Pumpkin Time

 We went to a small pumpkin patch and picked out a pumpkin.  Ada loves hugging pumpkins and we are excited for her 2nd Halloween! 

The Pink Trike

 Ada loves playing/pushing her pink trike.  It was given to her by some sweet friends on her birthday.  We play every morning outside and she loves playing with her trike.  She will let me put her on the seat and push her around, but mostly she likes to push it herself.  She loves it!

Nature Walk

 Ada I went on our first real nature walk.  We went to the park and searched for cool things in nature.  We found a cool stick with a curly vine wrapped around it, a pine cone, and a cool nut looking thing.  Afterwards Ada found the bike rack a lot of fun to walk through.

Our littler Helper

 Ada is becoming quite the helper in our home.  These are some of the things she loves to do to help.

Help put away daddy's tools

Help take out the trash

Help daddy borrow the spreader

Help keep the milk safe while grocery shopping

Help mommy sweep the floor (she actually does a great job at dumping the dust pan contents in the garbage)

Bouncin' Bear

One of our favorite free places: Bouncin' Bears!

Ada loves playing on all of the bounce houses

She is in love with slides these days

Happy 1st Ada

 We had a fun Neon birthday party for Ada.  She loved her cupcake and frosting. 

Neon Birthday Party

"I spent my first year sleeping"

California Summer 2012

San Francisco Pier 39 and Alcatraz in the background

Ada loved sour dough bread

Hanging with her cousins at the cabin in Truckee

Breakfast with Ben's former roommate and his sweet wife

Ada and her cousin Brooklyn

We met sweet Madalyn who was only a few days old

We some swimming in the pool where I learned how to swim

Father's Day 2012

We had a fun time getting things ready for Father's day. I printed off a free banner, and then put little ties up all over the house with things that we love about the daddy in our house (Ben:) I made a blueberry oatmeal bake and some eggs. For dinner we had friends over and we ate ribs. Ben is better at making the ribs, so he had to cook them- but they were great and we had fun with our friends. Ben's gift hasn't been redeemed yet, but someday we will go to Six Flags because he LOVES roller-coasters!

9 month old Ada- Walking

Working in our Garden

Ada loves being outside!

She is really good at cheering us on while we work in the garden.

For our family home evening activity Ben made bean poles, I made the compost container and planted new plants, and Ada looked cute.

In our garden we have:
Romaine Lettuce
Spinach
Bell Peppers
Jalapenos
Basil
Tomatillos
Cherry Tomatoes
Big Boy Tomatoes
Okra
Beans
Peas
Snow Peas

and soon we will have WORMS!!!
What are you growing?

Messy faces

Ben does a great job of feeding Ada

Even though sometimes Ada sticks her hands in her mouth then rubs her eyes she is soooo cute

Ben always likes to make Ada feel good about herself so he put some of her food on his face too.  What a loving father!

Sunshine and Soil

I've created a gardening blog! I just started it this week, but if you want some helpful info (mostly gardening in Texas)- then this is the blog for you!  I learned to garden from my amazing mother.  We had a garden growing up and I want sweet little Ada to have one too.  I wish the soil was as nice here as it is in California, but I know it is possible to grow things... so I'm on my way.  Some of my favorite garden memories growing up were killing the tomato worms buy pulling off their horns, pulling weeds, and eating zuchinni bread with zuchinni from our garden (oh and I can't forget about my introduction to breaded fried okra- good thing I live in the south now, and I can get it anywhere!).

Don't judge me because I killed worms in a brutal way...

Hit and a Miss

I've been trying new things.. like baking new things, growing new things, cooking new things and buying new things.

Well- some have been hits out of the park and some have been total misses.

Hit:
1. Homemade whipped cream and grilled pineapple for Valentines Day
Miss:
1. Pound cake for Valentines Day(the vegi-shortening was bad)

Valentine's dessert

Hit:
2.. Planting, growing, eating lettuce from our garden
Miss:
2. Growing Spinach, Broccoli and Cauliflower in our garden

Romain Lettuce in our garden

Focaccia bread is always a hit, here it is with some soup that turned out awesome and our first "homemade" salad.

Hit:
3. Ada loves bananas, pears, rice and oatmeal cereal 
Miss:
3. Making green beans into baby food

Happy Baby

Hit:
4. We bought a bike- her name is Argentina
Miss:
4. Buying a bike with a popped tube

Argentina

One well traveled baby

Ada has traveled more in her first 5 months of life than I did in my first 15 years.  We drove to Iowa for Christmas and then flew to California a week after we got home.  The drive to Iowa was 16 hours- and she slept most of the way.  The plane ride to California was better than the flight home- but let's just say she likes driving better than flying.  We loved having our family in Iowa meet her and it was especially cute to see our nieces and nephews hold her.  California was a fun trip full of more nieces and nephews holding her and loving her. 
She is rolling over- every once in awhile, and is super smiley and alert.  We love this stage!  She has started eating rice cereal and it is so fun to feed her with a spoon.  We have been lucky to have such a healthy baby who adapts well to knew things.. like sleeping with out being swaddled, eating from a spoon, and taking formula on the plane with super cold water because her mother was desperate for her to calm down.  We love Ada and are looking forward to this year full of crawling, walking, and homemade baby food!