Dahlia's Family

I can't believe that Mahala is three days shy of 6 months. She is sitting up now and wanting to crawl so bad. "E" for effort! She is till so smiley...as long as you're holding her. I think she'll be much happier when she is mobile. Like Dahlia, she is loving solid food. Her favorite, so far, is apple sauce, of course. I still seems unreal that I am a mother of two. Dahlia is saying more and more every day and she will repeat anything. Sometimes funny, sometimes not so much. At dinner, quite often, she will toast to the Razorbacks clinking our glasses together. When someone is leaving she will holler after them "See you laer allelaler! Cocidile! Soon baboon!" Hopefully within the next month she will be potty trained. Wish me luck! She loves her new room and her "big girl bed". It's her "pink". Right now, everything is hers. "My mommy! My sissy! Dahlia's snacks!" So until next time, here are a few pictures of Dahlia's family.

April: ~We played outside a lot and just enjoyed being a family of four. We have been blessed with two very enjoyable girls. Mahala is sleeping through the night already and eating well. Her last Dr. Appointment she weighed 12 pounds 13 ounces and was 23 3/4 inches long. Sooooo BIG! She is such a happy baby; you just have to look at her and she'll smile. Dahlia is loving being a big sister. She want's to be with Mahala all the time and includes her in everything including putting Dahlia to bed. It's very sweet to see Dahlia loving her sissy so much.

Welcome Mahala (sounds like Mikayla without the "k") Rose. She was born March 26, 2009 at 5:59pm. It was a very long day ending in an emergency C-section. I went through the whole night with contractions and by morning they stopped. So my Dr. came in and helped them start again by breaking my water and cranking the pitosin (spelling?). Then with the help of an epidural I was ready to push by 5:30. First push everything looked good. Second push Mahala's heart beat went from 140 beats to 40 and 15 minutes later she was born via C-section. It was very scary but we were both healthy and my recovery was very smooth. The day after she was born we had my friend Annie come in and take some pictures of the four of us. You can check out her website and blog at www.yourlifedocumented.com for more of her work.

Sorry again for the long delay. As you can tell our lives have been very busy. Here is a quick rundown of almost everything.
October: ~We trick-or-treated with Auntie Anna and Auntie Amanda
November: ~We celebrated Thankssgiving with Grammy and Pops at their new house
December: ~Dahlia had her first trip to the ER.
~Record snowfall which made for great forts and snowmen
~We spent Christmas with Paul's family.
~My parents were able to make it to our house through the snow and
bad roads for the Selby family Christmas.
January ~We got ready for the baby coming in March
and ~Tea party at Nana's house
February:

September and October

So far we have been to 2 pumpkin patches. Compared to the pumpkin patches we had in Arizona, these were 5 star quality. Dahlia's favorite part were the barns where she could look at and talk to the animals. She told them lots of stories =) She especially loved chasing the chicken.

Pumpkin patch #1

Pumpkin patch #2

August

The big event in August was Dahlia's first birthday! It seems like just yesterday she was I was holding her little 6lb 13oz body for the first time. For her birth day we celebrated in the morning with a Dahlia dance-a-thon, Coldstone with raspberry sorbet with graham crackers on top and a doctors appointment in the afternoon, and cake and chicken toquitos at home in the evening. Later that week, we had a Luau. We had guests from Rwanda, Texas, Southern Oregon, and even Forest Grove =) If she had more words she would be asking for her next party already.







Dahlia playing with Dadda's CLEAN underwear

Dahlia playing with one of mommy's sirts


In August we told our family that Dahlia's going to be a big sister. We met our parents for dinner at Claim Jumper. Paul and I had painted plates with our stick figure family on it and added a big belly to my stick figure. When we got to Claim Jumper we asked them to serve our appetizers on them. It took a couple of the parents a while to figure it out (we won't name names) but once they did, oh man!!!! The next day we told everyone else with little tiles that we painted with the Lewis grandchildren in stick figures and added one to make 5. They will be keepsakes for everyone.

July

July started off with a bang! It seems like the summer season is the busiest season out of the year (at least for us) and we don't even have kids in school yet. Here are a few things we did...

~ 4th of July

~ Dahlia started walking!

~ Yearly Meeting

~ A lot of park trips

~ Dahlia discovered she loved the taste of dirt (yummmmm)

~ We found out that Dahlia's going to be a big sister!

Buying food for Youth Yearly meeting.




Pigtails!

My how time flies!

from this...



...to this in a few short months!



