Merry Christmas!

So it's been a fun filled week of Christmas celebrations in San Diego. We had a big family get together with ALL of Sophia's cousins on my side on Saturday night and another one the next day at my sister Melisa's in Encinitas. Here, little Joseph is pushing Sophia on their cousin Heath's bike... I need to get her something like this, she LOVED it and did NOT want to get off.










Here I am with my two sweet sisters. Melisa is my oldest sister on the left. She has a super cute little 3 year old boy named Heath and a beautiful house in Encinitas where we all got together. Lacy, on the right is five months pregnant now... and having a girl!!! Joseph is 17 months old now so they'll be like 21 months apart... AHHH! This is a really random blog but I had a minute while Sophia was sleeping so I thought I would do a little update.

We spent Christmas morning with Lacy, Joe, Joseph, and my parents at my parents house in Bonita. It was a perfect morning full of family, unwrapping gifts, sausage rolls, eggs, sweet Christmas music, and happy children.

Sophia opened her new Tickle me Elmo doll and loved it. She would stare at it kind of suspiciously and then go crazy laughing and trying to give him loves..... or wrestle him...I'm not really sure. But I'm pretty sure she liked it.

Now we're off tomorrow to Utah to spend New Year's with Ross' family. I'm so excited to let Sophia play in the snow since for all intents and purposes it will be her first time. I feel so lucky that we get to spend time with both families over this holiday season and that Sophia will get to play with ALL of her thirteen cousins... and I'm pretty excited that I'm going to get to eat at Cafe Rio.

Goin' on Holiday!

So today we leave for San Diego and I'm SOOOOO excited. I've felt like a little kid waiting for Christmas where the days before go by so slow. Lacy and Joe are coming out today from Florida and Ryon and Jeanette from Phoenix so my whole family's going to be in one place for a couple of days. I'm so excited. A whole week with Lacy... I look forward to those stretches all year. Here's a picture of me with my sweet sister for those of you who haven't seen her in a while.

We'll spend a week in San Diego and then head to the airport and fly to Utah for another five days for New Years with Ross' family. It's going to be such a fun couple of weeks. Sophia has cousins, grandparents, and different toys to play with so my job gets a lot easier. Not to mention I have my husband with me, home from work the whole time. I seriously can't wait. About five hours and counting.....

So since I'm in the mood to blog, and I might not have a chance to do it for a little bit, I think this will be a little scattered. This is a picture of Sophia in the park in Palm Desert where Ross plays flag football. We went to try to actually catch part of the game after her nap and it ended right when we go there so we just played at the park for a little bit. I couldn't believe that it almost looked like we had some sort of season there. Although I'm sure it's officially winter, it looked like fall with all the beautiful leaves on the ground and I snapped one picture before my battery went dead. It seems like such a tiny thing, but with no real developed trees in OUR neighborhood, you don't see ANYTHING like that. So to realize that it felt a little better just a town away was comforting. The air was cool that day and there were clouds in the sky (a very rare occasion in the desert). It was a good Saturday.

It got even better when the wife of one of the guys playing football told me she had a trunk full of girl toys, books, and dolls from the girls she nannies that she was trying to get rid of. Ross looked like Santa Claus as he loaded a huge trash bag full of toys--- one of which was like a hundred dollar doll that talks to you and in my opinion is VERY SCARY--- into the trunk of OUR car. It was a good Saturday.

She colors!

This might be when I realized my baby was now a little girl. She started coloring! And by coloring I mean sporadically making some contact with the crayon to the paper, or maybe the table...or chair... I figure pretty much anything but her mouth counts. My little girl is growing up so fast!

