Peterson Family

Birth Story

2012-01-15T09:34:00.000-08:00

Birth Story

I know this will be very boring for most of you, but I wanted to record what happened because I know I will soon forget.

We had been planning on getting induced at 39 weeks the entire pregnancy. So the night before 39 weeks we checked in the hospital at 7pm. We decided to do what we did with Jade and start with cirvidil. (This is a way to induce labor but typically is a lot slower, it thins the cervix)

9pm- Cirvidil put in. At this point I was 3cm and 70% and head in 0 station. I wan't having any painful contractions but still was having a hard time sleeping.

12:30 am- I asked for some meds in my IV to help me sleep. Still no painful contractions. I was able to sleep for 1 1/2 hours.

2:30am- stronger contractions around every 5 minutes

3:30am- still couldn't sleep but not too much pain but asked for epidural to hopefully help me be able to sleep.

4:00 am-epidural . My water broke partially. 4-5 cm and tried to sleep for a couple of hours.

7am- no progress and contractions were irregular so they started me on a low dose of pitocin.

8am-PAIN!! Epidural wore off and anesthesiologist came back to give me another dose.

8:30 am- 9cm STILL BAD PAIN . We did one practice push and head was right there.

9:30 am- made the anesthesiologist come back again for more meds. I was feeling everything and wanted more meds so that I could be numb for the pushing.

10:00am- finally pain under control. Pushed through 2 contractions and Adelle was born.

After she was born I felt so much better than after Jade was born. With Jade I was really sick and threw up and had to get a shot in my leg because I was bleeding so much. This time I felt great and was able to enjoy holding my new baby.

We were able to be in the VIP suite because of Dan's connections with UCLA. The room was awesome. It was so big and had a couch with a fold out bed for Dan to sleep on. Adelle did really well in the hospital. I remember only one night were I was a little overwhelmed because I felt like I was breastfeeding her all night long.

When we came home we expected the worse. With Jade the first two night at home were horrible. She screamed all night long and just wanted to eat nonstop. Adelle has been an angle. Seriously the opposite of how Jade was. The first night home she slept 4 hours and then 3 hours. With Jade I remember for a long time she would eat almost every two hours at night and then be awake for 2 hours. Adelle eats and goes right back to sleep. It's wonderful.

She is now 2.5 weeks 0ld and she still is doing great. I only have to feed her once in the middle of the night. Isn't that crazy??? Two weeks old and she goes a 5-6 hour first stretch and then another 4-5 hour stretch. Jade wasn't doing that until she was at least 2 months old. I hope it lasts. I really think it has a lot to do with the sleep positioner that she sleeps on because I didn't get it until after Jade was 2 months old and that's when she started sleeping those long stretches.

Dan has been home most of the time and it has been so nice. He wakes up with Jade so I can sleep a little longer and has been taking her to all of her fun activities so that she can get out of the house. I'm a little scared for next week when we will be all alone.

Also, Jade got her first haircut!!

One week old

2012-01-12T16:40:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to the pics we had taken of Adelle. Emily did a great job again!!

http://emilyhodgesphotography.blogspot.com/2012/01/baby.html

Adelle Violet

2012-01-02T17:10:00.000-08:00

She is here!!!

Adelle was born Thursday the 29th. She weighed 7 lbs 14 oz. 21 1/4 inches long. I knew she would be a lot bigger than Jade. Jade was only 6 lbs 13 oz 18 inches long. Here are some pictures. More info on the birth to come.

2011-12-19T15:52:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of me at 37 weeks and some other pictures from the last couple of weeks!

baby update

2011-12-13T12:10:00.001-08:00

I just had another appointment. The doctor said she would still induce me on the 29th, HALLELUJAH! She seems to think I will go a week early on my own anyway,but if I don't she will induce me. I am only at a 1 with 30% effaced. She was a little hesitant last appointment because my stomach was measuring so small but the ultrasound confirmed that the baby is still big! Not two weeks bigger like every other ultrasound, but still 1 1/2 weeks bigger. My fundal height today is still measuring 3 weeks behind so who knows where this baby is hiding. I have so much to do in these next two weeks, I just hope to have the energy to get it all done. I still have one more final and I haven't even gotten any of my baby stuff out yet. Also, we still don't have a name or a car seat for her! Poor girl, you would think we have forgotten about her.

I'll post a picture of my 37 week belly soon!

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-30T07:48:00.001-08:00

This year we spent our Thanksgivning in Utah! Back when we bought the tickets we knew I would be very pregnant and were a little worried about traveling so late in the pregnancy but it was fine. We flew home 2 days before 35 weeks when you are not allowed to fly anymore. My family was in Utah too so it was great to be able to see both of our families in one trip, especially because we will not be going anywhere for Christmas. I only took maybe 3 pictures the entire vacation so I got these from my dad's phone.

My family came for my newest nephew Kellen's baby blessing. He is so cute and little and looks just like his older brother. It was fun to hold him and get a little preview of what we are going to have soon.

Jordan and Kellen

Dad and Kellen

Some of my sisters

Jade with Great Grandma Peterson

Most of my cousins. We all have freaky eyes because of the cell phone!

Dan's family just finished building this beautiful house in Provo. It is seriously humongous and we were lucky to see it finished. It is so nice that when everyone is visiting now we all have a place to stay and so much room for all the kids.

The best part of the new house is the hot tub!! The max capacity is 27 people. No wonder Jade kept calling it the pool!

View of Provo from the balcony

And here is a shot of me at 34 1/2 weeks. I'm starting to feel super uncomfortable. My fundal height is still measuring two weeks smaller but I can tell this baby is still big. I have an ultrasound tomorrow to see how big she really is.

The last day of our trip I chopped 8 inches off my hair! I will post a picture later.

Pumpkin patch, Trunk or Treat, and CANDY!!

2011-11-01T15:54:00.000-07:00

Jade carving her first pumpkin. Too bad it didn't even last a week outside. Within a couple of days it was all shriveled and gross!

We went back to the pumpkin patch for Camden's birthday! It was fun to be there with friends this time. Here is Jade and Ike.

I made these jello worms for the haunted house for the ward's trick or treat party. They turned out awesomely gross!

Trunk-or-Treat!

This year Jade wanted to be a cupcake! I knew she would be super excited to be anything that had to do with food!

Music Makers was on Halloween day so the kids wore their costumes. It was really hard to get a good picture of them.

Here is "Jade's" candy. When Dan and I put her to bed last night we went straight to the candy and organized it all like we use to do when we were kids. Too bad whenever Jade could choose the candy she would pick a sucker. She was happy to get 4 candy corns and we will enjoy the rest!

(even though it's the last thing we need too)

Underwood Farms

2011-10-15T18:13:00.000-07:00

Every year we go to Underwood Farms to pick our pumpkins! We were happy to have Stevie come along too. I don't know if any of you have seen the video floating around you tube of the cute little girl who gets a big surprise from her parents that they were going to Disneyland that day for her her birthday and she starts bawling because she's so excited. Anyway, Jade watched it a couple of times last week and when we walked into the pumpkin patch she stated totally crying. I asked her what was wrong and she said that she just was so happy to be there. Haha, I don't know if that was really the reason why she was crying but I thought it was funny. We had so much fun and luckily it was much cooler than last year.

Here was Jade her first year in 2009 on the tractor ride!

2010

and today!

Here lips were blue because we had a yummy snow cone that had unlimited refills! I guess makes up for it being 5 dollars.

This was us last night, we had a family movie night and I even made us all a homemade Wendy's frosty! They tasted just like them!

We get to go again in a couple of weeks for Camden's birthday and we can't wait!

7 months!

2011-10-14T13:10:00.000-07:00

Stevie is in town for the weekend and I asked her to take a quick picture of me to document my pregnancy at 7 months. We had a hard time getting a picture that wasn't blurry or when she didn't have her hand in firont of the flash. This was the best we could do. I just had my 28 week appointment and the baby still measuring huge. She is measuring 30 weeks and one day! If they didn't know that my due date was for sure January 5th, then they would move it to December 21st! They are not going to change my due date but they are going to for sure induce me at least a week early. It's so weird because with Jade I was measuring so small that they thought she would be under 5 pounds and now this baby is going to be giant!

Last week Jade's good friend Ava turned 2! She had a super fun doggy birthday party. Here are some pictures from the night. It was so cute, they all got to adopt a stuffed puppy and name it and bring it home in a little dog house. She has loved playing with it.

