Ami & Phil's Wedding

Wedding Rehearsal

Wedding Dress Shopping

On Tuesday (Oct 12) we made a trip down to Chico, CA to look for a wedding dress for Ami.  It was a family affair with Ami, Ashish, their parents, my parents, Aunt Marge (who is visiting from Manitoba), Priya and me.  Our first stop was David's Bridal and surprisingly enough it was our only stop!  Ami was able to find a beautiful dress that needs very little altering - and the price was great too!  It's actually a Flower Girl/Jr. Bridesmaid dress but is fancier than the actual wedding dresses that were available in her size/price range.  And it looks gorgeous on her!  

I promised that I wouldn't post any photos of Ami in her wedding dress so you won't see any until after the wedding (which is scheduled for Wed, Oct 20).  So instead I'm sharing a couple pics of Princess Priya who was extremely excited to dress up like a miniature bride.  I've never seen her so into dressing up before!  Her ensemble isn't what she'll be wearing for the wedding, but the dress is very similar (I found it online for a lot less and it's longer as well).  She wanted to include all of the accessories - jewelry, tiara, gloves, shoes, purse, etc.  Needless to say we were all highly entertained. :)

The Eagle Has Landed!

Ami has arrived!  She flew into San Francisco at approximately 12:30pm this afternoon (Saturday, October 9).  Phil picked her up and the two of them were able to have some quality time together before they arrived in Redding around 8pm.  We gathered at Ashish's parents apartment (which is also Phil's apartment at the moment) and had a wonderful time getting reacquainted.  Ami hadn't seen her parents in 4 years and it had been 5 years since Ashish and I had seen her.  Needless to say there was a great deal of joy surrounding Ami's safe and long-awaited arrival.

As expected, Priya and her Ami Fui (Aunt Ami in Gujarati) hit it off immediately.  It makes me so happy that she will able to know her auntie as well as be exposed further to her Indian heritage.

 

After dinner, the party moved to our place for a bit (after getting Priya to sleep).

 Thanks for all of the prayers that were offered up on Ami and Phil's behalf!  We're excited that this time has finally come!

Welcome To Our New Blog!

All the old posts are here but it better represents our growing family. :)

We're Moving!!!

Well, maybe not physically moving, but our blog has relocated!  It just wouldn't be fair to the new baby to have the blog url entitled priyagrace.blogspot.com...  So hop on over to keepingupwiththechristians.blogspot.com for any future updates.

Baking and Swaddling

Priya and I have been having a lot of fun together these past few days. She got a cookie baking set for her birthday (cutting board, rolling pin, cookie cutters) so we decided to try it out. She loved every minute of it - from mixing ingredients, rolling out the dough, cutting out the cookies and decorating them. She was even a big help when it came to cleaning up! She helped me sweep and mop the floor and wipe the table clean. She's getting to be such a big girl!

After showing me what a big girl she is, we regressed a bit and pretended that she and her "Drewey's" were babies. We've been talking a lot about the baby - who will be here in less than 6 weeks now!!!! So I pulled out some of her old swaddling blankets and demonstrated how we'll take care of the baby, swaddle him, and put him to bed. She was utterly thrilled with it and wanted to get in on the action after her babies had been swaddled.

In the pic below she was pretending to be asleep... :)

In the video below she's starting to sing part of "A Whole New World" from Aladdin. You can sort of make out the words "I can show you the world...shining...". She's been singing up a storm these days and often makes up her own words to the tune of familiar songs. I wish I had captured more of this song. But maybe another time...

By the way, these pics/videos are all taken in what will very soon be the baby's room. Priya hasn't made the transition into her twin size bed in her real room and feels more comfortable here for now. We plan to make the transition within the next couple of weeks.

My dad has been a HUGE help since we've moved into our new place! I love painting but unfortunately haven't been able to, so he painted the master bedroom/bathroom, baby's room, Priya's room and our "dining room". Pretty impressive, eh? Dad, you are amazing! Thank you SO much!

Then it was time for the Drewey's to go to bed, turn on the "night-night machine" (white noise to block out the noise of the dorm), turn off the light...and finally put up the gate so that the Drewey's couldn't get out of their room. ;)