What we've been up to ...

I have a confession of something I've realized recently. I love the heat of Arizona. Now I know this summer hasn't been too bad (yet), but I'm really loving it! I know the average person would think more along the lines of "what one earth is there to enjoy about 105 degrees??" I'm not saying that I love going for walks in the middle of the day or anything like that but I love how the heat forces you to relax; you have no choice but to slow down a bit.

Other than that, we've been trying to keep bus. Tienna and I are surviving having Josh gone most of the time. We're so excited that he only has one more week of his surgery rotation, then it's on to OB/GYN. Anyway, we've been going to the pool, the library and watching lots of videos. I had lots of fun little sewing projects the last couple weeks - from pillows to quilt toppers for the ward to curtains. It's good to keep busy!

This is Tienna's friend Audrey. Kim and Ryan moved into the ward almost 2 months ago. Tienna and Audrey are 4 days apart in age and love playing together .... it's been good for Tienna to learn to share and actually start to play with another little person.

This is Tienna's new favorite - Biscuit. Biscuit is a stuffed dog that Josh had as a little boy. Tienna absolutely loves Biscuit and drags him everywhere when we're at home.

Tienna's cheesy smile - I know, my daughter is beautiful. (Hopefully she'll get past this smile soon!)

Happy Birthday Annette!

Today's my Josh's mom's birthday. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful mother-in-law! Annette is one of the strongest women I know and is a wonderful example to her children in sharing her testimony with others. We love you and wish we could have been with you on your day!

12 Month Checkup

This morning was Tienna's 12 month checkup. I know we've already done this 4 times but I was super excited to see where her height came in and to hear what the doctor said. She's officially 30 3/4 inches long which puts her in the 95th percentile and 22 lbs. 10 oz. which puts her at the 60th percentile. The doctor said everything looked good and thought it was super cute that Tienna kept waving to him all through the exam. She did really well with the vaccinations - by far the worst part was having to hold her down.

This is Tienna's new favorite pasttime when we're hone ... rocking chair surfing. She's pretty good about sitting in her chair if she's watching a show but other than that it's just something fun to climb on and make sway back and forth.

Also, congrats to Cesily and Jared and their little kids - they have a new little girl as of this morning. We love you guys and can't wait to see pictures!

Reminiscing

The past week or so I've been working on a list of 1st year milestones to include in Tienna's scrapbook and it's helped me remember what a great year it has been. I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful little girl and I honestly can't believe she's been here for an entire year! I know that Heavenly Father knew what I needed by sending me such a sweet, lovable spirit. Here's some pictures of her firsts that are just too cute to not share (again for most of them!)!

First picture with dad ... (6/23 - 4:05am)

First bath ... (7/11)

First smile (kind-of) ... (7/12)

First day Josh dressed Tienna all on his own ... (8/20)

First time swimming ... (9/11)

First time eating rice cereal ... (10/23)

First Halloween ... (10/26)

First Christmas morning ... (12/25)

First football game ... (2/23)

First standing alone ... (4/20)

Back to Reality!

Last Friday we got home from our 2 week break/trip to Utah. It was so much fun to see all our family!! We started the vacation out with 4 days of boating up at Pineview Reservoir with Josh's family and as you can tell we had a blast! Tienna even had her first bananna ride with her dad. Here's some of our fun pictures ....

First banana ride with dad!

Even grandma got out on the bananna with the kids.

We were lucky enough to have Jared and Cesily's kids with us the entire time we were in Utah. Annette was watching them while Jared had his surgery (which went very well). Tienna loved all the attention from the older boys who were so sweet and kind to her. She also got the hang of following Eden around though I'm not so sure Eden liked that part... Now that we're home she's missing all the love and attention!

This picture is from our boating trip last summer. Tienna was just 3 weeks old. Looking back I can't believe how tiny she was!

Now Tienna's got the hang of boating a little more. She loved watching whoever was skiing, wake boarding or tubing behind the boat and would constantly wave to them - quite the friendly little girl!

After boating Josh and I went for a quick trip to LA for our anniversary/Mother's Day/Father's Day. Thanks again to both grandma's for watching Tienna for us while we were gone! Josh initially surprised me with Wicked tickets back even before boards so that was one of the highlights of that trip. We also spent an entire day at Disneyland which I have to admit was more fun than I expected. The last time I went to Disneyland I was maybe 10 or 11 .... let's just say that things are quite a bit different than I remember. Josh and I were totally like little kids going from ride to ride all day long - when people ask we say that we had to go to get familiar with Disneyland again so when we take our kids we know where to go. We also did the Hollywood thing, went shopping at the Beverly Center Mall, and spent an afternoon at Universal. Thanks again Josh for the fun little break!

In front of Mann's theater with all of the hand prints of actors. We took more pictures than this but there were just so many people everywhere none of the pictures turned out ok.

This is just about the only part of Disneyland I remember being the same - I think they'll always have the Mickey Mouse made of flowers right inside the main entrance!

Now that we're back to reality, Josh started his first rotation yesterday which just happens to be surgery. He left yesterday morning at about 6:45am to head to the hospital and got home just after 8:00pm. This morning he had to leave at 5:20am and will probably get home around 8:00pm again. From what he's been told this will be the typical hours over the next 4 weeks. It makes me sad that he won't get to see Tienna too much but the good news is that we've heard he gets 3 of the weekends completely off! It's been quite a while since we had a Saturday to just hang out and go do fun things so hopefully we can take advantage of those Saturdays to make it through the long weeks. In the mean time, I'm not quite sure what to do with myself during the days! Tienna and I are both so used to Josh coming home for lunch that yesterday incredibly long without it. If anyone has any great ideas please let me know - we're open to anything!