Sunday, April 29, 2007

$25

It's amazing how $25 can make such a huge difference! For a long time now I've really hated our family room. It's slowly gotten a little better as we've added new couches and a new tv but it's just never really worked overall for me. I have never liked the paint color that Rob picked out for the area (it looks like Silly Putty to me) but I've just never known what to do with the room. I finally decided that it just needed some extra color on one wall so I went to Home Depot and got a bunch of paint chips and put them on the wall I wanted to paint. I left them there for a week until I decided what color I really wanted to do. (Thankfully I have a fabulous husband who learned that everyone is happier if he just lets me do what I want with the house). Last week I went back to get the paint color (which happened to be on sale) and all the painting supplies. I went with a color called Cinnamon Cherry. I started with the primer on Friday and since it was such a dark color it needed 3 coats. Rob had to do the top portion since even standing on a chair I am just not tall enough. I was a little worried that the color would make the room look even smaller . . but surprisingly it seems to make the room look even bigger! I just really love what a huge difference paint can make. I know it would drive some people crazy but I have a different color scheme in almost every room in our house. The kitchen/family room/hall/hall bath are actually all done in tans, reds, and blacks. Eliza's room is light green. The office is chocolate brown. The master bedroom is a bluish/gray and the master bathroom is a bluish/green with brown accents. Anyway - now I just have to figure out what else to do with my front room to complete it.

Before:



After: (Ignore the vaccuum and other objects in the pictures - we hadn't completely cleaned up yet)


Thursday, April 26, 2007

Smiling Pictures

After weeks of trying to catch Eliza's precious smile on my slow camera . . I finally got a couple of them! My sister in law Brett (Rob's older sister) brought over a Baby Einstein Activity Gym the other day for me to use until she needs it again. I haven't really pulled out a ton of toys for Eliza because she isn't really at the grabbing stage .. .but I know she loves to stare at colorful objects (like the toys on her bouncy chair, on the swing and the ones hanging from her car seat). So it was already out and I figured that I should see if she had any interest in it at all. She loves the thing! I laid her underneath the center which is this big star with lights on it and a huge smiley face. Immediately her face lit up and I couldn't get her to stop smiling and laughing at it. I actually broke out the video camera because she was so talkative with the little star above her head. I think I need something to help promote tummy time a little more . .. any ideas?




Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Little Friends

When Eliza was blessed a few weeks ago - there were two other girls blessed the same day in my ward. My friends Amy and Christina both had their little ones blessed. So the three of us finally got together this week and took pictures of the girls in their blessing dresses for our scrapbook pages. And turns out that they all have at least one of the same outfit so we took their pictures in that also. The girls did pretty well during the little photo shoot. Brooklyn has the smiling down but at leas Elaya and Eliza weren't crying! Bro I need to invest in Photoshop so I can get rid of this red eye but overall - they turned out pretty cute! Brooklyn was born January 17th, Elaya was born February 3rd, and my Eliza February 15th . ...so they are all pretty close in age.



Elaya, Brooklyn and Eliza in their matching Carters dresses



Eliza, Elaya and Brooklyn in their blessing dresses



Eliza in her blessing dress



Brooklyn trying to eat Eliza



Not a flattering picture but here are the moms with our girls. Me with Eliza, Amy with Brooklyn, and Christina with Elaya

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Sleeping Through the Night


Eliza is 9 weeks old today and last night she slept through the night - 7 straight hours! I am pretty sure it was just a one time thing but I was pretty excited this morning (after first waking up alarmed). She did start making some noise in the middle of the night but wasn't fussing too much so I didn't get her out of her bed and ended up falling back asleep - thinking she was going to wake up again in another hour. But nope - she decided not to get up until close to 6 a.m. I was a little scared when I looked in her bassinet to check on her that something was wrong. Other than her being completely turned in a different position in her bed than she started in - she was smiling up at me and ready to be fed! So here's hoping she continues this good sleeping.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Photogenic

