The Santos Family

Bella and Ellie

2012-01-11T15:09:00.003-07:00

Isabella's best little friend lives right downstairs. Her name is Ellie and they love to play together! They are so cute. We have really great neighbors who are always willing to babysit so we return the favor as often as we are able. On this day, Megan (yes, we share a name) was finishing her Christmas shopping so Ellie got to come play with us for a couple hours. Here is what the afternoon looked like:

Ellie trying to give Bella a kiss.

Bella attempting to share her toys.

Isabella (who will only walk on her knees despite other skills...more on that later), attempting to keep up with Ellie

We love shoes apparently.

And the door

Pulling out the movies

And climbing up the stairs

Pure happiness

Frost

2012-01-11T14:54:00.003-07:00

So one day in early December we woke up to a crazy sight. Everything from houses to blades of grass was completed coated in frost and the air was filled with fog. It was a pretty awesome sight, one we don't usually see in Provo, though it meant it was freezing outside. The coolest thing was it never melted. The following pictures were taken at about 3:30 in the afternoon. It was so beautiful I had to try and find the artist in myself and capture it.

Fun Bella pictures

2012-01-11T14:43:00.000-07:00

Just a few cute pictures of Isabella when we were playing one day. Remember to keep reading below this post if you missed my others. I've been playing catch-up and will be continuing after this.

December Catch Up

2012-01-11T14:38:00.001-07:00

I just realized that I haven't really blogged anything that we did in December. I have so many pictures to edit so I will try and slowly get caught up. We had Christmas festivities, holidays in Seattle, and birthdays for Megan and Isabella so I have a lot to blog about. Without further ado, here go.

First off is decorating the Christmas tree. I have a small fake tree that I bought the first year we were married and I love it, despite JJ's teasing. I'm always proud of how festive it looks. Here are some pictures of the me adding ornaments and the final brilliance.

Our special ornaments. Some were given our first year. And now every year JJ's stepmom, Sue, gives us a picture frame ornament with a picture of us the year the ornament was given. The one for this year is in a later post as it was given in Seattle later.

Obviously there were a couple years missed in between those two...

And finally, my star. I'm quite proud of my little $5 star. I don't know why but I love it. It reminds me of the one we had when I was little.

To Grandmothers

2011-12-01T19:13:00.001-07:00

Today JJ's grandma passed away and returned to her Father in Heaven. My sister-in-law wrote the below post about her great memories of her grandmother. It hit me that my little Isabella will never know any of her grandmas. (Mine have both been gone for many years as has JJ's paternal grandma). So I decided to write a few memories about each of her great-grandmothers so that she may know a little about the wonderful women who helped make us the people we are today...

My Grandmother, Betty Jensen (maternal grandmother):

The best word to describe my grandmother was busy. She was always working! She was constantly doing something whether it be cooking, crocheting, doing puzzles, cleaning, visiting friends, caring for her family...And if you weren't just as busy as her, then you weren't busy enough. :) She taught me to truly love music in my life. She loved to listen to me play the piano, she came to almost every choir concert and dance performance I had (along with my Granddad), and always encouraged me to feel the music. She hounded me for years to let her teach me the organ, which I never agreed to. When I finally learned, years after she left this world, I could feel her there, smiling down on me with a knowing look. She never stopped learning and growing. I would often find her, even in her last days, working hard a crossword puzzle, the only person I know who could finish the hard one in the Friday paper.

I had the privilege to live with her in our home for 5 years. Every day when I came home she would ask me about my day. What had I learned? How had that test gone? How was that boy I liked? We would sit and talk for hours as she taught me her love of crochet and working my hands or while we worked on a puzzle to keep our minds sharp. I loved her stories of her younger days, meeting my granddad and discovering the gospel.

She was a woman of greater faith and strength than I have ever known. She gave up her parents for the gospel for many years after "running off to the temple" with the love of her life. (And no wonder he loved her as she was a truly beautiful and good woman). She cared for her beloved husband for many years, visiting him nearly every day for 5 years. When he left this life, she missed him too much to continue fighting her many lifelong illnesses and followed after him just over a year later.

She rarely missed her church meetings and could often be found studying her scriptures. She taught me the value of family and love and history and learning.

She played piano duets with me and praised my every performance, whether it be dance, singing, piano, or simply a test in school, always lifting me up and telling me I was wonderful and beautiful even on my darkest days.

I am so lucky to have so many memories with my grandmother and will cherish always the many lessons she gave me.

My Grandma Lula Morris (paternal grandmother):

Grandma Morris was the epitome of service. That woman gave and gave and gave. She passed away the same year as Elder Neal A. Maxwell (of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in our church) and we always said the Lord must be overwhelmed with work to do to have needed both him and Grandma Morris at the same time.

She was the best cook I have ever seen. Every time we went to her house in Idaho there were like 6 pies and cakes on the table because she would bake each person's favorite and then load up the freezer with ice cream to go with it.

She was the ultimate mother, raising 5 rowdy boys and two girls on a farm in Idaho. And she has a large and incredibly strong and faithful legacy to show for it. (See my post bout here husband here for details)

I have significantly fewer memories of my Grandma Morris. I was only fifteen when she died and we lived far away from her. But I always remember the feeling in her home. It was truly home. There was constant love, praise, family, peace, and a feeling of the Spirit in that house. It was my favorite place to visit. Grandma was a truly righteous and giving woman and great example in my life and what it truly means to "love thy neighbor as thyself".

I hope Mele won't mind me using her touching words about Grandma Meyers (JJ's maternal grandmother)"

"In honor of my beloved Grandma, who went to her eternal home today. I will miss her so much. She lived through the Great Depression, and was always frugal as a result. She liked to save things that were given to her as gifts, "for the new house", instead of using them. She lived above Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, when the bombs fell. She saw the whole thing. She met my Grandpa when he was serving in Hawaii as part or the US Navy in WWII. Some folks discouraged their marriage because he is caucasian and she is Hawaiian/Chinese. But in an act of faith, they married anyway in the Hawaii temple, with only her mother and very few others there to witness the event.

Grandma loved to play the organ, especially Bach, and she also loved to play the piano and sing. She and my Grandpa taught their children to love music, and my mom has passed that love of music on to me.
I always knew Grandma was a woman of profound and deep faith. I was always very humbled and touched to hear her pray. As a child, I always knew if it was Grandma's turn to pray, we were going to be there for a while...and I didn't learn to appreciate how detailed and specific her prayers were, for each family member, until I was a little older. She loved her family with all her heart, and she loved Heavenly Father with all her heart.
She was always quite trim, but would eat about three bites of her dinner and say (in all sincerity!) that it was delicious, she ate too much, and we would have to 'roll her home'...implying that she was too round to walk...which we all knew was utterly ridiculous!
She loved to serve, and after such a dinner when she was supposedly too full, she would quite literally shove you out of the way so that she could do the dinner dishes. The only times I have gotten into a pushing match over who got to do the dishes, was with Grandma! She wore yellow rubber gloves to protect her hands when she did the dishes, because she would make the water SO hot! Sometimes it was fun for my dad and us kids to hide Grandma's rubber gloves, so that way we could win the "who gets to do the dishes" battle.
I always knew I held a special place in Grandma's heart because I was the first-born grandchild, and because I am so fair-skinned, which she thought was beautiful. She would touch my arm, and say, "One day, the Lord PROMISED me, I will be 'white and delightsome'!" I would roll my eyes, because I had seen pictures of her as a young woman, and she was such a babe! So gorgeous!
She had a charming sense of humor, even if it was self-deprecating, like when she would joke, "I could get lost in a bathtub!" Her sense of direction wasn't great, and I seem to have inherited that trait as well! :-)
She took time to talk with me, ask questions, and find out what was going on in my life. She believed in me and that I could accomplish all my goals. "

For JJ's Grandma Santos, I will write my impressions from the two times I met her and what JJ has told me:

She was an incredibly sweet person. The first time I met her was on my honeymoon. We planned a special day to fly to Maui from Oahu to see JJ's grandparents. I had never met this woman, but she called JJ the day before to ask if I liked Chinese food. She wanted to take us out to dinner, but wasn't sure what I liked (For those who don't know, I LOVE Chinese food). I was touched at the thoughtful gesture. From her beautiful home and the stories JJ tells of the home he remembers, she was a woman who took pride in her home and worked to make the world around her beautiful. She loved her family above all else and watched over her husband vigilantly and lovingly in his and her last days. Her love was so great that she followed her husband only days after his own passing. I only hope my own love for JJ will not leave me without him for too long should we both be lucky enough to live into an old age. (I will add more after talking to JJ)

I think later I will write a similar post about Grandpas as JJ's Grandpa Meyers is the last we have left.

Happy Meals and Munchkins

2011-11-20T17:40:00.001-07:00

I know I would be frowned upon by so many moms for this, but it was a long day....

Bella's first Happy Meal. Can you tell she's excited?

In other news...We received this super cute sweater as a gift and JJ and I are both obsessed with it. We think it makes her look like one of the munchkins with the hats in The Wizard of Oz. We just laughed and smiled every time we looked at her. And thank you also to Aunty Ke'ala for the pretty red dress.

Also, Bella can say a few words now!!! She says Mama, sometimes Dada, and Hi! She's also really good at waving and giving kisses (well at least to Mama). She will also give high five. She's close to walking, but not quite. She'll stand on her own for a few seconds at a time before losing her balance. And she loves to push her walker around. Here is our new favorite video. So cute!! She usually does Mama better than this, but was distracted.

My Latest Project

2011-11-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

So I actually finished this like 6 weeks ago or more and am working on a new one now, but I just got around to taking pictures of it. This was the last afghan I made. I'd never done something with edging before so I was quite pleased with how it turned out.

You've got a little somethin' on your face...

2011-11-06T19:48:00.003-07:00

This is what it looks like when Isabella eats pasta by herself (which is her preferred method). Notice the messy right side of her head which she kept running her lovely hands through...

What?

Maybe it would be easier to pick up the whole plate...

Eating is funny Mama...

Pasta is amazing!!! I love it soooo much!

First Halloween

2011-11-04T17:39:00.001-06:00

This year was Bella's first Halloween! It's kinda fun having a January baby because all her first holidays take place in the same year so it's not confusing. The Saturday before Halloween we went to our ward (church group) Trunk-or-Treat. There was a big chili cook-off (which I think I won despite the fact that they dropped the ball and the votes didn't get counted. But it looked like mine had the most when I checked. Thanks Stacey for the recipe!) Then they had lots of games for the kids and you hand out candy at your trunk in the parking lot. I didn't have a costume for Isabella for that but I had this cute little hand-me-down Halloween outfit that she wore.

Notice the tears in the first picture. She was mad that I set her down. She's been a little attached to her mama lately. It's slightly ridiculous.

