My Hungry Monster

Posted on April 16, 2008 by Amanda

Here is how excited Ella gets when given “real” food. If you can’t tell by the picture she now poses when she sees the camera being brought out. She definitely is a Leo…. even more than her mama is.

8 Months Old Today

Posted on April 15, 2008 by Amanda

She’s waving!! She waves and in the right direction too LOL… when she waves she either says “Hi” or “Babababa” I’m assuming that’s supposed to be bye bye. Her favorite word ever is “Dadadada” This all just started this past week. She’s pointed a couple of times too, but I don’t know if she realizes exactly what she’s doing. At first when she waved I thought it too was a fluke, but now if I do it she’ll do it.

She can walk if she’s holding onto something. She has a little toy that has a steering wheel and wheels and she can either have it as a ride on or a walking helper thing. She does pretty darn good at it.

She’s obsessed with food. I’ve never in my life seen a baby her age like this. If she sees anybody eating she’ll jet over to them and open her mouth and make this coughing noise. If you don’t put some of your food in her mouth she will have a full blown bratty fit. She loves ANYTHING. If I put a pepper (I promise this I won’t do) in her mouth she’d probably have a huge smile on her face. Looks like I got one extreme to the other in my children. Jayden doesn’t eat anything and Ella eats everything.

Every day this little girl is growing and getting cuter and cuter. I still can’t stop staring at her. I cannot get over how beautiful she is. I can’t get over the fact that she’s mine! She’s not my first, but we waited 4 1/2 years to try again and unfortunately had to endure a lot. I had to go through 15 months of pregnancy and that is something I don’t forget. I had to go through one of life’s most heartbreaking tragedies of losing a baby. A baby that I already loved. A baby that I already felt move inside of me. A baby that will forever hold a special place in my heart. It makes me appreciate my kids so much more if that makes sense. And then to almost lose Ella when she was just 7 weeks old makes me just want to grasp onto her and never let go.

My Grandma was up visiting and asked me if I ever just lay her in her bed and let her fall asleep on her own and I quickly said no. I didn’t explain to her why. I treasure every second that I have to hold her. I don’t get frustrated when I have to take time out of what I’m doing to hold her close to my heart and rock her. I love to stare at her and thank God for trusting me with a child of his. There’s no better feeling to me than having a baby of mine fall asleep in my arms. This life is so short and every moment that we can treasure our babies should be taken advantage of.

My Babies

Posted on April 9, 2008 by Amanda

I wish she’d slow down. She’s such a girl! All of us girls are always so anxious to just grow up and unfortunately Ella’s already started. She’s not even 8 months old yet and she’s already tried to take off walking. Poor thing fell right on her face. She’s been pulling herself up since about a week after turning 7 months old. Today she was standing in the kitchen holding onto a chair and she was slowly pushing it while taking steps with it.

She’s obsessed with food. Sometimes I have to hide to eat otherwise she will throw a screaming fit. She wants whatever I’m eating. We went out to dinner with Gino’s friend on Saturday night and I kid you not she had her mouth open for the majority of dinner. Like a little baby robin. Tonight I was putting on chap stick and her mouth flies wide open. So I go to put some on her lips and the fit gets even worse – she wanted to eat it.

She’s almost 8 months. How in the world did it fly by that quickly? In 4 months we’ll be celebrating her 1st birthday. I give it 2 months and she’ll be walking – probably running. What happened to my newborn baby? The really little picture of her is her at 3 days old. Even then she was looking like a little Diva ready for what the world had to give her. Now look at her. Already wearing a bikini. I love looking at pictures of her. I love looking at her. Sometimes I’m just completely in awe that I have a baby girl. A beautiful baby girl! She’s been waking up at like 4:30am and standing up in the middle of Gino and me trying to pick our noses off of our faces. I swear it drives me crazy, but the minute I open up my eyes and see her my heart just melts. There’s something about her sweet little face that just gets me every time. This time around I’m really trying to have more patience and really treasure every moment with Ella. With Jayden things happened so fast and I wish I would’ve known that it works like that.

I swear I have no idea where all the years w/him have gone. He’s going to be 7. 7 years old. I almost can’t even fathom the idea. I found some pictures from when he was a baby… such a huge change. His curls are gone. He actually is full of words, while for the first 3 years he didn’t have any. His smile is still as beautiful. His heart is still as sweet. His love for his parents is still as strong. At the end of the day when he hugs me and tells me how much he loves me I know we did good with him. I look at both of their pictures I know I’m biased, but they are some beautiful babies! Their smiles could turn the most saddest frowns upside down. Their tears can break the most happiest heart within seconds. I love my kids. I love that God trusted me with 2 of his most precious children. I love that I have 2 beautiful beings that rely on me. They rely on me for life. They rely on me for love. They rely on me for guidance. They rely on me for hope. I rely on them for life, for love, for guidance and especially for hope. Kids make life so worth it.

Holy Crazy Family Time!

Posted on April 5, 2008 by Amanda

For the past few weeks it’s been nothing but visiting, visiting and MORE visiting. I know I’m ignoring my blog, but I honestly have been so busy! As mentioned before we went to Sacramento for Easter. Then the day after we got back Gino’s family showed up and stayed for 6 days. 2 days after they left my Grandma showed up and is still here and then today Gino’s BFF Dave showed up. So in the midst of all this visiting my blog is getting ignored.

