Cute pictures

Poor Lizzie has a hard time sleeping during the day.  She catnaps a lot but I love to look at her when she sleeps.  Check her out here. 

 And I am fascinated by her big, beautiful eyes.  And check out her ears!  They are starting to pop out like mine. 

What I can't wait to do with Lizzie

Paul and I are pretty happy and hopeful these days.  I have heard that things improve after 3 months and it is true!  Lizzie is starting to self soothe and put herself to sleep!  It is a wonder and is wonderful.  She is growing so much each day.  She can sit straight up more in her bumbo and I am starting to think I might actually want more kids again.  : )  As long as I know that the really hard part is the first three months, I think I can handle it.  Things were going really well until about 9 weeks and then I kind of hit a wall of frustration and sleep deprivation but it's starting to come around now and I love being a mom.  Also, my wonderful sister-in-law Jenny came to help me out last week and just her presence there really calmed me.  Amazing.  So, I was telling Paul that I am soooo excited to do certain things with Lizzie and introduce her to certain things and I want to write them down here before I forget them all.  Unfortunately, she cannot be introduced to direct sunlight until 6 months so we can't do too much just yet but we are already having good times.  Okay here goes:

• Take Lizzie to the Nutcracker and just watch her watch the ballet in awe
• Take Lizzie to the Symphony in a mommy-daughter date and take her to hear the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto.  Paul took me when we were dating and it is soo incredibly beautiful.  
• Frolic with Lizzie in the park in the spring under the cherry blossom trees.  I remember those fascinated me to no end when I was a kid
• Dance Swan Lake with Lizzie
• Feed the ducks and swans in the park with Lizzie
• Take Lizzie to the farmer's market and have her hold and touch her first pumpkin
• Take Lizzie to Disneyland
• Take Lizzie to a beach
• Play a violin duet with Lizzie
• Read the scriptures to Lizzie and memorize The Lord is My Shepherd with her
• Watch Annie with Lizzie (my first movie and still my favorite) and dance the music around the house with her
• Let her skip a day of class around Christmastime so that we can bake Christmas candy and cookies all day long
• Go to the park with her and just eat fresh pineapple and mangoes with her
• Say prayers with Lizzie at night
• Speak Spanish with Lizzie
• Say "hello" to her from the primary hello song and have her say hello back
• Take Lizzie to her first national park and go camping
• Dress Lizzie in her first tutu or ballet outfit for whatever cute little ballet or dance program she is in
• Take Lizzie to the library and spend hours with her just getting books and cuddling up and reading them.  This one has got to take the cake.  I remember how much I LOVED the library as a little girl.  I LOVED it.
• Watch Lizzie play with her dad.  I am so happy they are already forming a great bond.   

Wow, what else?  I know there is so much else I want to do with her but this is what strikes me right away.  I love being a mom.

Goodbye Uncle Carlos

Here is a picture of my Uncle Carlos with my mom in 2008.  He passed away on Friday, June 24 in the afternoon.  I am not sure of exactly the time yet because I have not been able to get a hold of Mama Neldita this week at all.  We are all sad that he passed away.  I am glad I found this picture of him.  He looks happy and my mom looks happy to be with her brother here.

Uncle Carlos, I will miss you.  I am sad that Paul will never get a chance to meet you in this life and neither will baby Lizzie.  He was a wonderful, charismatic guy and I had a little bit of a crush on him.  He was so incredibly handsome and so intelligent.  Sadly, his passing is kind of a tragedy.  His talents were wasted a bit because although everyone loved and flocked to him he held a certain anger inside and turned to drinking to console him.  I have good memories of him though.  I love to remember the way he laughed and he was so patient with me when teaching me how to play chess better and he was such an amazing dancer.  He took us all to the park one night and danced with me and I watched him play chess.  I always had a lot of respect for Uncle Carlos.  My prayers are with him now.  I think he is probably with his dad (Papa Carlitos) now and maybe even Mama Chabita (his grandma).

