My Baby is One!

It was Charley's birthday on the 6th and she turned ONE!  I can't believe how quickly this last year has gone and how wonderful the adventure has been.  I never would have imagined that having a child could bring so much happiness.  This little girl is truly the light of our lives.  To say she is spoiled would be an understatement.  At least she is cute.  :)   For her birthday breakfast we made jungle animal shaped pancakes and she was in heaven!  We decided to take her to the little aquarium that is here in Boise.  It's nothing compared to the elaborate aquariums found near the ocean, but for a one year old it was pretty exciting.  She loved all the colorful fish and being able to pet the different sea creatures.  Aunt Taylor joined us for the fun.  

Dad found a sand box in the shape of a ship and fixed it up for her.

We celebrated her birthday on Easter and had all the family over.  If you haven't guessed it yet the theme was rainbow.  We had rainbow everything and did it in our back yard (which we barely finished in time)  She got a TON of gifts and loved ripping the paper off each one of them.  When it came time for the cake, she would only pick at it like a bird.  I wanted to get a good cake smash photo with her, but she would simply not dive in.

Since she is one, I think an update is due.  She started walking a few weeks before her birthday, and loves to dance and explore.  She likes to draw with chalk on the sidewalk, paint, and color.  She loves the outdoors and water.  She loves to play with her baby dolls and push them in her stroller.  She LoVes to read and learn new things.  She loves animals and knows different animal sounds; monkey, duck, cow, sheep.  It amazes me how quickly she is learning and how easily she picks things up.  We love our baby girl and are so happy to have her in our lives.  Happy Birthday to our little miracle!

Life is Brilliant.

 I love science, I always have.  As a young child I had a microscope, a telescope, a chemistry set, anything I could get my hands on that dealt with science.  I was fascinated by it, I still am.  I am a science major at Boise State and the further along I get in my undergraduate career, the more and more amazed I am at the sheer brilliance of life.  It is mind blowing that people of science can believe that we were formed by evolution alone, that there was, is, no divine hand that creates such perfectness in this world.  Today, while sitting in my Genetics class (which,by the way, was being filmed for NBC Dateline :D) learning more in depth about how each individual can be identified by a single cell containing their DNA, I couldn't help but think how incredible this is.  Really, who could argue that its not incredible?  But beyond that, sitting there I gained more of a testimony that God is real and that he has created all the beauty of this earth.  Everything fits together so perfectly.  From the differentiation of cells to create our perfect bodies to firing neurons creating our thoughts.  I often catch myself thinking about these things mechanically because its easier to understand them that way, but when I allow myself to really think about the way these things work I can't even comprehend how they could possibly create such outcomes as thinking, the intricate features of a baby, the movements of my fingers as I type this.. I know it is only possible through God, like everything else in this world.
 There are so many things to be grateful for, like the opportunity that I have to go and receive a college education (though it has taken me forever!) and to learn more about the marvelous things our Heavenly Father provides us.  I am so lucky to know where we have come from and to be able to sit in my classes knowing that there is a greater being that has perfectly created the awesomeness of the things that I learn about. That there is purpose to this life and it wasn't an accidental development.  I love being awed by this magnificent world.  There is beauty everywhere.  I have decided (again) to try to revamp our blog and to focus a little more on the beauty of life.  I am also coming around to the idea of using this as a way to reflect on my family's adventures and to help remind us of the beautiful life we've been given.  So to start, and I'm starting small, I am re-titling our blog.  Hopefully this will be more of an inspiration to keep me going on this.  :)

    In case you want to discover something new and exciting here is a link to one of my favorite sites...  Science Daily  Enjoy! :)