Sorry to those regulars who check this every day even though my faithfullness to update isn't consistant. Life has been a bit nuts. In the midst of it all I tried to take pictures of as many mile stones as possible. Here's just a few.

Drive-In

This was my first time at the drive-in. We saw Kung Fu Panda. What part I saw was very funny. Since I was born, I have been a very light sleeper, so for me to fall asleep in daddy's arms at the drive-in with lots of noise, is just short of a miracle. I didn't even budge when they put me in my car seat and snored all the way home. Granted it was midnight, nontheless, I still fell asleep.

Auntie Amanda's graduation

After graduation Auntie Amanda went to Twin Rocks to work for the summer. In August she will come to live with us (yeah) and go to PCC (woo hoo) for a year while she establishes her residency. Sorry there are not a lot of photo's. Mommy was in the nursery with me during the actual graduation, so she didn't get any pictures. But here are a few pictures of her party.

Rearranging the the cans

good-bye Daf

Mommy and daddy made the really really hard decsion to give Dafney back to the rescue. After she peed on our floor for the 14th time and snapped at me, enough was enough. We all miss her a lot. Daddy keeps asking mommy when they can get another dog (at least once a week) and I crawl over to her "chair" and say "dog, dog". Mommy misses her company. She doesn't miss vacuuming every other day and finding slobber balls in my mouth, however. Naturally, daddy doesn't miss the poop scooping. We miss you Daf.

A day at the zoo

We took advantage of the sun shine in April and went to the zoo for "Nana whatever day". We saw bears, birds, giraff, and of course the hippo. Nana brought a picnic lunch and Anna, Arik, Joel, and Shauna joined us. After spending the day with all the animals in the sun, I was ready for a nap and slept all the way home.

coffee break

Mommy and I met Nana and Papa at Starbucks for a coffee break/return the nebulizer. It was fun playing with them. They always get me giggling. I was sooooo sad when we had to leave, I cried all the way home.

Toys, Toys, and more Toys!

In these pictures I played with my toys standing up for about 5 minutes or so and then my legs got tired so I sat down on what ever was behind me. This time it was my train. I love having the freedom to be able to stand if I want or sit if I get too tired. I have so many toys I will usually play for about an hour all by my self and then another 1/2 hour with mommy or daddy. I love it when daddy comes home from work because we've made it a tradition to sit on the floor with and play until dinner. As soon as he comes through the door, I bolt for my toys and he meets me over there.

Spring Break with Pops

Mommy and I got to go to Newport with Pops for Spring Break. Each day we did something different. We went to a lighthouse one day, the beach another day, and Mo's the last day. We stayed in a condo that was just a few yards from the beach. The view was gorgious, but boy was it windy. Accept for me waking up every 30 minutes at night, it was a pretty fun vacation.

Sicko

In March I came down with Pnemonia. My chest and back were rattling, so the doctor told mommy to put this tube in my face and blow this nasty medcine at me. The medicine makes me hyper so mommy put me in the highchair to keep me in one spot for the 15 minutes it would take. I liked this game for the first 5 minutes, but after that I was ready to be done, and I let her know. At night I would sleep in my very own fort so I could breath. A couple of nights mommy just held me in the recliner all night because it was too hard for me to breath laying down in my fort. I am all better now, but now the Dr. is treating me for asthma. I only have to play the breathing game when I'm weezing, which is getting less and less each week.

How embarrassing!

Sorry for the long break between February and March.

Happy Resurection Day!

For Easter we went Nana and Papa's house along with about 10 other people. We (meaning mommy and then I got the next day) ate ham, turkey, twice baked potatoes, deviled eggs, fruit salad, and a peeps cake that looked like a sunflower. After everyone stuffed themselves, we went on an Easter egg hunt, played games, and played with the doggies. It was a very full day ending around 11:00pm!

Great-Grandma Rachel

Waking with Grammy


Playing with Ella Rose


Pops got the rare privelage of rocking me to sleep!


Sandra too! I was a little tired.

Unfortunately, Great-Grandma Rachel passed away 2 weeks ago today at the age of 82. She had had a stroke that should have killed her instantly, but lived three days afterward. She was able to have most of her family by her side and all six daughters. It was a blessing to be able to say good-bye. The only time I got to meet her was at the end, I told her that I loved her the best I knew how and would see her again someday. There were some long days in the hospital but I was a "perfect angel" (so they say). Everyone took turns rocking me, walking me, and playing with me. I even got to meet a lot of family I didn't even know existed (and have probably forgotten by now).