Monday, May 28, 2007

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Clumsy

I don't know if this is a normal part of motherhood - but I seem to be really clumsy since Ellie was born! I seem to trip over things that aren't there (remember Jen when I made fun of you for doing this?) and other crazy things. Last week I totally tripped over my dog (not that hard since both dogs like to be right under your feet no matter where you go in the house - the joy of pugs) and I almost sprained my ankle trying to make sure I didn't drop Eliza. Today was the capper though. We have to go to a family bbq tomorrow for Memorial Day and I was assigned to bring something to share . . . so I was making Nicole's recipe of Scrapbook Salad. Well Rob was really sick this morning so he was laying down in the bedroom and I was cooking the pasta for this salad and Ellie was in her Bumbo chair watching me. I had put the strainer in the sink and I was trying to hurry because Ellie had just started crying hysterically which is really unlike her to do. I shouldn't have been hurrying though because the strainer tipped and boiling hot water ran over the sink and onto my leg below. I started screaming (which I don't even really remember doing) and Rob comes running in thinking something happened to Ellie and he was relieved at first until he sees me standing there with tears running down my face. It was very painful! Somehow I managed to only burn my knee cap and right above my knee on one leg but it was torture. My mother in law brought over a bunch of burn stuff that they had at their house (my father in law had a radiator blow up on him last year when he was trying to fix something) and it's helping and now I just look like I sunburnt that part of my leg. It's swollen and painful but I think I'll be ok as long as I don't brush up against or anything for a few days! And my screaming at least made Ellie stop crying. I think I scared her half to death! I really need to work on this clumsy thing though - I can't even blame it on sleep deprivation when my little girl sleeps 9-11 hours every night.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Target Portraits

I picked up the 3 month pictures we had taken of Eliza today. I'm really glad that the Target Portrait Studio isn't really affiliated with Target because I love that store and don't care for the Portrait Studio. They told me that I could come between 1-4 to pick up my pictures. Well I got there (this particular Target is a good 20 minutes from my house) at 1:55 only to find that they were closed from 2-3pm for lunch!? (You would think they could have told me this over the phone?) And of course they had started their lunch 5 minutes early that day! I wasn't really fond of driving home and coming back another day for the pictures - so I ended up going to the Home Depot down the street to get some supplies for our house project on Memorial Day and then ended up going back to Target and feeding Eliza in the car before she threw a fit. Not fun when it's 100 degrees outside - even with the air conditioning blasting! Anyway - here are the 3 sets of pictures that I ended up getting. I'm going to give Kiddie Kandids a shot for the 6 month pictures because these just aren't my favorite. The only picture she was smiling in shows her with a major double chin! Good thing that is cute on babies. And I should have gone with a different hairbow . .. live and learn though - right? I had to scan them in and haven't cropped them yet so sorry for the extra white space.



27

Yesterday I entered the later part of my years in the 20's. It was sort of a strange birthday for me because I wasn't really looking forward to it and normally I love birthdays! I think I'm just in denial that I'm approaching 30 (although Rob tells me I can't complain since he is already 30!). It turned out to be a really good day though! I had a little talk with Eliza the night before and told her that her birthday present to me was to be really good - and she was. :) She let me sleep in a little bit and when I met up with Nicole to do shopping - she slept the entire time.

I found quite a few new clothes when I was with Nicole at the mall (thanks Rob!) and came home to find that my dad had a cute little flower arrangement delivered for my birthday (thanks dad).




Rob did a great job on presents this year and got me a pink DKNY watch and a Burberry perfume set. He also arranged for us to go to dinner at PF Changs with Nicole and Jason and Ron and Johanna (Ron is Rob's business partner and his fiance is Johanna). Ellie was an angel the whole time and we enjoyed a fabulous dinner and then went over to Nielsen's Frozen Custard for dessert and then Rob and I headed home to watch the finale of Lost from the night before.





All in all - a great day and a great birthday! And this weekend I get to spend some gift cards and that is always fun. :)

And just for your viewing pleasure - here's a picture of the chubby little girl weighing in at 13.5 pounds at 3 1/2 months old.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Where are you from?


