rebekah turns one

In February (yes, over a month ago), Rebekah turned a year old!  We're finally getting around to posting pictures of her big day.

We were fortunate to have several guests join us for our celebration.  Kristin's parents came from Kansas, Nathan's brother and his family came from Oklahoma, a few friends from church dropped by, and Kristin's sister skyped in from Nebraska.

Rebekah particularly enjoyed having a friend from the church nursery over to play. 

We did a little photo shoot of Rebekah with her newborn photo.  She's grown up so much in just one year!

She likes wearing a mixing bowl for a hat...she's her mother's daughter.

Kristin made homemade whoopie pies for dessert.  Rebekah smiled when everybody sang and when Mom and Dad helped her blow out her candle.

We didn't know whether she'd throw the whoopie pie on the floor or give it a try...she decided to be adventurous and just stuck it in her mouth.

At first she was very serious about it...several bites in and not one smile.

In the end, though, it was a winner!  She loved her first taste of chocolate.  She ate about 3/4 of the whoopie pie before looking at us and saying "all done!"

After whoopie pies, she got to open a few presents.  A friend from church handmade her an adorable elephant.

Mom and Dad got her a doll - her very first one!

The only downside to the party was the adult cake.  Kristin had envisioned a giant whoopie pie with three layers of chocolate cake, two layers of marshmallow filling, and chocolate ganache covering the top.  Once we constructed it, however, the whole thing just went sliding.  Fortunately, it tasted amazing.

The whole family on Rebekah's first birthday...

To cap off the night, Rebekah and Daddy did what they do every night - read the Bible.

january snow and smiles

It's been a while since we've posted for a very good reason...I've been working on my dissertation.  I've worked during every nap that Rebekah takes, just about every evening, and all day every Saturday while Nathan watched Rebekah.  The only days that I didn't work were Sundays.  I figure that God knew what He was doing when He made the sabbath a day of rest, and I didn't argue.  All that work finally paid off this week...

It's done!  I mailed the final, revised copy to my major professor on Monday.  So now we wait for my committee to review it.  Prayers are much appreciated that they will accept it for graduation without any additional major revisions.

We celebrated with cupcakes and a bottle of sparkling wine.  Then I cleaned out the fridge.  It's so nice to have the time to clean my house again!

So now that I'm done, I'm trying to get caught up on blogs, photos, scrapbooking, and everything else.  Here's what we missed telling you about in January...

 

Rebekah went through a "hat" phase.  She loved signing the word "hat" and saying it (she articulated it very well).  And, she loved turning any object she could find into a hat.  Above, she is wearing a banana hat. 

We also went through a period of time where she learned to pull up but then couldn't figure out how to get down.  This led to a week of no sleep for anyone.  She would pull up in her crib and then stand and cry until we came to rescue her.  Then, the minute we did, she'd pull up again.  Finally, she just wore herself out so much that she fell asleep before she could even lay down!

We had some beautiful snow in January!  It was a wonderful surprise to wake up to a winter wonderland.  I ran outside in my pajamas in order to snap this picture of our house covered in snow.  I'm glad I did - the snow all melted by lunch!

Our little gangsta' really enjoys bath times with Daddy.  And he enjoys giving her new hair styles.

We went on a lovely date to a nearby park.  We'd been having trouble thinking of date ideas recently.  We're trying to save up money to hopefully be able to go to California in June for my graduation.  As a result, we've budgeted out things like movies, restaurants, and child care.  We got creative, though.  We headed to Costco for some frozen yogurt (under $3 for the two of us) and then went to a nearby park for a walk. 

While there, we took Rebekah to feed the ducks.

We showed her how to toss the bread to the ducks.  Then we gave her some bread to throw, but she ended up eating it instead.  Silly girl.