Random Pics and Just Chillin'

I think that Mia's come down with a little bit of a cold - her first one.  When I take out her NAM she has a lot more congestion build up than ever before and does NOT appreciate my efforts to clean her little mouth out of all the extra "gunk".  I hope it clears up soon!   Because of that, we are just chilling at home again today. 

After yesterday's post of her sitting on the couch, I felt the need to take some pictures of her this morning to show that she is INDEED still small and little and not ENTIRELY grown up yet!  lol

My little sweetie in her little outfit my sister Nik passed along from Germany.  I think Sofia wore it when she was a baby. 

It's hard to see but it has a little fairy in the middle and says, "Komm, wir machen eine Reise en mein fairyland..." (Which roughly translates to, "Come, we're taking a trip to my fairyland...")  I'll have to try and get a pic of Sofia in it and post it along side Mia so we can see the two little cousins in the same outfit!  :)

Here's a quick one from this morning as well - Mia and I snuggling while we wait for her bottle to warm.  As always (of late), Mia's got her milky mouth spots on my shoulder and her fingers in her mouth!  Black is definitely NOT the color to wear during the drooly stages apparently.  lol 

See!  She's still little!!!!  :)  (But growing WAY too fast.)

Here are a few extra pics from the past week that I found on my phone.  :)

got her toes! 

Mia's randomly caught a hold of her toes a few times this past week.  It seems totally on accident for now, but we'll see how long it takes her to do it on purpose.  :)

Both grandma and Mia THOROUGHLY enjoy snuggle time with each other.

I found this paper tape that is touted as "removes easily" and "for delicate skin".  It's really helped keep her NAM on all day, but doesn't necessarily come off as "easily" as I was expecting.

"Mia, what do you think of this new tape?" I asked. 

"Hmmmm," she replied, "Let me think on it and get back to you mom."

Thankfully she doesn't seem to mind it!

Okay, I admit it - I'm a bit of a loon and as anyone who knows me well can attest to, I am also VERY curious in nature.  Mia wasn't thrilled when I had to peel the tape off her cheeks, even though it didn't leave a big red mark behind like the previous tape she had.  So, I wanted to find out what the best, most gentle way was to remove the tape.  Pull in the opposite direction?  Pull straight out?  Fast pull to remove?  Who knew?!?!  Of course, you don't want to experiment on your darling, sweet, precious baby...

Twinners!

Come to find out, the "fast pull" actually hurts significantly and burns for quite some time, while the most gentle way to remove it seemed to be to pull gently in the opposite direction.  She still doesn't LOVE it, but it holds her NAM in place SO well, even if she catches her little fingers on it and accidentally pulls on it - HOORAY!

On a side note, on our one outing for the day yesterday afternoon, Mia and I went to the Hallmark store and video store.  At the Hallmark store they had these mugs and piggy banks with kids names on them that were 40% off.  I was happily surprised to find Mia's name on both - so cute!  Which then left me with the conundrum as to which one, if any, to buy.  I took pictures with my phone and sent them to Zeus to see if I should get them or not, hoping he would be the voice of reason in my shopping craze. 

the mug

the piggy bank

They are so dang cute, aren't they!?!?!  Thanks to papa's calm voice of reason, Mia is now the proud new owner of a personalized mug AND piggy bank!  :)

Growing Up! :(

Our baby girl is growing up!  She's 11 weeks old already and is starting to have a LOT more control of her little head and neck as well as her hands as she grabs and reaches for things.  Look how old she looks in these pictures I took today:

Chilling on the couch - my little big girl!

Doesn't she look so big just sitting there on her own?!?  I keep telling her to quit growing and changing so fast, but she has YET to listen to her mama.  :)

We took it easy today - chilled at the house with grandma, ran a few errands and picked up some videos.  Then we came home and ate dinner, chilled with grandma and grandpa and watched the movie Killers.  It was silly but cute.  We skyped with Zeus during dinner but Mia was super tired so she took a little nap during the movie and then we skyped with papa again before bedtime.  Man do the days go fast with not a whole lot going on or getting done - kinda like when we are at home.  ;)  Same routine over and over and over is the life of a stay-at-home-mom.  (Wouldn't change it for the world!) 

Six more sleeps until we are back in Texas with Zeus!  It seems like forever, but hopefully it will go buy quickly and productively for both of us!

Utah fun and random pics

Funny what things make you homesick. Since I've been here, there have been a few things that I've randomly seen that have made me think of Zeus and be really homesick for him.  ...Well, besides the obvious of him being so far away!

One was a big billboard for Moab. We went on a camping trip down there and hiked Delicate Arch back in October of last year. It was such a fun trip and I wished he was with us on this trip.


