Amity! How we LOVE thee! Let us count the ways!

So this is my beautiful little baby girl two years ago...


Isn't she so sweet?

And this is her now:

She turned 2 the other day, and we couldn't possibly love this girl more. She makes us so happy every day.

Mommy did a little decorating. Nothing too fancy.

And I just had to hang up all kinds of cute pictures of her, which she loved.

Her loving brother, Russell, drew her this picture for her birthday, and wrote the words himself without help. It says, "Happy birthday. To Amity From Russell." I just love the way preschoolers think about phonetics. H-a-"p" = Happy A-m-u-"d" = Amity. Forgot the "r" in "from" and used a "u". Completely makes sense, doesn't it? So sweet. I think I will save this one.

I just had to make a collage of her cheesy grins for the day. They make me laugh so hard.

A list of things that we love about Amity:

- She is such a wonderful combo of sweet, bubbly and feisty.

- When I (mom) say good night to her after tucking her in, I tell her that I love her, and she whispers, "I luv you," back to me in the sweetest little voice.

- How she greets her daddy every day when he gets home by running to him and yelling his name. She watches out the window for him.

- She loves her brother so much. I love it when she wakes up in the morning and starts to yell, "BROTHER!!!" from her crib. (She calls him brother a lot.)

- This girl toots all the time, and she thinks it is sooooo hilarious. We did NOT teach her that. We try really hard not to laugh about tooting in front of the kids...

- She is such a fast little runner. She and Russ race all the time. It is one of their favorite games to play together. (She has gotten checked into a wall or corner many times. It's kinda dangerous.) She escapes from us in church all the time, and before we can actually catch her she is out of the chapel, all the way down the hall, out one of the main doors, and on the sidewalk.

- I love her voice when she yells, "Hooray!" or "Wee-hoo!"

-Food is one of her greatest passions. Her grandpa teases that she is a hobbit because she needs a "second breakfast." She particularly loves sweets.
- How she jabbers and jabbers away on the phone with her grandparents.

- Her hair is always such a mess because she will never leave her ponytails or hairbows in for a whole day.

And so many more. We just cannot say them all.

We Love you, Amity!

Big life changes in 2012:

Well, 2012 is finally here. I can hardly believe it. Our little family is going to go through some drastic changes this year. It will be exciting and maybe challenging too.

-January: tons and tons of traveling, interviewing and shmoozing with lots of people we don't know to try to impress them.
-Feb. or March we find out where we will be going for Residency.
-April: baby number 3. A girl. No name yet.
-May: Travis officially graduates from medical school and can be referred to as "Dr. Moulton" by all his friends and family...and patients. Find a new place to live and start packing.
-June: Move away.
-July: Start residency. (Yay! A real pay check!) Ashley's 10 year class reunion. Hopefully she can make it. Can you believe it? 10 years?
-August/September: Russell starts Kindergarten, finally. I swear the kid has been 5 for three years.

Hopefully life will slow down after that...oh wait...then the holidays come again. This will be a busy year!



So Russell lost his first tooth a week or so ago. Yes, he is only 4. But he got his teeth really early, so I guess he is losing them early too. This is his natural concentrating posture, tongue hanging out and all. He is drawing a picture of his lost tooth. He hasn't added all the blood yet. Don't worry. He does later.


There it is. Daddy pulled it out because Mommy told Russ that if he didn't get it out soon he would probably accidentally swallow it in the middle of the night. (Russell didn't like that!)

And the gaping hole.

I know that these pictures are all backwards, but it takes too much time and energy to switch them around. We had our annual Ward New Year's party at Aunt Wendy's house.

Logan and Travis breaking it down.

Isn't my husband so cute?

I actually danced too, and afterward I started to yell, "My baby! I'm having my baby!" But no one believed me. I'll will say that booty shaking is a lot more difficult with a big old prego belly.

My neice, Ellie, reminds me of me when I was a kid. Love her.

My dear brother, Logan, with his amazing wife, Lexy.

This could have been a really poignant picture...sigh...

The funniest thing ever at our big New Year's bash: watching Darin beat Amy at the dance game.

My neice Alleyah. Amity's best friend/arch nemesis.

We love to play games at all of our family gatherings.

Christmas was spent half at the Moulton's and half at the Ward's. Those are the benefits of being a forever student. We still get really long Christmas breaks. Probably never again.

I love Amity's face in this one.

Amity and Russell exchange the gifts they got for each other

Gramma B. doesn't always let us take pictures of her. This is a keeper.

Amity reading her new "Potty" book and hopefully soaking in every wise word.

Amity wearing her beloved BYU jersey. (She asks to wear this a lot!) And this is a normal hair day for her after pulling out the pigtails that I so painstakingly put in her hair.

One of Travis's conehead mornings.

Amity watching a show with "Chedder.

Salt dough ornaments we made this year. Look at the concentration in her eyes.

And my sweet guy painting his ornament.

Well, that was our last month. (or at least what I took pictures of, since I'm not the best picture taker)

Bring it on, 2012! We are ready for you!