second wedding ring

Yep, you read the title correctly. Today I went to the jeweler and picked up my SECOND wedding ring. No, I don't have two, this is a replacement for the ring Gustavo proposed to me with on my 20th birthday. I had fallen in love with the ring my senior year of high school. After seeing it in the mall I found a picture online and tucked it away in a file folder labeled "important." When Gustavo and I decided we wanted to get married three years later I showed him the picture and sent him off searching without much luck. He was in California for language training and I was in Provo and neither of us could find anything like it. I had despondently decided I would need to find another style of ring when my friend Aimee and I went to one last jeweler who told me he could order it in! I scheduled an appointment so they would have it when Gustavo was coming to visit for my birthday. When he came to Provo we went and looked at it and Gustavo had me go to the car while he talked to the jeweler in private - of course, I figured he was working out the details of purchasing the ring and getting it sized and dipped. I expected to get it while we were together for the holidays a few months later. To my surprise the next day, my birthday, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him while revealing the ring! I was completely shocked. After I settled down and told him yes, he told me that a jeweler in California located the last ring the company had in Texas and got it sized and sent to him the day before he traveled to Utah. I LOVED this ring, but a month or so before our first anniversary I lost my first diamond. I had it replaced and within six months lost another. This continued to happen for the next 5 years. Some years I lost one diamond, while other years I lost 4. The ring was sent away for 6 weeks each time a diamond was lost. As most of you know, this July I lost my ring and didn't find it until the end of August. After I found it, I took it to the jeweler to have the diamonds checked. They found another loose stone - of course. When they sent it away to get it fixed the "master jeweler" tried to make the ring more stable and ended up ruining it during the process. They told me I could keep my ring although it looked different and much worse, or I could take credit for my ring and order a replacement. I found the ring I feel is closest to my original ring and was able to go pick it up today (6 weeks later). It is so nice having a wedding ring again. Let's just hope I have better luck with this one!!!

big girl

My baby is 21 months old! The last few weeks she has started playing a lot more and seems to be a little less clingy. In fact, for the first time I can ever remember, Ella has asked me to put her down a few times this week! She still asks me to "hold you" throughout the day, but after some Love and Logic discipline, she seems to be better at understanding that sometimes she needs to wait and be patient. Ella has recently fallen in love with the stuffed bunny Abuela gave to her last Easter. Ella loves to take care of "Bunny." She tries to feed her and give her water and has a very hard time understanding why I won't let her. In this first picture she is putting lotion on bunny (I think she did this for almost 20 minutes and I was in heaven because she is just barely starting to play independently).

Ella likes to put Bunny down for naps and night time (yes, she is still obsessed with pacifiers and no, I have not taken them away at bedtime or for naps yet.)

Like most kids, she has always been intrigued by our computers so my parents got Ella her very own laptop on her first birthday. Whenever we're on the computer we tell her to go and get hers so she runs off to her room and brings it in with us so she can play.

For the past month or so in an attempt to get Ella to stop whining I've been telling her to use her "big girl words" or to act like a big girl so now she climbs up on things and proudly exclaims "BIG!"

She also stands on random objects to "balance" and gets so proud of herself.

She isn't interested in potty training, but she demands privacy when she is going to the bathroom. She hides behind something (usually the couch) and doesn't want you to come close to her.

Ella is still very in love with shoes (and clothes). These adorable Minnie slippers are a hand me down from my sister and Ella loves them. I had to include this random picture because she is just so cute!

Here are some other fun things about Ella right now:

• Ella loves clothes and shoes so much that she has a say in what she wears every day. I can get her excited about going somewhere by telling her what we can wear (her coat, boots, a dress- you name it!) My sister Eleanor asked me if it was hard to get Ella to wear tights and my response was, "Are you kidding me? She asks to wear tights!"
• Ella is becoming a better eater. Still not good, but better.
• Ella loves to play with Daddy. She is still a mama's girl, but she is being much nicer to Daddy and even cried the other night when he was leaving.
• She is starting to string words together. Usually not more than two, but the other night she said "baby movie here I go" which meant that she wanted to watch the Baby Signing Time movie, "Here I Go."
• She has very good manners. She always says please and thank you. Gustavo is currently teaching her to say "excuse me."
• Ella loves our neighbors Jen and Ian and asks to go play with them almost every day. When Jen and I go walking, Ella gets paranoid if Ian is ever out of her sight. Ian is 4 so even though he likes Ella, he considers her a baby.
• She loves bubbles.
• Getting her to stay in nursery is still difficult, but she has gone 4 of the last 5 weeks.
• She loves singing so much that it is usually the only way to calm her down when she is upset. Her favorite songs are "Popcorn Popping", "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man", the alphabet, and "If You're Happy and You Know it"
  

