christmas joy

I am excited that Christmas is almost here. It is a hectic time of year made a little more difficult by my being unable to drive and being slow. Even still I am determined to enjoy it and savor these good moments. There are plenty of things to feel down about and when I have a chance to have some good moments I'm going to take them. I'm also looking forward to the start of 2011. after the pain and challenges of 2009 and 2010 I am optimistic that 11 is going to be my year.

How can this not make me love the holidays?

new blog.

I have started a new blog. This one will be more focused on my stroke and the journey it will take me on to rebuild my life. There will still be Isabella stuff because her and photography are part of the journeey.

The new blog is
http://my-stroke-of-luck.blogspot.com/

stop by if you can and leave a comment. There are a few posts and I will be working on it more.

We're Moving!

Well on Monday I will complete one of the big tasks on my 101 list. We will be moving! We got an apartment that is right next to my school so that will make things a little easier on me. Blake is still looking for a second job so until then things will be really tight but at least we will be on our own. Next week if I am up to it and the place isn't too chaotic I will post some pictures of our new place.

I have taken some pictures of Bella and here are a few cute ones:

Apparantly dressing up half as Snow White and half in a twirly skirt makes you make this face.

And then it makes you really tired.

Who is this grown up girl?

Lets not call them resolutions

I have some goals for 2010. Since resolutions are notoriously broken before January has ended I am going to just come up with some goals I have for the new year. Hopefully by December 31, 2010 the majority (or optimistically all of them) will have been completed.

1. Move by Valentine's day. I am so ready for this one to happen.

2. Husband goal: go on more dates. Money is tight but we have to make one on one time a priority.

3. Isabella goal #1: be a more patient mom. Realize that three is going to be a long year with her and come up with better ways to handle my increasingly difficult child.

4. Isabella goal #2: Less TV more play/educational fun! This one is going to be tough. As a TV addict myself it comes as no surprise that my daughter LOVES TV. I know that excessive TV watching is not good and that is why I am going to make an effort to cut it down. I would be kidding myself if I thought I could cut it out but less is doable.

On a parenting board I go to one of the moms had a brilliant idea for doing just this so I will be copying her and trying it with Isabella. I love reading what other moms do because its impossible to think of everything yourself. Hopefully in a month or so I will be able to report on much less TV watching.

5. Isabella goal #3: Make a list of other fun activities and get everything ready for them. In order to make the above goal happen I must be prepared. Isabella will try to wear me down and I must have a plan. It will also be good for Blake and others who spend time with Isabella to have some ideas of what to do with her.

6. Health goal #1: Do a 5k. I don't know why but I really want to do this. I dont like walking and I really hate running but I want to do this.

7. Health goal #2: Drink less soda. If any of these are most likely to not happen its this one. Its an addiction that I have and since I have very few vices my motivation is just not high to do it. I know I should so it makes the list.

Well I guess I will keep it at these. I also have a lot of stuff not done on my 101 list so I guess if I just accomplished all of these and need something to do (not likely to happen) I could work on that.

Our last picture from 2009:

Isabella: 2009 in review

I am stealing this from another blogger. Its such a good idea.

This is a little summary of what happened to Isabella in 2009. It was a busy year for her.

Saw her first movie in a movie theater.


Discovered her love for bouncy houses and slides.


Went on a family vacation to Las Vegas.

Went to Disneyland for the first time.



Turned 3! Had an amazing birthday party.

Started taking dance classes and loves them.

Was Minnie Mouse.

Made a friend.

Predictions for 2010:

1) Will start preschool and (hopefully) love it.

2) Will have a dance recital that will be equal parts adorable and hilarious

3) Will continue to test my patience everyday

4) Will make me laugh and amaze me with her intelligence everyday

Have a happy new year my little girl.

Christmas: part 4

The day after Christmas we went up to Blake's grandparents house. They haven't seen Bella a lot this year so I am glad that we got to take her up.

Isabella and Wito

Isabella, Blake and Wita

Showing off her Dora dance moves. This is the dance that makes the babies giggle and sadly I knew the words better than her. =(

Blake and his sister

Christmas: part 3*

Christmas morning!

Santa has come and gone and the stockings are filled and there are presents left under the tree. Isabella woke up at 4:45 (sadly this happens often, not just because it was Christmas) and we managed to kind of get her to go back to bed till 6 and then let her watch a movie till 7. We knew not everyone wanted to get up before the sun. Then it was time to see what Santa left in the stocking. Grammie also did stockings so she got 2! Then Auntie Trisha, Bobo (Kevin) and Kilee game over and it was time to open presents.

New ballerina ornament for our little dancer



Unwrapping presents. Looking a little tired baby.

New bike from grammie and grampie. She was so excited when she saw it that she went under the dinning room table and smacked her head on the way out. Of course with a pretty new bike in front of her she could feel no pain.

Playing our new Wii (Blake's mom and Jeffery got it for us, yay!).

We had breakfast with Grandma Candy Guy and Grandma James and did the present thing with them. I made some yummy (very fattening) breakfast items that I was quite proud of. After the Grandmas left we got Bella to go down for a mini nap before heading to Nana and Papas. We had Christmas dinner there and did some more presents. Have I mentioned that this child got more presents than a toy store?

Trying on part of her new jammie set. She got a lot of jammies this year which she really needed.


