The BIG 1!!

Well it has definitely been too long since I have posted anything on our blog and a lot has happened.

* Most of you know that we made a journey to Las Vegas, NV almost 3 months ago where Danny now serves as one of the three "Regional Campus Pastors" at Central Christian Church. God definitely made it clear to us that this is where he wants us to serve for now and we couldn't be anymore happier. It was hard to leave our family and hard to come home and leave again around the holidays but God is doing some awesome things our here is Vegas and we are so excited to be a part of it. Everything that we prayed for in a church we got so we are very thankful that the Lord answers prayers!

* Secondly today is Maddie's 1st birthday!!!! I just cannot believe that it has already been a year. Time really has flown by and while it's sad to think of our little baby becoming a toddler, it has been the best year of our life. She brings us more joy than we could ever imagine. I just love every new stage. Every laugh, every cry, every hug, and every kiss!

We got to celebrate her first birthday party last Saturday after Thanksgiving. I am so thankful for all of our friends and family who love Maddie and were able to come and celebrate. We had a great time. She was a little fussy considering the time change and no morning nap but she did pretty good if you ask me. Of course we forgot our camera (the most important item to have) so I'll have to get pictures from my mom and post some.

We also got to see and hang out with Kingston and Theresa a bit. I wish it could have been longer but it was fun to see the two crazy walking babies play together. The last time the were together neither one was walking yet so it was fun to watch them. I think they mostly crawled up and down the stairs the whole time while Kingston "love patted" Maddie's head. They were too funny.

It is so fun to see Maddie's little personality come to life even more. She used to be so much like her daddy and very even keeled but things have changed and she is now like her momma! She is CRAZY and I don't mean like normal 1 yr old crazy, I mean she is a WILD WOMEN! She is sooo busy and into everything and if she doesn't get what she wants she already throws herself a little tantrum. If only I knew where she learned that from! ;) She loves to talk and hates to sit still. What a great combination!!! She would climb up our whole food pantry if I would let her. This girl can destroy our house in less than a minute but she is also the sweetest most lovable little girl I know. She loves giving and blowing kisses, waving to every person she sees, playing with her daddy and scaring him, and snuggling! Snuggling with her just makes everything so much better. I just know she is going to be a daddy's girl and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Maddie is up to 9 words now. She can say momma, daddy, papa, doggie, kitty, pretty, bye bye, baby and hi. Some people may argue but a mom knows what her child is saying. She is also officially on cows milk! YAY! We are still working on drinking out of sippy cups instead of bottles but this process may take a little while. She can also now eat just about everything we eat. Her favorites are peas, chicken nuggets, and any kind of pasta. She loves baby dolls and balls. She gets really excited when we go down the toy section in target and sees a baby. She'll start saying "ooooooh oooooh baby" and point.

Well hopefully I can get some pictures of Vegas and Maddie's first birthday up soon.

I know The Dyer's are much overdue for a new post so I apologize! We have been super busy this summer.

Lets see, in July my sister and sister-in-law both had their baby within four days of each other and Rachel Camp was right in the middle too! That was a pretty hectic few weeks for us all the while interviewing with a church in Las Vegas and getting a job offer from another church in St. Louis. With much prayer we felt that God was leading us to leave our home in Kansas City and move across the country to Fabulous Las Vegas. Now let me tell you that it took the work of the Lord to convince me that we should turn down a perfectly good job that is close to friends and family and accept a job in the dessert! There was no way I was going to move that far away from my family and friends to a place I knew nothing about! God has been so good and faithful to us in this new season of our life. As many of you know Danny did accept the job at awonderful church in Henderson, NV just 15 minutes east of the Las Vegas Strip. We couldn't be more thrilled to be apart of such a Grace filled church. God answered my prayer and we couldn't be more happy. Everything has just worked out perfectly and we know without a doubt this is the right decision.

So for the two weeks we have been up early and working late into the night. Word of advice, don't buy a fixer upper if you can't afford to pay someone to do some of the work :) (unless you are the Camp's and can do anything)! We have worked so hard and all of our work has clearly payed off. Our Realtors were pretty impressed with the amount of work we got done in such a short time but we can't take all the credit. Our family has been such a wonderful help! They have worked so hard helping us get our house together. We could not have done any of it without them! Thanks guys for all your work.

