2015 was quite the year.

i mean that in a good way. it will be one that is hard to beat.

this year we saw many prayers answered. it was like a year of harvest.

first of all our sweetheart mira was born, and she's been the perfect addition to our family. God couldn't have picked a more perfect little girl to join us!



then in other news shomik's sister got married. no one can understand what a huge answer to prayer this was. there were circumstances that made marriage a challenge for her, and marriage is really important still for a woman's security in india, so it was a constant stress on the back of our minds. and God just brought everything together and made it happen in ways that truly astounded us. even now sometimes it's hard to believe it all happened.



and to top it off, after a decade of trying to get a visa for shomik's dad to visit us in the US, he finally got a green card and has spent several months with us here.



we also got to visit india this year with the whole family for the wedding, though it will likely be our last trip there for awhile since our family has grown and shomik's dad is able to visit here now.



the most stressful thing this year was just that we spent the money. all the money. but i can't complain about the blessings we had to spend them on.

we're all healthy and so blessed.

thank you God for being with this past year, and we're praying for an amazing 2016!

i feel like a horrible mom! how did i get this far behind in documenting my sweet mira?!

anyways, the past couple months have been a whirlwind! mira enjoyed her first thanksgiving and christmas!



we waited until 6 months to let mira try solids. her first food was sweet potato, and at first she wasn't sure what to think. but after a couple days she was eating like a pro! we did baby led weaning again this time, so we let her feed herself. so far her favorite food may be bananas. she's already developing a serious pincher grasp!

shortly after she turned 5 months she started to sit up pretty well by herself. now she's a total pro, though she hasn't really tried crawling that much yet. she's also still toothless, which is a surprise to me since her teeth have been bothering her like crazy for months!

at her six month check up she weighed in a little over 16lbs...which was almost 3 lbs less than her big sis at that age! no worries though, she isn't starving...she's still in the 61st percentile. :) we're so blessed that she's a super healthy child!

she also got dedicated at our church in november and was a perfect angel baby playing peek-a-boo with the pastor while they prayed over her!



she's still as chatty as ever. i swear the other day she was crying and said mama! but i'm still waiting for her to do it again. :) she hasn't developed a sense of stranger danger yet. she seems to be my little socialite, so we'll see if that happens. she enjoyed being around people during the holidays, and she actually showed interest in some of her christmas gifts as well as the wrapping!

i love this little sweetheart!

hello. my baby is 5 months old. please stop the time!



little mira turned 5 months while we were in india. (india deserves a whole other post!)

she is just such little wonder. at 5 months she is so delightfully social. she was definitely the crowd pleaser on our trip!

she loves her big sister and thinks her screaming at the top of her lungs is just hilarious, though the rest of us beg to differ!

she's drooling like crazy and putting everything in her mouth. every day i check to see if a tooth as cut through!

her sleep is all messed up at the moment thanks to jet leg, but she seems to be nursing more at night these days. could be the teeth. she's still a good little sleeper though.

right when she turned 5 months she was trying to sit up on her own but still lacked the balance. in the past couple weeks she's gotten the balance down too, though i'll still put a pillow behind her. ;)

oh, and she has officially become a thumb sucker! we fought it as long as we could and would try to exchange the thumb with the paci, but she gradually seems to be winning on this front. :P

her pic this month is with her sister's zebra since we left kermit the frog stateside while we were in india. i love this little kid to the moon and back! what a blessing!

mira celebrated 4 months with a cold...poor baby!



i still managed to get some smiles out of her though. at 4 months she weighs almost 15 lbs, and was 24.375 inches tall. She was pretty solidly in the 65th percentile for everything, and perfectly healthy other than the cold she picked up from her big sis! ;)

she is still super sweet and social! now she is laughing, and has started rolling from back to front and a little bit from front to back. she is pretty much a drool factory and her sleep isn't as great as it was a couple months ago, so i suspect she may be cutting some teeth in the near future. she also loves watching video like praise baby and anything her sis is watching. she also loves her walks and being outside.



i'm crazy about this kid!

Well Jia has officially started preschool!

baby girl is getting big!



at 3 months old all the rolls are coming in. she's started trying to grab things with her hands, and it takes major effort these days for us to keep her hands out of her mouth. someone wants to be a thumb sucker, so we're still pushing the paci! she's started drooling as well so i'm wondering if these are the early days of teething.

every day though she is more and more of a delight. such a sweet kid! i love her little easy going personality! it's hard to imagine our lives before her. her and her big sister are just obsessed with each other. love my girls!

well my littlest munchkin is now 2 months old!
oh the joy of being 2 months and receiving the blessed gift of shots!



baby girl was a trooper though. just was a happy baby all through her appointment and just cried for a few second when she got poked. she's grown to 12lbs and 1.5 ounces, which is just a couple ounces smaller that her big sister was at that age! so even though she started off more than a pound smaller, she's catching up!

mira has her fussy moments, but if eating doesn't fix it, she can usually be calmed by a stroll. she's over all such a dream baby. happy, chatting, cooing, and regularly sleeping 6-8 hour stretches at night!

this kid has taught me more than ever that parenting skills have nothing to do with a baby's sleep patterns. with jia i went by the book to try to make her a good sleeper, and it never worked. she just became a good sleeper on her own time. but mira loves to sleep and with the craziness of having a toddler i've had her in no kind of routine whatsoever. kids are so different!

anyways, i'm loving having 2 girls. jia loves her sister...sometimes a little too much, but her heart is in the right place! ;)