Definitely One of Elly's Favorite People

Since she learned to talk, this name has been said in our house more than any other besides Mommy and Dada. There's no question about it. Elly loves Jesus. It's funny because, Brandon and I didn't spend hours on end trying to teach her this name. She just sort of picked it up on her own. We have one painting of him in our front hall that she says "hi" to each time we pass. We have a few DVDs with him on the cover that she loves to hold and walk around with. She recognizes him anytime she sees him, even in a picture she hasn't seen before. A few months ago, we were at a friend's house who has a small, white, ceramic statue of him in her living room. I am sure she had never seen it before, but when Elly looked at it- she plainly said "Jesus".

Brandon and I have made a concerted effort to read scriptures in the morning at breakfast time before he leaves for work and Elly, of course, noticed that she was the only one without scriptures. This resulted in several emotional requests for a "Jesus Book" of her own. She now has her own "scriptures" which consist of a paperback copy of the Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price...and a small Personal Progress book from when I was an advisor in Young Women.

We are amazed at this adoration and are curious to see how it develops.

Random things I like, in random order

1. I like it when, on a completely ordinary day, my husband tells me I smell good when giving me a hug.

2. I like it that while recently reorganizing my closet, I purposefully put my maternity clothes in the same storage container with the costumes- because I honestly feel like they are costumes.

3. I like it when my husband doesn't notice that I scrubbed the shower clean because it means there was no filth build up for him to notice a sudden lack of filth build up.

4. I like it when my 15 month old baby comes up to me when I'm working on the laptop, and shuts it while saying "all done, computer", because it reminds me that she needs some of my undivided attention.

5. I like it when my husband eats everything on his dinner plate because it means it was good.

6. I like it when there's only a drop of milk left in the fridge and I'm dreading making an emergency trip to the store when I remember that I always buy two at a time and there's a fridge in the garage and an entirely new gallon of milk waiting in it for me.

7. I like it when my baby begs to use the dust buster and she actually does a pretty good job; it gives me great hope for a future of children who want to clean like their dad and not find ways to get out of cleaning like their mom.

the end, for now

Bunny Hat at Target

Apparently, Elly did not like it when I tried this hat on her in Target!

Elly's check up with the doctor

 

 

 

I took Elly for a check up yesterday. She is growing up...a little. She is 15 months old, weighs 22.5 lbs, and is 29" long. She got three shots and did great. She was most interested in pushing the doctors rolling stool around the office. I found this great idea on some website I read sometime to take your child's bathrobe to the doctor with you. Because we wait for so long for the Doctor to come into the office, I always feel bad that's she's basically naked already and can't get dressed until he leaves again. This seemed to work great!

My Other Valentine

My Valentine (Ah...)

My wonderful husband sent these flowers to me yesterday. Aren't they beautiful? They are Peruvian Lilies. The best part is that I wasn't expecting anything. He sneakily led me to believe (as I'll admit he has in the past) that he wished Valentine's Day did not exist at all. He may still believe this, but he went out of his way to surprise me. Thank you, Bran.

Since I just finished writing a small novel about him on this very blog- I will refrain from gushing about my valentine. But, I do want to say that I feel like I've been very lucky to find him (and he me, of course) and that we have a wonderful life together that will just keep getting better. I love you. Happy Valentine's Day!

All my jobs

Yes, I spend most of my time entertaining Elly and keeping her healthy and happy (and preventing her from destroying things). Some days this includes making sure she doesn't try to play Daddy's guitar with her banana, or distracting her time and time again from wanting to open the freezer, stand there and empty the ice bin one cube at a time. Some more of my time is spent trying to keep my family wearing clean clothes and sleeping in clean sheets. Still more of it is spent trying to buy and prepare food that will sustain their lives and hopefully boost the quality of said lives. More time is spent on making sure the house isn't totally nasty looking...and smelling.

But, I have a few other jobs as well. I take photos for people! I take them of people and their families and their kids. Sometimes I take photos of art or companies or events. Yes, people pay me to do this. It's great. I never thought a bachelor's degree in art would lead to paying jobs! Anyway, it's a lot of fun and it's nice to have something to offer other people besides my family. If you want to see some of my photos, you can visit my photo blog:

I also spend a few hours a week tutoring a 5-year-old boy. He was recently adopted from Moldova by a family here in Visalia. He speaks only Romanian...I mean he spoke only Romanian when he came here about two months ago. But, I am helping him learn English and he's doing great! He's getting along great with his brothers and sisters and he seems to absolutely love the U.S...or at least The Power Rangers. It's great watching him learn new things!

As most of you know, I spend some time working with my sisters on our business, Shy Girl Designs. At first, I took all the photos for the website and I still manage the photos. But, recently I've been working hard on marketing, getting our stuff out there with some sweet giveaways on various blogs. We just had one this week hosted by The NieNie Dialogues and we've got one coming up on Boutique Cafe. If you want to win some free clippies, go check it out! I love working with my sisters and we have such awesome items that I honestly want everyone to see them! We've always wanted to have a business together and fortunately for us- my oldest sister is a genius with a sewing machine.

So, there you go. You are now more familiar than you probably want with all my jobs. I am so blessed to be able to spend the most time with my baby girl, but I am grateful for the other ways I am able to use my skills and talents, too.

Ah, the benefits of living in farm country...

So maybe, there's an overwhelming smell of animal product sometimes. Maybe there are crop dusters that fly so low, I think they're going to clip my roof. But, there are beautiful fruit trees surrounding my house and when it's harvest time- we all enjoy delicious fruit. This week, my lovely parents in law gave me some unbelievable blood oranges that they got from a client of theirs and today, I reaped the benefits. There were so many and I didn't want them to spoil, so I made some fresh squeezed blood orange juice. YUMMM! Look at that color! What could be better? I really do love California!

