Ella 8 months

My little bug is 8 months old!  I know ever parent says this, but seriously where has the time gone?  She is growing so fast some days I just want her to slow down.  She is at such a fun age right now.. I think I say that with every month.  Life with Ella just keeps getting better and better each day.  I love this little munckin so much!

8 months old 

Fun Facts about Ella:

• Weight:18.5 lbs (75th percentile) Height: 28.5 inches (95th percentile) Head circumfrence: (25th percentile)
• Loves to touch everything with her pointer finger.  We call it "the probe" haha.  She loves to examine everything with her finger such as the carpet, your face, her food, toys etc.  It is so cute
• Little miss independent she wants to do everything by herself, and get into everything
• Has 2 adorable bunny teeth 
• Loves mashed potatoes, blueberries, yogurt bites, cereal puffs (pretty much any real food I give her) and of course mac & cheese baby food (gerber brand)
• Soooo close to crawling.  She has taken a few steps forward but then falls on her belly  
• Sitting up and playing like a champ
• Sleeping through the night again. yay!!! Goes to sleep at 8:00pm and wakes up at 8:00am
• Notices when people leave the room and turns her head to look for them
• Responds to her name
• Takes 2 naps a day
• Loves to chat
• Loves to play in her jumper
• Nurses 3 times a day
• Becoming more reserved in new environments.  She gets really quiet and stares at everything... 
• Loves pulling items out of a box and then putting them back in

Ellas new sock monkey from Grandma and Grandpa Reese

Mommy's little girl 

Christmas Eve and Christmas with the Reese's

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day with the Reese's.  The Reese clan is also big on Christmas traditions.  On Christmas eve we started the evening off by having soup and bread sticks and then going to temple square to look at the Christmas lights. I love the lights at temple square.  It really makes me feel the Christmas spirit. I haven't seen them for the past 2 years or more so I was very excited.  It was snowing really hard so Joni stayed home with little Ella and let Brandon and I go look at the lights.

 

 

 After we got home from looking at the lights we opened our Christmas Pj's and our family gifts. Each year we draw a family members name to buy a present for.  I had Ryan this year, and bought him an Ipod plug for the car so he can listen to his ipod while driving.  Kelli had my name and she bought me slipper socks (she knows me well...  I hate cold feet!) and a scarf!  Then we ate lots of chip dip, buffalo chicken dip and artichoke dip, as well as little smokies (mini hot dogs with bbq sauce and bacon).  yum! Usually we play a game on Christmas Eve but we all were pretty tired so we just stayed up and chatted instead.  It is so fun to have the Reese family together.  This is the first time we have all been together in close to 5 years!  I love that I am part of such a tight knit family.  It's such a blast when we all get together! :) 

Christmas morning we woke up opened presents and spent the day relaxing and spending time together.  Later that night the boys stayed home to watch the kiddies and us girls got to go see Les Mis... which has to be one of my all time favorite movies.  I absolutely loved it, and was pretty much holding back tears the whole time.  

Merry Christmas

**On a side note I am horrible at remembering to take pictures.  I am hoping I can steal some pictures from my sister in law Heather, because I didn't take any.  My dad loves taking pictures so I always manage to have a million from the Amussen side but hardly any from the Reese side. Boo! I need to be better about taking photos... possibly a new years resolution?!?!

Amussen Christmas

Each year we rotate the family we spend Christmas with.  This year was Christmas with the Reese side.  We celebrated the Amussen Christmas on December 24th.

yay for Christmas! 

My family is big on traditions.  On Christmas eve (which we celebrated on the 23rd) we have a seafood dinner (Brandon's favorite) including bacon wrapped scallops, king lobster, shrimp, then a mandarin salad, orange rolls (my favorite), and sweet potatoes.  After dinner we open our Christmas eve presents which include new PJ's, an ornament, a Christmas book, movie and a game.  This year I got slippers for Christmas, and Michelle made matching PJ's for us 3 girls (Ella, Michelle and I).  She is so talented!  Ella was added into the Christmas tradition, and got her first Christmas ornament.  I brought home a book from Australia for Ella's Christmas book.  It's called Santa's Aussie Holiday.  It is such a cute book, and very fitting considering she is our little Aussie baby.  She loved eating it.

