Daisy turns ONE!!!

I can't believe that my baby girl is 1 year old now!  I can't say enough how great it has been with her in our lives.  She is such a sweetheart! God really gave us the greatest gift in the world.  

The day she was born

1 year old

Her birthday was low-key, but it was fun.  My mom, visiting Germany from the States, was there along with my brother, Chris, and his family.  We bought her a cake to tackle by herself, and everyone else got a cupcake.  When we sang Happy Birthday, she seemed a little confused.  Her expression kind of said "what is everybody doing?" But at the end we all clapped, and then she got a big grin on her face.  

She enjoyed eating the cake.  She only ate a little of it, but played a lot with the frosting.  She would grab a bunch of the frosting and just rub it in her hands.  If you didn't know, she likes to feel things (her favorite books have different textures in it).  

Here are a few pictures of her with her cake: 

After a quick shower to rinse off all the frosting, Daisy opened her presents.  

  

Down with the flu

Matt found out Friday morning that he had the flu, so we planned to just stay at home all weekend.  Well, then it hit Daisy....She has been so miserable, poor thing.  

It seems that she is really tired, and she cries when she isn't laying down which suggests that her body is kind of achy.  I keep giving her tylenol every 6 hours to keep her fever down.  I feel so bad for her though.  It seems that she hasn't felt good ever since we got to Germany.  Hopefully she recovers from this and feels a ton better though!!  

She did have a few hour period yesterday where she seemed a little better.  We got some good play time in and even managed to FaceTime with Grandma Mitchell.  Daisy enjoyed that.  We tried to FaceTime with my parents as well, but it didn't work...so we just called on the phone.  

Here are 2 little photos of the three of us.  I feel like we never really take pictures of ourselves, we are always focusing the camera on little Doodle Bug.  So you might see one of these pictures in Christmas cards this year, hahaha.  

Big Update!!!

My goodness, I have been so bad about keeping things up to date!!  I think I have just been struggling with time management.  I've been going to school full time online, raising Daisy, preparing for baby Boy, and dealing with our move to Germany.  But Matt and Daisy are asleep for the night (woohoo!) and I finally have some solid time to myself (double woohoo!) so here I am...UPDATING!!  

I think it is so important for family to stay "connected" as best they can.  I hope I can update more often now (maybe make this a routine for myself) so family can keep up with our lives.  It is hard being away from everyone back in the States!  

Anywho....

Daisy is now 11 months old!  I can't believe she is going to be a year old in less then a month!  It honestly seems like just a few weeks ago I was looking at her beautiful face for the very first time!  Now she is officially going to be a toddler (should I be sad, or happy about this?).  She is so much fun though!  I love having her around.  Matt and I were talking today and we honestly couldn't imagine a life without her in it.  She makes me laugh constantly.  She has figured out how to test me though...she knows when she is doing something she shouldn't be doing (like touching the computer) and she waits for that ONE second you aren't looking, lol.  

We finally made the big move to Germany (obviously...).  It has been quite an adventure so far.  It's really nice having Chris and his family over here.  They were a ton of help the first few days we were in country.  They let us stay at their house, and they even drove us back and forth from base since we don't have a car or European licenses yet.  A few nights after we got here, they took us to our first German restaurant.  It was so delicious!!!  Oh, and Daisy absolutely LOVES her cousin Diana-Jean.  Usually Daisy is pretty rough with other kids, but with DJ she is so sweet and caring!  Daisy will just go up to her and give her the biggest, wettest kiss and then a hug too.  Super cute!!  

Germany is absolutely beautiful though.  We just can't get enough of the nature.  But the pictures we take just don't do justice to what we are actually seeing.  I wish all of you could be here now to see how pretty it is!  All of these pictures are what we see here on base.  

Matt clocked me walking 4 km :) haha

And the weirdest thing...mushrooms grow in an abundance here!  They are literally everywhere!!!  What is neat though is that they all look different.  Some may be small, while some are gigantic! Look at these ones we saw today! It's almost straight out of Alice in Wonderland!! 

Phew!  That's a lot of updating for one post!  More will come, I PROMISE!!!  But this mama is tired!  I love you all and miss you bunches!  

Harajuku mini

Gwen Stefani has a line at Target for toddlers called Harajuku Mini.  My mom bought Daisy a Pajama piece, and I absolutely love it!  

I looked at the store and want to buy so many more pieces of her line!!!  Cute, right?!?!

Time for a bit of change

A month ago my hair was dark brown and long!  Then I bleached it, and then I cut it!!!  I've only had short hair once in my life (besides when I was a baby), but I love it!  

Oven-crisped zucchini

One zucchini 

bread crumbs

parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

oil

I cut the zucchini into thin slices.  I mixed the bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper in a bowl.  I didn't measure how much I used, I just kind of played it by ear.  

I dipped the slices in oil then lathered them in the crumb mix and placed them on a foil covered pan.  

I baked them at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.  

They turned out great!!!!

Stuffed Jalapeños

What a great snack!

10 Jalapeños, cut in half and deseeded

8 ozs soft cream cheese

A handful of mozzarella cheese

fresh cilantro, chopped

Parmesan cheese

After cutting and deseeding the jalapeños, we mixed the cream cheese, mozzarella cheese, and cilantro together.  We placed the jalapeños on a baking sheet covered with foil and spread the mix onto the cut jalapeños.  Next, we sprinkled Parmesan cheese on top of them and baked.

Bake at 425 for 15 minutes!!

So simple, and very delicious!

the big FIVE months old :)

So here she is, already 5 months old!  Wow, does time fly by, or what?! 

She is putting on some weight.  We haven't had her weight checked since last month, but she feels a lot heavier when I have to pick her up!  At 4 months, she was at 13.11 pounds.  

Daisy is getting a lot better at sitting up on her own.  Almost there!

She has gained an interest in standing up.  She usually gets a huge grin on her face.  

She has started rolling a lot.  At first, she was only really good at going from her stomach to her back, but now she has mastered both.  

She started laughing a lot!  It is the sweetest thing in the whole world.  It seriously melts my heart.  She gets really giggly around my niece (her cousin) Isabelle.  They love each other!

She loves playing with her toys, especially the ones with music.  

She sleeps in her crib now!  She used to sleep in her swing next to our bed, but we finally made the switch to her bed.  She does awesome in it.  I just lay her down at 8:30pm, put classical music on, and she is soon zonked out!  

She thinks her toe fuzz is hilarious! 

She is getting so adorable.  I love her with all my heart and I thank God everyday for a wonderful addition to my life.  

fun with the computer

Last night before Matt got home from work, Daisy and I were having fun with the photo booth application on my computer.  Here are my favorite shots:

Daisy's first Easter

We didn't do much today.  Daisy and I went to church with my parents in Denver.  She wore the same dress she wore to Kelly's wedding (compliments of Grandma Mitchell).  Everyone is church just adored her, but how can you not?!  

I didn't get her an Easter basket, but I did get her 3 small beanie boo toys. Here are all the pictures from today.  

She was singing when I took this

She gets lost in all the tulle!

With Uncle Kris

Bear hugs for everyone!

Enjoying the nice weather with Grandma 

So happy!

Story time with Grandpa

Her lamb, Lily

Goldie, the chick

Eating Petunia's ears

Hugging all of her news friends