ODE TO MY GREAT FRIEND A-MAN-DUH

Today I thought I would blog about someone dear to my heart, and I hope she will read this! Ever since Amanda and I were 18 months old we were the bestest of friends. We were like peanut butter and jelly or as David would say lamb and tuna fish. Amanda and I ALWAYS could find a way to get in trouble or to find the danger in anything. As time went on and Amanda went to another school our friendship continued to flourish. We would only get to see each other on the weekends, but it didn't matter it was like we were never apart. Either Amanda was at my house or I was at hers.

We learned to drive at the age of 4 when we drove the Fenn's truck across the street, we defied death by riding down the icy hill on the boy's go kart and almost getting hit by a car, Amanda taught me how to drive stick since she didn't have her license yet and we wanted to go see Matt Davis, We jumped the Hoopie everyday going to school, we befriended multiple friends from down the mountain and learned how to drive home super late while keeping each other awake as we drove the 15 miles up our long driveway home. The list could go on forever.

Then as time passed we went our separate ways, and endured a variety of trials. The one thing that we both could count on was that we were only a phone call away. No matter the weeks or months that had passed it seemed like at the very moment we were teenagers hanging out and chatting about what we thought would lie ahead in our futures: who we would marry, the lives we would live, and the dates we would go on.

Amanda we have had the best of times and the worst of times, but I always want you to remember you will always be my best friend no matter the distance that lies between us. Thanks for always being there for me, and helping me to become the person that I am today.

I LOVE YOU!

Our NEW House FOR REALS THIS TIME!!!

The Front of our house
3 car garage
Front shot of door and porch

Kitchen Family Room
Formal Living room and dining room
Vanity in Master
Shower and tub in Master
Our Huge Walk in closet

Our Master Bedroom
The guest bathroom
The office
Lizzie's new bedroom
The Nemo Bedroom


Side yard
3 car garage
view from front door
View up the street
Our backyard that backs a canal

So you are probably thinking wait... this isn't the house that you are in Escrow with. Well let me give you the 411 on the Stratus house. We were getting ready to sign the papers, and we noticed that the owner wanted to keep the stove and take our water purification system out of the house (which would cause damage to the pluming) we asked if those things would please stay with the house since the house was appraised with them. The owner got all sketchy and told us he would rather go into forecloser than let us keep the fixtures with the house so we pulled out of escrow today, (we starting thinking what else would the owner think was his and take with him) and instead got this AMAZING house. We went into Escrow today and we are so excited. It is cheaper, 600 MORE square feet, newer, and in a better neighborhood! So that is our NEW NEWS!

The Greatest Mother's Day!!!

This was the second Mother's Day that I have celebrated... since last year Lizzie was in my tummy and I thought I should celebrate even though she wasn't born yet. Lizzie and David made this year EXTRA special. They are so sneaky! This year they bought me a refrigerator and an hour massage at Massage Envy. It was the BEST day a mother could ever ask for. After church David, Lizzie, Oma, Papa, Lizzie, and I headed up the mountain and spent the day with my family. We had such a great visit. Plus, we got to play the GREATEST game in the world JOKER!!! Thanks to Carly and Brian.

Escrow is coming along great we should be moving around the 1st of June! HOORAY! My new house was another Mother's Day presents, and this present will benefit the whole family. Thanks to my great husband!

Gerber 1st Foods

So Lizzie has had some set backs in her eating. As I have been feeding her the past week I noticed when she would eat that she would always sneeze. I never thought anything about it until one night as I was changing her into her jammies I noticed a reddish rash all over her body. I started getting nervous so I emailed our doctor. He said those are the symptoms of a food allergy. GREAT! So he told me to keep a journal of all the things she eats so we can track down what she is allergic to. I don't wait to put Lizzie through that so I stopped feeding her rice and barley cereals and she has been fine. This is Lizzie eating sweet potatoes and she loves it as you can tell. We will keep you updated on our journey through food allergies 101.

Home Home on the Range

Thanks to the Jones Family Lizzie is able to ride the Red Flyer Rocking Horse. Lizzie absolutely loves this horse especially since her Papa is way into horses. She has a great time bouncing up and down on her horse. She named her horse Lighting since it is fast like the wind! Now Lizzie is able to ride like the wind as she babbles... "Home home on the range where the deer and the antelope play..."

Where's Lizzie?

