Our Life Together

School and Other Portraits

2011-01-29T13:20:00.001-08:00

School Picture time came and I wanted to do my own session with Eliana for her Kindergarten pictures. Since I was doing hers, I also decided to do some 2.5 year old shots of Julia. Love these girls!

Right around the same time I had an ultrasound and we found out we are having a baby BOY!! These are some of his first shots ;)

September

2011-01-29T13:17:00.005-08:00

August and September were busy months with the start of school, soccer, music etc. On top of that I was on a modified bed rest for a couple weeks in there. I found out that I was pregnant at the end of July and not too far into August they found that I had another subchorionic hemorrhage. Thankfully many women from the ward offered to help and Tiffany was a lifesaver, helping me and our family more than I could ever imagine. I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends.

Eliana loved soccer!

In September Christian was also filmed by a film crew out of LA for a Pepsico commercial/ recruiting ad that is on their website. They spent 3 FULL days with him to create a two minute clip. Here is how they set up our family room to create a shot that occupied about 2 seconds of the video... it took the lighting crew over an hour to set it up!!

The crew out in front of our house, having Christian ride his bike in and out of the driveway over and over again.

In August and September Katie (Christian's sister) and her son Ethan stayed with us for awhile. Katie was busy doing lots of Saladmaster shows so we got to spend a lot of time with Ethan. The girls started to think of him as a brother almost. They loved to wrestle with him.

First Day of School

2011-01-29T13:17:00.001-08:00

August 16th was Eliana's first day of Kindergarten. She was so excited. Her teacher is Ms. Punjak and she and Dean are in the same class.

Summer Rain

2010-07-29T22:08:00.001-07:00

Sometimes living in Arizona in the summer can be trying. When it barely dips below 100 in the middle of the night and is back up to 105 by 10 am and 110+ by 4pm with a rare cloud sighting, it can feel stifiling and uncomfortable and unbearable. But then, the winds come which bring in the clouds, and create skies like this....

(oh how I love skies like this!!)

and then I can see the rain in the distance and as it comes closer and closer it creates skies like this...

and the temperature drops into the low 90's or maybe if we're really lucky the mid - high 80's
and the girls can run like crazy animals in the back yard like this without collapsing of heat exhaustion....

and I can watch them and laugh with them and find joy in their joy and look up into the setting sun and see how it creates skies like this,

and like this...

and then, I feel so much more alive and free... like I can handle a little more of this Arizona summer. Thank you Heavenly Father for the rain. I. LOVE. IT!!!!

Snowflake

2010-07-25T19:24:00.000-07:00

This past week we had the chance to take a quick trip to Snowflake. We stayed at Tiff's in-laws home and visited with her and also visited with Katie, Christian's sister. The weather there was so nice and refreshing and the girls loved playing outside. Julia LOVED the trampoline.

Julia loves to pretend to be sleeping. Almost everytime I get her out of her carseat, she is pretending to be asleep. She likes to surprise me by saying wake up and then she laughs. It's really cute. Her and Becca started playing a sleeping game on the tramp.

Tiff took Eliana and Dean for a ride around the yard on the 4 wheeler. Of course they didn't go by themselves though; Tiff just got off for the picture.

We are into our monsoon season here which I love. It's been cloudy this week and we've even gotten a tiny bit of rain. The other morning it was cool enough to play in the sand and the girls got the hose out. It was a big mess but at least they had fun.

More Looks....

2010-07-21T19:19:00.000-07:00

This first picture is from the other day when I was playing with my self timer, ignore the quality of it, I just love the expression. I didn't tell her to pose this way or look at me in any certain way, but this is what she came up with. Guess she has been practicing in the mirror. lol

I was testing my light and needed a test subject. Eliana was not very happy about it. I just want to remember this look because even though she's mad, she's still cute.

All Ready for Church

2010-07-18T21:18:00.000-07:00

It just so happens that I created a little "studio" in our loft this past week. We couldn't figure out a way to affordably cool the one car garage that has become my studio so now it's in the house. It's okay because then at least maybe I will use it more for my own girls. This morning we were ready for church a little early... wow, can't really believe that, but we were, so I grabbed a couple of quick shots of the girls before we left. They never look the same after church, well, even after 20 minutes for that matter!!

Bedtime

2010-07-18T19:31:00.003-07:00

Bedtime: Sometimes it's my favorite time of the day, other times, it's one of the worst times of the day. But lately it's been great. The girls are both in a good rhythm and go to bed fairly easily and then I have me time.... hooray for that!!

This is Julia with her blankie. She isn't as attached to it as she use to be but she still LOVES it. Gotta love her bruised forehead, such is the life of a toddler.

Eliana didn't have a particular blankie when she was little but loves this blanket now.

Our Summer Vacation

2010-07-18T19:31:00.001-07:00

In June we headed to So Cal for a wedding and a vacation. I shot a close friend's wedding
(you can click on wedding to view). Then we headed to the Welk Resort in Escondido for a couple of days. It was lots of fun and nice and cool. A great break from scorching hot AZ. We were thinking of heading home or extending at the Welk when Christian and Ben chatted. Ben offered us their home as they were out of town. It was fabulous. They live in San Clemente just minutes from the beach. So we spent a lot of time there and at the pool too. It was so fun and relaxing. Just what we needed.

Christian got to play golf while at the Welk.

We were also there when they had a farmer's market and the girls got to have pony rides.

The beach, our favorite place.

My handsome man got to do some boogie boarding.

The girls just love the beach.

At Ben and Sheri's Pool. Our girls both LOVE to swim :)

Spring and Summer Happenings

2010-07-18T19:30:00.003-07:00

On July 2nd we celebrated Christian's birthday. I made a very decadent, three layer, chocolate peanut butter cake. His very favorite combination. I think I had as much or more fun creating it as he had eating it.

Just some random shots from the front porch sometime in the early summer.

In May LaCee and her two adorable boys came to visit. Eliana and Braden were buddies when we lived in Utah. She used to call him prince Braden. They had fun playing and I had lots of fun reconnecting with LaCee!

The girls love to go on "Adventures" in the dirt field behind our house. One evening when we were out I spotted this beautiful little flower amongst the dried, cracked desert earth.

One of our adventures included the Newman kids. The kids went on a ladybug hunt and captured like 30 of them. They had so much fun.

I can ride my bike all by myself!!

2010-07-18T19:30:00.001-07:00

At the end of May, Eliana learned to ride her bike with no training wheels after 5 days of trying.

May Portraits and Mother's Day

2010-07-18T19:29:00.002-07:00

It has become a Mother's day tradition for us to do some portraits of the girls and I together. Christian can take the credit for the shots that I am in :). The end of this post also includes some shots I got on another day. I just love these palo verde trees.

Preschool Graduation

2010-07-18T19:29:00.001-07:00

For the last day of preschool we did a field day at the park. The kids did some fun races and then we gave them their certificates and ate pizza. It was lots of fun and a good end to a good year.

Eliana was very excited to beat all the boys in the dash.

I love this one of Aaron reaching for the finish line!

Julia got to get in on the action and enjoy the pizza.

Our Yard

2010-07-18T19:28:00.006-07:00

In February of 2010 we started landscaping our backyard. If you know Christian, then you know that the yard is very important to him. He was very excited to take this project on and turn our dirt backyard, into a fun and beautiful place.

He started by drawing out what we wanted and hauled in all of these bricks (in the back of our Accord) and created the outside border of the lawn and garden.

Yes, that is him working out in the dark... that's how dedicated he was :)

We couldn't make all of our plans come to pass on our own, so we hired Capital R Construction to come and help us. Rusty and his crew put in a beautiful paver walkway, a barbeque pad and borders for the sandbox. They also brought in lots of sand for the sandbox and dirt for the garden. We had rock delivered too but Christian did most of that.

The paver walkway was a pretty big job!

Rather than doing Sod, we planted seed. It took awhile to come in but now it looks great.

Some of the bounty from our garden. This cucumber plant produced a TON! It was great!

And since we were in the mode, Christian decided to put grass in the front too.

Disneyland: April 23, 2010

2010-07-18T19:28:00.005-07:00

We did the Give a Day , Get a Day Volunteering and spent my birthday at Disneyland. The girls had SO much fun, but who doesn't at the happiest place on earth? It was Julia's first time, and she loved it!

We waited to meet Tinkerbell and got to meet Silvermist on our way in.

We also waited to meet the princesses. Julia was almost asleep by this point, but was still excited to meet them.

April: Easter

2010-07-18T19:28:00.001-07:00

Easter 2010

We went to the city for an Easter egg hunt.

We colored our own eggs at home and had an egg hunt at the park beside our house.

