Hello, everyone!

Wow!  It’s been awhile!  Sorry for the delay—parenthood is really keeping us busy…especially now that Ariel is crawling!  She is now 9 months old, nearly 19 lbs, and has four teeth. 

She began crawling on March 17, so she is quite the master now & beginning to climb on furniture & cruise from one piece of furniture to another.  We think she may be walking before she turns a year old.  We’ll keep you posted on that big milestone of course!

And speaking of safety....we've had to install a safety gate to keep little miss curious out of the kitchen!   She's into everything these days!  She LOVES a big pile of laundry, and you really have to be quick to get all the folded clothes put up before she unfolds everything again!

 She has her two middle bottom teeth, and the two lateral incisor teeth on top (beside where the two front teeth should be).  So cute!  It definitely makes for tiring nights though because the teething causes her to wake up at least once during the night.  We look forward to the days where she sleeps through the night again, but not sure if that will be happening any time soon! 

She sleeps a lot less than most babies we know of—about 2 hours of daytime naps & only 9-10 hours at night!  She’s just full of energy & always smiling. J  It seems like Zada is the only one that gets any good sleep these days!!

And she loves music--David plays guitar for her a lot, and she wants to "play" too, so we'll put it on the floor for her to strum.  Her Grandma Ginny is always dancing with her, so she just starts moving when she hears music & her left foot taps away!  :)  

She's developing such a silly personality too--always playing jokes & teasing.  She plays "peek-a-boo" with the curtains, and gets a kick out of offering her bottle to Daddy. ;)  

Of course, she wears out her Grandpa Alan everytime!  So full of energy!!

She has a lot of little friends too.  She sees my friend, Maria, & her daughter, Olivia, the most--about once a week.  The girls have so much fun on their playdates!   

 Here's a photo of Ariel with Hannah & Rachel, David's boss's girls. 

Ariel had a lot of fun on Easter.  She received lots of gifts, and we spent the afternoon in Mountain Home at David’s grandparents’ home.  Jordan (Ariel’s third cousin—age 7) & Malea (friend of the family—age 8) were there, and Ariel enjoyed seeing them play.  Malea got Nathan a kitten for Easter, so that was another fun thing for Ariel to experience.  She loves kitties! 

We visited Mountain Home again for Laurice's birthday (David's grandma).  It was a windy day, but we got some cute photos outside anyway.

 David &  I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary on April 28.  We spent two days in Hailey, Idaho, while my parents & sister took care of Ariel.  It was a much needed trip to relax & rejuvenate, but I cried the first night because I missed my little sweet pea.  Here's a photo of us enjoying a casual dinner of fish & chips and some ice cold beers. 

 We've also done some work on our garden this month.  Here are some photos of our progress.  We've cleared out the planter boxes & put up a retaining wall to plant bushes eventually.  We've got a lot of work to do, but it's getting there....

We are looking forward to Mother’s Day this weekend.  I’m going to be spending Saturday with my mom & sister, and then Sunday we’ll be going to Mountain Home with David’s family.  Happy early Mother’s Day to all the moms reading this! 

In other news, Angie is doing much better.  She will be going back to work next week, starting off only 20 hours a week until she gets used to the routine again.  Her blood pressure medication had to be adjusted as it was causing her blood pressure to be too low.  The artery seems to be healing in her neck based on the CAT scan that was done recently.  She still has to have her kidneys examined this summer after the blood thinners are no longer needed.  It’s good to have her pretty much back to normal.  She’ll be moving back into her own apartment next week as well.  Mom will be returning to work too since Angie no longer needs the 24-hour care. 

On a sad note, Mom & Alan lost their dog, Greta, over the weekend.  They are still grieving her loss.  She’s been with them for nearly 10 years; she was about 16 years old.  They graciously gave her old dog house, some toys & food to David’s family dog, Conway.  Greta will surely be missed; she was a great dog.

 We hope you are all doing well & enjoy our photos.  Love to you all!