Today has been one of those days when you just want to smile and realize how special your baby is. The past couple of days Lizzie has had a really hard time sleep due to her runny nose mixed with her deep raspy cough. Even though some moments when she is screaming and I have no idea what to do to help calm her down and I want to pull out my hair. My sweet baby does this and it melts my heart.

Last weekend Shauna & the kids, Violet, Jay, Devyn & Irelynn came with Lizzie and I to Garage Sale in the great city of Moreno Valley. Jay and I came upon this house that was having a sale and we started talking to the owner and her sister. Well we were there for over an hour chatting and they kept telling up how cute Lizzie and Irelynn were. I WOULD NEVER buy stuffed animals from a garage sale since you don't know where they have been and that is just gross. After getting to know these ladies I knew that their stuffed animals were washed prior to selling them and I knew they were clean. Lizzie LOVES them. As you can tell in the picture. She loves to snuggle them close to her face and just have enough room for her bottle to poke out. Thanks Angel for the simple things that make each day sweeter than the day before, and realize how precious each moment is.

Dress-up 101

Thanks to my wonderful sister Lizzie has amazing dress up clothes. I know what you are thinking... "She is too little for dress up" But serious people all kids like to dress up even if they are only 4 months old. I really hope the butterfly costume fits her for Halloween, cause she is the cutest thing ever! Well I know it isn't Christmas but the Santa outfit won't fit her when Christmas rolls around again so I hope Lizzie brings you happy thoughts that Christmas is only 8 months and 2 days away.

Lizzie's new trick!

This is beginning of Lizzie's trick. She loves her feet and playing with them. Each day she tries to eat her toes, but finally it happened.. and here is the picture capturing the moment...
She is so flexible! One day I hope to be as flexible as she is.

I am on the Ellen Show! Today @ 4 pm

So yesterday Ashley Patterson, Katie Nielsen, Wendy Mellen, and I attended the taping of the Ellen Degeneres Show in Burbank, California. We had a great time! no kids... no husbands or boyfriends... just the girls :) We don't get a lot of opportunities to go out and have girl time, but yesterday was just that... time to visit with one another.

So we all had a great time and Ashley almost won tickets to meet David Beckam... oh how fun that would have been. The taping was a lot of fun, and we all had a great time dancing with Ellen. If you go to her website for her show @ http://ellen.warnerbros.com/ Then check out the video of who's on Ellen this week (click on Tuesday) You will see Ashley, Wendy, Katie, and myself on the snippet of video. So check it out!!!! My mouth is wide open you won't miss me... I promise!

During her monologue in the beginning of the show she talks about friends who talk WAY TOO Much... so we start point to Ashley, then Ellen starts talking to Ashley... So if you want to see us on TV you better watch Ellen today @ 4 pm

Thanks Ashley for the tickets I had a great time!

Hot Spring Days!!!

So on Friday Shauna and the kids came over to play in the pool. For people living outside Southern California you are probably thinking... it is only April and there is snow outside my window, but here it has been in the low 90's and beautiful. The kiddos especially loved being in the water. Lizzie loved sitting on the step and splashing around... I think she thought it was a big bathtub. I can't wait for more fun in the sun.

Cereal Here We Come!!!!

The day finally approached and I was a little weary... the last time we tried cereal we lost the fight, and by the end of the meal Lizzie and I were both COVERED in watery rice cereal. I prepared Lizzie and I for the fight this time. I wasn't going to let the rice cereal win again. I placed Lizzie in the Bumbo chair and prepared for a victorious win. As I started to shovel the cereal into her mouth it went better than I had hoped...She was enjoying it and wanted more... could this be the same child? or was fate going to collapse my lovely dreams?

By the end of the meal we were tied...

RICE cereal 1 Lizzie 1

P.s. Lizzie is continuing to love her new food choice... I think we have conquered!

