Swimming Lessons at the YMCA!!!

In February we joined the YMCA here in Birmingham. We were able to get a great scholarship and it included child care. I was very excited that I was going to be able to start getting in shape. Within a few days of joining I found out about their swimming lessons and because I have a great fear of water I thought it would be a really good idea for me to start Juliana in swimming lessons. So I enrolled her in swimming. And it has been such a great experience. She has loved it and I have really watched her grow in so many ways. She seems to have more confidence in herself and I love to see just how proud she gets of her accomplishments. After her first session in February we decide that we would put her in for another session, and then another and then another. Today was her last swimming lesson after 4 months of having them 2 times a week. And I am truly amazed at how far she has come. I am really proud of her and all of her hard work and I look forward to the fall when we will enroll her again. We took her out for the summer because the classes get so full and I would rather have her in a class that has 3 to 4 kids rather than 6 to 8. As for the summer, tomorrow she starts T-Ball through the YMCA. I am just loving this membership not only for Juliana and all the possibilities it has for her but for me also. I have been going to the gym about 5 times a week and I am making great progress in losing weight and getting in shape. I feel great!!!!



So I thought I would recap the last 4 months of lessons in a few pictures and video's. Sorry there are so many pictures but remember this is a 32 lesson recap!!!

First swimming lesson. Sitting on the wall getting them all excited to get in the water.

Miss Katie helping Juliana with her form.

Jumping off the wall for the first time...very scary.

Teaching her how to use her "swim arms".

All of them kicking at the wall.

As the lessons move forward Juliana is getting better at her form but still can't do it on her own.

Juliana really enjoying the float bar and learning to kick her legs strong enough to keep herself afloat.

Here she goes without her teacher and she is really moving now!!!

Here she is swimming on her own the whole length of the pool!!!!

Kicking her feet out of the water and keeping her body up more...she can really move!!!

Floating on her back and getting ready to swim on her back. (She still struggles with this)

Talking to Miss Katie about what she wants to do next.

Swimming with her chin in the water so that she can get use to her face in the water.

She looks so proud of herself...I love that look!!!!

Here is a video of her first attempts at swimming on her own at the beginning of her second session. I was so proud of her and now I look back and it is funny to me.

And this is her now!!!! I wonder if a year from now I will look back and how she is swimming in this and laugh. But I think she is doing so great and I am very proud of her. I know we will miss swimming lessons in the next few months but come September we will be ready to go. And for now T-Ball here we come!!!!!

Daddy Daughter Date

Last night our primary put on a Daddy Daughter Date. Juliana was so excited. She was talking about it for weeks and yesterday it was all she could think about. I got her all dolled up!!! I bathed her and rolled her hair in sponge rollers for the first time!!! I painted her finger nails and toe nails and she loved it.

I was really worried that her hair wouldn't dry in time because she hates when I use the blow dryer on her and I put it up in rollers so late but for the most part it worked (with a lot of hair spray). The front ones were still damp but I made it work.



This is Juliana all dress up and ready to go!!!

Here is the back of her hair.

Can you tell she is excited!!!!

They had a really good time!!! They had mac and cheese for dinner and ice cream and brownies for desert. And there was dancing!!!! Juliana was in heaven...she even got to say the closing prayer and that is one of her favorite things!!!! They gave the Dad's a rose to give their daughters and they had a slide show of pictures of the girls with their Dad's. And they also had each Dad write a letter to their daughter. It was really sweet. Juliana came home beaming with joy.

I think they both look very happy.

Here they are ready for their date. Aren't they so cute!!!


Here is the letter that Mike wrote to her:

Juliana,

You are the most wonderful girl in my entire world. I love it in the morning when you come out to give me hugs and kisses. I love when you sing your primary songs with excitement. I am proud of how well you swim. I love that you love reading and learning. I love that you need your "all together" hugs at night before bed. I love that you are so independent and know what you want. I love that you always want to play games. I love when I come home and you want to hug me and spend time with me. You are my special daughter. I love you.

Love,

Daddy

I thought is was so sweet and Juliana treasures the letter...I think she would have slept with it had I let her. I think that we are going to make Daddy Daughter Date night a once a month event. Mike told her that next time he wanted to teach her to play tennis. It was really fun to see them enjoy each other so much and it gives me a night to myself which is so great!!!

We are alive!!!!

Ok so it really has been way to long. I am so sorry about that. I just haven't felt like blogging much and I have been trying to limit my computer time. Anyway, I really don't have a good reason why it has been since Halloween that I last posted. But I am going to fix that. I am going to back date some posts and give you all a little update on us.



