Today We Held Hands {all three of us}

Today, Aaron, Luella and I held hands and walked out of Soup Plantation together. It was such a simple act, but what a big moment. She is a little girl. She wake up each morning with new words, new faces, and more love for us then the day before. I am not quite sure how she does this because she doesn't get that much sleep. She still wakes up bout 2-3 times a night. We are starting to night wean and let's just say we have some tired parents. But you can't get mad at her when she wakes up and says "Hi Mamma, Hi Papa, Love You"...immediately followed by "outside, play".  Oh,  how I love it.

Ok, so I have a lot to catch up on {deep breath} here we go!

{Saturday 11/26}

 We got our Chirstmas tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I always like having the Christmas decorations up as long as possible. I decorated the tree when Lu was asleep so she did not see the tree in the house until the next morning. It was priceless to see her walk out into the den and see the tree with all the "balls". I plugged in the lights and she loudly said "whoaaa". I wasn't sure she would be into Christmas this year, but I guess if you put a big tree in your house and hang a bunch a balls on it and then light it up, it has got to be cool!

It is pretty much impossible these days to get a good picture of Luella, because she is either running towards the camera or running away! Here is our attempts. I spy two head in the top right picture (ha!)

That same night day Ava, Aaron, Luella and I celebrated my dad's 70th birthday with Japanese Tepan. Luella kept telling us that it was "hot!" She is pretty much awesome here, because she is eating with just one chop stick...genius baby!

{Friday 12/3}

A week later, I had a 2nd annual "impromptu" gingerbread house decorating party. Here is a picture with Lu and "auntie Georgie" {Georgina} in the backyard. Georgina is funny because she never thinks that Luella has on enough clothes and this night tried to put clothes on Luella so she would like the little boy in "A Christmas Story!'

Fun a great picture that Charla captured of me and the little one. I was hoping she could help a little this year in the decorating, but who was I kidding, she just tried to eat everything. Maybe next year!

This is my house in the process of decorating! It was the grand price winner of the contest that we didn't have. (My sense of humor is really coming out tonight..watch out people, it is usually hard to understand and not that funny!). side note...you can soo tell that Charla took the last three pictures, as they are sooo much better then mine.

{Saturday 11/4}

The next morning, Lu and I had some play time while Papa was at a track meet all day. Someone please tell Lu that the end table is not a seat. This is her classic "take it baby" pose. All morning long, she would pick up things and bring the to me and ask me to "take it baby!"

That night we went to the Christmas Parade in Belmont Shore. Although her face does not show it, Luella did really enjoy the night. This is before the parade and she is in the backpack (which didn't last long). Luella loves to explore. Once we were settled in our spot for the parade she went exploring the crowd, mad dogging everyone or saying "hi" loudly and waving. She is funny, depending on her feel of the person she runs up to them and wither, stands there and stairs awkwardly, or smiles, waves and say "Hi". Both can get a little uncomfortable at times, but either way make me smile.

This is Becky and Jon. We always go to the parade with Becky's family as well as go to a "pre-parade" celebration at her aunt Linda's House. This year Jake was is the pardade!

Can you say "Parade?"

This is Luella's "band face". She absolutely loved the drums. The minute she heard them her arm started going. I think she is going to be a drum major. All she needs is a big baton and we are good to go.

 We are happy here, we just don't look it! {It was the only half way decent picture of the two of us!...we need to work on this)

 Jon, Jon's funny face and one of Luella's favorite friends. They love to kiss!

 Jake is in here somewhere!

{Sunday 11/5}

The busy weekend continues. Sunday night we had Megan's 4th birthday party. It was at a gymnastics center and Luella was in heaven. She pretty much had free reign of the entire place. She ran and jumped (well tried to jump, she thinks she is jumpimg but she gets no air!) and climbed and slid and went non-stop. Since she was the only kid who was too young to join the group I had to chase her around all night...it is kind of sad that I am sore from this (a true reminder that my triathlon days are far from me!).

 Here is Brooklyn and Lu is "jail". Brooklyn could climb out, but Luella is in another classic pose "Uppa".

 "I'm gonna get you!"

I am sure this is jarbled and typoed, and might not make much sense, but it is done, it is recorded and one day will make it into a printed book! I love having a little one and recording her and our life, especially during the holiday season!

{Thankful} {Yummy} {Tired}

Happy Thanksgiving. This was our second annual Thanksgiving at our house. Last year was much easier since Luella was 6 weeks old, I pretty much tool care of her while everyone other then me took care of everything else. Needless to say, is that this year...I am tired. The day started at 5:30am with a crabby teething baby (well do I call her a toddler now?). So we started cooking early. Aaron took on the meat, my mom I took on everything else. I got everything prepped and ready to go and was determined to be organized and eat on time. Well, that didn't happen. The soup never got hot because I forgot to plug in the crock pot. 20 minutes before we were suppose to eat the realized the stuffing was still in the frig (aaron doesn't stuff the bird, tat is a big no, no in his book). Anyways, I am not as perfect as I would like to be, but we ate a fabulous meal, just an hour later then expected. The menu was turkey, lamb, brussels sprouts, green beans, stuffing, mashed potatoes, creamy sweet potato and carrot soup, gravy, cranberry relish and a fabulous salad (my aunt Christine made the last two). It was good. My friend Charla said she like Thanksgiving now because our food was so good!!

Luella was entertained most of the day by Ya-Ya (grandma)! Here she is tell me "no, no, no" as I am trying to get a picture of her cute thanksgiving dress. My mom (Ya-Ya) made it it for her with fabric we picked out together and a pattern I found on etsy! I had the add the converse...too cute!