Christmas Eve presents

For our Christmas eve gift we got the game Baulderdash, which I love.  It has to be one of my favorite games.  It is a really fun bluffing game, basically a test to see who the most believable liar is.  You have to be really creative, and some of the answers people come up with are hilarious.

We had brownies with peppermint ice cream for dessert.  I love peppermint ice cream!  We all were too tired to watch the movie (Men in Black 3), so we went to sleep.  Ella was teething and had jet lag, so it was a treacherous night for Brandon and I.  Ella stayed up until 5am crying, and screaming.  I tried everything... not even infant tyenol would do the trick.  I finally got her to calm down by rocking in front of the Christmas tree and singing Christmas carols, but as soon as I tried to set her down it started all over again.  Needless to say we were SO exhausted the next morning.  Not ideally how you'd like to start Christmas morning.

yum!

Ella loved playing with the wrapping paper

Christmas Ornament I made for the grandparents

Matching pjs that Michelle made

Family vacation 2012: Hawaii

We arrived in Oahu on Sunday morning (December 16th) at about 6 am.  We were both exhausted from taking a red eye flight, and dealing with a fussy baby (see previous post).  We were staying at Turtle Bay resort, but unfortunately couldn't check in until 1:00. We picked up our rental car, and spent the day exploring the beautiful island.  Ella luckily slept the majority of the time in the car.  We stopped into a little beach side town on the North shore and got a world famous snow cone (they were called something else but I can't remember the name). I got 5 different flavors with condensed milk on top.  It was delicious, but huge so I couldn't finish it.

Turtle Bay resort

After checking in we took a nice afternoon nap.  Ella was still extremely fussy (want to throw your baby out the window kind of fussy... No I wouldn't really throw my baby out the window, but all moms can relate to this statement).  We decided we better take her to the doctor to make sure she didn't have an ear infection, since our attempt in Fiji failed.  We were able to see a doctor right away without having to wait.  Luckily no ear infection, just teething as we had suspected.  We got sushi for dinner, and then called it an early night at the hotel... well technically we tired to call it an early night, but Ella had a different plan in mind (aka stay up until 2 am crying).

Pool at Turtle Bay overlooking the ocean

North shore

The next morning (Monday), we went to the Polynesian cultural center.  I had heard great things about it so I was really looking forward to going.  I absolutely loved it!!!  It is owned by the LDS church which I wasn't aware of it.  The cultural center allows you to explore the different cultures and traditions of the different islands (eg Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga, Fiji etc).  They have different shows and activities to represent each island.  My favorite was the Samoa show.  We got to watch a guy start a fire by  rubbing sticks together, husk a coconut, and climb a coconut tree.  The guy performing was hilarious and by the end of the show my cheeks were burning from laughing so hard.  It was such a fun time!  It was really rainy, luckily we had ponchos and a rain cover for Ella's stroller, but because of the bad weather we didn't get very many pictures.

Polynesian Cultural Center

Tuesday we went to the Dole pineapple plantation.  We got to eat some yummy teryaki chicken with pineapple, and pineapple ice cream for dessert.  We walked around the gardens, and then went on the pineapple express... which is a train that takes you around the plantation.  It was such a fun day!

Ella loved the pineapple

Pineapple express

On the train

Wednesday morning we woke up, looked at my phone which said Thursday December 21st, and were in a mad panic thinking we had to check out that afternoon and catch our red eye flight to Utah. We got all packed up and even called the bell man to come up and pick up our bags.... I sent a text to my mom and Michelle saying see you in 24 hours.  I got two confused texts back saying "are you flying in on Thursday?" Apparently I had forgotten to switch my phone back to the correct time zone, which Fiji and Australia are a day ahead.  It made for a good laugh, and we were happy to find out we had an extra day in Hawaii.

That afternoon we went to Pearl Harbor.  We were able to go on the tour and see where the USS Arizona's resting place is.  It was so heart breaking to know that more than 2,500 people died in this attack.  They decided to leave the USS Arizona battleship as a permanent resting place for those people that lost their lives serving our country.  When you look into the ocean you can still see oil leaking from the ship.  It was a very humbling experience, and I am really glad I got to go.