Julia's Birthday Party

2010-07-18T19:27:00.001-07:00

Julia's birthday party was pretty casual. We had the Newman and Ballard kids over to help celebrate. She loves pizza so we had that for dinner with cake and ice cream. It was lots of fun and she enjoyed playing and getting presents.

Eliana and Dean eating their cupcakes.

I love how she's opening her mouth her as she is feeding Christian. So cute.

It was fun to see her so excited to open presents. She truly is our little Jewel and we are so grateful for her!

February In Review

2010-07-18T19:24:00.000-07:00

February was a fun month for us. The girls and I went to California for a visit with family and to meet Jenn's new baby Natalie. While there, the girls had fun playing with cousins.

At a fountain with their cousin Nathan.

They went on a carousel ride with Nathan too.

We also took Morgan with us to the LA Zoo and met up with one of my favorite mission companions, Shannon, and her kids.

My parents were driving from Maine to St. George and took the southern route so they could stop in and visit. This first picture is Eliana making a cake for them, my Dad loves chocolate cake and vanilla frosting. Eliana thought a few sprinkles would make it a lot better.

My mom face painted with the girls and even let them experiment on her a bit.

We had preschool at our house when they were here so we did a little thing about service dogs with the kids and my Dad showed off his service dog, Gunter. The kids loved it.

Eliana, Grandpa Williams and I went for a little bike ride while they were here too.

I usually drink a smoothie everyday. It's just what I do. Julia loves them and if I don't make her her own, we share.

The Many Faces of Eliana

2010-04-10T21:21:00.000-07:00

When I get my camera out, Eliana's face just goes kinda crazy. A few weeks ago I was setting up my studio to do a headshot and I had her sit in so I could get my lighting set up. This is what she did.

Our Two Year Old

2010-04-10T13:48:00.000-07:00

Julia turned two in February. She is our big girl now. It is hard to beileve. She no longer uses a pacifier and sleeps in a big girl bed. She loves pink and princesses and ponies and barbies. She also loves trucks and trains.

Yes, she is jumping on the bed....

Julia loves to sing... like really loves to sing. She sings Happy Birthday, Once there was a snowman, Good Night Baby, Popcorn Popping, and a little of I am a Child of God.

Julia... our Sweet Jewelsie Bugaboo

2010-01-27T20:04:00.000-08:00

Last week our Julia got sick, very sick. It was so sad. The picture below shows a bit of how she felt... but it got worse than this, much worse. She had the croup, which can cause high fevers but her fever kept going up, and on the 5th day (saturday) it went up to 105.5. I didn't believe it, so I took it again: it was right. I called the Dr. and he told us to take her to the Phoenix Children's Hospital ER. He told me they would need to do testing to find out what was wrong because the croup shouldn't last so long and shouldn't cause this high of a fever for so long. I hung up the phone and cried.... 2 weeks prior I had been in with Eliana to the dr. and he showed me the mortality rates for the flu by month, this year. Julia hasn't had the flu shot so that's all I could think of, I know, probably sounds a little or a lot paranoid, but I still couldn't help think of it. She was so so so sad looking and burning up. We gave her more medicine, Christian and Charlie gave her a blessing and we headed to phoneix. By the time they got us into triage and hour and a half later, her fever was down just a little , to 104.5. They gave her more medicine for her fever and then poked and proded, taking urine via catheder and blood out of her sweet little hand so they would have a line in her if they needed it. They did a neck x-ray. They treated her croup with a breathing treatment and steriods. They said all the testing turned out well and that her virus was just abnormal but that she should be fine. We left the hospital at 3:30 am. Sunday was a hard day... she cried much of the day. But by Monday afternoon she started to bounce back. Today they called and said the urine culture came back positive, so she has a UTI, which explains the high fever that wouldn't go away (although it did after Sunday).

Even though she was so sick, she was still so sweet. She slept with us a few nights (which she has never done before) and when she was thirsty, she'd ask for a drink, I'd give it to her and she'd say "thank you mommy." every time, not kidding, in the middle of the night, when she was sicker than sick. What a sweet girl. Yesterday I sneezed, she said, "you okay mommy? " Sweet. Sweet. Julia is our Jewel . I feel SO SO SO blessed to have her in our family. We love her so much.

This is her tonight. This is more like our little Jewel!

Oh and I read a very sad but uplifting story about a family that lost their 8 week old baby to pertusis. I read it and cried. Life can be SO HARD. I felt even more grateful for my girls and their health, grateful for our Heavenly Father's plan and my knowledge of it. Life truly is a miracle and God is GOOD! If you want to read that story (be prepared to cry) click here and start reading the posts starting after Dec. 24th.

Do you know who this is???

2010-01-22T19:04:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I did a wedding. I was hired by the bride's family here in Arizona. Her now husband, Dave, is from Utah so I didn't meet his parents until the wedding day. Below is a picture of the Bride and Groom with the groom's parents. We met at the temple before the wedding and I did all the portraits including some family portraits etc. I was trying to figure out why I recognized Dave's mom. I knew it was church related so I was thinking back to our ward in AF Utah or my mission in Utah. But they are from Bountiful... not near my ward or mission. I couldn't put my finger on it, until I got home...... So do you know who she is?????? I am curious to know how many people (who are members of the church and read this) will recognize and know her name before reading below..... am I the only one who wouldn't know?

So when I got home I picked up the Ensign to do a little reading and flipped through and saw a picture of Dave's mom. Yes, that's right , it's Sister Margaret Liffereth, the 1st counselor in the primary general presidency. I traced back through the day hoping I hadn't said anything dumb to her. I hadn't. I had been myself. I was then grateful that my actions are generally in line with my beliefs. That was a good feeling.

Eliana's 5 year Old Portraits

2010-01-10T19:53:00.000-08:00

I did Eliana's 5 year old portraits yesterday. Here's a little info about Eliana these days.

I often call her El or L or Elle and she loves it and so do I. She is fun and funny and adventurous. She LOVES I mean ABSOLUTELY LOVES to ride her bike. She LOVES her friends. She loves Star Wars and even has her own light saber so she can play star wars with Dean. She loves to run, jump and climb. She is very passionate about things which leads to a bit of drama. She is determined and strong willed. She loves her little sister Julia. We love Eliana and are so glad that she is a part of our family.

I love this picture but can't decide which way I like it better... color or old school vintage b/w.

Julia came along of course. I didn't really get any great shots of her but here are a couple of fun ones of her and a lollipop.

December

2010-01-10T15:34:00.000-08:00

I attempted to get a picture of the two girls together for a Christmas card with no luck as of yet. Here's a cute one of Julia though.

One of the reasons I haven't gotten a good one yet is because Eliana LOVES to make STRANGE faces when I get my camera out!

Here is one of them together that's sorta okay... but they are both making weird faces.

So for now no Christmas cards or new years cards... maybe I will do cards on another upcoming holiday.

We celebrated Christmas a day early so that we could be in California for Christmas and still keep our own traditions at our house. We made homemade pizza and strawberry lemonade for Christmas eve dinner.

Eliana got a bike from Santa and was SO, SO excited. She loves to ride her bike EVERYDAY!

Julia got a bike too, which she loves also and calls MY BIKE... she also got a baby doll.

Our Christmas morning, trying out the bikes . Eliana just wanted to ride and not have me take a picture.

We went to California and had fun with all the cousins and Christian's parents, siblings and spouses. We hung out at the Whites and ate lots of food. We went to see some lights on a street called thorobred in Rancho. For a few more California pictures, click HERE.

December 10th

2010-01-10T15:27:00.000-08:00

Eliana's 5th birthday was on December 1oth, the same day we closed on our new house. I took cupcakes to her preschool class.

In the evening she opened her presents. She loves her new keyboard.

Her other favorite gift is her Star Wars tag book. She loves Star Wars almost as much as her Daddy.

Because things were so crazy with moving etc. I took Eliana and her friend Emily to see the Princess and the Frog in lieu of a birthday party. They dressed up as princesses and had lots of fun.

November at a Glance...

2010-01-10T15:08:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of November we took a long weekend trip to California.

Eliana and her cousin Morgan are best buddies! They had so much fun playing together on our trip to CA.

Christian and I left the girls with his parents and went to the beach for the night. The beach is still my favorite place!!

Eliana finished her gymnastics class that she took through the city. She loved it!

We stayed home for Thanksgiving and had our friends Mark and Leah over. We made these fun turkey head bands a few days before.

Julia loves to get into my mascara... I have been better at keeping it far out of her way as of late.

Halloween

2010-01-10T15:02:00.000-08:00

Yes... this is late, very late, but the grandparents need to see the girls at Halloween still.

We went to a pumpkin patch in Gilbert a few days before Halloween.

Julia even held still to get her face painted!!