Another one was this week. On the way to one of my get togethers with friends I drove past the church we were married.  I'd driven past it before on this trip without noticing it, buf for some reason on this day I did.  It reminded me of the day we were married, how handsome he looked in his tux and how much I love him.


And last but not least, this -

It may just look like an ordinary empty toilet paper roll to YOU, but to me it's a little reminder to cherish my honey. 

You are probably wondering how on earth an empty paper towel roll could possibly make me think of my sweet husband.  Well, he OFTEN - but not always - will leave the empty roll on the hanger, and pull out a new roll and leave IT on the counter. It made me smile because it reminded me of the first little bit of our marriage when it drove me CRAZY to keep finding empty toilet paper rolls in the bathroom! Then one day when I came into the bathroom and AGAIN was greeted with this sight  and let out a frustrates sigh, I had the thought that it wouldn't be that way if he wasn't in my life.  That made me so sad to even think about that I realized then and there that it was SO worth it to just cheerfully replace the new roll and send thanks up to heaven that he was in my life.  So, now, every time I see an empty toilet paper roll it literally brings a smile to my face and makes me think, "Man I am so lucky to have him in my life."  I guess you could call it "the parable of the empty toilet paper roll".  lol

Here are a few random pics that I took this week, in no particular order:

Mia helping grandma with her work.

It's so nice to have other people around during the day who can snuggle her and hold her while I heat up a bottle and clean her NAM or take a quick shower!  Also, I love seeing my daughter with my parents - hanging with and interacting with her grandma and grandpa.

Mia being snuggled by grandma after a lengthy conversation and cooing fest.  :)

Snuggled to sleep by grandpa and sleeping peacefully in his arms.

Mia likes to "help" hold her bottle pretty much every time we feed her.  ...now if only we could teach her to SQUEEZE it, we'd be set!

Mia was fascinated by the little antennae that stuck out on the little feet of these pj's and just stared and stared at them - but I think she was too exhausted to investigate.

Okay - now for some things in a "semblance" of order:

This past Thursday we went to my old school to see all of my good friends and co-workers and to introduce them to Mia.  I SO wish I would have taken more pictures of everyone!!!  Here are some that I took with my phone:

All showered up and ready to go.  I realized that I have hardly any pictures of ME with Mia, so I'm trying to remember to take more.  :)

Mia's cute little outfit.  I thought this was the cutest thing ever when I saw it in the store, so I bought it for my niece Sadie.  Brienne was sweet enough to send it on to me so that Mia could wear it.  It's a little baggy on my skinny little girl but I'm sure she'll grow into it before too long!

Mia with Miss Fipe who was my awesome teaching assistant when I worked there.  We sure miss you Miss Fipe!

By the end of the visit, both Mia and I were tired and headed home after stopping to pick up some formula since we were almost out.  We were suppose to go and visit with my friend Jaclyn, but Mia was acting a little "off" and like she might be getting a cold so we just headed home to take a nap and give Mia some down time.  Thankfully we were able to reschedule with Jaclyn for this upcoming week.

On Friday I got together with some fun friends from an old church group and we had a fondue party.  Everyone was able to make it, and as always the company was great and the food was DELISH!  Mia and I had a great evening!!!

Mia and I chilling on the floor in grandma's office before we headed to the fondue party.

Cathi, Robin, Mia and I, Davis (Jen's son) and Marie, and Jen

Cathi, Taunia, Robin, Marie with Davis and Jen with Mia

ALWAYS great food at these get-togethers!  Cheese fondue with veggies, bread and meat to dip.  YUM!

Yummy desert - pound cake, strawberries, bananas, brownies and peanut butter rice crispy treats - to dip in chocolate fondue!

Shannon showed up with Alli near the end and we were so glad she could make it!  Shannon with Alli and Mia and I.

On Saturday Mia and I slept in and then chilled most of the day with grandma and grandpa.  We hadn't gotten home from the fondue party until almost 11:30 pm and then Mia'd woken up at 5 am to eat since her schedule was off.  It was nice to sleep in and just take it easy for most of the day.

At around 4 in the afternoon I decided to finally get up and get going, so I packed Mia up to head back up to Park City to the outlets to return some buyers remorse items.  :)  I called my friend Amy on the way and we ended up dropping by to pick her and the twins up to go with us.  It was so fun having them on the drive with us and seriously, the back seat was just all kinds of adorable with three baby girls all the way across it!  

View from the side of door to door car seats - Ellie, Mia and Emma.

View from the hatch with the head rests removed for the picture so we could see their faces - Ellie, Mia and Emma.  For those of you who are wondering, Ford Escape's apparently CAN safely fit three car seats across the back seat!