Anyway, March has been a good month so far. On the fist day of March we woke to a big surprise as we were getting ready for church.

It snowed in Birmingham!!!! I was really surprised. There really wasn't a lot but it closed the freeway and canceled church. So we had a fun family Sunday. Juliana was very excited and loved every second of it. It was a lot of fun!!!

The snow didn't last long at all but it was fun while it lasted.

This past weekend we wanted to find a fun family activity because it was so beautiful. So, we went to a Vulcan Park. It is actually right behind us...as in our back door opens to it. But you can't get in to the park from our back door and we just haven't ever made it there before. Mikes mom gave us a membership for Christmas so we drove over and ate lunch outside and then went into the museum and then up on the Vulcan (a very large staue). It was cool but Mike and I want to go back to the museum without Juliana so we can actually take time to look through it and read about all the history. The Vulcan actully made me nervious with Juliana. It was really high and I got a little paniced up there. The statue stays open until 10 pm and I think it would be really fun for Mike and I to go back on a date night and be able to look out over the city at night. Here are a few pictures of our fun family day.

And last but not least, Mike did a cute lesson for FHE last night on Latter Day Prophets. Juliana loves that song and Mike thought it would be a perfect lesson for her. She loved it and at the end I decided to record Juliana singing Latter Day Prophets. I think it is pretty cute and really good.

Our Halloween week....

Halloween was really fun this year but I thought that we were going to miss it. On Tuesday Juliana woke up with a low fever and I wasn't all that worried. But she was dragging then she started saying that her stomach hurt. I asked her if she wanted to go lie down and take a nap (I thought she was just being dramatic and this normally will snap her out of it) and she said that she did. She lay down and slept for over 2 hours. She woke up with a very high fever (104.6) and I got a little nervous. I call her doctor’s office and left a message. I gave her some medicine and by the time her doctor called back her temp had gone down a few degrees but she was just lethargic on the floor. He doctor told me to come down right away. As soon as I hung up the phone she started throwing up all over the carpet and her blanket. So I just stripped her down got us both re-dressed and grabbed a puke bowl and jumped in the car. She threw up once in the doctor’s office but, that was it. Her fever went down and she was fine. While in the doctor’s office I had said that I was really sad because our church was doing a Halloween party the next day and now she was going to miss it. The doctor said that she thought it was just a 24 hr bug and as long as she was feeling good the next day that she would be fine to go. So we were very happy and she had a blast at our wards Trunk-or-treat. It really was fun. And it kicked off our Halloween!!!!! Here are a few pictures. We went as a family of Robots and I made all of our costumes. I think that the costume was much cuter on Juliana than on Mike and me. But, it worked for us to.
Here she is at the Trunk-or-Treat!!!! She was very proud to be a robot. I think she looked so cute.
Here she is again...there were so many activities that he just got so excited and wanted to do everything. I think she tired everything but the cake walk.

Mike is trying to show her how to Mini Golf. She did pretty good.

Here she is trying it on her own. She thinks she is a big girl.

Here we are together. I never get pictures with her because I am always the one behind the camera (and truth be told I don't like having my picture taken).

Juliana and Daddy playing Tic-Tac-Toe.

This is Thursday at our Library's story time. She is with her best friend. They have so much fun together. Her Robot costume was in need of some repair so she wore her last years Gold Fish costume for the day.

This is us on Halloween night. We took Juliana to the Police station where they had bags of candy for the kids and pizza and games. It was fun. Then we went over to our friends house to have a party. It was lots of fun and I felt like we really got into the Halloween spirit.

The Great Pumpkin

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays just because it is fun and creative. I love it. So, this year I really wanted to do some fun stuff for Halloween. But, as always time has gotten away from me and now we are on the home stretch...well, I actually got my act together and we went to The Great Pumpkin Patch in Hayden, Alabama. It was fun. We took a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch and we got 2 pumpkins. Juliana got to pick her own and of course she picked a little one and then Mike picked a bigger one that was almost the perfect pumpkin (I say almost because I like one's with a long stem and this one doesn't and because I really wanted a white one but alas we ended up with 2 orange pumpkins). It really was a lot of fun and something that I hope we take time for each year. The next night we decorated our pumpkins and had a lot of fun doing it. We had seen these little sets of parts (they almost looked like Mr. Potato Head parts) that would make your pumpkin into different animals. So we got that for Juliana and then we got stuff to carve the other one. It was a really good family activity and I think that they turned out really cute.

Juliana is so excited about her little pumpkin!!!!

I thought they were so cute...you can see that both of them are proud of there pumpkins.

I just love this little girl!!!! Isn't she cute....

