Basketball

Our church youth basketball tournament was a few weeks ago and I am overjoyed to tell you that the Spanish branch's girls won their first game (as in: first game ever). They were so psyched. We had lost several games during the season by super close margins and the girls had worked so hard! This game actually went into triple overtime. I am so proud of them.

I helped coach along with Erick (on the right). Hermana Rivera (in the green jacket) is our Young Women's president and Hermana Mena (in gray) is the secretary. The 7 girls that played in the game that we won are in green or white. It was so great to see them progress through the short season and become a true team.It really made me reminisce about my ward's YW basketball team from when I was in high school. We had so much fun and we were really good. Well, not me - I averaged 2 points per game, but everyone else was really good. :) It was great to be part of a team with the girls from church.

Bedtime Fun

Dan put Elena to bed by himself one night a couple of weeks ago because I had a church meeting and this is what he taught her:

Don't worry, he also taught her to CLIMB OUT. (Can you read the sarcasm?)

All kidding aside, she loves it and she's actually really good about only trying to get in or out when the railing is down. She'll ask if it's bajado or not and if it isn't, she'll ask you to put it down so that she can "flip into bed." So far she has never tried to get out with side up. I'm so grateful that she is such a naturally obedient kid. And I know that Elena is grateful to have such a fun dad!

Our Blizzard

I'll start by showing a picture with Elena and her new tricycle. Dan and I were so excited to find a tricycle on clearance at Walmart Saturday night (Feb 28). We were there to get diapers (little did I know that I would only use like 3 out of the whole pack, but more about that later), but the rest of the world was buying up milk, bread, and eggs in preparation for a big storm. Anyway, Dan put it together when we got home and Elena has loved getting on and off of it ever since. She is starting to be able to reach the pedals better and coordinate enough to make it move forward and back some. She gets a big kick out of it.
Sunday (March 1) Elena woke up with pink eye and that evening we got 5 inches of snow. I decided that as long as we were home-bound with her being sick (but not feeling sick) and everything in the state closed for 2 days that there was no time like the present for potty training. She actually did a great job with the whole potty thing (at least with #1 - if you know what I mean) and she got over the pink eye after just a couple of days, so by Wednesday (March 4) I was daring enough to put some pants on her and take her to the Children's Museum. She'd been in nothing but underwear, a shirt, and socks for the first couple of days.

This picture is of Elena on Monday **Day 1 of potty training** totally zoning out while she holds the decorated tin box that I made for Baby Boy (with Amy's help). Don't worry, she took a nice long nap right after this pic. Pobrecita.
Finally: Here are some snow pictures. My favorite is the one on the bottom. We had a blast sledding in her pool in our backyard. I knew that dang hill had to be good for something. :) I was so sad by the fact that I was beyond ready to come back inside after an hour. I wish I had the energy and enthusiasm of a kid sometimes. Or at least that Elena was old enough to play outside on her own. She would have stayed out all day!

Coming Soon: March Highlights

With Dan out of town for the month of April, I want to do a better job at updating so that he can see some new pictures. I figure that I'd better get caught up to the present by doing several small March posts over the next day or two. April has been pretty uneventful so far anyway.

Pregnancy Widget

I searched for a while to find a pregnancy countdown that I liked. Although the floating baby one is cute, I wanted to try something different since it's so common. I finally found this one, but it didn't fit in the sidebar, so I guess you (and I) will have to put up with it right there at the top of the page for the next 15 weeks.

I like this particular ticker because it counts up and down and it has a little sarcastic/humorous line each week. We'll see if I get sick of it or not. What do you think?

Family trip (Week 1)

We were very lucky to be blessed with a break in Dan's schedule in the middle of February, so we found some cheap tickets and headed to Utah (and drove up to Idaho) to visit with Dan's family, my brother, and friends. We had a blast! I'm so grateful for that relaxed time we were able to spend together.