One of my favorite questions that I get asked all the time is "where are you from?" Now my typical response is "I grew up outside of Seattle, WA." But this response is usually met with the same question again "no, but where are you FROM?" To which I respond that my ancestory is Welsh, Irish and English. This weekend I was reminded of a funny story from BYU (Jeanine - you should remember this one since I believe it was your idea). We had just moved into Liberty Square for the start of our Sophomore year and it was the first night of FHE. I was the FHE "Mom" that year and everyone in the group was supposed to tell about themselves. Before we got there - Jeanine came up with the idea to tell everyone I was Greek but my family had moved here when I was two and that explained why I didn't have the accent. Apparently this was very believable (I think we had to carry it on for a little while). I seem to pass for a lot of different nationalities. I was FHE "Mom" that entire year and my "Dad" believed the entire time that I was from Greece. I don't think we ever told him otherwise and my roommates helped come up with some convincing stories to continue the little lie. Anyway - fast forward to this last weekend when Rob and I went to eat at Greek restaurant. It was a little family owned restaurant where the owner was from Greece but had married an American girl so they moved here. The entire time we were there - the owner kept talking to me and couldn't believe that I wasn't Greek myself. When I was in Jerusalem I passed for Arabic, I've had some Brazilians say that I look like I could be at least part Brazilian, and can fully pass for Greek and Italian. At one job I was known as the "Persian girl" and at another job as the "Iranian girl". At least it makes life interesting right?

On another note - what did you think of American Idol? Blake is my hometown Seattle boy but I think I'm going to have to go with the Arizona girl Jordin on this one. She was 10 times better than Blake tonight!

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Bows

I found a new hobby to get into - making hairbows for Eliza! I went with my friends Amy and Christina the other night to a bow making class. They had us start by making larger bows so we could the concept down. I was excited with how cute the ones I made turned out - although they are way too big for Eliza's head right now (not to mention I don't have the outfits to match them). I need to go back to the ribbon store and get a bunch of ribbon to match her outfits. I figure this will be a good little hobby to do for the summer now that all my shows are ending this week (anyone want to talk about The Office? Rob won't admit this but he thought it was so cute that he rewound our DVR to watch the ending again). This and my scrapbooking that I'm way behind on!!



In other news - we finally bought Eliza her own Bumbo chair. She doesnt like being in it for long periods of time but seems to enjoy it. I had to go to 3 different Targets before I finally found this green one. Every other store seemed to only have pink and purple and I wanted something that would work in case we get some boys in the future.





Although this baby looks like it is having more fun in its Bumbo chair:

And I've discovered that I have a great little night sleeper on my hand. I've been putting her to bed aroujnd 7- 7:30 pm and she is sleeping until 5 a.m.! I'm not too thrilled about waking up at 5 am but she's almost sleeping for 10 hours and that's fabulous. She goes down without a fuss so far. The naps are a whole different story though! I can't seem to get her to take an afternoon nap unless I'm running around in the car. I took her to the mall yesterday afternoon and between the car rides and pushing her in the stroller - she slept for 4 hours straight. This could be a really bad thing for my shopping addiction!

Thursday, May 17, 2007

American Idol Finals

So was anyone else as excited as me that Melinda was finally voted off American Idol last night? (Obviously I need a little bit more of a life!) I'm predicting Blake to win it. What about you?

Who do you think will win American Idol?
Jordin
Blake
  
pollcode.com free polls

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Blind Problem

So I'm having a dilemma with my nursery. Right now Eliza is still sleeping in the bassinet in our room but we're ready to start transitioning her to the nursery and into her crib. I would like to start first with her taking naps in this room. But the problem is - her room gets tons and tons of light! I need to come up with a solution to block the light coming into that room since I'm almost positive she will go to sleep easier if it's darker in there. I'm silly though because I have that nursery decorated and I don't want to have some ugly blinds or curtains that clash. Right now I have mini blinds on the window and super cute pottery barn sheer star curtains hanging up. So any suggestions that would solve my problem but still make the room cute? Am I being unrealistic? Obviously the most important thing is her getting enough sleep.

