Some Fun With Priya

The busyness of this time of year has meant less time to spend with Priya. She has been in the care of some great babysitters (including my parents over the past 3 days - THANK YOU MOM & DAD!!). It was wonderful for Ashish, Priya & I to have some quality time together this evening. Below is a small glimpse of our time together.

Simpson Square Dance

Tonight was our 3rd Annual Simpson Square Dance. It's a really fun event that we put on during Orientation every year. This year Priya was able to attend as well and I had fun dressing her up for the event. I stumbled across some cute little cowboy boots and found a little pink cowboy hat - both were perfect for the occasion. Yeehaw!

Our Indian Princess

When Priya was born she received a number of adorable traditional Indian dresses. They are still far too big for her, but I thought it would be fun to try one out (with a lot of cinching in the back to make it sort of fit). Priya is also standing on her own in this photo. She's been doing that quite a bit as of late. Often when I walk into her room to get her out of bed I'll find her free-standing in her crib. Other times I'll find her hanging onto the rails of the crib jumping up and down. She is growing SO fast!

Another New School Year

I (Jessica) am in the midst of my craziest time of year (hence the lack of regular updates on our blog these days). Our student leaders are here on campus and we are half-way through our time of intense training with them. Our new students will arrive this Friday and then our returning students will storm the campus on Sunday afternoon. I'm looking forward to eventually settling into a regular routine as the school year is officially set in motion.

Ashish has entered a new and exciting phase in his life. He has decided to go back to school! He started a week and 1/2 ago at Shasta College (about a mile from where we live). He is planning on going into the LVN program (Nursing) and is currently working on some of the general requirements while he awaits entry into the program. It's a very exciting time for him and it's been wonderful to see how much he is learning already!

Our life these days feels rather chaotic. We are juggling very full schedules and trying to care for Priya through it all. Ashish actually is taking some time off work during these two weeks where life is extra crazy for me to take care of our little one. But we've had various babysitters here during Ashish's class hours to watch Priya. I'll be sure to update things a bit better once the craziness settles down...

Happy Birthday Ashish!

We enjoyed celebrating Ashish's 32nd birthday yesterday as a family. And Priya had her first taste of Indian food too! Well, she had a small piece of naan bread and a few pieces of rice. She'll have to wait for the good stuff until she's a little bit older. :)

Ashish blows out his candle and Priya tries to get involved.

Below Priya and I enjoy some time with Esther Bhasme - Priya's special babysitter last week. Esther is the sister of David Bhasme, a recent Simpson grad who is originally from India.

Sneak Peak

We have 2 big days coming up in our family. Ashish will turn 32 on Sunday (August 17) and Priya will celebrate her 1st birthday on September 19. Oh how time flies...

Below is a hint about how we will be celebrating Priya's birthday. And no, we don't have any cute pictures of Ashish to hint about our plans for his birthday. He's not a duck fanatic like Priya is... :)

We enjoyed attending Caleb Brown's first birthday party today. Caleb is the son of my cousin Jeff and his wife Kara. They moved to Salem, OR several months ago so it was wonderful to have the chance to see a bit of them and to celebrate Caleb's special day.

Below Priya enjoys putting her 2 weeks of swim class to good use with Jean, Kara's sister.