Our Trip To Utah

We left for Utah on Thursday April 3, 2008. We were so excited since we were finally going to meet parts of each others families. This is a picture of David and Lizzie as we were waiting to get on the plane in Long Beach. Lizzie was prepared for cold weather doesn't she look so cute? Lizzie did really well on the plane. The best part of the whole flight was when Lizzie pooped her jammies. It was all over the backside and smelled so gross. As we deplaned David had his arms stretched out wide with Lizzie and walking quickly to the restroom. David and Lizzie were in the family restroom for about 20 mins. cleaning her up. Then we were on our way to the Ray's. It was so good to see them. Their house is beautiful and we had such a great time visiting with them. As you notice there are only a couple pictures since my battery was dead the entire trip. We visited so many friends and family members while we were in Utah. It was tons of fun to see everyone and for them to all meet Lizzie. Everyone loved her. She got so much attention where ever we went it is hard for her to not be in anyone's arms now. Friday we went to David's mission reunion with the Cottle's. We were 1 of 2 missionaries who had a baby. It was great to meet so many of the missionaries David served with. On our way back to West Jordan to stay with David's Aunt and Uncle we saw Bekah and her boyfriend Spencer! We love him. He is so good for her. We met them in Cabella's parking lot late on Friday night. They were coming back from Spencer's reunion and we were coming from Provo. We had a great short visit with them. Then we were off to Aunt Judy's and Uncle Carmi's... It was so great to meet them. We had such a great time with them. David helped Uncle Carmi with the water pump for their backyard while Lizzie and I visited with Aunt Judy and talked about family history and getting to know us better. We were sad to leave but we had to leave and go to Park City and visit with Amanda and stay up at Marriott's Summit Watch Resort. It started to snow Sunday morning as we drove to conference. It was beautiful! Sunday morning Conference was absolutely AMAZING!!!! Music and the Spoken Word was my favorite part of Conference. The Mormon Tabernacle sang all of my favorite hymns. The Spirit was so strong, and made the session of Conference so remarkable. It was so neat to be there with the new 1st presidency and to hear everyone talk about our beloved prophet Gordon B. Hinckley. As we left conference the sisters on Temple Square were singing hymns and made the end of that session of conference so great. Then we met up with Amanda and had lunch with her, and then headed to a family party. It was great to see the family again since it had been about 6 years since I had seen any of them and everyone got to meet David and Lizzie. After the party we headed to Layton to visit an old friend of mine, Abby Smith and her family. We had such a great visit. I wish she lived closer. Then we headed back to Park City and all crashed. Lizzie slept the whole night and woke up at 8:45 am. When I woke up to get her a bottle I looked out the window and it was snowing! It was so beautiful. The whole morning we watched the snow fall and relax before we headed for the airport. We got some Cafe Rio and that made my tummy feel so happy.
Here are the few pictures I took at the end of our trip at the airport. Lizzie and her Grammy and David and Lizzie before boarding the plane to come back home to California.

We had such a great vacation in Utah. We crammed a lot of visits in during our 4 day adventure but it was so worth it. Thanks to our families and friends who made our trip so enjoyable.

Now we need to prepare for our Trip to Hawaii....

BIG GIRLS Cough...

So today was the BIG day.. Lizzie had her 1st experience with thinly formulated down rice cereal. She was a big girl and did her best, but being sick didn't help this amazing moment her her yet so young life. She quite did not know what to do when the cereal touched her rosy pink lips, but then the horror came.. She coughed and all the cereal that was in her little mouth was now all over my face.. you heard it from the source... Ladies and gentlemen the story only gets better. As I ended the short lived movie of Lizzie's BIG accomplishment and took her out of the blue Bumbo chair and placed her on my rigid lap so I could clean the cereal off both of us.. IT HAPPENED!!!

As I turned to ask Oma to hand me a paper towel in seconds.. maybe even milliseconds Lizzie's pudgy hand was in the cereal bowl and the cereal was flying all over the room. As the bowl flew through the quiet air I realized what was happening. Then BAM!!! the bowl hit the soft brown carpet and the fight was over.. just like that.. The cereal won this war... but I will get my revenge... Just you wait.

4 months and growing!!! We hate shots!

Lizzie was able to search for Easter eggs from the Easter Bunny today at FHE @ The Parkers. She had a great time holding the eggs full of yummy treats that she is still too young to eat besides what Oma thinks, but all in all she had a great time.

Lizzie also went into the doctor's today to visit Dr. Shah and have her 4 month check up. She is super healthy and coming in at:

Weight: 16 lbs.

Height: 27 3/4 inches

She is at the 90th percentile.

Lizzie's shots went better than last time. She cried after each shot was put into her little chunky thigh, but after a couple hugs and kisses from Mommy she had big smiles, and was ready to go shopping with Grammy Evans.

Easter Greeting from The Parkers