Please excuse my terrible pictures. My camera has been having weird focus issues lately and I need to figure it out. Or maybe I'm just tired....

On Halloween night my friend Jessica invited us over for dinner and games. JJ had to work again but Bella and I attended. I really wanted her to be dressed up for her first Halloween so I quickly improvised and with a loaned tutu from Jessica Bella became a little ballerina! She was so cute. Jess's baby, Emma, was a ladybug so we took a few pictures of the girls together before the party.

Little Emma the Ladybug. Is she not so cute? And she has a TON of hair for a 15 month old.

The girls together. Emma wasn't too thrilled at the moment, and Isabella was just in her own little world...

And my little ballerina

It was a low-key holiday but I'm glad we had some fun nights.

Busy Fun

2011-11-01T22:19:00.000-06:00

So I really wanted to share the latest update in my life. I just got called to be the new Personal Progress adviser in my ward (local church branch). For those unfamiliar, Personal Progress is basically like scouting is for boys but way better than girl scouts. Basically it is a program that helps the young women (ages 12-17) in our church develop traits that will help them become righteous, upstanding women of God. It's really great. They have 8 values that they work on: Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice and Accountability, Good Works, Integrity, and Virtue. The have 6 small exercises and one 10 hour project for each value. They receive a really beautiful necklace at the end and of course all the spiritual and personal strength gained through their work.

My job is basically to oversee all this. I track the girls' progress, help with projects where needed, and I also plan a monthly activity to help them get stuff passed off. I also jumped in at the end of the year so the other adviser and I get to plan Young Women in Excellence. This is a big night each year where we celebrate the program's purpose and recognize the achievements of the girls. I'm super excited! Our theme is going to be "The Value of a Woman". It's gonna be such a great night to really honor the girls' wonderful personal traits and get them re-excited about doing personal progress. It's going to be a little crazy though because normally this night is the culmination of year-long goal and preparations and we have 1 month. There were a lot of leadership transitions in our ward this year so there's lots of learning for us new leaders to do. So I'm super stoked to get the girls ready for personal progress. It really is such a wonderful program.

Plus.... I get to do mine again! I did it when I was in Young Women's but the program has been revamped and updated a little and Virtue has been added. (There were only the first 7 values to the program when I was doing it). As a leader I can do it again and earn the new necklace. So fun!

I am so grateful for this opportunity to reconnect with my spiritual goals and become more acquainted with my Savior, Jesus Christ, and His plan for me.

Plus I can't wait to get to know all the girls in my ward! We have a lot. I didn't think I would get to work with the young women because JJ works with the Young Men's program. It's a big calling that involves lots of scouting also so usually they wouldn't call the wife to an equally demanding calling. So I'm very excited and blessed to get this opportunity.

Anyway, just wanted to share this fun new thing that will be making my life a lot busier in the near future. It will be great!

9 Months old!

2011-10-14T19:53:00.002-06:00

Our little Isabella is 9 months old! I can't believe it. She is so wonderful and we absolutely adore her. Here are some things about our girl.

~Height: 29.5 in. - 95th percentile (actually 95.9 so almost 96th)
~Weight: 22 lbs. 12 oz - 95th percentile
~Head size: 18.2 in - 95th percentile

She is big! But at least she's growing proportionately. No alien baby heads here!

~She has 7 teeth, almost 8. 4 on bottom, and 3 almost 4 on top. She chose to get the last 5 all at the same time so that was a fun month at our house...
~She crawls everywhere, including up the stairs with ease.
~She pulls herself up standing on everything and frequently tries to climb on things much too tall for her.
~She is slowly figuring out how to move with her walker.
~She LOVES bath time. She stands by the tub and squeals and laughs as she watches it fill up every night.
~She also loves bananas. We give her half and she goes to town, usually taking bites much too big for her.
~She is getting really good and pinching with her fingers and can feed herself her snacks all by herself.
~She loves to bounce and will sit and bounce on her bum all the time.
~She spits (like kind of blowing raspberries but just with her bottom lip) all the time.
~She currently is highly entertained by any toy that involves a ball of some sort or something that can be knocked down.
~She will eat pretty much anything we give her, except green beans and peas. These produce gagging.
~She laughs really hard if you lift her up high or hang her upside down.
~ She is a total magnet for all things she's not supposed to play with, particularly any and all cords and her humidifier.
~She absolutely loves books which almost makes her mommy want to cry. (I am a huge reader for those that don't know so I love that my daughter appears to be on the same track).
~She likes to play with the dishwasher which makes loading it a bit of a challenge.
~She likes the TV a little too much. We try not to have it on very often when she's awake, but anytime she sees a TV that's on she basically goes into a trance for a minute. Obviously something I'm going to have to keep a tight rein on.
~She has the cutest little scrunched nosed smile.

Here is the 9 month photo shoot we did. It was very quick because my battery was dying but she was so smiley for once so I was quite please with how they turned out despite the fact that I didn't have time to do a lot of different things. Prepare for picture overload. My baby girl is so stinkin' pretty I can hardly stand it.

Such a typical Bella face

Fingers in the mouth, a popular thing at the moment.

Such a little cheeser.

I absolutely love her little half-smile in this one.

And now for my all-time favorite picture of Bella...JJ is also a big fan.

Is she not the most beautiful baby you have ever seen? I am obsessed with the color of her eyes!

Little Cutie

2011-10-10T12:16:00.002-06:00

We've had fun lately just taken pictures of Bella at her cutest and/or most hilarious. Here are some of our recent ones. (9 month update coming soon!)

First, Bella absolutely LOVES bananas. We just give her half a banana and she goes to town. Usually we strip her down because it's so messy. She can't get enough. She takes these enormous bites which makes her look like a chipmunk once it's in her mouth. Then she proceeds to try and lick every last piece from her mouth.

Next, last week it suddenly got crazy cold for a few days. The high temperatures were in the mid-40s. Bella and I were headed to the library one morning so we had to get bundled up. She has an adorable Letterman jacket that's a hand-me-down that will soon be too small for her, so we took a few pictures of it on. Sadly I didn't get one with her beanie also on. But she was so cute!

And finally, my sister-in-law Lisa was nice enough to lend us some of her baby toys for a while since their kids are a bit older. Bella has had a blast having new things to play with. She is particularly loving this walker. She doesn't move a whole lot yet but she sure is cute trying. And of course, Daddy put the beanie on her head because it's so cute and we needed a picture. JJ's youngest sister made her a whole bunch of these before she was even born. We love them!

Ok, is she not so stinking cute in this picture?

Fall and Waterfalls

2011-10-08T15:17:00.003-06:00

JJ and I have been trying to get out and do stuff lately. Since we don't have a lot of money, we've had to get creative. So the last month we've taken Bella on a couple outings. The first was to Bridal Veil Falls. It is just up the canyon, about 15 minutes from our house, and you can park at the base of it. We went and took a few pictures and JJ dipped Bella's toes in the water. She wasn't a fan as it was really cold water.Bella loved hanging out with her daddy (and vice versa)

My beautiful girl

Is this not the cutest picture ever?

Dipping toes in the water. You can see she keeps trying to hold her legs up because it's cold.

And just a pretty picture of the falls

Then a couple weeks ago JJ's days off landed so that he had a four day weekend. It was so nice and we took advantage of the time to be together. We wanted to get out of course so we decided to hike Stewart Falls. This is also up Provo Canyon, past Sundance, but requires about a 2.25 mile hike in and out. It was such a beautiful hike though! The weather was perfect with lots of shade along the way. And the leaves were changing the views of the valley were gorgeous! Here are some picture of the Fall colors and JJ and Bella on the hike (I was too busy taking pictures to be in any of them).

First view of the falls

Bella had fun backpacking on Daddy

We made it!

Whew! That was a big hike!

I'm tired Daddy. (She did actually fall asleep for a bit on the way back)

I think Stewart Falls is almost prettier than Bridal Veil, though not as big. Especially with the surround scenery.

Checkin' out the water

That was crazy Mom!

These last few are from JJ's phone so they're not the best quality but I wanted to include them.

Getting started.

Proof that I was there, taking pictures and putting the camera back in the backpack.

Daddy and Bella hiked in their Nikes of course.

Having a drink at the end.

Tuckered out.

Daddy couldn't carry her on the front anymore.

It was such a fun day. I highly recommend it if you need an easy outdoorsy thing to do.

To the top!

2011-09-12T21:44:00.001-06:00

Clapping

2011-09-12T09:00:00.001-06:00

One of Bella's other newish tricks is clapping. She loves to clap! She does it all the time, often for unknown reasons. Here she is...

Mobile Bella

2011-09-10T14:39:00.001-06:00

Ok, so I have a lot of videos I want to post. I'll start with the most recent simply because that's what everyone wants to see right now. Bella can crawl! She is a magnet for cords and anything else she's not supposed to chew on. We're still working on babyproofing. She also likes to climb over stuff, particularly Mommy and Daddy, and can even pull herself to a standing position on a couple things. The first video is her crawling, the second, her climbing. Enjoy!

New Things

2011-08-25T12:51:00.010-06:00

Here are some of the new things our little girl has been up to.

~She is no 7.5 months old.
~She weighs over 20 lbs. and is 29.5 inches long. (The kid just doesn't stop growing)
~She loves to clap.
~She is so very close to crawling!She rocks on her hands and knees and can push from her belly to a sitting position.
~She jabbers lots of sounds and the doctor says she knows a LOT of syllables for her age.
~She loves to listen to Mommy read to her and always try to grab the books.
~She has become a fast mover between scooting, rolling, and almost crawling.
~She gives her momma big slobbery kisses. To Daddy's despair, she won't do it to him.

Here are some fun pictures.

She loves her new high chair (Thanks Grandma Santos!). She likes to be queen of the kitchen.

You guys keep working. I'm just gonna chill.

What exactly are these things?

Daddy likes to help teach us how to crawl. His methods are a little humorous.

What are you doing down here Daddy?

Too hard Daddy. I'm tired.

This was another method I discovered when coming downstairs one day. Bella was sitting in the middle of the quilt and there were small piles of toys on each corner. I think Daddy was trying to motivate her to crawl. However, he underestimated her reach.

Oh how we love this little girl.

Play Time

2011-08-25T12:51:00.000-06:00

I've had fun taking pictures of Bella just playing lately. She's so stinking cute! I can't help myself.

I had to take a picture of her in this shirt. After my senior year of high school I went to visit my sister who was living in Indiana at the time. My niece was only a few months older than Bella is now (She's 7 now) and we took her to the zoo. We bought her a little shirt as a souvenir and now Bella has it! It was so fun to see it on her.

This is her playing with her snail. She loves it! It makes a lot of loud, annoying noise but how can I deny her so much joy?

