Back in California!

Nenji and I have been in California for over a month now. I know the original plan was to wait until March 9th, but on February 10th, Nenji and I came to California! It's been very different having to learn how to not have Fi Dan around all the time. It sure does make me appreciate and love him more than ever. He just came to visit me and Nenji last week, and boy was it great to have daddy around! Fi Dan will be coming back again to California when I have the baby...so I've been hoping to pop tummy-baby out soon! And then he will be home for good on April 23rd. Can't wait to have him here with me and the babies!





My family has been a great help. My parents have slept with Nenji a few times to give me a break. Kashia has been a tremendous help with Nenji, she's practically his second mommy. Kalu and Maddy have also been big helpers. Kalu and Maddy come over almost everyday to just hang out with me and Nenji, which I'm very grateful for because it makes the day go faster.





Maddy and Nenji are so cute together. I call her Mother Maddy because she loves to baby Nenji even though he's bigger than she is. She gets his bottles for him, brings his dirty bottles to the kitchen, she brings him food and water, and she finds his blanket for him when he's sleepy. She is going to be a GREAT older sister....and mother some day. I am very grateful for my family and I feel very blessed to have them helping me out! :)

Here's my handsome little man.

Happy St. Patty's Day! Mommy made green french toast!

Poor Maddy Paddy, Chuckeecheese came out and scared her. :(

Here's my brave little man! I have to admit, Chuckee is pretty scary in person!


Here's daddy and Nenji. I love these two soooooo much!

This was Nenji's favorite thing to ride while we were there.

Happy New Year!!!

Okay, so I know the first month of the "new year" is basically over, but happy new to everyone anyway! Lots of things are happening. As of today I am 29 weeks and 3 days pregnant...so that means about 11 more weeks of being uncomfortable and fat...and until I see my little bundle of joy that likes to use me as a punching and kicking bag. :) I just took the gestational diabetes test 2 weeks ago and will know if I have diabetes at my next doctor's appointment. I am really crossing my fingers that I don't...but I'm not too sure, because tummy baby LOVES sweets. All that I really crave with this baby is sweets...cookies, ice cream, apple dumplings, oohhh....I think I'm going to have to get some sweets in a minute. He is very active and loves to stay up late. He starts to get really active around 9 pm and he doesn't stop until about 12am. When Nenji sits on my lap or leans against my tummy, little tummy baby will kick and push back. Oh boy, I hope that isn't an indication of how they'll get along when he comes out! But Fi Dan and I are very excited.
Oh, and I have decided to have the baby in California after all. The baby's due date is April 14th (which is also my dad's birthday) and that is the week before finals for Fi Dan. Fi Dan found an internship in California for the summer, so that means we'll be going back home for the summer. And so, we just figured it would be easier for us both and the babies if Nenji and I just went home a month early so that there could be people there to watch Nenji while I had the baby. And that way we wouldn't have to travel 12 hours across Utah, Nevada and California when the baby was only 2 weeks old.

Okay...now onto Mr. Nenji Lo. He is almost 1 year old! Yikes, already...I can't believe he's getting so big already. Only 1 more month and then my little man will be 1 ! :) He is such a joy to have in our lives. He just loves to make me and Fi Dan laugh. He is especially hilarious when he's ready to go to bed or when he's stayed up his bed time. We can tell he's going to be a really funny kid already.

Nenji stayed up past his bed time. As you can see he's laughing but he's also super grumpy. He's so silly.

He LOVES being around other kids and for some reason he also likes to climb on them and have them try to hold him up. He usually just ends up pinning the poor kid though. Nenji and I go to the Provo Library for reading time and he really enjoys that. We check out books and videos, but he just ends up reading his old books anyway. His favorite thing to do is spontaneously clap! I love watching "The View" or "Who wants to be a millionaire" with Nenji because whenever he hears the people clap he'll start clapping too. Nenji's favorite fruit is starwberries. He just learned how to feed himself a couple of weeks, which is good because I was a bit worried about his fine motor skills, but he seems to be doing pretty darn good now. His favorite songs are "I'm yours" by Jason Mraz and "Hey Soul Sister" by Train. He can just sit in front of the computer and watch those two videos on Youtube for hours (not that we've let him). He absolutely loves to slow dance with his dad when they're listening to music, it's the sweetest thing I've ever seen! We just enrolled Nenji in a swimming class a couple of weeks ago and he is doing a FANTASTIC job! Whenever we tell him we're going swimming or going to take a bath his waves his little hands around like he's splashing the water.


