Cheesy Smiles/Nursery

Today, Mady turned 18 months old today!!!!!!! It amazes me that I just had her 18 months ago and she grew so much in so little time and now she is going to be BIG SISTER soon!

Right now, she is rebellious and stubborn just like her mommy that my family was hoping to see so I can see why my family had to deal with me when I was little. Justin does mention that its too crazy to live in a home with 2 Rachels so hes outnumbered. :) Every time I leave out of the house or take a nap. Mady does something crazy that made Justin begging for help. She started talking back to him when he said NO or OUT. What a rebellious girl! BUT, we love her to pieces!!! We dont think we would find happiness and sweet laughters in the house without her. She really fill up our lives so easily so it is worth it to have her in our family. Right now we are trying to prepare her for having a baby brother in few months. She adore babies. When she see anyone who looks like a baby or is a baby, she would smile and try to hug them and kiss them. It is the sweetest thing to see. She also kisses my belly many times as well. She has very tender heart so Im hoping it will be good to see her interact with her baby brother. We are excited to see it happen.

She went into Nursery at the church 2 weeks ago to see how it goes. She is doing great there. She did not even CRY or ASK for mommy or daddy. It amazed us. Justin and I were worried but seems like things are great. It was nice to have break from her for 2 hours and be able to attend the classes without distractions. The Sacrament Meetings were difficult to keep her entertained. There are few distractions such like walking up to the piano and trying to run out me and I had to chase and grab her right before Sacrament Meeting started. She did good most of times though. I thought to document the photos for her first day of Nursery, I really wish I took some at the church but its ok! ENJOY!

That is the best picture of us while Im pregnant :)

I swear she wasnt mad, she just opened her mouth and beamed!

Cheesy Smile!

She sure love her daddy

You can see, she was posing for a picture just like that! We had to laugh about that.

Mommy/Daughter Moment

Our little happy family!!!

4th of July

The weekend for 4th of July was extremely busy for us and by July 5th, we all crashed but we had so much fun.

on July 2nd, there is a festival in downtown Mesa and Justin is volunteering for Buz Mills(I think I spell it right) for AZ Governor so I decided to go to check out. There are a lot of awesome things, slides for kids, games to win prizes, motorcycles, old cars, and a lot of balloons! We enjoyed it very much. I think we will be coming back again so Mady is little old enough to be able to go by herself on slides and such.

on July 3rd, we went to our church's swim/bbq activity at one of members house. We had so much fun. Mady wouldnt leave the pool, she just wants to sit there and play. There are a lot of kids who wants to play with Mady so its really nice to have people who wants to play so we can enjoy ourselves. During the BBQ, Mady ate 4 slices of watermelon!!!!!! That night we went back to the festival again for the fireworks display, she ate 3 more slices of watermelon there as well! She LOVE watermelons!!! She get so mad if I take it away because shes going to eat the green thing!!! She wasnt scared to see the fireworks but she got bored easily so she just wants to get out of the stroller so we left early to avoid the traffic jam. As of the result for the day, we all got a bit of sunburn.

On July 4th, Justin's sister and her husband just had their baby blessed at their church and afterward homemade ice cream and brownies. We enjoyed it. We also stayed at their house to play games and dinner.

on July 5th, we had some family members coming over for a swim at our place so we had fun but Justin had the worst luck ever, his glasses were broken, then fixed but yet lost it. He also drowned his cell phone because he simply forgot to take it out of his swimsuit. We went over to Justin's parents for BBQ which we all enjoyed, by the time we arrived home, we were so exhausted!

That is our weekend for 4th of July. We were so sore, Im surprised Mady still has full energy to play while her mommy and daddy are so sore and can barely move! :)

Here are the pictures, some are from my cell phone and some are from camera.

Mady and one of kids

Mady and the kids playing

Mady and Daddy

Cliff and Mady

At the festival with her loots winning the prizes

at the festival

just sitting there enjoying the pool

Mady likes to put the disks into a bucket. She had meltdown when we had to take it away when we leave.