Now with a finished, clean and clutter free house we are kind of enjoying it! Isn't that how it always goes...lol! We have been working on our house for 4 years and now it's finally done just in time to sell. Oh well, I'm happy to let someone else love and enjoy this house. I really am going to miss this house. This was the first house me and Danny lived in together and it was Maddie's first house too! So it's a bittersweet feeling but most sweet! ;)

It is pretty nerve racking to have your house on the market! The house we made our home will be critiqued by other people. What if they don't like the house? What if they don't like our style? What if no one buys it? There are just so many things that go through your mind. I'm just ready to be done with it but I'm trying to savor as many last memories as I can.

Goodbyes are hard and it seems like we have been doing a lot of that lately and will be doing more in a couple weeks! We had to say goodbye to our dog Lulu (and we still miss her a lot), said bye to a lot of childhood stuff that we had no need for, my first car, and soon to our friends and family! I'm not looking forward to doing the last one! I hate saying bye because I hate crying in front of people. It doesn't to be an emotional person that cries at just about anything.

Even though we are very sad to leave our friends and family we are so excited to venture as a family and do life together with great people at Central Christian Church. God has lead us to Vegas and we intend to faithfully follow!

Now on to the nest subject: Maddie

Maddie is now 9 months old! I can't believe it. She is just growing and getting such a fun little personality. She is always smiling and talking away (screaming is more like it--sorry Kingston!). She even does this cute little thing when she is playing with something and it sounds like she is whispering to it! Now when do little girls get attitudes because I'm pretty sure mine was born with one, but that's part of the adventure i guess.

She is crawling now and is super fast. She loves the stairs (yikes) and the kitchen cabinets! She loves to pull up on anything she can just so she can stand up and walk. She must think she is a big girl already but I'm not ready for that just yet. We are just loving each new stage and having such a blast with our cuddly girl. We couldn't be more happy!!

I know this was a long post and probably had quite a few grammatical errors. Danny wasn't here to edit so I apologize to all those grammar fanatics out there who are cringing at my post, Danny included!

Our crazy dog Lulu!

So I just had to post these pictures of our dog Lulu. If any of you know her, you know that she is the thorn in my side! Anyways, a couple days ago our sump pump backed up and flooded our basement so we had opened all the basement windows to air out the yucky smell and we forgot to close them. I guess that Lulu thought that since I wouldn't let her inside through the sliding door that she would find an alternative way in. So our annoying bloodhound decided to climb through the small opening one of the basement windows onto the top of a refrigerator that just happens to sit underneath that window.

I kept hearing weird noises in our basement and outside and I kept looking for Lulu in the back and couldn't find her. ( I just knew she was up to something) So I go outside in the backyard and find her sitting on top of the fridge inside staring at me. I seriously just stood there for a few seconds wondering how in the world it was even possible for a 90 lb dog to climb through that small opening without breaking it. As much as she annoys me, I have to admit that I found this pretty funny and couldn't resist taking pictures of her. The fridge was too high and she was too scared to climb done so she had to wait there for about 20 minutes for Danny to come home and rescue her!

My sleeping beauty!

I have been waiting for this moment since the day she came home from the hospital and I put her in her swing for the first time. I finally have a picture of Maddie asleep slouched over in her swing. I don't know why but I have always wanted a picture of this. I just think it is so funny that she fell asleep like this. It looks so uncomfortable but apparently not to her. She had been rubbing her eyes while she was eating her dinner so after we played for a bit I put her in her swing and wha-la we have a sleeping baby!

My daddy is so much fun!

So I found this video from a few weeks ago and thought I would post it. I just love watching Maddie play her daddy. They have so much fun together and he can usually get her to crack up. I didn't have enough room on this video to get her really laughing but you can kind of hear it.

Working out turned out to be not so fun!