I carried Mia around in the baby Bjorn and got sweet little drool marks all over the front of my shirt.  :)

Amy holding Mia - Emma and Ellie in their stroller.

I think a few people probably wondered if they were all three hers!  lol  Wow, and she thought TWO was busy!  I know that when she ran to the bathroom someone incredulously asked me if all three were mine!  lol

Before we get ready to head out in the morning I'll take a picture of Mia and send it to him because I know he REALLY misses her.  On this particular day, I took one of the both of us first thing in the morning after her bottle.

I love it because it looks like she's happily waving good morning to her papa!

Utah State Fair and phone call from papa

Mia and I went to the Utah State Fair today.  I really enjoy going to the fair and seeing the exhibits, especially the photography contest.  Oh, and who can forget the fair food!

It just so happened that one of my old roommates is a high school ag teacher and her FFA (future farmers of America) kiddos were running the "Little Hands on the Farm" area today at the fair so we decided to stop by so Mia and Suzanne could meet each other.  The little turkey pulled her NAM out in the car on the way, so she doesn't have it in for these pictures.  (Bad mama I know, but I didn't want to wash it and try to put it in her little mouth at the dirty fair grounds!)

Mia REALLY wanted her picture taken in the farmer head.  She took it VERY seriously.  :)

I especially love the little farmer bow on her head.  :)

Mia finally cracked a smile when Suzanne snuggled her.  I think they are both big fans of each other as they were both just smiling away at each other like crazy!

Mia and I took a self portrait with the cow.  We didn't milk it cause its teats were too low and I didn't want to accidentally dump Mia out of the carrier. :)

Sara-Bella and Sofia-Bug, I took this picture of the horses for you.  Look how long their tails are - all the way down to the ground!!!  Wish you could have been there with Mia and I to see all the beautiful horses!  (Have your mama click on the picture to make it bigger so you can see their long tails better.)

After meeting with Suzanne at the fair, Mia and I went over to Amy's.  We were planning on going back to the fair and take the twins to see the sights and to eat us some fair food, but after we fed the twins and made us a little something we were just too tired so we decided to stay and chill at her house.  We may try and go on Friday, but we'll see.  We had a fun night - I played with Ellie and Emma and Amy snuggled Mia and we all had a lovely and wonderful evening!

Amy took a crack at feeding Mia and did a "bang up job" of it.  It's so fun for me to see my good friends holding my baby girl and loving on her!  Don't worry though, I still got my snuggle time in as well!  :)

 

First of all let me say that no, I'm not choking Mia in these two pictures!  She gets startled in her sleep sometimes and gasps, flings her arms wide and does the saddest little scared cry.  :(  When she does this and I'm around, I put my hand on her little chest and tell her, "It's okay, mommy's here," and it helps her calm back down into sleep.

Tonight when it happened, she put her little hand on mine as if to reassure me that she knew I was there and taking good care of her.  See what I mean - she's the sweetest little thing in the whole wide world!!!  She just melts my heart time and time again! I had Amy jump for the camera (thanks Aim!) to get a picture before she moved again.  Look at my precious girl and her sweet hand on mine!  Oh, and I can't help but notice her long skinny legs and toots in this pic - so precious to me!  :)

Zeus called while I was at Amy's to check on us and say good night, so after I talked to him for a minute I put him on speaker so that he could talk to Mia.  She was a little fussy at the time but when I put the phone up to her little ear and her papa talked to her, she did the cutest thing ever!  She moved her little hand up to the phone like she was holding it, stopped fussing and got the biggest smile on her face.  Amy and I were both absolutely DYING laughing!  She grabbed the camera as quick as she could to get a picture, but Mia was too quick and moved before she could get it.  Here's the video we got instead as papa was talking to Mia:

Does this little girl know and love her papa or what?!?!?!

She makes me laugh

Being a mom to Mia is such a joy!  She is so incredibly sweet and her little personality is so fun to interact with.  She makes me smile and she makes me laugh - and I mean BELLY laugh.  Her latest antic has been her attempts to help hold her bottle, which usually end up being more endearing and entertaining than anything else.  However, tonight she took the helping to a whole new level. 

Zeus calls her his little "chango" (Spanish for "monkey") because she can grip your finger by curling her little toes under.  When he showed his friend David, he teasingly said, "Man, she could HANG by those!"  lol 

When I saw her new idea of "helping" it made me think of how he calls her "my little chango" and I just had to snap some pictures to send him.

Gripping my thumb and pinky fingers and holding on to my arm with her little legs.

Holding the top of the bottle and pinky finger with her hands, still gripping my arm with her cute little legs.

Decided it would be even BETTER if she held on the TOP of the bottle - and threw her leg over my arm as well!  :)

Silly little girl was constantly in motion - no wonder she's such a string bean!  :)  She kept repositioning her hands AND feet to help me with the feeding today.  My silly little girl!

