Sounds become words.....sort of!

So yesterday Aspen discovered the "d" sound and proceeded to start using it! This was Aspen all day yesterday, "da da da da goooo da goo da" and then by the time Malo got home from work she'd added "Da-deeee." Although I know in my head that she is just discovering sounds, it is very exciting and I maintain she's said her first work, daddy. So I'll just keep believing that! :) Then this morning, I hear her going "dadadadadad DAAAAAAAAAD!!!" I went in to get her and she was SITTING UP in her crib!!! Holy cow!!! So she's pulled herself to sitting in her crib now! It almost made me cry because she has had two BIG grown-up things happen two days in a row now. She's great! :) Then we went in and tried to wake daddy up and she sat next to him on our bed and started yelling, "Da Da Da!" and giving him hugs. Such a big girl! :-)

Big girl!

Aspen is starting to want to stand up and "walk" holding on to our fingers a lot lately! I'm not ready for that! But luckily she doesn't have the balance to stand by herself anywhere but on the couch....like in this picture!

She is still trying to crawl, but can't quite get it. She does scooch around and get where she wants to go, though....just no crawling yet.

She's also losing interest in baby food and wants grown up food. Yesterday I was eating a banana and she wanted some of it, so I let her take a bite off of it and she just wanted more....so I pulled out some babyfood pureed banana and she was NOT interested....she wanted to bite the banana bits OFF mommy's banana! She cracks me up. I love her so much....I love the way she copies our expressions and babbles and talks to us and tells us stories...I love the way she smiles at Daddy when he comes home. I love the way she hugs us....just slams her body forward into ours with her arms outstretched and a big smile on her face. And her kisses are priceless, granted a little disgusting because she's really just licking us, but she thinks she's giving kisses. I just can't believe how wonderful it is being her mom. She is doing something new almost everyday and she just makes life more meaningful. My baby girl is getting so big....

I love this little girl!

I know this is nothing new, but I love our daughter so much. She is in taking a nap right now and I just went and checked on her and was filled with this overwhelming love for her. She is so sweet, she has the most fun little personality, she is just the best! I feel so blessed to be her mommy and for my sweet husband to be her daddy. Here are just some pics of our wonderful little Aspen...

She has decided that she wants to feed herself now and she's awfully happy doing it!

But...

she never gets any food in her mouth....just all over her face, hair and of course, the kitchen

floor! So we still "help" her eat! She's so funny!

Malo built Aspen a toy box this weekend, and she wanted to get in and....JUMP!!! She is quite the jumper these days!

And here she is standing in her new toy box....

WE'VE GOT A COURT DATE!!!!!!

Ok, so I know I already posted today....and I was trying to be all positive and stuff....and I guess it worked!!! Our attorney just called and WE FINALLY HAVE A COURT DATE!!!!!! February 28th we will have Aspen's adoption finalized!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So be thinking of us that Thursday morning at 10:45!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!! YAY!!! YAY!!!! This is the BEST day!!! YAY!!!!!! Yay! Yay!!!!!

My birthday!

Here is my little family on my birthday yesterday. I don't know why I ever complain about anything. I am a very blessed person; I have the best hubby and the sweetest little girl, I have an amazing family and wonderful friends. I have nothing to complain about and I don't actually like to complain...so why do i do it? Because I am not very patient and when I get in my little mind that something should be done in a certain timeframe (oh, like an adoption!) I just get frustrated that things don't happen when *I* think they should. But, I shouldn't. I should just relax and enjoy my good life and count my blessings! :-) (See the cake Malo made and decorated for me?!?!? What a nice boy!)

Here is Aspen stealing a roll from the bread basket
at my birthday dinner last night. She is getting to be such a big girl. She is 7 1/2 months old now and doesn't she look so grown up sitting in a high chair reaching for food herself? She cracks me up. Its amazing to me how one little girl can bring so much joy and happiness into our lives. She has the greatest little personality and the sweetest smile that can melt away any frustrations. Yup, we love our little Aspen.

She has been trying to crawl for a couple of weeks now, its really funny. She gets up on all fours, belly off the ground, rocks back and forth and then usually has to put her hands in her mouth and then collapses. Its really funny!!

And then here is just a picture of me and my Malo. Isn't he the cutest ever??? :-) I had a good birthday yesterday....I'm now 29 and not too sure how I feel about being in the LAST year of my twenties.....ahhhhh!!! :-)

And my really wonderful, beautiful AWESOME friend, Keila came to visit a couple days ago. Keila is so cool. She played with Aspen - and Aspen thinks she's fan-tastic!


She also took me out for a lovely birthday pedicure - always a welcome treat for my tootsies and she took me to Carrabas for a birthday lunch. Thanks, Keila! :)

So so *SO* frustrated!

Ugh! I am SO frustrated with Aspen's adoption process...we got a letter from the judge in the mail on Monday saying there were some things that were not submitted in our file....funny thing is this letter was dated December 19....not mailed until January 11! AND....the court clerk told our attorney on Dec 21 that our file hadn't even been looked at and wouldn't be looked at for 2 or 3 more weeks....well, obviously they gave her wrong information!!! Anyway, so I called our attorney and she didn't received that same letter we got...why, you might ask? Because the court clerk thought we didn't have an attorney and so they sent it to us! Which is so interesting because the lawyer's name is everywhere on the paperwork. So....anyway, because the laws are different where Aspen was born and they have different paperwork than Colorado, the judge here went ahead and said we can't finalize without Colorado paperwork....so the attny has to put together MORE paperwork (which of course costs us a million and a half dollars per hour that she works) and submit it to the courts. So who knows how long that will take?!?! 5 more years?!! Aspen will probably be graduating from high school before her adoption is finalized....and sealed to us. It is so frustrating and I've been trying SO hard to be patient, I really have. But everytime I turn around, there is another hangup...another problem, another delay of some sort. UGH!!!! So anyway, I suppose I can be done venting now; its just so frustrating. If we adopt again, I'm doing everything myself so that I can know exactly what is going on and I won't have to depend on someone else to get things done!!! Poopy crap! (wow, I sound like I'm 5.....). And she is the GREATEST baby in the whole world (I may be a *little* biased!) and we just want everything to be official. I mean, I know she is our daughter and we are her parents....I just want it to be official. (This last part should be read with a very whiny, pathetic voice...because that's what I am feeling!)

Anyway, I'm done! Hope everyone else is having good days and no frustrations! Because i have enough that all my friends should be frustration free for at least a year! :-)

Snowshoeing....

Malo went snowboarding on Saturday without me...and I was sad, really sad. I didn't go at all last year because he was in Afghanistan and couldn't do anything fun and so I didn't feel like I should go do something fun that we've always enjoyed together without him.....now I wish I would've gone without him! But anyway, neither me or Aspen can snowboard right now, so we went snowshoeing. We went with my sister and my friend up to Rampart Reservoir and Aspen was SUCH a trooper!!! She LOVES being outside and she did a lot better than I thought she would. We actually were out for about 2 hours....a bit too long for Aspen, she got fussy on the way back, but she was fine. She is just such a trooper; I was super impressed with her! Here are some pics....

You can barely see her little eyes over the backpack! But she was ready to go!