Candy

It's no secret that I have a *major* sweet tooth. It's borderline impossible for me, for example, to enter a shopping mall without stopping for a goodie bag at Sweet Factory. And, on that note, I get quite diappointed if I go to a mall and there are only those little candy machines in the middle over an actual candy store. Of course, Sweet Factory is ridiculously overpriced, but the fact alone that I can mix and match to my heart's content makes me happy.
So far this year, I've only bought one bag of Halloween candy, and it's almost gone. I knew better, but gave in to Walmart's evil ways. The bag I got had Milk Duds, Heath, Reese's Pieces, Rolo and Kit Kat. According to Alex, I could've done better.
Now with Lizzie around, Trick or Treating keeps popping up in my head. First off, do we take her already? Of course, she can't partake, but babies in costume are too darn cute, especially giraffes :) If we take her to the mall, do we bring a little candy bag, or would that look super greedy??
Anyway, back to candy. I remember as a kid going through my stash with my sibs and organizing the best, average and worst picks that we received. Here's what I remember....

Bests:
-Reese's pb cups
-Snickers
-Twix!
-Starburst
-Krackel or Crunch
-Butterfinger
-M&M's
-ANY full-size candy bar (very rare on our blocks)

Averages:
-Fatter tootsie rolls
-Skittles
-Laffy Taffy
-Now or Later
-Hershey's plain chocolate
-Twizzlers
-Tootsie pops
-Kit Kat
-Baby Ruth
-Payday
-Milky Way
-3 Musketeers
-Almond Joy/Mounds

Worsts:
-Jolly Rancher
-Blow Pops
-Smarties
-Dum Dums
-Little Tootsie Rolls
-Raisins!
-Pretzels (really, come on now...)
-Bottle Caps
-Sweet Tarts
-any hard candies (peppermints, butterscotch disks, strawberries, etc.)
-Necco Wafers
-Stickers, or any other inedible whatever

Anything I'm missing??

Lizzie Site

Since Alex is such a photog geek, we decided to make a blog dedicated to Lizzie pics. This way, this blog doesn't get Lizzie overload. Of course, since my life seems to revolve around her, she'll still show up on here, but this site is her pretty picture place :) So, just head on over to alexisom.wordpress.com and check it out.

Here's a little peek of what to expect!

FW Reunion, but not in F-Dub

This is an addendum to my previous post...photos were missing...thanks Danielle ;)


Danielle, Christina and I got together while we were up in WA. It had been ages since us Freshman BYU roomies were able to meet up! I can't believe it's been over 10 years since we lived together. So many memories in that Heritage Halls dorm (I believe it was Richards Hall...?)
Anyway, we hung out for a bit at Danielle's up in Seattle, and I wish I had more time to spend with them! Apparently, after I left, Trophy Cupcakes was visited. Yep, I missed out!

Hopefully, our kiddies can become buddies, although Lizzie's currently the oddball of the group :)
Miss you both!!

First trip to WA

Lizzie and I spent the past 10 days up in good ol' FW. It was a blast! Alex came up for the weekend and we got to enjoy the surprising dry and sunny weather.

Brian and Laura with a bear cub. Oh, sorry, that's Lizzie :) The amount of brown she wears, you'd expect her to pass as a little cubbie.


She's rolling now, at least from her back to tummy, and this is how she ends up in bed occasionally. Her lifeless arms crack me up.


Aunt Andrea reading her a book. I can't say enough how loving my family is with Lizzie. It's such a treat to watch them all interact with her. Andrea sure knows how to pick out cute clothes, too! Yay for bedtime stories!


We took a trip to see Rira and her spankin' new condo. I wish we had more time to hang out!

Laura and Brian with the babe. They got some sweet baby time. One day, she'll have a cousin or two, right??

Most of the Kaler clan, minus Bobby, Uncle Ron, Kelli & Ronny. It was awesome to see everyone and we miss you all!!

Tagged

Luanne tagged me. I love these things. Her questions made me think!

1. What is your favorite part about you? Not needing that much sleep to function. I guess it's been on my mind a bit more than usual these days ;)

2. If you could vacation any where, where would you go? This is a given, and I know oh so redundant, but it is and will always be Disney World. I love it and can never get enough.

3. What does the best meal ever involve? Waffles and peanut butter. But it has to be some brand of natural pb. You know, the kinds that need to be stirred until you feel like your wrist will fall off.

