Merry Christmas!

I know it's not really Christmas now, but I know if I wait I won't have time until after actual Christmas...Here is our little newsletter we included with our Christmas cards this year:

2014 has seemed to just fly by, but that happens when you are having fun and raising a toddler. Here are some of our highlights from the year:

Brian is still attending Claremont Graduate University for his PhD in Positive Developmental Psychology. Studying and working on massive research projects takes up most of his time. He has one more semester of coursework, which means we could move away from California while he works on his dissertation, but we will see what happens. He is still a professor online for BYU-Idaho teaching psychology.  He continues to enjoy teaching the 12 & 13 year olds in our ward as well.

Teresa continues to stay home and take care of Chloe. While it is a full-time job with no sick days, it continues to be quite rewarding. Teresa still loves to read whenever she can and Brian jokes with her that she is still reading more than him even with all his schoolwork. In the end of July, Teresa was released from her calling as Primary Secretary and was called to be the First Counselor in the Young Women’s presidency. It has kept her quite busy, but has allowed her to get her creative juices flowing and have more interaction with adults. 

Chloe continues to be the center of our busy lives. Every day we are amazed by her intelligence. She is quite a talker and picks up new words daily. Chloe is also very sweet, saying “Hi” and waving to everyone we meet outside of the house. She loves going on walks and asserting her independence. Chloe has made friends with the older kids in our neighborhood with her friendliness, they all know her name and even come knocking on our door to play with her. Chloe is in a constant state of motion, climbing and going everywhere her little body can take her.

As some of you may know both Brian and I like to play around in photography, and we've always figured we can take pictures close to the equal of most professional photographers. That being said, getting pictures with an active toddler this year really made me consider getting a professional over doing the pictures ourselves. We ended up having to get dressed up two days in a row because Chloe had a meltdown and would not cooperate for a family picture...I love the pictures we got and I want to share, so this is going to be a little picture overload. :)

This dress was a hand me down, and Chloe absolutely adores it.
Whenever she puts it on she will spin around in it. It's her "princess" dress.

She's not looking so much like a baby anymore....

Being silly.

I was joking with Brian that we look like we're doing engagements pictures. Lol.

Love my lil girl!

So stubborn, but adorable.

One of my favorites!

Tickling her to get her to smile!

I'm done Mom and Dad....

Nemo!

As she points to things she usually say "I see"

This year we'll be spending Christmas in California again. We're already working on getting Chloe to say "Merry Christmas" and she's really close. She loves the tree that we have up, even though she keeps taking the ornaments down. And she gets super excited when she sees all the Christmas lights as we go on our daily walks. Brian's brother and his wife will be spending Christmas with us, so it will be fun to share Chloe's excitement with them. I have a feeling it is going to be a great Christmas. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and are safe in your travels. Merry Christmas!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was super fun this year. Chloe has grown up so much since last Halloween. Because of her love of Tinkerbell I decided early on, like in August, that I would make a Tinkerbell costume for Chloe. Figuring out a costume for Brian and I was a little trickier. I was going to be Wendy, and Brian as Peter Pan, but I really couldn't find a good Wendy dress and knew I wouldn't have time to sew both mine and Chloe's costume with Brian starting school again soon. So finally I had the idea that I would be Peter Pan, and Brian would be Peter Pan's shadow. It was really funny going around in our costumes to hear people's reactions to Brian. Many adults didn't get it, and kids got it pretty quickly.

We went to a few Halloween events this year. First we went to our wards trunk or treat. Then the following Saturday we went to my parent's ward trunk or treat. And then on actual Halloween we went to the trick or treating event they held in Claremont Village. Once we got home we went door to door in our apartment complex. It was really fun and I was impressed with how polite Chloe was. She never got around to saying "Trick or Treat!" but when she was handed the candy she would always say "Thank you!" And thanks to all the candy she learned a new favorite word....."Candy!"