Look who called us this week...

 

If you don't know what I'm talking about, you didn't listen to rap in the 90s. It's ok.

My Shadow

Yesterday Elly and I were in her room, she was doing her usual thing (unloading and loading everything from various containers) while I was reading. I was sitting cross-legged on the floor with my book in my lap, and she was moving around me from thing to thing. At one point I began to change position, going from sitting to lying on my side with my head resting on my hand. During the change, I looked over to see that without my noticing, Elly had retrieved a book from the shelf and sat down next to me. She had the book in her lap and was reading quietly (usually she reads out loud, of course). As soon as I made my change in position, she did the exact same thing- lying on her side and trying her best to get her head to rest in her hand. It was adorable!!!!

(This picture was taken when she was only about 6 months old- I just couldn't make a post without a picture of her. She's in her swimsuit.)

Alright, Alright, I'll finally respond to my tags!

I've been tagged by several people to write a post about my husband. So, cheesy though it may be, here you go.


I love this picture of Brandon (even though the rest of us are in it). It was taken at a friend's house in Utah when Elly was 6 weeks old.


What’s his name? Brandon, El Guapo, Dada, Bandy, the Daddash.

How long have you been married? Almost 6 years, since May 2002

How long did you date? We dated for 4 months before we got officially engaged, but we knew we were going to get married after only two of those months. We were married 4 months after the official engagement.

How old is he? 27-in case you didn't know- I'm older by almost two years.

Who said I love you first? I honestly don't remember. It was probably in an email, though.

Who kissed who first? It was definitely a mutual initiation of a first kiss.

Who asked out who first? We were hanging out with friends at my house one night and as he purposefully lingered long enough to be the last one out the door- I said "you know, you can call me sometime"...and he did. Our first official date was on September 11th, 2001. Yep, pretty memorable, huh? We had each spent the day watching the news (especially me, since my sister was in town from New York and her husband was still there). Brandon was living in Provo and I was in Salt Lake. He asked me if I still wanted him to come up for the date. I said yes, because I was tired of watching the terrible images on TV. So, we got some food and had a car picnic at the drive in. The movie was Rush Hour 2, nothing romantic. But it was a first date we'll both always remember.

Who proposed?We talked a lot about it and had already decided that we wanted to be married as soon as school was out. One night in January I told my parents that I was going to marry Brandon and I realized that we needed to pick a date if we were going to get all the plans in order in time, especially an appointment at the Salt Lake Temple for May. So, I called him and said "hey, we need to pick a date". So, we took out our calendars and the date was set. We were engaged. We started telling people right away. It wasn't until two months later that he gave me the ring he had designed for me and did the whole kneel down thing. But, I think by then- the invitations were almost in the mail! So...you figure it out.

Who eats more? I usually do. I know, sad. I think it's just because he's a picky eater. But, Brandon can eat way more pizza than I can for sure.

Who is taller? Brandon is taller than I am, but we're both on the short end of things. We've noticed that Elly is taking after her parents, too. I know, shocker!

Who is smarter? The obvious answer is Brandon...4.0 in school, academic scholarships to college, attractive business school candidate. But, there are many times when I will come up with something he just hasn't thought of. And he often asks me if 'this shirt goes with these pants', that's fashion smarts, right?

Who does laundry? I do 90% of the laundry. Brandon will throw in a load here and there if he's desperate for clean clothes and I'm a total bum and haven't done it in a while. But, when we were in school- he did it every week, no fail without complaining at all.

Who does the dishes? I do most of the dishes, but he usually clears the dinner table and loads them into the dishwasher. If it has dirty dishes in it- he always puts his dishes into the dishwasher. I always run it and empty it, though. I don't mind. But again, when we were in school and didn't even have a dishwasher, Brandon did them, mostly.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Which side is the right side? When we are in the bed or looking at it? It doesn't matter, because we switch off. Usually we change with a move to a new house or apartment.

Who pays the bills? Brandon does. Because even if I offered to pay the bills- he'd still check them all anyway. It really saves time for him to do them.

Who mows the lawn? Brandon does and with our new football field of a back yard- he's really got it rough. Last week he said it was like lawn care hell, he kept mowing and mowing and the part that wasn't cut didn't get any smaller!

Who cooks dinner? I cook dinner during the week. But, every Saturday, mostly, we get a Trader's Pizza and he cooks it on the grill. He also cuts it, serves it, and puts the extra pieces away in the fridge for later.

Who drives when you are together? He does. But, if we're going somewhere that will make me car sick- I drive.

Who is more stubborn? Um, he is?

Who is cleaner? Brandon by far. Sometimes I wonder what our house would look like if he was the one staying home all day and I was the one working elsewhere. You can tell by our night tables. His has two books, a magazine and the alarm clock on it. Mine has any number of cups of water, a pad of paper, like 4 books, some pills, a couple of pens, the baby monitor, and the remotes (one for the TV and one for the DVD player).

Who has more siblings? Brandon, by one. He has two brothers and two sisters. I only have one brother and two sisters. But, we are both the third child in the family.

Who wears the pants in the family? I don't think we really have any pants-wearing in our family. Nobody really lays down the law. But there are some things I am more particular about and things he is.

Whose parents do you see more often? Brandon's, since we live only 20 minutes away from them. But, my parents are giving them a run for their money, flying to Visalia about every 6 weeks. Now that Brandon's parents are in the middle of tax season (they own and run an accounting office) it will be close!

Who has more friends?I think I have him beat there, but he sees his friends more often since most of them work with him. I think a good test would be to compare our email contacts lists.


I tag Madelyn, Chelsea, Lorile and Amy. (Feel free to edit the questions, these were the ones I was sent. We just want to hear about you and your husband.)