Summer's first special ornament from Nana

Every year my mom gets special onaments for the grandkids and its so cute cause my niece and nephew totally look forward to getting them each year and putting them on Nana and Papa's Christmas Tree. My mom gets 2, one for their tree and one for our tree. So this year Summer got her first special Christmas ornament from Nana. She had made footprint of Summer's foot and got it made into an ornament. It is really special and Dave and I really loved it.

Its beginning to feel a lot like Christmas....

So we finally got our Christmas tree tonight. It's been a hectic holiday season as we thought we were gonna move this weekend but decided to move it a couple weeks back(good choice) but we were determined to get our tree and get some decorations up. It was a rainy night but ended up being a wonderful night. There wasn't a big selection of trees yet we managed to get a really nice one. Then we went and got some peppermint mochas and looked at some lights. When we got home Dave got the tree up and we started getting a few lights and decorations up with a fire going and while listening to Christmas music. At last it feels like Christmas!!!! It's been hard to get into the spirit this year with all the remolding and house crazies but we made it!! Here are few pictures from the Christmas tree outing and with our tree. I love Summer all bundled up!! So sweet.
Love and blessings and hope this week before Christmas you can slow down to embrace the hope, peace and joy this season gives through the birth of the savior Jesus Christ! ( i know i need to.)
Merry Christmas!
Julie, Dave and Summer

Big Girl Food.

Well at about 5 months old we decided to start Summer on big girl food. She was randomly starting to wake up in the middle of the night hungry so we figured it was time. At first she wasn't sure about it and would spit out most of it, but now she is chowing it down. I literally can't get the next bite in fast enough and she starts grabbing for it before I'm finished making it.. This is my new favorite thing to do with Summer. I just have so much fun feeding her. I think because it's new and she just looks so cute with the mess all over her face. Here are some pictures of Summer and her delicious rice cereal.
(and a couple others that I like of her and I, I was home alone with her so I took these with my arm... they turned out so cute though)

Thanksgiving 2010

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Well Thanksgiving is now behind us and it is hard to believe that it is officially Christmas season. so exciting! I love Christmas! who doesn't love Christmas! and we are excited to share our first Christmas with our daughter.
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was the first year that we had to make room for two meals and I can proudly say I succeeded with no problems! (no surprise to many of you). Summer had so much fun playing with her cousins> They love her so much and it is so fun to watch them all together.
My sister Karyn hosted her first Thanksgiving in her beautiful newly remodeled home. (my grandma's old house)She pulled it all off without a blink. Food was delicious and the time with the family was fun as always.
We then went for an evening meal at my mother in laws and another amazing feast was ready! Billy and Encar were there with their little girl, Ollie who is only one month youger than Summer. They had fun staring and checking each other out. Summer likes to do this happy scream when she is excited and it kept scaring little Ollie. poor little baby was like, "Why is she screaming at me?" but the girls were both adorable.
I have to say I was so proud of Summer yesterday. She was a little angel and was soo happy and smiling all day long.
Well I want to end this Thanksgiving post with some things I am especially thankful for.
I am thankful for:
A God who loves me unconditionally and forgives me over and over again
A husband who loves and supports me so well. Who accepts me for who I am but encourages me to be a better person.
A daughter who is healthy, happy and aspires me to be a better, healthier person
A very close family that enjoys spending time together.
Sisters who are my best friends
Parents who are so generous and would literally do anything for me and my family.
Friends that I can be transparent with.
The financial freedom to be a stay at home mom.
In laws that are supportive and loving and that I enjoy spending time with.
A church that I love with a great community of friends
My new home, and my old home. just a nice place to call "home"
to spend time with my bestest friends in a couple weeks!

what are you most thankful for this year!?
love you all so much!

the laundry can wait.