Survivor Disappointment

So we are regular Survivor fans and just finished our Tivo'd finale last night. If you Tivo'd it and haven't watched the results... stop reading now!!! :) So Yul Kwon was really nice and all. In fact, he went to Ross' high school in Walnut Creek, was a Senior and valedictorian when Ross was a little Freshman. But Ozzy! How can you not love Ozzy?! He was like this half man, half animal, half super innocent little boy. He won and won and won... so I think he should have won. I was seriously so depressed when he didn't. He looked so sad, a little fuller faced and wearing an unfortunate v-neck in the reunion show, but so sad. And I'm sure he could have used the money a little more than our Lawyer friend Yul. At least he won the car.

In the Survivor island mode, I think I'll post a few pictures from our September trip to Hawaii. I meant to a long time ago and the time just kept passing so I gave up. But in honor of cool weather, sweaters, and beanies, let's reminisce a little on summer vacations... well on my summer vacation. :) (Here we are in front of the Laie Temple.)

Ok so Ross and I are so lucky to have really great friends with a Marriott time share that they used in Ko'olina, Hawaii on Oahu. About a month before they were going, they're studio became a full two bedroom suite-- so they invited us to come along. They have a super cute little 23 month boy and they had Lizzie's mom set up to watch Tanner so we had to get someone to watch Sophia. Ross' WONDERFUL parents volunteered and honestly made us feel like we were doing them the favor. They had so much fun with her and Sophia even learned to walk that week in Utah with them... my punishment for leaving her I guess.

So for a whole week, Shad, Lizzie, Ross, and I explored Oahu with no babies in tow and the most beautiful resort to go back to every night. It was unbelievable. Ross hadn't been since he was a young teenager and I hadn't been back to that island since I went to BYU Hawaii for one semester right out of High School in '99. It was our first time together and we saw pretty much everything we'd hoped to. Here are some pics.

On a hike up Waimea falls--- it's not really a hike and the falls were all dried up unfortunately, but it was a beautiful walk through a botanical garden.

Outside our resort, Ross really climbed like half way up this palm tree, he had scratches on his arms to prove it to Shad later. I missed the photo opportunity the first time so he had to do it twice. Oops

A VERY LIVE Nativity

So this is our very own angel. We went to a little group Family Night on monday with a bunch of friends where the kids were all dressed up and we tried to do a little reenactment of the Christmas story. Mostly it was just my friend Tabitha's husband, Kyle, reading the script while an array of angels, wisemen, donkeys, shephards ...etc. ran around eating cookies and playing in the dirt. That is Sophia's kind of party. Cookies AND dirt. She had a blast.

Mmmm mmmm

I've found a new favorite. I've decided blackberries are my very favorite fruit. Sophia loves them too... I'm pretty sure she could eat a whole container from Costco in one sitting if I let her. She's done about that with blueberries before on a car trip when I was willing to do anything to keep her happy... her poop was black as night and smelled just like blueberries. Maybe that's why blueberries aren't my favorite any more... I actually hadn't thought of that. Oh no, I'd better not feed her too many blackberries. They make me so happy right now. It's way too late.

Happy Birthday Mama!

Yesterday was my mom's birthday and I too thought I would copy my friend Missy's great idea and honor my mom on this special day on my little blog.

Look at this beautiful woman. Is it just me or has she just gotten more beautiful with age? The first one is a recent picture of her at Ian's wedding. The next is her in Hawaii, where she grew up, probably only 19 or 20. She was an island girl raised in Hawaii, Samoa, and Tonga. She is the reason Sophia and I share Kelani as a middle name. She spent her youth running on the beach to dry her hair after a shower and working at the Polynesian Cultural Center (first Hauli (sp?) to work there). She has never lost her intense love of ocean water, a warm sun, and a tropical breeze. When at the beach, she still seems as carefree and happy as she must have been at 19 in Hawaii. Growing up, I always felt so cool because my mom was the only mom who would still get in her swim suit and actually swim in the ocean. She taught me how to dive under the waves and everything.

She's a beautiful strawberry blonde mother of six with the spirt of a YOUNG island girl. I only hope I can have a fraction of her contagious energy, youth, and spirit when I turn 56.