Here is all the little details of the decoration. This was my mom's other job. She is kind of like Martha Stewart, just way hotter.

Since I realized there are very few pictures of the three of us, or just Luella with me or Aaron, we tried to get some pictures together. As you can see it was kind of difficult. Here are the best ones. And of course, a picture of the three of use didn't happen.

Here is the dinner towards the end of the evening, everyone with full bellies. My dad is at the end of the table with the smile...he will be 70 tomorrow.

I am so thankful for my life...it is pretty much perfect!

A Quick Trip to Davis {Thanksgiving Break}

This past weekend Aaron, Lu and I went up to Northern California for the Sac State vs. Davis game {The Causeway Classic}. We knew the forecast was rain, so we made a quick trip to REI to gear up Luella. We headed up Friday and Luella did amazing with the drive. About an hour before we got there, she keep raising her hands in the air saying "all done", "all done". It was cute. Little did she know that we too were all done, and I think she tolerated it better them me. Hour 6 in the car isn't fun for anyone. We stayed with friends, Robby and Tera and their dog Olivia. Luella LOVED the "dog dog". I think she is saying doggy, but all dogs are "dog-dog" (in fact almost all animals are dog-dogs, we are working on that). Saturday we went to game, it was more then raining, there were thunderstorms, crazy winds, and it was COLD. Good thing we had our gear...even better, good thing we were VIP and were allowed in a guest room for the game and got to watch it on TV. The next day we visited friends Luce and Lauren and their new baby girl Drew (yeah, didn't have the camera out that day...bad mama!). Overall it was a great trip, it is always fun to go back to Davis and visit college friends. It was also fun to be in Nor Cal where they have beautiful fall leaves. It was gorgeous!

Lu did not only fall in love with the dog, but also the dog food. I was very surprised she didn't eat any, she just liked "organizing" it.

We decided the play outside for a little bit after the rain let up.

{yes} with a side of giggle

Photos by CharlaBlueBlog.com at Oktoberfest is Long Beach.

Oh man, how I love this girl. She is becoming quite the communicator (this is a polite way of saying demanding). For example, today she brings me her socks, her shoes, and her hat (mind you she hates hats) says "on", and then says, "outside." She is putting together two and three word phrases like, "open please", "more more", "milk mama", but our favorite is "no no, papa, no"! Oh yeah, and I also like, "I poo poo" when she farts. Even better, is when she can't communicate and we play the guessing game of what she does want. Once we get the right answer she gets a grin on her face and gives the smuggest giggle. I love it. It has become a game for me and of course it is hard to resist giving her what she wants, even it if in a box a crayon and white walls. 

She is also starting to remember fun games from the day before and requests to play more, like "tickle, tickle, tickle", "bite the feet", and "baby massage!" If you ask Lu if she wants a massage, she gives a grin, some squinty eyes and lays on her tummy. If you stop the massage she peeks out of the corner of her eye and says "more, more."

With this communication is coming a little bit of frustration. Now that she can tell us what she wants and if she doesn't get it, she is starting to be very dramatic about it. Walking backwards until she reaches a surface to bang her body against, or if no surface is close stumbling to her bottom and getting mad about it. Unfortunately, Lu bites in her frustration fits, but as for now, she is just biting herself, so no harm no foul. At daycare she learns how to be nice, and will stroke your face softly and say "nice" (well more like "ni"), at home she is starting to not be so soft about it. She likes to poke out eyes and pick nose (probably my fault from always pick hers) and ears (again, I can get q-tip happy). 
She is a ball of energy and super goofy. You can tell she will have her fathers "Zeegets" (a word Aaron uses for crazy maker). I can't believe how much of a little person she has become in just four weeks. I would change nothing about my life. 13 months is fun...I can wait for more.

{Gnomes} Halloween 2010

Ahhhh, Halloween. I absolutely loved, I mean LOVED Halloween when I was little. I mean it was all about candy and we lived in the sweetest place for tricker-treating...Canyon Lake. Cars, Vans and Trucks would come in full of kids coming to get the goods. I loved Halloween 1/2 for the candy, and 1/2 for the candy. The costume was just the way to get the candy. Now that I am a mom, Halloween is about NOT eating the candy, so now it has to be about the costumes. This year it was Garden Gnomes. I got the suggestion from my friend Corrin that Luella's should be a gnome....mostly because Lu has some cute elf like qualities!!! When I told my mom, she got on board and decided to deck out the whole family.

The day started out with Charla and Brookie meeting at our house for a quick photo shoot (charla BLUE Photo), then off to second street for the festivities, followed up with the annual Ford's Halloween get together. The girls here are sooo cute. I absolutely LOVE watching them. They are funny, especially as a Garden Gnome and a Ballerina Bear. There are more picture of the two here.

I am pretty sure she didn't know her hat was on here. The hat was an issue, but ohhh so cute!

I spy some crazy gnomes! (Check out my ears, I see where Luella gets if from.) I should see into getting a side job this Christmas as the mall.

Luella was not a big fan of Halloween this year. She didn't understand all the fuss. She was over the hat, and over us looking, and over Ya-Ya trying to give her too many hugs (my mom's name for grandma...it's a long story, but Lu can say it so it stuck).

The only thing that usually fixes Luella's stresses is the trees. Papa has to take her outside to look at the trees and touch the leaves. She points and says "ooohhh"!

Ummm, did I mention we are crazy, it runs in the family.

And finally, a cute family portrait! Thanks Eva Mann Designs, the costumes rock!