throw up

this is all the stuff she got- luckily you can't see how dirty it all is

Sometimes I use the terms "throw up" and "spit up" interchangeably.  On Sunday the difference became very obvious.  My cousin was being blessed up in Bountiful at 1 o'clock so after Ella's afternoon nap we jumped in the car.  I was nervous she would be hungry so I thought I'd try to feed her on the way up.  She ate a little, but soon became disinterested and spit it all up within minutes.  This left her slightly damp.  When we got to my aunt and uncles ward I explained that Ella's bottom was a little wet because she had thrown up in the car.  Right as the meeting started I was holding Ella as she faced me.  All of the sudden she threw up on me.  I asked Gustavo to get me a burp cloth as she proceeded to throw up at least 2 more times.  He just stared in disbelief while my sister Emily handed me a receiving blanket to try to clean myself up.  I couldn't believe that much could be in Ella's tiny stomach.  I excused myself during the opening hymn and tried to mop myself, but there was no use.  I was drenched from the bottom of my hair all down the front of my clothes.  It was disgusting.  Ella and I sat in the foyer so we could at least hear baby Elliot's blessing.  Gustavo came out during the sacrament hymn and I told him I thought maybe we could stay long enough to partake of the sacrament right as Ella threw up 2 more times.  We knew we needed to leave so we quickly went back to the car and I sat with Ella in the back seat.  She continued to throw up on and off in the car and even when we got home.  It was so sad, but she didn't seem to be in pain just incredibly tired.  I put her down for a good nap and she hasn't thrown up since.  We are glad she is all better and I don't think I'll use the term "throw up" lightly... at least not while Sunday is fresh on my mind.

family time

On September 19th we went down to celebrate Gustavo's dad's birthday.  After eating a delicious dinner Liz wanted to take a group picture.

Liz also took some cute pictures of Ella and Gabe.  

They are so adorable that we couldn't help taking a lot.

Gustavo, Shevin, and Isaac started throwing a football around.

It wasn't long before Lazaro, Gustavo's dad, joined in to show the boys up.

Then they gave the babies a turn!

It's all in a name

I am one of those silly people who has had my life planned for as long as I can remember.  Of course that includes the names of all of my children.  Over the years the names have changed, but when I was about 18 I decided that I wanted all of my children to be named after family members or people who mean a lot to me.  I have 4 incredible sisters who have been wonderful examples and great friends to me.  Ella is derived from my little sister Eleanor's name and her middle name Marie comes from my older sister, Megan Marie.  I love all of my sisters and want Ella to emulate them in many ways throughout her life.  Each of my sisters has a strong testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  They have all followed my parent's examples to value education.  Each of us have chosen different fields to study, but everyone has been very driven in obtaining as much education as possible. Two of my sisters have already earned graduate degrees; Erin has her PhD and Megan has her master's degree.  My three older sisters are all married and raising their children.  I look to their examples as mothers regularly.  They are all very talented women.

When I think of the true characters of Megan and Eleanor, the two sisters whose names Ella carries, I see many similarities.  Both of these sisters are very service oriented.  As we were growing up Eleanor was always very affected by what she would see or hear about.  I remember her always wanting to help save those in the world who were living in difficult conditions.  In fact, I always thought she would choose to be in the medical field because that seemed to fit her passions so well, but she chose to get her degree in graphic design (art has always been another talent of hers.)  Eleanor is still a very sensitive soul.  When she sees someone struggling in person or through the media it is very common for her to start crying and sympathize with them.  Megan and her husband John are both very proactive.  They met in Africa on a study abroad and since then John has traveled all over the world doing research for his degrees (he just finished his PhD at Penn State.)  Megan is always serving those around her.  She faithfully serves in many different capacities in the church, but she is also an incredible friend and neighbor to everyone she meets.  Both of these sisters, okay all of my sisters, are intimidatingly intelligent.  Meg and Eleanor both earned and kept full scholarships to BYU with their ridiculous ACT scores and grades.  Meg got her degrees in Art History and Eleanor just finished her Bachelor of Fine Arts.  Last summer El did her internship in New York at Martha Stewart.  They are obviously both very talented.  I hope that as Ella grows up she knows that she has the potential to be anything she wants.  She is surrounded by incredible people on both sides of the family who will always love and support her.

just because

bigger and better

I can definitely see why everyone says 6 months is a magical age.  Over the last month Ella has become an incredible baby.  My neighbor had her first baby 5 weeks ago and as I've watched her go through all of the adjustments and hormone changes, I am so grateful to be done with that phase.  It was SO hard for me.  No one ever could have prepared me for all of that.  Ella would scream for periods of at least 3 hours every day along with the typical newborn fussiness.  Starting at about 2 and a half months life started to get lots easier.  By 3 or 4 months I felt like a real person and Ella was getting lots happier.  Now I would definitely say that Ella is an easy baby.  I love it.  She plays well by herself and is just generally a happy girl.  She has started babbling and loves to talk during church or while everyone else seems to be having a conversation.  Once she gets going she progressively gets louder and louder.  We think it is absolutely adorable. Gustavo particularly loves it because she is always happily yelling, "dadadada."  Sometimes it sounds like she says "hi dad."  Ella is also sitting up now.  She's getting quite good, but her dramatic side comes out every time she falls over because she screams and screams until we give her a little love.  She does the same thing if she even slightly bumps into anything while rolling over.  Still no crawling though... I guess I have a little more time before we have to baby proof the house.  