And off topic - I've been playing with my new camera that Rob gave me for Mother's Day so I figured I should post a few pictures.

My dogs have been really good with the baby. For the most part they leave her alone and they understand that Eliza is boss and "the pack leader" (Dog Whisperer fans will get that one). Our biggest problem is just with them barking at anything and everything, getting super excited when people coming over, or forgetting that the baby is there. But I just thought it was too cute when I walked into my bedroom and Roxy had her head on Eliza's leg and was resting it there.



Eliza is getting strong enough that we can lean her against the couch and she won't topple over anymore. Which is a big deal to us! :)



For being only 12 pounds - she sure has the chubbiest cheeks I've ever seen and a darling double chin!


Picture Day

I decided last week that I was going to take Eliza to get 3 month, 6 month, 9 month and 1 year old pictures done this year. I got a coupon in the mail for Target Portrait Studio and since I love Target . . . I figure I would try them out for the 3 month pictures. I really wasn't expecting too much because I know Eliza doesn't exactly smile on cue yet. Although she smiles a ton! But I scheduled our photo session for the early afternoon when she is usually very happy and planned the naps and feeding schedule around it. When we got there for our appointment she was all smiles at everyone talking to her and was very happy. BUT they were running 30 minutes behind. Well in baby terms - they might as well have been running hours behind. By the time we got in there she was not a happy camper! And then I wasn't really too impressed with the photographer because she didn't seem fast enough. Like Eliza would smile but she would be delayed on taking the picture - which is a problem I have but I would expect a "professional" to be a little better at this! By the end Eliza was ticked off and in tears because they started late and it was her nap time. So I ran to the car and fed her and had her asleep in the 20 minutes they told me it would take to get my pictures available to view. It made it easy to not spend a ton of money since the pictures didn't turn out fabulous! Although the pictures they had me in with her (which I wasn't planning on) turned out the best. So for selfish reasons I bought a sheet of those ones. I don't have many pictures of me and my mom or really my mom with any of us kids because she was always the one taking the pictures . . . .so I have a personal goal to make sure that I always have at least some pictures of me with my children. I won't be able to pick up these pictures until the end of next week which seems like a really long time for digital stuff. So overall - I really wasn't too impressed with the Target Portrait Studio. I think I will try Sears/JcPenney for the 6 month pictures! I've heard great things about Kiddie Kandids but I'm scared that they might be out of my price range. But I think I will try them around 9 months or the year mark when hopefully Eliza will smile on cue!

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Break out the Shorts

With temperatures hitting 105 degrees yesterday . .. I decided it was really time to break out some of Eliza's shorts. This little outfit still doesn't quite fit her yet but I think it's too mean to put her in pants when it's so hot out. I think I need to find her a bunch of shorts and some swimsuits for the summer.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Congrats to the new Elder White

My baby brother Kevin opened his mission call today and on his 19th birthday (July 18th) he will enter the MTC on his way to the Korea Seoul West Mission. :) He is very excited since he wanted to go to one of the Asian countries.



Korea




The most recent picture I have of Kevin with Eliza

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Three Months

Eliza is 3 months old today! I really can't believe it. Although I think I'm finally figuring out how to be a good mom. And she is more and more fun each day. I took some pictures today since it's my goal to document her each month but my mother's day present (a new camera) is supposed to arrive today so I'll probably take more pictures later.

Eliza loves to gabber at us with her coos and ooos in the morning and night and has lots of smiles to give us (although I still am not good at catching them on camera!). She is weighing in at double her starting weight today at 12 lbs (according to my scale). I tried to put some 3-6 month clothes on her today though and they are still too big. I guess with her chubby cheeks she just looks a lot bigger than she really is! We definitely think she has Rob's eyes. But the rest of her seems to be a mixture of the two of us - so it'll be interesting to see who she ends up resembling more. Either way - we think she is pretty darn cute!