For Halloween, Eliana dressed up as Fancy Nancy and Julia was a cute little witch. It was very difficult to get them to hold still and not be crazy, weird (Eliana).

Julia was not about to hold still....

Eliana with Emily at the Ward Party.

Eliana at the preschool party.

Do I have to have a title?

2009-11-22T20:07:00.000-08:00

So no pictures in this post. Why, you ask, does the photographer have no pictures. Very simple, it's like the shoemaker whose kids have no shoes. Except, I have taken some pictures, I just hardly looked at them or processed them at all. I have Halloween pictures, California pictures, day to day pictures... but none to post today.

Life is on super ultra hyper speed these days. It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is this week.

The girls are doing well although they both were sick this week, they are better now. Christian is working crazy hours and we feel like we hardly ever see him. I have been super busy doing photography, to see that, click here. We chose not to get the house I wrote about before because a house we really wanted and tried to get back in July, came back on the market. So we cancelled escrow on the house in Villago and are now in escrow on a house in G Diamond Ranch and are set to close in just about 2 weeks. We love it and are so excited but it is hard to believe and I don't think it will seem real until we have the keys and move in. I am looking forward to a sweet ending to a 6 + month house hunt ordeal. Despite all the business, life is good. We are so blessed and grateful to have two amazing girls. Julia is so big and is seriously like a little girl now. She's 30 pounds and 3 feet tall (and she's not even two yet)! She is talking a lot and adores playing with her sister. Eliana is going to be five in 18 days (I know the days b/c she asks me how many more every day) and is becoming a big girl.

The speed at which life is going scares me in a way, I want to savor these times with my girls while they are little. I don't want to forget what they were like, what they said and did when they were at the stages they are at now. I am trying to be less busy so that I can have more moments with them and keep better track of our memories as well. Is that possible? After the holidays.... I hope.

Pictures to come soon.

Kung Fu Panda

2009-10-12T08:43:00.000-07:00

On Friday I took Eliana and Bethie out for a fun photo shoot. Eliana did very well considering sometimes she gets sick of me taking her picture. This is one of the fun shots I got of her. It really shows her personality... she is so daring and fun and ready for anything. I love that girl even when she is a challenge. To see more click here

Oh and Eliana and I decided this was called the Kung Fu Panda Shot...thus the title of the post.

Conference Weekend with Grandpa and Bedste

2009-10-06T15:02:00.000-07:00

Conference weekend is one of my favorite parts of the spring and fall. It is so great to hear the counsel of the prophet and other church leaders. I am always uplifted and strengthened and have a renewed energy to do and be everything I want to be. (for more info on conference or to read the proceedings click here) Of course, it is always a task to keep children busy so I can focus. Much of my actual learning from conference comes later as I watch and re-watch and listen to the talks. This year, Christian's parents joined us. It was great to see them! The girls had SO much fun visiting with them! It was an awesome weekend! Thank you for taking the time and making the trip Grandpa and Bedste~ we really appreciate it!

Julia loves to color these days. Usually on anything BUT paper... like walls, tables, floors etc.

Julia had so much fun with her grandparents!

Between sessions we went to the park. Notice that one picture has a purple sky... Eliana was "helping" me convert the pictures and this was the way she liked the picture.

Moving...

2009-10-03T16:05:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's true! We found a house!! We will be moving sometime at the beginning of November. It is a home that was in foreclosure and we are officially in escrow. It is perfect for us and has a KILLER park right across the street! I am a little afraid to post a picture of it online because I have heard a lot of scary blog stuff lately. So, maybe later, but not now. It is out of our ward but it's still really close. Here are the reasons you should still be our friend, even though we will live like 5 mins further away...

1. It's really not that far away! Even though you may think it is, it's not! Seriously! The hardest part about going somewhere is getting in the car, right, so once you're already in the car, just keep going. It's not like most of you can walk to our house anyway!

2. We will have a AMAZING park right out our front door!

3. We'll be close to Fry's... you can drop your kids off while you shop.

4. It has an amazing studio... and you know, people who hang out at my house a lot, end up with pictures of their kids.

5. Because we are cool for goodness sakes!!

October is here...

2009-10-03T15:52:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's October already! I was looking through my September picture file and realized I missed a few things.

Both girls LOVE and ADORE their Daddy (he is a pretty darn good one!) and love to smother him at times. He's a good sport and allows them. Here is Eliana just chillin' on Daddy's shoulders, watching a little TV (probably sports.. :)

First (or third) Day of Preschool

This is Eliana on her first day of preschool away from home since her actual first day was at our house. Yeah, I really didn't do her hair or get her dressed up, but that's okay for preschool right?

Our primary did a field trip to the Mesa LDS temple a few Saturdays ago. The girls and I got to help clean up the grounds. We cleaned light poles. It was fun and I was grateful the girls had the opportunity to serve and see the importance of keeping the temple grounds clean.

Julia is quite the little girl now. She loves to do everything! She keeps up with her big sister really well. She ADORES Eliana. Whenever Eliana isn't home, Julia runs around saying, Ahhnannaa........ Every morning when they get up Julia gives Eliana big hugs. It's so cute. I LOVE IT... seriously, seeing my girls love each other makes my heart melt!

Preschool Field Trip

For preschool on Thusdary, Amanda arranged for her husband, Mike and two other DPS officers to teach our preschool group about safety. It was really awesome! Eliana loved it and I was so glad she learned some great things!

Julia's Baby

2009-09-22T19:56:00.000-07:00

Awhile ago I found this cute little doll that looks like Julia. She adores it (although it may not look like it) and calls it her baby. It's so cute when she cuddles and hugs her or eats her...

2009-09-16T21:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning, Eliana put these sunglasses and the following conversation began:

"Mommy, how do I look?" asked Eliana.

"You look super cute." I said

"No, Rockin' " She responded.

Where does she come up with these things?

I guess the picture is pretty self-explanatory. Julia has learned to drag the chair from the table, into the kitchen and get whatever she wants. Nice.

This and That

2009-09-13T08:28:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my super industrious, incredibly capable homemaker friend Tiffany, I participated in making peach jam and grape juice this week. She also bottled peaches, which I had a quick lesson in. Of course Christian and the girls are happy with the results and it was a lot of fun. Tiff and I love to spend time together but don't want to waste time, so we always try to be productive together. Thanks Tiff, you should get a homemaker of the year award.

As seen in an earlier post, we had preschool at our house this week. It was lots of fun and I am so glad that I have a break for a few weeks. We have a great group of kids and that makes it so much fun.

We were talking about body parts and the letter A so we made (A)pple cider... and enjoyed the great aroma that filled the house (noses). The kids did so well stirring. I really thought they'd end up spilling a lot and they didn't spill any.

Making funny faces...

We picked up stuff with our toes. It was very interesting that the girls did pretty well with it and the boys stuggled.... I mean really struggled. Must be a developmental thing.

As for our house hunt. It's a very elusive hunt. We hope to find something soon. Eliana talks about our realtor and even added Robbie into our family picture she drew. That's when you know you are spending a lot of time with someone. At least he's a great guy and we really enjoy working with him.

My favorite...

2009-09-12T09:08:00.000-07:00

We have watermelons!!!!

2009-09-08T17:33:00.000-07:00

Since we got back from Maine it seems as if time is FLYING by! I finally feel adjusted to life... but it certainly has been hectic. I have sorta headed up preschool this year with Brooke. I am basically in charge of the older group, her the younger. We have 15 maybe 16 kids this year!! In two classes, thank goodness. I have been busy organzing and planning for that. Today was the first day and I am teaching this week. It was lots of fun and the kids were great!

Eliana and Melissa today during snack time...

The kids loved tracing their bodies and coloring them in.

Our watermelons grew and are DELICIOUS! THis one was kinda heavy...

On a side note, why is laundry neverending??

The girls are getting closer every day and it is so fun to watch them play together.

Julia... (me playing with some ps actions)

Julia loves to do everything herself.

Beautiful evening sky.

I have this friend...

2009-08-28T13:37:00.001-07:00

There is a chance that we, in our lifetime, will meet a friend, that will last a lifetime. I have a few of those and there is one in particular that has been unparrelled. This is her. Thank you Jenn for always being there for me and for being so amazing!

August

2009-08-26T12:54:00.001-07:00

Oh how the time flies! We went to Maine for a couple of weeks and are still recovering from the trip. I can't believe the "summer" is almost over (although summer never really seems to end here in AZ) and that preschool starts again in less than 2 weeks. I have been sorting through the 2,000 + pictures I took in Maine... that's right over two thousand! So I am going to attempt to pick a few to post. Maybe I will have to start a Maine Monday entry so I can get all the stuff in that I would like to.