There was lots of real puppies to play with!

This dog is awesome! All made of balloons!

And I just threw in this picture because I think it is cute.

update

2011-09-18T19:09:00.000-07:00

Pictures from the last couple of weeks!

We were able to go to the Kidspace Museum with Dan. It was fun to people to go with Dan because we are so used to going to these types of places while he was at work.

Our Disneyland pass is valid again. We sure missed going during the summer. I can't wait for this week when all of the Halloween decorations are up! Look at cute Nate! I love his pose!

I am now 6 months and I look pregnant!!

Today I straightened Jade's hair. She looked like such a big girl and her hair was so long!

Jade had her first ballet class this week! She sure loved to dance. I couldn't keep her still for a minute. She kept running up to me and the teacher throughout the class saying, "I love my ballet class!" Now we just need to get her some ballet shoes, a leotard, and some tights!

dinner in Vegas?

2011-08-31T08:26:00.001-07:00

Dan turned 30 last Friday. I really wanted to do something special because it is such an important birthday. I was at first going to plan a surprise party for him but after seeing how much money the party I wanted to throw was going to cost, I decided to do something super fun with just him and I. My good friend Taryn offered to watch Jade and I made sure that Dan was prepared to take that Friday off of work. I really made it seem like we would be doing something that day with Jade at maybe Disneyland or Sea World. The Thursday before his birthday I dropped Jade off and told Dan that another friend offered to babysit her that night so we could go to dinner alone for his birthday. I picked him up for work and took him to the Inn&out near the airport. He did think it was a little weird that I chose to eat there but we had a little picnic out on the grass and watched the planes fly over us and he had fun. He still had NO idea. After dinner, we got back into the car and I drove him straight into the long term airport parking lot. At that point he was asking many questions, but I was still able to throw him off and he did not think we would be actually getting on the plane. When we got out of the car and I grabbed the suitcase, that's when it hit him. He didn't find out that we were going to Vegas until we arrived at our gate.

We had such a fun time. We stayed at the Aria, one of the newest hotels on the strip. It was super hot in Vegas so we moslty lounged by the pool and at yummy food poolside. That night we ate at the Bellagio buffet which was delicious. We then saw the cirque du soleil show "O". I have seen 4 shows in vegas and so far it has been my favorite. We were able to sleep in until 8:15 the next morning and then flew back to LA.

What a fun weekend. Thanks so much Taryn for watching Jade. She had a blast with you guys!

Right when he was starting to suspect that something was up.

All of the desserts I ate at the Buffet. I want to mention that I left for Vegas I still wasn't really showing. Now that I am home I am for sure showing. I swear it was because I ate so much!

Haha, this is a funny story. I have never gambled at all before and when we were walking by one of the penny slots, I put a dollar in and pushed the spin once and won $2o!! It was awesome. Don't worry, that didn't hook me into playing anymore.

Jade, Macy, and Nate

Barney LIVE

2011-08-21T10:34:00.001-07:00

Every Tuesday one of our local malls puts on activities for kids. We have been going for awhile and love it. After the activity they have a raffle and give away some cool prizes. Last Tuesday we went with Sheridan and they were giving away an extra special prize, 4 tickets to the Barney Live show at the Gibson Amphitheater. Our numbers were called and we won! Jade was so excited to finally win. She walked up all by herself to collect the prize. They even gave her a barney toy. The show was last night and we had a blast. Jade actually had never heard of Barney before this but I got her excited by watching some youtube videos of him. We took Ella along with the extra ticket. It wasn't the most entertaining show that Dan and I have ever been to but it was just so fun to see how much they loved it. They were both dancing in the isles the entire show! What a fun night!

So excited on the way to the show!

Waiting for the show to start

They both would not look away from the stage for a second to get a picture taken

DANCING!

Halfway

2011-08-17T15:44:00.000-07:00

Today I am 20 weeks! I cannot believe how fast this has gone. It's crazy! I had another ultrasound this week and it was confirmed a girl. This pregnancy is already a lot different than it was with Jade. Jade was always measuring small and so was I. This time around I am already way bigger than I was with Jade at this point. Yes, I do know that I still am super small for 20 weeks, I am just saying that I am bigger than I was last time. This baby has been measuring BIG. All of my books say that at 20 weeks the baby should weigh around 10 ounces and our little girls is already weighing 14 ounces! She also measures the size of a 22 week old babe. Here is the latest belly pics at 20 weeks. I also added one of me pregnant with Jade at 20 weeks so you can see the difference.

20 weeks with Jade

Here is me now at 20 weeks!

I am just beginning to feel her move and kick and I love it! Now we really need to get working on picking a name...

Ella is 4!

2011-08-15T19:48:00.000-07:00

We just got home from another one of Carrie Dalton's AWESOME parties. Seriously, these parties are crazy. I tired to take lots of pictures to show off how great of a job she does at planning parties. The theme was an Alice in Wonderland tea party. And I need to mention that the entire party took place on top of their swimming pool. It was so cool. She had the pool covered in flooring with carpet. It was awesome. Jade loved all of the yummy treats and followed Alice around the entire party. Here are some of the pictures of our fun night. Happy Birthday little Ella!! I can't believe that you are already 4!!

This is how you enter the party. Going down the rabbit hole. So cool!

Drink me!

Party favors

The food table

The dessert table

Her finished mad hatter hat

Getting her face painted by Alice

Alice!!

Me and the birthday girl!

Up close desserts

Sheridan!!

2011-08-15T19:36:00.000-07:00

My little sister Sheridan has been here for over a week and we have been having so much fun with her. Last Saturday we decided to go rent bikes on the Santa Monica pier. I can't believe that we have never done this before. It was SO much fun and we will for sure be doing it again soon. Another day we rode the carousel and ferris wheel at the pier with Jordan, Ella, and Ava. We will be sad when she has to go home this Friday.

Haha, these first pictures are of what we did to entertain us on a Sunday afternoon.

Jade loved to ride bikes. She kept on yelling that she was flying as she had her arms out feeling the wind.

Jade and Ava

Before the wedding

2011-08-04T16:20:00.000-07:00

I was able to come an entire week before the wedding to hang out with my family and help get things ready for the big day. Here is some of the fun we had.

Jade loved to watch Sheridan play the piano. As soon as she would hear her start to play she would run over and just sit and watch.

I was able to meet up with my friend Tasha!

The kids did a lot of watching movies while we were working on wedding stuff

We went to two different parks with water features. The kids loved it.

Chandler's wedding

2011-08-04T15:56:00.001-07:00

We just got back from Sacramento for my little sister Chandler's wedding. It was a blast! One of the best wedding receptions I have ever been to. It was pretty stressful getting everything prepared for the even but it turned out great. The reception was held at a beautiful mansion. (Eddie Murphy's old house) It was so beautiful that we hardly had to do any decorating. It was so fun to be with my entire family and celebrate such a special day. Here are some pictures of the wedding day at the temple and at the reception. I added some of my aunts pictures too! (she photographed the wedding and did a great job!)

Sierra, Caty, and my aunt Jilane

Just coming out of the Sacramento temple

Awesome cake and awesome house!

All of my sisters and my cousin Cade! Isn't he so cute??

The party ended with everyone in the pool. It was so fun!

Jordan and Sheridan preformed a beautiful song for their first dance

2011-07-20T11:53:00.001-07:00

It's a GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are sooooo excited!

First camping trip!

2011-07-05T12:46:00.000-07:00

This was the first time we have been camping since Dan and I have been married, that's at least 7 years!! It was also Jade's first time and she did great! She had so much fun playing in the dirt. She kept on wanting to go into the forest to see snakes (we did see one and then I would not let her go near the edge of the campsite). By the time we left she was so dirty. She slept great but woke up as soon as the sun went up at 5:45am. She had her first otter pop and first s'more. I also realized that I have no picture of our friends that came with us. Scott, Lindsey and baby Emmett came too. It was fun to have some friends to sit around the campfire with. I have to also mention that we learned this weekend that little Jade is just like mommy with regards to getting sick in the car. The drive home was super windy and I was getting really sick and was about to tell Dan to pull over. Jade started to cry and threw up all over. Poor girl. I feel bad that I passed on that terrible trait to her. We got home and were all so tired that we ended up not even watching any fireworks. We are excited to now have a tent so we can have many more fun camping adventures!

When she was sitting on this rock she said, "Mommy, I'm touching a butterfly web." It was a HUGE spider web!

