Happy Easter!

We had a low key, but fun Easter this year. We spent the entire day on Sunday in our jammies at home. We watched conference, had a little Family Home Evening about Jesus and the resurrection, painted Easter eggs, had a hunt, made Easter bunny smores, and just hung out and enjoyed our little family. :)


Melia "reading" a book to Naiya from their Easter baskets.


Melia met the Easter bunny at the park and was totally enchanted by him.


You can't really see in this picture, but Bo has a green bean in his mouth and is feeding Naiya "birdie style". It was totally cute!


Naiya and Daddy ready for the egg hunt!


The spoils from her conquest.

A Moment

Yesterday at church I had this little lightbulb moment. It was testimony Sunday and one of our little 5 year old girls got up and wanted to give her testimony. She was a little shy, so her mom whispered what to say in her ear. As I listened to her say things like "I know God loves me." "I love my family." and "I am grateful to come to church.", it struck me that this mother whispering in her daughter's ear was like a physical picture of a mother passing on her faith and knowledge of God and life and what's important and what it's all about to her daughter. That moment was pretty cool and I'm grateful I get to be a mom and that I have so much light given to me in my life that I can pass on to my girls. :)

Chocolate Anyone?

So I stopped eating sugar at night, which was my biggest downfall, and I'm on my way back down to my pre-pregnancy clothes. Yay! Miracles do happen. :) I give myself the weekends to eat whatever I want, but weekdays, I stay away from the sugar after dinner. Let's just say that this has been a challenge to say the least. Some days are better than others...and some days I feel like I would kill to get a sugar fix (Literally. Not really. Well, maybe.) Anyway, it was especially hard when I first started and that is when the chocolate incident happened. One day Melia, Naiya and I were out grocery shopping and Melia left a treat bag full of chocolate eggs that she had acquired somewhere in the car while we shopped. When we came out, we got all buckled up and on the road again and that is when I heard cries of distress from the back seat. Apparently, the chocolate eggs had melted and Melia squeezed one. Chocolate all over. I made her give me the bag and tried to clean her off without getting into an accident and before the chocolate spread all over Grandma Adeline's car. In the process, I inadvertently got chocolate on my finger. Then, my nose started itching so I swiped my finger across the bottom of my nose and got chocolate all over not only the outside of my nostrils but the inside as well. I tried my best to clean it off, but lets just say the aroma of sweet chocolate was with me for the rest of the day. Oh the irony of it all. But, thanks to Heavenly help, I did not falter. Life IS like a box of chocolates...and sometimes it gets smeared all over you, but it's what you do in those moments that makes all the difference. :)

Letter to Melia

Dear Melia,

You are 4 years old now and you are growing into a beautiful girl inside and out. I wanted to let you know that you are a huge joy in my life! I look forward to spending my day with you every day. You are so sweet and smart and fun to be around. You are such a good example to me of loving everyone and helping people to feel good around you. You love saying hi and talking to everybody that we encounter in the day and you put smiles on the faces of people everywhere you go. Never underestimate the difference that can make in someone's life. You never know what kind of day they may be having.



I love to watch you be you every day. I love to see you dance and sing and stop to pet every animal you see. I love to see you adore all things pink, purple and sparkly. I love to hear you talk to your Heavenly Father every night and tell me you want Jesus to come soon so you can give him a hug. I love to see how your face lights up when daddy comes home. I love to see you dance with him and hear you call him your prince. I want you to know that he loves you sooooo much! I love how much you love Naiya. I love to see you play with her and make her laugh. I love to see you give her hugs and kisses before every nap and before bedtime. I love to try to answer all of your questions and act silly with you. I love to snuggle with you and read you stories.



I want you to know that I'm so grateful to be your mom and I've never tried harder at anything in my whole life. My wish for you is that you will live your life joyfully, feel your worth, and feel the love that your Heavenly Father has for you. You are wonderful. Just be you.

I love you forever!
Mom :)

The Evolution of Bo's Face

So, as many of you have seen, in the past few months I have lost my husband under a massive amount of hairiness on his face. What made him want to grow a beard? I don't know. What made him want to let it grow so long that he looks like a lumberjack, a member of the Arian Nation, or a terrorist? I don't know. What made him brush it upwards and go to our church Christmas party like that? I don't know. All I know is that I missed his face and after months of waiting, the moment arrived where he finally decided to shave it.


But...he couldn't simply give me what I wanted all at once. He had to drag it out for as long as possible. So he decided to shave it off in stages.


First, he shaved it into the Fu Man Chu look.


Bo's hidden talent--accesorizing.


The next day, he tried the mustache with the flavor saver.
The next day, he went for the cop look--just the mustache. Unfortunately, we have no pictures of that one.