I absolutely love this picture of Julia. It was taken at like 6:45 in the morning. I know it's nothing spectacular but it is just a Julia expression and reminds me of our little walk. She decided to be an early riser on the trip and so she and I went for an early morning walk to the pond. It was a gorgeous morning and we got to see a great blue heron and a loon. The following is a picture from that morning... see how calm the water is with the reflection of the trees.

We also went canoeing a different day in the pond with Amara and Eliana. The water was a little rougher but it was lots of fun.

The Maine Coast

We went to the beach with my brother Travis's family and had lots of fun. Eliana and Amara had their daddies bury them....

Eliana and Amara in my parent's back yard.

I got some great pouffy pettiskirts and took lots of pictures of the girls in them. The following are a few in the yard.

Frogs

My brother and I loved to catch frogs when we were young so one afternoon I took Eliana out and we caught a couple of frogs. It was SO much fun! I seriously really enjoyed it. Of course we put them back after a couple of hours. Eliana loved her little frog friends, Ribbit and Ribbit.

Blueberries

We were in Maine at the height of wild blueberry season. The girls LOVED picking them and eating them, but mostly EATING them. A few did make it home and into pancakes and on toast. Yum, Yum!

That is just a start, but atleast I started!

Air Conditioning

2009-07-18T10:01:00.000-07:00

There aren't any pictures for this post because I am not at home. We have been staying with our good friends the Ballards since Tuesday. Our A/C broke and they can't fix it until MONDAY! It seems so strange to me that they would have to ship common air conditioner parts in from out of state b/c they don't have them here, one of the hottest places in the US. Of course it has been about 110 everyday. We are so grateful to Tif and Charlie for being so hospitable.

Tuesday was a crazy day for us. Last Monday we found out that the bank accepted our offer to buy our house we've been living in for the last year for a smoking hot deal. We were so excited and it's been in the works since APRIL. We started the escrow process and they were doing the title work. On Tuesday the owner called and said there was a problem... that due to some failed businesses he has had some serious finacial problems (like so many others right now) and he knew there was a lien on his personal home but when they were trying to clear the title they found it has a lien on the one we have been living in (which is technically a business property for him) which won't be able to be removed. Thus, NO DEAL!!! We (especially me) where heartbroken. The house is going to be foreclosed on and there is still a chance we can get it but we will have to move out in probably 90 days and stay out until they figure it out and so now we are on the hunt for another home. Thank goodness there are lots of options right now. Maybe this is a blessing and we will find something better. So after I got off the phone with him I noticed it felt really hot in the house and and that Julia was sweating. I checked the thermometer and it was 84 in the house and it kept rising. Of course at this point I knew that the owner was foreclosing on the home and most likely couldn't fix it, which I confirmed by calling him. Yes, I did lose it momentarily. We have decided to fix it though since we won't have to pay rent for a few months and without A/C here you can't live in a house! It's about 115 upstairs in our house right now!!! It really makes me realize how stinkin' bad the economy is right now. So many good, honest, hardworking people are struggling. I feel SO SO SO incredibly blessed that Christian has such a good, stable job!

The last few weeks...

2009-07-13T15:51:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I have posted. Life gets so busy sometimes it is hard to keep up with everything that I need to. I went through all my pictures and picked out only my very favorites... well 50 pictures later I decided that I really shouldn't do a blog post of 50 pictures. So I have just picked a few and will add a little more commentary than usual.

Julia experiencing an ice cream cone for the first time. She LOVES them. It's so cute. Another child with a sweet tooth. We'll blame that one on Christian!

Christian's brother Brent and his wife Kimberly and there three beautiful girls, Chance, Reese and Delainey visited with us overnight on their way from TX to CA. It was a lot of fun to see them and get to hang out a bit. The girls had so much fun. Delainey is 6 months older than Julia but they are about the same size. It was fun to see them play together. Eliana and Reese are about 4 months apart (Reese is older) and they also had fun . Chance took time to play with and read to Eliana and she really loved it. She keeps talking about her cousin Chance.

Beautiful blue-eyed cousins

Eliana and Reese had almost matching pj's.

Eliana and Dean did Kindergym together. Eliana loved it and has some natural talent. She is definitely built like a gymnast and has the energy for it.

Eliana has been in swimming lessons for 4 weeks so far and has two more. They meet 4 times a week and she loves it. She is such a fish. She can swim now with her head above water. (She use to only swim under water)

Christian had his 30th Birthday! We had a fun day. I made him a bundt breakfast cake and then made him an argentine dinner. We love Christian so much! He is such an amazing husband and father!

I just can't help myself. The other day I was playing with Julia and had to get out my camera. I got a bunch of great shots, here is just one of my favorites. She is growing so fast. She is into everything these days and loves to climb. If I don't have my eyes on her every second she is likely to be climbing up something or doing something dangerous! The following picture shows one of her favorite places to be!

Eliana has had lots of fun play dates with friends. Here she an Bethie were doing a fashion show and wanted me to take pictures. I told them to do something cute and this is what Eliana does... interesting.

Having a messy playdate with Madeline. (Thanks for the inspiration Gina!)

Playing in the water at the Phoenix Zoo. And yes, Eliana is having the water spray straight onto her bum.

Our garden is growing! Here are some squash we ate for dinner last night! Yum Yum!

Gotta go get Jewels... will have to add more later :)!

Someday....

2009-06-10T15:00:00.000-07:00

..... we will live in a place that has sunsets like this. It might not be until we get to heaven, but someday we'll have this as our view.

We LOVE the beach! Even though it was cool and cloudy inland, it was a GORGEOUS day at the beach 6.6.09

It was hard to keep Julia from chasing the waves out.... she loved the sand and rocks under the waves... I had to keep a very close eye on her and try to distract her elsewhere!

Eliana with "uncle" Ben

Ben and Sheri now live in San Clemente... and yes I am trying not to be jealous ;) We actually spent the day at the beach with them and Miley, their beautiful little girl... and some of their friends. I also got to take some pictures of their Miley. To see more click HERE

California

2009-06-10T14:46:00.000-07:00

Our plans were thwarted by California's cool weather. It was in the mid -low 60's which is cold for us Arizonans and for swimming. We were looking for things to do so we took Eliana to Victoria Garden's and took her on a train ride and for a ride in the Trolley. She really enjoyed it.

On Saturday morning my friend Jenn came over with her three kids. Eliana and Carissa and Camden have been friends since she was 2 months but they only get to see each other occasionally now. It took a bit for them to warm up to each other but once Eliana found a worm it got them together. Pictured below you will see the "cozy home" they made for the worm which they named Patty. Eliana loves gross things... slugs, worms, seaweed, mudd etc and has no problem touching and playing with these things. I don't discourage it or let her know I think it's gross, I don't want to hamper her exploration but it is pretty gross sometimes and she definetly gets really messy most of the time.

Eliana, Addison and Carissa. Of course Eliana couldn't be serious.

Today is Carissa's 5th Birthday!! Happy Birthday Carissa!!

Vegas

2009-06-10T14:15:00.000-07:00

Christian had a training in Las Vegas from 6.2-6.4. He invited us to go along since he had a suite. We decided that as soon as the training was over we'd head to CA to swim at his parents and go to the beach. We had to leave at 5:30 am on the 2nd to get there (we drove). We stayed in the Palazzo which is connected to the Venetian. It was really nice. The girls and I swam and went to the Silverton to the free aquarium and walked around. They were very good and had lots of fun.

This is at the aquarium at the Silverton. It was really cool.

These umbrellas were hanging in the shopping area at the Palazzo. I loved it...

Another aquarium in the shops by Ceasar's Palace.

Holbrook

2009-06-10T14:09:00.000-07:00

During Memorial Day weekend, we took a quick trip to Holbrook for our nephew Ethan's blessing. It was fun to see Katie and Jason and be there for Ethan. We are blessed to have a great family.

On our way home the sky was so beautiful...

How Does Your Garden Grow?

2009-06-10T13:54:00.001-07:00

5.20.09 Our cosmos are out of control and taking over the garden and they still haven't bloomed. Going to give them a little more time to bloom and if they don't we'll have to get rid of them. (they are just at Eliana's right)

I removed them before our trip to NV and CA (more to come on that soon)

We returned from our trip to find many more sunflowers blooming and growing so tall! I LOVE THEM!!

This is our squash, watermelon and pumpkin garden. We just planted the pumpkins before we left and they are now small plants (on the right). We are so excited for our fruit and vegetables! Gardening is lots of fun!

OUR SANDBOX!!

Right before we left Christian also finished the sandbox for the girls. It is huge and they love it! It provides hours of entertainment and lots of gritty floors, scalps and bums... but, it keeps them busy and they love it so much it's worth it to me.

Owwwwww!