It was so hard to get her to pose for this picture. She really didn't like the sun in her eyes. But I think she looks so sweet!!!

Once again Juliana does not like the sun in her eyes and she was protesting this picture!!!!

She did a lot better with her Daddy!!! I think he held her arms down a little. LOL. I couldn't get away with that but she loves her Daddy so much!

As sad as it is, this is the best we got out of the family pictures!!!! She has a lot of fight in her. That darn sun was very bright and I had sunglasses on.

Juliana's Piggy pumpkin...it even had a curry tail. I had to talk her out of taking it with us every where we went.

She wanted a cat pumpkin so I just used a stencil out of the carving book we got. I think it turned out pretty cute!!!!

I am so excited!!!!!

Bitter Sweet...

Well, today has been very bitter sweet for me. This morning my Grandmother passed away. She was my only remaining grandparent and although it really was her time to go, it was still sad. But, I am very happy that she is with my Grandpa now and that she isn't in any pain. She was able to pass quietly and peacefully in her sleep. I wish that I could have been closer with her but I really did love her and I am glad that she is in peace.

Here she and my grandfathers are in their wedding picture.
And here they are in a picture of their 60th wedding anniversary taken 10 years ago.

Well, maybe this will help to give this day (9/11) a new meaning to me.

I love you Grandma.

THE BIG 29!!!!!!

So today is my 29th birthday!!!!! Happy Birthday to me!!!! I am here in Alabama and I am feeling a little home sick but, I am determined to have a good birthday. I woke up this morning early for some reason and I started my day by watching "Dr. Horribles Sing Along Blog" just to make me laugh and to start off my day cheerful. And I got myself Captain Crunch with Crunch Berries for breakfast (I am such a child it is sad) and I told Mike that I want desert crepes for dinner (what is better than crepes filled with Nutella, strawberries and whipped cream????) He said that he would take care of the cake. Juliana got me an Itunes gift card (per my request and Mike got me a GPS so that I am not afraid to leave the house...I really have the worst possible sense of directions and every time we leave the house Mike asks if I know where we are or if I could get home and the answer is always NO!!!! So this should help to get me out and about more. Anyway, Mike started school on Monday so, when he gets home I hope we can have a relaxing rest of the weekend and that we can take advantage of all the birthday club offers I sign us up for Red Robin, Cold Stone, Arbys, and Baskin Robins all give you free stuff for your birthday. And because Mike and my birthdays are only one week apart...yes Mikes birthday is next Friday, it makes it really fun because we can go out for free. Good stuff....so we can go to Red Robin and each get a free Burger and then go to Cold Stone and each get a free signature creation. I am very excited!!!!!

So we arrived here last Wednesday (so we have been here for about a week and a half) and then we just got Internet a few days ago. It has been a long week and a half. It feels like a lot more. But, we got her safe and sound. And hopefully within the next 2 weeks I can have everything unpacked and we can have a couch. Right now we are living without a couch...we are using camping chairs. LOL. But, I want to get a good deal and something that I actually like. I haven't ever had a new couch before. In the past they have all been given to us. So, I am very excited to get one that is NEW!!!!! We did however get a washer and dryer and a microwave. Wow!!!! It is great. Our apartment feels huge to me....of course that might have something to do with the fact that our last apartment couldn't have been more than 700 sq. ft. and this one is somewhere between 1000-1100 sq. ft. and is less than half the price we were paying before. I like our apartment a lot (except for the kitchen which has hardly any storage...but it does have a dishwasher which is so wonderful I can't even put my joy about that into words). However, moving to the south bring a whole new problem....La Cucaracha or in other words the cockroach!!!!! Oh my goodness they are so gross and I don't know how you can ever get use to them. Seriously the scare me to death...I actually cried when I saw one of them. Really I am that scared. But, I am really working on it. In my mind I tell myself (so if I am wrong please let me stay diluted because I need some kind of hope to an end) that soon they will be out of my house and I will only see them once and a while if the door gets left open for to long.

Well, I really hope that I can get back in the swing of things soon. And be posting more regularly too.

We are still alive....

Wow....I can't believe how long it has been since I last blogged. Sorry about that. And I am sorry to say that it won't be getting any better this month. We are about to move!!!!!!

My week is crazy. My Dad will fly in tomorrow morning and Mike is taking Wednesday and Thursday off. Wednesday we will finish up our packing (we have pretty much everything but our kitchen and our everyday items packed and sitting in our storage unit. Then Thursday we will pack the truck. Friday I will clean the apartment from top to bottom and then Saturday the landlord will to the walk through and then my Dad and Mike will be off. They should get to Birmingham on the 12th and Juliana and I will be flying in on the 13th. And my Dad will fly out on the 14th. And Mike will start school on the 19th. It has been crazy. And it just seem that this week and next will be the peak of our craziness. Anyway, I feel bad that I haven't been keeping thinks more up to date here but, really I have been so busy.

