Nana Diane and Grandpa Scott's Visit

For the last week we have had the opportunity to have Jared's parents in town. They as well as all grandparents will tell you they came to visit all of us, but I am pretty sure they were most excited to see little LJ. But that is understandable how can you not be excited to see a little girl with this much attitude?

Lenna loved having them at her house. She had a hard time focusing to eat for the first couple of days because she was just so excited to see them.We went on adventures. The first adventure we went on was to Kingston to get crepes! The ferry ride was fun and the crepes were yummy as usual!Lenna especially enjoyed spending time with her daddy! She loves when she gets to play with her dad.The next day was Thanksgiving and our friends were kind enough to have all of us over. We also got a quick family picture. The next morning I spent decorating for Christmas. I wanted to see Lenna's reaction so I video recorded as you have previously seen in an earlier post. However, I include the picture below because basically for the last week my camera has been dormant because I dislike it when people take these types of pictures. So my mind set is I will just let grandpa Scott take all the pictures so he can manage to get pictures of Lenna and not pictures of me taking pictures of Lenna. PS Thanks for the sharing your pictures with us Nana Diane and Grandpa Scott.Friday and Saturday we had great plans of doing fun and exciting things in between Lenna's naps of course, but it didn't work out like that. Jared started working at 6:20am Friday morning and basically never stopped till 11pm that night. So we enjoyed watching Lenna play with her favorite toys, and went on a walk around the neighborhood. One of her favorites right now is shoes laces.We also made sure Lenna was well fed. She loves her cheerios!In the afternoon to get out of the house we (being everyone but Jared) piled into Rhino and went on a drive. We drove by Golden Gardens, the Locks, Magnolia, and then over to West Seattle. It was fun to go on a drive. However I think the funnest part of the day was watching Lenna try and figure out how to move. She has gotten the sitting up trick down and she is now trying to figure out how to move. Still no crawling yet but she is trying really hard.

The next morning was Saturday we had the opportunity to take Lenna over to the hotel Jared's parents were staying at so she could go swimming. She loved it! It was fun to see her so happy and to be splashing around.Then Jared continued to work. Did I mention that Jared worked a lot this weekend?To pass the time we played Dr. Mario on the Wii and played with Lenna. We also made a Costco run because Costco is the best place to go whenever you need to get out of the house. We got some shrimp and I made shrimp scampi for the very first time ever on Sunday. But I also learned that if you shell shrimp take it to the garbage can immediately! Wowzers did our junk room stink of shrimp this morning!

Here is a shot of Lenna enjoying the Christmas tree ornaments. She likes to look at the lights and gets all excited when someone turns them on.Sunday we all relaxed at home well all of us but Jared because he was working at work. Which was sad because not only did he have to work all weekend but he missed hanging out with Lenna and his parents. Hopefully next time Nana Diane and Grandpa Scott come to visit Jared won't have to work so much.

Like all good things grandparent time had to come to and end and we dropped off Nana Diane and Grandpa Scott at the airport today. It was fun to have you guys up and we look forward to you coming to visit again!

Christmas Decorations Reaction

Right now I should be vacuuming because wowzer my floor needs it badly, but Jared is on the phone and the computer. Since he is dealing with work things and can't have the noise and I am thus restricted to quiet activities which blogging happens to be a quiet activity! Actually if you wanted to know Jared has been on either our home phone or his cell phone straight from 6:30am this morning dealing with work. Yep that is like 15 hours of work so far today for Jared. Eeeewww!!!!

In order to keep things lively at our home while Jared has been working I put up all the Christmas decorations. Since this is Lenna's first time seeing Christmas decorations I wanted to get her reaction on camera. I think she was a little confused on what had happened to her living room, but after a few hours if we turn the tree lights on her face gets all excited with a huge grin. I think Lenna is really going to love Christmas. Her is the video I took of her reaction.

Other than decorating me and Jared's parents kept busy on this nice sunny day by taking a long drive around golden gardens, ballard, and Alki. We also went on a walk and played the wii a lot. Hopefully tomorrow Jared will not have to work 16+ hours straight so he can play with his mom and daddy while they are in town!

In other news Lenna tried meat for the very first time today. She makes funny faces at any new food. I got the second bite because I forgot to grab the camera for the first.


Hope you enjoy the videos, and I hope you all had a much better black Friday then us!

Happy Thanksgiving

Greetings! I hope you all have Gobbled till you Wobbled! Here are a few pictures I promised Grandma Princess she could see now. So with that here it goes.

Here is Lenna being silly in her crib. I find her all over the place. I even now find her sitting straight up or having a foot stuck out. Good times!
Today Jared and I ran in the turkey day fun run put on by the Richmond Beach Community Association. It was a lot of fun. Well all but the really huge hill that was literally like I was rock climbing a mountain, but what a great way to burn some calories before eating them all this afternoon right?

