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!

Giving Thanks

 I realized we haven't posted about Thanksgiving and it is almost Christmas... so here it is!  We stayed in Texas this Thanksgiving and were fortunate enough to spend it with our adopted family- The Burches.  We had a great meal and were with great friends.  We made Cheney rolls, and apple/pecan/carmel pie and some mashed potatoes.  The day after Thanksgiving we drove to Dallas and had our first road trip and overnighter with Ada.  We visited the Browns (one of Ben's old roommates).  They had a little baby a few weeks after we did- so as Ben would say, "we went to arrange their marriage". 

 Ada and Nate seem to have no interest in each other... yet :)

David and Laura were so great to let us stay at their house for the night.  We had fun playing Upwords, making a video for their appartment complex, eating frozen yogurt and playing with these cute babies. 

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and have so much to be thankful for especially since we have the cutest baby girl in the world!