First S'more and loving it!

Sea World

2011-07-02T18:05:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Sea World. We have been once before so Jade already knew what to expect and was very excited when we woke her up with the good news. We got there right when it opened so we could ride all the rides with no lines. It was the best. It got a little hot while watching the Shamu show, but other than that it was a great day. Dan is out buying a tent so we can go camping tomorrow night. We have never gone camping with Jade before, so wish us luck! We are getting a tent that has 3 rooms and big enough to bring her pack and play so hopefully that makes it a little easier on us all.

California Science Center

2011-07-01T15:48:00.000-07:00

We had such a great time today at the Science Center. Here our some of my favorite picture from the day.

ON TV

touching an iceberg wall

The ice wall was her favorite part!

She said that she was cleaning like Cinderella

Tomorrow we are off to San Diego for the weekend to go to Sea World. Can't wait!

Jade is going to be a.....

2011-06-23T15:36:00.000-07:00

BIG SISTER!!

Most of you already know, but now that I'm 12 weeks, I wanted to officially announce that I'm pregnant!!!! We are super excited. Here is a little of our journey so far.

Most of you also know that we had to do Invitro Fertilization to get pregnant with Jade. This time we did it again. Yes, it is a sucky process and costs so much money, but we are grateful that there is a way for us to get pregnant and that now we know what we need to do. We are very grateful to have had it work the first try both times. This is not the norm so we know how blessed we are.

The proccess starts with a lot of hormone shots in the stomach. Usually around 3 a night. After you get pregnant it switches to shots in the butt. It is a long needle and you have to get one every night until you are 10 weeks pregnant. Those ones suck. Here is some of the needles I went through this cycle.

After your ovaries are nice and big and full of follicles (mine were the size of grapefruits), it's time for the surgery. It's not too bad, you are put to sleep and the doctor goes into your uterus with a needle and sucks out all of the follicles. This time around I had 36 follicles. Only 12 had eggs inside though. The eggs are then brought to the embryologist and they are fertilized. We have to pay an extra $1,000 to get the sperm injected right into the egg. Sometimes they let the eggs fertilize on their own. Out of the 12 eggs only 10 were fertilized. That might seem like a lot but we had the same number of eggs fertilize last time and only one ended up being good quality so I was nervous. The doctor said that my eggs are as if I were in my high 30's. I should have had more fertilize and more good quality eggs. We then wait 5 days and let the embryos grow and multiply. After the wait, it is the day of the transfer. There we learned that out of the 10, we had 2 good quality blastocysts. We put both in. After the transfer, I was on strict bed rest and no lifting of over 10 pounds for a long time.

10 days later you go in for a blood test and then wait all day for the nurse to call with the news. Right away you will have a good idea if you are pregnant with more than one. With Jade my HCG was a little over 100, so when the nurse called and told me my level was 520, I almost fainted. That is the average level for triplets!! We went straight to Dan's work to surprise him with the good news. Jade had a shirt on that said, big sister and on the back I wrote X2. Dan of course was excited, he has always wanted twins. I was excited and at the same time very scared.

My first ultrasound was at 5 weeks and there was only one sac. We were all very confused.

At 6 weeks, two sacs but only one heartbeat.

At 7 weeks, two hearbeats!! One was noticably smaller and the heartbeat was irregualar.

by 9 weeks, baby #2 was gone. The sac was still visible but no baby. It was crazy to me that in two weeks a baby that I saw was completely gone. It's called a vanishing twin and I guess it's pretty common. We were sad at first but it is for the better. The baby probably would not have been healthy and now it will be much easier on my body and our life in 7 months.

Ultrasound week 12, baby #1 still doing great and measuring almost a week bigger!

My due date is Jan 5, but I'm hoping it will come a week early like Jade.

Jade is so excited too. She talks about they baby daily and prays every night that the baby will grow healthy and strong.

We can't wait to find out what we are having. I have already had 5 ultrasounds and have 3 more before I'm 16 weeks, so I'm hoping one of those we will be able to tell. I 100% have no preference. Dan of course would like a boy, but I do like girls a lot.

I think because I have to go through so much to get pregnant I am blessed to not be sick. With Jade I wasn't sick really. Sometimes I would start to feel a little sick but I would eat and feel better. This time around I am not sick at all. Some nights I get a head ache but that is it. I know a lot of pregnant women who can't eat because nothing sounds good to them. I am the opposite. Everything sounds soo good to me. Maybe I'm not sick at all because I'm eating so much! Either way I'm grateful. I also was just cleared to start working out again, and I am so excited. It is so hard to go 4+ months doing NOTHING.I already feel like I'm showing so much more than with Jade. With her I didn't show until at least 6 1/2 months. I know this time will be different.

We are so excited for the future months and can't wait to meet this little baby!

My dad

2011-06-22T09:44:00.000-07:00

This is one of the songs Jade sang with the Primary for Father's day. So Cute!

Family pictures and JADE is two

2011-06-19T15:46:00.000-07:00

I want to first say that I'm so glad that Jade's accidents happened the week after pictures. We were lucky to have Emily take some pictures of us. I was originally just going to have her take pictures of just Jade for her two year old shots but at the last minute decided that it might be nice to have some family ones too. They turned out great. Here are some of my favorites. Sorry there were so many. And some of you have probably already seen these on Facebook. Here is Emily's link where you can see the pictures too.

http://emilyhodgesphotography.blogspot.com/

I also wanted to write a little about Jade at two years old.

-still takes one nap a day usually 3 hours

-loves to play royal rumble with daddy(yes they wrestle)

-knows all of her letter sounds

-loves family home evening, especially treat time

-still is obsessed with eating

-is potty trained! (still wears diapers while sleeping but during the day is great. She rarely has accidents)
-Can memorize any song super fast. I sing it maybe twice and she knows it.

-loves music in the car and is very picky which song she wants to listen to.

-still loves Disneyland and princesses. She knows every one. She loves Small World, Casey Junior, The Little Mermaid and Alice and Wonderland.

-She loves going to the park to play in the tunnels

-she has a weird love for bees

-likes to go on nature walks

-she loves to hide

-loves to read books

-loves nursery and her teacher Nicole Denne

-likes to go to the beach

-loves daddy daughter dates

-loves pirates and likes to talk like one

-weighs 30 lbs. She's soo heavy. I can barely hold her now.

We love you Jade and can't believe you are already two!

Two separate ER visits in one day

2011-06-19T15:21:00.000-07:00

Poor little Jade. She had a rough day. It all started Thursday night. I went to visit Juliann in the hospital because she had her twins. And by the way they are adorable. Annabelle looked like a little doll. So perfect. Anyway, while I was gone Dan took Jade and Stevie down to play on the grass. They were playing some game when Jade tripped over Stevie and smacked her chin right on a brick. I got home later that night and Dan had already put Jade to bed with just a band-aid. He said it looked fine so I didn't worry. The next morning I took a look and thought it was pretty bad. Not too deep but just wide. I took a picture and sent it to Dan's dad (who is a doctor). He told me that we needed to bring her in. Luckily, with Dan's hook ups at the hospital we got to go in the back door and were brought immediately into a room. It still took awhile but they decided to glue her cut back together with a special glue.

We were finally done and ready to leave the ER and go to Underwood farms. Stevie had been looking forward to it all week. Dan was taking care of the copay while Stevie, Jade and I got the car. To pick up our car we had to go down an elevator. When the elevator reached our floor the door came open. Jade's hand was on the door and got sucked into the wall. The entire elevator door was in the wall with Jade's hand. It was horrible. I had to pull with all my strength to get her hand out. Jade was screaming, Stevie was bawling, and I was ready to cry too. I did not know what condition her hand would be in when I pulled it out. It looked pretty bad. Immediately swollen with lots of blood. We went right back up the elevator and back into the ER and into our same room. After some x-rays and another copay we were finally able to go home. No broken bones, but a nasty cut. Who would of thought that you could visit the ER twice in one day. It's healing nicely but still looks so gross. Here are some shots.

Waiting the first time for her chin to get fixed. It was good to have Stevie there with us.

Here is her poor hand

It doesn't seem to bother her at all. She even got up with the primary kids and sang the Father's day songs with them. She sang every word perfectly and stole the show. I'm glad she's not as shy as I was. It was so cute, I wish I got it on video.

To the BEST DAD EVER!!!

2011-06-19T13:46:00.000-07:00

I decided that because it's Father's day that I would take some time and post some great memories that I have with my dad and all of the reasons why we love him so much.