Sunday, May 06, 2007

Eliza and Kimbel

We went over to Melissa and Warren's (Rob's brother) tonight to see newborn Kimbel again. We wanted to get a picture of her and Eliza together and just see the difference 3 months can make! This will be the closest cousin Eliza has . . besides my cousin Tempe that was just born on Thursday. Kimbel is lucky though because she is going to have 5 cousins born in the next 2 months on her mom's side of the family (Melissa comes from a family of 8).







They had a Bumbo at their house so we decided to see how Eliza did in it. Her neck is still a little wobbly but I think by the end of this month we will have to invest in one. Rob thought it was great!

Saturday, May 05, 2007

Happy 20th Birthday Elder White

One of the advantages of having my brother Kory serving in the same state that I live in is that I am actually able to see him occasionally! We got permission today to take him and his companion out to lunch since it's his 20th birthday tomorrow. Unfortunately we didn't find out until late this morning that we were going to be able to take him out to lunch today so Rob and I both look a little scary in these pictures since we got ready so fast! The last time we saw him was when he was serving in Glendale last summer. He was transferred up to the Indian Reservation for the majority of the winter (and it's FREEZING up there) and just barely was transferred back to the West Valley of Arizona in time for the hot summer. It was his first chance to meet his first neice Eliza and pretty humorous at first since he didn't really know how to hold a baby. But he did great once we showed him and even held her for a little while during our lunch. The plan was to go to Outback Steakhouse but turns out they don't open until 3 pm (who know?). So we went to Lonestar Steakhouse instead. It was great to see my brother again and know he is working hard and having a great mission. And since him and his companion are zone leaders - they are lucky to get a nice air conditioned car to drive around in (which I'm sure they will really appreciate as the weather is getting hotter each week). He has reached the halfway mark (he was in the MTC on his 19th birthday) so just one more year left! Pretty crazy how fast that year went for me anyway. My baby brother Kevin is expecting to get his call this week - so lots of fun stuff going on.



Friday, May 04, 2007

New Cousin and Niece


Lots of new babies this year! But congrats to my Aunt Misti and Uncle Bob on their 6th child that arrived last night - Tempe Grace Haslam, 7 lbs 11 ounces. And then my in-laws Melissa and Warren Bodine and the arrival of their baby girl this morning - Kimbel Bodine, 8 lbs 6 ounces. Kimbel is cute and looks just like her 2 year old sister Avery when she was born. I will have to wait to meet my new little cousin this summer on our trip to Utah.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Frozen Drinks


I found yet another reason to love Target yesterday . . . they sell Icees in the little food court. Now this probably sounds crazy but anyone that knows me - knows my love for Slurpees, Icees, Freezonis (QT), etc. Especially in this summer heat - I love the frozen drinks. Well, I was trying to figure out how I was going to manage getting these drinks when I would have to haul Ellie out of the car just to run into the gas stations. (See the deep thoughts and concerns I have these days?!) Sonic has their slushes that are quite good and I can stay in the car for those (plus they are half price between 2-5 pm). But they just aren't the same as Icees and Slurpees! Since I seem to frequent Target at least twice a week - now I can get my Icee fix on my way out and it's not an extra trip. I was very excited about this yesterday. That and the fact that for $11 yesterday I was able to get a new dress and two new shirts for Ellie from the clearance section. I still have yet to buy anything for her for full price and I'm pretty proud about that. It's a good thing since it's a little addiction of mine to buy her cute clothes.

In other news - after a 5 month hiatus .. . I finally made it back to the gym yesterday! I thought I was going to die after 5 minutes on the ellipitical machine but luckily I had made a new Ipod Workout Playlist so I just turned that up and managed to make it to my goal for the day. It's amazing how great it felt to work out again! I didn't realize how much I need that exercise to make myself feel better. I'm lucky that the pregnancy weight didn't stick around with the combination of nursing and the metabolism I inherited from my dad - But I still need to get toned up again with swimsuit season already in progress here in Arizona. My new goal is to start eating healthier now - so anyone have any good healthy tasting recipes/snack ideas? I feel like I have a ton more cravings now that I'm nursing and burning more calories.