2009-05-29T22:11:00.000-07:00

This is a painful entry for me to make, thus the small pictures again, but I feel I need to make it just in case it helps someone else prevent this from happening. Almost 2 weeks ago, while I was showering, Julia got a glass off my nightstand. I saw that she had it and got out as fast as I could, but obviously not fast enough. I couldn't see what happened but heard a crash and scream and jumped out to find her leg seriously sliced. I wrapped her leg up in a towel and had Eliana get my phone. She helped me call Christian and he left work right away. He got home, we took her to urgent care where they told us that she needed stitches which they couldn't do and to take her to the hospital ER for stitches. They recommended we go to Chandler b/c it's better and faster, so we did. They were very fast, the Dr. looked at it and said yes, she needed stitches and sent us to the PA and nurse to do it. Well, they decided it would be better to glue it and told us all the reasons why we should have them do so, including much less pain for our Julsie. We agreed that would be good, since they were in fact the experts not us. They said there was a small chance that it could come undone but they were pretty sure it would work great. As you can see in the first picture, the glue came undone, within 24 hours. I called or pediatrician and he said there was nothing we could do now, and that they should have never glued her leg. That first of all glue doesn't hold well on body parts which move (such as legs and arms) and that second with a toddler, it is even more unlikely to hold. How FRUSTRATING for us!! I feel so bad for her! She is going to have one big scar! Do scars stretch to take up the same amount of her leg as the leg gets bigger??? I don' t know.

So here it is at the beginning of this week. At least it is healing and she doesn't even care but it makes me so so so so so SAD!

Lessons Learned that I want to share:

1. Never leave a glass where your toddler can reach it. Also, they sometimes grow so fast you don't realize they can reach it when they can so keep a close eye on this.

2. If stitches are needed, DO NOT let them glue your child's leg or arm or anywhere else that has a lot of movement. I wish I had known that!

Party at the White House

2009-05-17T20:49:00.000-07:00

One of Eliana's best friends Emily got to play at our house for 3 days this week and they had a BLAST! They are such good friends. They are pretty similar in their personalities and tend to be quite mischievous together!

They played in the water A LOT and if your not in AZ I would like you to know that it is already 104 -105 degrees everyday!

I was setting up my lighting for a portrait session and they jumped in for a few shots.

I went downstairs for 2 mins (seriously) and came back up to find them plastered in baby powder. I just had them get back in the studio so I could at least record their craziness. This must mean they are going to be very intelligent b/c they are so curious. At least they have fun together. We loved have Emily spend some time with us.

Fun in the Mud

2009-05-17T20:39:00.000-07:00

We are making a spot for a sandbox in our backyard and right now it is MUD. The girls of course LOVE it!

Our Garden

2009-05-17T20:21:00.000-07:00

You may be asking yourself, is it a garden or a jungle? We definitely planted way too much in this one, but it is so fun to see it growing! Our sunflowers are getting ready to bloom and Eliana is so excited.

How to get bigger images on your blog...

2009-05-11T15:40:00.000-07:00

So Carson asked how to make the images bigger and I am thinking others may want to know too, so here goes.....

1st You have to change the HTML code for your template and have to be in Minima.. don't know how this will work if you use a background from places like cutest blog. To change the code follow these instructions,

Click on the Template tab and then the Edit HTML tab... look for it there and replace with these values. Dont copy and past just change the numbers.

outer-wrapper {width:1000px;margin:0 auto;text-align:full;font: $bodyFont;}

#main-wrap1 {width:760px;float:left;sidebar-wrap {width:220px;float:right;margin:5px 0 0;

sidebar-wrap {width:220px;float:right;margin:5px 0 0;

2nd you need to upload your photos from a hosting site like photobucket. From there you can get the HTML code for the picture. Then somewhere toward the end of that code you add in

width="650" when it's pasted in blogger.

Okay so if that is confusing, I pieced this together from Here and Here. I used stuff from the comments of the Brian Khang thing, not the HTML code he wrote about, which doesn't seem to work. I used the HTML code from the open source site by the user DawnHass. Okay so maybe I even confused myself with this post, Good Luck !

On Being a Mom

2009-05-11T08:59:00.000-07:00

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all you moms! I have been contemplating my roles in life. There are so many wonderful things to do in this world, good things that can occupy much (or too much) of our time. I find myself wanting to do everything and be everything and then I have to remind myself that there is a time and season for everything. Right now my most important role is wife and mother. I have been so blessed with a caring, loving husband and these two amazing little girls. I am SO blessed to be their mom! I learn so much from them each day and find so much joy in being with them and seeing them laugh and learn and grow. I was gone for the day on Sat. shooting a wedding with another photographer and at the reception found myself attracted to all the little ones and missing mine. It almost surprised me, I mean really I had only been gone for a few hours. I think we as mothers do need those times away sometimes to realize how blessed we are to have and be with our children. I am so blessed to be able to be a stay-at-home mom. Life is good, even when I feel discouraged or frustrated with life's trials, life is good.

I did it!!!

2009-05-10T11:57:00.000-07:00

Yay!!! I figured out how to get larger images on blogger. Now I need to do it to my photography blog!!

This is a picture of our daredevil Julia.

Test

2009-05-10T11:04:00.001-07:00

Let's Play Music

2009-05-10T10:31:00.000-07:00

Eliana has just finished her 1st year of Let's Play Music. She had her recital on Monday (May 4).Her teacher is our neighbor and great friend Amelia. Eliana learned a lot about music including the solfeg signs and the beginning of reading music. She can play a song with her bells (xylophone). She has really enjoyed the class. Amelia is an amazing teacher and is so great with the kids. They think they are just playing. Thanks Amelia!

Happy Saturday

2009-04-19T08:16:00.001-07:00

This has been a fun week. Christian took the day off on Tuesday and we went to the Phoenix Art Museum. Then yesterday we had fun relaxing family day and the best part of it was Christian watched the girls so I could take a good nap! In the afternoon we played croquet which was lots of fun! Then Christian washed the cars and Eliana washed her tricycle. We ended the day by watching Phantom of the Opera. Believe it or not, neither Christian nor I had seen it before.

Jewelsie Bug

2009-04-19T08:09:00.000-07:00

Julia LOVES to play outside. There have been several times that she and Eliana have been playing outside (in our fenced backyard) while I watch them out the window and the sprinklers have come on and Julia LOVES to play in them. It happened again on Friday and I caught it on my camera.

Julia loves to make this face where she scrunches up her nose. Sometimes it looks as if she's gonna cry, then she laughs.

Easter and Our Garden

2009-04-19T07:57:00.000-07:00

For Easter we went to church and then went to the Ballards for dinner. Tiffany taught a great lesson on the Savior and the real meaning of Easter. On Monday, we had our friends the Oliver's over for dinner and an Easter egg hunt. It was lots of fun. Their little girl and Julia are about the same age.

We added a few things to our garden. Some starts of cucumber, tomatoe and peppers and we planted carrot and watermelon seeds too.

April- catching up!

2009-04-19T07:40:00.000-07:00

We took a very quick one day trip to Hollbrook to meet our new nephew/cousin. (see previous post) The girls we fabulous in the car. They are generally very good travelers. Julia was very interested in baby Ethan. Being around him really showed how much Julia is not a baby anymore :(.
The day before Easter, we went to a egg hunt that the city put on. Eliana had lots of fun and got to see lots of friends there. Julia just wandered a bit with no desire to collect eggs.

Eliana and Emily, one of her many BF's. Eliana and Emily usually play together about once a week or more sometimes. They are very well matched friends. They are both very curious and a bit mischievous which can at times, lead to a bit of trouble.

Eliana and Dean see each other on an almost daily basis. The other day he was over and I looked at them sitting on the couch and Eliana had snuggled up to him. I grabbed my camera and took and picture and then Dean noticed what Eliana was doing and he wasn't very pleased.
Lady bug headbands they made in preschool. You can tell that Dean really wanted his picture taken!

Julia and Audrey had their own little playdate. Cute girls!

March In Review

2009-04-19T07:15:00.000-07:00

Besides sickness we did do some fun things in March. The girls and I went up to Snowflake for a quick 2 day trip. Tiffany was up there for the week to visit family and we joined them. We got to ride their horses and I was in heaven. I forgot how much I absolutely LOVE riding! Eliana got to ride also and enjoyed it. I can't wait for the next trip up!

We also worked on our yard a lot. We got rid of our ugly ocitillos and planted lots of flowers. We also started a GARDEN!! It's been so fun for Eliana (and me) to see our plants growing. Christian built us a really cool raised garden bed.

Our starts.....
and they are growing!

We planted them in our garden.

We are Alive!

