LIttle clumps of Snow

Today I had to take Niko with me on campus because grandma wasn't able to babysit him today during class. I had a girl from one of my classes watch him for the hour block of class today and he was so good for her! What a relief. He was so excited to see all the people and be somewhere he had never been. When I picked him up after class, he was making me laugh so much and smile a lot. While we were s-l-o-w-l-y walking to our car, Niko just had to stop and stomp on a clump of snow on the sidewalk. During that time a lady came up to me and said, "I love to see when moms look like they truly enjoy being mothers and love their children." I don't know what I did exactly, but compliments like that go a long way and makes me feel good especially when I sometimes feel far from the best mommy award.

Our Little Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

This is our Christmas tree. It stands about a foot high, is a cute green color and has 2 "real" ornaments on it besides the little decorative balls on it. I love this tree! It has been around since my freshman year of college. When it was up in my dorm room at San Diego State it had cute pink little balls on it and shell ornaments. The pink balls represented Ryann, my roommate who had recently left, and who I missed very much. The shells represented my love for the ocean and those are now gone because I gave one to each of my good friends in San Diego that Christmas. That little tree has done a lot of traveling and is now in Rexburg with my little family. It has 2 ornaments on it. One is our "first christmas" ornament. Every tree has to have one of those on it! The second is an ornament my little 6 year old cousin Isabel made for me last Christmas. I absolutely love the fact she made us the ornament and had to put it on the tree, even though it is about half the size of our tree! I have many more memories with this tree that I'm not going to bore everyone with, but I love what it represents and can't wait to see what other memories are going to tag a long with this tree!

An Important Skill

We taught Niko how to dunk oreos in milk. He caught on fast and loved it!

Never Again!

I will never again every study or do homework in the Hinckley Building again! I thought that sitting on the couches would be a nice comfortable place to get some work done between classes. I was completely wrong. I have never seen and been around so many annoying distractions. First, let's start off with the guy who came and sat next to me on the other end of the couch to take a nap. No worries right? Except that he snores. loud. Oh, well, I can handle that. Next, would be the sweet, nice looking girl sitting on the couch next to mine sitting quietly doing work on her laptop. She was not a distraction until her husband came and sat next to her. They then decided that they must cuddle and kiss every 5 seconds. Honestly?! Please go home if that is what you are planning on doing for the next hour!! Yes, I know you are in love, but please contain yourself. Next, this threw me over the edge, was the dance group that decided they must waltz in the middle of an area of students studying. They moved chairs and are blasting silent night and dancing like 4 feet from my feet. Ugh. Can't believe it! It's like straight from a movie. In this movie, there would be a girl trying really hard to get a lot of work done, muttering to herself "Don't get distracted, focus on your work". Then, all these annoying distractions pop up. I will NEVER study in the Hinckley Building ever again! And yes, I feel much better now.

First Snow!

Snow is finally here. With an absolutely beautiful fall this year, it almost felt like the snow was never going to come! However, it turned into winter overnight, and honestly it is not too bad so far. I walked Freddy Sanchez one morning before Niko got up and before Johnny left for school (woohoo I was out at 7am!) and it was the most peaceful experience ever. It had snowed overnight so there was a layer of fresh snow. Only a few cars were on the roads so it was nice and quiet. The trees looked so beautiful frosted over and it started snowing right when I left the apartment building. I was bundled up nice and warm so I was able to really enjoy the snow.



Niko was too young to really notice the snow last winter but he sure notices it now. He always looks confused when he sees snow falling and doesn't really like touching it (don't blame him). Sledding will be fun when there is a much better layer of snow on the ground. Now is the season to curl up with some hot chocolate and slip under a warm blanket and stay inside!

Niko's New Vocabulary

1. Sorry (so cute)
2. Na-na (his version of Momma)
3. Daddy (it is not dada anymore it's officially Daddy)
4. What?! (surprised to hear that one)
5. Oh no
6. Wow
7. Uh-oh
8. NO
9. Car car (he has to say it twice for some reason?)
10. keys keys (once again repeats iy)
11. Aw-ma (grandma)
12. Chee! (cheese)
13. Stree-Chee (string cheese)
14. Shhh!
15. crackers

Progressing, progressing, progressing....FINALLY!

Well Johnny and I are finally seeing an end to school. I was supposed to be done next semester however I have classes that have overlapping times so I will have to go another extra semester. So we both have two semesters left and are so thrilled! I'll be done the end of July and Johnny the end of December 2011. I cannot wait to have an easier semester. With 18 credits this semester it has been work overload for me. I never have enough hours in the day, to do everything needed-whether it be housework, niko time, homework, tests, oh and did I mention HOMEWORK?!?! Next semester I'll have 12 credits of easier courses and 2 of them are electives that I picked. This will be my first semester actually taking a class that I don't have to take. I've never taken an elective. Both Johnny and I have really nice schedules for next semester and made them work so that we won't need any babysitters.

So, with free time next semester I plan to:

practice piano
knit Niko a scarf
walk the dog in the snow everyday
try and form a mommy n' me group
do the water aerobics class on campus
try a Zumba class
always keep the apartment clean

Let's see if these things actually happen! And yay for progressing to the end for school!
experiment with more cooking

Freddy Sanchez

Many of you know we had little Gizmo an adorable yorkie terrier, but our apartment managers told us we couldn't have pets. So we had to give Gizmo away during the summer :(. However, our managers later told us that they misunderstood the pet policy and we actually COULD have pets, as long as we put a pet deposit down. So, after some consideration and craigslist searching we found ourselves a little mini schnauzer mix in need of a home. He is still a puppy but an older puppy. His name is Freddy Sanchez after the baseball player. Niko is getting used to the hyper dog and we are getting used to having what feels like a second kid in the home. Between him and Niko we are constantly having to keep an eye on one of the two. We do love that Freddy does not bark in our apartment and house training was a cinch! Welcome Freddy Sanchez to our family!

Giants Win the World Series!!

The Giants won the world series, which I am SOOOOO excited about! I have loved following all the games, and I love the team right now and all their unique personalities. Seriously, that team has such character. It is kind of sad to know there won't be anymore Giants games to watch, but I could not be happier with the World Series results! Go Renteria for hitting that 3 run homer you deserve MVP, go Buster for finally getting us some hits, and go Lincecum for being an awesome pitcher this world series! And now, to end the world series on this amazing quote from the after game interviews:
Interviewer: So Lincecum what do you think of the trophy?
Lincecum: It's shiny.