Sleepover and more baths!

Here I'm pretty sure they were watchig "Hairspray" - They all agreed that Link was cute :)

Play time!

Bath Time!

Where have you been?! Ok, where have I been!

WOAH! It's has been a cRAZy couple weeks! First of all, a bunch of my family came out here a week ago from Wisconsin and we had an AMAZING time! We did a little gardening, went to Boondocks, the Dino museum, had dinner at our house a few times, went to the zoo and went 4 wheeling! Oh, and we gave about half a Zillion baths! AND we had about half a dozen sleepovers! WHEW! What a truly WONDERFUL time!

Then the last few days we've been celebrating my birthday - Joe has been such a tricky guy! Truly I've never had such a nice birthday!! Thank you friends and family!!! I love it!

But back to my family visit, it really was great! I'll post some photos and narrate more soon! Just wanted to say hi to the blogging world! I don't know how much I'll be able to write in the next few days, but wanted to say I'm back!

PS - Priya finally learned to pull herself up today! Nothing is safe! :)

I'm a Corvette Baby!

Ok, so I'm REALLY behind on blogging, but I thought I'd steal this quiz from Julie as a way to jump back in to blogging! It's fast, so take it yourself and let me know what you are! :)

I'm a Chevrolet Corvette!

You're a classic - powerful, athletic, and competitive. You're all about winning the race and getting the job done. While you have a practical everyday side, you get wild when anyone pushes your pedal. You hate to lose, but you hardly ever do.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Palin vs Gibson!

This is copied from http://alienrants.blogspot.com/2008/09/palin-v-gibson.html

"

Once again, Day by Day cartoon nails it.

What we didn't hear from Palin was this:"Well, Charlie, I was thinking...I ought to just whip up a batch of brownies and fly over to Russia and sit down with Putin, or whatever that new guy's name is. I mean, we need to just talk this through. We need to understand each other. We need consensus."No, that would be Obama foreign policy and Palin wasn't going there! "

I LOVE this post! Thanks 'One Vote'!

9-11

I just wanted to take a second to remember that horrible day 7 years ago that changed the world, as well as the heroes that showed the world what we're made of.

For me it was especially strange since I was in Uruguay and didn't have any access to the media. the only reason I knew anything had happened was because I was walking to teach English with my companion, Hermana Hamilton, and some people motioned to us and had us come into a restaurant, pointing to the TV. Since we weren't supposed to watch TV as missionaries, I didn't really know what to do, and just looked briefly. It was really hard to tell what was going on... lots of smoke and building, but I really couldn't tell what I was looking at. There were words on the screen -Torres Gemelas- but at that time, I didn't know what gemelas meant and was just confused. When I got to our English class, a new missionary knew what it meant, and the magnitude of what had happened began to sink in, though to be honest it was very hard to grasp and I know I didn't react with as much horror as I now feel when I think of that day.

A day or two later we got to see our mission president, but he seemed to assume we all already knew what had happened, so he didn't really give any details. It wasn't until weeks later when I received detailed letters from my brother Brian that I finally began to understand everything that had happened. The only thing I knew was that no matter the horrors in the world, His plan could bring peace and that's what we focused on as we continued our missionary service. The kindness of our neighbors was incredible as those who before wouldn't talk to us now stopped us and expressed their condolences.
-Bree

8-8-08 Photos - New Stuff :)

So, I was just looking thru some photos and found these from a month ago! Here she was trying her fresh food net for one of the first times... grapes I think... and finally realized she could DO something about having a hat on her head! Plus I love watching her read with Joey - she LOVES it!

More Crawling! Now she's got it!

She was really working hard at this tonight! I wasn't going to post anymore crawling vids for a while, but she was doing so well!... I couldn't help it :)

The vid is a little long... sorry I don't really have time to edit for length - I just want to get the stuff up and share and if I take time to edit it too much I'll never get it done!

You've gotta love the little outfit and the booty shakin! If only she had a mini-cheese head!

1st Pack Game for the Babe!

Priya's First Packer Game! Go Pack! And after a short gagging session when I first saw #12 where #4 should have been, I can say, Go Aaron Rogers! Here's a few pics of my sick little cutie babe and her daddy watching the end of the game:

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Mommy & Baby

We've received several requests for more photos of Priya's parents and since recent video has been less than flattering, here is a nicer photo of Priya and Mommy :)

So sick... and SO tired!