Tonight I had one of those moments that just imprints on your heart. That made me realize that sometimes I am too concerned with all the things " I need to get done." instead of stopping to embrace and savor the beautiful moment I am experiencing.....
Here was that moment.
Summer fell asleep on my shoulder while I was burping her. This doesn't happen too often anymore but when it does I often put her down shortly after as i want to get going on chores or what not. This is not necessarily a bad thing as things do need to get done, but I love the times the things can wait. Tonight was one of those times. Summer was snuggled up on my shoulder in the rocker in her room, bedtime lullabies in the background and I was singing my favorite " I love you" song (that I made up when she was a newborn.) A couple times she started to squirm so I softly started to sing "our song" and she comfortably snuggled back up in my arms. We just sat. sang. snuggled. prayed and reminisced over the past 5 months.
All of the sudden emotion just filled my heart. Tears started streaming down my face as i was overwhelmed with the love and adoration I have for sweet Summer. The love of a mother is uncomprehendable. It is a small glimpse of how our heavenly father loves us as His children. With thanksgiving tomorrow, all I could think of was how grateful and forever thankful I am for the gift of my beautiful, precious, happy. amazing daughter. Summer Nicole.
And thankful that I was able to remember that the laundry can wait.

Halloween

We had a lot of fun on halloween this year. The day before we dressed up Summer in her costume to go to a party with all our friends from Sunday school. All the kiddos were so stinking cute. Then on actual halloween we made a quick stop by Nana and Papa's house and then Grammy's house to show off our little pumpkin. They just wanted to eat her up! Billy and Encar stopped by with their little baby girl Solaida who was also the same pumpkin. The little cousins checked each other out. It was adorable. We then went to our good friends The Kidders for dinner with some other great families. All and all it was a really fun weekend.

just some pics..

Summer getting lots of love from Grandpa and Papa. They love her so much!


Summer playing on Daddy's rocking horse



Summer in the first outfit Mommy and Daddy ever bought her the day we found out we were having a little girl.

Our new house.

Our New House!
We are so very excited! Dave has been working so hard over there ripping out the kitchen, tearing down walls, putting in new electrical you name it! He really impresses me and I am so proud of him! We feel so blessed and thankful to have this house in an area we absolutely love and to have the privledge to design our own kitchen. We do not take this blessing for granted and are so thankful! Its exciting to think that this is where we will be raising our family. Here are a few pictures of us hanging out at the house the first day we got the keys. I will also be posting before and after pictures soon.




We love our new backyard!




showing Summer her new room!

Life's little joys....

I want to be one of those people that naturally sees the positive, good and beauty in life. My husband is one of those people. I truly admire that about him. I remember when we first were married he would ask me things like: did you sleep good? Did your shower feel good? Isn't it pretty outside? He would point out pretty clouds or trees.... Things That I would never really notice before to be pleasant or beautiful, or everyday pleasures that to me were more like tasks. He still points out these types of things. Through the years I have started to notice these things as well. Life's small, simple pleasures. I think I have to work at it more them him. Make more of an effort to appreciate certain things but that's okay. So that is what todays blog is about. I want to make the effort to acknowledge the beautiful and maybe even small pleasures of my week. I'm hoping this is the first of many blogs like this.
So these are some of the little things that brought me joy this week :
1. Sitting watching Summer sleep as I sip on warm coffee and eat chocolate
2. The ladies in my Wednesday morning bible study. They are so fun and wise!
3. Walking to corner bakery with Summer with the beautiful sunset in the background
4. Seeing my baby literally light up when Dave or I play with her.
5. Seeing some of my amazing old students at homecoming and praying my daughter grows up like them.
6. Watching my husband put so much into a place we will soon call home.
7. Thankful for the opportunity to design a new kitchen.
8. My dad driving to Long Beach without me asking him to, to pick something up for me so I didn't have to worry about it.
9. Seeing one of my best friends get to experience the blessing of pregnancy.

So what is bringing you Joy this week? Please share!

Remembering the little things....

