Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

My baby girl turned three last month. It's amazing to think about how it feels like the past three years have flown by, but at the same time, I can hardly think of our family without this precious little girl.

We just love spending time with her and listening to the crazy things that come out of her mouth. She's constantly bossing us, sassing us, or being sweet. She weighs about 32 pounds and has gone through a growth spurt recently. She loves to sing and dance and is looking forward to going to ballet class now that she's three. Her favorite foods these days are tacos and guacamole. I'm pretty sure she thinks chocolate should be a food group. She's a picky eater but will usually eat her meals with the possibility of a dinner treat.

A favorite Amora story of the year: In her nursery class at church in November, the teachers are rounding the kids up for the lesson. Amora stands in the corner and says, "Anyone who doesn't want to hear the lesson, come over here." One little girl, Ivy, decides to join Amora. When the teacher tries to get Ivy to join the rest of the class, Amora holds out her arm in front of Ivy and says, "Ivy doesn't want to hear the lesson."

Yes, I am toast.

Amora is also going through a Tinkerbell phase. So we had to have a Tinkerbell/Princess/Pirate birthday party (pirates for the boys). This was as creative as I could get for the invitation with minimal time working full time, planning her birthday party, and getting ready for Christmas.

She asked for a Tinkerbell cake, so her not-so-crafty mom made the attempt. Not too bad with a cake mold. I was proud of myself and Amora loved it.


And here is all of her loot. Probably one of her favorite parts of her birthday was going to choose what balloons she wanted.

And here is my little princess. We were all set to wear the Tinkerbell costume for the party until she opened this princess costume from an aunt and uncle. Tinkerbell party magically morphed into Tinkerbell/Princess party.


She figured out the art of blowing out the candle. I don't think there was even much spit on the cake. Way to go, Amora!

We love you little girl! We look forward to discovering what 3 has in store for you!

Christmas Letter 2011

What better way update the world after many months of absence than my Christmas letter? More to come, eventually.

Dear Family and Friends,

As with every year as of late, this year has been a year of change for our family. We have added new jobs to our resumes, experienced new adventures, and felt gratitude for the abundance of blessings received this year.

We’ll start with the most important member of our family, Amora. She has continued to grow and develop into a jewel of a little girl. She loves all things girly, especially princesses, fairies, and dressing up. We successfully mastered potty training which proved to be a challenging yet rewarding endeavor. Her favorite potty activity? Playing on the iPad while doing her business. What can we say? We have a diva on our hands. This year she has shown her artistic and creative sides by speaking “Spanish” (her nonsense language), cutting shapes, drawing people, singing, dancing, and making up silly names for her imaginary siblings and friends. We continue to be amazed at her developing vocabulary and sense of humor.

This year has been the year of many jobs for Wendy. She started the year as a stay at home mom then went back to work as a long-term substitute teacher at a local middle school. She then landed a job as a part-time summer school health teacher at an alternative high school. And in August, she changed careers and began a permanent position with the state of Idaho working in public health. The best part of this new job is the financial stability and the low stress nature of the position. The most difficult part of this has been the challenge of being away from Amora. Luckily, she is in wonderful hands with her daddy.

Adam landed a great job as a psychosocial rehabilitation (PSR) worker that gives him flexible hours and allows him to try to make a difference in the lives of the children he works with. He goes to work part-time in the late afternoons and evenings, takes care of Amora during the day, and does a good job making sure the house is in tip top shape. He even finds time for his fun experiments in the kitchen (which mostly turn out well).

It’s definitely been a crazy year for us, but we are grateful for where it has led us. We have so much to be thankful for this Christmas season and count our blessings daily. We hope 2012 brings us continued stability and maybe home ownership. Merry Christmas and may God bless you this Christmas season!

Amora Quotes and Stories

I'm back in the blogging world! And of course, my first post back will be all about my funny little girl. The more she knows, the more entertaining she is. Here are a few of our favorite quotes over the past few months:

