Christmas in New York. . . Is there anything more magical?

I don't think so!
We got to New York this morning at 9 am EST. We were supposed to leave CA at 10 pm but our flight was delayed 3 hours because of snow in New York. I was a little nervous what this would do to Bella, getting on a plane at 1 am! She was an ANGEL!! She fell asleep the minute we sat down and I forced her to wake up to nurse when we were landing because I was worried about her ears, because she came down with a cold 4 days ago. Murphy's Law at work!!

Bella loves the other 1/4 of her family. She fell asleep on the couch with Uncle Tommy, she never does that with either Frank or me.

Tonight we are going to dinner with Frankie's sister and her daughters. Should be fun! Those of you that know the history say a little prayer for us!

coming up for air

I think I might be catching a breath of fresh air, but I'm going back under tomorrow.

It has been an ABSOLUTELY insane month. I thought having Frank at home would give me so much more time, unfortunately it doesn't, fortunately it does mean that he is doing his job and getting me LOTS of new clients!

I'll update all the details later but here's the overview.

I've been a crocheting mad woman before Thanksgiving. I gave all my nieces and nephews beanies. Nevermind Bevan's (the youngest boys) beanie, I made it WAY too small, so I have to make him another one. It's on my list.

We went to Utah for Thanksgiving. We had a great time, we were there for 10 days.

Since then all we've done is work. I FINALLY got my Christmas stuff up on Saturday, we are leaving Friday for New York and so we only get to enjoy it for 6 days. Oh well! I felt like we needed to for Bella's first Christmas. Not that she will remember or cares, but it made me feel like not such a slacker mom!

Frank and I decided we can't run a business out of our house without help. We are getting our nanny/assistant back starting in January. THANK GOODNESS! She came one day last week and will be here two days this week and then won't be back until after New Year's.

Last night was the ward Christmas party. Santa got sick, so Frank had to fill in. That's him in the picture on the top. He was such a good sport about it!

Hidden Talent

My friend Heather has been teaching me to crochet. I crochet Bella's blessing blanket for her this summer (with the help of my mom, she'd take over when my hands would get tired). She tried to teach my how to make baby booties (her specialty) I didn't do so great at those! Somehow I got the idea to start making beanies. I went with Heather to buy yarn during the yarn sale at Michael's and got some yarn to make beanies for my nieces for Christmas. They turned out so STINKING cute! On Tuesday when Frank took Bella to Stefanie's house he put the beanie I made for her on her. So Stefanie (being the amazing photographer she is) took pictures of Bella in it.

Enjoy!

I love this picture. Her face is hilarious! She has started sucking her bottom lip and pulling these funny faces.

Tuesdays with Mallory

I'm stealing this story and pictures from Stefanie "Mormons" blog because it's such a cute story and I want it in Bella's book at the end of the year.

Tuesdays while I work Bella goes to Stefanie's house and plays with Bella, or "Baby Beba" as Mallory calls her. Once she's dropped off, Mallory wants Stefanie to put Bella in the swing they have. She always turns the swing on, pushes the swing so Bella can "go high", and Mallory always makes sure Bella has LOTS of toys.

This last Tuesday, Mallory thought Bella would like to have Mallory's blanket, kitty, baby and the baby's bottle. I mean, who wouldn't want all those things piled on top of them?
"I'll share with her.""Here you go, Baby Beba"This is the face of sheer pleasure. I'm sure she's thinking, "Are you really going to just sit and watch this?"

Another story about Bella at Mallory's: Stefanie will sit Mallory on the couch with Bella to give her the bottle. After about 2 seconds Mallory will say, "Aw done, aw done, aw done," and proceed to start to push Bella off her lap. Of course Stefanie is always there to catch her, I think it's so cute that as soon as she's done, that's it, it's over.

Halloween Fun

Halloween was much more fun with kids! Thursday night we went to a party at the church. It was supposed to be Trunk or Treat, but it was raining, so instead people decorated the doors of the different rooms at the church and the kids went door to door.

Bella and I went as a Hollywood starlet and her pocket poodle, Fifi. You can't see the rest of my outfit, but it was very Hollywood.

Poor Bella was so tired at the party that as we were sitting at the table eating, she was falling asleep on Frankie's lap. She looked like an old man, with her head falling down and when it would reach the bottom she'd quickly wake up and sit up. It was very funny! I'll post the video of it later.