So today I was sitting on the couch about to put my baby down for a nap, and I started thinking about these past 4 months. and I started remembering all the little things... the little treasures in my heart that come with the privledge of being a mom and a wife. here are a few of the special treasures.
I remember how the world literally felt it had stopped those first couple weeks home.
I remember sitting on the rocker in Summer's room early in the morning just snuggling her on my chest, and thinking I was the luckiest woman in the world.
I remembering eating lots of jolly ranchers in the hospital.
I remember my husband doing everything in his power and beyond to try to help me and the baby be as comfortable as possible.
I remember my husband as my biggest supporter, counselor, and friend as I struggled through breast feeding
I remember walking though our front door holding my new daughter and welcoming her to our home.
I remember Dave bringing me lots of yummy cookies from Panera.
I remember being nervous to put a shirt over the baby's head.
And it just keeps getting better..... Now when I have a bad day and Summer gives me one of those big smiles and all is well in the world, I remember that my life will never be the same and I wouldn't want it any other way.
The joy of being a mom is abundant!

These are just a few pictures that I like:
The day we found out we were having a girl we went shopping to buy her a special outfit. We bought this really cute pair of designer jeans and a hurley top. ( they are size 6 months and will be making their appearance very soon)
We also bought her these pink vans shoes. I just think they are so cute. We put her in them the other night just for fun and took a few pictures. also take note of the onsie from auntie Kirsten: "my dad totally rocks!"

Big Bear Troutfest !

So we are in Big Bear for the annual Troutfest. All the boys are out on the lake and me, Jenon and Summer are back at the cabin just relaxing. This is the second year we have come up for this fishing competition and always have a good time. This trip will always bring back fond memories as I found out I was pregnant with Summer the day we left for last years trip up here but waited to tell Dave until we got back. I wanted to tell him a special way so I waited all the way until Monday night. It was so hard being up here with Dave and some of my closest friends and keeping the secret. and here we are this year up here with Summer. Its pretty crazy really. Last year at this time I had just found out I was pregnant and there was just a little bean sized baby growing inside my belly and now she is here... that same little bean is now a beautiful, complete, perfect baby! amazing!!

End of Summer updates

Well Summer has officially come to and end and almost everyone is back to work. The realization that I am a stay at home mom is now my everyday life. I have to say I absolutely love it!! I truly can't even fathom going to work and leaving Summer, I would have been so bummed. not to mention the crazy commute I would have had to do to get her to my sisters on time to get to work in the morning. I am loving it and have found that I am keeping myself plenty busy. too busy really. I started Mops so I have that every other week and then I do a marriage bible study on Wednesdays too. Both of those activities are truly the highlights of my week. They are just both so encouraging and fun! So all this to say I am truly thankful! I know being able to stay at home with my baby is truly a luxury and a privledge and so I am so Thankful to God and to Dave for working so hard.
Life is going really well. Our little girl is just growing and becoming more and more fun! She is a very happy baby and Dave and I say all the time how lucky we are to have such an easy baby. We are already thinking about when we want to try for #2!! :)
Today I put Summer in the church nursery for the first time and she did great and so did Mommy. It was really great to be able to go to church again. Since she was born we have only made it to Sunday School and not to the big church. The nursey is so great that I feel really comfortable with it and we can get to big church again which we like to do.
Our new house! We are soo excited that we bought a house in Placentia. IT is an awesome house for a great price and we are very pleased. We should be getting the keys in about a week and then we are going to do some work to it before we move in. I am really looking forward to it. Although it will be some work it is going to be great to design our own kitchen and decorate my house!

Summer Visits Grandpa

So we took Summer to Dave's Dad's house down by the beach. It was her first time at Grandpa's house. Grandpa has been coming up here to visit Summer often but finally we made it down to his house.
It was a beautiful relaxing day. Summer was in a really happy mood and just sat in Grandpa's lap for a long time. She enjoyed looking around at all the cool stuff in the house.
We then took a walk down to the beach. We walked around for a while on the bluffs and then stopped and sat for a while and took some pictures. We got some really great pictures over looking the ocean.
We needed to change Summer's diaper so I layed her down on one of the benches. We then stayed and played with her on the bench with her little toy. She just loved it. She really likes being outside. Grandpa was just loving playing with Summer and making her smile. We sat there and just played with her for quite a while and watched Summer smile and play!
We had such a great day and Grandpa's house!