Weekend with Auntie Julia

This past weekend, Auntie Julia came to stay with us and hang out with Della. Needless to say, we were busy having fun :) On Thursday night, we hosted our couples small group Thanksgiving dinner and Julia made her infamous pumpkin roll- this time with walnuts and it was her best yet! Friday night we laid low and stayed home and watched a couple movies. It was wonderful. Saturday night we finished her stay off with a murder myster dinner where her character was Snow White, mine was Schehereazade from 1001 Arabian Nights and Derek was Sherlock Holmes. It was a lot of fun and everyone who came had great costumes (my friend's album is on Facebook and I am tagged in it).

Della is learning more and more each day and continues to amaze us at how fast she keeps developing! She responds to instructions and loves to help clean up her toys when we are done playing. This afternoon, we were playing fetch with Dutch and I would throw his toy for him to get which she thinks is great. I told her to throw the toy for Dutch and as she could not throw very far, she walked the toy clear across the lawn to where I was throwing and waited for him to come get it. Now that is a creative solution!

Tomorrow Saxon arrives and will be here on Thanksgiving. Joy and Charles will also come up from Santa Maria on Thursday. I am really looking forward to family coming into town, especially as well have family to share our Thanksgiving with!!

Here are some photos and videos from recent weeks and adventures.

http://youtu.be/xK6WlwaEwnM

Lately

So here is what has been going on lately...
Della is still busy running around, climbing onto things, playing outside, and jabbering all the time. Every day, Della and I go to get the mail which is a little ways down the road and along the way, she picks up "treasures" which are rocks, pinecones etc. She normally grabs at least 3 and will put a lot of effort into carrying them all at once. She will stop a few times along the way to put them down and rearrange them in her arms. It turns into quite the ordeal and she is never very happy when I make her put them back along the way (as they belong to the neighbors). She has been making new animal noises too. She can tell you what a snake says (sssssth), a lion (rawr), an owl (whooo whoo), a cow (Boooo), a kitty cat (whyy whyyy) and a doggy (fwoof fwoof). Her favorite words are Dutchie, Daddy, Mama, No no, and shoe shoe. She has started repeating what we say and tries to make an attempt.

She has started developing a personality and is very quick to laugh. This weekend, we got Della some sidewalk chalk so she has been coloring our patio. She likes to color with her crayons and markers when they make it to the paper rather than her mouth.

Even though every warned us it would fly by, both Derek and I are having a hard time believing how big she is getting and how each day she looks a little taller and learns a little more. It's going FAST!

Tough Mudder

Busy weekends

Della's first boat ride

Della had her first boat ride last Saturday on our friends' boat (Shane and Jackie). She loved it and even took a little nap. I thought for sure the life jacket would bother her but she didn't once complain. I guess boating must run in the family :) Next step, wakeboarding.

Ol' bucket head

Busy girl!

Della at 1 year!