Halloween night we just went to our friend Kathy and Steve's. We hadn't seen them in a long time, so it was good to see them. They had a lot of great ideas for Frank and I as far as jobs are concerned. Kathy loves poodles so we had to take Bella to see her.

With the bad comes the good

What a roller coaster we have been on. The real estate screamer has come to a halt. Frank lost his job yesterday. I've gone from devastation, to anger, to stress, to happiness, to relief, to excitement, to gratefulness, to sadness, to optimism.
When I first found out I was devastated. I couldn't imagine how we were going to survive, with not only no income, but no insurance.
Anger at the company for laying off one of the hardest working sales people they had, only because of corporate politics. We found out this morning that they chose to lay him off because the other sales rep might have taken an escrow officer with him. Never mind he hasn't brought in a new client all month. I HATE the corporate world! I want to ring their necks, I want to yell and scream at them and let them know how they are affecting so many people, but it won't do any good.
Stress over how we are going to make. Thinking of all the different options that might be available.
Happiness because Frank is finally out of the horrible real estate world. It's toxic, he hated dealing with a lot of the people, the divas, the pride, the greed, the stupidity.
Relief because he's out. Maybe this is the kick in the pants he needed to come work for our business (I better get used to calling it ours, it is going to be). Maybe this is God's way of saying you can do it. It reminds of a saying I used to know, I don't remember it word for word anymore, but it was an eagle standing on the edge of a cliff and God telling him to leap and he wouldn't do it, because he was afraid, finally he did and he flew. Not only did he fly, but he soared, maybe this is that push. The leap of faith, it wasn't a leap, it was a heave ho, get off the cliff!
I'm so excited for the possibilities of having Frank being able to work for home and concentrate on just Sum of All Numbers. I think that it could bring great things to our family. No more dealing with corporate and horrible Realtors and dirty lenders scamming people out of their homes and lives.
Gratefulness for all the people that have called and emailed saying they know of this job or that job or just to say how sorry they are. It makes you realize how many people really care about you.
Sadness. Sadness for Frank. He is such a person that took pride in doing a great job and working hard. It's such a slap in the face for him.
Optimism. I know that God never gives you more than you can handle and as the saying goes, when life gives you lemons make lemonade.

flip flop

Bella can roll back to front now! She has been rolling front to back, but today I was sitting on the couch with her and she usually just lays on her back and plays with her toes, today she rolled! I thought it was a fluke, so I flipped her back on her back and she did it again!! No more leaving her on the couch or any other object unsupervised.

5 Months

Today is Bella's 5 months birthday. She is 19.4 lbs. I don't know how long, I'll measure her tomorrow. She rolls over front to back, and can almost sit up. She started food this week. I gave her some avocado, she's not real sure what to think of it. She laughs so much! She's really becoming a fun, happy baby. According to my sister, Stephanie, she was a kinda fussy new born, but she's much happier now. She hardly ever cries, only when she's tired really. I started giving her a sippy cup with water in it to play with. She really likes it. It's like a pacifier for her, but a treat comes out! Speaking of which, she has started taking a pacifier when we put her to bed. It makes it MUCH easier to put her to bed. She barely even makes a noise when we put her down, now. We put it in, and lay her down and she just sucks on it until she is almost asleep, then she spits it out and is in dreamland! She's been having some trouble sleeping because she sleeps on her belly, but now that she can roll over, she does it in her sleep and then she wakes up and can't get back to sleep. The last couple of nights when this happens, she doesn't even cry, she just lays there "talking." She has started screeching, it's so funny, but not so much at 3 am!!

Fall Fun

I've been very excited for Fall this year. I'm not sure why, I think that now that I have a child, it's so much more fun to experience things, even though, at this point, she doesn't really care about much. It so fun to experience first through her eyes. She's so entranced by everything.

Last weekend we went to the pumpkin patches over in Half Moon Bay. I've never seen so many pumpkins in my life! It was incredible acres and acres of pumpkins. We went through a hay maze which I've never done before. Stef was shocked that I'm from Utah and I'd never been through a corn maze or anything. I don't know why I haven't, it was fun, but frustrating. I was glad I wasn't by myself, I would still be there! After the maze we went to the beach and had a picnic. It was SO windy, but we found a little cove where we were pretty protected from the wind.