Anyway, that's about it for us. Fi Dan is doing well in the MHP program. He might be able to finish in December of 2010 instead of Winter of 2011, so we're happy about that. And as for me, I love being a stay at home mom/wife...most of the time. I just don't like the washing the dishes part. :) If we had a dish washer, life would be grand!

Grateful!

The people in our ward have been amazing! When they found out that Nenji had fractured his collar bone, the Relief Society Presidency called to make sure that everything was alright with us. They even set up meal plans for us so that we wouldn't have to cook. My visiting teachers were the ones who cooked for us. The first night we had tacos and the second night we had fish, rice and salad. Although Nenji wasn't suffering to the point where I couldn't cook, it was still so nice of them to bring over some food. Fi Dan and I joked that we would tell the Relief Society Presidency that we needed a meal plan for the week. :) I am so grateful to be living in an area where people are very thoughtful and kind. :) In return, I baked goodies for them. I made some thumb print cookies and chocolate truffles. Fi Dan loved the thumb print cookies and asked if we could just keep them. Of course I kept a few so that he could have some.

Crazy week!

My poor little guy has had a rough week. Last week he fell off the bed. :( He usually sleeps in his crib, but in the early mornings when he's fussy and cold, we let him sleep on the bed with us. He has this bad habit of sleeping on his tummy with his little bum in the air...and then he'll kick and kick until he bumps his head on the wall. Well, on this particular morning he kicked and kicked himself right off of the bed. :( Don't worry though, he was alright. When I picked him up he was all smiles. Later on that day, while I was cooking for Samuel's birthday party, I took some really hot cookie sheets out of the oven and placed it on a chair ( I KNOW! what a dumb idea). I had completely forgotten about the hot cookie sheets and turned my back for just a moment, when Nenji walked into the kitchen. I just remember hearing him yelling and then giving me this really sad look. Then I saw his little hand opening and shutting. I realized what had happened. Fi Dan ran him to the bathroom and ran his hand under cold water. We treated his little hand and within minutes he was his happy self again. I hadn't realized how bad the burn was until I saw a blister starting to form. (I still feel so bad just thinking about it....I just might start crying!) Through out the week I kept a good eye on him and his hand. I am happy to report that his hand is almost completely healed and perfect again!

Unfortunately, this isn't he worst of what happened to my baby. A couple of days ago he fell out of his booster chair. Fi Dan and I did everything to comfort him but he wouldn't stop crying, so we knew there was something wrong. We took him to the ER and had him examined but they said he was fine. They took X-rays of his little body and said that nothing was broken, but we knew there was something wrong because every time we held him or touched him a certain way he would wince and start to cry. The next morning we were convinced something was wrong because he woke up almost every hour crying that night. We took him to his Doctor and had him examined. She discovered that he had fractured his little collar bone. :( (tears are starting to form in my eyes right now!) She said that if he were to fracture anything, it should be his collar bone because it heals on its own and it's not too serious. Fi Dan and I were relived to find out what was causing our little boy pain, but at the same time we felt horrible about Nenji even being hurt! It's been 2 days since Nenji's sad fall, and he's doing better. He's not allowed to crawl, so he's in his walker or sitting on our laps during the day. He's as cheerful and as happy as ever, but is limited with his left hand/shoulder. Fi Dan and I have to be super careful because once in a while when we pick him up the wrong way he'll wince and start to cry. He has another doctor's appointment next Thursday to follow up on his collar bone, and I am hoping that everything will be okay.

Being parents, Fi Dan and I finally realize why our parents were the way they were. We also realize how much they've done for us and the sacrifices that they did for us. I see my parents in a whole different light. You'd give the world to make your children happy and you'd do anything to take away the pain or take their place if possible when they are hurt. Being a mom has definitely made me a better person. :)

Thanksgiving!

I love the holiday season! I especially enjoy it now that we've been away from family for so long and we get to go visit. We were actually planning on spending Thanksgiving here in Provo, and going to my cousin, Kazua's. But then one of our friends from Sacramento (who is also attending BYU), Joseph, went home and we wanted to go soooooo bad too. We decided Monday night that we would rent a car and go down for the week for Thanksgiving. It was all very last minute. We would have left on Monday night, but I had my ultrasound Tuesday morning at 10am, so we decided to wait until then. (Oh, and by the way we are going to have another BOY!!!) We left around 12:30pm and got home around 9:30! It was the greatest feeling to see the family. Of course they didn't care much for me and Fi Dan because they were more excited to see Nenji, but nonetheless, it was still sweet to see my family.

