Lately, it seems like our much loved daughter has more cranky moments than sweet, we are telling ourselves that it is surely related to age and something she will grow out of...hopefully soon! Anyway, as hard as those "testing" moments are, when I captured this beautiful face, I was reminded of just how much joy this little girl brings to our family, even on the most difficult of days. 
A week ago last Saturday, our family went to the Portland Oregon Temple and served by working in the flowerbeds. I serve in the Young Women's program at church and it was actually a youth activity, but I decided it would be fun if Matthew and Amelia came along too, as a family service project.
Amelia was amazing, she loved every second as we pulled out old tulip bulbs and flowers, and tied up the daffodil leaves, she giggled as she moved the rubber bands far away from my reach.
Amelia can run so fast these days, I could hardly keep up as she ran towards to next gardening job by the flagpole.
We had two wards working together, it was surprising how fast the time flew by and we achieved a lot.
I went with one of the Temple gardeners to drop off the old flowers, and to my surprise saw a coyote, it was beautiful, reddish brown in colour, it ran down the hill as we arrived and watched us carefully from the bottom of a hill, as it stood behind the trees. Apparently there was also a small snake behind me, when the lady I was with mentioned it, I screamed and jumped back a mile, she thought it was hilarious that I wasn't at all scared to see a coyote, but was petrified of a little snake, who wouldn't harm me.
Matthew was the master sweeper.
Afterwards, I snapped a few shots of Amelia by some of the flowers that remained and we enjoyed a short devotional given by the head gardener. He talked about how the Temple was a protected environment and likened that to how we as individuals are protected by family and friends in the gospel, and how important it is that we each establish firm roots in the Gospel, it was really a great message not only to the youth but to all of us.
It was such an amazing morning, the weather was beautiful and even though we were working, you could still feel the peacefulness of the Temple grounds.
How lucky we are to have a Temple so close, and what a great service to do as a family. I can't wait to go back.
We have had beautiful weather during the last few days, in the 70's. It has been lovely and just makes me so happy. Most evenings Amelia has played outside in the back garden. On Friday evening, I had my camera handy to snap photo's of our little girl enjoying the sunshine.
Looking for Ladybirds...
I am so thankful to be able to capture and share all of these special moments as our little girl grows up. 
A little while ago, a good friend of mine very generously gave us a child's play kitchen. It had been sat in our garage waiting to be dusted off, so finally a couple of weeks ago, on a warm sunny day, I pulled it out and Amelia helped me clean it up. It came fully equipped with "Stainless Steel" appliances, including a microwave that beeps, pots, pans and utensils galore. 
She loves to bring us food on the cute little plates, washes up her dishes in her perfect little sink and even wipes down her counters when I'm doing mine.
Here she is taking a drink to daddy.
It's just the cutest thing!
Best of all, Matthew and I even got to sleep in until 8 o'clock last Saturday morning, because Amelia wanted to play with her kitchen as soon as she woke up - fantastic!
At Amelia's daycare, there are a couple of home-made stepping stones that she just loves. Every night as we walk out of the house, she places her hands in each of the hand prints in the stepping stones. I promised her that we would make one. Last weekend, the weather just happened to be perfect for creating such a crafty item.
Amelia helped with every "step". First we added water to the concrete powder and mixed it really well. After pouring it into the mold, daddy helped us to make the concrete nice and smooth, then it was time for the fun to begin. 
First, we made one little hand print...
Then a second little hand print.
Then we added glass beads for colour. You might notice that at the top, there is a white bead that barely shows, that was our girl's first attempt, she pushed it in a little too far, but hey, that's just another memory, right? We (ok, I) thought of something for each colour to represent, blue for the colour of Amelia's eyes, orange - her favourite colour, green - daddy's Celtics, of course, red - the love we have for one another.
The only thing left to do, was to stamp her name in it along with a cute little flower for decoration. It turned out so well, and we all had a lovely time making it together.
After all that hard work, it was time to play on the slide...
I love spending time with my family!
