Piper Josette Amey

Well, I didn't get my blog full updated before the baby arrived. How could I know she would decide to come two weeks early?!

Piper Josette Amey was born at 11:58 p.m. on December 17, 2010. I guess she decided she didn't want to miss any Christmas festivities! :)

 She weighed 6 lbs, 5 oz. and was 19 3/4 inches long... our smallest baby! Oh, and she had a full head of very dark hair.

 A nurse took our picture after she was born.

 Daddy got to hold her and thought she was SO light weight compared to our "little" boy, Wyatt (who weighs somewhere around 35 lbs now).

 The next day the kids came to the hospital to meet their baby sister.

 Lila was particularly taken with her.

 Aunt Janina took a turn holding her too!

 A friend of mine made this little hat for Piper. I got so many compliments on it! The nurses all thought it was the cutest thing.

 Here's a better picture of her dark hair.

Full body shot. The hospital dressed her in the candy cane socks and "Special Holiday Delivery" hat. There were six other babies born the same night as Piper.

 Here she is all snapped in and ready for the car ride home. She protested a little but didn't scream about the car seat the way my first two did.

Since we've been home, Lila has asked to hold Piper several times! She has also informed us on how to take care of her/what could be wrong when she cries. She is quite the helper and big sister! :)

Hopefully I will get back and post a few of my older updates... I seem to have time in the wee hours of the night right now :)

Christmas Program

On Lila's last day of preschool before Christmas break, they had a Christmas program in the morning. All of the classes sang some songs together, and then they showed a slideshow presentation. It lasted about 30 minutes.

Here Lila is coming onstage with her class. She was excited to get to sing on the big stage!

She got the biggest grin when she finally found us in the crowd.

She did a great job singing to all the songs, but didn't do any of the hand motions!

Here is a picture I took of her teacher, Mrs. Hedges.

Thanksgiving Feast

For Thanksgiving, Lila's preschool class had a Thanksgiving feast for lunch, and we were invited to join them. Each child brought a part of the feast (ham, turkey, cheese, fruit, rolls, etc.)

 Here Lila is standing next to her assigned seat.

Before we ate lunch, the kids recited a Thanksgiving poem, then said a prayer. The little boy sitting next to Lila is her best friend at school -- or as she calls him, "the one that I love."

Washing hands in the sink before we eat.

Here she is posing - eating a cheese cube. Not surprisingly, she was one of the last children to finish her lunch.

Here she is picking out a cookie. Lila was "assigned" the cookies. I made some sugar cookies, and I also made some Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies (I tried to make these gluten-free because there is one little girl in Lila's class who is allergic to gluten... but then I learned that my vanilla had gluten in it! Oh well!)

This was the best picture I could get of the two of them together. Wyatt ate his lunch seated in the stroller, but once he finished I let him out to go sit next to Lila.

In the Past Three Months...

These are some pictures I've taken in the past three months... not in any particular order.

 I fed Wyatt his first taste of peanut butter & jelly. He didn't gobble it down like I thought he might, but he did ok. However the next day when I asked him if he wanted another PB&J sandwich, he said "I no like it." So I haven't given him any more, but at least I know he's not allergic :)

 These are some cute cupcakes I made for Lila's preschool Fall Festival day. Unfortunately, she got sick the day before and couldn't go that day! We still took the cupcakes up to the school -- and we even got to go on our own personal hayride before we left (the preschool director and her husband, a pastor at the church, are SO nice and thoughtful!!) And of course, we enjoyed our own cupcakes at home :)

 Ben's parents came for a visit toward the end of October. I guess we were so busy having fun I didn't take any pictures until it was time for them to leave. It is always fun to take them to the airport where we can walk right out to their plane!

 Lila wanted to see what the inside was like.

The kids had all kinds of fun steering and pushing buttons. Grandpa Amey was still able to take off, so they must not have done anything too harmful :)

 In September, Lila started going to AWANA on Wednesday nights. This is a picture I took of her class playing games the first night. Ben usually goes with her most weeks.

 At the end of September we were also visited one evening by Ben's Uncle Bill and Aunt Angie. The kids were not shy at all! Here Uncle Bill is reading them a story.

This picture cracks me up! Lila is playing games on Aunt Janina's iPhone and Wyatt is on mine.

During Thanksgiving week (when Lila was off from school), Ben worked a half day one day and took Lila to work with him. She was so excited!! I packed her bag with some fun coloring books and crafts for her to work on, along with a snack. Ben said she did great, and he was actually able to get some work done too!

Halloween 2010

It has kind of become a little tradition for our family to dress up together for Halloween. One year we went on "safari"; the next year we were food mascots. This year we were Disney characters!

 We went over to some friend's house for dinner and trick-or-treating. Our very first guest was our pastor's little boy who came as a Praying Mantis!

 Here is our crew: Pinnochio, Cinderella, Woody from Toy Story and the House from Up! (which was a great costume for this pregnant lady!)

 We also had a family of Potato Heads in our group!

 Here's the whole gang who dressed up.

 And here we are from the back.

 I have to say, Wyatt was so cute as Pinnochio (yes, I am biased!). I was amazed that he kept his hat on while we were trick-or-treating. It did come off once we got back to the house. Notice Woody's pull string on Ben's back :)

Neither of them were shy about getting the candy! :)

2010 Texas State Fair

While my family was here, we all went to the Texas State Fair. It was warm (not too hot) and a lot of walking, but it was fun. We started the day at the Little Hands on the Farm exhibit that we've gone to before. This was Wyatt's first time participating in the exhibit.

 Aunt Janina and Wyatt being silly.

 This is Wyatt "feeding" the chickens some corn kernels.

 Of course, he thought it was just as fun to pick all the corn kernels up off the ground!

 Lila enjoyed doing all the farming activities too.

 Next we went to the petting zoo where they had farm animals and exotic animals. Here Lila is petting a baby kangaroo.

 Wyatt gets to see a zebra up close!

 Ben helps Wyatt put some animal feed on a shovel.

 Lila let the goats eat right out of her hand!

 Just a little proof that I was there too :)

 Next we went to a dog show where some Jack Russell terriers raced each other. It was a big hit!

 We also let the kids ride a couple carnival rides. Wyatt was tall enough to go on his own, but we didn't think that would be the best idea :)

So Daddy went with them on the airplane ride.

 

 Here they are waiting for the ride to start.

 Whee!

 Then we let the kids ride on the swings (which Lila had done before when she was Wyatt's age, so we figured he would love it.)

 They both thought it was fun!

 We had a few ride tickets left, so half of our group decided to ride the huge ferris wheel. Great-Grandma, Grandpa, Wyatt and I stayed on the ground.

 It's hard to see in this picture, but they were in the first green-colored car right after the purple cars (so kind of equal with the "T" on the ferris wheel.)

At the end of the day, I attempted to take a picture of me and Ben by holding out my arm... maybe I should have had Ben hold out his arm - we might have gotten more of our faces in the shot :)