Is it Christmas yet?

After spending the past two weeks with my sister Melissa and her family, I am missing them so much today! We have been so lucky though- we got to spend all of July together, half of September, and half of November (I don't know how we lucked out that way, before July I hadn't seen her for 7 months!) Next week though, we get to go home to California and spend all of December with our whole family too! It is crazy how homesick I get for my family... I hope some day we are not all spread around the country, and get to see each other more often than a couple times a year. Today I am just really grateful for sisters. I have two of the best sisters in the world, who I know would do anything for me, and I would do anything for them. They are my favorite people to be around. Seriously, Heavenly Father made sisters to be your best friends. I kind of feel sorry for girls who don't have sisters.... how boring life would be. Don't get me wrong, Jeff is cool too and I love him lots, but sisters just have a special bond. And the older we get, the closer I feel to them. Haha Melissa and I used to hate each other growing up, and I always kind of felt Christi was more of a second Mom because of the age gap between us- boy time sure does change that! I am just so grateful for family- I think that's what I was most grateful for on Thanksgiving day.
Thanksgiving was such a blast- Brian and I went down to Mexas (aka McAllen, TX) to be with Melissa and Brett. Oh my gosh, all the stuff she says about down there is so true! It is seriously like a different country- it's like the Beverly Hills or something of Mexico down there... so funny. And what is with them petting blond children? I'm not going to lie though, it kind of made my day the first time Julia's blond curls were grabbed and pet. Melissa's daughter Kirra is like a petting magnet for them! They just can't resist her! So weird:)
When I got to TX, Melissa actually got SUPER sick, so I was glad to be there to help out- then as soon as she started feeling better, Julia and I caught some sort of bug... so really there was like maybe 4 days or something where we all felt good, but that didn't stop us from having fun together. We played lots of games (okay maybe only 1 game, but we played it lots), ate lots of good food (which wasn't so good for my diet)- oh man Thanksgiving was bomb... saw some good movies, and did our fair share of shopping. One of the highlights for me was getting to see the Mexican border right in their backyard! Pretty crazy! Lowlight had to be when Julia got so worked up on the plane, she threw up EVERYWHERE! (Pretty sure everyone around us wanted to throw up too. Good thing they all spoke Spanish so I couldn't understand them.) I had so much fun, and can't wait to see all my family, especially my nieces and nephew(s) again in just a few days... woohoo California Christmas here we come! Hopefully not covered in puke again!
PS- Brian has finished his thesis! (see picture below:) He is now done with his Masters! (Only 4 more years for a PhD... hahaha)

15 Months

Julia is so crazy, I just love that kid. This month she:
-has made up her own language. She used to say usual baby babble... mama, dada, gaga, baba... whatev, but now its this weird
"blaglagulledojhgjhgygulllaloydoy" sounding thing with her tongue out and spit flying everywhere. It makes me and Brian laugh our heads off
-learned how to open some doors. NO!!!
-loves to wrestle and play rough with her Dad.
-got her 2 top teeth (total count 4- makes biting things or people a whole lot easier I would guess)and grinds them. Eww, it gives me the goose bumps...
-is a walking fool
-takes two naps, went down to one, and I decided she was too grumpy. She's now back at two.
-realized toilet bowls were fun to play and splash around in. Nasty!
-her favorite foods are avocados and pizza
-imitates lots of words when I say them to her- doggy, kitty, Julia, Dora, etc, but still won't really say anything on her own yet- oh except Dada... or Mama when she's sad and needs comfort.
-points at everything she likes or wants
-folds her arms when we say prayers. I thought she was too young to teach her this, and she just started doing it one day! Now every times she's in her high chair she does it.... good way for mom not to forget prayers... so sweet.
-thinks its fun to pick her nose, and cries if we try to take her finger out of her nose
-LOVES to read books, and has a couple favorites she insists on reading. We have them memorized. Brian makes up lots of new comical versions to these stories to keep us entertained.
Have I mentioned we couldn't love her any more?

And the Ghost Post is Getting Closer!

Sorry for the post title- we've been watching way too much Halloween Yo Gabba Gabba around here. This month has been a bunch of fun... October is my absolute fave month of the year. To celebrate, we made a spooky gingerbread house, made cinnamon-sugar caramel apples, carved pumpkins (or more like Brian carved- I watched), made lots of fall foods (chili, pumpkin cookies: good... pumpkin soup: fail) went Trunk-or-treating with the ward (Julia was so naughty that night- oh well we still love her.) My friend Beverly was Alice too, so of course we had to take a picture of the Alices'. (Oh and my niece Kirra was Alice too, Liss and I totally didn't plan that- we just serious think alike ALL THE TIME- it's kind of weird.) And of course, we went to Disney World to enjoy all the Halloween stuff there too! Julia and I both got the flu too (and all the awesome stuff that comes along with it), so that put a damper on some of the Halloween festivities going on... but that's okay, we'll catch 'um next year! Just glad we're finally feeling better again:) Hope you had a good Halloween too!