Here are some pictures from our Halloween festivities:

By the time Halloween actually rolled around Chloe was obsessed with Finding Nemo, so we ended up making a Nemo pumpkin instead of Tinkerbell.

Chloe loved visiting the local pumpkin patch.

Happy Halloween!

I HATE Running But....

It works. This summer I was really motivated to get down to at least my pre-pregnancy weight. Prior to the start of this summer I was working out and watching what I was eating, but I was just not seeing any changes. It was getting really frustrating for me (Brian can attest to that). So with Brian not in any classes I took advantage of the "more" time and started running 5-6 days a week. In addition I was making sure I was walking at least 10,000 steps a day, and of course eating well. With the addition of running I finally started seeing the number on the scale drop. YAY! I hate running, my asthma kicks in and I just want to stop, but I have been pushing through it. I have met and exceeded any of my personal records for running the mile that I ever ran in Junior High. The other day I did 2 miles in twenty minutes. Not the fastest by any means, but I was moving and that's what counts. I've lost about 15 pounds this summer, so I reached my goal! I am fitting in my favorite pre-pregnancy jeans, Yippee! Lol. I still have some more progress to get where I want to be, but I am feeling much better and confident about myself. Here's a picture that we took the other day that I love the way we look.

On a side note, we've started the process of trying to determine the cause of all my joint pain again. I'm determined not to give up out of frustration from not finding anything again. With Chloe being such an active toddler I want to be more active with her and not so tired all the time. So far the bloodwork has come back normal, and the same for most of the x-rays. There was one tiny thing wrong with one of my shoulders that I'm going to try some physical therapy for, but it doesn't explain the pain in my hips, knees, back, and shoulders and how it comes and goes in cycles. I'm ready to move past this, I've been just "dealing" with it for 6 years and want to start treating it. 

6 Year Anniversary

It really amazes me how quickly time moves sometimes. I cannot believe that Brian and I have been married for 6 years. In many ways it still feels like we are newlyweds, but I guess that is a good thing because it means that we are keeping the magic alive. I really wanted to do something besides going out to eat and a movie for our anniversary and so in the months prior I was looking on Groupon for different deals to museums nearby, because that is something that we've always enjoyed doing together. I really never saw any deals that made me say "Yay, let's do this!" Then about a month ago I saw a friend post pictures of a visit that she had made to the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. It looked awesome, and when I showed Brian he was excited for it too, especially when he saw that they had a Japanese and Chinese Garden. Up til this point we were thinking of getting a babysitter and setting out on our own, but we saw that they had a Children's Garden. So we decided to focus on viewing the different gardens, rather than trying to keep Chloe entertained in the library and art collections. It was a fantastic day. Hot, but really beautiful. We took way too many pictures of the Japanese and Chinese Gardens but here are some of our favorite shots from the day!

Entrance to the Children's Garden

We should have brought a bathing suit for Chloe, she loved the water exhibits.

Bugs are awesome!

Japanese Garden

Japanese Garden

Lily Pond

Dad stop taking pictures and join us!

Beautiful Desert Flowers

Family photo in the Chinese Garden

She wanted to push her own stroller, seconds later she started pushing away Brian's hand because she didn't want him to help her.

Chinese Garden

Bonsai Tree

Traditional Japanese House

Traditional Japanese House

Rose Garden

Pretty Lily Flowers

18 Months Old!!!

It really amazes me how quickly time flies now that I am an adult. I cannot believe that Chloe is 18 months or 1 1/2 years old now. I still think of her as my little baby, but in so many ways she is becoming independent now. It's a good thing, but I do wish time would slow down just a little. This next Sunday Chloe will be starting Nursery at church. I'm so nervous that she will be one of those kids that cries and cries, but I honestly would be really surprised if she did this. Like I said really independent. It will be a nice change not to have to worry about keeping her entertained for 3 hours without disturbing others. So I'll just do an update about Chloe and then write a little bit about what's been going on with Brian and I.