I was hoping that my children would be more photogenic than me but right now it doesn't really look like that is going to be the case! Eliza seems to always have the funniest faces in all of the pictures we take. And then today I finally caught her smile but then when I downloaded the pictures I realized it was a horrible angle since you could totally see the booger in her nose. Oops! So I will have to keep trying. On that note . .. I'm on the hunt for a new camera. Right now I have the Canon Elph but it's 4 years old and it seems like it takes forever to take the picture which is not working for me right now. Maybe the newer versions of the Elph are better though and don't have this problem! But tell me your camera recommendations. I want something that is small like the Elph but I'm willing to try out a different style, brand, etc.

Check out these funny faces:







I took Eliza to the doctor yesterday for her 2 month check up and shots. She was all smiles and cooing to the nurses and doctor until they gave her the shots and then I think she was the loudest baby there. She is now 10 1/2 lbs and the in the 50% percentile for her weight but only in the 25% percentile for height and head size. All day yesterday she just wanted to be held since she didn't feel good and half of today has been the same. So I haven't gotten much done but it's a great excuse to just relax and hold my baby and not feel guilty. :)

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Primary Weekend

Since having Eliza - I feel like I've been slacking in my calling as Primary President . .. luckily I have fabulous counselors who I knew I could count on while I was on my little break. But this weekend I got back into my calling full swing! Saturday morning we had a Primary Activity where they kids rotated to different stations and did different activites that related to things found in the Book of Mormon. They made paper boats to sail in some water (like Nephi building his boat), they buried swords in the sand, raced with the Title of Liberty, etc. They seemed to have a lot of fun and I had a great time laughing with them. Rob was nice enough to stay home and watch Ellie for me.







Sunday I had to do Sharing Time in Primary and we had a great lesson about Jesus Christ being our life preserver. It was a fun one since I was able to bring in some life jackets for visual aids and we did an object lesson with some water, salt, and eggs. And we had some good laughs from some kids comments. I know we shouldn't laugh at prayers but sometimes they just say the funniest things! I love my calling.

Eliza really started to smile a ton this weekend and coo at us. Rob admitted that her smiles just make him melt - which is pretty much the perfect way to describe it. It seems like all we have to do is look at her and she smiles now. I love it. And it's really making waking up in the middle of the night so much easier when she is grinning up at me! I still can't seem to get this smile caught on camera though which is driving me crazy butI know it's coming one of these days! This picture that my dad snapped is as close as we've gotten but it's not as good as it gets . .




I had her in an adorable outfit today but turns out that all the girls in our ward have the same outfit. Who thought you could have that problem at this young age? We get to church and my friend Amy's girl Brooklyn is wearing the same dress!! And we find out that 2 other little girls have the dress at home in their closets. Too funny. We're going to take pictures this week of the girls in their matching dresses so I will post it later.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

2 Months

It's hard to believe that Eliza is already two months old! Time really has flown and I'm amazed at how much she has already grown and changed in 8 weeks time. And I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of this "mom" thing! Rob and I think she looks different every day - some days she looks more like her dad and some days more like her mom. We're excited to see who she will really look like in the end but also don't want her growing up too fast! I forgot to take pictures until late tonight so this one is going to have to do for today. I will have to take more in the morning when she has a cute outfit on again.



We had to take a picture of her in the little Brazil soccer onesie that Grandpa White brought back from his trip with my brothers to visit Trent's mission in Campinas, Brazil. She looks a little boyish in it so it's a good thing she is growing so fast and probably won't even fit into it next week.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

American Idol

I will fully admit to being a very loyal American Idol fan. I kind of kept it a secret for a couple of years but now that it seems like everyone watches the show - I can admit to it! :) My little brother Kevin and I actually went to see American Idol on tour in Arizona a few years back with the Season 4 group. We were both huge Carrie Underwood fans and found some great tickets on Craigslist. This season isn't really my favorite but I just had to make some comments about it. First of all - Sanjaya really needs to get kicked off the show!! I almost want to quit watching because he drives me crazy. If anyone of you watched tonight - he had all these seductive like looks for the camera. Ugh. But he will stay in for a while because there are all these teeny boppers voting for him and of course Howard Stern promoting Votefortheworst.com!

