AMelia tunred one, had her first Halloween and has started to walk. Her birthday was so much fun, especially because Heidi was here to share it with us. She got some wonderful toys and clothes. Thank you to everyone!

She was an angel for Halloween and was a total hit! Everyone was so surprised that she kept her halo on but she was so distracted with all the kids she didn't notice. Her favorite treat was definitly the ice cream sandwich she got at the zoo. She LOVED it!

Amelia took her first steps while Brad and I were on our first date in 10 months. Our friends called us and gave us the news. (Funny thing is, Brad did the same thing to his parents)! She has since then been able to take about 8 steps before tumbling to the floor. She is very strong but is still working on her balance.

Here is the latest with med school for those of you who don't know. Our fourth year will be spent in the following locations on 1 month clerkships aka interships:

June: Michigan

July: Ohio

August: South Bend, Indiana

Sept: Erie, PA

Oct: Month off for interviews, etc.

Nov: Tacoma, Wash

DEc: Clerkship with private practice doctor

January:Philidelphia, PA

Feb - May: Phoenix, AZ!!!! 

So I have another 6 months left with my husband till he is off to what I call "Medical War". He will ship out and if I'm lucky I can sneak in and visit him when he has time off. Some clerkships are easier than others and there may not be time to visit. I don't mean to sound all winey, sorry. I'm not really looking forward to it. I am still excited though! Brad is now working 40 hour weeks at the county hospitol and taking only one class now. Boring subjects like insurance and malpractice. Important subjects but very boring to a man who is loves biology.

I am happy to take care of the rest. My two "kids" got sick right before Thanksgiving with the 24 hour flu, although Amelia's was about 48 hours. SHe couldn't keep anything down. Needless to say, I cleaned up a lot! We spent Thanksgiving at the Marriot where the school provides a free meal to students and it was wonderful ( and no clean up)!!!!!!  My computer went back to Best BUy ( I would never recommend going to their geek squad)!!  I hope to have it back in a couple weeks.

Love to you all! Enjoy the new pics!

We finally have our computer back and I found my camera so all is well. Brad is busy busy busy. Amelia is content for now, until the next tooth comes in. She tried rhubarb (hoped I spelled that right) for the first time this week. I didn't think she would like but she loved it. She is helping us eat a strawberry and rhubard pie that we got at the farmers market. Tomorrow is an all girls day with some friends from a mothers group I'm in. We're headed to an outlet mall about an hour away and I can't wait. I hope Amelia will be able to sleep in her carrier and the car, or else I'm in deep trouble. I think she'll cooperate.

There are two pictures of the diaper I made for a woman in the ward whos son has a horrible skin condition and has to use cloth diapers. I had recently made Amelia an organic hemp diaper but she ended up being allergic to something in them. So I ordered some new materials on-line and decided to make one for her son.  I really enjoyed making it and it turned out better than I imagined. She was so grateful and told me if she liked them that she would order more from me and pay me for them! we'll see if the material is good enough and if she likes them. I am making a bamboo fleece one right now for Amelia. It is so soft, I hope it stays that way.

AMelia hasn't been gaining weight again, so I am laying on the formula to see if that helps. She is 16 pounds now (on a full stomach). I'm not really sure if there is much more to say other than we can't wait to see Heidi and for her to meet her niece! We also can't wait to see Grandma and Grandpa in a couple weeks in Tahoe! Hope the weather cooperates. It is so cold here, we had a low in the 30s a couple nights ago! We're lucky if our highs reach the 70s!

Oh, I almost forgot. It is hard to explain the last two years of med school. But we found out we will be spending our 4 month core in...Phoenix! Starting Feb 1st to May 20something Brad will be working at a VA there preparing for our residency. We will be applying to other clerkships next month and we're keeping our fingers crossed for the ones we really want (Virginia, Washington, RI, CT, PA, IN, and MI to name a few). These will begin in May of next year. For now he is going to be in state and taking more classes on fun things like fungi, bacterial infections and more importantly-surgery!