She's so cuddly with her blankie when she firsts wakes up.

Family Fun

2011-08-25T08:00:00.001-06:00

We've had lots of visits from the Santos family this summer. And with the Santos' that means lots of Uno! On their last visit we were able to celebrate Ke'ala's (JJ's youngest sister) birthday. My mom helped me whip up some classic homemade Chinese. It was delicious! We had the works: swei jous (wontons to most people), egg rolls, fried rice, and lemon chicken. SO YUMMY!!! I somehow neglected to get pictures of the food, but I did get some of the Uno game and Ke'ala blowing out her candles.

It isn't a Santos get-together without a rousing game of Uno.

JJ was a little upset that his mom was sending yet another Draw 4 his way.

I wish I could describe just how intense these games get. You'll just have to experience it for yourself to know. Just remember Rule Number 1: couples can NOT sit next to each other. And yes, I'm for real. :)

Here is Ke'ala's birthday.

I made a cute sign just for fun.

Thank you everyone for visiting!

Little Swimmer

2011-08-23T18:48:00.006-06:00

At the beginning of August I took the opportunity to do a Mommy and Me swim class with Bella at the Scera Park pool. It was so much fun! The timing was great because JJ was at scout camp the first week so it gave me something to do. Plus, it's only 4 blocks from our house so we were able to walk. Bella thought it was so much fun. She splashed and splashed and made lots of noise. Plus, that little girl tans like no other. Just the ten minutes to and from the pool made her legs tanner than mine. I didn't get a lot of pictures because I was by myself, but the second week JJ's mom was in town so she came and watched a took a couple.

All ready to go!

Where are we going Mom?

A robe to keep warm after our swim.

We love to splash!

So much fun! Let's stay here Mommy!

Morris Reunion

2011-08-20T15:48:00.027-06:00

For those who don't know, my dad's side of the family has a big family reunion every year. JJ and I always look forward to it. This year it was at my uncle's house in Idaho (he's a cattle rancher). It was a blast. Most of the family camped, but with Bella, we decided to get a hotel room in Pocatello for one night. She still didn't sleep good, but oh well. There was the usual football game of course. We also did some minute-to-win it games and my favorite part...Horseback riding!!! The best part was seeing JJ on a horse for the first time. It was hilarious! Always a great time at the reunion. Here are a few pics.

The football game

Quarterback Caleb

Please don't take out the cameraman...

This is what my husband looked like for most of the reunion

Babies

Horseback riding!

Uncle Randy, the ultimate cowboy

Me on the horse

JJ getting geared up...He felt he needed to look the part and my aunt and cousin were thrilled to help him out...

The look on his face here is classic. He was quite terrified of the horse.

Not ready to take the reins just yet...

Ok Now I'm ready...

Then again, maybe not...

Bella wasn't so sure about this... She crashed hard core in her carseat just after this though.

And finally, a gorgeous Idaho sunset...

Hogle Zoo

2011-08-15T11:34:00.007-06:00

A couple weeks ago my dad and his family were in town. We had the chance to head up to Hogle Zoo for one of the days. Bella didn't really get that she was supposed to look at the animals, but she had a blast on the carousel! Here are a few pictures from the day.

First, why are elephants so cool?

Baby elephant! So cute!

On the Carousel. She looked confused at first, but once it started moving, she got really happy.

Unlike my husband, my dad is not afraid to use my nice camera, so I actually got a cute shot of me with my sweet daughter.

Tuckered out after a long day. She totally crashed.

Favorite

2011-07-21T11:40:00.000-06:00

So I had to make this my background for just a few days. I saw it on my sister's blog and loved it. I just started reading Harry Potter to Bella (so much fun!) and JJ and I are finally going to see the movie this weekend. Can't wait!

Quick Update

2011-07-20T11:46:00.003-06:00

So just a couple updates. First, my baby girl is getting teeth! The past week or so her night time sleep started getting funky. She would wake up crying sometimes and it would take us 20 minutes to get her calmed down. She also started waking up more often. Then yesterday she gave me one of her big grins and I though I saw something. I felt her gums and took a closer look and sure enough, she's got 2 teeth starting to poke through on the bottom. I can't believe she's getting big enough to have teeth. It's so cute though.

Also, as for my last week post on my goals, first week was about 50/50. I seem to struggle most with remembering to say my prayers in the morning. I'm great at night, but I just don't think about when I get up with Bella. Anyone got any good ideas on that? I only exercised once and everything else was about 50%. However, this week is going much better so far. I have exercised twice, done development time with Bella. Haven't been on a walk. I'm struggling with the heat on that one, and the freak rainstorms we keep getting. However, I keep forgetting to make the bed which is weird because I did really good on that one last week. I've read a book this week. (Divergent! Highly recommend it!) Anyway, hopefully I'll keep at it and keep getting better. Thanks for letting me track my progress!

6 months old!

2011-07-14T09:38:00.015-06:00

I can't believe my sweet girl is 6 months old already! We love her so much and she brings such joy to the house. We're pathetic really. We were just saying the other night how when she sleeping at night we miss her smiley face. Here are some tidbits and pictures about our Isabella.

-Head size: 45 cm, 96th percentile
-Length: 28 inc., 98th percentile
-Weight: 19 lbs. 4 oz., 94th percentile (she has gained 5 lbs in the last 2 months. What a little piggy!

-She can roll all around now.
-Her favorite mode of transportation is kicking her feet and scooting around backwards on her back. She's very good at this.
-She sleeps through the night (finally!) and usually takes 3 good naps during the day.
-She can sit up all by herself and loves to do so.
-She love, love, loves! her johnny jumper and would bounce all day if we let her.
-She pretty much loves food in general. She eats a lot during the day but her favorites are carrots and I think fruit is a toss-up between bananas and pears at the moment. She also really loves her oatmeal cereal which is weird because most babies don't.
-She is VERY noisy. She loves to yell, squeal, scream, growl, whatever is most fun. She has also recently started to jabber and say "mamamamamama" I'm hoping her first word will be mommy because of this.
-She really likes to chew on stuff. If it's in her hand, it gets nawed on. She's also very much a binky baby.
-JJ and I compete over who gets to go get her from her naps cuz she's so dang happy when she wakes up.
-I think she's going to be a reader because she's always trying to get at my and her books.
-She is absolutely obsessed with anything electronic whether it's our phones, the t.v. and wii remotes, the computer, the keyboard...whatever we'll let her have.
-She has recently discovered her tongue which is sticking out of her mouth most of the time.

Here are some pictures of our beautiful girl. I love that I have a backyard for stuff like this now.

Notice the tongue

I'm ready for my close-up mom

Really mom? Again with the headband? (She kept trying to take it off. I love her expressive face.)

Again with the tongue

Really? Again?

Fine. You want the headband. Here's your stinkin' headband.

I'm being a very good girl mommy.

I am so obsessed with her eyelashes!

I love this picture because she looks so chubby with her chin tucked like that.

And now for the most hilarious picture of all time...Please welcome, the Dread Pirate Isabella!

And just for fun, a little daddy time.

Balance

2011-07-11T15:01:00.003-06:00

So my life has been feeling a bit out of balance lately. Sometimes mommyhood is taxing and tiring despite its many many joys. I've been feeling the need to find more balance between personal time, family time, and my responsibilities as wife and mother. My friend Mary Anne had a wonderful post this morning on her blog that really inspired me. She has always amazed me as she cares for her kids so cheerfully whenever her husband is in training or, as is happening now, deployed. She is such a good example to me in finding joy in life and constantly improving herself and being a happy wife and mother while her husband is away. She had a great set of goals today to help her through the next year and so I decided it was high time I get my life in order and see if I can't be a happier, more rounded person myself. So here are my goals.

Daily goals
-Read scriptures (1 chapter)
-Pray evening AND morning
-Spend time reading (I used to be such a bookworm)
-Take a walk with Bella (unless weather or other unexpected things hinder that)
-Spend learning/development time with Bella (I find that we just play, but she's at the age where we can work on learning things together now)
-Make my bed (For some reason, the house just feels more put together when the bed is made)
-Crochet every other day (to get my etsy site ready)
-Take pictures every other day (like really try to improve my skills picture taking)
-Exercise every other day
-Be in bed by 11:00 every night (or earlier as much as possible. I'm just too tired these days)

Weekly goals
-Read one book a week (I will try my hardest. This used to be a piece of cake for me. Usually it was more like 2 or 3.)
-Clean the house (not just parts of the house)
-Go on an outing with Bella (I think she's old enough to enjoy this now)
-Attend the play group for my ward (in order to make new friends and for Bella to play with other babies)
-Have a play date with a friend
-Find time to practice the organ and the piano
-Use my ads and coupons to save money on my grocery shopping
-Spend time learning about different savings/investment plans in order to have a college fund set up for Bella by the end of the year.

Monthly/Yearly goals
-Read 2-3 historical books a year, nonfiction (This is for my own learning. I miss school a little bit)
-Have a girls night at least once a month.
-Reread or listen to all the general conference talks from April by the next conference.

Hopefully I can actually keep to these. These are all things I feel I want to do but haven't been very good at lately. I am going to try and write a little report blog for myself each week. Feel free to ignore or cheer me on. However you prefer. It's mostly a way to be accountable to myself. Thanks Mary Anne for motivating me!!

Fun with Aunty Ke'ala

2011-07-06T08:00:00.000-06:00

We had a lot of fun playing while Aunty Ke'ala was here (JJ's youngest sister). She helped feed, play with, and even change the baby. She was a favorite by the time she left. We went to the park one day and had some fun.

She loved the swing, looked out the side most of the time and fell asleep, but loved it.

Is anyone else as obsessed with her super long lashes as I am?

Oh the object of our affection.

Kisses for Aunty Ke'ala

Look this way!

Photo shoot

2011-07-05T16:10:00.000-06:00

One afternoon last week I realized it had been a while since I took some cute pictures of my sweet girl. So we had a little photo shoot. Thanks Nana Sue for the quilt! It made a great backdrop. (Forgive the picture explosion. There are too many cute ones. And this is basically my scrapbook too.) I will say though, that getting this kid to both smile and look at the camera is nearly impossible. I promise though, I do have a very happy and smiley baby.

This is currently my favorite picture of her. Could she be any prettier?

I'm outta here, Mom.

Really? Aren't we done?

Fine. I'll sit for a few more. But don't expect me to like it.

Oh look! Toes! We can smile for that. (Recall a previous post where I mentioned the love affair with the toes...)

Now what is making us smile?

Oh right, that would be Uncle Kamalu's hair...