Best Memories:

When we were little and we asked him if we could go to ice cream to get double scoops he would always say, "In a blue moon." That meaning NO. One night I remember he made a scavenger hunt for us to do. Each stop was another puzzle piece. At the end of the hunt we put all of the puzzle pieces together and it was a big picture of a blue moon. Right away we knew that we were going to Thrify's to get double scoops!! Best night ever.

On April fools one year he sat all of us kids down and told us that he was getting rid of the TV. We were devastated. Best april fools ever!

I remember him slaving away in our backyard building us the most awesome swing set and jungle gym. One day when he was working it was pouring rain and he just kept going. It ended up awesome! It even had a 3 story swirly slide. He also dug a hole for our trampoline two different times.

I always remember when it was time to say a pray he would tell us to fold our baby arms, bow our baby heads, and close our baby eyes. When he wanted us to give him a kiss he would tell us to kiss him quick I'm double parked.

Both of these I now say to Jade daily.

He would stand on our diving board and lift us on his shoulders so we could stand and do a high dive.

He taught us all how to do flips on the trampoline.

I remember that some days he would let us go to work with him at Subway. We were able to make our own sandwiches and put whatever we wanted on them. It was the best.

I loved when we went to Colorado last year and we were able to see where he grew up and all the crazy mountains he has skied down. We even got to see the jail that he was in for a night. He was at the same jail at the same time as the serial killer Ted Bundy.(don't worry it was nothing too bad. He was just in there until his girlfriend could bring the fine money for having an open adult drink while riding his bike, he wasn't a member then)

He forbade the word CAN'T.

Dan's favorite memory: Staying up all night in Austria laughing uncontrollably at the stupidest things in a chalet in the Alps.

He came to pretty much all of our swim meets which was every weekend and all weekend long.

Taught us all how to swim and taught us all sign language

Why my dad is so awesome:

First of all he had to live with 8 women. He deserves major credit for that.

He is so talented. He can play almost any instrument, published 3 books, mastered editing and making movies, can talk his way out of anything, can also talk his way into getting whatever he wants, knows sign language and Spanish, runs a cool website, and can do pretty much anything that he tries.

Still plays in a band and has music on Itunes

Best skier I know (maybe second to dan ) :)

A very good cook (best fajitas, sushi, stew, and bbq chicken)

Can skateboard on his hands and with someone standing on his shoulders. (we had a half pipe in our backyard in Colorado)

Great at taking pictures

Used to rock a mustache

Best papa EVER. (that's what Jade says)

We love you dad!! Thanks for being the BEST EVER!!!!!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Disneyland with Stevie

2011-06-09T16:30:00.000-07:00

We just got home from a great day at Disneyland. It was probably our last visit before the summer block out dates. My dad and Stevie are in town and spent the day with us. We were able to go to Ariel's Grotto for lunch. It was super yummy food and all the princesses come out and say hi. Today Jade won the heart of Cinderella. Jade leaned in a gave her a kiss and she said it almost made her cry. Then after she made the rounds to the other tables she came back to sit with Jade and said that she wanted to take Jade home with her. It was so cute. They said that they are all not used to having someone so young know who they are and can talk so well to them without being afraid. On her own Jade walked right up to Snow White and said, "How's the seven dwarfs?"

We were also able to ride the brand new Little Mermaid ride. It was a lot of fun. Today we spent a lot of time meeting the characters which was fun because we don't usually wait in the lines to meet everyone. Cruella was super funny. She did not like Jade hugging her. We had so much fun and so glad that aunt Stevie gets to stay with us all next week!

Jade playing hide and go seek with Ariel!

Memorial day in Sactown

2011-06-04T15:31:00.000-07:00

We decided last minute to drive to Sacramento and visit my family for Memorial Day weekend. We had just been in Utah the week before so we were not planning on going anywhere. We didn't tell my mom or Stevie that we were coming and it was fun to surprise her. We didn't get in until super late Friday night. When we arrived Jade woke right up and was excited to be at Grandma's house. We had Jade walk into my mom's room and say SURPRISE!! It was so cute. The next morning Jade woke up extra early and we were sleeping in the room next to Stevie's room. When Stevie woke up and heard Jade she just thought my mom was skyping with us at 6am. Hahah! She was so happy to see us.

Jade's actual birthday was on Saturday so we got to celebrate again. We went out to breakfast, saw Kung Fu Panda 2, and went to Round Table pizza for dinner. (the best pizza ever!!) Here is everyone at Round Table.

Jade and all of her presents!

When she opened this princess gift from Taryn she said, "OH MY GOSH!!!" It was for sure her favorite!

They play so well together. I love it. Stevie entertains her all day!

Dan let me sleep in one morning and I came downstairs to these cuties watching a movie together. What a great Auntie Stevie is.

We had to get some swimming in while we were near a pool. It was pretty cold though. I didn't get in, but Jade still loved it.

Ahoy!

2011-05-25T07:22:00.001-07:00

We just got home from a quick weekend trip to Utah. We decided to go because it was our last time that Jade would be able to fly for free. It was a very short trip but we managed to do lots of fun things. We were able to celebrate Jade's 2nd birthday with Dan's family. I'm not throwing her a party here in LA, so I'm glad she got some celebrating in. Jade loves pirates so we decided to start the festivities off by going to Pirate Island. It's a fun pirate restaurant that has pirate everything.

Waiting for the pizza!

Jade really loves her Grandma Peterson

The entire gang!

The pirates came out and sang to Jade and gave her ice cream! She loved that part.

Jade and T having a sword fight. They were so cute playing together!

These are the delicious cupcakes Dan's sister Lisa whipped up the day of the party. This was by far Jade's favorite part. She always associates birthday parties with CUPCAKES!

All the cousins ready for their cupcakes!

Dan made a pirate treasure map with clues that took us all around the house. It ended in the playground in the back yard where we had to dig up the buried treasure.

Happy Birthday!! Her real birthday is this Saturday so we will for sure be doing some more celebrating. We are taking her to Goofy's kitchen at Disneyland. She is going to LOVE it!

New Trick!

2011-05-01T18:55:00.000-07:00

Espanol

2011-05-01T18:44:00.000-07:00

One of Jade's toys got switched to Spanish and now it's the only way she likes it. I switched it back to English and she was not happy. Here she is showing off her new Spanish skills!

Umami Burger

2011-04-16T07:46:00.000-07:00

We have been hearing a lot about the infamous Umami burger so we decided to try it out last night. Jade was very excited to go because she really liked to say OOOMAMI. I ordered the Hatch burger which has lots of green chillies, and Dan ordered the original Umami with bacon lard bits. We concluded that they were good but definitely not worth the price of $12 per burger which does not include fires! It is actually a lot smaller than it looks in the picture. I will not ever be eating there again, not entirely from the steep prices but because last night it made a reappearance in my toilet. I don't think it sat well with Jade either. Last night was the first night since I can remember that she had a really hard time going to sleep. She didn't fall asleep until 10pm last night! Just thinking about this makes my stomach hurt again.

Try it if you dare!

stuck at home

2011-04-13T10:43:00.000-07:00

For the next while I'm not allowed to lift Jade at all. This is what we came up with to get Jade in her crib. The way out of the crib isn't as easy. I still don't know if she can climb in her car seat so we will probably just be hanging around the apartment for awhile. It's only the second day and we are getting bored. If anyone wants to come visit, we'd love to have you!!

*If you can't tell, Jade is singing Little Bunny Foo Foo! Auntie Jordan just taught it to her yesterday and she hasn't stopped singing it!

potty update

2011-03-31T19:33:00.000-07:00

So I decided to continue with the potty training. Yesterday 6 times in the potty with one accident and today 7 times in the potty with no real accidents. Jade would be 100% potty trained if I just took her to the potty every couple of hours. Whenever I have her sit and she has to go she will. The problem that I'm having is I want her to learn to tell me the she needs to go. The book says that to train her to do this I can't take her to go potty. I have to wait until I see her start going and then run her to the potty so she can learn the feeling of needing to go. So I tried this method today. Jade is really good about starting to go just a little and then stopping it. So I really had to watch her carefully. A couple of the pees today I saw that she went a little so then I took her to the potty to finish. She still hasn't told me that she needed to go. I think that will come with a little more days of practice. I'm so shocked how well this is going though. We even went to the beach today! 30 min drive there and back with no diaper! We did take her potty chair all the way out on the sand so she could go if she needed. It was pretty funny!! I'm going to Disneyland on Wednesday so that's my goal to be done with the training. Wish us luck!