Fixed!

Today Kevin Andrus is the greatest person in the world. He fixed my tooth.

Why? Why? Why?

A couple things that have been on my mind lately:
-Why do we have this stray cat lurking around, that is obsessed with us, and wants to be part of our family? This cat WILL NOT go away EVER, and just scales my massive fence in the backyard, waiting for us to open the sliding door. This thing drives me nuts! We named him (or her) Kitty My Friend, in honor of my friend Carolyn's deceased cat. It just sits there and cries, and Julia gets mad because she wants out to pet it. Heck no, that thing could have rabies or something, or she could get cat scratch fever! (Haha, right Liss? My brother in law swears he has it... ) Sometimes (as like in the picture below) I pretend to let it in... haha just to mess with its mind. Stupid cat.
-Why does Brian lose everything? Just this month, he's lost his: blue church shirt, brand new never worn Vans shoes, pants, new-ish dress shoes, and a digital camera. All at different places, mind you. And who knows what else he's lost that he's not fessing up to:) Oh gotta love that boy....
-Ummm why did my fake tooth fall out AGAIN??? This is like the third time folks... I landed on it when I was little, and ever since then, it's just given me grief. I've had multiple fake teeth trying to fix this problem. My nicknames have been: pirate, chicklet (like as in Dennis the Menace movie if you've seen it), and bum... oh and hillbilly Rachel- almost forgot. I know some of you reading this gave me some of those nicknames. What nice friends I have, eh?:) And since we're poor students, I can't fix the problem. One of our friends here is going to put a little cement on it in hopes that it will be a temporary solution. Oh gosh. In the mean time, Brian thinks it's funny to laugh at my lisssp. At least its not prom night like the last time it fell out.... yup, you read that right.
Well, other than that, things are pretty darn good here. Hoping that you all have a very Happy Halloween!



























These ones are just because I thinks she's cute.... especially with the 'I'm now walking' badge of honor on her forehead (aka the bruise)

Busting Out

Think she's tired of being cooped up since her surgery?

Bumpy Surgery

So we have lovingly referred to Julia as our "Bumpy Head" or "Bumpsters" for quite some time now. The day I brought her home from the hospital, I noticed a bump on the left side of her head. I thought it was maybe because she got a little squished on the way out or something- I didn't know. My pediatrician told me not to worry about it, so I didn't. Finally like when Julia turned a year old, she kept telling me to go see a neurosurgeon- so we did. Turns out, it was a bone cyst and needed to be removed. If we waited until later it would continue to grow and actually leave a hole in her head, unless we did it while she was small. Today was surgery day. It went really well, but seeing your daughter be wheeled off to be put under and sliced open is heartbreaking. When she woke, the bump was gone, and she was out of her mind. She was super agitated and REFUSED to leave her IV in her hand. Luckily, she finally came to her senses, and we were able to go home about 6 hours after getting there. She was actually really funny today, and by the end of the day was just playing her little heart out, like she never missed a beat! It was a pretty sad day, but some day she'll thank me for not having a bumpy head- or worse yet, a holey head. So glad it all went well today.

Whats new with Julia

So since I didn't blog last month about Julia, I'm trying to think about all the new things she's been doing the past two months. She's now 14 months, and I guess the biggest thing is:
-She's walking! We knew she could totally do it, she's just such a chicken. Her first step was actually walking the whole length of our family room- she finally decided to show us her walking abilities one day. She still is a major chicken though- she totally can do it, but chooses mainly to crawl. Oh well, at least I know she can do it, right? (PS- I tried to upload the video of her walking like 5 times. Ughh. I'll try again later.)
-Another thing is, she has become OBSESSED with her dumb blanket. We have to take it EVERYWHERE or else she won't go to sleep, or even stop crying. I can thank my mom and my sister Melissa for that- they both said she needed a comfort item. She started sucking her thumb when she was like 2 or 3 months old, but now she has her blankie with her, it's become like a full time thing... oh great:)
-Her hair is finally getting long enough, where I can actually do something with it! It's normally just scraggly curly baby hair, but now I can actually put pig tails, or like a half up half down thang- so that's been nice.
-She loves mac n cheese. She'd eat it every day if I let her (must be an Eynon)
-Has become a big fan of her Bumbo seat. Wouldn't sit in it as an infant, but now it's become her own personal chair to watch t.v. in, eat a snack, get her hair combed, or just play with. Whatever floats her boat I guess...
-Weighs 25 pounds
-is absolutely hilarious to me.... but can also throw a fit like you've never seen! I never knew 2 teeth could hurt so bad.
I just love this girl. I love being a stay at home mom and waking up every day to play with her. It's serious the best thing ever...