Another First

2011-07-03T08:00:00.000-06:00

While JJ's mom and youngest sister, Ke'ala, were in town Ke'ala asked if we could hike the Y. (For non-locals, that is the big BYU "Y" up on the mountain). So we borrowed a baby backpack carrier from my friend Kylie and loaded up. Bella had so much fun. She actually slept on JJ's back most of the way up. However, he didn't get many breaks because she woke up and cried if her stopped moving. She had more fun when we switched her to front facing. Here are some pictures of our trek.

All ready to go!

We made it!

The three girls resting at the top

Dad, what are we doing here?

I love the big floppy hat.

Check out that view

Think she loves her big brother?

Happy little family

Such a fun time!

So big and strong. Bella loves hanging out with her Daddy.

Lunch

2011-07-02T08:00:00.000-06:00

One day after lunch...

All done Mommy!

What?

Nobody understands me

I ask all to notice the thoroughness in which the carrots were flung. Even her legs got some.

I love daddy

2011-07-01T21:05:00.002-06:00

Trip to Seattle

2011-07-01T13:37:00.009-06:00

In early June JJ and I had the chance to take our usual trip to Seattle. We went early this year because JJ's younger brother, Kamalu, was graduating high school. It was a lot of fun. Bella did great with the traveling, though did NOT like sleeping somewhere different. It was an adventure.
Here we are waiting for JJ to park the car before we checked into our flight.

We have some wonderful friends who gave us some buddy passes to travel on Jetblue for really cheap. However, apparently the Wednesday right after school gets out is not the day to do that. We didn't get on our chosen flight, the next one wasn't for 6 hours, and it was already overbooked. We didn't feel like going home and coming back the next day. We had some Southwest credits we had planned to use for Christmas but instead we ran down and bought a couple one-way tickets to Seattle so we could get going. Bella slept on both parts of the flight so she did great. Although she did massively spit up on daddy during the layover. That girl has skill. She turned her head just in time to not get any on herself.

Daddy and Bella on the plane

We had fun just hanging out with family the first couple days. Graduation was nice. Always fun to be on Safeco field (I love that about Seattle graduations. For those who don't know, that's where the Seattle Mariners play). It was a late graduation so we put Bella in her jammies. She slept through most of it but woke up scared when the people behind us went crazy. She went back to sleep after the ceremony and all the screaming though, hence her not being in the pictures. Here are some fun shots of us all with the graduate.

Saturday we had the chance to hang out with our good friends, the Hatfields, and meet their daughter Philippa. She and Bella got along great. Pip wanted Bella's bow and Bella wanted Pippa's dress so there was lots of grabbing and smiles. Bella also loved hanging with Jesse, Sara, and Romy.

Wait! We were playing!

Cuddling with Romy.

We were also able to hang out with one of my bestest friends, Lauren, who recently moved to Seattle with her husband and two girls. I have missed her a lot. We played at her house for a while and then had dinner with her family at Desert Fire Monday evening. It was super fun!

JJ playing with baby Claire. How did I not get more pictures at Lauren's?

Jesse and Lauren at dinner

The rest of the time was just fun family time. We ate lots of yummy food (including some awesome Chinese food that I've been craving ever since!) and generally just enjoyed the company.

Bella did NOT like sleeping in the port-a-crib. She cried a lot and woke up a ton. But we managed. Other than that she enjoyed all the attention.

This is usually how her naps were taken. The car is awesome!

Overall it was a great trip. We were lucky enough to make our Jetblue flight on the return and it was quite nice. Though I will say the Long Beach airport is a weird and tiny place for a layover.

Daddy's thumb was yummy on the way home.

Thanks to all our family and friends for a great time! Check back for pictures from our family's visit to our house.

Happy Birthday and Happy Father's Day

2011-06-22T19:24:00.005-06:00

So this year JJ got to celebrate his birthday and his first Father's Day all in 3 days. We had lots of fun with it. Lots of his family was able to come for brownies and ice cream and a rowsing game of Uno. For his birthday I picked him out a really nice new bluetooth headset for his phone. His old one broke and wouldn't stay in his ear anymore. Bella gave it to him and helped him open it.

I like this last one because the look on Bella's face is like "Maybe he won't notice if I steal it...)

Father's Day was more low-key. He got lots of snuggle time with his baby girl and I made cranberry chicken (a favorite request) for dinner.

JJ is such an amazing guy. He is the best husband, always making sure I'm taken care of and just being there when I need him most. And he is the absolute best daddy a little girl could ask for. Isabella completely adores him and the feeling is mutual. We love you!

New experiences

2011-06-06T15:08:00.004-06:00

So about a month ago we started Bella on rice cereal. We've since switched to oatmeal because she likes it better. She loved it!!! She just wolfs it right down. I have some videos of it, but I can't ever figure out how to get them to load so they'll come later. But yesterday we gave her her first veggie, squash. She ate great at first because it had been a while since she ate and she was starving. Although she did make some pretty funny faces. I can't tell if she doesn't like it or if it was just different. But I think mostly she doesn't like it because today she would often smile at me with her lips tightly closed. She would only take a bite of squash if I tricked her with a bite of oatmeal first. But she's doing good.

Our new home

2011-05-31T16:23:00.014-06:00

For those who don't know, this last week we moved into a HOUSE! (Renting, not buying) It was very quick and sudden but was just perfect for us and we couldn't resist. I've been working really hard on getting everything unpacked so it's not perfect yet, but people have been asking for pictures so here you go.

Outside and front yard

Living Room

China Hutch (This is my mom's but she wanted it out of her storage unit so my house gets to be fancy for a bit).

Kitchen/Laundry (There's also a pantry over by the garage door.)

Family Room

Random storage room

Bathroom

Messy Office (still a work in progress)

Isabella's Room

Backyard (I love that I have a yard)

View of the mountains

And just for fun, Bella in her crib after a nap

We love our new place and look forward to having our friends over for a barbecue sometime soon!

In Memory...

2011-05-30T07:40:00.002-06:00

Yesterday my beloved Grandpa Morris passed away. He was 90 years old and lived a truly wonderful life. We always affectionately called him the energizer bunny because he was pretty active right till the end. I think his body finally got tired.

I am so grateful for my knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because I know of the Lord's Plan of Salvation and the sealing power that takes place in temple marriages, I know that Grandpa is reunited with his beloved Lula who he has been without for nearly 7 years and his dear daughter. To give you an idea of how sweet and awesome my grandparents were, for those who are members of the LDS church, I always pictured my grandparents when I saw President Hinckley and his wife. They're those sweet loving old couples that everybody hopes to be someday.

My grandpa had a great life an awesome posterity of which I am proud to be a part of. Here are some fun facts about the amazing family he and his wife raised:

Kids: 7
Grandkids: 34 (15 of which are married, all in the temple)
Great-grandkids: 23 with 2 on the way
College degrees achieved: 1 PhD, 7 Masters, 31 Bachelors, 3 Associates, several degrees in progress
Languages Spoken: 17, with nearly half the family speaking a second language
All of the Morris boys, and most of the Morris grand-boys, have served 2 year LDS missions as well as several of the girls. Between the many family members, nearly 30 countries have been visited. We have also held an annual reunion every year for the past 30+ years. I have never met anyone whose extended family keeps as close in contact as mine does (all the cousins talk fairly regularly).

Also, nearly all are active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

I am so proud to be a part of this man's amazing legacy. I loved him so much and I'll miss him greatly.

My little girl...

2011-05-29T11:26:00.002-06:00

I don't have any pictures today but I wanted to post a little bit about my sweet girl. She is growing so fast. Here are some things about her:

-She LOVES to roll to her tummy! And yesterday she rolled from tummy to back for the first time! She hasn't done it again, but she'll get it.
-She finally knows how to push off her tummy with her arms. (Hence the rolling) I was so proud when she finally figured it out.
-She is working really hard on sitting up. If she's sitting on a pillow she tries so hard to lift herself. If you let her hold your fingers she'll pull herself up. She's also learning to balance a little bit.
-She squeals and yells...a lot. We have quite the loud little girl on our hands. But I love how happy she is all the time. She rarely cries.
-She tries to eat everything. If it gets in her hands, it goes in her math. Usually with fierce "I'm gonna get you" growls.
-She has a MASSIVE love affair with her toes. She is always grabbing them and trying to eat them. Sometimes when she's sitting she'll spot them and her eyes will get all wide like "Look! It's my toes!"

We love her so much! My day is so fun with her.

Family Pictures

2011-05-17T16:42:00.009-06:00

A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to have some family pictures taken. Our friend Brent, who is an amazing photographer, took them and they turned out great! Bella was kinda cranky most of the time, but didn't do too bad. Here are some of our favorites:

Mother's Day

2011-05-17T16:30:00.002-06:00

So this took a while to post but I had a wonderful first Mother's Day! On Saturday I received 2 sets of flowers. Beautiful white roses from my sweet husband and a very pretty set of flowers that were delivered from my awesome Father-in-law and his wife. I was so surprised and loved them all.
On Sunday I enjoyed church with my hubby and sweet daughter. When I got home "Isabella" surprised me by giving me Tangled. I was super excited because I hadn't expected a gift. Bella was so cute trying to hold it and hand it to me.
My own awesome mommy came down and had prepared a yummy steak dinner for us all and JJ did the dishes. It was nice to have a day off. I even got to just sit and enjoy my book for a good part of the afternoon.
I absolutely love being a mother. My daughter brings me so much joy. And I've been blessed with a wonderful mother of my own who is always there for me.

4 month stats

2011-05-10T11:23:00.002-06:00

So apparently my daughter is going to be both very tall and very smart. Our doctor said head size tends to correlate with height which is what we're seeing. Here is where our little girl is at:

Weight: 14 lbs. 12 oz. - 71st percentile
Length: 26 1/4 in. - 97th percentile
Head: 17 1/4 in - 97th percentile (Yes she has a big head, but that means she's smart right?)

She is doing really good in most areas except she doesn't like to push up with her arms when she's on her tummy. She just lifts everything. So we have to work hard on that now so she can learn to roll tummy to back. She also got 2 more shots today and did really good. She only cries with the initial prick and then she's fine. She simply has to voice how rude she thinks that is.

Also, we finally found a cure for her eczema! She has always had super super dry skin to the point where it just felt rough. We tried Eucerin cream and baby oil like crazy to no avail. Finally, this week I broke down and bought the pricier option: Aveeno baby Eczema therapy. Three days of that and her skin is baby smooth!! I highly recommend this stuff if your baby suffers from eczema. It's amazing.

4 Months Old!

2011-05-06T09:57:00.000-06:00

Isabella is 4 months old today! She is getting so big and is so much fun. Here is the news: (Though her doctor's appointment isn't until next week so measurements will come later.)

