Fall Fun

It is Fall here in Texas. Today it was 85 degrees and breezy, quite nice really. But still shorts weather. We got a pumpkin for our family today at the Pumpkin Patch. And we are getting our costumes ready for Halloween! Time is flying by.

 We have been busy spoiling our little girl. I found her this table at Toys R Us for only $15 and she loves it. She eats every meal there and she reads her books. 

 I am still having to show off her new outfits. My friend Kasee picked out this little cardigan for her and it is just my favorite thing on her! And another serious model pose. 

 Amelia reads books for hours every day. Seriously she could go two full hours looking at book after book, and some of that time I read to her also. But most of the time she is Miss Independent.

 She has recently become obsessed with The Lion King. It is the only movie she has sat through. She's seen it about 3 times now, but asks me every day to watch it and can always find it on the dvd shelf. She got this Simba last year from Juan's mom's boyfriend, and now they are really bffs. She sits on him and plays with toys and drags him all over the house.

 We headed to the Pumpkin Patch today. Poor Lexi took a minute to warm up to the pumpkins. Amelia loved the pumpkins, but not the camera so much. 

I got this cute little bike at a garage sale this today for $3! Amelia LOVES it. I love when she loves the toys we get for her. She has spent half the day outside riding her trike, which she's still a little too short for. 

And I found these shoes at the garage sale also for $2. Adorable, and completely Amelia. She loves the flowers and tries to smell them.

I have been spending my time exploring. We have found new parks, amazing parks. And neighborhoods that I can't wait to drive through with Juan and drool over the beautiful homes. I'm 28 weeks already! Like I said before, time is really flying by.

San Antonio

Saturday was our long day in San Antonio. We were able to visit the temple. We woke up bright and early and made the drive. I stayed at a church right by the temple and hung out with Amelia while Juan went to the temple. And then I took my turn as Juan went to lunch and hung out with Amelia that afternoon. It makes for a long day, but not too inconvenient really. In our church, we make an extra effort to attend the temple as often as we can. In Utah, the temple was 1 mile away. In Texas, it is a 90 minute drive. The San Antonio temple is beautiful.

After the temple, we decided to explore San Antonio a little bit. We ate at a restaurant along the Riverwalk, Zuni Grill. Bad bad bad. I got enchiladas, it was canned chicken and soggy corn tortillas. I couldn't make it through. I hate wasting money on food, so next time we'll need a recommendation. And we'll also want to go back at night when all the restaurants are lit up and reflecting off the water.

We also saw The Alamo! There was a bride there getting all her wedding pictures done and I thought that was just perfect. A classic Texas backdrop. A lot of people are not overly impressed by The Alamo, I thought it was very neat. And it's right downtown, for some reason we thought it would be in the middle of nowhere.

I spoke in church on Sunday on Building our Faith in Jesus Christ. The times in my life that my faith has grown the most has been through trials. Our little family is experiencing a huge change right now, with living in a new place and so far from family, and Juan starting a new job. We have tried to focus on our scripture study and our prayers. And I know that Heavenly Father has blessed us here. I never thought it would be possible to feel so at home in Texas so soon.

And best development of all, Amelia stayed in nursery this week during the last hour! Amelia didn't like being left behind by mommy and daddy. But this week, week 4 I believe, she did it! So here's hoping that she continues and Juan and I can enjoy our church meetings while Amelia is happily playing and learning too.

Smile for the Camera

 This picture is a couple weeks old, this is me at 24 weeks. I'm showing a lot more than last pregnancy, which I think is typical. I do love being pregnant, I am very blessed with comfortable pregnancies so far.

 Our newest milestone is Amelia now poses for the camera. This is very new and VERY hilarious. I tell her to smile big and she turns to the side and closes her eyes tight with a huge smile. Ha ha, that is her BIG smile.

 This is her soft pose, almost with a modern dance move in there a little bit.

 And there's her real smile! It has been a long time since she smiled for the camera so I am thrilled with this new development. She is showing off her new pajamas.

 The weekend was spent buying furniture, assembling that furniture, and hanging pictures. We got a tv stand, which is really a bookshelf. A lot of our friends have it and we just had to join the club because it is so practical, super cheap and great for storage. I love the look of it also.

 Our kitchen. I kept waiting to take this picture until it was clean. Well there is a reason I didn't include the sink area in the picture, my kitchen is never clean. And I'm content with that.

 Amelia just started wearing the next size up and we were given some pretty cute pair of jeans. This is the first time I've ever put her in jeans and so the first day she was walking stiffly, barely bending her knees. She is used to them now. Isn't this the cutest picture ever! And she looks so grown up.