• Instead of the song, Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam, she sang, "Jesus wants me for a potty treat." Can you tell we were bribing her with potty training?
• 6/8: I called her my little side kick because I take her everywhere and she announced, "Daddy's my little side kicker."
• 6/12: "I'm naked like bath baby."
• 6/16: When eating a snack or dinner she announces, "Ouch, I bited my tongue. Now I won't have a tongue anymore."
• 6/18: My bossy little girl praised her mommy, "I said I'm almost done and you listened to me!"
• 6/23: After eating broccoli cheese soup she says, "Mommy, this is the best dinner I ever had. Thank you Mommy!"
• 7/2: After Adam and I were talking about him going bizirko cooking a lot she says, "Where's Daddy going." I answer, "Bizirko." She asks, "Can I come too?" I answer, "Of course."
• 7/11: During lunch time she asks me, "What are you eating?" I say, "Mac n' cheese." "Where's the cheese?" "On the noodles." "Oh, where's the mac?"
• 8/25: "Daddy, call Mommy if you need help building your castle." Hey, I didn't earn the title Mommy for nothing!
• She's getting really into her imaginary friend, Minky. I think she thinks everyone else should just catch on quickly. When she's playing with other kids, she'll occasionally say, "Come on, Minky!" The kids will normally stop, look around, and ask, "who's Minky?"
• I let her choose potty prizes from the dollar store. She gets to choose one for every day that she doesn't have any accidents. The item she was most excited about? Really cheap hair extensions connected by a headband. Classy.
• She thinks her Aunt Audrey's favorite color is green. Whenever she notices that something is green, she'll say, "Audrey loves this color."
• She is obsessed with dancing. She will do interpretive dances just about anywhere. My favorite move of hers is a modified moon walk (MJ lives on!).
• After about five attempts to use a public toilet at a restaurant recently (she hates them), I took her outside and set out her portable potty in the parking lot to do her business. Yup, there's a little bit of trailer in all of us.
• She is getting obsessed with princesses. About everyday she asks me what princess I want to be.

And of course, a post is not complete with a few pictures. Here are some of my favorites from this summer:

Don't Judge Me, I've Been Busy

Life has been nothing but chaos since the middle of March. I suppose it's time to catch all of my loyal viewers on what has been going with the Loumeau family.

The end of March we went to Utah for a few days. It was time to get out of town and party it up. And what better place for a poor (in money, not spirit) family to go than to visit extended family. It also just so happened that my sister, Audrey, was to be in Park City that same week (coincidence, probably not). So we hauled the kiddo on a lovely trip that was made more lovely with a portable DVD player.

Audrey, her husband Derek, and I took a day ski trip in Park City. We had lessons and just had an awesome day. I normally snowboard so thought I might not enjoy skiing much, but I was wrong. By the end of the day I was attempting jumps (small but I was still proud of myself). It was probably the first day since Amora was born that I just spent an entire day doing something for me. It was marvelous! Thanks so much to Audrey and Derek for their generosity. I loved spending the day with both of you and cheering Derek on in the Magic Carpet (training area).

The rest of the time we spent with Adam's siblings. We toured UVU with their newest ASB President, Christopher Loumeau. I was quite impressed with the school. Audrey endured my reminiscing while on BYU campus for an afternoon. Andre and Ally made us a delicious meal at their place. Hannah and Mark were super awesome hosts. We loved staying with them. It was so fun to see how cute newlyweds are! They were even understanding with the "incident we don't speak of." I will speak of this one last time in my life and them it will be done.

Hannah is an art major at BYU. She keeps her art supplies in her guest bedroom. Before we arrived, she moved her artwork out of the guest bedroom, but the supplies were not removed (which I didn't realize). She was supposed to be sleeping in the guest bedroom when I hear a scratching sound. I go in to check on her thinking that she found a little bit of trouble and realized that my child was destructive! She found a green Sharpie (permanent ink) and colored all over the walls, the bedding, and herself. I was angry. I was embarrassed. I was frustrated. It was the most horrible moment of being a parent that I have had thus far, and I'm pretty sure I did not pass the test. I ran to Walmart, left the child with her father, and called my mother-in-law for guidance. I was able to get the marker out of the walls, and Hannah and Mark accepted our apologies enough to not ban us from their home. I'm pretty sure I learned an important lesson. I will now search every nook and cranny when we stay with someone else. Please learn from me and do the same. I do not wish this experience on anyone. I was so angry I didn't take pictures of Amora's body art. But I will say that she managed to draw on her scalp, bellybutton, back, and bottom of her feet in addition to everywhere else. What a gal. What a gal.

Luckily, before this incident, we took a great opportunity and had Hannah take our family pictures. Hannah is incredibly gifted in all forms of art, so the pictures turned out amazing. Unfortunately, Amora was not in a cooperative mood, but we still got some beautiful pictures. Here are a few:

Where have the last two months gone?

After Christmas, I didn't want to do anything. I wanted to enjoy having an open schedule and just spend time with my family. And that's what we did. We had a few outings but mostly played at home.

We went to the temple one day after dropping my mother-in-law off at the airport. Amora was so bummed that we couldn't go in. I told her that I wasn't wearing a dress, so we had to stay outside. She looked down and told me that she was so she should be able to go in. It was a quite nice until Amora fell and cried all the way to the car. I suppose excursions rarely go as planned.


Amora's hair is long enough to be able to do fun things with it. I was quite proud of myself with this one. I don't know how other parents do their toddler's hair, but I like to do Amora's when she is eating breakfast. That way, she's distracted and buckled in.


We also made salt dough hand prints. Amora's favorite part was eating the dough. She was quite bummed out when it came out of the oven and I told her it wasn't a cookie. I'm so grateful for the internet and other blogs for helping me think of fun inside activities for kids. I could never think these things up on my own.