I am glad he got to read the book The Message before he passed.  I sent it to him last year and he told my mom that he was so grateful for it.  That it gave him hope for the next life.  It's amazing how closely our family has bonded over this.  Although he wasn't perfect, we all loved him and we have all been in contact with each other.  His kids Nina and Carl flew over there to be with him while he was in a coma and when they came, his heart started beating much faster.  Amazing!  My prayer is now that he will watch over his kids Nina and Carl and also over Mama Neldita and Tia Chatita. 

Aunt Carol sent me this poem which was said over Princess Diana's grave when she died.  It is beautiful:

Do not stand at my grave and weep, I am not there.  I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.

I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry;

I am not there. I did not die.

It makes me tear up.  I am also grateful lately to feel like I am an instrument in the hands of the Lord to do good things.  This is a new but great feeling for me but when Carl and Nina were here a few weeks ago, I spoke with Aunt Gloria and she and I planned for Uncle Carlos to come over to the orphanage at a determined time so that I could call Aunt Gloria's phone so that Nina and Carl could speak with him.  They did talk with him and seemed happy to have spoken with him.  I don't know what was said then, but I would have been so sad if they hadn't had that opportunity.  I am so glad I felt prompted to do that.  It's nice to not have regrets because part of me wasn't sure if I should but I am so glad I did.  Anyway, that's just a side note, but an important one.  

Goodbye Uncle Carlos.  I love you.

Baby Lizzie is 3 months old!

Can you believe it?  My how time has flown.  Here she is in her cute little sailor suit doing her favorite new thing, hands in mouth, fingers first, lol. 

 Here is happy mummy with happy baby. 

 Here she is having a meltdown on Father's Day but check out their cute shirts.  I got them matching green shirts that say "Good Kid." 

 I love this profile pic.  What in the world do you suppose she is thinking? 

I love this picture here of Lizzie with Grandma McAllister.  



 And this special one was taken on Heather's Birthday yesterday.  It was her birthday and Lizzie's three month birthday.  How fun!!

I like the person I am today

Have you ever seen anyone more precious that that little face and her cute little mouth?  That is her sleeping on me.  It's been a rough couple of weeks for me.  All the sleep deprivation is catching up to me but one look at this cute little face and I melt.  I can't believe she's almost 3 months old.  She rolled over for the first time on Sunday!!

So I had an epiphany on Sunday that I told Paul.  I realized that as hard as this has been on me I would never want to go back to the person I was.  How cool is that?  In 3 months I have become much more of a person and discovered so many more strengths in my character that I didn't know were there.  I love holding and nuturing Lizzie.  And my relationship with Paul is so great.  He and I just laugh things off so much and just cling to each other for help.  Nice to know. 

Well, in other news Lizzie is now loving sucking on her hands.  She'll stick the hold thing in her mouth, fingers first.  So funny!  And Paul is so good at playing with her.  Check out this cool cause and effect thing he taught her.  She is pulling on the rings to make the music play.  We were so excited!!

We are very proud to have such a smart baby.  She is so incredibly alert and just drinks everything in and it's such a delight to come get her out of her crib because she just coos in delight.  So exciting!! 

In other news, my poor uncle Carlos is in a coma.  He woke up with vertigo on Saturday and blood rushed to his brain and now he is in the hospital.  His son Carl has flown in from England to be with him and it looks like if he lived he would be a vegetable.  It's sooo sad!  Our whole family is praying for him.  I was telling Paul how amazing it is that his kids Nina and Carl both had the chance to talk with their dad three weeks ago.  I am so glad they had that opportunity.  My mom and I are praying for a miracle.  For another year for him. 

12 weeks!

So our sweet Lizzie is now 12 weeks old.  My how time has flown.  She will be 3 months next week and Paul and I will have been married for 2 years on Sunday.  Can you believe it?  I am so excited because we are going on a date on Saturday from 11:15 to 2:30 to the temple.  I can't wait to go back there.  I have missed it.  So you should hear Lizzie gurgle these days.  It is adorable.  You smile at her and she just coos and gurgles at you.   Here she is looking cute as a button in her bumbo.  Paul and I laugh at the name bumbo.  Such a funny name.