Happy Late Birthday Mama--

At least a little glimpse

So this is one measly picture of the shower before the rose petals were on the tables. I took pictures with Lizzie's camera and haven't been able to get them yet so this is the only one I got. Maybe more to come. The food table is always more fun to look at in my opinion... probably 'cause there's food on it.

Oh and here's one with my adorably pregnant friend, Lizzie.

A Busy Week Over!

So wednesday night, my house was part of the progressive dinner for our Relief Society which really shouldn't have been any big deal since they provided me with frozen lasagna, bagged salad, and paper plates. However, of course it still gave me a tiny bit of anxiety as several women, most of whom have been moms, wives, and home owners far longer than I, would be visiting my little house for the first time. And when I say "home owners" I mean, home cleaners, decorators, organizers, etc... they notice things. They notice messy corners and unorganized bathroom drawers; overstuffed pantrys and undusted cieling fans... not that they're judging, but they notice. They must. I feel like every day I find something new in my house that I hadn't before realized I was supposed to clean or maintain. And I'm not a dirty person, don't get me wrong. But I've never been responsibe for a whole house until now, not to mention a whole house in the desert, where if you don't dust twice a day your house is filthy (and that's when the windows are closed), and especially a whole house with a "real live" little toddler running around throwing who knows what she got from who knows where behind the who knows what. And just when I think I've really mastered keeping my home clean and organized each day, I find something new that lost order when I wasn't looking. I definitely think mastering order and cleanliness in one's ever changing home comes with time.

Point being: I figured that no matter how clean I thought my home was, these women must know more than I, and just might spot a give-away... yeah, a give-away that I'm 25, a new mom, new wife, new homeowner, new maid ... new adult... exactly what I should be. And then I got over it.

What I really meant to blog about was that I also threw my GREAT friend Lizzie's baby shower (she's having number 2- A GIRL!) in my backyard this morning. As you can imagine from my previous confession, the whole event was preceded by a bit of anxiety, but it went great. I used tents, tables, and tablecloths from my dad in SD (he drove them out because he's the best), and I must say I think it was beautiful. I'm too lazy to grab my camera right now as I'm supposed to be preparing my lesson for church tomorrow (that's what Ross thinks I'm doing) so I'll be posting some pictures from the shower tomorrow.

Kind of a long, rambling post, I must just feel like writing, better stop before I lose my readership of two. Love you both. ;)

Resemblance?

So who does she look like? The top is Sophia and me. The bottom is her and Ross. I tried to make it fair as you can tell. Sometimes we really think she looks like me, sometimes, exactly like Ross.... I thought I'd try and get some unbiased opinions because of course we both want the credit for this beautiful girl.

Sophia Behind Bars

This was taken back in Phoenix. The older kids were in the pool and she watched with those sad eyes from behind the very necessary and impenetrable gate. (I have very strong feelings about gates around pools.) It looks so sad, but the pool was just a little too cold for her...(ok and mostly for me.)

I just thought it was such a cute picture.

An afternoon at the park

This is our little neighborhood park where we usually end up when we decide to go for a jog instead of the gym. Sophia loves the day care at the gym and jumps out of my arms as soon as we walk in. So now she thinks my work out time is her play time and gets kind of anxious when she's stuck in the stroller too long. Luckily the park is never too far away.

So I love the park because I can sit at the top of the stairs while she runs in circles, up the stairs, down the slide, laugh laugh laugh clap clap clap, back to the stairs...etc...She loves it. Of course she flips around and goes down on her belly like the picture depicts. Her hair is usually standing more than on end after each wild ride from all the static, also tried to capture that in the second picture. I feel like my writing is so dull right now... my permission to stop reading...

Anyway it's Saturday but it feels like every other day today because Ross is gone on errands. He's getting two new queen palms for our backyard because I'm throwing my friend, Lizzie's baby shower back there next week... I'm so nervous because everything back there tends to die as we live in...well... hell. Just kidding, I really have learned to love it, especially for the price of homes and the winters. Right now I'm wearing a sweatshirt and my toes are cold and I love it... a rare feeling in the desert.