Nenji was terrified at first, he had just woken up from sleeping in the car, and the next thing he knew there were tons of people. I was so happy that Madison and Nenji got along. She's so cute. She's such a little mother to Nenji, she took such good care of him while we were there. :) We had an awesome Thanksgiving dinner that Kalu, Kashia, and I prepared. My favorite part...was the food! My dad made some delicious papaya salad...sooo good.
My in-laws also came up to Sacramento to see Nenji the last two nights that were there, and it was great seeing them too.
Being home reminds me of why I love being home so much....there's so much LOVE! I truly am so grateful to have such a wonderful family. My parents are awesome, and they make such wonderful grandparents. I love watching them with Nenji and Maddy. I am so grateful for my sisters and the bond that we share. I am also grateful for Ben, he's a silly kid. And of course I am grateful for my husband, Nenji and the new baby! As stated before, I love the holiday season because of the wonderful memories that are made. :)
We had a wonderful time in California and can't wait to go back in 3 weeks! Ready to chow down again!

Nenji and Maddy fought over who grandpa would hold,
so he ended up holding both of them!

Nenji's new favorite thing: being outside with grandpa.

Grandma and Nenji!

I Love this picture!

Life in Provo

We've been in Provo for almost 2 months now and we're adjusting really well. Sometimes it's strange to be here in Provo, because it makes me miss college life and my college friends. :) Fi Dan has emerged himself in the MHP program and is doing really well. He's up all night studying, because that's the only time that it's quiet! Even though he has tons of homework and readings to do, he always sets time aside for Nenji. Nenji is doing quite well. I think he misses the family back in California. Now that it's just me, daddy, and him, he's grown quite attached to me. Before, when there were always lots of people around, he never really cared to look for me, now he keeps an eagle eye on me wherever I go.

He's now zooming around the house with in his walker. He's quite amazing actually. He loves to come into the kitchen area and watch me clean and cook, sometimes he'll even attempt to help me clean by taking the garbage out. Several times I've caught him dragging the garbage can across the kitchen. Sometimes I have to block him off from the kitchen while I'm cooking and he will just scream and yell at me because he's angry at me for blocking him. Whenever me or Fi Dan go to the bathroom, Nenji will follow us down the hall and wait for us to come out. Another thing that he likes to do, is watch TV...except when I'm not lookin he'll get two inches from the TV and just sit there and enjoy the entertainment. He is a joyful and very happy baby. When his daddy comes home, he gets so excited. He hugs his daddy and gives him kisses ( it's more like licking his face) but it's a sweet sight. He'll be 8 months on the 25th of this month. Fi Dan and I can't believe how big our baby is getting!!! I can hardly carry him around anymore, he's so heavy! Nenji does a lot of "talking" mostly he says "mamamamma" or "ddadada" so we've decided that he's saying "mama" and "dada". The only thing is that....he isn't sleeping through the night yet. :( Sometimes I only get a few hours of sleep...but he takes naps through the day, so that's when I catch up on my sleep too.

And for our other exciting news, Fi Dan and I are expecting again! I'm 13 weeks along now...and we still cannot believe that we're going to have another one already. Let me tell you, it was unplanned and a huge suprise, but we are happy and excited as well. Our due date is April 15, 2010. But there's a big dilemma because we're not sure if we want to have the baby here in Utah or if we want to go to California. Since the due date is so close to Fi Dan's finals, and we're planning on moving back to California in April....we're thinking it would be best if I went about a month or 2 before my due date and have the baby in California, that way there will be lots of people to help look after Nenji. The only downside is that Fi Dan probably won't be there for the delivery of the baby....and I've refused to be taped. So, things are still up in the air! We're just ganna have to pray and see what will be best. :)

Here's the new baby at 11 weeks. :)

Here's my little Nenji up by the Provo Temple.

Nenji and Daddy at Temple Square.

Mommy and Nenji at Temple Square during Conference weekend.

Fi Dan, Nenji and I are now living in Utah! Fi Dan was accepted into the Master's of Public Health Program at BYU. We left on August 14...and have been here for about week. It was nice of my parents to drive us all the way here. You never realize how much your parents do for you until they're away from you! I miss them terribly. I was really glad that Kalu, Maddy and Shon were able to come too. It was great to spend some time with them. We got to hang out with Danny Bird, and we met his wonderful wife Nancy and adoreable son Zach. Kashia stayed a week with us, which was really nice. She washed the dishes and helped me cook for the boys.

Oh, I forgot to mention Joseph and Sam are living with us for the moment, until they can get into their dorms. They've been very entertaining so far! Kashia left today, and now I miss my sisters terribly! Above are some pictures of us since we've arrived here in Utah. I miss California already with a passion!