Things Chloe Likes Right Now:
Tinkerbell
Blueberries & Bananas
Going Outside (constantly)
Bubbles
Coloring
Dancing
Petting/Chasing River
Reading Books
Taking naps on mom after nursing
Giving hugs and kisses
Saying "Hi" to everyone
Finding lizards and bugs/flowers/leaves
Her dolly and stuffed animals
Bathtime

Things Chloe Doesn't Like Right Now:
Vegetables (except tomatoes)
Playing inside for long periods of time
Diaper changes
Getting her face and hands cleaned up after meals
Sitting in the grocery cart

Chloe's Favorite Words:
Hi
Book
Ball
Please (she signs this too)
Elmo
Bubble
Purple
Car
Kitty
Color
Chase
Grandma or Grandpa (they both sound the same)
Dada
Cheese
She signs for "more", "all done", "please", "mama milk", "outside", "down", and "eat"

Kisses on the nose 

I can't get over how photogenic she is sometimes.

This summer has been lots of fun. Brian has had "off" school since the middle of May and won't start again until the beginning of September. Although he is not officially in school he's still been really busy writing papers for publication, doing research, working on his master's thesis, and teaching an online Psych class at BYU-Idaho. While doing all this he still makes the time to play with Chloe. We've made it a habit to go on a walk every night and I hope this continues once he's in school again because it's a nice time to chat and see how the other is doing. I have been mostly busy keeping up with Chloe. She never wants to stay still, and this is a good thing. During this past year I was the secretary for the primary and that keep me busy on Sundays. In the beginning of this month I was released from the calling and asked to be the 1st Counselor in Young Womens. It is different working with a bunch of teenage girls over kids ages 3-12, but so far I have really enjoyed it. I also have had more interaction with adults besides Brian and I must say it's nice to extend my circle of who I interact with on a weekly basis. I just recently submitted all the paperwork to get the Emergency 30 Day Substitute Permit, and so once that goes through I will be applying to school districts in the area and can hopefully start substitute teaching on the days that Brian does not have class.

Brian has only one more year of coursework left at CGU and so once that is complete we will not be tied to living in California anymore while he finishes his dissertation. I have loved living in California, but I feel anxious for a change. It just costs way too much to continue living here, so unless he gets a teaching position in one of the nearby schools after his coursework is done we are planning on moving to Utah at this point. It will be nice to be closer to extended family. I am looking forward to a lot of things in the coming year. Next up our 6 year anniversary date, we will be going to the Huntington Library.

Bolsa Chica Beach

Living in California you would think that we would go to the beach pretty often. However I was so paranoid about Chloe eating sand last summer that we never went to the beach. Plus it's about an hour drive to get there (although that's the same amount of time as Big Bear....so we should go more often really). This year we have been swimming in the pool at our complex a ton, and since Chloe loves water so much I told Brian we need to make the time to go to the beach since his summer break is nearly over. We decided to invite my mom, and I'm so glad we did. We first drove to my parents, picked her up, and then headed to the beach I grew up going to (Bolsa Chica). We arrived to the free parking lot just as a surfer girl was leaving and so luckily didn't have to drive down to the paid parking. After carrying all our junk to a spot that wasn't so crowded Brian ran off with Chloe immediately to introduce her to the water. I was just barely able to grab my camera and capture those first moments. Chloe had no fear of the water whatsoever. She would have ran right in if Brian wasn't holding onto her hand. The day was overcast and so not quite as warm as it could have been so Chloe really didn't spend too much time in the water. At the pool she usually lasts about 30 minutes. Luckily because my mom was there she was able to watch Chloe and play with her in the sand so Brian and I could swim out deeper. It was so much fun. I built a small sandcastle which Chloe loved destroying. We got knocked over by waves. And Chloe chased the seagulls.

No fear.

Of course trying the sand out....

Exhausting day