It's Christmas Time!

So I wasn't sure how a tree with lots of tempting, breakable ornaments would go over this year, seeing as we have a tasmanian toddler in our house. But it's survived. She barely shows interest, which overall is a good thing. So I think we're done decorating, but I'm feeling the pressure this year because a portion of our ward's relief society progressive Christmas dinner is happening at my house and the one thing they asked was that it be decorated. I've realized that the longer your married, the more festive you get during the holidays because you acquire more and more decorations... I'm obviously one of the younger women in our ward which means I'm sure my home, while completely decorated as far as I'm concerned, won't compare to the other homes, oh well. It will be fun. Ross put our lights up outside and everything, right after Thanksgiving--- I was so proud.

Each morning, I wake up anxious for it to be night time so I can turn on the Christmas tree lights (Ok so sometimes I turn them on first thing in the morning but the effect is much better at night), turn on the Christmas music, and light the yummy candles. I LOVE CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!

The sweetest kiss

So she finally kisses on command. We've been waiting for this for a long time. She still seems a little more excited to kiss Daddy than me, but I get my share. I think she kind of knows that girls are supposed to kiss boys... well I guess the only people she sees kiss are Ross and me.
Anyway, there is nothing in the whole world like a kiss from those little rose bud lips... sorry Ross.

This picture was taken in my brother's backyard in Phoenix. We went to their new house for Thanksgiving. They built this beautiful CUSTOM home, built in lofts for the five boys, one bathroom with two doors to toilets and showers, an enormous laundry room with two washers and dryers-- MADE for a family with six little kids, it's amazing. The kitchen has two ovens, two dishwashers, two sinks, and a lot more I can't remember, perfect for my sister-in-law Jeanette to host a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner. Byron, Kim, and the kids, my mom and Kirk, and Ross, Sophia and I went out there and spent a couple of nights. Ross and I slept in one of the boys twin size lofts with Sophia below in her playpen. Of all nights, she decided to wake up and scream for a good half hour in the middle of the night. We had made a long drive, gone to bed late, and now we both had to "scurry" down a ladder half asleep to reach her before she woke any of the other nine kids sleeping... I was sure I would face plant into their new fortunately cushy carpet. I didn't.


Sophia had so much fun with her cousins each day. Here's a picture of one of them-- Soren, on our walk to see the billy goat down the street. I just thought it was too cute.

If anyone's curious, the stinky, dirty goat actually smelled just like goat cheese. I don't think I can ever eat it again.

Sophia's favorite time of day...

When Daddy get's home.

So I guess there's a reason they call them "baby steps". Sophia learned how to show us where her head is several weeks ago and we just got her to show us where her nose is. Sometimes she points to the 'inside' of her nose, if you know what I mean, but she definitely knows where her nose is. My little girl is growing up so fast. ;)

My day of freedom...

My wonderful in-laws were here Sunday night and stayed all day Monday. They told me right away they were going to watch Sophia while I went and ran errands... it was the craziest feeling. I had like six hours to shop and run errands without Sophia. As much as I missed her, it was pretty amazing to drive without one hand delivering food behind my back to her, and shop without breaking into a full on sprint by the end of a 30 minute Target run in order to distract her and check out before the full melt down hits. It was such a nice day aside for the intense guilt I felt. I think being with these wonderful babies all day programs us moms: everything is supposed to be a challenge. Getting in and out of the car, carrying groceries, running into the store, going to church (AHHHHHH), focusing... on anything...etc... A day without challenges... it was just too easy, total guilt. But sooooo productive. Thanks Mom and Dad!

My baby brother had a baby!

So here is a picture of my youngest brother, Ian, the youngest of six kids, with his wife, Teresita, and their new baby, Cannon. Now all six of us are parents. It really is amazing how fast life goes by.