2009-04-14T21:40:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've posted. We are alive and well and in fact are all healthy and hope to stay that way for a long time! March has come and gone and April is flying by as well. We are coming up on our one year mark of being here in AZ. I can't believe it! That also means it's gonna be hot, I mean REALLY hot soon! Not looking forward to it but I've heard the second summer isn't as bad as the first. Below are a couple pics of the girls. I have a bunch more cute ones of Jewels but Eliana was being a stinker so I only got a few of her. We did a fun easter shoot with a few friends. I posted some others of Julia on my photo blog if you're interested. Hopefully I will soon catch up on some our fun activities that I've missed. Oh and yes I still plan on making our blog private (eventually), just haven't gotten to it yet..........

Ethan

2009-04-07T09:58:00.000-07:00

Note: I meant to post this on my photography blog, but this works too. So if you look at both blogs, ignore the repitition!

The newest member of our family has arrived! Christian's youngest sister, Katie, had her little boy last week and we got to go see him on Saturday. He is so little and so adorable. I got to take his pictures, here are just a few of my favorites. I absolutely LOVE these first two!
Thank you Katie and Jason for allowing me to capture the newness and purity of your little boy! You are going to be amazing parents!

S-I-C-K

2009-03-31T15:55:00.000-07:00

Yes that's right, that spells sick and that's what we have been ALL WINTER LONG!! What the HECK! We live in a WARM climate for goodness sakes! Eliana has had 2 bouts of pneumonia, and 2 ear infections... the last one that last for a MONTH... it didn't go away until she had 2 sets of antibiotics! Just found out yesterday that Julia has a double ear infection... her 3rd time in the last few months, which means they may need to put in tubes if this doesn't clear up well or she gets another one. On Friday Eliana got a rash on her legs. We called the Dr. and he said to use benydrl and go to the ER if it got bad enough to effect her breathing (which I thought was way worse than it would ever be). So by Sat. morning it was looking really good but by the afternoon, it was getting worse again and spreading. By the early evening her ankle was swelling which at first we didn't connect to the rash. We gave her benadryl and put her to bed and when I went to check on her at 10:30 her lip was swollen. We took her to the ER and by the time they saw her both ankles and feet and hands and lips were swollen! Fortunately it was NOT effecting her breathing. Our good friend and an angel in our time of need, Gina came over and hung out at our house so Julia could stay and sleep. I came home around 1 so Gina could go home and Christian stayed with Eliana at the ER. They got home at 3 something. They said it is an allergic reaction to something, a great MYSTERY and gave her prednislone and said to continue antihistamines! I took Eliana to her pediatrician hoping for more answers with no luck. She is now on Allegra only. The rash is looking better but has moments where it flares up. Here are a few pics of her looking a bit beat up!

Going Private

2009-03-08T12:19:00.000-07:00

So we've decided to make our blog private. If you are a reader please comment and leave your email address or email me at addie77@msn.com and I will send you an invite. I will wait a few days and then make it official so get me your addresss soon please. I don't want to cut anyone out, just don't want any crazy people following what we do. Thanks!

I can do anything that's everything all by myself (Lola)

2009-03-05T12:12:00.000-08:00

Julia likes to feed herself! She gets very frustrated when I try to feed her. She steals the spoon and won't give it back. So now I get out two spoons and give her one and myself one b/c most of the time her spoon doesn't actually make it to her mouth. I guess I am going to have 2 little Lolas. (from Charlie and Lola... a very cute show!)

We met the Newmas at the park. Eliana loves Bethie even though they don't get to play all that often.
Bethie and Ashlynn playing with Jewels.

Ashlynn striking a pose.
Eliana LOVES to do the spider on the swings. Iwas grateful for a different lap for her to sit on!

Preschool and the Zoo

2009-03-05T11:58:00.000-08:00

The last week my Mom was here we went to the Tuscon Zoo. We also had preschool at our house. We did caterpillars and butterflies which was really fun. I love the cooperative preschool Eliana is in. I teach every 8 weeks. The other moms are great and do such a good job and the kids are all wonderful kids and friends for Eliana. I couldn't ask for a better group of people for her to associate with. Painting Butterflies
Counting fuzzy caterpillars. (pretend of course)

Wrapped up like caterpillars in cocoons.

Grandma always wanted to push the stroller for support. She had hip replacement surgery a couple of years ago.

Word Up!

2009-03-02T08:48:00.000-08:00

This is Eliana's Word Girl costume. She has seen the show on PBS a handful of times and LOVES it. It's kinda old for her so I don't let her watch it much but it does teach some good vocabulary. She put this little outfit together (her third one of the day) and told me she was word girl. She also has memorized the word girl song from listening to it on PBS.org.... it says "Word up it's word girl.... " thus the title. Eliana was outside painting on the bricks and then next thing I know I look out to see this.....

Yes I did have a child with purplish gray legs... thank goodness for washable paint!

The Numbers

2009-03-01T18:10:00.000-08:00

Julia had her one year doctor's visit on Thursday. She is now 23 lbs. 6 oz , the 82nd percent, and 31.42 inches tall, more than the 97th percent. She is quite a bit taller and heavier than Eliana was at a year. I think she's gonna be tall. She has 8 teeth with a couple more on the way. She loves to say Daddy and Uh Oh and also says Ama for mama and can say baby and book. She is walking a lot now... about 10-20 or more steps at a time but crawling just gets her faster so she still crawls a lot. This is Eliana and Julia playing on Julia's Birthday.

Validation

2009-02-28T06:37:00.000-08:00

So I have always had a thing for doodling, especially when I was in school. Now when I don't have a kid in my hands at church, I doodle there too. Christian always teases me and says that I am not paying attention... I explain to him that it actually helps me concentrate and focus on the speaker... he just laughs and thinks I am crazy. Well I saw this article online today and I am SO excited for him to read it, I just thought I'd post it for everyone else to read.

By HealthDay - Fri Feb 27, 8:48 PM PST
- FRIDAY, Feb. 27 (HealthDay News) -- You might look like you're not paying attention when you doodle, but science says otherwise. Researchers in the United Kingdom found that test subjects who doodled while listening to a recorded message had a 29 percent better recall of the message's details than those who didn't doodle. The findings were published in Applied Cognitive Psychology.
"If someone is doing a boring task, like listening to a dull telephone conversation, they may start to daydream," study researcher Professor Jackie Andrade, of the School of Psychology at the University of Plymouth, said in a news release issued by the journal's publisher. "Daydreaming distracts them from the task, resulting in poorer performance. A simple task, like doodling, may be sufficient to stop daydreaming without affecting performance on the main task."

For the whole article click on the following link.

http://health.yahoo.com/news/healthday/takenotedoodlingcanhelpmemory.html

So let's all get our doodle on!

Quotable Quotes...

2009-02-26T12:07:00.000-08:00

Me: Eliana your eyes are so beautiful tonight... they are so brown and pretty.

Eliana: They are not beautiful, they are handsome. I don't want brown eyes, I wish I had pink eyes.

The other day while in the car

Julia: ahhhhaahhahhabbaabba

Eliana: Cut it off

Julia: ahhahhh babababa

Eliana: Cut it off Julia!

Me: What are you talking about Eliana?

Eliana: I want Julia to be quiet...

So Eliana combined cut it out and knock it off.

I'm ONE!!!

2009-02-25T11:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Julia's first birthday! I can't even believe my baby is one!! It was pretty low key, we had a party with just us and my Mom who is here visiting from Maine. I had this fabulous idea awhile ago to do a cool cake and have her eat it in my studio as part of her birthday celebration. Lucky for me, my good pal Amelia knows how to make really cool cakes! She did an AMAZING job on this cake! Thanks so much Amelia! You rock! The first thing she did is pull out the candle and chew on it a bit... Not really her idea of a tasty treat! Oops Mom, Knocked the cake off.... That's okay.... we just flipped over and popped it back on the stand.... "What is this goo anyway..... "Eliana was more than happy to help her, but Julia had had enough! Eliana was

also very gracious to help Julia open her presents!

We got her a drum and she LOVES it!!!

Overall it was a very fun evening and Julia had fun... as much as a one year old has fun on their birthday I guess! She's just so darn cute and we are so in love with our little girl! Happy Birthday Baby Jewels!

Chester the Cheetah

2009-02-15T15:04:00.000-08:00

Guess who Chester REALLY is.... that's right, Christian got to dress up as a 7 foot cheetah!

There is a big Native American pow wow and rodeo in town this weekend. There was a parade on Saturday morning and Christian was in charge of it. He had the privilege (l0l) of being Chester the Cheetah. He had to walk in that costume for about 2 miles!!! When he took it off he was SOAKING wet, pretty gross! Eliana had fun passing out chips to the parade onlookers for a little bit until they got too rowdy and then she sat in the truck.
We had a small crew since this was the first year Frito participated in the parade.

