Ahh, the potty

Well, after much time spent sitting on the potty--and I'm talking MUCH time, we finally have success!
A couple of months ago, we tried to potty train her and just ended up with a lot of time sitting on the potty without a lot of pee or poop happening.
Here's daddy resting on the fan during one of the "potty sessions". We kind of gave it up for a while and then a few weeks ago we got her "big girl panties". She had 9 accidents the first day, 5 on the second, and it just got better from there. She's now going pee pee in the potty every day and accidents are rare!
A few days ago, she finally went poopie in the potty. We were so excited! We wiped and flushed and then she said she had more. So she sat down and went some more--every few minutes for the next half hour!! She is truly daddy's girl in this area. Anyway, she loves trying to poop in the potty now and our current problem is getting her to get off the potty when she is determined to poop, but nothing has happened for 20 minutes! Ahh, the joys of parenthood. :)

Happy Halloween!

This is how I found Melia in our room right before I was about to start getting her ready to go Trunk or Treating for Halloween. She had already taken matters into her own hands. She found what she calls her "Mermaid hair" and "daddy's makeup" and went to town. This Halloween is the first one where she started to understand what was going on, so it was a lot of fun to get her dressed up and take her out. She dressed up like Sleeping Beauty and Bo and I used our fallback costumes that we use just about every year. Except we actually only had parts of them to use this year. I don't know what happened to my funky 70's outfit. Lost in the move?
Overall, fun Halloween. We did have a "bad parent" moment though. After she went to bed, (and had already eaten some of her candy) Bo and I pretty much ate the rest of her candy. I know, I know it's terrible--but, hey, we saved her from eating a bunch of junk. Better us than her, right? :) She never missed it anyway!

Freedom!

Ok, so I finally got a weekend away ALL BY MYSELF! It only took me--well, how old is Melia now? 2 1/2? My mom and I have kind of a tradition where we go to this fundraiser event for the Ettie Lee Boys home every 6 months. It's at the Disneyland Hotel and they have this huge boutique so we shop for a couple of hours and then have lunch at the banquet hall in the hotel. Then they have entertainment after lunch. It's a fun girls day. So anyway, I thought I wouldn't be able to go this time because we're in Northern California now, but my mom flew me down for the weekend so I could go. Thanks mom! :) Let me tell you, it was soooo nice to be able to go through the whole trip without any responsibility and without anyone to take care of except for me. :) I actually got to read, get up when I wanted, do what I wanted whenever I wanted. I forgot what that was like! I did miss Melia and Bo and I was happy to see them when I got home, but it was a really, really nice break. Plus, I got to see my family and friends which made it even better. :)

I'm Grateful!!

I just want to say a little bit about gratitude. Since we moved up here to Paradise, it's been a huge struggle for us financially. Bo was out of work for 3 months and we weren't in a good situation financially to begin with--thus, the living with his grandma thing. Anyway, even though it's been a struggle, it's also been a huge learning experience for us. We've learned even more how much God just takes care of us and blesses us with what we need when we need it--even when we have no idea how it will possibly come, it comes. We have been blessed in so many ways, big and small and I'm just feeling really grateful right now. Life is good. :)

Our First Official Visitors

Ok, I've decided to try to blog more often. Last weekend, we had our first official visitors come stay with us here in Paradise--Jeff, Amy and Porter Jensen. Yes, although we've had a plethora of visitors here at Bo's grandma's house, these were the first visitors that actually came to see us. :) Even though we hadn't seen each other in person for a long time, there's something about seeing old friends that is so comfortable and feels like you were never apart. We spent the day riding Bo's uncle's quads around our property, picnicing at the park, taking a walk to see a not so breath taking view, and going out to eat way too much at a Mexican restaurant that spells it's name wrong, and finally to Foster's Freeze. By the time they left and we got back home, I pretty much went into a food coma for the rest of the night. I was in and out of consciousness until about 11pm when I finally gave it up and went to bed.

I am prego!

Man, I've been a slacker lately as far as blogging goes. Maybe it's because we're finally starting to get a life up here and have things to do. :) Anyway, on our way back from our trip to So. Cal. for Shane and Ericka's wedding, we found out that we're pregnant! We're excited!! I'm about 2 months in and so far so good. I've only had one day where I really felt sick. I thought I was going to throw up in the middle of church. But other than that, I've just been slightly nauseous off and on. Nothing major. Strangest craving? Monster Tacos from Jack in the Box. I haven't had them in years. Gave in and had them last week. Lets just say now I remember why I don't eat there anymore. When we told Melia about the baby, the conversation went something like this: Mommy: "Guess what! Mommy has a baby inside her tummy!" Melia: "Hold it?" (with arms outstretched) Mommy: "It has to grow for 9 months and get bigger and then it will come out and you'll have a baby brother or sister." (Melia goes and plays for a little while.) Melia: (pointing to her belly button) "I got baby brother in my belly button." Mommy: "No, mommy has baby brother or sister in her belly." Melia: "Baby brother loves me." (Later lifts up mommy's shirt looking for baby brother.) Side note: There's a squirrel on our porch about 3 feet from me with a gigantic nut in his mouth! That's one cool thing about living up here. :) Anyway, we need to start looking for a doctor up here. Bo's health care through work won't kick in until 3 months from now, so we'll have to figure something out. God has been really taking care of us in every little way. I know we'll be ok. :)

It's Been a Whole Month Already?!

Where does the time go? That is the question. We just got back from a week and a half vacation to So. Cal. for Bo's brother Shane's wedding. It was a lot of fun and we got to see a lot of family and friends, but not nearly enough. There were many people we wish we could have seen, but time just ran out. On our drive down, we stopped and saw our good friends Chris, Vicky & Lenore who just recently moved to Napa. Melia and Lenore were so cute together.
Once we got to Bo's parents' house, the first thing we wanted to do was go to the beach. We miss it so much!
Shane and Ericka's wedding turned out great and we had fun at the reception. Melia was a little dancing machine! We couldn't get her off the dance floor. I think it's genetic.
On Sunday, we visited our old ward for church. It felt just like coming home. It was so good to see everybody. After church, we hung out at Matt and Piper's and had some friends over for dinner. Lots of fun! This is Maia teaching Melia how to dance like a ballerina.
We did lots of other things too, but I don't feel like writing a lot today--you can see more pictures on our website. :)