I'm a big girl now

2011-03-29T13:09:00.000-07:00

So I had to do a quick post because I am in shock! All along I said I was going to potty train Jade when she turned 22 months because the book that I like on potty training says that's the best age. As Jade was getting closer and closer to 22 months I have been thinking that maybe I would push it back to right before she turns 2. She just seems so young. She has gone pee pee in the potty for a while now. She goes every now and then when I put her on the potty. On Sunday Jade went #2 in the potty chair for the very first time. She didn't go #2 yesterday so I knew she would have to today so all morning I reminded her to tell me if she needed to go. Well, I saw the look on her face that she needed to go and sure enough she went again on the potty and also went pee. I then decided that we better go to Target to buy some princess panties so we could have them on hand just in case. Before we left her diaper was still dry so I put her on the potty and she went again!! We got home from Target with a dry diaper so I sat on the potty and she went again!! She then ate lunch and played for awhile and before nap I had her try and again she went. I think she is telling me that she is ready. It is so crazy because the book says to start potty training at 22 months and she turned 22 months yesterday!

I know we have still a LONG road ahead of us but it has been a great start. She's taking her nap right now with a diaper on but I will probably put the panties on again when she wakes up. I'm not really sure how I'm going to go about night time and everything else, but it's been good just playing it by ear. Wish us luck! Hopefully this wasn't just a fluke!

Don't you just want to squeeze her little bum in those panties??

i am a child of god

2011-03-27T16:41:00.000-07:00

I did bribe her to sing the song by telling her that she could watch a little of the show Bubble Guppies. That is why at the end she cheers for Bubble Guppies!

sleep over

2011-03-27T16:29:00.000-07:00

Last night Dan attempted to have a sleepover with Jade again. The last he tried was almost a year ago and it ended pretty much the same. Jade woke up crying and Dan eventually ended up back in our bed. I don't blame her, I wouldn't want to sleep on the hard ground either!

The first attempt last year! She was so little!

Come home soon

2011-03-22T10:20:00.000-07:00

Dan has been in Chicago for work and we miss him!!!

LOVE

YOU

DADDY!

Maui-Day 1 & 2

2011-03-18T15:23:00.001-07:00

We just got home from our trip to Maui!! It was perfect! To follow up with my last post, it didn't rain at all! We did not see one drop! We were able to go with our great friends the McCooks!! I appoligize to anyone who has already read Taryn's post of our trip. Most of the pictures are the same and I might have done some copy and pasting of her posts. She just wrote it so well I though I might as well not take the time to write everything all out again. :)

Our plane arrived around noon on Tuesday and after picking up our rental car, our first stops were Kmart and Costco. We were all so hungry because they didn't feed us on the plane so our first meal in Hawaii was a good old Costco hot dog. We then hurried to check in at the Honua Kai resort on Kaanapali Beach.

We explored the resort and headed to downtown Lahaina for dinner!

The next morning we headed off on our first excursion to bike 23 miles down Mt. Haleakawa, a dormant volcano. A couple of friends had recommended doing this, and it did not disappoint. At first I could not stop screaming. It was pretty scary because you get going so fast and it's a windy two way highway with cars zooming past you. But soon enough I was loving it! All of us agree that it was one of our favorite activities of the week!
Taryn and I had brought jackets to wear, but left them in the car before our shuttle took off, thinking we wouldn't need them. After all, when we asked what we should wear, the company didn't say anything about warm clothing. Plus, no one else on our shuttle was wearing anything but short sleeves and it was already very hot when we left early in the morning. So, off we went, up and up the mountain, higher and higher. When we stepped out of the shuttle, our bodies were instantly covered with goosebumps and we couldn't stop shaking! And that's when the rest of the shuttle pulled their jackets out of their backpacks :) Lucky for us, two very nice men gave us their jackets that they didn't need and we were good to go. If I did not have that jacket I would have died. I could barley stand outside I was so cold. If I had to bike down the mountain with the wind blowing on my face it would have been miserable. I'm so grateful for the big parachute jacket!

Yes, Taryn and I are frolicking in the field. How could we not??

Haha!! This picture is so funny. It's me coming down the hill and the jacket that I was wearing would fill up with air and I would look like I had a parachute on my back!

I totally recommend this activity!! Since being home a friend of mine said she knows someone who ended up in the ER after falling on this bike ride. It was pretty dangerous but I would still do it again. After we were done, we got some lunch, rented some snorkel gear and found an awesome little beach that had plenty of fish, a couple of sea turtles, and even a shark! Dan was the only one who saw it and later found out it wasn't harmful but it was 6 feet long! I'm so glad that I didn't see it! We ended the night by getting some pizza and eating it in the hot tub back at our hotel. Such a fun day.

Maui-Day 3

2011-03-18T14:42:00.000-07:00

Early the next morning, we went on a whale watching excursion. It was funny because no one really wanted to go except for Ryan so we went for him. It was pretty fun! We saw whales immediately and got some good shots. I told Ryan that I better see some Baleen, but no luck! :) It was a little long. If it had only been one hour we would have liked it much better. This picture you can see four whales!

This is an awesome tree in Lahaina. It is one tree that covers an entire park. It is super old so we probably should not have been doing this....

or this...

or this!

After this we spent a couple of hours at a time share presentation, which we did to get discounts on our excursions. Afterward, we went to Black Rock and the boys snorkeled some more and cliff jumped. Dan ended up loosing his rented snorkel set which was a bummer. He put them on the rocks to do a back flip of the cliff and when he went to go get them again they were gone. A wave came and swept them away. We then went on a helicopter tour, I felt like I was on the Bachelor! We flew over West Maui, and crossed the ocean to another Hawaiian island, Molokai. It only has a few people living there and was truly gorgeous. The best part was flying above the largest sea cliffs in the world. Just straight up and down. Our pilot was awesome-he flew us to the very top and said, "So this is what it would feel like to jump from these cliffs" and totally nose-dived the helicopter for a second. It was so awesome!

Whenever we go on a trip with the McCooks, something always goes wrong! When we went to Vegas, I ended up in the hospital. When we went to Palm Springs, the AC went off in the house we were staying at in the dead heat of summer and Jade screamed all night long. So, we kept joking about what was going to happen this time. That night while we were out to dinner and getting ready to leave, the breaking news of the tsunami in Japan came on the TV. Immediately, we knew we might be in trouble. Knowing that we might have to evacuate that night, we decided to go get some gas in our car and already, there was a huge line!
The rest of that night was pretty crazy. We packed up some backpacks with some things to set by the door in case we needed to evacuate. You wouldn't believe the line of cars we could see from our balcony trying to get up to higher ground. Sirens were going off on the whole island, informing people to evacuate from their homes. Also, announcements were going off on our hotel intercom every hour or so. Our hotel informed us that we should stay put since they would only be moving the first and second floors up to higher ground and we were on the sixth.We watched the news for a couple of hours and they were able to predict the time that Hawaii would be affected. So, we tried to get some sleep and woke back up at about 3:00. Nothing new had really happened and we were able to sleep the rest of the night. The next morning we found that other parts of Hawaii had some damage, but our side was ok. Dan says that his favorite day of the entire trip was today because of the Tsunami warnings. It brought a entirely different excitement to the trip!

Maui-Day 4

2011-03-18T14:07:00.000-07:00

We woke up the next morning excited to see what had happened while we were sleeping. The damage from the Tsunami moslty happened on the other side of the island but you could see how far the water had come up. We were origianlly planning on using this day as the road to Hana but because of the Tsunami we couldn't go because most of the roads were closed. We were actually relieved that we didn't go. The day before we were back and forth if we should go. I get car sick so the 6 hour winding roads didn't seem too fun for me. But the Tsunami made up our minds for us! The ocean was closed so we spent most of the day hanging out by the pool. It ended up being one of my favorite days! Our trip was packed with activities so it was nice to be able to just have a day of relaxation and fun by the pool. We loved these chairs that were in the water! This was our spot that we had all week!

Haha! Notice Ryan and Dan in line for the water slide with all of the little kids!

We had fun playing in the pool for awhile and started to get really hungry. A lot of places still weren't open by noon, so we headed out to Whaler's Village for a little shopping, then back to Lahaina for lunch and shaved ice. Taryn had done her research on shaved ice and read that Ululani's was the best. And all of the reviews were right! The best shaved ice I've ever had!