~She has very much discovered her voice. She is very good at growling, has an extremely high pitched squeal, and an adorable giggle when you can get it out of her.
~She loves to roll. She rolls to both sides all the time and can now roll all the way to her belly!!! However, she then gets stuck because she hasn't figured out that her arms can be used for pushing so she gets all 4 limbs in the air and the wobbles on her tummy trying to turn over.
~She LOVES bananas. Daddy gives her little pieces in the morning and she sucks them down and begs for more.
~She eats 8 ounces with every bottle and drains it like the little piggy that she is.
~She is good at holding stuff in her hands and playing with her toys. She can also get ahold of her binky and pull it out but hasn't quite figured out how to get it back in yet.
~When it comes to sucking her fingers, the more the better. She usually has about 4 in there at a time and occasionally tries to stuff both fists in her mouth.
~She is still kind of a terrible sleeper (See post below). Not sure what to do about that.

We love her soooo much!!

Growling

Eating her fingers

rolling over

Sleep trouble

2011-05-05T10:04:00.002-06:00

HELP!!! I cannot figure out how to get Isabella to stop waking up so much at night. She goes down for bed like a dream. But then she wakes up 3-4 hours after she goes down and we just let her fuss herself back to sleep. She's getting a little better, she's down to about 10 minutes or less now, but usually wakes after another 5 minutes and does it again. **Note (If she goes to bed even a half hour late, she wakes up an hour later and screams forever!)

Then, she has her one feeding at about 6-7 hours after going down. However, after that she wakes up at about 4 hours again and it takes at least an hour for us to get her back to sleep for more than ten minutes.

I don't know what to do. We've been trying to let her fuss it out because before we started doing that she was waking up 6-7 times a night for no reason and we had to give her her binky or pick her up and rock her back to sleep every time. The fussing is starting to help a little with the first waking, but doesn't seem to be helping much with the last one (at least most nights). And we've been at it for about a week. She's learning, but slowly. But the point is, she's still waking up when she doesn't need to and isn't ready. I sneak in and sniff to make sure she doesn't need a bum change, and I know she's not hungry or teething or anything.

Any suggestions? Please help!

Fun pictures

2011-05-02T16:09:00.004-06:00

Here are some pictures I found from our phones...

Snuggled in the towel after her bath.

Holding the bottle all by herself for the first time

Favorite hang-out position

Easter

2011-04-28T12:23:00.005-06:00

Okay, Isabella is only 3 1/2 months old so obviously we didn't have a lot of the normal Easter stuff going on. However, my mom did come down and we made a yummy Easter dinner and watched Tangled for the first time. (Love it!!) And of course, Bella had to have a pretty Easter dress. (Though few people got to see it since she was completely out in her carseat for all 3 hours of church and then some.) JJ had to hold her for pictures because she was hungry and wanted to eat.

And one with Daddy

Visitors and Birthdays

2011-04-28T12:13:00.005-06:00

Last week was my sister-in-law, Pono's, 20th birthday. Rather than us all going out, we decided to throw her a little party at our house complete with taco salad, funfetti cake, and Uno (which in the Santos family gets pretty intense).

Pono with her cake

Pono after she accidentally blew out half the candles while laughing during the birthday song

Then this last week JJ's aunt's family came down to pick up his cousin from school. They stopped in to see Bella for the first time and we took some pictures.

Nap time

2011-04-20T16:07:00.003-06:00

Weekend fun

2011-04-18T13:39:00.006-06:00

This weekend was so fun. For a birthday gift, we had gone in to buy my sister a plane ticket to come visit. Aunt Emily was dieing to meet Bella! I don't get to see my sister very often since she lives in Washington so we had a blast. Friday we went on a 2 hour walk with Isabella because my sister wanted to soak up the sun. Friday night we bought a bunch of treats and the new Harry Potter movie and watched it. So fun! Saturday we did a little shopping and then Em was nice enough to come help out while we had some family pictures taken by a friend. (See an example above. I will post the rest when I get them). Can't wait to see them.

Saturday night, Emily babysat Bella as an anniversary gift and got us some movie tickets. So JJ and I went out on a date to Iggy's and to see The Adjustment Bureau which was a great movie! Thanks Aunt Emily! So nice to get out.

On Sunday after church we went up and visited my mom and then had dinner and game night at my brother's house. It had been a while since we'd been up so we all had a blast.

We miss you Em! Thanks for a great weekend!

Emily with Bella

Sleeping in the carseat while the adults play games

This is one of her favorite toys. She's getting better at grabbing stuff so we set this on her belly and then she grabs it and tries to eat it.

3 months!

2011-04-05T21:27:00.011-06:00

I can't believe my baby girl is 3 months old today!!! She is getting so big and so adorable. Here are a few things about her:

~She weighs about 13 lbs. 3 oz. at last appointment and is a little over 24 in. long.
~This month she experienced her first ear infection and second cold. It was a little rough.
~She is finding her voice. The girl is a little chatter box. :) I love it! We sit on the floor and she just coos and tells me stories all day along. She's also working on figuring out her giggle.
~She can roll onto both sides now though not all the way too her tummy. Daddy and I have competitions to see her can get her to roll to them more.

~She is a good sleeper, taking 2 naps during the day from 2-3 hours. She also sleeps anywhere from 5-7 hours during her first stretch at night and then for another 4-5 after eating. Then wakes up around 8 am.
~She is entirely bottle fed on formula now. She is such a chunker that mommy couldn't keep up anymore and dried up. She'll eat anywhere from 5-7 oz each bottle.
~She is working very hard on figuring out how to suck on her fingers. She usually manages to get her right point finger bent in and sucks away happily on it. I hear it most in the morning when she wakes up. She works herself out of her swaddle, finds her finger, and coos happily away for a few minutes before I have to go get her.

We love this little girl so much! Here was our little photo shoot this morning. (Forgive my photo dump. I love taking pictures of her!)

Morning ritual

2011-04-01T22:58:00.008-06:00

In the mornings while Megs is getting ready: we read the twitter.
News, sports, and our favorite, the tech blogs...

Rough week...

2011-03-30T11:11:00.003-06:00

So last Tuesday Bella was screaming a lot so we took her to the doctor and found out she had an ear infection. Luckily we caught it early so it wasn't too bad, but still... She gets to take that yummy pink medicine now.

So at the time, she had a bit of a runny nose which we attributed to the infection as well. However, it has now turned into a nasty cold. Killer congestion and a yucky cough. Luckily the doctor said today it is not RSV, however we do get to take her to the suction clinic again.

Last night could have been awesome but was instead no fun. She did a 7 hour stretch between feedings the first round. However, since it started at 4:30 pm and Mom didn't go to bed till 9:30 I didn't get to enjoy it as I could have. She did a 6 hours stretch the next time. However, at the 4 hour mark Mommy was jolted out of bed by the sounds of Bella choking and gagging on the built up congestion. So I bolted to her room, sat her up, and proceeded to snucker her nose. She went back to sleep for about an hour and half. However I was awake for an hour of that making sure her breathing was ok. Then I fed her and was awakened by the same choking sometime after 7 am. We repeated the process and got her ready for the doctor.

She is actually pretty happy but it's so sad to listen to her gurgly nose when she breathes and see it running and listen to her little cough. My poor baby girl. Please come soon warm weather and kill all the germs!!!!

Blessing Day

2011-03-28T12:11:00.010-06:00

Yesterday, March 27, we blessed our little Bella. For those who don't know, in our church babies receive a priesthood blessing from their fathers (or other priesthood holding male family member). This is when they receive their name and are also given other blessings for their lives. Other priesthood holders that are close to the family are also invited to participate through the laying on of hands in the blessing. Here are the others who participated in Bella's blessing:

Bishop Stevens
Ben Cannon (family friend)
Alan Morris (Megan's uncle)
Darryl Chandler (Megan's uncle)
Casey Wilde (family friend)
Jason Morris (Megan's brother)
John Santos (JJ's dad)

Bella did great during the blessing. Both Ben and the bishop commented that they peeked at her and she was totally still and just stared straight up the whole time. However, she was extremely cranky until just a couple minutes before the blessing. We were lucky that the bishop made a mistake and didn't announce it till after the passing of the sacrament (it's usually before) so we had a couple extra minutes to get her calmed down.

It was very beautiful and the spirit was very strong. Bella received many wonderful blessings and I think JJ felt very blessed and proud to be able to give his daughter this wonderful gift.

We were privileged to have lots of family in attendance. My mom was of course present. All of JJ's siblings except his older sister (who is away at school) were able to come as well as his mom. We also had the joy of having his aunt and a couple cousins from Hawaii attend. They are going to General Conference next week and came early enough to come to the blessing. I was also surprised to have one of my cousins and her kids be in town.

Afterwards we treated everyone to a brunch at our place. We also had a fun yummy dinner last night with everyone. Sadly, I was a failure and took zero pictures of anybody yesterday. However, I did take some nice shots of Bella in her dress.

And the last one before we lost it...

And finally, our happy family:

Thank you to everyone who shared this special day with us!

Pretty Dress...

2011-03-22T10:34:00.002-06:00

So here are just a couple cute pictures of my little girl.

Sleeping. She kept grabbing her shirt and pulling it up like this that day.

Looking cute in her carseat after running errands.

And my favorite. So so cute in her Sunday dress after church. Stake Conference (a conference involving about ten congregations where we get to hear from our general area leaders) was a little harder than regular church because we were in the concert hall on BYU campus and it was during nap time but she did really well considering.

Sleeping Beauty

2011-03-13T15:07:00.007-06:00

I've been having fun taking pictures of Bella while she's sleeping lately. Here are some fun ones.

Fell asleep on the floor...

Not long before our spring loaded arms started up...

Then JJ got weirdly creative. The ladies I used to work with sent me these pictures of this Norwegian ladies who creates these whole worlds around her sleeping baby that make it look like she in a storybook page or something. Obviously, we didn't get that elaborate, but JJ had to try it.

And finally, a little story. So we've had many a battle trying to figure out how Bella will sleep best, and particularly stay asleep. She slept great when she was first born. Then she got sick and had to be elevated so for a couple weeks she slept excusively in her boppy. She would stay asleep but as she got bigger she got so she would fidget so much that she would get scrunched down with her neck bent weird into the middle of her boppy. This worried me so I wanted her to sleep just in her crib. Problem: She would twitch so much that she would get off balance and feel like she was falling and wake up. So we started to swaddle her up super tight. It was a hassle but it worked. Eventually, we wanted to not have to swaddle her because she became very good at fighting her arms free because she wanted to suck on her fingers. I noticed on my friend Sara's blog that her daughter is always wrapped in this poofy comforter when she sleeps. I thought this might cushion Bella's twitching and solve our problem. So now she is my sleeping angel like this: (The pillow thing is because when we stopped sleeping her in her boppy she would freak out and swing her head back and forth like crazy and wake up so this cushions her head.)