Priya has been under the weather the last few days :( Today (Sunday) was especially sad, after a night of almost litteraly no sleep! The longest block of sleep she had after midnight was 20 minutes without being held and very little more than that IN our arms! Still, she managed to squeek a few smiles here and there. This is after a nice evening @ Craig & Deann's, after she had some food-ies and right before we threw her in the bath!

Crawling! Well, kind of

So, this was five days ago - she's doing MUCH better now, but it's still cute! I was on the phone with my parents at the time, so sorry for my random talking in the back :) Also, you've got to love the one sock on, one sock off that was a result of nap-time! Plus "mommy" was just weeding the garden, so please ignore my amazing "attractiveness"

Today was funny because she's been sick, so she was pretty off balance every time she tried to crawl and often her tail end would wobble and tip over, while the front half was working hard to keep movin forward - it craked me up everytime, though I'm sure she was less than thrilled!

We love our little explorer!

Sarah - FAR from Plain!

I can't help it -I have to briefly post about the VP Candidate, Sarah Palin! She seems like an amazing woman, who is not afraid to be tough and stand for what's right, and some how is able to maintain a very feminine appeal. To be honest, I'm grateful for Hillary and the path she has blazed for women everywhere! She has also made it easier for Sarah to show that you don't have to give up her femininity to be in politics.

Maybe I'm not saying things right. I just thought she was amazing and tough and easy to relate to as I heard her last night at the Rep. Convention (which I have NEVER had any desire to watch before by the way!) I am excited for politics in a way I never have been and currently could not be happier about McCain's choice for VP!

My father-in-law wrote an article analyzing her honestly thus far at http://alienrants.blogspot.com/2008/09/palin-screen-test.html -it's not long- check it out!

I can't wait to see how things shape up now with her on the ticket!

A Happier Moment :)

Here's a more attractive image of my little princess from the 6 month shots we did a couple weeks ago :) I'm finally starting to edit some of these, so you might see a few over the next few days!

Not for the faint of stomach!

Yesterday Priya was playing happily in her crib after her morning nap. When I went in to get her, this is what I found! What you can't see is the poo on the crib wall as well as all over the bumper pad! Yum! :P

And another thing....!

This photo is from a few weeks ago and was on my phone, but I liked it and thought I'd share :)

Our little girl has been in the habit of waking once or twice in the middle of the night for a bottle. But other than the fiasco of last week when she was teething hard core, she usually just takes the bottle and quickly falls back to sleep without any problems. Occasionally when an unnamed parent that was not her mother would get her, said person would let her fall asleep on his chest as he sat in our big comfy recliner in her room and there they would both snooze for a few hours, a few nights a week. No harm done, right? Rather cute, you might say - WRONG! For the past two nights when our little "angel" has woken up for her usually night time snacks, instead of peacefully drifting back to sleep, she has screamed and whined, until one of us picks her up. The MOMENT one of us holds her to our chest, she snuggles up and starts drifting off to la la land! What happens if you try and put her back down? Guess! :) Needless, to say, this is a habit that I'm hoping soon to break!

Oh, and her other front tooth cut through! At least it didn't seem to hurt as much, though I think I made it bleed as I was "brushing her teeth" tonight :( But she's eating real food like never before and making sure to bite the spoon with every mouthful!

This has been quite the week for this little one! And it's only Tuesday!

Did I mention...

...that she claps her feet? And has learned to undo her diaper?! AND she's started saying Da Da!? As you can tell, my taping skills are STELLAR! :) I can't get a video yet of the DaDa, but we'll have to get that on here soon - its so cute!

Leaps & Bounds!

This photos is from a few days ago when my sis in law brought her cutie kids over for a mini-
photo-shoot :) So fun!

However, the real story was yesterday - it seemed like my little sprout did just that and acquired a bunch of new skills and a new level of understanding over night! For starters, she has been struggling to sit up for long periods of time. Not that she "can't" really.... more that she's too squirmy to really do it for long, especially when she insists on siting bolt upright most of the time! Well, not any longer! Yesterday joe set her down and 10 min later, she was still just happily sitting there, playing with some toys as we got ready for church!