Bella was SO good all day. She only took 2 20 min naps, but she was always happy. I think it distracted her enough from her teething pain. Poor thing! As you can see in the one picture, I put her on the dummies lap and she BAWLED. It was pretty cute!

Quirks? I'm totally normal!

I (Holly) have been tagged! Here are the rules:
1. Link the person who tagged you...Alesa(my sister, she's private)
2. Post these rules.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.

I don't really think that I have quirks, because I'm practically perfect in every way. :) I guess I'll have to REALLY stretch to think of some.

1. I hate appliances on my kitchen counter. I hate anything on my kitchen counter. I have my microwave in a cupboard above my fridge that EVERYONE thinks is a ridiculous spot, but I don't care, because it's the only spot off my counter that it fits.

2. I hate the word "moist." I think it's the worst word in the English language. I hate the way it sounds and the motion that your mouth has to make to say the word. It's like nails on a chalk board to me!! YUCK! I shudder just thinking about it.

3. I hate Bella leaving the house without a bow on her head. I suppose this will probably translate to her leaving the house with messy hair. I don't like kids leaving the house with messy hair. I don't care about my hair, but kids with messy hair just look dirty.

4. I have a little OCD and ADD together. I will start a new hobby/project/interest and I get OBSESSED with it. I love the research and learning about whatever the latest interest is. After I've learned everything I care to know, I get bored and move onto the next thing. Right now it's coupons, before that breastfeeding, than pregnancy and birth, salt water fish, dogs, snakes, oh gardening was in there somewhere.

5. I count everything. When I was younger, my two best friends and I would have a 3-way call, they would talk and I would sit and count my change, or whatever else I had. I still do. I count everything.

6. I'm not a very creative person. That side of my brain got left out as my mom used to say, "When God said brain, you thought He said train and you missed yours." I at least missed that part! Except, I've really started to like digital scrapbooking. It's the only creative thing I can somewhat do.

I tag: Stephanie (my sister), Stefanie "Mormon", Heather, Alyson, Celeste, Taeya

Not much new

I haven't blogged lately, cause I have nothing really going on. Things here are pretty normal. Frank took another 10% pay cut at work last week. He's not officially getting paid 1/4 of what he was 3 years ago. That's the real estate market for you. He's started selling my business so it can start making enough money to fully support us. He's only made a few calls and has set one appointment for me. That's a start!

Bella is getting to be so fun. She's laughing and giggling and has learned how to go to sleep just by me lying her in her crib.

That's all for now! I'm off to the Olive Fesitval!

4 months

Bella turned 4 months yesterday. Today we had her well baby visit. She is 16 lbs 13 oz. 26" long and has a 16" bead. She's in the 95th percentile for height, 85th for weight (she's not as fat as we thought she was!) and only 50th for head.

She can roll over front to back, she smiles and giggles, mostly for her daddy. She LOVES to chew her hands and is a drooling machine. She loves bath time. She's really starting to be a lot of fun. She interacts and loves peek-a-boo.

Here are some pictures that Stefanie took yesterday while she was babysitting. My friend Heather made the booties.

Sleep

Today I'm grateful for sleep. The last two nights Bella has slept 7.5 hours, woke up, ate and went back to sleep for 4 hours! This morning she slept for 8 hours, went back to sleep for 4 hours and then woke up for 45 mins. and went back to sleep for 3 hours!! I never check on her when she's sleeping, mostly because she never sleeps that long, but today I checked on her NUMEROUS times . I was getting very worried about her.

(BTW, this picture is an old one, it was taken 8/6/08)

This week's savings

I did really well this week.

check it out here

New blog

I've started a new blog dedicated to clipping coupons and getting great deals. Check it out here

Big Savings!

I did VERY well at Raley's this week. I got $97.90 worth of stuff for $27.41!! That's a 72% savings! That brings me to a total savings of 63%

I'm so hooked on this. I got all of this stuff (except the cranky baby and the seat she's in). BTW, the look on her face cracks me up!!

She moves!

Family Pictures

We had our family pictures taken a couple of weeks ago. You can see some of them here. I can't wait to get one printed to hang in our front room.