In this one notice she has recently been sucking on her fingers which is why her fist is up by her chin. She puts herself back to sleep much easier now that she's allowed to have her arms free.

Isn't she pretty?

2 Months Old!

2011-03-08T17:56:00.004-07:00

Today Bella had her 2 month checkup. She also had her first shots. She screamed pretty loud but only for a minute. She calmed right down once they were done. I think she just didn't like the initial prick. She's super healthy though. Here is a little bit about our girl:

Head: 16in 88th percentile
Height: 24.1 in, 95th percentile (did you expect something different with a dad who's 6'4" and a mom who's 5'10"?) She grew almost 2 1/2 inches this month!
Weight: 12 lbs. 4 oz., 80th percentile. She didn't gain much this much but apparently it's because she was working on getting tall this month.

~Bella has super sensitive/dry skin. (Sorry, mommy's fault). I have to rub Eucerin cream on her 3 times a day.
~She loves to lay on the floor and play and kick her legs as fast as she can. Her legs are super strong as a result and she can push against things really well.
~She loves to stare at things that both make noise and light up and/or have lots of color.
~She gets pick smiles and makes lots of noise while enjoying said floor time.
~She sleeps good at night, though still wakes up usually every 3-4 hours to eat. Occasionally she will do a 5 hour stretch but it usually starts before bed time.
~She squiggles so much that she must be swaddled in order to go to sleep or she jerks herself awake.
~We have discovered a way to help her sleep sans swaddle but falling asleep is still an issue without it because she like to rub her face when she's sleepy.
~She is trying very hard to figure out how to suck her fingers and is getting very close. Mom and Dad are okay with this because she only does it when she's hungry or sleepy.
~She is a major tooting machine, often making mommy and daddy laugh hysterically and the hugeness of her gas.
~She is super pretty, and super cute and we love her lots and lots!

Here are some pictures. She was uber mellow thanks to her baby tylenol after her shots so I couldn't get her to smile.

Picture time!

2011-03-07T17:53:00.007-07:00

Here are just some fun recent pictures of our little Bella.

Say cheese!

She was out!

This is what she looks like right after we unswaddle her after a nap. I think her arms are spring-loaded because as soon as they're free they shoot above her head into a massive stretch.

Helping Daddy with homework. He is determined to make her a future programming nerd.

Grandma Santos

2011-03-07T17:10:00.003-07:00

So a couple weeks ago JJ's mom was finally able to come visit and meet Bella for the first time. She was so excited and I think she cried on 2 or 3 separate occasions. Aunty Ke'ala and Uncle Kamalu were able to come again as well. It was nice to have company and Bella loved having some other people to play with and look at all day besides just Mom. Here are some favorite pictures from the visit.

First time holding her first grandbaby...

We loved playing with Grandma

Unfortunately I really didn't take that many pictures. But at least I got a few.

Releasing and Reusing...

2011-02-27T15:31:00.003-07:00

So today we took Bella to church for the first time. I'll explain why in a bit. (We're actually under doctor's orders to keep her home until the end of March and the end of RSV season). I should have taken a picture of her before this when she had her pretty headband on but I didn't. I found this cute purple dress that is a hand-me-down from my sister's daughter's clothes. (Hence the reusing). It's way too short but it was fleece and cute so we made do today. Thank you Aunt Emily! She was so happy to get home and be allowed to stare at her star and squiggle after being in her carseat or held for most of the morning. She played here like this for about an hour after church.

Bella did great at church. She was happy all through Sacrament meeting. She sat with Daddy while I played the organ and was a very good girl. The best part was when she let out a very loud and prolonged toot causing us and the people around us to crack up (though we did so quietly). :) It was extremely unladylike but she does it all the time. She slept through Sunday School and made it through the last hour, Relief Society, because she woke up to eat halfway through so I quickly fed her. Although she did let out another loud toot and a big burp in the middle of the lesson. My daughter is not very polite in public. :)

In other exciting news, JJ was released from the bishopric today! He has been serving as the executive secretary in our ward for 3 1/2 years now. For our friends of other faiths, he was basically the secretary to the bishop (the priesthood leader of the ward or local congregation) which means he kept track of people's bishop appointments, called to make appointments, and contacted the people who'd been asked to speak in church each week to give them their topics. This was an unusually long time for someone in a BYU student ward to serve in such a calling. It has been a trial as bishopric members are generally more time-consuming callings than some. But it has also been a blessing. I have truly felt the Lord strengthen me and bless our family as JJ faithfully served the members of our ward and the Lord in his calling. My testimony of the gospel and the Lord's chosen leaders of our church have been greatly strengthened these past 3 years and I feel blessed that we were given this opportunity.

I am however very excited to have my husband be a part of my Sunday church experience for the first time since we got together. When we were dating and during the first part of our marriage he served in the Elders' Quorum presidency (one the men's priesthood organizations) so he has always had meetings before and after the three hour block of church and is usually working on stuff during Sunday School so I usually went to that by myself and found rides to and from church. So it will be nice to have him travel with me and be able to share the study of the scriptures with him in Sunday School. Now we just have to wait to see where he'll serve next. :)

Oh the objects of our fascination...

2011-02-18T12:37:00.008-07:00

So Bella spends a fair bit of time during the day staring at things. There are two things in particular that she will zone out on for quite a while. Here is the first...

This star lights up and plays music. She's been known to sit here and smile and stare for almost an hour. She absolutely loves it!

And sometimes we do this...

What is the object of our fascination here? That would be the cows.

This blanket covers her window and for some reason she feels the need to have a staring contest with the cows on a daily basis. She always wins. She must make sure the cows don't go anywhere and that they know who's boss.

And today we became queen over the cows! JJ gave her her baby thermometer and she held onto it! It's the first time she's held onto something other than a finger. JJ thought it looked like a queen's staff as she stared down the cows. She looked very happy about it.

And here are a couple fun picks of one of my favorite outfits of hers...

Snuckering

2011-02-08T12:40:00.003-07:00

Snuckering is what JJ and I call it when we have to suck the snot out of Bella's nose. For the past week and a half or so we have been during this more and more often during the day. The poor thing is so congested! The past couple of days I noticed that her voice was starting to sound hoarse. Now for those who have never heard a baby cry with a hoarse voice, it is the saddest thing on the planet. Angry I can handle. Sad is almost too much for mommy. I was worried that her cold was moving deeper especially since I have not been able to really snucker anything out of her nose and she still sounds way congested. So finally this morning we took her to the suction clinic. It's this thing the hospital has where you can take them in once or twice a day and they stick a tube up the baby's nose and suck all the mucus out. Apparently it keeps their RSV hospital admittance down by like 50%. It worked wonders! Hopefully since she doesn't actually have RSV we'll only have to do it for a few days. But it's the first time my baby's nose has been clear in weeks! Thank you modern medicine!

Wow, that's a big baby

2011-02-04T20:14:00.003-07:00

So just so this is documented when I make my blog book at the end of the year, we went to the doctor today because Bella's been really congested for the past week and they wanted to make sure it wasn't RSV (thankfully it was just a cold). However, we did find out that Bella now weighs 11 lbs. 14 oz. at 4 weeks old! That's right, she's nearly 12 lbs, which means she's gained 2 lbs in the last 2 weeks. Man that child is a chunker. Gotta love the chub!

Time flies

2011-02-03T14:29:00.006-07:00

Holy cow! My baby is 4 weeks old as of yesterday! I can't believe she's already been with us for a whole month. She brings us so much joy every day. Here's a little about her:

-She loves to be cuddled. A little too much really. It makes sleeping in her crib a little difficult at times. She just wants to be held.
-Bella is a major cat-napper during the day. If I'm not holding her, no matter where I put her down (swing, bouncy chair, crib, boppie) she never sleeps for more than 40 minutes during the day.
-She loves to hang out on the floor when she's awake and just play and tell stories.
-She has become a bit of finicky eater lately, either eating way too often or sometimes putting up a fight when it comes to eating on both sides. Not sure why that that is.
-She is super strong. She can hold her head up pretty good when she wants to and she is always kicking her legs and holding them in the air. She also likes to push away from our chest to look at our faces.
-She likes her bath once she's in it but doesn't like the process of getting ready for the bath nor is she a fan of getting out of the bath. She basically screams the whole time we put jammies on and then it's about another ten minutes before she calms down. She gets a little mad when she's cold.
-She is cute beyond all reason.

Daddy loves me...

2011-01-30T18:15:00.001-07:00

This is what I happened upon when I came home from church today...

Oh, what's in a name?

2011-01-27T16:20:00.003-07:00

So today I went to get Bella's birth certificate. You'd think this would be a simple process yes? Not if your husband has a long Hawaiian name apparently. So I get the certificate and get home only to have my husband tell me that his name is spelled wrong. It had 2 "i's" instead of one and the Chinese name was missing the g. So I headed back to the health department to get it fixed. Come to find out the problem was with the hospital paperwork. The i was my fault (never fill out important info on pain meds) but the g was the hospital's fault, having simply not entered it correctly. Now apparently they normally do not fix the mistake if it was your fault but since they had to fix their own they went ahead and fixed mine. I looked over the new certificate and said mistakes had been fixed. I happily went home.

I hand it to JJ and he looks at me and tells me there is now an o missing. Seriously?! Not knowing where the mistake was made this time JJ headed down to the health department to make extra sure that it came out correctly. We assumed that if the o was missing on the original we would have noticed and so this would hopefully be another hospital, and thus fixable, mistake. Unfortunately this was not the case. Again, never fill out important documents while on pain meds and no sleep. Apparently the o was my mistake as well but since we didn't catch it the first time it now has to be corrected and notarized by the state and will take four to six weeks to fix.

So ya...

Bella learns a new trick...

2011-01-27T09:28:00.002-07:00

These are a the kinds of thing only Daddy can teach...

3 weeks...

2011-01-26T09:40:00.007-07:00

Bella is 3 weeks old today! I love this little girl so much. Although, she is starting to cry a lot more, but we're working on that. Darn that purple crying stuff. Hopefully it doesn't last long. Yesterday was a rough day.

Bella otherwise is a very good baby, eating good and usually sleeping good, especially at night though nap time is not always great. But I'll take it. She makes so many fun faces when she's happy which just crack me up. She finally let me get a few good pictures of her the past couple days so I thought I'd share.

And we lost it...

Enjoying tummy time. :)

Silly faces

2 Weeks!

2011-01-19T17:17:00.002-07:00

Today Bella had her 2 week checkup. She is very healthy, already back above her birth weight. Here is a little about our girl right now.

