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.  

  

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!  

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.  

My sunshine

We recorded Daisy singing a new song. This time "You are my Sunshine" 

Enjoy!

3 Months

Here are some of my favorite pictures of Daisy from the past month:

Last time wearing her newborn clothes

Visiting with Auntie Caroline

Wearing the jacket and hat my mom made me when I was born

Enjoying a smooth car ride

Shirt says it all: Daddy's sweetheart

She actually fell over, but it looks like she is cuddling the bear

She loves to siting her bumbo!

She sits in the bathroom with me while I do my hair

Rockin her 3 month sticker

The camera distracts her now and she won't smile

Cutie pie :)  

Play day

Today I baby-sat for my friend Melinda.  Allie is about 3 years old and the cutest thing ever.  In their house they have a play room so I took Daisy and Allie up there and they played for a bit.  It was so cute seeing how excited Daisy got around all those toys.  Many of them were for older kids, but they had some that were great for Daisy to play with.  Here are some pictures of her playing:

I want to get one of those car things like she is sitting on.  She loved it even though she tended to tip over every now and then.  The greatest part of play time was when Allie would sing to Daisy.  She would sing The Itsy-Bitsy Spider and Twinkle Twinkle.  She kept singing those two songs over and over.  So cute!  I wish I would have recorded it, but it was just making me laugh so much, I forgot!  

After I was done baby sitting, I had to go pick up Matt from work, but while we were waiting for him in the parking lot, Daisy was having fun playing with her little bird on her carseat.  I recorded a video of it: 

 

Since I baby-sat for Melinda, she "paid" me by giving me their old Bumbo.  So when we got home for the day we put Daisy in it right away and SHE LOVES IT!!! She loves being able to sit up and just look around at everything.  And the best part is she would hang her arm out the side like she was cruising down the boulevard with her hand out the window.  

Then She got tired of sitting up, leaned over and started sucking on it.  Cutie pie. 

Love from Grandma Mitchell

Daisy is so lucky to have such a wonderful grandma like Grandma Mitchell!!  She sent a box to us with little things for everyone. We got some lovely handwritten cards, yummy smelling candle, some snacks (I'm a HUGE snacker!), an out fit for Daisy and a cute bear for her too.

Here are some pictures of Daisy with her gifts from Grandma:

So here's to you Grandma Mitchell, WE LOVE YOU!!!  And thank you so much for the great package :)  

First time sick

Daisy is only 11 weeks old and is already sick.  My poor baby!  She had a little bit of a fever the other day, but we gave her some infant tylenol and it went away.  But now she has the stuffiest nose.  I've been using the nose bulb on her a lot.  Luckily her snot is runny and not too sticky, it makes them easier to suck out.

I worry about her the most at night.  I haven't been sleeping well because I just want to make sure she is okay. It's so hard for her to breathe and I don't think she is used to breathing through her mouth.  So every now and then I'll hear her sniff in too much snot that she coughs on it.  And the other night it sounded like she was weezy a bit too.

Since she has been sick, she has been sleeping a lot during the day because she doesn't sleep well at night.  Sometimes it's been hard for her to fall asleep in the swing, so I'll just sit on the couch and hold her.

Since her nose is so stuffy, she has been sneezing a lot too.  Every time she sneezes I quickly get the bulb and suck out some of the snot.  It seems to come out a lot better then.  But other times I don't need the bulb because she sneezes out the snot herself (leaving her with a snot face...kind of funny actually)

She is starting to get a little better.  I'm glad she only has a stuffy nose and isn't in any pain.  I know it's hard for her, but it could have been a lot harder.  She is still my happy little baby who loves to play and smile.  Yesterday she even started laughing! It was the best thing ever hearing her laugh!!!  It was the first time I've heard her do it, and I can't wait to hear it some more.  It was simply so precious :)