And let us not forget the serious model pose. She is still working on keeping those eyes open for the flash, haha.

Our weekend was also spent watching General Conference. I especially loved the talk by Sister Dalton on Fathers raising daughters. That hit really close to home, and of course Juan and I both listened very hard when she said the best way to raise good daughters was to Love their mother. Love that. We also spent the weekend with many friends. We feel so very welcome here, and we love our old and new friends!

Mommy Millie

I have been waiting for this for a long time. Amelia finally loves her baby dolls. One night this week it just clicked for her. She had to get the baby (Tara, from my childhood) her bottle. Then she got her a blanket, then she put her to bed, then she brought her into the bathroom and pointed to her teeth so we could brush her teeth. She wanted to do everything Mama does. I love it! Now there are so many things to buy: doll clothes, a doll stroller, a doll bassinet. Loving it!

Amelia is the cutest little helper right now. She helps me fold laundry. Every piece of clothing she would shake out the wrinkles just like me, then stretch them across her body and mimic folding, then place them carefully in a pile. It was kind of nice, I didn't have to keep bending over to get the clothes out of the basket, I just pulled from her pile.

With this age does come some negatives. When Amelia is done sitting in her chair at a restaurant, then we're done too. She loves to run away from me and I have even hidden and watched her for a while at a grocery store, she doesn't even look back for me. She's happy to be a free girl! She climbs and she throws food. I replay these moments in my head where I think, thank goodness there wasn't a car coming or thank goodness she didn't slip out that door. She is a quick one.

And still she is so good. Our house is nowhere near baby proofed and she really listens to us. She knows not to touch the tv or to play with cords. She really does obey and remember very well, so I'm grateful for that. Most of all I love having a little buddy. I love having conversations with her. I love when she runs up to me and gives hugs or wants to climb onto my lap. She sure knows how to make us feel loved.

And this video is of her new thing, The Groan. I guess I am an old pregnant lady and have pushed my habits off onto Amelia!

Juan's First Day! And Amelia's 18 Months!

Juan started his first day at Dell today! We all spent the morning together before he had to be at work at 9. It was a little too early for a flash for Amelia as you can see, haha.

It has been a whirlwind 2 weeks and we have loved every second of having Juan here at home with us. Amelia even asks where's daddy? when he goes to the bathroom. But now it is back to real life. I am excited for Juan and his new adventure, and I am also really excited to get back into my Stay-at-Home routine. This is how the day has gone so far.
*Wake up and watch the news with Juan before he leaves.
*Give Amelia a bath.
*Shower and get ready.
*Amelia sits beside me on the couch and brushes her teeth exactly like mom. She even leans over to spit in the middle of the carpet, oh goodie.
*Read books, at this point I was stalling on Mickey. Amelia is obsessed with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and asks for it from the second she wakes up. She says Mickey as "Meeeh" almost like a growl. An excited growl.
*Amelia watches Mickey while I make eggs with tomatoes and cheese.
*Amelia has grapes and tootsie rolls for breakfast (she found the candy while I was cooking, it was hopeless trying to get her to eat eggs after that).
*We dance to Disney music while I take a few breaks to call maintenance and schedule some Dr appointments.
*Amelia plays while I do dishes.
*We dance some more and read more books.
*Amelia eats lunch while I clean up before her nap.
*Amelia off to nap while I blog and watch Mama-mia.

This is the life. I love staying at home with my little girl. And she is now 18 months!!! Here is some things she has been doing.

• She repeats the last word of everything we say. She gets some words pretty good like Shoes, Bath, Eat, Dressed. Most words are only understandable by me and Juan, I'm loving this new communication!
• She loves her new home and loves to go get things from her room for us, or throw things in the garbage. 
• She dances in twirls and loves to laugh when she hears mommy and daddy laughing.
• She is timid around new friends, and relatively gentle and kind. 
• She gives us a big toothy grin whenever we smile at her. She loves hugs and kisses.
• She loves to go to bed most of the time and folds her arms for prayers. Some nights we ask her to fold her arms for prayers, and instead she cries and runs away because she doesn't want to go to bed next.

Just a few snippets of her personality. She went to nursery for the first time yesterday and didn't last more than 5 minutes without us. She is still adjusting to the new place. We'll give her a few weeks. 

My parents just came for a short visit. It was so nice to show them where we live so soon and to explore Austin for the first time together. We also hit up the Texas/BYU game which was amazing. Texas football fans in action people, they are so much fun. Can't wait to become a Texas fan myself. 