I dressed up like an Ogre and Jared like Uncle Sam. The theme was super heroes but we don't actually have super heroes stuff so this is the best we could come up with.
The before the run shot!
After the run shot!
Luckily it wasn't raining to hard. And we have to especially thank Jared's parent for babysitting baby Lenna and DOUBLE thanks to Esther, Tess, and Laura for being our fan club! They held cute signs they made for us and cheered us on at the beginning and end of race. You guys are the best! Plus Laura gave me the idea to run this run so how can she not be the best?

Lastly here is a video of cutie patootie as my mom calls her. She loves Dory right now. She gets really excited when I play with her with Dory and even more excited when I make Dory talk. So here is a video of what we do quite a few times every day.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

New Trick - Sitting up on her own

For the grandmas. Look Lenna can totally sit up on her own!

I personally am not sure I am ready for Lenna to be learning all these new tricks of mobility.

Tower Destruction and What we have been up to

Greetings from rainy Seattle. We have now emptied our rain gauge twice in the last month so that means 10+ inches just in a few weeks! Wow I feel wet just thinking about it! However we are staying dry and warm inside. This week Lenna has been a huge (HUGE) fuss button. I keep wondering why but I don't know why. My only suspicion is that she is very frustrated with her struggle with trying to move. But there are still some fun times when she is fun, giggly and a happy girl.

Here is Lenna after our run to Target. Oh speaking of our Target run it was awesome. I bought 8 cans of vegetables for a total of $1.60 that is 20 cents a can! It was such an awesome bargain! I love getting good deals!!!!
Oh my doesn't she look super cute when she crosses her arms?
Most of the week consisted of the following for Lenna. She would sit up for a little bit.
Then she would drop onto her hands to get up to her knees.
Then she tries to move forward and can't so she gets upset and cries, until I put her back on her butt and we start the whole process again.
I am still finding Lenna a lot like this when I come to get her up from her naps. Silly girl!
Also this week daddy was really sick so he stayed home Thursday and Friday. One of daddy's favorite games to play with Lenna is to build a tower with all of her blocks then have her knock it over. So here is a video of dad playing with Lenna.

In other news we are getting really excited for Thanksgiving. We got the info for the turkey day run we are doing, and I ran Greenlake on Saturday to prepare for it. It will be good. Also Jared's parents arrive on Tuesday and it will be fun to have them up to play with Lenna. That is all I have for the moment. See ya later gator!

Birthday Wishes Do Come True

For my birthday this year which was more than 7 months ago all I asked Jared for was a cake from Costco (I love frosting) and the Disneyland Light Parade song for my cell phone ring. I love this song it brings back a ton of fun memories of being little and watching this parade. I specifically remember sitting on main street with my brothers watching this parade many many times. I also just love Disneyland so I figured it would be the best ring tone ever for me.

Well in April we tried to figure out how to get this song onto my phone with many failed attempts. I tried to find this ring tone on sale online, but no luck. But after the help of buying the song on Amazon, a microSD card and our wedding anniversary gift which just arrived today (5 months later) wow we are late at doing gifts this year my birthday wish has been fulfilled and I can be super excited to hear my phone ring!

Hmmm I think I am already trying to figure out how to get to Disneyland at least twice in 2010.

The Trying New Foods Face

Why Lenna has decided that sleeping the longer way in her crib is not okay I don't know, but I find her like this a lot!It is fun to see her sleeping patterns change now that she can move. She sleeps more on her side or belly then on her back. But my favorite sleep position, still to this day, is when she is on her back and has her arms fully extended so she is making a straight line with her shoulders. I love that she tries to take up as much space as possible while sleeping. But it is sad to see that her crib is getting smaller and smaller; wait I mean Lenna is getting longer and longer.

Lenna makes the funniest faces while trying new foods. I call it the bitter beer face. If you haven't see the commercials for it then you won't know what I am talking about. But basically her faces gets all scrunched up and she looks at me like "what in the world are you giving me!?!?!?!" I have forgotten to try and get a picture of it over and over again. So Lenna was trying cheddar cheese for the first time and this is what she thought about it.

After a few chomps she was ready for round 2 anxiously looking at dad to give her another bite.
However still not sure even with the second try.
But overall I think she likes cheese!
Other than trying to keep warm and dry we are getting excited for Nana Diane and Grandpa Scott to come visit for Thanksgiving. (Side note has anyone ever thought if it is a generational thing for all the grandparents now to go by the first name or some other name? I remember growing up calling my Grandparents Grandma/Grandpa last name; except for my dad's mom I had a hard time saying Davidson when I was little. Maybe it is just my parents and Jared's parents, but we are happy to teach Lenna whatever they want to be called.) Also Lenna I think is frustrated that she can't move. She gets easily upset that she can't gain new independence yet. I am also getting pumped for the turkey run on gobble till you wobble day!

Swinging!

Today the sun has come out and so we took the opportunity to go outside. Lenna got to do something she has never done today and this is swing on the swings at the park. She totally loved it!
Yay for sun breaks in the rainy weather we have been having!

Happy 8 Months!