Maui -Days 5 & 6

2011-03-18T13:37:00.000-07:00

On our last full day in Maui, we went on a snorkeling trip. The water was crystal clear and the snorkeling was great. We stopped at two places-Molokini and Turtle Town, where we did see lots of turtles. I got a little sick on the boat ride but luckily I brought along some Dramamine that helped. I'm also so glad that we could rent wet suits because it really helped when we were in the water for so long.

The boys loved snorkeling!! We loved it too but they really couldn't get enough. So after the snorkel trip we headed to Napili Beach so they could snorkel some more. Taryn and I were perfectly happy with just relaxing on the beach. Going on a vacation with another couple is the best! The boys never wanted to just sit and relax so they could go have adventures together while Taryn and I could lay out and read our books!

The last day was Sunday so we slept in and packed up and went to Sacrament meeting before heading to the airport. It was so weird to fly without Jade. I'm so used to flying with her so the 6 hour flight by myself was actually relaxing. Also, I finished my book right as the plane was landing. I read Hunger Games and I loved it!! Dan has actually started reading it since we've been home and is liking so far too.

When we got home Jade was already in bed but we were too excited to see her so we woke her up. She looked SO big! I swear she gained like 5 pounds while we were gone. She kept saying, "Mommy and daddy are home from Hawaii!" This was our first time leaving her and she did GREAT!!

Thank you so much Grandma Peterson and Jordan!!!!!!!!!!!

60% chance RAIN

2011-03-04T07:55:00.000-08:00

We leave for Hawaii in 4 days!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait but I have been checking the weather and have been freaking out! Look here:

http://www.weather.com/outlook/recreation/golf/tenday/USHI0055

I have heard that I can't trust sites like this for Hawaii and that most of the time it will just rain for 20 min and then be sunny the rest of the day. But I'm still worried!!

Does anyone know more about the weather in Hawaii?? Will it really rain the whole time????

2011-03-02T16:44:00.001-08:00

My sister Jordan is always good about taking pictures and she has captured some great ones recently. Here they are! Thanks Jordan!

Oh my gosh

2011-02-17T08:30:00.000-08:00

Jade loves to listen to music in the car and lately we have been getting sick of all the kids music that we own so we have started listening to the radio. Well, this is what has been stuck in Jade's head. I guess we need to get new CDs. Also, thanks Emily for such a cute hat!! Jade has not taken it off since she first saw it this morning!!

2011-02-16T12:58:00.000-08:00

Jade wanted me to put one of her babies in Dan's shirt so I did and a couple of minutes later this is how I found Jade. HAHA! Yes, she was cooking her baby. Now she is singing, "Change your bum bum, change your bum bum!" while changing the babies diapers. So funny!

Heart DAY

2011-02-16T08:36:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

We had such a great Valentine's day this year. Jade loved waking up to pink milk and all her favorite foods in the shape of hearts. We started the morning by going to Music Makers and then we went with some friends to ride the carousel at the pier. We came home and decorated the whole house in hearts for our special dinner. We got dressed in fancy clothes and had a candle light dinner when Dan got home. He surprised us with flowers. He has finally learned to get me potted plants on special occasions because they last longer. He gave Jade some roses and gave me Orchids.

Her first flower from Daddy!

Jade has been obsessed with hearts ever since Valentine's day. Yesterday she was playing and realized that she could make a heart out of her hands. This is how she does it. I know it doesn't really look like a heart but she sure thinks it's one because she has been doing it ever since. She puts her hands together so proud and says, "HEART!"

What a cutie. It was great to just spend the day with the little girl that I love!

VOTE for Fictionist

2011-02-15T08:34:00.001-08:00

My friend Aaron is the drummer of this band. Vote for them to be on the Cover of Rolling Stone magazine!! You can Rate them 5 stars from this page.

Pilates

2011-02-03T07:06:00.000-08:00

Who would have thought that this machine could cause so much pain?? Last night some friends and I took our first real pilates class. I want to first say that about a month ago I finished the entire P90X system. I was in pretty good shape. Since then I have only ran a couple times a week so I have lost a lot of the muscle. Well, within the first 10 minutes of the pilates class my legs were uncontrollably shaking! I kept thinking that it was WAY harder then P90X! It was super hard but I loved it. You can totally feel your core getting stronger with every move. I have 5 more classes and I'm looking forward to them! I now want to get a pass for unlimited classes. Too bad it's $200 a month!!

GO MOMMY!!

2011-02-01T15:55:00.000-08:00

Jade's hair can be braided!! Isn't that crazy? I can't believe it, she is growing up so fast!

She has been super cute lately. She likes to cheer me on no matter what I may be doing.

She says,"Go mommy, go!!"

Or, "You can do it mommy!"

Some of the times that she likes to cheer for me:

When I am opening the gate to our parking garage

When I'm making her pancakes

When I am leading music in primary

When I am doing the dishes

It's so great to have my own cute little cheerleader making my day just a little better.

By the way, yesterday Jade said a 6 word sentence!!

She was talking to my sister Jordan and she said, "Look at me Jordan, I'm coloring!"

At least she is a smart cheerleader! :)

Maui here we come!!

2011-01-21T20:40:00.000-08:00

It is official!!!!!We are going to Maui without Jade the second week in March. Our good friends the McCooks will be joining us. Everyone is invited!!!

I'm a little nervous leaving Jade, but I'm sure I will get over it!

Princess Time

2011-01-21T20:08:00.000-08:00

Today at Disneyland I decided to let Jade meet the Princesses. She knows all of their names and talks about them everyday so I knew she would love it. Today she met Aurora, Snow White, and Tinker Bell!! She was a little shy but she did give Tinker Bell a kiss on the cheek!

She spotted Snow White while meeting Aurora and immediately lost interest and wanted to move on to Snow White!

She is freaky looking don't you think? You would think the Princesses would be beautiful!

HAHA, I love this picture! She wouldn't stand by her alone but she would sit so I could take the picture.

Here are some other pictures of our fun day. It was one of the best Disneyland days!! We arrived at 9 and left at 3 and rode 15 rides!!

Yes, they all are wearing monkey leashes. Don't knock them until you have a child at Disneyland and have to stand in lines for a long time. It is easier and more safe!! Don't worry it's the only place we ever use it.

Sea World

2011-01-21T19:58:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we were lucky enough to go stay at the Dalton's beach house and go to SEA WORLD with them! The beach house was amazing. I have no pictures, but picture opening the living room door to sand and the ocean. Thanks Carrie and Matt we had a blast! Sea World was super fun too. We have never been so we were excited. We saw all the animal shows and hit up sesame street land which Jade LOVED!! When you buy a day you get a year free so we will be seeing a lot more of Shamu!

Huge Stingrays that you can feed!

Jade's first 3D experience. It was an Elmo movie, but it kinda freaked her out. She did not like stuff popping out in her face.

Doe, a deer!

2011-01-19T16:38:00.000-08:00

This is one of the many songs that she sings all day long!!

Cooking, Cardmaking, and Crafts!

2011-01-10T14:29:00.000-08:00

My sister Nichole just started a new blog! Check it out!!!
Click here for the link!

first time sledding!

2011-01-06T14:51:00.000-08:00

SO CUTE! She hated the snow clothes though!

They went down the hill like this! Watch the video below!!

She loved eating the snow, just like mommy!

Christmas morning!

2011-01-06T14:44:00.000-08:00

The Christmas Tree!!

Walking down the stairs!

The first thing she went for was the balloon animals daddy made her!

Some of the instruments my fam got. Notice how Jordan was crying. She asked for a banjo for Christmas and my dad had her first open a black guitar. She was excited about it even though she already has one at home but she acted happy about it until she opened the banjo. Then she started bawling because that's what she really wanted and she thought my dad just got her a guitar. It was pretty funny!

Jade with some of her new toys!

Pajama Christmas party!!

2011-01-06T14:38:00.000-08:00

Jade was able to go to Ella and Ava's very fun Christmas pajama party!! Here are some pictures of the day. Jade loves to play with all of their fun toys!!

Disneyland with daddy

2011-01-06T14:30:00.000-08:00

Dan took a day off of work when Em was in town and we all headed to Disneyland! We go so often without Dan so it was extra special to have him with us. Being at Disneyland during Christmas time is magical! The lights are beautiful and it snows!! We also stayed and saw the world of color show. What a great day!!!!