Girlfriends

Today I'm grateful for girlfriends. When I was pregnant I was very worried because I didn't know anyone with kids. All my friends were either single, or had grown up kids, no one I knew was in my situation. In April I got an email from Stefanie "Mormon" saying she was my visiting teacher and she would like to come visit. I haven't been active in the church for 4+ years. I decided it wouldn't hurt for her to come over, she would say hi and leave and I would probably never hear from her again, but at least my mom would get off my back about me letting them come over (my mom has called the stake relief society president to make sure they know where I am). Anyway, Stefanie came over with Alyson and much to my surprise I hit it off really well with both of them. (My mom will love this part) I do believe that Stefanie was made my visiting teacher for a reason. They both had little kids and it was nice to at least know someone that had kids. Stefanie invited me to come walking with a group of women from the church around the Lake. I decided to go, because I was 36 weeks pregnant and ready to have a baby and I was hoping it would, at the least help with my energy and maybe even make me have a baby. I started walking and got along with all of them really well. Long story short, they have all become great friends! It's nice to have other women to talk to and get advice from about raising babies.

We've even managed to sneak away for some girl time without kids. Hopefully we can do that again soon! I'm not ready to go back to church, but if I decide to, it will definitely be easier having people there that I already know.

I'm so glad that I've met these great women and that God put them in my life when He did. Love you all!

pears, pears, tomatoes and a nanny

Yesterday, we continued the canning of the summer fruit. We spent all day canning pears. We did 40 bottles of pears and 10 bottles of tomatoes! I have enough pears to last AT LEAST until next summer! Now I just have to figure out how to be even more domestic and do something with them.

Today I'm grateful for a nanny! Since my mom *abandoned* me and decided she needed to go back to UT and didn't want to live with us forever, we have been looking for a nanny. Bella goes to Stefanie "Mormons" house on Tuesdays which is fabulous! But I also work out of my house and schedule phone calls with clients on Thursdays. I didn't want to take her to a babysitter, because I don't really need her out of the house all the time. I also figured if I had a nanny, I could find someone to help me with my office work. Long story longer, I had a friend that was out of work and graciously said she would help me out while she was out of work, but she had a hurt back and couldn't do it anymore, so I had to start looking for someone new. After MANY interviews with people that I either couldn't have a conversation with, because they didn't speak English (let alone be able to do office work in English) or I just didn't feel great about them, I found someone!!! I was walking down the street on Sunday with Bella and I saw my neighbor who has a 9 month old baby and he mentioned me needing a nanny. His nanny was looking for a job on Thursdays. It was perfect. Right there, I asked her to show up today. I figured if she was his nanny, she must be pretty good. He's SUPER anal about his house, his stuff AND he's a cop, so I figured he probably had done all the background checks and she must be clean. She came today and my baby is happy, my work is done AND my house is clean. It was such a relief to come downstairs after working, my baby was sleeping, and my house was clean. I wasn't stressed about hurrying and getting everything done while Bella was sleeping. After talking to her more, I find out she is taking classes to become a tax preparer. I have been looking for someone to work for my company so we can provide tax services! I can't believe how it all worked out. Let's just hope it continues going well.

Hello, My name is Holly and I'm a coupon addict!

I'm hooked already! I can't believe I actually like this! I always thought I would hate it. Yesterday, I went to Walgreens and got $23.54 worth of stuff for $1.74 after rebates!! Then I went to Raley's (our grocery store) and got 10 boxes of GM stuff i.e., Cheerio's, Toaster Strudels, Go-Gurts, for $9! I've saved $61 this week and I have enough cereal to live on for the next 6 months! I'm amazed, because it's all name brand stuff that I wouldn't normally buy because it's too expensive.

Yesterday I was wrong. Today I am grateful for banana bread AND coupons! I went to Target today and got 4 boxes of Kashi Go Lean crunch for only $4! I saved $10.66!! I don't have many coupons yet, so I have only used a couple. I have spent $28 and saved $23! I'm quite excited about it.

I amaze myself!

This having a kid and hanging out with Mormon girls is making me quite domestic! I had some bananas that were going bad, 3 months ago I would have thrown them away. . . today I make banana bread! Can you believe it? I've never made banana bread in my life. I must admit, I actually liked doing it. I put it in little muffin tins and made almost bite size muffins and one loaf of bread. If I would have had nuts or chocolate chips it would have made it better.