So, I am proud and a little embarrassed (ok actually a lot embarrassed) to say as of last Monday July 28th was it...I finished up my associates degree. I have been working so hard to get it all done and I did it. I have been working on it for about 11 years...that is so pathetic but it is a very big accomplishment for me and I am going to walk at the Weber State graduation in December. I just feel like I need to. So between getting things ready to move and school I haven't been able to be around like I wanted but, I hope that September I will start to find my new grove and I will be on here and my FHE board a lot more. (Sorry girls that I haven't gotten my FHE board going yet...I promise it will be one of the first things I work on.)

I hope all of you are having a great summer...next time I post I will be living in Alabama...Wow!!!!! This is just to strange.

Old Red Barn Company Quilt Giveaway!!!!

OK, I can't even tell you just how long I have been waiting for this. Old Red Barn Company is giving away the most beautiful quilt ever and I want it. I have been waiting for this give away and it is now here and I just have to win. And even thought I don't want anyone else to win, I am posting about it here.



All of you have to go check it out and see all of the wonderful products that she sells. And on the off chance that you see this quilt and say oh, that looks like Natalie I have to win it for her then by all means enter the contest and when you win send it to me!!!! Just Kidding (kind of). Good luck to all of you but, if you do win it and you heard about it from me, you owe me so big!!!!

Happy Birthday Nicole!!!!

Well, today is my beautiful sister Nicole's 30th birthday!!!!! And I wanted to let everyone know just what a great sister she is. So, here is a list of 30 things that I love about her.

1. She is 13 months and 13 days older than me.
2. She is a great Mom.
3. She is always the first person I want to call when something happens big or small.
4. She is one of my biggest supporters.
5. She talks me down from stupidity.
6. She is a great listener.
7. She is my best friend.
8. She just gets me.
9. We have inside jokes that no one else could ever possible get.
10. She is the only other person I know that will burst into song when answering questions.
11. She introduced me to Twilight.
12. I can tell her things that I would never admit to anyone else.
13. She is very creative.
14. She is one of the most talented people I know.
15. She has a beautiful singing voice.
16. If she leaves herself a message on her own phone, when she listens to the message later she thinks it is from me.
17. She is beautiful.
18. She is very kind and would just die inside if she ever thought that she hurt your feelings (even if you deserved it.)
19. I know that she will always tell me the truth if I ask her to.
20. She is smart.
21. On my last birthday when I was really homesick and down she sent me a bouquet of chocolate dipped strawberries to cheer me up.
22. She has an amazing heart and is very generous with her time, talents, and self.
23. She will talk on the phone with me for hours and help me get my house work done over the phone.
24. She has a lot of self confidence and has no fear in starting new projects and trying new things.
25. We never run out of things to talk to.
26. Even when I talk to her every day I miss her like crazy.
27. When she tells me stories I always know how she will have reacted to a situation because I would have reacted in the exact same way.
28. Neither of us can keep a surprise very well (we use to tell each other what we were getting for Christmas because we just couldn't keep it to ourselves).
29. She let me beat her number of my space friends.
30. She really is one of the best people I know and I love her very much!!!!!!

Nicole, if you are reading this I love you...and I really hope that you are having a wonderful birthday.

And for all of you that aren't Nicole that are reading this, please do me a favor and pop over to her blog really quick and wish her a happy birthday...even if you haven't met her.

Our 4th of July...

Our 4th of July was nothing big...just some low key family time and a great BBQ. We had a laid back morning and took our time getting ready...although Juliana wanted an American Flag so bad that all we heard the whole morning were her requests for one. So, off we went in quest of an American Flag for her. It took us a few stores to find one (I guess that is why you shouldn't wait until the day of to get things like that). I really wish that we would have gotten a picture of her with it, because it was a bigger flag than we had expected to get her but she was thrilled with it. Mike took her to that park for a while to play and she had a lot of fun.

Juliana playing on the slides!!!! She was having a lot of fun.

Later that night we drove back to San Rafael with Karley and Kendra and her family. We parked in our church parking lot and waited for the Marin County Fair fireworks to start and watched them from the parking lot. We really had a pretty good day.
Mike and Juliana waiting for the fireworks to start. I love Juliana snuggles...she is so sweet.
A family picture in the dark...not our best picture...but not our worst either.
Mike and Juliana watching the fireworks.