What a summer!

Has flown by so fast!!! Seems impossible that we are already into August and starting to plan a precious little girl's first birthday party. A year already. Unbelievable. It's been such a wonderful summer so far. FULL!!! But wonderful. Among the amazing things are longer naps!!! Waving a lot, she says "uh-oh" all the time. Her first sentence, "No, Mommy" (figures!!) Crawling all over the place, pulling up and furniture walking, and just recently starting to let go and stand unsupported. In a big girl carseat-for a while now...just got really tall really fast! Lots of teething...and now EIGHT teeth! What a carnivore! Eating a lot of finger foods, gives great kisses and snuggles. Hugs her baby dolls and toys, claps during music or applause.

We were at Aunt Lacey's graduation from nursing school and Miss Mia was fast asleep on my shoulder. When everyone started applauding, she automatically woke up with a great big smile on her face and started clapping with everyone.

She rode her first ride at the OC Boardwalk with her Ayden and Levi-whom she just adores. She beats up on them a little bit, but she just loves to be around her boys. We're still working on the bullying bit.

Levi's 1st birthday celebration was that trip to the boardwalk. Really fun...

She asks to get down and lifts her hands up when she wants to be picked up. She had her first trip to the beach during our Baptism with Beacon. Mommy didn't bring her bathing suit because it was evening...but Miss Mia loves any kind of water so much that it really didn't matter...because she went right for the water anyway...She had to swim naked. She loves to swim at Grumpy and Grams pool and is truly a little fish. Still thinks the bath is a very happy place to be!

She had her first trip on the boat and loved it...another Bay Mouse in the family...life jacket and all...didn't bother her a bit. Fourth of July fireworks...it was a really nice night...but Mia wasn't crazy about them...not sure if it was the fireworks or just the extreme exhaustion that hit her by that time of night. She fell asleep on my shoulder in the middle of it all .

Here's the Fourth of July outfits Nee-nee and Pop-pop bought.

Besides smelling the flowers (scrunching her nose and sniffing) she now tells us what a lizard does (sticks her tongue in and out) and gives high fives. She be-bops to music now and loves to throw everything. The biggest challenge is usually meal times...no throwing food! We usually just put one piece of food on her tray at a time now. She boycotted baby food for a little while, but now she likes to help feed herself with the spoon. Most things are fun to do as long as they are her idea. You can make a suggestion, but she might not agree until she is the one that has th idea. WE definitely don't have a girly girl on our hands. Loves mud, dirt, grass, and grass stains, rocks, bugs, thinks ants are funny, and loves getting as dirty as humanly possible for a little person (which is pretty dirty). Not to mention crawling is just a dirty deal anyway. And she loves to climb on everything!!!

We've had lots of fun at Daddy's church softball games this summer and Mia loves to go to Illuminate-the Bible Study Daddy and Mommy lead with the 18-30 y.o.'s at our church. Daddy is doing such a good job with it!

She's helped us a lot packing up the house-she can now put things "in"...though her preference is still to take things "out"

Mia loves her new room (which looks a lot like her old one!) and loves her new house. More places to get into...more room for toys...we are still trying to get it all in order and probably will be for another 3 months!!

She loves to make cheesy faces for the camera now...we love it too.

Just three days ago we went to great adventure with Uncle Shawn, Kissy, Ayden, and Levi. Toby came too...no rides for Kissy. It was an amazing day...I don't think any of us knew what to expect from a long hot day in a busy amusement park with 3 kids 3 and under and an 8 month pregnant woman, but it couldn't have gone more smoothly and been more fun. It is official...I am a Mommy (and an Aunt)-I didn't ride a single rollercoaster all day (besides kiddie rides with Ayden) and I loved every minute. It was so much fun to see him having such a good time. And all of them were soooooo good. They took naps, ate good lunches...and it was just really awesome to spend time relaxing with Kristy and Shawn. Love you guys so much.

What an incredible blessing life has been since our little girl has showed up on the scene!

God has done a real work with our old house. We still own it-we have had a few people show interest and put contracts in, but for some reason, it never had worked out. Well, we know the reason now. There is a couple in our church who we recently found out needed a place. They had been renting a place, but were told they needed to find a new place because the people that owned the house they were renting needed to move back in. So they were left with a couple of months to move their lives and no where to go. God knew they were supposed to get our house. They are going to start leasing it from us starting today, and in the future they would like to pursue buying it. The house will be 20 miles closer to work for them both and much closer to church so they can get more involved. Such awesome people and we are really excited to have them in our neighborhood.

We are going to be leaving for Ohio on Thursday, because Shelly and Frederick are getting married (hooray!) and we can't wait to see the Hummel clan!

A couple weeks ago, Mia and I were in a car accident. COMPLETELY my fault! Just a fender bender and no one was even hurt. When I said "Oh, no!" Mia appropriately chimed in "uh-oh" and God knew I needed that laugh at that moment. It was a 16 year old girl with her permit on her way home from driving lessons....poor thing. I went over and apologized to her and tried to make sure she knew that it wasn't her fault at all and that she was a good driver, but she was so upset...I felt horrible. The police officers were soooo nice. I asked to make sure that the accident wouldn't show up on the girls record and he reassured her it wouldn't affect her getting her license in any way. The officer didn't even give me a ticket. Car got fixed and I have it back now. Everything (after the accident) went so smoothly. Hooray Geico! And praise God that no one was hurt at all.

Sorry no pic's of the house yet...still working on that. Love you all. Smooches from Mia.