Lots of Love

Natalia loves baths! All she has to do is see the bathtub as we walk through the bathroom and she gets wildly excited; arms flailing, legs kicking, hyperventilating excited. She could probably take a bath after every meal and not get tired of it. Luckily for me she's not messy enough to require 3 baths a day, let alone 1 a day. But her love of baths sure makes it fun to give her a bath and play with all the bath toys!

Josh's brother, Barjona, his wife Alishia, and their darling baby Emma came to visit, have dinner (THAI - mmmm!) made by my amazing husband, and let the babies play. Emma got to try avocado for the first time. She was darling! One of the funniest events of the evening was Natalia's interest in Emma's pacifier. Natalia spit out her pacifier, tried to hand it to Emma, stole hers and popped it into her mouth! Those of us who saw it were beside ourselves with laughter! Emma wasn't quite sure what happened or how she should handle it. It was hilarious!



This year I wanted to do something a bit different for Valentine's Day. I saw this idea of decorated mailboxes and had to do it. I found these small metal mailboxes at Target for $1 each. I decorated them with designer paper. Then we had a FHE about love and how we show love. I challenged Josh and Hali to do something to show love everyday from the beginning of February until Valentine's Day - unless we wanted to continue it longer. When something was placed in the mailbox the flag was put up to let that person know that there was something in their mailbox. It was really fun making cards, writing notes, and placing treats or other little gifts in the mailboxes. Hali especially loved this activity. It was really fun to do things for others as well as receive things from each other. We'll definitely do this again next year. I'll have to find some more mailboxes! :0)


I received a beautiful delivery of the most lovely roses for Valentine's day this year. My husband sure loves me! Thankfully I'd know that even without gorgeous flowers! We went out for Sushi at Tokyo in Lehi and even let Natalia have some crab, cucumber, rice and avocado in addition to the beans and peas I brought to feed her for dinner. And she loved it! It was a wonderful Valentine's Day and our 4th together! It's been 4 of the best Valentine's Days of my life and I'm looking forward to a lifetime more of celebrating the love we have for each other!

Sickness, Crawling, and Dating

This has been a fun and very eventful week! Tuesday I was still in so much pain with my sinus infection and because it was spreading into my jaw and teeth (and because my midwife checked in on me and urged me to get to the Dr. ASAP), I went to the Dr. and was put on an antibiotic. I am feeling almost back to normal and that is a huge comfort!

Natalia is now pretty consistently crawling on her knees! She's been scooting, rolling and army-crawling for a long while now, but is really beginning to enjoy her increased mobility by crawling on her knees. We're having to keep a constant eye on her to keep her out of trouble. She can have the coolest toys, but she always wants the things that make the coolest sounds, which are things that she just CAN'T have: plastic bags, poinsettia pot foil (and the leaves that my poinsettia drop on the floor), books, paper, etc.


We also had to upgrade her car seat. She outgrew her baby one a few months ago and the straps were getting tight so we upgraded to one of the safest on the market convertible car seats and she LOVES it! She's going to love it even more on her Birthday in 2 months when she can face forward and see what we see and have easier access to Mommy's attention - that is when Mommy is not driving! :0) But I think what she enjoyed most was playing in the box!



Josh and I have started an official date night, which we try to do on Friday nights. This Friday night we went to see a movie: The Tourist. I recommend it. It was very good! We also had a difficult time with our babysitter and are considering some other options for childcare in the future. My brother, Kendall, reminded me that doing a trade with other couples works well. Hopefully I can find some friends that are in a similar situation to us that would like to do a trade. It will also make it more affordable for us to be able to go out on dates. My wonderful mother and father volunteered to watch Natalia for us so we could take my newly returned missionary brother, Aaron, to meet Josh's adorable cousin, Amanda, and hang out Saturday night. She is leaving for the MTC this coming Wednesday (Feb. 9). We met up in Bountiful, had Subway sandwiches, bowled - where Josh won 2 and Aaron won 1 game (but I need to interject that the time that Josh didn't win I beat him!!! And that has never happened before!!!) We then went with Amanda to see her brother Aaron play Tevya in Fiddler on the Roof. He was absolutely amazing!! Then we stopped at a frozen custard place and had frozen custards and french fries with fry sauce (I bet you can guess who the fries were for, right?!?). It was such a fun night!!!