We said goodbye to Jacob, the 3 year old that I had been watching basically since we moved here. Amora calls him her brother and still asks about him. We try to remember the fun times like our photo shoot. It's amazing how entertaining a camera can be to a 2 and 3 year old (okay, it entertained me too).


Some days were not easy with both of them, but I think about times like this when they just cuddled and played nicely. So sweet.


A few fun stories and Amora quotes:

• If she drops or spills something, she says, "It's okay, Mommy." Apparently I need to be reassured.
• She has been very excited about talking on the phone. She picked up the phone recently when it rang, started talking, and told me it was her grandma. It was a very confused someone from church. Oops.
• She paces like crazy when she talks to her grandparents on the phone. I guess that's how I should get her energy out. She is able to have a two-sided conversation over the phone which I am quite impressed with.
• On occasion, she tells me that she has to put her baby doll down because it's being too bossy.
• If she wants something, she uses her sweet voice and says, "Could I...?"
• She loves to sing and dance. We turned music on the other day and had an awesome little dance party.
• She can recognize most letters of the alphabet but won't give me the correct letters if she's in a silly mood.
• The other day, Amora hit her mouth on a drawer that she opened and began screaming. I called Adam to come up to help assess the damage. As he was running upstairs, I saw something red fall out of her mouth. I screamed as an instant reaction quickly realizing it was her gummy vitamin and not a piece of her tongue. Adam ran up thinking someone lost a limb and was not pleased with my dramatics. Gotta love being a parent.

Christmas

It's amazing how much more fun this Christmas was for Amora than last Christmas. She understood so much more about opening the presents, learned to sing some Christmas songs (Deck the Halls was her favorite), and found out all about Santa. I don't know why but now anytime we can't find something, she says, "Maybe Santa took it." Apparently she learned that Santa steals things. It's pretty funny.

We loved having Adam's family at our place this year even though it got pretty crazy at times having seven adults and one 2 year old in 1500 square feet. But the close quarters gave us plenty of opportunities to hang out. And as always, even with a lot going on, I seem to primarily have pictures of Amora.

This was our very loaded Christmas tree this year. I would venture to say that almost half was for Amora. She had so many gifts that she was opening them all day long. I think we finally finished by about 7 pm. It took so long because she wanted to play with each toy the second she opened it.


The stocking was very exciting. When her daddy woke up, she had to show him each item Santa placed in her stocking. She also peeked in her daddy's stocking to see what he got. Among the highlights in the stocking was princess chap stick (which has since been taken away because she ate too much of it), princess bouncy balls, new socks, and princess magnets.


Amora got so many fun presents. She got a play cookie set from her cousin Billy that allows her to frost the cookies and cut them. She loved it!


Her Uncle Kevin gave her a real tiara. He said that every princess needs a tiara. She'll definitely love growing into it. It's absolutely beautiful.


Amora also got a few great books. She loves books and loves when she gets new books. We've already read these so many times.


Thanks to everyone for such a great Christmas. I felt so spoiled and loved because so many people thought of Amora. This year, my gifts didn't matter much because I was just so happy that Amora enjoyed Christmas. What a fun time in our lives.

Amora at her Best

Here are a few of Amora's cute stories. She just gets more fun and animated the older she gets.

• One day when I was cleaning up after dinner, Amora was sitting on the couch. I went to check on her and she said, "Go in the kitchen, Mommy." She kept insisting that I go in the kitchen. I then find out that it's because she didn't want me to whisk her to her potty and dismissed me so she could go in her diaper in peace.
• Amora thinks that going potty is great. Not so much going potty, but sitting on the potty. She will literally sit there for twenty minutes reading books, playing with toys, and talking to me. She insists that she have an audience and finds it to be the best time to get uninterrupted parental attention.
• Amora came in to see her daddy one morning. With a big grin on her face, she pointed to a toy and said, "This is poop." She finished her joke with the cutest, sassiest laugh.
• She refers to anything in the past tense as "last night."
• If I ask her how she likes something and she likes it she says, "pretty good."
• It's always fun trying to think of how Amora will attempt evading bedtime. She'll take literally twenty minutes trying to go potty, insisting that some is coming. Or she'll call out that she has to go potty once I leave her room. My favorite is when I tell her that when I leave, I'm not coming back. She asks "Daddy come?". "No Amora." "Grandma come?" "No Amora."
• Another time, when I went to check on her at nap time, I see my daughter with an open book on her lap. She then informs me, "I reading to baby."
• I'm talking to my mother-in-law, and Amora says, "Mommy, you sassing Grandma?"
• The other day, Amora told her daddy and me that she was a cat fighter. Any ideas on where she can up with that one?
• I told Amora that she was going to play with her daddy while Mommy when out. I asked her what she wanted to do with Daddy and she said, "Play with scissors." Your secret is out husband!

I love her!

She had a photo shoot taking pictures of herself.

Mommy and Amora


I love to see the temple.