Playing in the big bag that her shopping cart from Nana and Papa came in. She is my favorite present. =)



An actual picture where she is looking and with me. You wouldn't believe how many I have with her not looking. I would estimate about a million.



Bella and her Nana.

Finally is was time to go home and crash. Which we all did.

* I know it seems crazy to break Christmas down into all these posts but it makes it easier on me and thats what I'm all about.

Christmas: part 2

The next day, Christmas Eve, we went to Blake's sisters. Blake's mom and Jeffery were here and we had dinner, presents and decorated cookies for Santa. Bella was really starting to get into the whole opening presents thing and started to become a little greedy about it. When you're three I guess the concept of other people having presents is lost on you.

Hanging out with a mound of presents. Are they all for me?

Gorgeous girls waiting for some dinner.



Modeling the new jacket from Grandma.

Yummy frosting! Maryssa chatting away on the phone again. (kidding, she was talking to her great grandpa)

Christmas: part one

We survived. Just barely. As much as I loved Christmas I am very glad it has come to an end. For us it was 4 straight days of parties, excessive food and way too many presents. Isabella is on overload from it all and it isn't doing much for her three year old melt downs. We did have a great holiday and are very lucky to have so many people who wanted to spend the holidays with us.

Our whirlwind adventure began with Grandma Keriths on the 23rd.

My little family:

Kilee (with her weird expression) hanging out with grampie and grammie

What a lovely little group.

Playing on the floor waiting for grandmas train to come around.

My 101 in 1001

So I haven't been great about keeping up with this. I think its a great idea though and if I'm able to accomplish a lot of whats on here I would be thrilled. There have been a few things I've done or are working on so here it goes:

3. Have three weekends away

Blake and I went to Disneyland for my birthday weekend. I already posted about this one so nothing new here.

8. Take Isabella to three kids places shes never been before

When we were in Las Vegas we all went to a children's museum that was a lot fun for Bella. I'm going to have to try to find one around here to take her to.

For her birthday Isabella got a pass to Legoland for the year (Thanks Grandma Kerith) and Blake and I got passes for my birthday so we all got to go. We took her and she loved it. I don't think that she really understood that what she was seeing was made out of Legos but the rides were fun.

35. Get a new car

Last week we got a new car. Well lets be honest a very used car that is new to us. I don't care though what it is or how old because it just feels so good to have two cars and both of us driving. (For those that do care its a Ford Explorer and its red) Not having two cars and drivers for 8 months was really hard. I should post a picture but I don't feel like going out and taking one right now so you will just have to imagine it.

65. Watch 50 movies I've never seen before

I have really lost count with this one. Lets see what I can remember: Harry Potter 6, New Moon, Adventureland, The Proposal, The Blind Side, Inkhart, Tinkerbell 2 (hey it counts), The Ugly Truth, Gamer (which I hated), A Time to Kill, Iron Man, Bride Wars, 17 Again. I know theres a lot more but I can't think of them now.

66. Read 50 books in a year.

I read the whole Sookie Stackhouse series so far which is nine books. Summer sisters.

68. Cook/bake 10 things I've never made before

For Thanksgiving I made Blake a pumpkin cheesecake

With Katrina serving as my hand model.

I also made this for Thanksgiving but can't really count it has cooking or baking. Its just so cute so I had to share.

For moms birthday I made her a key lime pie

71. Post a photo I've taken for critique on a photography forum

I did it and got the critique I was expecting which is a sign that at least I know what I'm doing wrong. Thats a start right?

72. Go to ten restaurants I've never been to

Blake and I went to Ruby Tuesdays which I had never been to. Getting him to try any new place is a struggle so I'm going to have trouble with this category.

When we went to Vegas we went to Joe's Crab Shack (which given my disgust of sea food I've never gone to before). They did have other things to eat there which was good and it was fun for Bella with the staff dancing and balloon animals.

89. Adopt a family for Christmas

This one I'm very excited about. Each member of our family picked a child through the Salvation Army/JCPennys Adopt an Angel program. Blake got a 5 year old little boy and I got a 3 year old little girl. It is so great knowing that we are helping out kids that don't have all of the wonderful things that are little girl has. We all did it so we ended up having 7 kids that we got presents for this year.

91. Enroll Bella in a class

I've already posted about this one. Bella's in dance class! She has class tomorrow actually and as always is very excited about it. We just paid the fee for her dance recital which is in the summer. They should be measuring her for the costume soon.

Happy (well not for me) Halloween

Isabella had a pretty good Halloween but I did not. I'm pretty sure I had the H1N1 Flu or at least a really bad flu, bronchitis and a double ear infection. I didn't get to go with her to her dance class where they got to dance in their costumes and I made it for a little Trick or Treating and then had to go home. She had fun but was a little bummed because we told her she would get to go to Oceanside to T or T with her friend Maya but I was too sick.

Here are some pics that Blake took:

(Wow someone is looking a little tired. )

Oh here's a couple more from the pumpkin patch. It was about a million degrees and she was tired so it wasn't as much fun as it could have been.

My birthday

My parents took me and Bella out for my birthday dinner. Her favorite part (and probably mine too) was the milkshake.

Blake and I finally had a weekend away and we went for my birthday. We have passes to Disneyland so we went up on a Saturday and hung out and then did Disneyland on Sunday. It was nice to finally be able to go on some of the big kids rides since we didn't have a short kid with us.