Weight: 9 lbs 12 oz. (Yes, my baby is bigger at 2 weeks than many of yours at 2 months)
Length: 21 1/4 inches

Bella's favorite song: Prelude from the unaccompanied cello suite by Yo Yo Ma. This calms her down without fail. (For those who've seen Master and Commander it's the theme I think, or something. It's also playing on The Prince and Me when Edvard gets crowned).

She is an extremely good eater (and coincidentally a little too good at pooping). She also loves her boppie. We just got one to put in her crib because we discovered that she sleeps better if she's a little elevated and it works like a charm.

She loves to be cuddled on someone's chest, probably because that's how she was sitting most of the time she was in me. Although, it is a little hard to put her down when she wants to be held all the time. But she'll get there.

We love our little girl so much. She brings us so much joy and we can't wait to watch her grow.

Here is a picture of how I found her sleeping the other day. Not sure how she managed to roll over like that.

Visits

2011-01-19T16:40:00.008-07:00

So this past weekend little Bella had lots of visitors, including aunts, uncles, and both grandpas. Here are a few pictures.

Grandpa Morris

Grandpa Santos

Auntie Ke'ala

Uncle Kamalu

And here are a few pics of our little family

Birthdays and Baths

2011-01-11T09:47:00.006-07:00

So Saturday I had my 24th birthday. Obviously not real exciting since I'd been home from the hospital for about a day but we at least did cake. JJ also got me the box set of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series which I was super excited about. Bella and I are going to read them together.
Here is a picture of me getting ready to blow out the candles. I was so exhausted that JJ had to remind me to smile and be happy in the picture.

On Sunday night Bella had her first bath. It was just a quick sponge bath of course since her cord hasn't fallen off yet, but we managed.

Getting all lotioned up

Jammie time!

And here are a couple of me and her since everybody says there aren't enough of those. What can I say? Mommy's the picture taker. (I look kind of pained in the first one cuz I wasn't feeling good so I made JJ take another).

And one more Daddy cuddle picture just because they're my favorite.

And one more for fun.

More Bella pictures

2011-01-09T18:47:00.006-07:00

Here's some more!

Bella and Daddy. He loves to snuggle her and I think it goes both ways.

I loved her little scrunched nose

More Daddy loves. Think he's whipped yet?

She gets this perplexed look on her face all the time that I just love

Coming home from the hospital

I'm a little picture crazy so I'll break this into one more post.

Pictures!

2011-01-09T18:18:00.005-07:00

Okay, so remember that lens JJ got me for Christmas? I LOVE it! I've gotten to take some great pictures of my little girl (ok so some are from JJ's phone). But without further ado, here's my precious Bella...

First, despite the fact that i look terrible, here is a picture the first time I held her.

These are from when JJ's siblings visited us in the hospital

Hospital pictures

I'll break this up so look to the next post for more from the good lens

She's Here!

2011-01-06T16:50:00.003-07:00

Our baby girl is finally here! Yesterday morning at 10:37 we welcomed Isabella Renee Kamaleikupono Santos into our family. (Her Hawaiian name means beloved child of virtue). Thanks to JJ's mom for giving her such a beautiful part of her heritage.

Here's the story for those who haven't heard. We arrived at the hospital at 4 am for my scheduled induction. By 5:15 the pitocin was going and we were just waiting. At around 8:45 my doctor came to break my water. However, when he did so he thought, despite his Monday statement that she was in position, that he might be feeling her butt not her head. He did a quick ultrasound and confirmed that she was breached and immediately ordered a C-section. They took me off pitocin and began prepping the OR. I was NOT thrilled. Actually I was quite terrified.

So anyway, at 10:00 they wheeled me in. JJ stayed by my side the whole time. He was absolutely amazing. I did pretty good in surgery except for the fact that my brain decided I needed to have a panic attack over the fact that I couldn't feel my legs. After she was out they had to give me a relaxin to calm me down.

They first thing the doctors said when she came out was "That's a big baby!" They were stunned. She ended up weighing in at 9 lbs. 6 oz. and measuring 21 in long so that was a bit of an understatement. Apparently I was pretty much all baby. No wonder she couldn't turn around. And thanks to my doctor's quick actions I was saved a very long and trying day. He said even if she hadn't been breached I may have eventually needed a C-section anyway due to her size.

Both Bella and I are doing great. I have been blessed with a truly excellent recovery so far. Not a lot of pain, no nausea or dizziness. I'm back on my feet today.

Bella is such a good baby. As long as she's fed and has a clean bum she hardly cries at all. She loves her binky though she complicates things by her desire to have her hands next to her face all the time. :-) She loves to be cuddled, whether in her blankets or just by one of us. JJ hasn't stopped grinning at her since she got here. He is a very smitten and very proud daddy. Bella is an excellent eater and sleeper as well. Thankfully she took to breastfeeding like it was no big thing making things very easy for mommy.

Anyway, we love her dearly and she is such a joy to us already. Here are a few pictures I've taken of aunts and uncles visiting and Bella sleeping.

Okay, I'll post some pictures later. The internet here is way too slow...

Why not...

2011-01-01T16:36:00.003-07:00

Well, I'm sitting here bored so I thought I'd do a 2010 recap for us like everyone else...

Here's what I did this year:

Quit Macy's
Worked as a substitute teacher
Got a job as a SAC lady at Oak Canyon Jr. High
Celebrated 3 years of marriage to my amazing husband
Found out I was pregnant
Spent 15 weeks throwing up thanks to said pregnancy
Spent 2 awesome weeks playing the tourist in Seattle
Learned to play the organ and became the ward organist
Learned more photography stuff and started shooting more
Created my own photography website
Got the flu twice and 1 bad cold thanks to germy middle schoolers
Decorated my nursery super cute and prepared all the stuff for the baby
Enjoyed lots of wonderful time with family
Did NOT have a baby yet, but still waiting

Wow, that was good. I had an even better year than I remembered. I have GOT to learn to be more positive.

Here's what JJ did:
Went to school
Continued to work at Costco
Transferred to UVU and became a Wolverine
Took awesome care of his wife while she was sick
Encouraged his wife to quit Macy's and pursue work in her chosen field (I love that man)
Worked really hard in school and did awesome
Got very excited to be a daddy

Hopefully 2011 will be equally cool.

Christmas!

2010-12-28T10:33:00.021-07:00

So I took a lot of pictures so this might be a long post, but it's nearing the end of the year which means I'm getting ready to do my blog book. This means I must have documentation so bear with me.

We had a great Christmas. On Christmas Eve my mom came down from Salt Lake and spent the day. We did some shopping and some cooking and just kinda hung out. Then we had a delicious fondu dinner. This is a major tradition in my family. We marinate the meat all day and cook it and then do chocolate fondu for dessert. We didn't have the fondu pots this year so we cooked it different, but it was still awesome. Then we opened our gifts to and from Mom.

Here is Mom with her stocking (she loves Bath & Body Works and her chocolate of course)

Here's us opening our mom gifts. I got a book from one of our favorite authors and Eclipse (which I was stoked about). JJ got Inception which we had fun watching the extras of while we ate.

I also got these awesome fuzzy socks! For those who don't know, I LOVE fuzzy socks. These are amazing cuz they have lotion inside that lasts up to 25 washes and keeps your feet soft. Coolest thing ever!

Here is Mom opening the digital picture frame from my sister and I. She thinks they're so cool. She just sat and looked at all the pictures after she opened it.

My mom got JJ this book with bits of wisdom for fathers about daughters as a gag gift. We thought it was funny, but he really loved it. He just sat there reading it for like half and hour.

Christmas morning I got up and made JJ french toast (his favorite) for breakfast and then we set about opening gifts. Here is our haul before we started.

Here's our stockings. Despite me saying he didn't need one, I got JJ a new beanie for his stocking stuffer. He won me over by saying the one I gave him last year is his favorite one. :)

Our unborn baby won the lottery this year. She got tons of gifts! Here we are opening them all.

I love the "I love Daddy" bib.

JJ's sister Pono somehow found this little number. Can you tell she's excited to be an aunt?

We had a couple gifts that weren't labeled so I ended up opening one of his, but he got some nice work shirts and a nice sweater from his mom.

My mother-in-law got me a baby scrapbook. I am SO not a scrapbooker so this one was perfect because the pages are basically all made. It comes with a few stickers and then I just have to put the pictures in. It's great!

My sister had us for Christmas this year. She got me new cookie sheets! and a serving platter, all of which I was in great need of. JJ's sister Mele got me some cute jewelry.

JJ received a box set of all 4 Shrek movies (Shrek is his favorite) from my sister and an Arizona t-shirt from Mele (she's a grad student down there).

We also got some fun stuff from my dad. He got a cute nighttime book for the baby. I got a pretty bracelet that says Mom on it (loved that!) and JJ got a pocket knife and watch. For those who don't know my dad, he is a big knife and watch collector. I'm surprised it took this many years for JJ to receive one actually. It's got lots of gadgets and JJ says he's now all ready to be a scoutmaster.

And finally our gifts to each other. So here's the story with JJ's gift. 6 months ago JJ lost his keys, including the remote for his car. He complains about it all the time. So I searched everywhere until I found a remote I could afford and had it all programmed so he could run out and beep it. Then, 5 days before Christmas we lost the DVD remote. JJ was digging in the couch looking for and lo and behold, pulls out the lost keys. I immediately began crying (thank you pregnancy) which totally confused JJ. I walked over to the tree and handed him his gift. He realized what it was and said he'd wait till Christmas to open it. He was still very excited, especially since the old one was dead. Anyway...

And my husband is amazing! There's this lens for my camera I've been wanting for a long time. It takes absolutely amazing pictures! The box seemed too small so I thought he got me something else, but nope! It was my lens. JJ was lucky enough to get a great face when I saw it. We spent the afternoon at my brother's house where I played with it a lot. I will post some of the great pictures later.

Anyway, so we had a great Christmas. It's been nice having JJ home so much. We've been able to just hang out a lot (we're also working our way through several seasons of Alias). Thanks to all our family for everything! We also received a beautiful handmade quilt from JJ's stepmom. I will post pictures of that later. Now there's nothing to do but sit around and wait for our baby girl to arrive!

Tidbits

2010-12-28T10:17:00.005-07:00

These are just some pictures of a few recent things that I found on the computer.

Our good friend Brad sent us some adorable baby stuff. We're gonna have the best dressed baby in the state...

We also had the chance to attend my old roommate Kenna's wedding reception. I loved that year and it was fun to see her happy day. Congrats Kenna and Brian!

And here are a couple pictures of our first major snow of the year.

Baby update

2010-12-20T13:59:00.002-07:00

Well, the countdown is on! JJ is done with school for the semester and I'm officially done with work. As JJ puts it, we're just on baby watch now. I went to the doctor last week and this week. I'm 70% effaced but not dilating yet (no change from last week to this week). Hopefully by next week I'll have made some more progress. I'm really ready to be done. Right now I'll just try and enjoy Christmas and do some walking to hopefully get things going. Here is a picture of the belly at 38 weeks...