 A few pictures of our apartment. The kitchen table area in the back (above). And then a view of the open living room/kitchen (under). I LOVE the apartment. I'll post more pictures once we get pictures up.

A mean game of Dominoes.

 The Texas State Capitol. Beautiful building.

 Downtown Austin has this bridge where at dusk, hundreds of thousands of bats fly out from underneath the bridge. This is the best picture I could get. It really did look almost like a swarm of mosquitoes, there were so many. 

Downtown Austin.

 I love this sweet picture. Amelia LOVED having grandma and grandpa in town. When they were gone, she got into the car and put out her arms and said, mpa? Thank you mom and dad for spoiling all of us!

 And the football game. We got a babysitter for Amelia, which thank goodness. With all the crowds and then the heat for the first hour before the sun went down, she would have melted. We had SO much fun though. After the sun went down, the weather was enjoyable. And although BYU lost, we still were winners with the Longhorns!

My mom, everyone was cheering and screaming and we look over to find my mom taking a cat nap! Ha ha, best ever.

 

And one last picture of Amelia. Some parents buy their kids cute little chairs, Amelia gets a box to sit on as her reading chair. She is so happy with it.

On Baby #2

Poor Missy Miss baby #2. We got an ultrasound the day before we loaded up the moving truck and her cute little pictures sat in my glove compartment, unseen by everyone but Juan and me. And Amelia. But now is her time to shine.

Missy is measuring perfectly on time. As of last week, Juan has felt her sweet kicks. She is active and it is so much fun. I am already mourning all the new clothes out that I don't get to by for this sweetheart, but maybe I'll sneak an outfit or two. I have really been relaxing the last week here in our new home, and focusing on this one. Can I just tell you what name we are really thinking of? We are seriously considering Lucy. Lucy is a name we both love and considered with Amelia. It just wasn't quite right. Now it feels right. So I'll refer to her as Lucy from now on so it's not confusing. Although it is not quite final at this point.  I love bonding with Lucy and I love feeling her act up and get excited when she hears Amelia or her dad.

Today we were at Qdoba (week 2!). I was in an oversized t-shirt and shorts, Juan was in his normal casual garb. And this woman walked up to us and said we had just the cutest family. I know she was referring to mostly Amelia, but it felt good to be called cute, haha. And I sat back and thought, we do have a cute family. I love my little family.

Welcome to Texas

Texas First Impressions

The radio stations. Thank goodness where we live, we get some good stations. On the way out here, all I could find was christian and country. I almost panicked, haha.

The heat. I'm tolerating the heat. Granted I haven't spent more than 90 seconds outside at a time, but it's not terrible. It's been a dry summer here, so it's not as humid. And hot is hot. I ran to my air conditioned building when it was 85 degrees in Utah, and I'm still running here when it's 105.

The people. So nice. Tons of strangers just commenting on our little family, congratulating me on my pregnancy, ooing and awing over Amelia's eyelashes.

The ward. Our ward (church group we meet with) is perfect. A lot of young people with young kids. And they are so down to earth and easy to talk to. I have felt very welcomed. We had 5 people from the ward show up to unload our moving truck. And we have quite a few couples that live right here in our apartment complex. Can't wait to make some good friends.

The restaurants. I can't wait to eat some good food! We already ate at Qdoba, which Juan and I both love and we went twice while we were in Wisconsin. No Qdoba in Utah, and it was all my pregnant body craved! I made Juan promise I could have Qdoba every week for the rest of my pregnancy once we got to Austin, only half way kidding. We arrived and checked our mail here and what do we have, a gift card from my sister to Qdoba! Best welcome gift ever! Thanks again Ginger. And I will anxiously be searching for new places to fall in love with. We are right by The Salt Lick which we saw on Man vs Food so we better try that.

The stores. Well we have a Target and a Carter's within 10 miles so I'm covered there. I was pleasantly surprised with the grocery store, they make their own yummy tortillas right in the store. And we bought a slice of Tres Leches from the bakery, yum.

I'm still feeling like we are on a sort of vacation. Juan doesn't start work for another week so we are hanging with friends, swimming, playing games. It's just starting to settle in now that I miss my family terribly.

Me, my mom and dad, Amelia.

And at the same time I am incredibly happy. We have been so blessed. Amelia made it through the 22 1/2 hour drive that we broke up into 2 days. She was a dream 20 of the hours, I'd call that a miracle. And in addition to all the welcoming I mentioned before, our friends Amanda and Brian have been lifesavers. They have already babysat, they have invited us over for breaks from unpacking. We are very happy to be by such good friends.

Nestled in the front seat of the Uhaul.

I really think I'm going to like it here.