The other thing I started doing today was clipping coupons. Stephanie "I wish I had a gall bladder" used to call and tell me all her great deals she would save by shopping with coupons. I never had the desire to do it, because I never had nor wanted a ton of food in my house, well, now I feel like I need food in my house. Plus, with the economy with the way it is right now, we could definitely use the money saved. So today I bought two papers and clipped the coupons. I've got my list and tomorrow I'm headed out to buy a few things. It starts out slow, because I don't have many of the coupons for what's on sale. I'll let you know how it goes. I went to Wal-greens today and saved about $15 and spent $30. Tomorrow I'm hitting Target and Safeway.

Today I'm grateful for banana bread, tomorrow I'll probably be grateful for coupons! :)

Desperate Housewives?

Not desperate, domestic.

For anyone that really knows me, knows that my domestic skills are closer to Susan's than Bree's. If there is something to be burnt, or broken, I do it. Well, I have a couple of friends that are MUCH closer to the Bree side of domesticity, so they are training me, much to Frank's pleasure. Last week not only did I go make hair bows for Bella (okay, really I separated the beads and organized them, and Stefanie made the bows, that's a minute detail), but I also went to Heather's house with Stefanie and they taught me how to can. Okay, you can get up off the floor and start breathing again!

If you see in the picture with the finished product, there are also some fruits and veggies, I also went to the grocery store. Again, breathe deeply and you won't pass out.

Since I haven't been able to get a hard drive yet, I can't upload any more pictures to my computer and I can't make any more scrap book pages. I will catch up soon!

My friend Stefanie, (Stefanie "Mormon" according to Frank) watches Bella on Tuesdays and today they had a photo shoot. Thank goodness, because I hadn't gotten around to taken any 3 month pictures of her! click here to see them.

Digital Scrapbooking Question

For all of you that do digital scrapbooking: how do you store all your supplies? My computer is getting very full. It's not letting me save anything else, because I have too much stuff! Thanks!

I'm grateful for hand to mouth coordination

I know I shouldn't be happy about it, but I am. Bella absolutely REFUSES to take a pacifier and acts like I'm poisoning her when I try to put it in her mouth. Today, she finally got her hands to her mouth for an extended period of time. She was so happy about it!

I'm grateful for toys

Bella is getting big enough to start playing with toys. I got some of hers out today to see how she would play with them. She's still too small for the jumper, but she loves the tummy time one. Her toys give me a few mins. that she doesn't have to be attached to me so I can get something done a little easier.

I'm still grateful

LOL, my every day thing didn't last long. It's been busy around here and I've been too tired at night to blog or scrapbook.

Bella is feeling MUCH better. She woke up Sunday morning like her usual self. Smiling and happy and laughing. She's had a little runny nose since, but nothing else.

I'll post some video of what I'm thankful for today in a little while.

Health

Today I am grateful for good health. I realized today that we have really taken for granted that we are both generally healthy and we were blessed with a healthy baby.

Bella slept 6 1/2 hours last night and I was very excited this morning when she woke up for the first time since 10:30 last night. She was a little cranky when she woke up but I fed her, she fussed for a while and went back to sleep. At 8:30 I woke up and she was still sleeping (very late for her), but I didn't think anything of it. She ate and then just fussed and fussed. After being awake for 10 mins. she started to drift off to sleep, so i tried to put her in her crib and she would just wake up screaming. I held her until I had to leave for an eye appointment. When I left I thought that she wasn't feeling great (she's had a little runny nose for a couple of days). Frank held her and she just slept for another 3 hours until I got home. When I got home she still didn't want to eat. I decided to take her temperature and it was 100.4 in her armpit. I turned to trusty Google (I should know not to Google health issues), everything said to take the baby under 3 months with that temperature to the dr. So I called and she said to get her to the E.R. immediately. I consider myself a fairly calm mother, so I tried to talk the dr. out of it. I didn't want to go there and just have them think I was over reacting. She insisted I go, so I did.

Anyway, the point of this post, while we were there I was thinking how lucky we were that we didn't have to be in the hospital al the time. It about killed Frank to see her have to have tests done, I can't imagine if we had to deal with that all the time.