As of July 19th Amelia has started crawling!  I love it! She can get to things she wants but I have to be very careful of what she finds as many of you mothers know! I will be really excited when she can crawl and go back to sitting on her bum, she has yet to figure that out so I still have to help out a bit.  She had her InfantSEE eye exam and everything looked great, she was an angel.  She didn't even flinch when the doc put in the eye drops! This girl is way to easy going!  She is now 15 pounds and still has a bottomless pit for a stomach.  I buy more baby food than adult food now! We are giving her some table food and she loves it, it comes from our plates so why wouldn't she?!  Which leads me to the poll I posted.  Her favorite food right now is...bread.  She loves it, even home made bread with butter!  Seriously, the Doc. told me to put butter, cream, fomula etc. in her foods to help her gain weight.  She does like all the other foods in the poll too, in fact string cheese is a close second!

Brad's boards are OVER! I couldn't be happier!  We went camping to celebrate at a State Park.  It was super fun and no bug bites! Don't ask how he did, we won't find out for another month.  Clinic is going really well and he gets compliments from his patients all the time!  He is taking a "scrub class" right now. Sounds easy, it's not!  "Scrubbing in" for sugery is pretty complicated as far as keeping things sterile, learning how to get dressed, etc.  After this class, he will be allowed into the O.R. -very very very exciting! He practices his stitch knots all the time (I didn't even know there were different kinds of knots for stitches! Which he enjoys because he used to cross-stitch (no time for that now-a-days).  Needless to say, he is positive this is what he wants to do for a living.

Brad and I have picked up the guitare for some "couple time" in the evenings.  We play really poorly for each other and we love it! I wouldn't say it's a talent of mine but I still enjoy it. During the day Amelia likes to bang on the strings too, I'll have to get a pic of that.  We still get to go for bike rides now and then when the weather isn't too hot. 

Some of you know that our dear beloved Aunt Mable has passed on.  This strong woman is who Amelia is named after and she will be deeply missed.  Our hearts go out to the Jennings/Taylor side of the family during this time.  We love you Aunt Mable and will think of you when we look at our beauitful daughter!

Lots of Love from Brad, Brittany, and the light of our lives, Lila (pronounced Leela).

It is July 1st and I am going to add a another entry. I have to admit that I am loving motherhood.  What a doll this girl is, how did I get so lucky????  She has slowed down her weight gain again but after a good stretch she is almost 14 pounds!  I put up a poll to see if people can guess what her favorite food is right now.  In a month or so, I will post the answer.  She has turned into a bottomless pit!  SHe just eats and eats and eats.  I can give her 8 oz of solids and she will still nurse afterwards.  She eats 3 meals a day with milk for dessert and nurses again inbetween meals. We are using cloth diapers again and I really like them. So if anyone has questions I will be happy to answer.  I would recommend them to anyone and I am happy to share my favorite kinds! She scoots backwards on her tummy and on her back.  No forward movement except that she goes from sitting to up to on all fours but doesn't go anywhere yet. Maybe in another month she'll be crawling?

As far as this mama goes, I have gotten her scrapbook done up to 4 months!  I am so proud. I am having fun doing a deep cleaning of the house after a great garage sale a couple weeks ago.  I painted the dining room and am making jewelry inbetween everything else.  I just got these beautiful aqua marine beads that I love!  I am now in Young Womans at church but I have to admit that I miss Primary.  I also started an informal mother's group and am having fun putting together play dates every couple weeks.

Brad is acrazy busy studying for the boards.  They are on the 11th so everyone please keep him in your prayers.  He will do fine but he is as stressed out as my hair after a good chemical treatment.  On a better note, he has started clinic and LOVES it!  He has been cutting toe nails, shaving calluses, making molds for orthodics and taking out stitches (to name a few).  He works about 25 hours a week at the clinic by his school, at a Veteran Hospitol, and an office in Boone (about an hour from here). He loves the doctor he works with too. On top of the 25 hours in clinic, he studies about 40 hours a week but that should let up when boards are over.

We're planning another camping trip this month and hoping to get out to Tahoe in August-we'll see.

This was a long one, hope you made it to the end without falling asleep.  Love you!