’t able to join him in our new rental home (pictures coming someday) for a couple of weeks so that we could finish up things in Texas. We were ready to see him after those 2 weeks!

Her eating and sleeping patterns didn’t really change during these 2 months. Also, because of the move, I wasn’t able to take her into the doctor for her 9 month appointment so I’m not really sure what her weight and height were this month.

Pictures!!

Playing with Ethan during our spring break visit to Missouri

A trip to Bass Pro Shop, first time riding as a big girl in the cart!

First time swinging!

Brandon's birthday is on April 13th, but since we knew he'd already be in Missouri by then, we had a little outing to Medieval Times the week before he left.

My mom and I took her out to get bluebonnet pictures before we left Texas, a must for this native Texan baby :)

First Easter

She started making this face and she still does it to this day all the time :)

7 month update

I'm FINALLY getting around to updating about Amoriyah! Now that she's a year old, I think it's about time :)

During this month she was able to start sitting up without any help or falling over. And, she can somewhat stand with help, too.

She started eating quite a bit of solid foods and actually seems to like them. She's tried green beans, carrots, peas (not such a big fan of these), applesauce (a favorite), bananas. She also had a bit of rice cereal here and there but she didn't like it so much. She still wasn't sleeping through the night yet but we were able to put her to bed (usually around 7:30) and she put herself to sleep and would stay asleep until around 2-4 and then sleep until around 7:30-8.

Here's several favorite pictures from this month!

She's starting making so many funny faces! Here's one of them:

I left the room for a minute or 2 and when I came back, this is what I found.

On February 12th I had a baby shower for one of my long time friends, Emily Wilken. We've known each other since we were 5! Hayden Paul Wilken made his debut about a month later and he is such a cutie pie! Here's a couple pics from that day :)

Amoriyah enjoying a little tummy time before the shower.

Josh (Hayden's daddy and Em's hubby) with Amoriyah

The Link Home-Erin Condren Giveaway!

So, I haven't posted in a LONG time! Life is pretty busy these days with a now 1 YEAR OLD!! I'll be posting hopefully very soon about all the updates and life in general over the past few months.

But, until then, I wanted to post about a giveaway that's going on over on Katy Link's blog, thelinkhome.blogspot.com. She's graciously giving away a $25 gift card to the Erin Condren website! This website is pretty amazing and has tons of cute stuff including a life planner, stationary, etc. Head over to her blog to enter to win!

6 Month Update

Amoriyah has developed like crazy this month! She has found her feet and loves playing with them; it didn't take her long to start putting them in her mouth. She also learned how to roll from her back to her tummy and now is rolling around all over the place. It's definitely difficult these days to keep her in one spot. She started saying "ba-ba" too. Shortly after getting back from our Christmas trip, we broke out her jumperoo to discover that she LOVES it!!! She could easily stay in it for hours on end if we let her. It's an instant mood changer if she starts to get a little fussy or bored. Another favorite is watching Praise Baby and Baby Einstein videos. She's reaching for pretty much everything that's in reaching distance of her so we have to be careful what we leave around. She's able to sit by herself for longer and longer periods of time as well. It won't be long, I'm afraid, until we have a completely mobile baby!!

On January 23rd, we had her dedicated at Cityview Church. My parents and grandmother also came. My brother, Justin, one of the pastors at Cityview, was the one who actually did the dedication so that was also special. We also received The Jesus Storybook Bible which was a wonderful gift. On February 3rd, she had her 6 month doctor's appointment. We again learned that she is healthy and right on track! Her stats were:

18 lbs. 13 oz.
16.5 inches

On February 9th, we took her to Target again to get her 6 month pictures and they turned out great!!

LOTS of pictures below of this past month! I got a new camera right after Christmas so I've been taking many more photos. I had to really narrow down which ones I was going to put on here! Enjoy!

Playing with Grammy and the gloworm she got for Christmas

Her "jungle gym", another Christmas present

Watching Praise Baby!

Here's Amoriyah's bedding. My mom actually made it and it turned out beautifully!

Amoriyah's dedication

We get lots of smiles, energy, joy and laughter from this precious girl each and every day. Even though it makes me sad at times that she's growing up so quickly, it's so exciting to see this little person that God created learning and developing. I pray that at even a young age she begins to learn truth and that God is beginning a great work of calling her to Himself. God is amazing and all glory to Him!