Grandma's Here!

2009-02-15T14:52:00.000-08:00

My mom is here from Maine to visit for a couple of weeks and we are having lots of fun! Eliana is having fun dressing her up, painting with her, etc. etc. :)

Even Julia got in on brushing Grandma's hair.

Cinderella

2009-02-15T14:51:00.000-08:00

Eliana has discovered vacuuming and loves it! I love it too!

Peek-A-Boo

2009-02-15T14:49:00.000-08:00

Julia is 11 months old... actually next week, 2/24 she'll be 1!! Crazy how fast time flies! Julia LOVES to play peek-a-boo! She is so cute!

She also LOVES books!
She sure is a cutie!

Zullo Family

2009-02-10T11:30:00.001-08:00

Our good friends from Utah, Brian and Tierra Zullo came to visit us. Christian and Brian worked together for 2 years and we lived in the Seattle area with them for the summer of 2007. At that time Eliana and Makayla were 2 1/2 and became best friends. They played a lot when we both lived in Utah and miss each other a ton. They have SO much fun together! Makayla has always had that green "Jamaica" dress that Eliana is wearing in the picture. Eliana LOVES it and always wears it when they get together. Makayla brought it with her and gave it to Eliana which made Eliana VERY happy! She wears it just about EVERY day!

Eliana got stung by a bee at the park! Playing Bocci Ball! (and yes, Christian and I did win ;)
Christian loves to do this to our babies... why? ? ? It always makes me nervous!

We did a little photo shoot of Makayla and Ethan while they were here. Check back soon to my photography blog, I am going to post more there.
It was such a great weekend. It is rare to find a family where everyone is close friends! Thanks guys for coming! We had a TON of fun!

Phoenix Zoo

2009-02-10T11:00:00.001-08:00

On January 19th, MLK day, we all went to the Phoenix Zoo. It was lots of fun! Eliana got to ride on the carousel and enjoyed grooming the goats. Julia just enjoying the ride.

White Family Grandkids

2009-02-10T10:55:00.000-08:00

All of Christian's parents grandkids were in town except Brent's 3 girls who are in TX. We did a little photo shoot...... fun stuff!!

Christmas Eve...12/27/08

2009-02-10T10:28:00.000-08:00

Christian's extended family always gets together on Christmas eve. Because many of his cousins weren't going to be there until after Christmas eve, we had the Danish Christmas Eve on 12/27 at the Christensen's home. This year we did a nativity with the kids and it was so much fun. Eliana was Mary and did an exceptional job! (I was a little worried) They even had great costumes that Jenolyn had made for a ward party. The cousins also did a gift exchange with each other. Grandpa and Bedste

Kirsten drew Eliana's name and got her a couple of My Little Pony, ponies which she loves!

The kids waiting for their turn on "stage." Notice how Eliana has her head on Jarin's shoulder, how cute! (as a sidenote, the other day Eliana was talking about when she grows up and has kids, she told me she was going to marry Jarin, I had to explain that we can't marry our cousins! LOL)

I love her expression... I can see Mary having a similar expression.

Julia with her Grandpa.

Christmas Day... (Very, Very Late!)

2009-02-10T10:18:00.000-08:00

Christmas this year was lots of fun. Eliana was SO, SO, SO excited! Julia was indifferent. We had eggs and homemade cinnanmon rolls, opened presents and then packed up to drive to California. We left around noon and made it to Grandpa and Bedste's house by dinner! Both girls were great and we only had to stop for 10 mins! Eliana played with her Mariposa Barbie and book that Santa brought her for a LONG time. We could have only got her that one gift and I think she would have been happy!

Eliana and Mariposa

After dinner the grandkids and their parents got to open presents. Eliana and Julia were spoiled once again by their Grandpa and Bedste! Thanks for all the awesome gifts. Christian and I were spoiled too. I got some much needed kitchen gifts! Thanks!

Bloggity.... Bloggity... Bloggity

2009-02-08T19:37:00.000-08:00

It seems like my life is in hyper drive (yes, we did just watch one of the old star wars movies last week). I have taken pictures and even written the posts in my head, but they haven't come to fruition on our blog, yet. I NEED to catch up!!! But for now here is a picture of our yummy, delicious, chubalub who is almost 1 (I can't believe it!). Jewels......... :)

Christmas Eve (better late than never...right?)

2009-02-01T08:53:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve we made homemade pizza with strawberry lemonade and salad. Then we made gingerbread cookies and opened our christmas jammies. It was low key and lots of fun. Eliana was SO excited!

10 months

2009-01-29T09:16:00.000-08:00

Okay so I am REALLY behind!! Julia is actually now 11 months but I didn't post on her for 10 months, so here goes. Julia turned 10 months on Christmas eve. A couple days later she started clapping and waving and saying bye bye (sometimes she says and waves at the same time). She has her own little language... it's so cute, she looks at us and just starts talking, but only she knows what she is saying. She loves to crawl and cruise and can stand on her own. She hasn't attempted to take a step on her own yet... but I am not worried about that. She can climb up all 15 of our stairs and is quite speedy at it. She loves to laugh and play and is such a cute wonderful little girl! And look at her hair! She is growing it much quicker than Eliana did!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-23T21:01:00.000-08:00

Since we've been incredibly busy and in an effort to converse resources (both money and paper) we decided to do a digital Christmas Card this year.
We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
We hope your families are blessed with peace and happiness in the coming year!
Here's a quick update on our family:
This year we added another member to our family, Julia Alysse on February 24th, Christian got a new job, and we moved from Utah to Casa Grande, Arizona.
Christian is busy enjoying his new job (as of May 2008) as a project manager at Frito Lay, being an awesome Dad and husband and administrating Addie's website.
Addie is busy being a mom of two energetic girls and doing photography part-time. (Check out the new website, www.addiewhitephotography.com)
Eliana is now 4 going on 16 and full of energy. She stays busy with preschool and play dates. She is definitely a social butterfly.
Julia is a happy 10 month old that brings so much joy into our family.
We feel so blessed by our Heavenly Father and know that He has brought so many wonderful things to us this year! We are very grateful for Him and for our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Things We Love About Eliana

2008-12-19T20:46:00.000-08:00

On Eliana's birthday, Christian and I made a list of the things we love about Eliana right now.

We Love:

Her Smile, laugh, cute voice... how she says her L's as W's.... ex. Charlie and Wowa... (instead of Lola) her curls; we hope they never go away, her competitiveness and how she talks about being "speed" i.e. the other day she had been coughing and she put my hand on her chest, she said "feel that, feel how fast my heart is beating?" I said yes and was feeling sad b/c I knew it was b/c she had been coughing so hard and I started to say that and she interupted and said, "yeah, it's because I am speed!" her joy when playing outside, how sweet she can be, i.e. the other day I said Eliana, I love you, you rock and she said mommy I love you too, you rock too. She loves her friends so much! We love how she can be such a great friend , in primary she will hug all the kids and tell them they are her friend and I can see how good it makes the kids feel, her strong will, her silliness... there is so much more too but just wanted to have a record of what stands out to us most right now!

Eliana's Birthday

2008-12-19T20:25:00.001-08:00

Eliana got to enjoy a FULL day of celebration for her 4th Birthday! In the morning we took her to breakfast at Mimi's.... she LOVED it and keeps asking to go back. In the afternoon she had a birthday play date at the park with her favorite friends...

As you can see, Eliana managed to knock the pinata down... but it didn't break open.
Elise, her almost ten year old "best friend" (one of the many :) ) suceeded in cracking it open!

The kids had a great time getting as much loot as they could! Blowing out candles at the park in her cupcakes. This was the second time, they put a candle in her pancakes at Mimi's too!
Yummy delicious cupcakes! Above is Eliana with Madeline and below is Elise and Dean.
Eliana and her buddy Dean. She is so cute, she calls him Bud... or little buddy! The other day when he left they hugged and then kissed each other. I wonder when they will start thinking that is yucky???

So if that wasn't enough celebration for one day! We let Eliana pick dinner and she wanted pizza and salad so that's what we had with a cake too, homemade carrot cake at her request. Okay, so yes, she is spoiled I guess! She got to blow out candles 3 times in 1 day!

Grandpa and Bedste got her the leap frog Tag book thing which she LOVES!! (Thanks so much!)
Grandma and Grandpa Williams got her some really awesome dress ups and markers and paper and stuff! (Thank You!!)

In these last 2 you can really see her bangs she cut!!! arghhh!

Blowing out candles for the THIRD time.

Eliana had a wonderful day and has already started talking about her 5th birthday!

Asthma Stinks!