0 Comments

So a few weeks ago, I posted something that I thought was interesting enough, and interestingly enough, I had 0 comments on it. It was my first time being a zero-er. I know this is absurd, but for some reason it kind of made me sad! I thought, "is no one reading this dang thing, or am I really that boring?" After that, I decided to write about what might appeal to others, instead of what I thought was important to blog about. I stopped updating on what Julia was up to, because well lets be honest, a lot of times that stuff is boring to anyone but certain family members. I stopped blogging about other topics as well, that people might not relate to. I even found myself writing on other peoples walls that had 0 comments, because I wanted them to know I love reading their blog. Then it hit me.... this is craziness! Why am I not blogging about what is important to me? Yeah it's great to have family and friends visit your blog, because that's a major reason as to why I blog in the first place- to keep everyone updated, since we live so far away. But the most important reason as to why I blog, is for me! I want to be able to have this journal for me, and for my family, and for my little girl! So I've taken off my comment box for now, and I'm going to get back to blogging about what I think is important... my every day, boring, mundane, yet indescribably wonderful life that I love! I know it's silly, but it's kind of liberating!:) Feel free to leave your comments at the end! Haha just kidding....

Catch Up

So I feel like I'm falling behind- which is totally driving me nuts since this is my 1 form of journaling, so I have to at least try to stay current... so a quick update. This has been the craziest summer of my life! I literally have only been home for like 2 weeks since July 4th. (It's now Oct. 1st! What???) After California, my in-laws came to celebrate Julia's first birthday with her. We met them down in Orlando and had so much fun! We stayed in this super fun, super nice place, and Julia was for sure not the only one who got spoiled. Brian's dad and step-mom are always so amazing to us, and it meant SO MUCH to me that they came all this way to spend time with us, and their grand baby. Thank you guys! We love you so much an had a TOTAL BLAST and can't wait to see you in February.













































Okay so then a little bit after that, we got to see Brian's family again! It was his Grandpa's 80th birthday and the whole family was there to help "Bubba" celebrate his big day... It was so fun getting to know Brian's extended family better, and even meeting a few family members that I hadn't before. They are an awesome group of people, and I really hope we all get to see each other real soon. (Jenn's wedding maybe?:) I was also so excited because I LOVE American History, and I actually got to see a bunch of really neat sites (Ben Franklin grave, Independence Hall, Liberty Bell, etc.) and we even got a legit Philly Cheese steak at Pat's- I'm told it's better than Geno's, even though Geno's is the more famous one. This cheese steak did not disappoint. Overall, the trip gets an A+ (minus the hotel on our last night's stay... right Chelsea? My sister in law made her husband buy her a sleeping bag for the bed... haha)


























































After Pennsylvania, we went straight to Orlando for a conference Brian had there- we stayed at a beautiful hotel, went to Disney World, swam, ate good food... all for free. Rough life, huh? While I was there, I got a call from my sister saying she was driving to Florida with her family for the FSU vs. BYU football game. Brett had to go back home after the game, but she and the kids got to stay here for a week and a half! Our kids love being together, and so do Melissa and I- so of course we all had a total blast. Highlights were: the G'ville tourist stops (which lets be honest, aren't much. The bat house, campus, looking for gators- and scaring Tavin to death in the process, and Jamba Juice? But hey it was fun to us.) the beach, and our 3 day trip to Disney World. The kids were in heaven! It was seriously the most fun I've ever had there. Seeing Melissa and her kids leave was so hard.. I love their guts and already miss them so much. Already counting down the days until Christmas- thanks so much for coming out to spend time with us you guys! We love you!

Ode to Utah

So do you ever have that grass is greener mentality? I have it all the time. When I was in Provo for 5 years, the last few were spent dying to get out of there! Now every fall, I longingly miss it there. I have so many awesome memories... I love Florida, but it just isn't the same as a beautiful Utah fall.... driving up the amazing Provo canyon- looking at all the changing colors, the first few weeks of school, and all the anticipation that comes with it. BYU football games, the cooling weather that is just absolutely perfect. The buzz around town as all the students are getting settled. The social scene- meeting your whole new ward, getting used to your new roommates. I love driving up to Grandma's house in Fruit Heights, and getting some fresh apples right off the tree. Then comes Swiss Days, and before you know it, General Conference. I love October General Conference- parents coming into town, how beautiful the grounds look at temple square. Fall always makes me miss my friends and family who live there a bunch. Brian proposed to me during the fall in Utah- at the football stadium... so that even makes me love Utah fall there even more. I guess I could go on and on about my love for it, but then it will turn into winter and I will be saying- holy crap thank goodness I don't live there anymore.