Secondly, at church she started playing this new game with the man sitting behind us - one where she'd start by giving him a nice smile, then when he smiled back, she'd bury her head in my shoulder, all shy like - Yah Right! Not this child! But it was fun to see her play with him like that!

She also decided she likes walking! For the last few weeks, she's been insisting on being held in a standing position almost always. However, yesterday she started repeatedly putting one foot in front of the other as we hold her fingers and she "dances" on tip-toes half of the time :)

All of that, combined with GINORMOUS smiles she can't seem to contain and eating PILES of food last night before bed and I have to say this girl is growing by leaps and bounds! Cliche, i know :)

The "Favre Situation"

Actual Church Sign in Wisconsin

People have asked me how I'm dealing with the "Favre Situation". To be honest, I'm sure I'm WAY less informed than current residents of Wisconsin, since when I talked to my Mom about it, she passionatly informed me of many items of which I was previously unaware which only fuled the flame of my frustration at the Packers. However, as time has gone on, I have slowly come to terms with the fact the Brett is in fact a Jet. To be honest, I think he looks kinda goofy in a Jets uniform, but whacha gonna do! So ironic that he in his Packers uniform are on the cover of Madden this year. Though I am upset at the outcome, I am going to have to stay true to my roots and remain a Packers fan, despite their blunders... with or without the only QB I have ever known as a starting Pack. But I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't be listening a little a closer for updates on my favorite Jet.

Talk about sleepless nights...

Well, as mentioned before, Priya got shots the other day, while cutting teeth! Those things together, along with the occasional gas bubble, has lead to some VERY sleepless nights! Arg! For those of you who don't know, our little cutie slept through the night right off the bat! The first 2 months were night time bliss as far as sleeping - it was more than we could hope for! Unfortunately, that only lasted about 2 months when after a trip to Wisconsin she began waking up at least once a night. Now, if she sleeps till 5 without waking, we are Joyful! She never stays awake - she just wakes long enough to drink a bit of a bottle, then falls right back asleep. That is, until she got her shots. Now that, combined with her teeth, has lead to several nights of Tylenol, teething tablets, gripe water, oragel and rocking! Lots and lots of rocking! My poor baby would start to fall asleep in my arms, then just start crying again with some rediscovered discomfort or pain.

The worst part is that since last night Joe played basketball, even though Priya went to bed about nine, we didn't get to bed until MUCH later, so last night would have been short on sleep anyhow! Oh well - I just hope she starts feeling better soon... for ALL of our sakes! :)

To help me remember why I'm not selling her on EBay (as Wendy would say :), here are a few photos of my little princess from her 6 month photo shoot - ARG! I don't know why the colors aren't coming through right - they all look blue! Well, hopefully you still get the gist! ;)

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JC Penny 6 month photos

Here's a couple layouts they put together that I liked. What do you think? If you wanna see the rest of the shots from Penny's, let me know and I'll email you the link. There's several shots that aren't shown in this batch, but I think these are my favorites :)

PS to Crazy Times :)

Just to prove further what a little stinker my baby is, here's another story. This morning she was up about 6:30 wanting a bottle-that's not the stinker part, even though I would prefer she choose a more human hour. So I quick changed her diaper and gave her a bottle and put her back in bed. When she woke up again about 8:30, somehow magically her bum and the diaper were no longer together!! She had taken off her diaper, unfastening it on one side and some how wriggling out of the other! She's ONLY 6 MONTHS OLD, people! What am I going to do with this girl when she actually figures out how to get into things! Start praying for us now ;)

Crazy Times!

A TON has happened in the last week, so I'll try to do a quick run down!


Last Wed was our Anniversary - happy day to us! It was a LOT of fun! For Joe's birthday my parents had bought us tickets to go see Brian Regan - if you've never heard his stuff, you should! He is one Funny Dude! and the best thing is that his humor is clean - imagin that! Joe also brought home roses and took me to a fancy-shmancy restaurant (with the aid again of mis padres- thanks padres :) called the Chefs Table. It was SO nice! And the food was AMAZING!! Definitly a nice place to remember for very special occassions!



