Crawling!

Alyssa is crawling now! She took her first crawl steps (is that what you would call them?) on Saturday I think but it was just like 2-3 but she has been practicing all weekend and today she was all over the place and did at least 20 crawl steps in a row. She still isn't too fast yet which is good for me so I can keep track of her. It's fun to have her growing up but at the same time I miss my little snuggly baby.

What a fun game

This is Alyssa's current favorite game. She is so quick at getting over to the DVD's and taking them all out. I don't mind too much cuz it keeps her occupied for at least a few minutes when I need to get things done.Good thing this mess is a quick one to clean up :)

In other news we only have about 7 weeks left in Utah. I just realized that today and I am now kioda nervous thinking about all I need to get done before we move. We are looking for jobs in Reno, NV right now but will probably end up moving to Portola, CA until we can find a job/place to live in Reno or whereever we end up. We are excited that Jim will be done with school. At the same time, it's going to mean a big change in our life. Change is good though right?

Just a couple pictures

Alyssa after church on Sunday in the dress my sister Cindy made for her. The dress is beautiful, thanks Cindy!

She sure loves them Yankees!

Just playing

New Hobby

So for awhile now I have wanted to be an artist. I don't know why but I just want to be able to draw and paint etc.. Somehow Jim picked up on this and the other day he said we needed to stop by the craft store. He bought me some beginning watercolor painting stuff and beginning drawing stuff. I didn't even know that he knew I wanted to do art. I love that he listens to me and figured out one of my dreams! So anyway here are some of the first pieces....

This was done in watercolor and is one of my favorites^


Also done in Watercolor^


Done in colored pencil^


Done with regular drawing pencils^

I still have a long way to go before I can really consider myself an artist. I am proud of myself though for trying something that I've never done before. It's something I wanted to do for a long time but never felt like I'd be good at. I guess practice makes improvement though and I'm having a lot of fun trying it out.

She's not a boy!

When I was pregnant and found out that I was having a girl, I promised myself that I’d always dress my daughter in dresses and ribbons and bows. I would never let anyone think that my baby girl was a boy. Well fast forward to now and in her almost 7 months of life, a few people have thought that Alyssa was a boy. I don’t dress her like a boy. While dresses and hair bows don’t always happen, she does wear pink most of the time. I guess it’s really only the old ladies that make the mistake but it really bugs me. Alyssa is a girl!
One of the times I really remember was one Sunday at church. Alyssa had on a pink dress and a pink blanket, and still I had an old lady ask if she was a boy or girl. Then yesterday, we were in the checkout line at the store. Alyssa was in her carseat in the cart. The lady behind told me that “HE wants to get out” I just smiled and said “yeah I bet SHE does want to get out”. In the lady’s defense, Alyssa was wearing a grey sweatshirt but the sweatshirt said “baby girl” on it. She also had a pink and yellow (but mostly pink) blanket. I guess I will have to work harder now to make sure that nobody else thinks that my daughter is a boy. I will also have to remember to use gender neutral terms when I am an old lady so that I don’t make the same mistake. Hopefully those ladies just had bad eyesight, that’s what I’m going to tell myself…

It's official, I'm a graduate!

So yesterday I got my BYU diploma in the mail. Now I feel like it's actually official and I really am a graduate! I was so excited. I almost started crying. It's amazing that all my hard work from the last four years has paid off. Now I am right where I hoped I would be with an amazing husband and an adorable daughter. It feels good to have reached such a huge goal of mine.
In other news Alyssa can now roll over both ways and does so all the time. I think it's only a matter of time before she is crawling. Sometimes she trys to scoot forward but ends up going backward instead. She gets so frustrated. Poor thing. She loves eating real food (well baby food) and her favorite is pears. She is so cute. I am so glad to have her in my life! Kids are such a blessing, I can't wait for more. I am suddenly baby hungry again but then I tell myself my baby is only 6 months old, so we'll wait until she is mobile and then see if I change my mind.....
Jim is still trying to find a job/internship and has put in applications to a few places. He has an interview this week so we'll see how that goes. It looks like we probably won't end up in Portola in the near future so he is going to start looking for full time jobs soon. We are thinking Reno but could end up anywhere he finds a job. He was only slightly jealous that I got my diploma and he is still in school. Luckily this semester is turning out to be a cake walk compared to his others.
I have finally gotten into a habit of exercising nearly every day. I can't go to a gym with Alyssa so I have just been doing exercise DVDs at home. My new favorites are Leslie Sansone walk at home DVDs. I have two of them that each have five miles on them. I can just put Alyssa in the snugli and she loves it! Hopefully one of these days I'll lost the rest of the baby weight..I actually love exercising now though which is great because I feel so much healthier and happier. I have to give credit to my mom for setting a good example. She started last January and is still exercising with her friends 3 times a week. I'm so proud of you Mom!