The 3 Ladies at Easter Mass

Trader Joe's Shopper in Training

(Multi-tasking with the balloon in one hand and the cart in the other!)

Taking Hello Kitty for a walk

Mom, Amaya, and I had an eventful Easter weekend. With the sale of the house, we are now in the hunt for an apartment...I was shocked to find out how expensive furnished apartments are! We hopefully found a place that will take us animals and all. The girls enjoyed the weekend together as the rest of the family was out-of-state for one reason or another. We had a great time shopping, walking the parks (as you can see, Amaya decided not to just walk Kasey, she also decided to walk her Hello Kitty around the house) and dinner at PF Changs (gotta love their GF menu). Amaya finally had her 1 year pictures taken and the kid wouldn't sit still long enough for a picture. She was too busy chatting and running over to the prop box to kiss all of the stuffed animals (too cute!) Overall, we are all doing fabulously well. Everything seems to be falling into place.

The Countdown Has Begun!

Michael's Promotion Ceremony

Amaya's 1st Ride

She wanted to steer-just like she does in Grandpa's car

Amaya in San Antonio trying to put on her sun glasses

Amaya, Panama, and Meg jumping on the trampoline

We have been in a constant whirlwind the past two-weeks. We put our home on the market, had the fabulous Myra & Jodie visit, found out Kasey (my doggie baby) has diabetes, flew to San Antonio to watch Michael be promoted (Yippee!!!), and got a contract on the house...all in less than two weeks!

We are so happy with all we have been blessed with and I am trying to slow down, take a breath, and enjoy the moments as they come. I have a new found respect for single parents-Amaya and I are so lucky to have my momma here to be a momma =) I was also so fortunate to have Jodie and Myra visit when they did-Michael had just left, we had our first showing (The people loved it so much...they wrote up an offer-I hope I am not jinxing myself by writing this...), and it was just plain crazy at our house. They were here to talk, walk, and have a great glass of wine with me =)

Amaya is getting even better with age! She is absolutley the best thing ever!!! She is a little comedian-who loves making others laugh with her weird sounds, funny faces, and new words. Today she was saying, "Peek-a-boo" while running and hiding behind the walls. So much fun!!!

San Antonio was a blast. There is a little bakery called "The Little Aussie Cafe." I had bread for the first time since August. It was a wonderful little place. We loved the riverwalk, the food, the shopping, and the people. I am looking forward to our next visit.

Loving Life!

I love Amaya in her piggy tails!!!

She loves loving on her teddy bear!

I know I am biased, but isn't she just the cutest!!!

Well the whirlwind has truly begun. Michael is headed off in 3 weeks and will return for only about a week before heading off to Germany in June. We are still thrilled, we just did not anticipate it all happening so soon...our new family motto has become, "That's Life" (of course we say it happily). So we have spent the past several days running from place to place on-base trying to figure out where to even begin. Michael spent all of Friday laughing because he was so excited to finally have me see what he has been dealing with for years. It was a fun filled day of passports, POA's, account transfers, transportation offices, flight scheduling, and doctor's visits...and I still don't think we got a single thing accomplished. I tried to make myself feel better by saying, "We empowered ourselves with knowledge." =) The knowledge that we really have no clue what we are doing!

Amaya continues to be our ray of light through all of this insanity. She is now walking more than she is crawling. In fact, now that I think about it...I don't think I saw her crawl at all today (granted, I was at work for most of the day-we are now going 30 minutes longer to make-up for our snow days). She is teething like crazy-she still only has two full teeth. Some how she manages to eat all things put in front of her, and some things that are not-like Lani's cat food. Yuck!!! She likes it though...she races straight for it as soon as I put it out. It makes me gag =) Maybe she does it just to see me racing across the room after her making gagging noises...she always laughs when she sees me coming.

Overall we are all well, and happy. We are booking up the Cleveland haus (yes, my German tutoring is paying off). We would love to have you all come to visit =)

Germany...Here We Come!

Amaya walking with her bunny ears on...isn't she just the cutest!

(This picture has nothing to do with Germany...but it was so cute)

Hello All =) In the craziness of this week-we got news that Michael has passed the NCLEX (Nursing Boards) and that we are officially going to Germany! Of course we are thrilled, but we also found out that Michael will be headed of to training in Texas and will only have a couple days back at home before he has to report in Germany. So, we are running around like crazy trying to get things in order...too bad we really don't know what the heck we are doing. One way or another it will all fall into place-a good glass of wine helps to make the reality a little easier...here's to you my fellow wine lovers. Michael and I are already filling up our calendar with visitors' requests-we would love to have friends and family come and stay. Just let us know! Michael will be there in June, we plan on joining him the end of July/early August. We hate to be apart especially with Amaya growing leaps and bounds daily-Michael really dreads the thought of missing out on anything...that is part of what makes him so wonderful =) (Yes, Amaya and I are two lucky ladies) I will continue to keep you posted...

Birthday Girl!

Our precious baby girl turned ONE!!! We are now the parents of a toddler...she continues to be the best gift ever! Everyday she accomplishes something new and we are amazed. Amaya had a very special 1st birthday party. It was wonderful to have our family here to celebrate. Amayacontinues to follow Panama around and try everything she does. Amaya had a special doggiecake-Panama got one too. The cake experience was not nearly as dramatic as we imagined it would be...Amaya ate a tiny bit of frosting and did not care for the cake part. We had a blast at the JumpZone...Panama is a fabulous climber! Amaya had a great time opening her gifts-she quickly learned how to climb and slide on her new swingset. Overall it was a splendid way to kick off year # 2!

Walking Lady

Amaya took a face plant in the snow =) She didn't seem to mind-she loves the outdoors!

Still walking around the neighborhood, even in the snow...

Isn't she pretty!!!

It has been an exciting couple weeks...lots of snow. Well, for Nashville =) We had several more inches on Monday night, which meant I got two more snow days to enjoy with my family. Amaya stared really walking on Michael's birthday (it was better than any present I could have gotten him). It is so much fun to see her grow!

Play in the Snow Day

Well we had our first big snow here-well at least in the past 10 years Michael has been here. It was so much fun dragging Amaya around on our homemade sled (top with shoe strings). She had a lot of fun as did Mommy and Daddy. Grandpa got into the action by building a German town-no kidding-check out his blog =)

http://olehere-olethere.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html#8383322374750687398

--Amaya took her first solo steps today =) She is a very cautious little lady.

Amaya and Panama love playing. Amaya follows her everywhere. Panama is sure one smart little lady. Shas taught Amaya how to push her around =)