*As a disclaimer for many of the random outfits, or lack of pants in some of these pictures let me explain that those were days where I was sick or days where Gustavo had gotten up with her and I hadn't gotten her ready yet. I do dress her, I promise :)

Shutterfly Promotion

this is the picture I used for last year's Christmas card

Every year I have a hard time deciding what to get for our parents and extended family members. Now that we have Ella it is easy to make her the center of the gift. Who doesn't like pictures of a cute kid, especially one you are related to? Last year my sister-in-law and I made calendars for our family on Shutterfly. The site was so easy to navigate and the finished product was adorable. I think we'll do that again this year and I'm excited because they've made some new templates that you can check out here. I'm also excited because this year they are doing a promotion where you can earn 50 free Christmas cards. How great is that? It's really easy. You can read about it here. Shutterfly has really cute holiday card designs and Christmas photo cards. You should check them out. I am definitely ordering from Shutterfly this year.

Good luck with your Christmas gifts!

gratitude

"My brothers and sisters, do we remember to give thanks for the blessings we receive? Sincerely giving thanks not only helps us recognize our blessings, but it also unlocks the doors of heaven and helps us feel God’s love." -President Thomas S. Monson

Reading President Monson's talk from October General Conference got me thinking about all of the many blessings I enjoy.

• being a wife and mother
• staying at home with Ella
  
• having a testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ
• living near a temple
• our home
• Gustavo's job security
• family
• friends
  
• a modern prophet
• my education
• the opportunity I had to teach for 5 years
• health
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

We are so blessed.

giving in

Friday I gave in. I was changing the radio station and when it landed on Christmas music I kept it there. I usually wait until the day after Thanksgiving so I felt a little guilty, but I got over that quickly because the songs filled me with such excitement! I LOVE Christmas time and now I really feel like it is just around the corner.

HALLOWEEN

It is definitely safe to say that Halloween has become more fun now that I'm a mom. Of course I loved Halloween as a child and a teenager, but after high school I haven't done much. This year we were able to celebrate on five separate occasions. Thursday morning Ella and I went to our neighborhood preschool for a costume party. Our block has 7 houses (one of which is the model). Four of us participate in a weekly "preschool" of sorts. We rotate having the kids over at our house for an hour each Thursday to play, sing, read, study simple subjects, and eat snacks. It has been a really fun way to get to know our neighbors and make new friends. The boys are all 3 and capable of much more than Ella, but she still enjoys it.

Ian, Morgan, Miles, and Ella

Ella loved dancing to the Halloween music.

The kids had a cake walk, but once Ella saw the cookies she stopped playing and wouldn't take her eyes off of them!

The boys were patient and decorated their cookies, but Ella quickly ate hers and then snacked on the candy she was given to decorate with.

After preschool we had lunch and then Ella went down for her nap. When she woke up we went up to Camp Williams where Gustavo works for another party. This was her first experience trick or treating. We've been trying to teach her how to say "trick or treat" but she just smiles and sweetly says "treat." We figured that was good enough. Once we got to the different offices and Ella had the opportunity, she just took candy and said "thank you." At least she had good manners. At first she refused to let go of her candy to place it in her bag. Once she had 3 pieces Gustavo was able to convince her that it was all still her candy and that it was going to be easier if she put it in the bag. Each office was decorated with scary Halloween things so Ella learned the word "spooky." Every time we passed something she would point and say "spooky."

Friday night we went to a friend's "Dinner in Disguise" party. As a family we dressed up as characters from Peter Pan. Ella was Tinkerbell, I was Wendy, and Gustavo was a pirate.

The party was at Adobe, formerly Omniture. The building was really nice and had this adorable chair. Ella loved sitting/swinging in it, but I wasn't able to get any good pictures.

Saturday night we had big plans to go trick or treating around our block, but we got rained out so Ella ate treats from our candy bowl before we headed down to spend some time with my parents, Emily, and Max (the other kids were all out trick or treating).

On Halloween after church we lounged around and then headed up to Yolanda's house to eat her award winning chili and spend time with Gustavo's family. We've had a great time celebrating with friends and family this weekend.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Halloween Dinner Party