So I've still been having a hard time putting Lizzie to sleep.  She is becoming more and more alert and I think has a hard time settling.  I pray every day for me to understand her better and for the Lord to help me read her mind more.  I was so stressed about it last night that I called my sister-in-law Jenny and she is coming over today to help me figure out how to make her sleep better.  I will be so grateful for her help. 

My grandma is now back in Mexico.  It was great to have her here for so long.  I loved being with her and so did my whole family.  Here is a picture of her with baby Lizzie. 

And last week, Paul and I went on a short date/hike while my mom and cousin Jemmy took care of Lizzie.  It was so nice to get out into the mountains with my love.  We went up Emigration canyon.  Look how pretty!

Well, that's all for now.

Exhausted!!

 Above, you can behold in great wonderment Lizzie's chunky thighs.  A sight to behold huh?  I LOVE them.  Well that's all the  post I have for ya today cause she's crying again and I am exhausted!!!  Eeeks. 

Okay back to my post.  So the week of Carl and Nina visiting is over.  What a wonderful week it was!  What an exhausting week it was!  Paul went camping with Carl, Josh, and Jared to Goblin Valley (always wanted to go there, will some day) and I stayed at Aunt Iza's house and Nina and Jemmy and I went dancing.  That was soooo much fun!!  I got my latina groove back on.  Wow do I ever miss it.  Good stuff.  Paul was happy that I went dancing to get that back.

On Saturday morning, we met them at the airport to say goodbye.  It was hard to say goodbye.  I miss them.  I wonder when I'll see them again.  I really hope Nina moves here.  I think they really had a good time.  Paul said Carl loved the camping trip.  Josh and Carl even went shooting over there. 

So yes I am exhausted.  These last 11 weeks of dear baby Lizzie's life have been the most exhausting of my life.  Thank goodness for the tips of the Baby Whisperer.  I live and breathe by her.  She introduced me to the dreamfeed without which I'd be dead meat.  I slept last night from 10:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. (thanks to Paul who dreamfed her at 11 p.m., he is such a wonderful husband and father).  Paul really is such a great father.  I love watching him play with Lizzie he does a better job at it than I do honestly.  I like to hold and cuddle her and he likes to show her new things and blow her mind generally.  I think she gets a good mix between us both.  So, you ask why I am exhausted?  Well, she does not like to nap and fights sleep during the day but is a good nighttime napper so that's nice.  Maybe I just need to learn to sleep from 7:30 to 5 a.m.  What do you think?  Who knew one could go for 11 weeks never sleeping more than 6 hours?  Wow, looking back I have had a very spoiled life but hey, I enjoyed it at least and now I am enjoying sweet Lizzie.  And when she smiles, well, we just melt as you can see below. 

 Here with sweet Aimee at the airport on Saturday. 

 And with grandmasita.  I love her so. 

 With Iza too.  She looks so pretty in yellow. 

 I love Nina's scarf here. 

 The whole gang. 

 Oh how Mama Neldita loves her Carl.  We all love him though. 

 This below is my favorite time of day, giving our sweet baby a bath.  I LOVE it!  It relaxes her and it relaxes me and I think she is starting to figure out that bath time means sleepytime for the night soon.  I love the way she just melts into the bath towel and is just content.  This is also a very telling picture of what I look like about 75 percent of the time.  Ugh, huh?  Could do better, huh?  This is one reason I love going to work.  I need to get dressed and fix myself up for work and it makes me feel better as a whole and I know Paul likes it a lot more too.  Baby steps, right??  Lol, baby steps indeed. 

 Look at her cute little tutu outfit!!  I don't remember who gave this to her but thanks whoever did.  It's so adorable.  Side note, this is a 6 month old outfit.  Haha.  I love our big baby. 

 Look at how happy she looks!!  She is cooing and "speaking" even more.  I love it and I love her.