Last Day...

2010-12-18T13:53:00.011-07:00

So yesterday I finished my last day at Oak Canyon Junior High. While I am excited to not have to work anymore and am looking forward to being a stay at home mommy, I will really miss my job. I worked with some of the best ladies ever. (SAC ladies are awesome!) For those who don't know, SAC stands for Student Assistance Center and those of us who work in the SAC are generally known as SAC ladies by the students. We do all the subbing as well as various other tasks when we're bored. This job was such a blessing. It was in my field and allowed me the kind of low stress work I needed while pregnant. Here are some pictures...

This is the room where I spent all my days (well, when I wasn't subbing a class). Often there are several students there taking tests or simply having to sit there because they were being disruptive in class or were tardy too often and earned detention.

Gina hangin' out behind the desk...

This is the board that determined what the day was gonna be like. It was blank this day because no teachers were out so we weren't covering anyone.

Beckie (my supervisor of awesomeness) decided I needed a picture of a normal board.

This is what we'd see on a busier day, though thankfully it wouldn't be me covering every single class. :) Sparkle is what Rebecca became known as after her stint as an elf at the Festival of Trees.

And this is what we do when we're really bored...

Hang out around the space heater (particularly Rebecca). Our office is usually freezing.

Grade papers (this was an unusually large amount) and deliver copies...

Or simply hang out amid much girl talk. :) I caught Beckie putting on her lotion, not sure why the picture is so blurry...

And finally, these are the wonderful ladies who made my job so great. I will miss getting to hang out with them everyday, chatting about everything imaginable. They made my job awesome and kept me going through many a crappy day. Love you all (from left... Zina, me, Beckie, Rebecca, Logan, and Gina)

Christmas Fun

2010-12-05T13:03:00.012-07:00

So last night we had the opportunity to attend BYU's Celebration of Christmas concert that JJ's sister, Pono, was a part of. It's always great concert and I loved it! As soon as the first number started (Masters in this Hall, one of my favorites) I just got a big grin on my face. By the end of the night my Christmas spirit had been knocked up up a few more notches. Here are a few pictures of the event:

Men's Choir

BYU Singers

Concert Choir

Women's Chorus

Pono in Women's Chorus (she's got the curly black hair right in front of that big darker green tree on the right)

Combined choirs and Philharmonic orchestra

After the concert

And finally, here are some pictures of my pretty Christmas tree and lights. I love them! Apparently my neighbor's daughter, Lyla, does as well. I'm told she always points and laughs when she sees my lights. I love it! :-)

The view from outside

Thanksgiving

2010-12-04T10:08:00.006-07:00

I'm a little slow with this post but I thought I should tell about our Thanksgiving holiday. Despite my photographer status, I was a terrible picture taker and only got pictures of our last night.

Anyway, we had the privilege to have JJ's mom come out and visit us for the week. Unfortunately, thanks to the dreaded "storm of the century" that was supposed to hit Utah on Tuesday all flights were canceled and she didn't get in until Wednesday evening. This turned out to be very frustrating since Utah ended up getting really cold and windy and that's about it.

Anyway, Wednesday night the whole family (JJ's siblings, mom, and us)got together at our house for dinner and hanging out. We had lots of fun. Thanksgiving morning was spent watching JJ's mom cook some things for the big Meyers family party we were headed to that night. (And of course, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade). In the afternoon JJ and I headed up to have dinner with my mom in Salt Lake. She just moved into a new apartment so we had fun enjoying a little party in her new place. I love me all that traditional Thanksgiving food. We ordered pies from Kneaders and they were absolutely delicious, particularly the chocolate one which I'm pretty sure should have been illegal.

After eating headed to a big family party hosted by a bunch of JJ's mom cousins and aunts. It was pretty crazy. Lots of people and tons of food (both Thanksgiving and Hawaiian). It was lots of fun.

Friday morning JJ and I tried to brave Target at 4 AM to try for a TV that my mom wanted to get. BIG mistake! Black Friday shoppers are completely psycho. We pulled in at 3:45 and the parking lot was completely packed and the line at each door wrapped around the lot. We decided to give it a try anyway. We got inside about 2 minutes after the doors opened and JJ went running. Unfortunately we didn't know the TV's were on pallets in menswear. Apparently it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Someone told JJ they were gone in seconds. There were seriously people who have 12 TV's. That shouldn't be allowed. As I made my way toward JJ I got pushed and shoved and run over by carts. It was ridiculous. Anyway, so we headed home and went back to bed. JJ's mom and sister spent the day shopping from like 6 AM till almost 5 PM. I went out for a couple hours and bought some baby stuff and then I was done. Needless to say, we will not brave Black Friday deals again. So NOT worth it.

Friday night was pretty mellow. JJ's brother's girlfriend (Elaine) made another yummy Thanksgiving dinner since she had a free turkey and we all just hung out. Saturday was also pretty chill, but we did head up to Temple Square to enjoy the lights Saturday night. These are the some of the pictures I got. It was cold but we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Overall it was a great week and we had lots of fun enjoying the holiday with our family.

Nursery!!

2010-11-21T14:25:00.015-07:00

So we've been working on the nursery for probably about a month now, but I was waiting to post pictures until I could show the whole process from start to finish. So without further ado, here it is!

Moving the furniture. We had to move JJ's computer desk into the living room. It was a bit of a process rearranging everything and most of all getting that desk out of the room.

Painting. Our home teacher was nice enough to come help JJ with the pink since I'm not supposed to be around the fumes that much. Then I did the white trim later since it didn't take long and I could just cover my mouth.

Putting up the vinyl.

The dresser. After seeing the pile of baby shower gifts, JJ developed a great need to get the dresser put together. He was under the impression it would be like a 45 minute project. Instead we ended up with me sorting through this mess and telling him where to put the screws for 4 hours. (2 hours that night, and 2 hours the next day). But we were very proud of the end product.

And then the final touches. We got the crib all put together yesterday and it's so cute! I still have to put the window valance up and I have a rocker coming but other than that the baby's room is ready!

I was so excited to see it all turn out so cute! Only 5 more weeks to go and we can't wait!

Baby Shower

2010-11-21T13:58:00.006-07:00

So last weekend Lauren and Kylie, two of my bestest friends, threw me a baby shower. It was so great cuz it was just relaxed and fun which is just what I wanted. I also got a huge surprise from my mom. She came down to hang out the day before and surprise surprise! She had flown my sister in from Washington for the occasion! I was so ecstatic! I love my sister and don't get to see her nearly enough. She was great and helped me put up the decorative vinyl in the baby's room while my awesome mom shampood my carpets. (See nursery post for the whole decorating process) Here are some pictures from my baby shower...

My long-time friend Jess and my sister Emily

JJ saw this pile and all he could say is "What if it's a boy?"

The Story...

2010-11-09T12:54:00.002-07:00

Okay, so apparently JJ was not thorough enough on the paint story as many have been asking to hear the whole thing. So here it is in all its idiot revealing glory.

So I bought that paint to do the trim in the baby's room. I found out later that I had bought base paint which is apparently meant to go on clear under the color and is not like "real paint". Anyway, so I put it in the car that morning to return it to Walmart that afternoon. Made it to work, no incident. However, on the way home I went around the first big turn and suddenly smelled paint. I was on the phone with a friend and the time and glanced back to see why I could smell it and saw the wonderful mess that JJ took a picture of. Apparently the lid was not on tight like I thought because I was dumb enough to not think to hammer it down.

I yelled "Oh Frick!" and told Kylie I'd have to call her back. I then frantically called my mom to see what to do about it and if there was any hope. Then I proceeded to go pick up JJ in terror. I asked him to come out of class early because we had kind of an emergency. By the time he came running out (thinking, as he said, that I was hurt or had hit something with the car) I was bawling, sure that he was going to kill me. Amazing husband that he is, he just sighed with relief and laughed and asked what we needed to do to get it cleaned up.

I apologized profusely all day and cried a lot. JJ just laughed at my hysterics and made sure to get a picture of the incident before we cleaned it up. We grabbed a couple old sheets and some paper towels and wiped out as much of the paint as we could. After calling Supersonic Car Wash, who graciously agreed against their policy to try and clean it, we headed over there and hoped for the best. They were great. They said because we got the worst of it wiped out and brought the car in before the paint dried it saved us. It looked like there would be a line at first, but as it dried the line disappeared. Thankfully you can't even tell anything happened.

So that's the story. Hope you enjoyed. :)

The Paint Story:

2010-11-08T13:05:00.004-07:00

For anyone who hasn't heard the paint story, last Wednesday Megan texted me and said something happened to the car...

So this is what it was... Mostly I thought that she had crashed it or gotten into an accident, so this wasn't as bad as what I had imagined.

Anyways, its clean now...

This picture shows we got mostly there, but after this it dried out so there isn't even that white line anymore... Its back to pre-spill conditions.

Belly at 31

2010-11-02T15:38:00.002-06:00

I'm actually a little over 31 weeks, but I had my 31 week appointment today. I am measuring 32 cm. so I'm right on track. I love my doctor. He's so chill. He told me I couldn't ask for a better pregnancy. He was very pleased with things and said he couldn't ask for a better patient. Needless to say I felt very good about that. :) He even said my blood pressure and weight were really good which is awesome considering I've had the flu and been eating a ton of sweets lately. We are now down to 2 week appointments so let the countdown begin!

Our baby girl is very active. She's constantly moving, kicking, and performing baby acrobatics which JJ loves to feel. He's constantly putting his hand on my stomach and calling out "Hi baby" and then asks if she's moving. She also very much enjoys sitting on mommy's bladder at the most inopportune moments during the day, like when I'm in a class and cannot leave or driving in the car. She gets the hiccups occasionally but they're pretty soft and I can only tell because it's such a rhythmic pulse. We've started painting her room which is now a beautifully soft pink. We just need to do the trim now.

We can't wait to meet our baby girl and both mommy and daddy are getting very excited for her to come. Less than 2 months now! Here is a picture of the belly...

New photos

2010-10-31T15:38:00.001-06:00

Visit my photography blog listed here to see my latest shoot! Loving the fall colors!

Wedding shoot

2010-10-24T19:54:00.004-06:00

As JJ already posted about last week I had the chance to shoot my first wedding as a photographer. It was really fun, though tiring. I've had fun editing them this past week and getting them all looking good. Here are a few of my favorites.

Thank you to my husband for all his support. This is something I've wanted to do for a long time and thanks to his love and support, next week I have my first official paid shoot. I can't wait. For future pictures, see the link to my new photography blog listed on the right.