Long story longer, they couldn't find anything wrong. They sent us home with tylenol and Motrin and said to come back tomorrow if it's not better. When we left her fever was 102.5. We gave her a shower tonight, which she loved and actually quit her crying. Then she pooped and has now fallen asleep for the first time all day. I think she's feeling better now.

On a side note, I went to get contacts today, but I have white blood cell "pockets" on my cornea. BLECH. I have to take steroid drops for the next 2 maybe 3 weeks. I had pink eye about 2 months ago, and this is left over from that I guess. So no contacts for now.

Concert in the Park

Today I'm grateful for the concerts in the park. It was kind of a crappy day today. I spent all day dealing with insurance (I should be grateful for that, too) and bills. BLECH! It was great to get out of the house and enjoy some music, but most of all just being with good friends and talking and laughing. I love summer nights. I'm sad that summer is going to be over soon. I'm glad in CA we have another 2 months, at least.

Bouncy Chair

I'm exhausted, so please excuse my post tonight. I wanted to stick with my commitment though. Bella wouldn't sleep for longer than 20 mins all day today. Maybe that means I'll be able to sleep through the night. I don't think we'll be that lucky.

Today I'm grateful for her bouncy chair. We got it at a garage sale. I didn't have a bouncy one for her. I have another one that sits in my office that doesn't bounce, but she doesn't love it. Stephanie (my sister) encouraged me to get the bouncy one, I think it was $3, maybe $5. At first she couldn't sit in it because it was too upright and she would fall over. But now she loves it. Frank and I were able to eat dinner at the same time with both hands while she sat on the table and joined in the conversation. She was smiling and kicking and laughing (okay, not quite, but almost).

Yesterday's this morning

I forgot to do my gratitude last night, because I was working.

Work- that's what I'm grateful for.

I have a job that allows me the flexibility to be able to stay at home with Bella for most of the time. I can work nights and weekends when Frank is around to take care of her. Yesterday, as it will be with every Tuesday, Bella went to a baby sitter in the morning while I went and saw clients. It was a nice break to make me remember that I still have a brain and can carry on an intellectual conversation. Running your own business isn't all rainbows and cherries (don't ask, I don't know) it definitely has it's down sides, but so far the good out weighs the bad.

P.S. I found some new fonts from Krysta's blog. Here are the downloads to them:
http://1000wordsphotography.typepad.com/allie/free-handwritten-fonts.html
http://www.kevinandamanda.com/

Bath Time

Today I am thankful for Bath Time. Bella has had a hard time going to sleep the last couple of nights. She gets so tired but then just can't settle herself down (it doesn't help she won't take a pacifier). I went and bought some lavender bath stuff, bubble bath, lotion, massage gel. I'm trying it all! Not only does it stop the crying while she's in the bath, but after her massage Frank gives her when she gets out, a little food and she's right to sleep.

Organization

I just realized there a lots of typos in my page. I can't see the text when I'm typing it because it's so small. I'll go back and fix it later, you'll have to excuse them for now.

Today was a good but very busy day. We spent all morning cleaning the garage (that garage is our nemesis). It seems like every 4 months or so we have to spend a whole day cleaning it, because everything gets put in there. Our houses are so small here that the garage is not just where you park your car and for "normal" garage things. It's the laundry room, pantry (non-food items), kitchen appliance storage, office closet, coat closet, shoe closet and the list goes on and on. I think that I finally *knocking on wood* got everything a home in there. I managed to get rid of yet another 4 boxes of stuff. I love purging, it makes me feel so light weight.

After we got the garage done, we went to the Fremont Art Festival with our friends Kevin and Val. It was the perfect day for it, warm, sunny but not blazing hot. We just walked around and people watched (one of my favorite activities). Then we came home and our friend Paul came over and we all just sat and talked on the porch. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Gratitude Journal

I was reading a book tonight and it talked about keeping a gratitude journal. This is something that I have attempted to do, but making lists in a book is not my thing. So I have decided to turn my blog into one. Every day I'm going to post something that I'm thankful for. Since I plan to turn my blog into a book at the end of the year I decided that I would scrapbook all the days. This makes me do a few things. First, I'll get my scrapbooking done. Second, it will force me to take pictures. Third, hopefully through out the day I'll be looking for things that I'm thankful for and make me have an "attitude of gratitude."