Cannon was so cute, and at right around 6 pounds, the tiniest baby I'd ever seen. His head was like this perfect little newborn face on a baseball. He was precious... and made me realize how old my little Sophia's getting. She didn't look anything like a baby next to him. She is definitely becoming a little girl. Anyway, I am sooo excited for Ian and Tere to experience this whole parenting thing. They are going to be fantastic parents!

Murder Mystery Party

So I know Halloween is long gone now, but I can't keep up with this and I never posted anything about our murder mystery party. So here it is, a picture of all of us at the party. I was Dr. Angela Deth, a dimented dentist ( I should have had a drill.) Ross was the Prince of Dimness, the brother of the prince of darkness, a devil who's afraid of the dark. We also had a witch (pregnant in real life), Frankenstein in a tutu (he was into musical theatre), a mummy, a fortune teller (also pregnant), a well dressed cannible, and the fiance of the dead man. It's not a very exciting picture but it's all we got. The party ended up starting a couple of hours behind schedule and went until like 1:30 am, much later than any of us had stayed up in a while since we all had kids at home. So we forgot to take any pictures. The party was so fun though... My friend Rachelle (the dressy fiance on the left) threw it and she went all out. Her whole house was decorated with orange lights and red candles. She had a formal table set up in the same colors. She made everything from scratch (crazy huh): cheese fondue, stuffed mushrooms, proschutto wrapped asparagus, salad with homemade croutons, Apple butternut squash soup, and king crab legs. And then of course this rasberry, apple tart for desert. The food was fabulous, and the company was great. A warning though, if you ever decide to do a murder mystery party, just make sure you start by like 6:00 because it takes at least four hours to do it right.

Esperanza Fire

So the Esperanza fire is essentially under control, after "42,000 acres burned, $8.3 million in damages, 34 homes destroyed along with 20 other structures, livestock killed and tortured, and five firefighters dead from a fire engine crew caught by a surprise swirl of flames along Gorgonio View Road." One of the fire fighters was only 20, one 23. So tragic. These fires were about 45 minutes away from where we live... we pass through Banning and Beumont on our way to S.D and on our way to our temple in Redlands, so we go through there a lot. It is so scary that one lunatic (possibly) could cause so much damage.

Hula Girl

So every year Ross' office has a trick or treating potluck for the families. The kids get all dressed up and go from office to office collecting candy. Then, they eat it, bounce off the walls for a while, and then crash. This is the phase my daughter is in. Those quiet little baby- in- your- arms days seemed to slip away so suddenly. Now I watch while other children sit on their parents' laps or pose for pictures... not mine. She likes to run in the opposite direction of wherever you want her to be. I'll have to remember that when she's a teenager. Of course I love that she is the way she is though. My baby's got sauce...

Anyway, here's my little hula dancer. We picked her up a grass skirt while we were in Hawaii... she might have been the cutest sight I'D ever seen.

Tonight Ross and I are going to my first "murder myster" party. He's the Prince of Dimness, a devil who's afraid of the dark and has asthma, and I'm Angela Deth DDS, a dimented dentist who makes victims out of her clients. Scary.... I'm sure we'll take some pictures of that one.

How did that happen?

So I just thought this was too funny, I had to include it. I went in to get Sophia up from her nap the other day and this is what I see. She'd gone to bed in this slightly baggy t-shirt and I guess maneuvered her arm out of the wrong hole while she slept. She seemed a little frustrated and confused when I got her. It may not have been helpful that I was laughing and snapping photos. I couldn't help myself.

Pumpkins!

So living out here in the desert, we're not exactly surrounded by anything that makes you feel like you're actually part of the season. While summertime for most is outside play and barbecues, ours is indoor play, $400 electric bills, and fear of heat stroke in our children. While our winters are beautiful , still, a 70 degree winter doesn't exactly give that Christmas feel. Our springs are nice as well, in the 70's and 80's, but it's a little hard to enjoy when every day you're terrified that will be the day it goes back to the triple digits. So right now we're enjoying the fall, and it really is nice, the days are cooling off to the the high 80's and the nights are even nicer. There are even some clouds in the sky today (a VERY rare occasion in the desert). But we were desperate for something to give us that Fall feeling and were hoping for a really fun pumpkin patch experience with hay and cool weather, and maybe some colorful leaves, even if they were fake.