So today I got my Jillian Michaels workouts and I was super stoked to get home after a day of running errands to start. Now after my first attempt at working out since I had Maddie, I feel like I have rubber arms and the room is spinning. Working out turned out to be not so fun but I know it will be worth it when I can fit into all my "before pregnancy" clothes! At least that's what I'll keep telling myself during my work outs until I start believing it. I thought I would post a short video of what I did in my workout. Don't be fooled...it's A LOT harder than it looks! :)





And this is what I feel like after....

Spring with Maddie

Not too much to update on. Maddie is growing fast..too fast in my opinion but she is getting so fun! She is getting quite a personality and loves to talk and squeal. She will talk to just about anything that is in front of her. I love listening to her when I am in the kitchen and she is in her Einstein Jumper just talking away to the frog, sunshine, or her self in the mirror. So fun!
Mads has recently learned to roll over during nap time in her crib and thinks its so fun to do. I am constantly coming in to check on her and find her rolled over or stuck in the crib slats just talking away and looking at me when I poke my head in. As much as I love seeing her learn new things I am hoping or PRAYING that this is just a faze considering she woke up three times last night rolling over in her crib, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
We also discovered that Maddie LOVES peaches and above is the proof. She enjoyed them so much that she just couldn't keep her hands out of her mouth. Needless to say, they ended up all over her!
She has found a new friend. It's a cat in the hat stuffed animal that grammy got for her and she just loves that thing. I got a picture of her sleeping with it in her crib. It's kind of creepy but for some reason she loves it.
Nate, Theresa and big boy Kingston came up to KC for a visit so we got to hang out with them some. K and Mads enjoyed looking at each other, pulling on each other, and eating each others fingers. They were pretty funny. They even took baths together but I didn't get any pics. They are so fun to watch together and comparing how much bigger K is than Maddie and they are only 8 weeks apart! It's amazing. They are really starting to interact with each other. I posted a couple of pictures of them together.
On a personal note, I just purchased two work out videos and I am super stoked to get them. Thanks to Theresa, I have found some motivation to start working out at home with Jillian Michaels too. (one of the trainers from The Biggest Loser) If the people on the show can do it, so can I. I just want to at least look somewhat decent for our vacation at the lake this year. Hopefully I can stick with it!

Blessed by family

We had such a fun weekend. My sister and her two kids came into town and Maddie had fun watching her older cousins play and strut around the house! Allie absolutely loves holding her cousin "Maddie the Madelyn" (in her words).




Jake is my sisters little firecracker. He will make known when he is not happy in about three seconds but he is also the sweetest little boy. If you ask him who is best friend is he says, "ummm...Maddie." then gives her a hug and kiss. Maddie loves watching him run around the house!




Maddie also got to try her first taste of cereal. She was cracking me up with some of the faces she was making! She is just growing so fast. She now refuses to nurse from me because she can't see and look around the room while she eats!! It has been really hard for me to let go of nursing her. I am no longer the only one who can provide food for her! It makes me so sad but in other ways it is a little freeing. I can go out and make a bottle for her and not worrying about flashing people in public...lol, and n0w Danny gets to be apart of her feedings and he is loving it! She can be a little difficult to feed because of her obsession with the world...did I mention that she gets her nosiness from me!!! :) Danny is constantly reminding me.

We captured some of it on video too!

12 weeks...Where has the time gone!

Maddie turned 12 weeks last Thursday and I jut can't believe how fast she is growing! I completely understand why people tell us to take in every minute because they grow up so fast. I know she is only 3 months old but it has already gone by so fast.

She is getting into a really fun age. She interacts with us a lot now and smiles every time she sees me and Danny which feels pretty great when someone else is holding her and they can't get her to smile except when she sees us! There is just something about her being so completely dependent on Danny and I that makes us feel like the best parents!

Yesterday before we went to church Danny was singing "Twist and Shout" by the Beatles to her (this is her new favorite thing to do...watch us sing beatles songs to her) and she giggled for the first time. I'm not just talking about making noises while smiling...I mean a full out giggle. It was so sweet and priceless. I wish we could have gotten it on video. That will be our new big new purchase.