We weren't able to do any other tours because Ella was tired, and it was getting late.  We really hope to go back to Pearl Habor one day and visit all the different exhibits.

USS Arizona

Ella taking a little nap in daddys arms

Thursday morning (last day in Hawaii) we went for a short walk to see the Waimea waterfall.  It was still rainy, but it was nice to get outside.

Waimea waterfall 

After our walk went and visited the LDS temple. 

Oahu temple visiting center

After visiting the temple we did a little shopping, ate some dinner and then it was off to the airport to fly home.  We loved Hawaii and can't wait to go back some day.

This is how Ella slept the whole flight.  She was sprawled out across my lap so I couldn't move the entire flight. haha  

Family vacation 2012: Sydney and Fiji

I am back from a blogging break.  I was initially too depressed to blog because I thought I had lost all of our family vacation photos from Sydney, Fiji and Hawaii.  I took all the pictures on my iphone, and when we got to the US I got a new iphone/ number, and I thought I had lost all the pictures.  As I was looking through my photos today they miraculously showed up on my photo stream.  Apparently I had my photos backed up to my laptop.  Seriously best feeling ever!  I literally cried when I thought I had lost all of our vacation photos... so this was a huge relief. For some reason our Sydney photos still aren't showing up, so I only have the two photos that I saved on facebook. Just a warning this is going to be a long post... I kept a journal of what we did each day, so sorry for all the mundane details.

 On the morning of December 10th we said goodbye to Perth and flew to Sydney.  We arrived in Sydney at about 6:00pm, ordered pizza from our room and called it an early night.  The next morning we woke up ordered room service for breakfast and then headed to the Sydney Opera House, Sydney harbour bridge, and the botanic gardens.  Despite it being summer, it was a really cold and rainy day in Sydney.  After walking around the gardens we had lunch outside the Opera House over looking Sydney harbour, and then went back to the hotel for an afternoon nap.  Later that evening we went and walked around a cathedral near our hotel, and ordered room service for dinner (going out to dinner with a tired baby is not my idea of a fun time).

On December 12th (Wednesday) we took a 5 hour flight to Fiji.  Once we arrived in Fiji we had to take a 1 hour taxi drive to the Outrigger resort.  Ella did great on the flight and on the car ride.

When we arrived at the Outrigger we were greeted with glasses of tropical juice.  It was close to 9 pm by the time we arrived, so we ordered room service for dinner and went to sleep.  Unfortunately there was not very much sleep to be had due to a cranky, jet lagged baby that decided to be up every hour.  Great way to start a vacation in paradise!
December 13th (Thursday) We ordered room service for breakfast which came with a fresh fruit platter that had the tastiest pineapple ever.  yum!  We spent the day relaxing by the pool, drinking virgin pina coladas.  Ella loved playing in the pool!

Little water baby

That night Brandon sat in on a Kava ceremony.  He said Kava tasted like black liquorice, and he was a little weirded out that he had to drink from the same cup as 10 other strangers.  Believe me, he wasn't getting any kisses that night! After eating the yummiest pork ribs for dinner we called it an early night yet again.  Ella had a fever of 101, and was really fussy.  It was Ella's first fever ever.  Poor baby. :(
December 14th (Friday) had another relaxing morning.  Ella still wasn't feeling well so we spent a lot of time in the hotel.  Little did we know the worst was yet to come...
Brandon went to a kokoda cooking class.. basically it's raw fish in coconut milk.  I bought a few gifts (turquoise necklace, coconut soap, fan, and magnets for my mom). Ordered room service again for dinner because Ella was fussy (are you sensing a trend?) by this time we were REALLY sick of room service and sitting in our hotel room.  The price we pay for babies. sheesh!

December 15th (Saturday) went to the Fiji Kula Eco Zoo.. our first time out of the resort! Ella was still fussy but we decided if we didn't get out of the hotel room we were going to go crazy.  At the zoo we got to hold the Fiji crested iguana  which are critically endangered and feed turtles.  

Ella's iguana friend 

Our souvenir from Fiji.  It's 3 turtles (big, medium and small) carved out of wood and it has Brandon, Lisa, Ella ~ Fiji December 2012 ~ carved on it.  The turtle is a sign of good luck in Fiji.   