In Florida Ella became quite a mama's girl.  I thought it was just because she was out of her element, but it has continued.  Honestly I don't mind it, but I do feel bad that she isn't always as happy with everyone else.  On Monday I had lots of plans to get things done, but Ella cried and cried the second I put her down.  She was fine when I held her, but it made it very difficult to get things done.  I hoped that I hadn't jinxed myself by saying she had become such an incredible and easy little girl.  Tuesday when I got home from work I noticed a little white spot on her bottom gum and sure enough it is her first tooth!  I can tell it is bothering her because she has had a harder time sleeping and is more irritable.   Every little milestone is very exciting though.  

It is getting much harder to take Ella's picture because she is such a busy girl.  She wouldn't even really look at me because she was so interested in her shoes.  You can see her very focused look while studying the shoes in the middle picture. Hopefully you can see her beautiful blue eyes, just like Daddy's.  It is hard to tell in these pictures, but her new hair is very blonde.  I just laugh because she is going to be a Gonzalez with blonde hair and blue eyes.  I'm sure here hair will go brown eventually, but it is very light for now.  She continues to grow, both up and out.  Her brand new 6-12 month jeans are very tight on her belly and she is quite a few inches taller than the other babies her age that are in the ward.  Everyone comments on how big she is (don't worry Ella, they say how cute you are right after!)  

quarter of a century

I had a great 25th birthday.  It started an hour later than usual because Ella woke up a little late due to the overcast morning and Gustavo took her for almost 30 minutes before she needed to eat.  They came into the room at 8:15 bearing gifts.  Ella delivered me a sweet letter from Gustavo and he gave me the adorable nutrition tracking board I haven't been able to stop thinking about since seeing it on the Rachel Ray Show almost a year ago (check it out here).  After Ella woke up from her morning nap we all went to brunch.  We had a nice afternoon and then dropped Ella off with Yolanda and her abuela who watched her while we went to dinner at Tepanyaki and then saw Julie & Julia.  After we picked Ella up and put her back to bed we had cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory (thanks to Alysha & Bonnie!)  Then to top it off, we watched BYU beat Oklahoma thanks to DVR.  It was honestly the best birthday I can remember.

back to the grind

Two weeks ago I unfortunately went back to work.  My sister-in-law, Yolanda, volunteered to watch Ella after Jessica let me know that she would no longer be able to.  Since Yolanda lives south of us and the school is north, Yolanda comes to get Ella in the morning so I don't have to back track and lose more time with my beautiful little girl.  I really appreciate it because it means I only have to leave 10-15 minutes before work starts and then I just take the freeway from school to Yolanda's house when I go to pick Ella up.  It is a really nice set up.  It will also be great for Ella to establish a strong relationship with her aunt and cousin.    

Yolanda took this picture of the kids last week.  Did I mention how impressed I am with her?  She doesn't even flinch taking care of Gabe and Ella.  I could never do it.  She is so confident and I'm pretty sure she can do anything.  The babies are only 2 weeks a part so she practically has twins.  Ella was fussy until her first nap each day of the first week, but this week she was good.  I think it just takes her a little while to adjust to new situations (she must be like her parents).   

Ella seems to be intrigued by my new position, or at least my whistle.  This job has a million perks.  Honestly, if I have to work there is absolutely no better job I could imagine.  I get to teach without all of the extra stresses and responsibilities of a classroom teacher.  I teach all of the students in the school, which means I get to see all of my past students regularly.  I only work 4 days a week so where Monday used to be the day I dreaded, now I love it!  Ella is only away from home 3 days because Gustavo has Fridays off.  I've only had students for one week and I had a blast playing all day.  This also meant that I got a good workout.  I wasn't sure if I would or not, but I'm moving around almost the entire day participating in different fitness activities.  I think the only downside is that I can see things becoming slightly redundant since I do similar things for 10 classes in a row on a 2 day rotation.  Other than that I have to be creative with space because the gym is also our lunchroom so sometimes I'll be kicked out for assemblies and other things.  I also don't have the gym for kindergarten or the last 10 minutes of one class, but that really won't be too bad.  

In all honesty, I want to be home with Ella all of the time, but working part time as the PE teacher won't be bad.  I still get to be with her most of the time and Yolanda is making my time away from her as easy for me as possible.  I feel really blessed.  At the end of the year I prayed that what was best for Alysha and me would work out.  We really wanted the job share, but now we both realize that it wasn't what was best for either of us.  Alysha needs a full time salary and PE allows me to be with Ella much more than even being part time in the classroom would have.  It is amazing how apparent Heavenly Father's hand is in my life.  I am so grateful for answered prayers.