rainy day activities

not like we've had much choice for sunny day activities since it has been pouring here for 25 days straight or something...


reading library books


playing with zebra

kitty, fish, singing

when we got home tonight,

-diedre said "kitty" about westley
-she said "fish" about the foam fish that are in her bath,
-she was singing along with the gift from aunt susan (its a Leap Frog Hug & Learn Globe) "three little friends set out to see just how big the world can be, looking high and looking low round and round and round we go. the world is round like a giant ball with lots of animals big and small." (well she was singing the tune and making some sounds like the words of the song)

and she furniture walked today quite a bit (for her, which is a little bit).

fun filled day

hanging out with uncle brent before heading to "Go Banana's" with the Mellengers & Hetzlers


it took awhile to get up the four rounded stairs to the little kids play area


loving hanging out in an offroad jeep


i think she looks like michelle's ellia here in this train


my brother and my nephew


back home, mezmerized by daddy

little talker

she already loves the phone. i tried to get a picture of her a moment before this one where she held the phone to her cheek and had her head slightly tilted and said "Da?" it was very cute!

diaper time

very little pot belly


playing with her tiny n' tuff cabriolet


oh dear, this is quite the shot...looks like she needs a remote control and a bag of chips or something...

Another Milestone: Standing. Our girl was holding onto an exersaucer yesterday, let go, was standing with no hands, then slowly lowered herself to the floor. it was really cute. derek tried to get her to walk, but i am not ready for that yet. my baby is growing too fast :*(

not so saavy

argh...i just figured out today that i had "moderate comments" on my blog since ummm november 6th!!! i checked the link that says "moderate comments" and there were about 25 comments waiting for approval. so to michelle, heather, mom, jessi, kelly, denise, the cari's, and any other commentors sorry about that. all your comments are up now. grrr, i guess i'm not as blog saavy as i once thought.

oh ya, another unsaavy thing i've done of late is a mass update on my blog (for all the christmas shots). i don't like doing such a huge amount of pics at once, but its for the grandparents mostly. i've been too busy to update every day, so then that leaves a bunch needing to be updated all at once. so i did a big update recently and discovered that blogger has tagged me as a spam blogger and i'm awaiting approval to be taken off their bad list. well, i guess the good thing is they are trying to catch spam bloggers!

jan 1 antics

sharing her love of reading with ringo. a cat with an enormous tail...well its the camera angle again (like big headed westley, michelle & ellia!)


i think diedre looks absolutely adorable when she tries to look under or inside something. here she is looking for a lost toy or perhaps a favorite kitty.

Happy New Year's eve :)

New Year's Eve Party.

david & diedre playing before bedtime


david, miles & diedre play with the garage


diedre is pulling up to standing up on everything now! she turned 10 months on boxing day and has been spending her days pulling up to standing, playing with books, chattering "duba duba duba" and she does this cute whispering thing too. she has been pointing to things to ask what they are and says "this" sometimes too. she rarely says "mum" unless she's upset and usually says "da or dad" when she sees derek.

derek and i feel so blessed when we look back on the past year. we are so thankful for our beautiful, intelligent, healthy daughter and for all our family and friends who have been able to visit from far away and near too.

Have a very Happy New Year!

new year's eve day

boring cheese (ya right! this girl looooves cheese). i just wanted to show you how her hair did this weird series of pasted on curls across her forehead. hee hee


quality time with dad & sparky


"oh sparky, you are so funny!"


derek is teaching diedre to feed sparky.


miles came over to play before the New Year's Eve party. here derek was using diedre to chase miles around.


she finally caught him!

more fun with grandparents

diedre got a fat lip :( she was leaning on her highchair and bumped her head on the foot rest and tumbled onto her face with her hands by her belly. it was sad. she is getting comforted by dolly here.


poppa playing with diedre's guitar


playing with the rooster at rocko's diner


grandpoppa playing animals with diedre

boxing day dinner

we hosted a boxing day turkey dinner at our house for andrew, heather and miles, and poppa & diane.


mellenger family cuddle


miles walking towards the camera


miles enjoying his new clothes from us


and playing with the circus truck from us


diedre trying to open up this gift bag from the mellenger grandparents


diedre opening from andrew & heather


its a cool "tuff n tiny" cabriolet car


the kids "sharing" their toys


poppa & miles enjoying a new truck


grandma diane with grandpoppa holding the kids

christmas dinner at susan & bruce's

time for christmas dinner!


opening a gift from susan & bruce


she loved to rip the paper and flap it around like a wing.


here she is playing with the new globe toy


my cousins kristy, juli, melissa and aunt susan

Merry Christmas!

some of diedre's gifts from us


our stockings were hung by the computer with care


diedre opening a gift from marsha (marsha asked if we'd taken any pictures of diedre opening presents and we realized we hadn't, only video, so i began right then & there!)


derek's new jacket from marsha...very slick


playing with her new dolly


noah's ark little people toy. she loves the little animals

derek got me some animals too: the willow tree nativity set! i have been wanting a nativity set for years. its is really nice. it comes with mary, joseph, jesus, one shepherd, 3 sheep and a donkey.

christmas eve.

diedre asleep on the way to the mellenger's christmas eve party at Richard & Bev's.


awake and ready to party. the outfit & toy are from grammy & grampa salmon. derek forgot what to call her new toy so he called it "Christmas Cookie Bear" rather than "Gingerbread Man." our family is so funny with nic names, that the gingerbread man already has two nic names: Ging & Christmas Cookie Bear.


diedre (10 months) & rowen mellenger-brown (8.5 months old, her mother is faith mellenger, my uncle richard's daughter)


diedre laughing it up with rowen's older two sisters, aiden (7 years old) & greer (5 years old)


the four girls together


diedre checking out aiden


just before leaving, alexa arrived with her two kids, danika (4 or 5 years old) & luke (1.5 years old)