Santa 2010

2010-12-06T12:51:00.000-08:00

Shutterfly holiday cards!

2010-12-05T15:30:00.000-08:00

I have been seeing on all my friends' blogs about how Shutterfly is giving away 50 free holiday cards!! I love Shutterfly and especially their holiday cards. I actually just ordered my Christmas cards from them a week ago so you can imagine how I feel now that I could have received them for free. But, I can always use more cards especially because I keep on remembering people who I want to send a card to who I had previously not counted for. It was hard for me to pick which one I liked best because there was so many great ones to choose from. I will not spoil which own I chose but I will say that it's colorful and not the traditional red and green.

Not only does Shutterfly have Christmas cards but they also have the cutest birth announcements. They have great picture books and I have made 3 of from them so far. It's super easy to do and you can even just upload pictures and they will make it into a book for you! I just made Jade a Halloween book with pictures of her in her costume and all of her friends and cousins in their costumes too. She loves it! I have also have made 4 of their picture calendars. They now have desk calendars that can be a great present for your husband to use on their work desks.

I have used Shutterfly many many times and have loved everything that I've ordered through them! Check it out for yourself!

2010-12-02T14:45:00.000-08:00

Today we headed to the Grove to see a musical show in Pottery Barn Kids and to see Santa. She loved the music but screamed the whole time with Santa. She was already crying waiting in line so it made seeing Santa worse. We will have to try it out again some other time. These are some funny videos of her dancing to the music!

ZOO

2010-12-02T09:37:00.001-08:00

We went to the Zoo this week with Macy and Nate. Here are some pictures of the fun we had!

18 months

2010-12-02T08:22:00.001-08:00

Jade is 18 months!! How is this possible? It went too fast. We are excited that she can now officially go to nursery! She has been going for the last month because of our callings. Here is a little about Jade at 18 months:

weighs 26.8lbs (80%)
height 32 inches (56%)
at least she got a little taller. Last time she was below average in height and still over in weight.
if you have been around her at all you know that this girl can TALK. I really have never heard someone her age speak so well. She has so many words I can't even count. She pretty much can say anything.
She now puts 3-4 words together. She just came up to me and said, "read cupcake book please." The other day she came up to me with a plastic plate and spoon and said, "mmm pasta good!"
She still loves Elmo and everything Mickey Mouse. She also has been getting into the whole princess thing. She loves Tinker Bell!
She still takes 2 naps a day! The first usually an hour and the second 2 hours. I'm going to hold onto the 2 naps as long as possible!
She has 11 teeth and is currently getting all the rest of them.
Hahaha, now she is eating breakfast and is saying, "more more more breakfast and yogurt." Which brings me to my next point, this girl can EAT! She never wants to stop. I really think I've never seen her full. Just like daddy!
She loves her friends and says their names all day long.
She loves to spin in circles and will spin and spin until I make her stop.
She loves to drum on everything. I need to get her a little drum!
She loves music and will just stand and listen for a long time. In the car one of her songs are on at all times and she lets me know if she doesn't like the one that's on. She is picky in her choice of music.
Loves airplanes and has been on 30 flights already!
Loves Disneyland!
She loves reading books. Her favorites are: If you give a cat a cupcake, Pinkalicious, If you take a mouse to the movies, Who loves the Little Lamb. She knows almost every word to the books too. She gets sick of reading the same books over and over so we go to the library a lot.
When she doesn't want to do something like brushing her teeth she closes her eyes and hides and thinks I can't see her. It's so funny.
Her favorite time is when Dan gets home and we run to meet him at the bus stop.

Here is a video of her that I took yesterday. She took her baby basket and made it into a hat and then took a ribbon and was running around saying kite. She's a silly girl and we love her!

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-02T07:29:00.000-08:00

This year we went to Sacramento for Thanksgiving and was able to spend time with my entire family minus Chandler who is still in China. We missed you Chan!! We had a blast!!! Here are some of the fun things we were able to do while being home. Sorry, it's a lot of pictures. You will notice Jade still likes to say cheese when she sees a camera so it was hard to get any good ones of her.

Auntie Sierra and Claire

We took all the kids to do the Thanksgiving dinner shopping. What were we thinking???

Best friends..NOT! Jade has never hit any other kid until this weekend. Every time Claire came near her she would hit her away. Already cousin rivalry. Hopefully they will grow to be good friends.

Black Friday!! This isn't even all the stuff we got. My mom's bags and our new TV were in another room!

We went for a vintage theme for the Thanksgiving table.

I was able to meet up with Tasha for lunch one day. Yes Jade is picking her nose. It was the best one!

Our last night we all went to John's Incredible Pizza. It is like a Chuck E Cheese on steroids. It was soo fun!! You know the claw game where you can win a toy but nobody ever does? Well, we won it 4 times!!! Jade's favorite part of the night was the two dog balloons she got. She would not let go of them. Here she is eating while not letting her dog go.

Here is the winnings of the claw game!

What a fun trip..see you all soon for Christmas!!

Beach Day in November

2010-11-04T13:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was 99 degrees and today is supposed to be 96 so we took advantage of this heat and headed to the beach. Normally, Thursday is park day so we just got everyone together at the beach instead. It's called mother's beach because there is no waves and it's super shallow so the kids can just run and play in the water. We had so much fun!

Jade getting ready. Remember how I mentioned the face she makes when she sees a camera??

Jordan and Ava were able to come too!!

A little hesitant at first..

But that didn't last long!

While we enjoy going to the beach we are ready to get some cooler weather. Good thing we will be in Utah this weekend!!

Clean up

2010-11-02T14:49:00.000-07:00

This has been great. She has unloaded the silverware everyday since!!

(don't worry, I remove all of the knives first!)

Halloween 2010

2010-11-01T08:53:00.000-07:00

We had a great Halloween!! It was so fun that Jade was old enough to go trick-or-treating. She even said,"tricker treeat!" This year Dan was in charge of the haunted house for our ward's Halloween party so Jordan and I decided to join in on the zombie makeup. I thought Jade would be scared of us but she wasn't at all. We all three even went in with full makeup to wake her up from her nap. It was like she didn't even notice. Here are some pictures from the night.

It was so fun to have aunt Jordan here to celebrate with us!

I love this one..look at Jade's face and we weren't even paying attention!

This is her new smile when she sees a camera. She is also saying, "cheeeeeese!"

SCARY!!

Dan's haunted house turned out awesome!! I was even scared going through.

Getting her candy! She still doens't know what it is yet. But was was happy to put it in her bag.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Now we are looking forward to Christmas!!

2010-10-28T09:18:00.000-07:00

Last night when we went to say goodnight to Jade this is how we found her. What a babe!

Introducing...

2010-10-28T08:32:00.000-07:00

MINNIE MOUSE!!

Yesterday Jade was invited to her friends Halloween party! It was so cute to see all the kids in their costume. Jade and Macy were both Minnie!

It was hard to get a picture of all the kids. Here were some of them.

First we ate some lunch and then we did some cookie decorating. This was Jade’s first time eating candy and she loved it! She also loved the pumpkin cookie!!

Stuffing her face with candy while she could.

Later the kids went trick-or -treating to the moms. Jade was excited for all the goodies. Good thing she dosen’t know what is inside the candy wrappers!

The Farm

2010-10-28T08:10:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month we went to Underwood Farms!! It was super hot that day so we didn’t stay too long but still had a great time. We went on a hayride and Jade rode a pony for the first time!! I was so proud that she rode it all by herself.

These are her new sunglasses. She loves them and never wants to take them off!

Here is a picture of Jade almost exactly one year ago on the same hayride!!!

Notice how red her cheeks are. It was miserably hot!

Girls Weekend!!

2010-10-28T07:55:00.000-07:00

It had been awhile since our Disneyland girls weekend and we were due for another getaway. Carrie’s mom owns a beautiful house in the Palm Desert so we decided to go for the weekend. We had so much fun! It was nice to just sit and talk with no interruptions from our kids. Saturday morning we slept in and when we woke up went straight to Michaels! Of course we would want to go shopping! Our Michaels in Santa Monica is the worst so we had to take advantage of the huge Michaels with ample parking right in the front! We spent the rest of the day hanging out by the pool, talking in the hot tub, and going on the paddle boat. Thanks for a great weekend, let’s plan another!!