However! Here’s a few updates going on in our world:

Rylie May is home and doing wonderful! She’s so little and makes Ella look like a toddler. I still have no pictures, but will post some as soon as I take some.

Ella is pulling herself up onto any and everything and has even thought she could walk and fell on her face. Everyday I swear this little girl is growing more and more and not just physically, but smarter. She is one smart little cookie. The other day Gino and I were walking out the door and said “Be Back” and I swear she said in her little voice “Be Back”. I thought I heard it and didn’t say anything, and then Gino stops and turns around and then his aunt says, “OMG! Did you hear that?!?!” We continually tried and tried to get her to say it again, but of course nope.

Jayden just went back to school after being on spring break. It’s been a hard adjustment for us all, but we’re managing. One of his front teeth is loose. With every tooth he loses I feel more and more like my baby is growing up too fast. UGH – he’s almost 7!!! I cannot fathom the thought that Jayden will be 7 this year.

Gino’s new schedule has actually been working out for us. I’ve grown to love it and now they’re ripping it from us. I HATE HOME DEPOT MORE THAN ANYTHING! Now he’ll be working the original shift he was supposed to get. 4am-1pm…. UGH! My poor husband will now be waking up at 3:15am – and poor me will have to drag Ella out in the morning to drop off Jayden at school. We’ll manage. We will manage.

I haven’t gone to curves in 2 weeks. 2 fricken weeks! I have to make a promise to myself that Monday morning at 10am I will back in there. Because not only am I not going to Curves, but I’m also not eating as healthy as I was before going to Sacramento.

I know I told how I’d have my Tips back this week, but with my Grandma here they completely slipped my mind! So, I’m not going to guarantee that they’ll be back on Tuesday, because we will probably be busy with fun tax stuff, but I will try my hardest!

Last, but not least – I’ve started back up My Book of Mormon Journey. Head over to my other blog and join me in reading the Book of Mormon. I’m only 5 chapters into it, which will take you no time at all. Even if you’re not LDS, what would it hurt to read about it?? I post links to the chapters so you can read online. And I would love all comments over there with your opinions, feeling and things that will not only help me see things the way you do, but help strengthen my testimony as well as yours. I love hearing other’s testimonies, because I believe that mine grows stronger.

Our Trip/Easter in Pictures

Posted on March 26, 2008 by Amanda

We drove into Sacramento at around 6:30pm. My mom, Sean, Jenna, My sister Jess, Gio & My nephew Vani came to visit us. It was the first time that my sister got to meet Ella. Of course, she loved her! And it was my first time meeting Jenna! It also was the first time that Jenna met my mom, which would be her biological aunt. It was a great time visiting with everyone.

Saturday morning we woke up and drove to Stockton so that Gino’s mom and brother, Gabriel, could meet Ella. Gino’s mom, Alice, was excited to finally meet her first girl. She has 3 sons and 1 grandson, Jayden.

Saturday night we went out to dinner with Gino’s friends Dave, Justin & Rob. We haven’t seen them since we moved in 2007.

Sunday after church we went on a picnic by the river and ate some delicious food! The above are pictures from the day. Ella LOVED being outside. Vani (my nephew) followed Jayden everywhere he went. It was really cute. Seeing everyone was so nice. But I was happy to come home. I realize that when we’re in the city our days fly by us. When we’re home it seems like they last forever. Maybe that’s because we don’t spend half of our lives in the car. I love my family, but I really love living in such a slow paced life. I hope that everyone had as happy of an Easter as we did. This is the first year in a long time that we actually celebrated Easter for what it really is. It felt wonderful to go to church, especially with Jenna and her beautiful family.

And if you want to see the pictures I’ve posted bigger just click on them ;0)

Ella is crawling!!

Posted on March 12, 2008 by Amanda

The quality of this video isn’t all that great, but it was dark in my living room and the batteries were dying on my camera, but Ella crawled today. I was sitting in the chair and Jayden was coloring and I looked up and Ella was hauling butt to his paper. I was so excited I grabbed the camera and tried to get it on video. This is what I got. For the past few weeks she rolls to where she wants to go. She got pretty good at it too. So, here’s my little paper muncher.

Ella is crawling!!

Posted on March 12, 2008 by Amanda

SHE CAN FLY, MOM!!!

Posted on March 11, 2008 by Amanda

So tonight is quite the different night for us here. After 8 years of my husband working graveyard, leaving our house @ 9:30 at night, he is now working days. This means from 2:45pm-Midnight I get to do it all. All by myself! My husband’s lunch break is at 6pm, so I am working on having dinner ready by 6:15pm, and by the looks of it it will be ready at EXACTLY 6:15pm.

I’m in the kitchen cooking and trying to get things done and I hear Jayden, yell “MOM! SHE CAN FLY!!!!!!!!!” In which I reply, “That’s great, Jayden.” I’m completely in my own wonderful world in my head at this point. Then it dawns on me…. WAIT! WHO CAN FLY?!?!?! At this point I’m running out of the kitchen and walk in the living room to find Jayden laying on the ground with his sister in the air being held by his hands and feet. My heart stopped! “DO NOT MOVE, JAYDEN!” “It’s okay, Mom. She’s so strong and she’s a super hero.” Wow. I really have my work cut out for me. It is, however, nice that they actually play together now. I just had to explain that baby does not come off of the ground. Period. End of story. Babies do not fly.

Prayers would be greatly appreciated.