2008-12-09T11:56:00.000-08:00

About a month ago we found out Eliana has Asthma and she has been sick ever since! Supposedly she is only suppose to take medicine when she's sick, but like I said we haven't experienced that yet. I looked up the best climate for those with asthma since it seems odd that it suddenly started now that we are in AZ and the WORST places for it (in the whole country) are Tuscon and Phoenix... of course we live right between the two. Hopefully she will be well soon! I feel so bad for her! Oh on a side note... she cut bangs yesterday! They are very short... you can see where I put the front part back in the picture but still some are coming out! Thank goodness hair grows fast!

Just had to put on a pic of Jewels too!

9 months

2008-12-07T19:37:00.000-08:00

Julia is now 9 months (as of 11/24). She is crawling, cruising a little and making us all smile! She is such a happy, fun girl. She loves interacting with people and smiling lots! She says mamamamama, babababa, dadadada... something that sounds kinda like hi and then some variations of all three. She loves her big sister and loves watching her be crazy. She has 5 teeth... the bottom two and three on the top. Teething is very hard for her. She really feels it! (and so do we since she doesn't sleep well when they're bothering her.) We are so blessed to have her in our lives, our little Jewel!

Almost 4!

2008-12-07T19:33:00.000-08:00

Eliana turns four this Wednesday (12/10). It's hard to believe! She is getting so big! This is the invitation we made for her birthday party we're going to have this week. Last year there was a major snow storm on her birthday, this year we're going to the park. Quite a difference that's for sure!

The Builder

2008-12-07T14:06:00.001-08:00

Eliana occasionally talks about "the Builder." When were in Utah she asked something about why we didn't have a toy/play room like her friend Braden and I told her that our house wasn't big enough. She said matter of factly, "Let's tell the builder to build us a bigger house." If only it was that easy. The other day were were playing and she said something about not living with us when she grows up. I said yeah, you won't b/c you'll be married and have a family of your own. And then I asked her where she wants to live and she said she'd have the builder build her a house across the street from us. I said that would be a great idea and told her she needed to live close (starting the brain washing now!). It was a moment that I realized how quickly time flies by and even though 20 years is a long time, when it gets here, I will wonder how time escaped me! It gave me more determination to enjoy every day with my children at the stage that they are now b/c I will miss these days even if it does seem challenging now.

It reminds me of part of one of my favorite talks from conference by our Prophet, President Monson. He said:

If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly.

Grateful

2008-12-07T14:03:00.000-08:00

On Thanksgiving we always go around the table and everyone says what they are thankful for. Eliana was so cute this year, she sounded like such a big girl. This is what she said:

Thankful for:

going to the park with my friends
having friends over
going over to friends houses
Mommy when she listens to me
Daddy when he listens to me
Julia
Heavenly Father
Jesus

Thanksgiving

2008-12-07T13:45:00.001-08:00

On Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, Eliana helped me make pies. We were working on an apple pie and I went to go take care of Julia for a few and this is what I came back to... an apple stuck on the apple cutter and a big chunk out of another apple. Atleast she didn't hurt herself. I gave her the duty of washing dishes next so I could finsih the apples. (that means she just plays in the sink actually)We had a fun Thanksgiving. Christian's parents and his sister Amy, her husband Mike and their adorable little boy Nathan came. Eliana and Nathan had fun playing together.
Julia hanging out watching the kids swing. What is it with our kids and boogers... as you notice her tongue licking them as they come out! Gross!

Hanging out.
Katie came too but she wasn't feeling so well! We hope you are better now!
Of course we had to take a few pics of Nathan while he was here!

The Christensens

2008-12-07T13:28:00.000-08:00

Jason, Jenolyn and their three fun kids; Jarin, Audrey and Hayden, came for a visit! Eliana had so much playing with all of them and we loved hanging out with Jason and Jenolyn.

Jarin was Eliana's first Best Friend. They are either 2nd cousins or cousins once removed... not sure. But cousins nonetheless. Jenolyn was taking a couple of pics of them together and told Jarin to kiss Eliana and this is what she got... Kissing Cousins I guess! Funny anyway. We wish we could see them more!

Playing in the backyard... we are waiting for our winter grass to come in... and it was pretty wet out there... they got really dirty!

I took a few of these pics and Jenolyn took a few...

Play Date with Dean Bean and Rebecca Claire

2008-12-07T13:23:00.000-08:00

Dean is 6 days older than Eliana and his little sister, Rebecca is 3 weeks older than Julia. They came over to play the other day and I had to shoot a few pictures.

Gotta Love Eliana's awesome outfit! This bathing suit she found at her grandpa and bedste's house in CA a couple of years ago and loves to wear it for dress up. She was making Julia laugh as you can see in the bottom corner.

Rooster Cogburn's Ostrich Farm

2008-12-07T13:12:00.000-08:00

Eliana's preschool took a field trip to the ostrich farm but we missed it. A few days later (11/17) we went with her buddy Dean and his mom, Tiffany. They have little donkeys, deer and birds too. The kids loved it... Eliana had no fear until a ostrich pecked her. She didn't want the birds to get anywhere near her, but still enjoyed watching them. Dean feeding the deer. Eliana is so cute she calls Dean her Buddy or Best Friend Buddy or Little Buddy.

Tiffany looks like a crazy bird lady here. (you know you love this shot Tif)

Bloggin'

2008-12-07T13:11:00.001-08:00

I have done quite a few posts in my head over the past few weeks but just haven't gotten the time to sit down and actually post them... so watch out because here they come!

Happenings...

2008-11-16T14:52:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday Christian was saying he wished it would just be cold and rainy for a few days so it would actually feel more like fall. The next day it rained! It didn't last long and it wasn't much but it was nice anyway. Eliana was really excited to go out in it and had to put on her rain boots that she loves and I think are super cute but that Christian hates. Last Monday we took Eliana to an apt. in Tuscon and went to the Zoo. It was lots of fun and really nice b/c our Phoenix zoo pass works there and it's a nice small zoo where you can get close to the animals. It was perfect for Eliana. The apt. was with a pulmonologist and we found out that Eliana has asthma which explains her episodes of pneumonia and long lasting coughs when she gets sick. Thank goodness it is mostly just induced by viruses and exercise. She only has to use medicine when she's sick. Of course she got sick this week and it went straight to her chest but the inhalers have helped her not to get an infection! Yay!

Poor Julia wasn't feeling well when we were in Tuscon. She was okay with hanging out in the stroller for a bit though. It was a bit chilly on Monday...in the mid 60's as you can see we had her bundled up. She was not feeling well for about a week... she had a constant fever for about 3 days and I thought she might have an ear infection and be teething b/c she was SO grumpy and sad. It turned out to be just teething and a virus that followed. Her two top teeth came in. So between her and Eliana being sick we haven't gotten much sleep lately. She is finally doing better though and we are so happy! She is generally such a happy girl that when she isn't, we know something is up.

Halloween

2008-11-02T20:43:00.000-08:00

For Halloween Eliana dressed up as a mouse... I made the ears and tail and yes, I know that mice don't have fluffy tails, but I thought it would be cuter that way. Julia was a little bunny and I was a bunny, Eliana insisted that I dress up. Maybe next year I will do a little better with my costume. We went to the ward Trunk-or-Treat and then to a few houses in our neighborhood. After we got home that night Eliana said, "Mommy, candy's not good for our bodies right?" I told her she was right and she said "We need to tell all those people that they should give out fruits and vegetables for treats next time." But believe me, she has NO problem eating her candy... Trunk-or-Treating.... Eliana definitly prefers NOT to look at the camera these days!
Julia and Audrey... Audrey's costume was so cute, it said Little Stinker on the bum which is funny b/c that is what Amelia calls her a lot.
Before we went out in our neighborhood... gotta love those cheeks!
Eliana and McKenna running to the next house.

Preschool Halloween Party

2008-11-02T20:41:00.000-08:00

On Thursday we had a little Halloween party for the last part of preschool. Eliana dressed up as a princess for this day. Of course she's not looking in any of the pictures.... oh well!

Halloween FHE

2008-11-02T20:33:00.000-08:00

Last Monday my good friend and neighbor, Amelia, hosted a pumpkin carving FHE. It was a lot of fun! She is in the picture below with her daughter Audrey who is 23 days older than Julia. Here are the finsihed pumpkins all lit up and below in the light so you can see the uncarved, painted ones. Ours was the large one 5 in... Eliana picked the face to carve... she said that one looked most like a Jack-O-Lantern.

This is Amelia's sister-in-law Amy, also one of our neighbors holding both girls... I don't know how that ended up happening... but she was willing :)

This is our other neighbor, Kelli, she and her girls came too. She would hate this pic. probably b/c she is making a funny face, but I liked this one of Julia...sorry Kelli!