We didn't arrive in Utah until 1:00 am EST, and we were all very tired. Elena finally fell asleep for about 45 minutes on our second flight. Dan was so happy that she stayed asleep when he picked her up. This girl hates sleeping anywhere but in a crib/portacrib.
We stayed with Dan's parents and felt extremely welcome in their home. Dan's sweet mom even let us use her car while we were there. Most afternoons we spent at Lloyd and Amy's house (Dan's brother and sis-in-law), so that we could see the kids after school. One of our first days there, I had a lot of fun playing Rock Band with Dan's mom and Amy while the kids were in school. That's me in gray - the one who is always playing bass and always on the most beginner level. I have so much fun, but I am not good!
Amy, Lloyd, and the kids were so sweet and got out some old toys for Elena to play with. Her favorite was -of course- the kitchen. She had fun with all of her cousins, but seemed to have a special soft spot for Zac.
A couple of days into our trip, we had an awesome dinner and visit with Tracy, Mike and Bridget while the kids played in the back bedroom. They are good friends of mine from home. Elena really wanted to go back to play more later on in the trip, but we didn't have the chance. Dan was there too - he's taking the picture.
Kathy and her husband made us an amazing Italian meal one Monday night and we loved getting to see how the newlyweds are settling into their new home. Of course, since it's Kathy that we're talking about, the home already looks fantastic and well decorated.
My brother Adam was able to come hang out with us on our first Sunday afternoon in town. It was so great to be able to see him! He had a lot of fun with Elena and thoroughly enjoyed a home cooked meal by Dan's mom.
We also did some "Utah things" that we seem to do on every trip out there like having our rings cleaned and redipped at the place where we bought them and buying clothes at Down East Outfitters without having to pay for shipping. We also took a trip to the BYU campus. Elena loved seeing "BYU" written everywhere. We have taught her well.
On campus, I contemplated spending $6 on a couple yards of BYU ribbon to make some hair bows, but decided against it at the last minute. The other thing that I did not buy was an old favorite that is no longer there: the $0.99 bag of cheese cubes. Man, I used to love that bag of cheese! It would have about 8 different varieties and 30+ cubes total. I guess they don't sell it anymore because I looked all over the Twilight Zone and was bummed not to find it. Does anyone else remember the cheese?

We had a great trip to campus regardless though. :) We visited with Dan's former bosses and some of my friends from Book Repair. It was nice to go back and walk around and know that we're all done (with undergrad at least). Although it was strange to drive past where DT used to be and see that it is now nothing. The area seems way too small to have housed thousands of freshman.

Family Trip (Week 2) coming soon: Idaho, nieces and nephews, chocolate cake and more...

The Baby Book Song

Elena learned something new a couple of days ago. On Thursday night, she noticed this book on her bookshelf for the first time and wanted Dan to read it with her over and over. He was putting her down for the night because I had mutual. She calls it "the baby book."

This is the last page. It gives you an idea about what the rest of the book looks like:

The next day, I read it with her a couple of times, and pretty soon she was helping me with the words. I know that it's March not December, but we were amazed by how quickly she learned the song. It's hilarious to hear her say all these words when she has almost no clue what they mean, and I had to post the video for the grandparents. She's a smartie. I apologize that you have to hear my lovely voice too.

PS Yes, her right eye is a little swollen and gross. There's some pink eye going around, but it hasn't been bothering her at all so far.

Baby Boy's Bedding

When Dan and I first found out we were having a boy, I wasn't sure where to begin. We had to figure out what room to put him in, whether or not we were going to borrow/buy another crib and or dresser, what color scheme to go with, what bedding to buy, what to name him, etc.
(FYI: it will be a long time before we'll come to an agreement on the name, so don't hold your breath waiting for that.)

The one thing that helped me to get more excited and feel more in control was to pick out his bedding. We actually chose it as one that we liked when we were pregnant with Elena. Since it is now discontinued, it is currently a lot cheaper than originally. When I saw it again the colors and simplicity still appealed to me, so I decided that I wanted it for Baby Boy Dison.
Things have started to come together quickly:
#1 My mom won a bidding war on ebay for the quilt (new). It was amazing - she cast the final bid with less than 1 second remaining. Amy (my sis-in-law) and I were intently reloading the computer to check on Mom's progress while I was in Utah.
#2 Later that night, she was able to snatch up the bumper on potterybarnkids.com before it was sold out for only $20. Thanks Mama!
#3 Last week, I found a page that I tore out of their catalog a couple of years ago, and it had an idea for painting the walls.
#4 To top it all off - I was just looking on the website for curtain ideas and noticed blue gingham valances for $5 each, so I bought two of those.

It is so fun to prepare our home for the little guy. Too bad it's all in my head though. The bumper and quilt are in Virginia, the valances won't be here for another week, and I can't even start to look at paint until I have those things in hand to pick the right colors. Also, our office (Baby Boy's room) still has 2 desks and 3 bookshelves in it. We have to figure out some major details. We have 4 months left and I know that sounds like forever, but I'm full of energy right now...

Anyway - the point is: Isn't the bedding cute? :)