Another reason that I decided to make this a public thing, is I think we spend a lot of time complaining to each other and it's not so easy to let people know the things we are happy and thankful for.

Today's reason:

Peace and Quiet?

Today is a strange day. I don't have a lot of time to post, because I've got a TON of stuff to do/catch up on, but wanted to let you know I'm alive.

My mom has been staying with us for the last 8 weeks. I was lucky enough to have Bella at the perfect time for my mom to be done teaching school for the summer and be able to come and help with Bella. It was so wonderful to have her here. I think we were both pretty apprehensive about it, but we had a great time and never got the least bit cranky with each other. It's amazing how smart Mom's become when you become a mom yourself. I'm sit here tearing up thinking of the sacrifice she made for me this summer and for my whole life. I never gave her enough credit for all she did for us. I don't know how I would have kept my head above water with her not being here. Trying to run a business and have a newborn proved much more difficult than I though it would be. Thank Mom! I love you!

I'll post more about the many activities over the last week later.

One step forward 1/2 step back

I thought we had Bella on the bottle, so we tried again yesterday and she SCREAMED and SCREAMED and SCREAMED! I finally started to nurse her and she calmed down, then I slipped in the bottle and she was fine, I tried to hand her off to Grandma with the bottle still in her mouth and she FREAKED! So we tried again today and she took 1/2 of it, then when my mom went to burp her and give it to her again she freaked again! AUGH! Any hints would be much appreciated. We have two weeks until Grandma leaves and she has to be taking a bottle.

1st Anniversary

Finally I'm getting around to mentioning our anniversary. We are one of the gazillion 07.07.07 couples. We got married at Wente Vineyards, it was the most amazing day and everything turned out perfect. Frank and I have had a lot of 7s in our life. Isabella is the 7th grand child on both sides of the family. When I was pregnant Frank suggested naming the baby Sette, 7 in Italion. I told him we aren't famous enough for that! Then when we checked into the hospital, all but two of there rooms were empty, and they put us in room number 7.

Mom and Isabella joined us for our anniversary. Frank wanted to blind fold me for the car ride, but I refused, instead I closed me eyes (MUCH to my chagrin). It was fun though to not figure out where we were going (the vineyard is very out of the way, I would have figured it out very quickly). Dinner was very yummy. After dinner we walked around and took pictures where we were married and in the vineyard.

Lots of Smiles

fun blog

Here is a totally different game of tag. My cousin Taeya had this on her blog and it looks like fun!
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew us a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

She did it!

My Mom is here staying with us for the summer helping out with Bella. Thank goodness! I don't know how I would be able to run the business and have a newborn. It's hard enough with my mom here.

Anyway, we finally decided to try and give Bella a bottle so that when my Mom leaves and I don't have the luxury of dragging the babysitter and Bella around with me to wait in the car during client meetings she'll need to take a bottle. The first time we tried she wanted absolutely nothing to do with it and screamed (she's got a GREAT set of lungs)! So we went to the store to look for different bottles based on some recommendations from other people. We found the Adiri bottle we gave it to her today and she took to it right away and drank the whole thing! She loved it! Of course she has to have expensive taste because it's the most expensive bottle I've seen. Hopefully we can get away with just having one for each stage.

Bella's Nursery

When Stephanie was here she helped us put the finishing touches on Bella's nursery. Here it is. I love it!

Kinda Cool

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 6 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

One Month and Smiles

Today is Izzie's one month birthday. I can't believe it's already been a month! She smiled for the first time on Thursday, since then we've gotten a few, it takes her so much work, she doesn't do it too often. Frank said that it must have been gas, because she promised him she wouldn't do it while he was at work.
She weights 11.6 lbs (I think that's almost 9 oz.) and is 24" long. She is almost out of all her 0-3 month clothes, we are putting them all on her now so she can wear them for another week.
She has huge yawns that make her look like a hippopotamus opening it's mouth.

Johnny Appleseed

Frankie has a new project. I think I've mentioned before that Frank is very passionate about anything he sets his mind to, almost obsessive once he gets an idea in his head.

