Ameilya learned to clap!

Ameilya just keeps learning and learning! We are always surprised with how much she understands and how intelligent she is. She recently learned to clap and knows the word "clap" and what it means. All you have to do is say "clap", not even as a command- just in a sentence, and she will do it!

Ameilya turned 9 months old, Tyler's birthday and other happenings :-)

First off, Ameilya turned 9 months old last week. That makes her pretty close to a year old. How did my newborn get so big?! My goodness time flies too quickly!
At the beginning of July she weighed almost 19 pounds and was 27.5 inches long!
She is learning so many new things!
She says: dada, nana, ra ra, and combinations of those. Like yesterday she said da na na ra! ;) almost says mama but not quite
She can roll and roll and roll and roll. And sit up from laying down all by herself. Still working on crawling, making good progress though, gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth. A couple times she has gone forward a little bit but not full on crawling yet.
She is starting to try to pull herself up on the furniture and stuff.
She LOVES to bounce
She LOVES the water and really likes to splash around
She has two teeth! At 8.5 months old she got her first tooth, and then the second within a week and a half. Man that was a crazy couple of weeks. Pretty sure she's working on another couple since she chews on things like crazy.
While she was getting those teeth through she refused to eat anything that was warm. But now she is back to eating all her standards, sweet potatoes, carrots, corn, pears, peaches, applesauce, yogurt. We have added a new food to her diet, she now eats cheerios and she absolutely loves them! We have also, at her pediatrician's suggestion, started giving her a little water in her little trainer sippy cup :)

For Tyler's birthday this year we had a special surprise date planned, he didn't know the details, only that there was a plan ;) We had a lot of fun! We went to Celebration Park near Nampa and walked around for a little while, floated the river and went mini-golfing. We left Ameilya with a good friend over night for the first time! She had a great time with her Auntie Rachael which made it so Tyler and I could go and do activities we wouldn't normally be able to do with her. We missed her and were sure glad to have her back at the end of the day but we are glad that she had a lot of fun!
Here are some pics: (sorry, I understandably didn't get any from floating the river)
Celebration Park: It was so beautiful!

Mini Golfing:

On the way home after picking up Ameilya: (it won't let me rotate it) All tuckered out from playing!

On Tyler's actual birthday (all the surprising was done the weekend before his bday), we had a nice dinner and he went golfing with a friend from our ward :)

His cake. I'm guilty, I totally bought his cake this year. I normally wouldn't do that but with our air conditioner broken I didn't want to heat up the house with cooking any more that I had to. 

Special place setting that we use for birthdays and special events and the like :)

Tyler's dish of choice for his special day: beef teriyaki with rice and a salad

Tyler asked me how much cake I wanted and I told him just a little, this is how much he gave me ;) Silly guy!

A Funny thing Ameilya Has Learned

Ameilya has been learning to mimic us lately. Here is a funny video of us going back and forth with her and the funny noise that she just loves to make!

Fun times for Ameilya

Ameilya had a fun time hanging out with Brooke and Lara Leigh while I was teaching a violin lesson to Lara Leigh's daughter Breanne. Brooke pushed Ameilya around in a little storage tub and she had so much fun!

Making the Best of a Difficult Situation

Our air conditioner decided to crap out. At the hottest part of the year. And we have to replace our heat pump completely to get it working. And the furnace. Because the furnace is so old it won't communicate with a new heat pump. So, needless to say, it has been very hot in our house. It has been upwards of a hundred degrees in Nampa for the last week and is expected to be right around a hundred all week. The main level of our house has been anywhere from 80-90 degrees. That. Is. Way. Too. Hot. So we have been shopping around to try and find a good deal to get our system replaced. But in the meantime we are trying to find fun things to do to stay cool. Ameilya has been taking her naps and sleeping at night in our basement, which stays around 10 degrees cooler than her room, which is the hottest room in the house. She is doing just fine with that which I am so glad about, Mommies need baby nap times just about as much as baby does. We have been doing our errands in the afternoon, so that we can be in a cool store and not in our hot house. And we have been swimming. Almost every day. Which is super fun since Ameilya loves the water :-) We don't have a pool but we have been blowing up our raft which we used to use to float the Boise River and filling it with water. What a nice way to cool down! It has been so fun, Ameilya just loves playing with toys in the water and splashing around, she is truly a water baby ;) I think that since we have well water that the water is super cold, like 55 degrees cold. Ameilya likes it though, once she gets used to it. It is so hot in our house that it it quite refreshing to have such cold water.
Here are some pics from Ameilya swimming in the raft a couple nights ago.

Ameilya's First Independence Day and First Camping Trip!

For Independence Day this year we went to Burley/Rupert area and camped along the Snake River and hung out with Tyler's Uncle Randy and his family. We also got to go and visit Tyler's Grandma Beth (Noble) who is the namesake for Ameilya's middle name. She is in a care facility in Burley. We had such a great time doing all the things that we were able to do! Ameilya was a little fussy on The Fourth, she had a tooth coming through; she had just gotten her first tooth and within less than a week of that one showing up she popped another one through. We didn't think she would get another one so quickly!
Ameilya loved being outside and was a great trooper for the whole camping adventure, she even got to swim in the Snake River! The water was a little cold but I think we have a little fish on our hands so she didn't even mind at all!
She also loved the fireworks! Tyler was thinking that she would be really scared of them because they were so loud, but she totally loved them! We covered up her ears for part of the time so that the noise wouldn't be so loud for her but she started to fuss because she was annoyed that we were covering her ears! Silly girl! We could hardly believe that she wasn't scared of them!
We got to go to a friend of Uncle Randy's to celebrate. They had lots of food and desserts, home brewed root beer, smores for the kids, sparklers for everyone, tons of games to play before the fireworks, ice cream sandwiches for everyone, and the second best fireworks show that I have ever seen! (The best fireworks show we have ever seen was in Delaware when we spent the summer there when we were first married.) I think the fireworks show was better than the one that the City of Boise puts on every year! It was really that good! Don't know how we got so lucky :-)
Here are some pictures from our fun adventure!

I sewed this little "portable high chair" for Ameilya before we left, it sure came in handy!! You can just slip it over any chair and then it has a little strap that goes around her waist like a regular high chair and you tie it in back to keep her in it. Very convenient for traveling and also church!