Speaking of special occassions, the next day was Priya's 6 month birthday!! Happy Day, cutie pants! We took her Friday to get some photos done at JC Penny and come to find out that she has cut her first tooth!! I know I know, I said she had cut a tooth a while ago, but I wasn't really looking into her mouth, just feeling, and it turns out it was just a ridge in the middle of her upper jaw. THIS tooth is on the bottom, and the one next to it is close on it's heals, resulting in a VERY drooly baby!



Sunday I took a few pics of our baby on my own since I'm not sure I'm thrilled with the stuff from Pennys... mostly, I just like their backdrops and enhancements for the photos, but I'm going to talk to a friend of mine at the Fotoshop and see if they can create some nice layouts for photos as well that we can use - that way it's MUCH cheaper, I can keep the digital images and have a much larger selection of photos to choose from :)



Today our little princess went back to the doc for her 6 month check-up! Here are the Stats:

Height:27.25 inches (92%)
Weight: 15 lb. 5 oz (35%)

The Doc says she's progressing really well and I think he was a little taken back by her sqirminess!! She's definitly a little mover and a shaker!

The funniest part came after she got her shots. She of course cried a bit, but then afterwards looked at the nurse, almost pointing at her, and gave her quite a talking to! It was so funny! It was like she was saying, "I know who did this to me and it was NOT very nice! I'm not very happy with you right now, so just you watch it, missy!"

But that's not all! On the way home - a whole 5 minute drive - she somehow mannaged to rip off ALL of her band-aids and shove at least 2 in her mouth!! I get her out of her car seat and am thinking "Ok, now where are her band-aids?... What does she have in her MOUTH?!" Little Stinker!! So Gross! But she was so happy, and quite UN-happy when I removed them from her oral cavity! Almost as unhappy as when I take away paper... but that's another story!

Hopefully I'll have more photos soon! Take care and much love!

PB&J

WIDE AWAKE

Why is it that the one night my baby actually seems to be sleeping through the night for the first time in FOREVER, I am WIDE AWAKE! I've been up since about 4 and it's about 5:30 now... and unfortunatly, I don't feel sleep coming on anytime soon :( So goes another night in the life of a new mom :)

Little Cuties :)

A week ago we had a visit from Priya's good friend Sophie, and her mom, my good friend Wendy :) These little cuties are just so fun to watch together, and are only 1 week apart in age! It's especially entertaining as they both roll around the couch and are falling all over each other!! I'm so grateful Wendy and I get to learn how to be moms together and our little lovelies can start out their amazing little lives together!

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Colorado Continued

Here are a few pics from Adam & Tessa's wedding. I WISH my camera had been charged for Jon & Rainah's wedding! That's ok - I'll just look @ everyone else's photos :)

Back to Co, we had a great time. It was also great to see Anne and her family on Friday! Her husband is currently training to go overseas with the Army.

Anyway, it was BEAUTIFUL - I could definitly consider living there! Maybe it'd be a little better if it wasn't in the middle of a heat wave, but over all, it was very nice! Anne even took us to this GREAT Alpine Slide and drove us through Red Rock park as the sun was going down - nice!

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"Bachelor" Party

Here are a few photos from the night before Jon got married - just click on the photo to go to a web album Beth made of the "beating" of Joe. These boys are so crazy sometimes!! :) Actually, I think it's really great that they all get along so well! Sure, it leads to some long nights of foosball, but hey! I'd much rather have that than have them never talk to each other! Close future cousins begin with close siblings! Oh, and thanks guys for beating up Joe for me ;)

Softball, Stars & Rasberries

This video was taken last week at Joe's softball game... though she's not super great with food yet, I let her "eat" these rice stars because they melt fast in her mouth. As you see, the food often spends more time out of her mouth than in :)

Here's a few pictures to go with :)

Beautiful Colorado! with the NEW Mr. & Mrs. Forbes

Last Thursday we left for Colorado and met up with my cousin, Adam, his parents, my uncle Bill & aunt Judy, and his brother, my cousing Tod and adorable family! Since it was Uncle Bill's birthday, we went to Casa Bonita for dinner - this fun and unique restaurant with cliff divers and the works! Thursday was the sealing - BEAUTIFUL - and Friday was the Reception - INCREDIBLE! Truly, I cannot believe how amazing the reception was. The Berry's had it in their backyard. I'll have to add a few of those pics as well. Their family was SO warm and inviting - Priya ate up all of the attention and was a cute little squealer!