One day he was browsing Craigslist (something he does often that leads to his brilliant ideas) and he found some giving away a free apple tree. All you have to do is come dig it up. He talked about this tree for days, sent me pictures, asked me over and over again, if I wanted an apple tree. Talked about the tree, where it would go, how good apples are, finally I said, if you wanna dig up the tree and spend all day doing it, I don't care.

So he calls the nursery goes there buys 100 lbs of compost and everything he needs to transplant this tree. He gets up early Saturday morning and digs a hole half way from here to China, because the hole has to be twice the size of the root ball and it's a ten foot tree, so it must be really big. Then he drives 45 mins. to the people's house and spends two hours on his hands and knees digging the tree out (he can't use a shovel because you don't want to damage the roots), then has to drive back, it takes an hour to drive back because he has a tree in the back of the truck.

Now keep in mind, our backyard goes straight up a mountain. It's terraced and the first level has real stairs, but the second level has rocks precariously placed to replicate stairs (thanks to our landscaper, that's another novel). We have decided to plant the tree on the second level, by time he gets back with the tree it only about 6 feet tall with a few small branches because he trimmed it back so much, so carrying the tree up the hill isn't the problem, he has to carry 100 lbs. of compost and another 300 lbs of the dirt that came with the tree. I'm not exaggerating when I say 300 lbs. He managed to get my friend's boy friend to come help him drag that up the hill. Two guys in very good shape could only lift this bucket of dirt one step at a time while trying to not fall back down the hill, the steps aren't made for two people and a bucket, they are barely made to fit one! So he gets everything up the hill that he needs and gets the tree planted. It's a cute little tree.

That's not the end, I guess he decided (really the nursery told him) that the tree needs to be protected from the harsh sun until it is established, so then he erects a canopy to go over the tree. Since he's planted this tree, the minute he comes in the door he goes straight out the back door and up the hill to check on the tree. Well, today he decided the dirt around the tree has formed too hard of a clay so as I right this, he is in the process of digging the tree back up and replanting it with something to make the dirt not clay. I hope this tree lives!!

Happy Father's Day Frankie!

It's Frankie's first father's day and although he's only had 3 weeks experience he's already an amazing father! He gets up with me in the middle of the night when I have to wake up to feed Isabella, he changes all the diapers in the middle of the night (and a lot of them during the day), he's been waiting on me for the last 3 months at least with absolutely no complaining. I love how Frank gets so excited and passionate about everything, whether it's his baby girl or an apple tree (I'll explain that story later). He makes me laugh every day. That's definitely something that I love about it. I never have to doubt that I won't laugh every day of my life! Thanks for being an amazing husband and father, Baby! We love you lots!

Sisters

What a fun weekend! Stephanie came to visit and see "Baby Lella" (as her 2 year old calls her). We had a great time. We drove to Half Moon Bay on Saturday. Along the way we stopped at a farm stand and got the best fruit and veggies. The top picture is of the very yummy raspberries that we picked up. We were going to go walking at Half Moon Bay but it was VERY windy and cold so instead we drove along the coast down to Santa Cruz. Stephanie helped us put the finishing touches on Izzie's nursery (that's what she's doing in the second picture), she got my share of the creative genes so we appreciated her helping us with that!

It was so fun to have her visit. As we were talking about all the joys of pregnancy, child birth and breast feeding and the crazy things that happen to your body, my mom pointed out how lucky we are to have sisters to talk about that stuff with. I have to agree. I think there is no relationship like a sister. They are my best friends. They are someone that you always know will be there for you and love you, no matter what. You can fight and argue and complain to each other, about each but you always make up and love each other. I feel really bad for people that don't have sisters.

Fun with Photo Editing

This is what happens when your mommy and you are very tired and you are waiting for your baby to wake up and eat before you can go to bed.

The papparazzi won't leave me alone

Izzie is only 17 days old and she has close to 1000 pictures already. Unfortunately, she doesn't do much so all the pictures are about the same. My sister is here visiting so she helped us set up a "photo studio" and take some more poses.
Enjoy!

First Bath

Izzie had her first bath last night. Frank thought she wasn't going to like it because she was asleep (when is she not?) and he thought there couldn't be two people that liked baths as much as I do. She absolutely loved it! She woke right up and just wanted to relax in the water. She liked it so much, she cried when she had to get out.