Small world

2010-10-28T07:49:00.000-07:00

Lately we have been really getting the most of our Disneyland pass. We have gone three times in October already and will probably go again next week. Jade’s favorite ride is Small World. It was funny because the other day she took her nap on the way and she woke up when we were in the parking garage and she just barely peeked her eyes open and immediately she yelled, “DISNEYLAND!!”

We love it there and it has been fun this month to see all of the Halloween decorations. I cannot wait until Christmas time there! Here are some pictures of our past visits.

Pooped after a long day at Disney!

It's so cute she always runs up to me and gives my legs a hug. (She accidentally hugged a couple of strangers that day too!)

Small World!! This video is kind of long but I love watching how excited she is on this ride.

Elmo's World

2010-10-21T08:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Jade was playing and I heard her singing. I recognized the song, do you recognize it too? Isn't that so funny? I love how she gets the do do doo part too! What a BABE! Now we are off to Dinseyland! And speaking of singing, she's singing HO HO HO HO right now!(the yo ho ho ho a pirate's life for me)I told her we are going to Dinseyland and we talked about the pirate ride.

please excuse the huge belly coming out of her shirt!

sneak peek of halloween!

2010-10-15T10:38:00.001-07:00

New Words

2010-10-06T08:28:00.000-07:00

2010-10-04T08:09:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago I bought a huge framed mirror from a garage sale with the idea of turning it into either a cork board or a chalk board. Well, it has been sitting behind Jade's crib ever since and I finally got around to painting and transforming it. I wish I took a before pic. Just imagine it to be an ugly wood mirror. Here is how it turned out. I love it!

It was super easy. I just painted the frame blue and used chalk board paint. I suggest using the spray paint kind because it's easier to get a smooth finish and it's cheaper!

Here are some pictures from Ava's first birthday!! It was such a fun party. There were people there to play music and sing for the kids and before the performance Jade went and sat on the blankets waiting for them to start. It was so cute. They started to sing and give Jade her own show. She loved it!

At the party we were able to get our silhouettes done. A sillouette artist Karl Johnson was there. He is amazing!! He has been in O magazine and has cut out lots of famous people's faces. Here is how mine and Jade's turned out. I'm mad that Dan never got his done. I wish I took more pictures from the party because everything was beautiful. My camera died right at the start!

He's so good right? He just sits and looks at you and cuts and it only takes about a minute!

P90X

2010-10-01T08:48:00.000-07:00

I successfully made it through one week of P90X. It is intense! I have been struggling to find the perfect way to workout now that Juliann is gone. I just can't get myself to go running and pushing Jade without her. I have been trying lots of different things. I did a week trial at the gym a couple of weeks ago, but Jade hated the kids club. I was sad because I got very excited about the fact that I could just drop her off and workout all by myself. Oh well, maybe when she is a little older. One day the lady did spill coffee on her so I guess I don't blame her for hating it.

I have had the P90X for awhile and decided to give it a try. It's nice because I can just do it in my living room every morning and Jade just plays around me and eats breakfast while I workout. I already feel so much stronger. Today's workout I did 30 pull ups! (not all at once and some with a chairs help) I have been super sore everyday and probably will for the next 3 months. Now you will know why you see me waddling around or having a hard time picking up Jade. Now I just need to get Dan to do it with me...

MR. HOT

2010-09-19T16:20:00.001-07:00

Last night our ward had a chili cook off and they asked Dan to be the host. When he first agreed he did not realize to the extent of what they were asking. They made him where this costume and he had to be wild and crazy the entire night. (I guess they asked the right guy) I took Jade to go see him before he was introduced and she was so scared of him.

Along with the chili we played the name game. The winner won TWO ROUND TRIP TICKETS ON SOUTHWEST. When I heard the prize I knew I would win! I was awesome. I finished well before anyone else BUT, the rules stated that anyone who finished before the time limit would be the winner and if there was more then one then they would draw a name from a hat. Well a guy named Josh also finished the game. They drew the name and it was JOSH!!! I was soo close. If I had to lose to anyone, I am glad that it was Josh. Oh well, I will win next time

the DESERT

2010-09-19T16:03:00.001-07:00

Last weekend we were able to go to Palm Springs with the McCooks. My aunt owns a house right on golf course and was nice enough to let us use it. Besides the first night of Jade not sleeping and a broken air conditioner, we had a BLAST!

On Saturday morning the boys golfed while Taryn and I dared to go to the Living Desert Zoo. It was so hot. I think it was like 106, but imagine that at a zoo where you had to walk a mile to each animal. Poor Taryn had to listen to me complain the whole time. I really thought I was going to melt away. The animals were awesome though. They were all animals that you would find in the desert. (camels, warthogs, zebras, and giraffes) It was fun to be at the zoo with Nate because he loves animals so much. I had to keep asking him what animals we were looking at.

After the zoo we went swimming and it felt so good. The rest of the time we spent goinging on golf cart rides, eating yummy food, and playing Ticket to Ride.

What a fun trip! Let's do it again soon!

Dan got paid 5 bucks to drink the milk from Macy's bottle!

TRIPLETS!

2010-09-19T16:00:00.000-07:00

Aren't they so cute?

Noah's Ark

2010-09-19T15:50:00.000-07:00

We had such a fun time at the Noah's Ark exhibit at the Skirball museum. We decided to do a fun activity this time on Saturday so that Dan could come too! Jade loved to see all the animals. If you haven't been there you should try it out!

Jade loves apples! (it was her favorite new word that week)

Jade LOVES to read

2010-09-19T15:23:00.000-07:00

EXERCISE

2010-08-29T14:23:00.000-07:00

I just was reading Jade a book before her nap and it was SO cute. I got to a page and she finished the sentence for me. In the book it says, "they all go up to EXERCISE" and she said exercise. It was so cute I made Dan run in to film her do it again. What a smarty pants!

bye bye paci

2010-08-29T07:54:00.000-07:00

Last night I decided to go for it and take the pacifier away. They say to make sure that it's gone before 18 months and if you don't do it before then to wait until they are 3! She is only 15 months but I thought it's going to miserable anytime so I might as well get it over with. She only has it when she sleeps but she does love it so I was very nervous. I cut the top of one and gave it to her and told her that they were all done because she knows that word. She kept trying to put it in her mouth and twist it around to make it work. When she realized that she was not getting any ones that worked she started the screaming. Now, I have done a lot of research and have lots of experience with sleep training so I was prepared for what could be hours of screaming. Jade screamed for only 15 min and then just laid quietly playing with her sock for an hour and then fell asleep. I could tell she was so tired and wanted to sleep she just didn't know how without the paci. It is weird to think that for her entire life she has ALWAYS fallen asleep with it in her mouth and now she would have to learn to do without. She slept the whole night with no cries and woke up at her normal time. Sunday is a bad day for day #2 because her naps always get messed up because of church so hopefully today will go as well as last night. This morning when she saw her broken paci crawled over and picked it up and kept saying, "all done!" Nap #1 starts in 20 min so wish us luck!

Sleepy head

2010-08-26T09:48:00.000-07:00

What is wrong with my little girl? Jade has been so weird lately. She just is tired ALL the time. It's not like she's not getting enough sleep either. She has been sleeping a ton! For the past week or more she has been sleeping 12 hours at night and then she takes a minimum of two 2.5 hours naps. (usually I end up waking her up from both) The other day I put her down at 10 am for nap number one and I ended up waking her up at 2:45! Maybe it's a growth spurt, the roasting heat that she's been sleeping in, or still recovering from our vacation. I guess I could have worse things to be complaining about right?

This was Jade this morning. She woke up at 7:45 am and this is only one hour later. After being so cranky and crying at her crib for her paci and blankie I gave them to her. This is what she did until I finally gave in and let her just go back to sleep.

She did some of this:

And a little of this:

I swear she has been waking just to eat.

Birthday BOY!

2010-08-26T09:40:00.000-07:00

Or should I say Birthday MAN! Dan turns 29 today!!! Wow we are getting old!

Have a great day babe.

WE LOVE YOU!!

haha...when I was looking through pictures of Dan for this post I came across this one and had to put it up. It always makes me laugh thinking back to that day. If you don't remember look back through my older posts to learn more. This is why we love him so much! He always makes us smile!

Friends

2010-08-24T10:48:00.000-07:00

Jade, Nate, Macy, Westin

It has been awhile since I have posted any play date pictures so here are some from the last couple of months. We are so lucky to have such great friends!!

Jade and Macy!

It's looking like Macy might be Jade's BFF

Macy, Nate, and Jade

Ella and Jade