Mia had all three of us - Grandma and grandpa and I - about rolling on the floor!

We sent the picture to papa to entertain him as well while he was in his night class.  We are both really missing Zeus while we are here in Utah.  We send him pictures every day and Skype at least once or twice a day so that he can see her and talk to her and so I can update him on how we are doing and what are plans are.  He misses us so much, especially his little mija (daughter).  He often gets teary-eyed when we Skype - I can tell even though my tough, strong husband tries to hide it.  Yesterday morning as we were saying good-bye was no exception, so I decided to change what I was going to have Mia wear into this darling little outfit for papa.

(She DOES wear her NAM nearly every second of the day, I swear!  I take it out to clean it at least twice a day though - morning and night, and then whenever she pulls it out - and then back in it goes!) 

Anyway, this is the outfit we picked out to wear for our sweet papa yesterday.

Mia hearts daddy!

I asked her, "How much do you love daddy, Mia?"

And she threw her arms out wide as if to say "THIS much!"

She really does love her papa and recognizes his voice.  He called last night when she was a little fussy as she was waiting for her bottle to warm.  I put him on speaker phone so he could talk to her and she stopped crying when she heard his voice and listened intently. 

He is SUCH a great papa and I'm thinking that our sweet little Mia loves us ALMOST as much as we love her.  ;)

On an ending note, I'm driving my parent's car while I'm here.  It use to be my sister Michelle's before they moved across the pond to the UK.  Well, when I pulled the visor down the other day to block the sun while I was driving and the sweet note she'd put in the car for her husband was still there taped to the visor.

...and my heart immediately ached for my sweet husband who is busily working away down in Texas while Mia and I are here in Utah for a few weeks.  I SO feel that way about him and am so very thankful to have him and our beautiful daughter in my life.  My life is so rich because of them and I am truly blessed!

Te amo y te extrano much mi amor y mi vida!

Babies loving babies

I SO love it when babies love babies!  This trip to Utah it has been so fun to see my friends kids and Mia together!!!  Here are a few pics from the past few days of our kiddos:

Here's from Wednesday when Mia and I stopped by my good friend Heidi's house.  Only her two youngest were there when we got there and they immediately flocked to Mia so we all sat down on the ground and admired her.  :)  Heidi has some of the sweetest kids I've ever met and we always have a great time hanging out, whether it's running quick errands or sitting and chatting for hours! 

Jacob and Eli - I'm bummed this photo turned out so blurry, but the look on Jacob's face is just too precious not to post anyway!

Jacob and Eli checking out a sleeping Mia.  I couldn't catch it on film, but when Mia woke up she just kept smiling the BIGGEST smiles at Jacob! 

Hmmmm... I'm thinking arranged marriage...???

Eli was way too fast for me to catch him softly touching Mia's everything -  head band, hair, fingers, nose, car seat buckle, etc. Such a sweetie!

Today (Sunday) Mia and I went over to my good friend Amy's to visit her and her twin girls who will be a year next Sunday (Happy early birthday Ellie and Emma!).  I got to visit all three of them in the hospital a year ago when they made their debut and can't believe how much they've grown and that they are already going to be one!!!  Of course, they were WAY excited to see baby Mia and so I grabbed the camera to snap a few pictures:

While Mia slept on, blissfully unaware of her adoring audience, Ellie and Emma crawled right over and pulled themselves up to get a better view.  :)

Emma and Ellie get momentarily distracted by the camera.

Then got right back to checking out the "baby".  lol

Emma, then Ellie take turns looking at the camera - such cuties!!!

Mia and I went to church with Amy to help wrangle the twins and Mia got to wear her new little dress. I think it's so stinkin' cute that I just have to post some pictures.  :)

Another photo, mom?!?!?  Well, I guess I'll smile then!

MAN do I love my precious, beautiful little girl to pieces!!!

And last, but not least, remember the book "Where's Waldo?"  Well, I had a flashback to that book last night when I saw Mia in her pj's.  Apparently the blanket our friend Eunice bought for Mia is a PERFECT match to the cute pj's I got for her.  I call these photos, "Where's Mia?"  Spot her if you can.  :)

Isn't that crazy how they match exactly?!?!

I put her down vertically on the blanket, but when I came back she was mysteriously horizontal on the blanket.  Uh oh!  We've got a mover on our hands!!!

Who, me?!?!?

As I miss my husband down in Texas terribly, I'm also enjoying seeing so many great friends and my wonderful family while Mia and I are up here visiting in Utah.  I can't help but realize how lucky I am to be blessed with SUCH great friends and family!  (...Now if ONLY I could get them all to move down to Texas!)