We didn't get exactly that, but we found a local church that created a little pumpkin patch experience in Palm Desert. No leaves, and not really cool weather, but they had hay and lots of pumpkins, and the night was comfortable enough to put Sophia in long sleeves without making her sweat... so close enough. It was actually a beautiful setting right against the mountains and Sophia loved running around and playing with the pumpkins. We went with our friends Lizzie and Shad and their little boy, Tanner. The news was actually there shooting the local event and asked us to move out of their frame so they could shoot Sophia playing around in the pumpkins. Our little girl was on the live news... she's famous.

Lickin the plate...

This is Sophia eating applesauce. She doesn't want to miss any so she skips spoons and fingers and goes straight for the bowl-- mouth to bowl... it's the same way she eats leftover ketchup on her plate. Yum.

At 13 months, she's getting closer and closer to talking right back to us. Although, the whole talking issue is kind of confusing to me. I don't really understand how you know when your baby has said their first word. I'm beginning to think everyone just has their own idea-- so you can't really compare what other mom's tell you. Mama-- Dada... sure she's been saying that since she was like 4 months old along with nana, papa, baba and some other baby babble that while exciting to hear, definitely didn't hold any of the meaning we connect to those words. So do mothers count the first word as when they really think the child understands the meaning of it? That would make sense to me but if so, it's just kind of hard to know when that first time is. It's different than I expected. I thought one day my little baby girl would look at me and say "mama" and I would know she was addressing me, and by doing so first, I would know I was her favorite. :) Not that simple.

However--- while she's been saying these words for a while, I do think lately her "mama's" are only said to me, not when she's with her Daddy. And the other day we were at the park when a white car drove by, similar to Ross' white car that he drives off in as we wave "Bye bye" to him in the morning. Sophia stopped what she was doing and ran toward the street (ahhh!) saying "Dada Dada Dada" so I'm thinking she's smarter than I thought.

She has also gotten the tone thing down so while she's not mimicking my actual words yet, (except for "uh oh") she does mimick the intonation really good when she wants water, yogurt, or to say "bye bye". Also any time I say "yay" or "good job" she starts clapping. It really is amazing just to see how many little things they pick up on. My daughter's a freakin genius. Just kidding.

An eternal marriage

My mom and Kirk were sealed last month in the San Diego Temple. It was so incredible because it actually felt just as sweet as when a new young couple gets married... they were a couple of kids in love. :)

She knows where her head is...

Sophia turned a year old on September 2nd and it seems like she's been developing at warp speed since then. She seems so much older now that she's upright and walking around, and she's understanding so much more of what I say. I asked her to bring me the remote the other day and she did... not that I'm that lazy, she was just closer. ;)

Her newest trick is that she can show us where her head is when we ask her and then she claps like crazy for herself. I never could have guessed that a chubby little girl with two hands on her head could make her parents so proud.

Here we go

This is my first blog. We'll call it a test run... to see how it actually goes and to see if I have it in me to keep one of these things up. I wish I had started it when Sophia was born, I think I would have had a little more motivation. She's over a year old now and I've lost a little of my fire for taking pictures and journaling every move.... gotta get it back because she's only getting more amazing. She's walking all over the place and as "they" say, "getting into everything!" I didn't really think it would change much from her crawling because she could already reach anything she pulled herself up on. But it's different. Walking around, knowing she has two free hands to cause trouble with... she does. And then she brings me the incriminating evidence. She brings me bark to let me know she's knocked over the orchid. She brings me toitlet paper to let me know she got the door open and unraveled the roll, and she brings me a wipe to let me know she's been so kind to empty the entire container of wipes all over the bedroom... at least she's honest.