That night was horrible.  Ella essentially cried and screamed until 5:00am straight.  It was so bad that at 2:00 in the morning we had to take her for a walk around the resort because we were worried that she was keeping the people in the room next to us awake.   At one point we went into the resorts gym (that way she didn't wake anyone up) and just let Ella scream herself to sleep.   We figured out that she was teething, and the time zone changes probably didn't help.   There was no way to calm her down.  Not even the infant tyenol was having any affect... she essentially just had to cry until she wore herself out.  It was a nightmare.  Looking back now I can laugh and see the humor in it, but in that moment as we  were sitting in a gym at 3:00 in the morning on "vacation," it felt like the world was ending.  Brandon and I had even discussed canceling our trip to Hawaii because Ella was such a nightmare.

Beginning of cyclone Evans

December 15th (Saturday) To make our trip even more eventful Fiji was on red alert because cyclone Evans was suppose to hit that evening/early morning Sunday.  It was SO humid and windy!
My mom recommended that we see a doctor to make sure Ella didn't have an ear infection, since a lot of times babies get ear infections when they are teething.  We were a little concerned about flying with her if she did have an ear infection.  The front desk arranged for a car to come take us to the hospital. When we got there I was a little shocked at the facility.  It was very third world.  I don't want to bad mouth Fiji because I know they are doing the best they can, and I'm sure they make do just fine.  It was just a little out of my comfort zone from what I'm use to.  After waiting for an hour to see the doctor (that was supposedly out to lunch) we ended up just leaving.    

Ella at the hospital 

We flew out that night at around 11:00pm and missed the cyclone luckily! Surprisingly Ella did pretty well on the flight and only cried a couple times.  Next stop Hawaii!

New car!

Yay we got a new car!  Brandon was only in town for a week before he had to fly back to Perth.  my parents were kind enough to let us borrow their land cruiser until we found something.  Brandon found this gem online at KSL, and we bought it from a private seller.  It is a 2011 Subaru outback, and only has 17,000 miles.  It is a crossover, so very spacious and great in the snow (which is important since we are now living in the arctic).  Some other great features include a back up camera (great for me since I tend to run into stationary objects haha), dvd player, seat warmers (a dream come true in this freezing weather), built in gps, and fog lights. I love it!  As Jade would say, "It's no Getz, but I Getz it will have to do."  haha

Ella 7 months

Our little bug is 7 months old!!!! 

Fun facts about Ella at 7 months:

• First tooth came in on Christmas!  The teething process was miserable for everyone involved... 3 weeks of fussiness, low fever for a week, chin rash from all the drool, and diaper rash.  Not to mention Ella decided to start teething while we were on vacation.  Teething and a baby with jet lag... well you can imagine the horror we witnessed.  
• Wearing 9 month clothing...our little giant
• Favorite baby food is the macaroni and cheese vegetable one (Gerber brand)
• Favorite toys are a sophie giraffe toy Michelle gave her for Christmas, and a singing book that grandma and grandpa Reese gave her
• Loves cereal puffs 
• Trying so hard to crawl.  Rocks back and forth on her hands and knees
• Fascinated by Christmas lights 
• Still breastfeeding every 4 hours during the day
• Takes 2-3 naps a day
• Started taking some formula... it's the only way Brandon and I can go out without the munchkin.  Since my milk supply is only on supply and demand I don't really have enough to pump in advance, which makes it difficult if someone is babysitting her.  I feel guilty giving her formula sometimes, because I know breast milk is better.  I still plan on breastfeeding, but this at least allows us a little more freedom which is nice!   
• Doesn't like to be rocked to sleep anymore.  I lay her down in her crib, and play lullabies and she puts herself to sleep
• Loves peek-a-boo
• The mirror is her best friend (we've nicknamed the mirror Miranda)
• Loves playing with her cousin Sawyer the dog
• No longer sleeping through the night (hopefully this is just a phase because of the jet lag)  
• Going through a screeching phase
• Says ba-ba-ba
• Starting to have a little stranger danger, but for the most part will go to anyone
• Still such a happy baby!  :)   

eating cereal puffs 

First tooth

Here's to hoping she starts sleeping through the night again