Hard to believe it's almost the end of May!!! Our little girl is 1 year old! We have had so many milestones hit over the past couple months... She finally took her first steps - where? Arnie & Amanda's - where else? :) That's where she started crawling so I guess she wanted to start walking there too. She had only 2 teeth on the bottom for the longest time but all of a sudden she's got 4 on the bottom and 2 cut up top too. She's been a bit more fussy, possibly from her teeth coming in but we've also had a ton of issues with ear infections. They started in January and she's been on antibiotics since then pretty much steady because they keep coming back. Our pediatrician finally said we need to see an ENT specialist and probably need her to get tubes put in. I blame Dustin b/c he had them when he was little too. haha. We are hoping to get them in asap b/c it appears her body is used to the antibiotics and aren't as effective anymore. :( It's so hard not being able to make her feel better. Poor girl.

Despite her ear issues, she actually taking it all in stride. She's walking all over the place with those little push toys and occassionally is brave enough to walk away from them. She officially hates things on her head so that fun phase of obnoxious bows and hats is over. Tear falling... :) Sadie always puts a smile on Mia's face every morning when she sees her and every day when she gets home. They are slowly becoming best friends. Mia even throws the ball for Sadie now. And honestly, she actually THROWS it. Not far but enough so Sadie can chase it down.

Mia LOVES beef ravioli and CHEESE. Oh the cheese. What a treat. Just like Macy & Teagan - they all go crazy for cheese. And she's definitely loving her sippy cups finally. I'm thinking the bottles will be gone sooner than later - she never was a huge fan of bottles anyway. We still love to dance to any music we hear - Mia starts swaying and now she'll bop up and down standing up to the beat. She's got good beat! And I'm pretty sure daycare has started teaching them how to share - or maybe it was Macy that taught her. Who knows. All I can say is that she LOVES to share now. Everything she can get her hands on, she grabs and gives it to you. Then wants it back. Then shares it again... you get the idea. Over and over and over again. She is so proud of herself when we tell her "thank you!" - she just grins from ear to ear.

We put a seat on the back of Mommy's mountain bike for Mia and we go for fun bike rides now. Sadie is on the front in her basket and Mia is in the back. A full bike! Mia isn't a big fan of her helmet but Daddy says she HAS to wear it! We went for a bike ride a couple night ago and Mia fell asleep. Worked like a charm! And now that our grass has come in nicely (good job Daddy!) Mia has been introduced to it. And she's not the biggest fan. We're working with her on it but she doesn't like the feel of it. She'll try to crawl but tries to keep her fingers off the grass which is about impossible. It's kind of funny to watch - she doesn't think so though. haha :)

Here are some recent pics - plus some videos and pics from her 1st birthday party. Enjoy!

Fun at her birthday party!!!

Playing in the tub.

We had a birthday party for Mia and had lots of relatives and friends come over to celebrate with us! Mommy tried out her cake decorating skills and didn't do too shabby! She even made her own frosting - it was SUPER yummy!!!

Just can't resist...

Mia's 2 oldest cousins from each side - Brielle & Macy

This cake is pretty good!

2 cakes in one week? What a treat!

Mommy always tries to put stuff on my head but now that I'm older, I just pull it off when she turns her head!

Whoa!!! All these presents got me so excited I fell backwards!

Macy brought in Mia's red wagon - we LOVE our wagon!

Oh boy - Grandpa Dennis brought my Honda 50cc motorcycle he bought last year for me when I was born! This year I can actually sit on it and ride around the yard with Mommy or Daddy driving. We'll get some training wheels soon so I can ride myself. Better go helmet shopping! p.s. Note to Heather & Paul... better get Brielle one - she was pretty excited to see a REAL motorcycle! ;-)

Teagan showing Mia the ropes...

Our attempt at getting a picture of all the Halden grandkids. This is as good as it gets!

Mia loves dancing with her cousins!

Mia turned 1 year old on May 5th!!! It's amazing how quick one year can go by - they all say that but until you go through it, you just don't really get it. We started the day off with Mommy dressing Mia up in a cute little bling-bling outfit for daycare. She also wore an "I'm 1 today" ribbon and kept it on all day long! After school we went to the Governor's Inn in Cassleton to have pizza and cake with Uncle Arnie, Auntie Amanda and Macy & Teagan. Then came the big treat... the WATERPARK!!! The kids had so much fun - not as much fun as the adults though. :) They have a huge slide and everytime Mommy took Teagan down it, he signed "more" and we had to go down again.

I was super tired this morning at daycare!


Mommy made me a big cake but forgot to buy the frosting tips so my name got REALLY big!!!

Mia has learned how to share so she had to share her wonderful cake with Mommy!



Mmm... yuuuuummmmmyyyyy!!!!!

We got to surprise Grandma Diana in April for her 60th birthday party in Minot. It was a super fun time b/c Mia got to see all her relatives, especially her cousins Brielle, Lauren and Carston. She was quite the busy little girl at Paradiso - I think she and Carston were taking turns driving Mommy & Auntie Heather nutts!!!

Some 11 month pictures...

This is how she sleeps - butt in air!!!