Finally, he shaved it all off! There was much celebrating and dancing in the streets. (Side note: This is what happens when a large man tries to crawl through a little girl's play tunnel.)

About a week later, he grew back his good old goatee. That's the way I like him best. All is well in the world again. :)

9 Month Update

Ok, so I missed Naiya's 8 month birthday, but for her 9 month birthday we borrowed a friend's video camera and taped her, plus I'm blogging about it. So that makes up for missing the other one, right? Anyway, here she is--my little cutie pie. She's growing fast--20lbs already! No wonder I'm tired by the end of the day. Try lugging an extra 20 lbs around all day! And I pretty much have been literally carrying her around all day lately. She was already in the "I only want mommy to hold me and nobody else" phase, but since we got back from our trip, she only wants mommy to hold her period. All the time. She has done better the past week or so though. She has actually stayed entertained on the floor and given me time to make dinner without fussing several times. Amazing! She is such a sweetie though.


She is getting close to crawling and wants to grab everything in sight! She has her first 2 bottom teeth now and seems to believe that that's more than enough to eat everything we are eating. Baby food shmaby food--give me the real stuff! Melia is still Naiya's favorite form of entertainment. This is a life saver for me many times--especially in the car. She is still ticklish all over, which is one of daddy's favorite forms of entertainment. Overall, she is a joy in our lives and we are sooooooooo grateful to have her in our family!


Now, I decided to write a little about Melia each month too because she's changing so much and does so many cute things that I figured I should be writing about it so we can remember. So right now, Melia is 2 weeks away from being 4 years old. She's really excited about her birthday and keeps asking me every day if it's her birthday yet. She is still very into everything princess and her favorite colors are pink and purple. She loves to dance with daddy and she calls him her prince. She is very into interacting with every toy, imaginary friend and inanimate object around and likes me to be the voices for all of them. By about dinner time, I find that my brain can no longer do everything that I'm doing plus keep all of the constant conversations up in all of the different voices. The ducks end up neighing and the princesses end up quacking and the prince has a high voice, etc. That's about the time I have to give it up.


Melia is really smart and definitely keeps us on our toes. All I have to say is it's a good thing there are two of us and only one of her. I don't know what we'll do when Naiya starts talking too! :) She is such a sweetheart though. She absolutely loves Naiya and is always doing things to make her smile. She talks to everyone in the grocery store and always introduces Naiya and tells them all about her sister. She has a list of chores she does every day and gets a little allowance each week. Her latest purchase was her own pack of gum, which she was very excited about. I thought it was so sweet because every time she would chew a piece of gum, she would offer me one too. It's been kind of a ritual for Bo and Melia--every once in a while, before he goes to work, Bo will leave an envelop on the desk for Melia with a piece of gum in it for her. So this time, she left a piece of her gum for her daddy. :) I could go on and on, but I'll just end now and say that she is an absolute joy in our lives too and we love her verrrrry much!!!

My Playlist

So I just finished having a dance session with Melia and Naiya here in our living room and I thought I'd take a minute to explain the inspiration behind the latest song picks for my blog playlist. Music has always been a love of mine and a huge part of my life. You name a song and I can probably tell you a memory I have associated with it. I've always thought it would be cool if my life could have a soundtrack--you know, like whatever is happening, there should be music playing in the background to go along with the situation. But, alas, that only happens on TV and the movies. Anyway, my play list...
1st, there's Magalenha by Sergio Mendez--I love this song! It just makes me want to dance. Back when I was going to school at Cal State Long Beach, I took a class on world music that totally opened me up to music from all countries. My teacher was awesome and had been to practically every country to study all kinds of music and instruments with the locals. Plus, I have had friends from all different cultures throughout my life who have introduced me to new kinds of music and broadened my music base.
2nd--"If It Kills Me" I really dig Jason Mraz songs--especially the ones that are not necessarily the radio edit. I like the more acoustic ones where he improvises more. He's totally talented at just going off in an original way every time he sings. I heard that's actually the way he writes his songs. This particular song reminds me of an amazing routine performed on "So You Think You Can Dance".
3rd "I'm Free" by the Soup Dragons. Some songs you like just for the way they sound and some songs you like for the lyrics as well. This is one of those songs where I like the message. It reminds me of my best friend from high school.
4th and last is "You Can't Stop the Beat" from the musical "Hairspray". The latest movie version of "Hairspray" with John Travolta was one of those feel good movies that just made me smile from beginning to end. This song, to me, is like joy rising. It's just so much fun and keeps getting more and more joyful peaking at the end. One of my favorite things to do to this song is to dance with wild abandon around the house with Melia, Naiya and Bo (yes, I said Bo). :)
So there you go. A little look into part of my brain.