My favorite is actually Blake (have to go for my hometown Seattle boy) and then also Jordin Sparks (the local Arizona girl).


Blake



Jordin



I'll admit that Melinda and Lakisha have great voices but they just aren't American Idol material for me. And Melinda is another one that annoys me - I couldn't put my figure on it until I saw this little bit on the Soup late one night http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjedGvNfvXk . It explained it all for me!

Who are your favorites?

Monday, April 09, 2007

Blessing and Easter

Yesterday was a busy day with blessing Eliza and Easter Sunday falling on the same day. It was a great day though! There were two other baby blessings the same day. . . my friends Amy and Christina (here we are pictured at my baby shower together) both had their daughters blessed also. We are supposed to get together later this week and take a picture of our girls in their blessing dresses - we ran out of time yesterday.



Me with Amy and Christina



We were able to have all of Rob's immediate family (even Great Grandma Bodine), my dad, My uncle Vern, Aunt Tammy and their kids, and our friends Nicole, Jason, Christine, and Andrew come. We had some food and treats at our house after and took some pictures although I didn't realize until I downloaded them that I am squinting in the sun in all of them! Oops.



Rob, Ellie and I with my dad (Grandpa White)



With Rob's parents and Great Grandma Bodine



With most of the Bodine clan


Later that day we went over to my in-laws house to watch the neices and nephews do an Easter Egg hunt and had dinner over there. I had to put Ellie in her Easter dress that I bought months ago not knowing that we would bless her the same day.

Friday, April 06, 2007

TGIF

I know I shouldn't really complain since I do get to stay at home with the baby all week long . .. but for some reason this has been a really long week and I'm so glad that it's Friday! This is going to be a big weekend for us - tomorrow is the 2nd anniversary of my mom passing away. On the 1st anniversary last year - my family was all together in Utah with Kory while he took out his temple endowments. I'm trying to make April 7th a happy day that I remember all the good things that my mom stood for! It's just weird that this day is permanently ingrained in my head forever.

My dad is flying in tonight for the weekend since we are blessing Eliza on Sunday and it's Easter also! I'm sad that my brothers won't be able to make it but at least they were all able to meet her when she was just born! It'll be a great meeting because there are going to be 4 baby blessings in our ward on Sunday. :)

Thanks everyone for all their advice on bathing tactics! I've been trying them all out and so far none of them are working . .. but maybe I'll find one that works. For now I think I'm just going to have to get really fast and endure the screaming!

Since Ellie is putting on the pounds quickly - I'm dressing her up in her cute outfits every day so she can at least wear everything once. Here are a couple examples of what she has worn this week:







I couldn't resist this picture of her chubby cheeks. I just love them!

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Bath time!

So I need some advice from other mom's on how you made newborn bath time more pleasent! Ellie absolutely hates when we give her real baths! I can wash her head without her getting upset but something about her whole body being wet - you would think we were torturing her. It makes me so sad! I'm getting to be really fast at it though since she screams so loudly.


Really sad right after bath time


She is growing like a weed! Last week I had to take her into the doctor since she has acid reflux and at 6 weeks she was already tipping the scales at 9 lbs 12 ounces. The doctor was impressed since she started out at an even 6 lbs. I think chubby babies are so cute - I'm just worried about her skipping through all these 0-3 month clothes that just barely started to fit her. So every day is now a cute dress day! The reflux problem is getting a little better but I think we'll have to try one more medicine first. I just feel bad since she is quite a happy baby until we feed her and then she screams/cries for the next hour because she is in pain.



Look at how chubby her cheeks are and the double chin (for some reason it's cute on babies!)



Last week she started smiling at us a ton but I haven't managed to catch it on camera yet but hopefully soon since they are coming more and more frequently!