Lucky Girl - She takes after her {DAD}

Miley went in last week for her 12 month check-up. Here's the stats...

31.5" Tall (Off the charts meaning her dot is above the 95th percentile curve. Hailey is 38" tall so it's kinda funny - she is so going to be taller than her sister by next year!

19.9 lbs. (40%)

I can't remember what her head measured but it was at 75%

The doctor was totally surprised to see her walking {running} around the office and said the most a 12 month is expected to do developmentally is crawl really well or maybe start standing up next to a sofa. He also said that she should start saying 'mama' and 'dada' by 18 months. OK...She's had that mastered for a while now and her new word is 'happy'. But you can't say it just once - you have to say it over and over again really stressing the 'y' sound. She also just started nodding her head yes and no. She tries to nod while she's walking and throws herself off balance - it's so funny to watch. I know, I know - I'll be hating the word 'no' pretty dang soon but for right now, it's super cute!

UNO!

My baby just turned 1 on August 12th. I can't believe it! She's a professional walker and finally has some teeth. She has 5 that pretty much all came in at once. She makes the cutest little sounds. Her kisses are my favorite! She doesn't give them out freely but when she does, I wish I could somehow bottle it up and save it forever! She really loves to play now. I remember Hailey loved bags. She would gather stuff from all over and collect it in bags or purses. Miley's thing is pens. She loves them! She's been coloring for a few months now. It's hilarious to watch her hold the pen and scribble on paper {or should we say Tata's stone fireplace}. Thank heavens for the internet. It shows that other moms have the same simple pleasures of removing pen. Yikes! The solution...about 8 paper towels thick - drizzle with hydrogen peroxide and squish into the surface of the stain. It magically draws it out. Whew! There was a lot of pen.

We had a little party for her. We had pizza and set her in a high chair to dig in to her cake. It took a little pursuading. She was more interested in the sprinkles on top at first. She caught on though. Messy baby by the end of the night!

Before the mess!

Thinking about it...

Picking off the sprinkles

Sweet little face

Messy girl

Immediately went into the kitchen sink for a bath!

Redhead, get it? Thanks Mommy Jean and Papa

And our cake. YUM

A year ago! Time flies!

Big sissy holding Miley for the first time.

Change of Address {Again!}

So this is our 4th home we've lived in here in NorCal. At least this one was our choice. (#1 & #2 were not exactly pleasant experiences!) #3 was much better. Only 3 houses down from Tata and Papo. #4 One big happy family. We've moved in with my mom and dad into their new house. It's one of the few homes in all of California that has a basement. Thanks Mom and Dad for this little arrangement. It's such a gorgeous home. I'll post more pics of it later but here's a view from the backyard.

If only moving was really this much fun!

Austin's Graduation

It's a month past due but Austin is done with the Fire Academy! Our life has been crazy since the moment he graduated - more of that madness to come:)

So Aaron, his older brother, called us a few days before the graduation and said he was coming. So fun to have him here. We went to Outback on Saturday night for a little grad party with the girls and my mom and dad.

Sunday was the big day down at the Crest Theater in downtown Sacramento. The place was soooo cool! It was an old theater that had been re-done. I guess I was picturing a hot auditorium with folding chairs but it was nothing like that at all. Grandma Vickie and Papa Frank drove all the way from Utah to surprise Austin for his graduation. It was the first time that Frank had seen Miley. It was fun to have them there. Since the moving truck (yeah, don't worry...we've moved again!) was showing up bright and early to pick up our furniture, Aaron got to sleep on an air mattress and G&G Neilson stayed at the hotel I work at.

Back to details about the graduation. (My mind is all scrambled. I have about 10 posts I need to do and they're all mushing together in my head!) Every class does a class present to all of the Captains and DI's. Austin's class took rusted axes and sanded them by hand to make them pretty again. They had each DI's name burned into the wooden handle. Then they got a piece of steel donated from the twin towers and had a plaque engraved with all 400+ firefighters that died that day. A class from
'07 made a bell out of an old style metal air tank. Austin's class did a tribute to a Captain that died in the last year or so and had his badge welded onto the bell. It was pretty neat! A lot of hard work went into these project aside from the fact that they were at school everyday for about 6 months straight. Their class also won the fittest class ever. It was a really special day. Austin will have memories of this Academy for a long time.
Miley had finally gone to sleep so we didn't want to chance waking her to take a pic. So here's 3/4 of our family!

This is the piece of steel from 9/11.

Class of 09-6. Started with 51 recruits and graduated 35.

Nobody is as excited as Hailey to have her daddy home!