Wow Lenna turned 8 months old today. That is 2/3 of a years! Before I even have a chance to blink it will be Christmas and then Lenna will be turning one. Craziness!

I took some pictures of Lenna by or on her chair. One day she will be too big to even sit in this chair, but hopefully that day won't come for a few years!

Happy 8 month mark baby Lenna. We love you!

Lazy days and Salmon Spotting

Yesterday Lenna slept for 13 hours straight! This means I actually woke up and was out of bed before Lenna woke up! Amazing! Then she followed the day by taking two - two hour naps! It was an awesomely lazy day for both of us. Too bad it was sunny and we wasted the sunshine to be lazy inside, but oh well!

Lenna is starting to get into things. I am having to watch her more carefully so she doesn't get stuck in corners or pull something down on top of her. But it is fun to see how adventurous she is getting! She is even learning how to open drawers. I watched her open the diaper caddy draw and was amazed she could figure out how to do it.She is also getting really long or so I think.
I tried to be adventurous in picture taking. I had a mat out in the living room since I was working on another project and figure it would be a fun picture. Lenna was more upset though that I wouldn't let her play with and eat the mat. Plus the frame was screwing up my camera lighting with bouncing to much of the flash back.
Then I just tried to get some smiling photos. But I mostly just got funny faces.

Today we went to Carkeek park with our friends Melinda and Joel. I think these two kids look so fun!
Thanks again Grandma Princess for Lenna's awesome and warm hat! We love it!While at the park we even saw a salmon. You can't see it in this picture but it was right there. Sadly it was the only salmon we saw. Maybe in a few days there might be more or maybe it is just a bad salmon year. Oh well still a fun adventure.In happy news yesterday we went to Sam's club and I got Lenna her last round of formula. We buy a lot of cans at once, but this time it should last till she is 1 year old and then we can use whole milk! Crazy how time flies! Hope everyone has a great weekend ahead of them!

Denim Dresses

Greetings! It is still raining here A LOT! It rains so much that my walks are now consisting of walking up and down near by malls and large stores like Home Depot, Lowe's, and Costco(all of which is dangerous since I love to shop!). I hope that Seattle decides that real rain can go away and our normal mist will return. However Lenna has actually been enjoying the stay home time. She is really into practicing her ability to get from the sitting position to her knees. She is also starting to move forward ever so slightly in a kind of army crawl. I think by the end of November she might actually be on the move. This scares me because then I will probably be chasing her around the house, but it is nice to see her progressing. However, we still haven't seen any teeth, but they will come. Here are some pictures of Lenna from the last couple of days.

I think that denim dresses are so pretty on little girls. I just love this dress. But I couldn't get Lenna to look at the camera. She was to busy chomping on her giraffe and looking at everyone else around.
She is looking forward but still not at the camera.
Closer but still not at the camera.
Oh wait! What is over on the other side of the room.
Come on mom I really don't want to get my picture taken.
Fine hurry up and take my picture, but I am not smiling!
Saturday we did a lot of yard work and ran some errands. I had Lenna in her Minnie Mouse onesie and couldn't resist the bow and black sweat pants. Yep I know I made my daughter look like Minnie Mouse.
She was more interested in eating her bow then getting a picture taken.
Even after I tried to put the bow back where she couldn't reach it as easily.
But we finally convinced her it was okay to smile.
I am sensing a pattern of Lenna being to busy for pictures nowadays. Oh well I guess you will get more and more side pictures then one of her actually smiling at the camera. Or maybe it is a phase that will pass...who knows only time will tell.

In other news I love checking out blogs that are all about saving me money or getting me free stuff. If you actually go to my blog and not just Google reader you can see I like to look at freebies for mom and the bargain Jargon. I will give my friend Melissa M. the credit for telling me or having these blogs linked to her blog. (Thanks Melissa for helping me learn how to find awesome deals!) Anyway this week has been a great week for me in both of these blogs. 1st off the freebies for mom had a 50 photo cards for free link which I made my Christmas cards from. Below is a picture I took of Lenna yesterday in attempt to get a cute Christmasy looking photo of Lenna for the Christmas cards. This is not the picture we put in the Christmas card you will have to actually wait to get your card to see which one I put in. But I think she looks so cute not to share her looking all excited with so many balls around her. Lenna loves balls in all shape and sizes. I had a hard time having her look at the camera because she was too busy playing. The next awesome thing about blog stalking was I won a give away from the Bargain Jargon blog. I can say it totally made my night to get an email saying I had won. Now I can go grocery shopping and buy whatever I want and not just things I need! This was totally unexpected which I think makes it even more awesome. I guess you can say it is always good to just randomly enter contest because you never know when you will be the winner Hooray!

Also this week I have been busy preparing a talk for church. It has been well over 2 years since I have spoken in Sacrament meeting and I am a little nervous to give a talk, but it has been good to study the topic given to me and hopefully I can give it without speaking to fast. Well the book club book arrived at my door a few minutes ago, and Lenna is napping so I think I am going to curl up on the couch and do some reading. Have a good day!