Her expression of the firework display

Proof that she love watermelons!!! :)

Mommy's little helper

Mady has been helping around with the cleaning with her mommy. It was fun until she start to throw away that is not supposed to be in garbage. :)

We had to keep her away from dishwasher while I was trying to load up because she kept closing it and lock it. YES, she does know how to lock and unlock. :( During the process of dishwasher, she did unlock without us knowing about it so we had to lock it to be able to get it started. It is great that she helps me unload the dishes, piece by piece. I had to hurry up to put them away because she is quick enough to get another piece, waiting for me! If she cant wait then she walk to me. How funny is that?!

She also love to throw her own diapers and others as well. Sometimes she throw bowls or any toys that she think its all done or think its fun. Justin and I fear that we may lost some things in the garbage, especially my keys last December. We never found my keys so I had to get the whole new set of keys.

She like to dump the DVDS on the floor sometimes she will help me put them back on the shelf.

She like to grab her daddy's keys which was left on the office table and walk up to the front door and try to figure out which key to open, luckily shes not tall enough to be able to do it. She just like to play that way.

She may drive us crazy but we love her to pieces!!!!! :)

p.s. excuse my messy kitchen and my lovely hair. I was tired and lazy to get it fixed. :)

all ready to hand out a knife

standing to help unload

waiting patiently for mommy to get it

two pieces at same time!

just like to hand out until its empty

All about our little M

Yesterday I finally had the courage to go to into M's bedroom and clean up. I had to pack away shoes, socks, clothes, bows, and PINK blankets because M is not using them anymore. It made me really sad to see how much she has grown up so much in a year and half. I had no idea how the time flies so quickly let alone she was just a baby that is a pure joy.

M is thriving with many knowledge that continue to amaze us even we dont always teach her. It shows that she has the passion to learn and do it her way and feel accomplished when she did something like that. She has the strength that has the capacity to figure out on her own without asking us for help. I often think and ask myself, "Is that my little girl?" Sure enough she is my little girl with spitting image of me at her age and her mischevious ways. I am so happy she is my daughter and I am excited to watch her grow up. I hope she looks up to me and her daddy.

She knows that I have a baby inside my belly and she would sometimes touch and kiss. It amazes me that she just know even I am not showing very much.

She has been signing like crazy! Most signs she uses we understood but some other times she just randomly sign and was trying to sign and we wouldnt be able to understand. She love to watch "Signing Times" DVDs, Flash Cards, and books we read to her. She also notice the signs when we sign and copied us. Don't worry, she is not behind with her talking language. She has been talking gibberish a lot and many words she has already said. She also know how to throw away her diapers and throw other junks into garbage by herself. She loves it by clapping her hands.

Signs she knows:

please

thank you

water

food

candy

outside

piano

shoes

clothes

sleep

apple

banana

car

binky

hungry

phone

baby

Words she SAID:

mommy

owie

bumpa

dada

baby

I will have to ask my hubby about what she said because I can not hear her say things like that. Its harder for me to accept that I can not hear her say words which are funny to my hubby and other people.

I am excited for her reaction to her new baby brother this fall. I certainly hope she will love her brother as she does to other babies she see. I know she will be a great role model to her siblings.

Here are the random pictures in not particular order. Enjoy! Sorry its a long post

Cant you resist her?!

all dolled up!

first time seeing the snow!

her very 1st bday party

her bday party

She like her uncle, Mason

all ready and bundled up to go with Grandpa Miller

She love Cynder(cat) and would sign "doggy" need to work on teaching "cat" sign

She would go crazy to get anything of what I eat!

Shes having fun being pushed by her Bumpa

M's first easter egg hunt

she found that bouncer in mommy's closet

UTES FAN

Mother's Day

She love to do that big smile for me.

She climbed by standing on the green car to the chair. smart kid

Yogurt is her all-time favorite so she can make a mess!

Sassy girl

Church

She love those friends from church. They play with each other very well!