4. Name your favorite sweet. There is no way I can name only one. Yogurtland froyo, pumpkin pie, apple pie, yellow cake with chocolate frosting, peanut butter cookies, yogurt pretzels, chocolate covered gummy bears, shortbread, old fashioned glazed donuts, any See's chocolates. Ok, that's enough.

5. Up to now what is your greatest accomplishment? Definitely our little Lizzie

6. What would be your best day ever? Christmas with both of our families together at a cabin somewhere. Wouldn't that be just awesome....

7. Favorite season and why? Probably Fall. The anticipation is there leading up to the Holidays, the leaves are all so pretty, and the food gets really, really delicious. Hello, pumpkin!

8. What is the best book you've ever read? I don't think I have an all time best, but I immensely enjoyed The Tipping Point and Outliers.

3 Months Already

Oh my goodness, I really can't believe it's been 3 months since I've blogged. How many times can I say something like that. Oops.
Life with Lizzie has been amazing and wonderful. She's growing up so fast and I can't believe how much she's changed already!

This is part of Lizzie's bedroom. Yes, it's cute. But Lizzie doesn't seem to care. She isn't fond of her crib. Actually, I think she may hate it. So, it just sits there looking nice. Alex put the bumper back up yesterday to make it look complete since I've kind of given up on getting her to sleep in it for a little while.


This isn't the most flattering photo of little Lizzie -Pop (get it? like the Izze sodas? heehee), but we had to document her thumb sucking. This is just one of the things that I said I'd never let my kid do, but it's happened and I'll let it slide for awhile as well. BUT, it helps so much in getting her to self-soothe and stay asleep. Maybe this post should be titled "things I never thought I'd allow..."

Our families came into town for Lizzie's blessing about a month ago. Here I am with my side at the San Francisco Creamery in Walnut Creek. It was on that wonderful show Man v. Food, so we HAD to try the Kitchen Sink! Nope, we couldn't finish it either. It was delicious and pretty fun to try. If we can't go to Beaches & Cream, this'll do just fine :)

Us in front of the Oakland Temple. No, she was not blessed IN the temple. Our ward meets at the stake center right next to it, so we were able to get our photos outside. It was a gorgeous day! The few photos we got of the 3 of us had Lizzie like that in each one. That dress was way too slippery and she was worn out and not in the mood for a photo shoot. Such is life...

Since Alex usually is the one taking photos, I wanted to snap a quick one of him with her. Just a nice Saturday at home. Alex has been pretty busy the past couple months so any chance he has to spend with us isn't taken for granted! I'm a bit too into the whole pink and brown combo. All these baby sales will be the death of me, or at least our checkbook, ha!

This was taken just this morning. I had to capture her actually enjoying tummy time, because before the past couple days, it was torture to her. If I get her down right after she eats, she does ok now for a few minutes. I'm so proud of my strong little girlie!

Little Lizzie

Our little girl came into the world this past Sunday, June 20 at 11:48pm. She made it just in the nick of time for Father's Day! Her stats: 6.0 pounds, 20 inches. We love her to pieces and she is the most precious thing.
Sunday morning, I woke up and felt as though my water could be breaking. I wasn't sure since it was more of a strong trickle over a gush, but was also getting some contractions that seemed regular. After much internal debate (I feared being sent home and told it was a false alarm), I called Kaiser and they told me to come in. The whole time I was deciding, Alex got everything ready to go- he seemed to know this was it. This was the last thing I expected since I wasn't due until July 13!
After checking in, the nurses checked and sure enough, I was leaking amniotic fluid- admitted I became. At that point we called the parents since it was official the baby was on the way- surprise!
Once I was settled into my glorious L & D suite, the waiting began. My contractions got more spaced apart and less intense, so I had to go the pitocin route. It wasn't that bad. Probably since I also got the epidural around 4 cm :) I was scared for that, but that was the least of my worries.
After Mary Poppins and Toy Story and a bit more waiting, I was to 10cm and the 3 HOURS of pushing began. It was intense and the hardest thing I've ever done. I really didn't think she was ever going to come out. The clock kept ticking along and with each contraction I gave it my all and it seemed like nothing would budge. Finally, the last 3 or 4 push sessions, she decided to make her entrance. WOW, the most rewarding workout of my life!
Since I spiked a fever toward the end of pushing, protocol requires the baby to go to the NICU. So, the first 2 days of Lizzie's life were spent there. She graduated out of there for our final night at the hospital with us, then we went home on Wednesday.

Kaiser provides a celebration dinner, complete with sparkling cider and keepsake glasses. We had salmon and steak, with quite good strawberry cream cake. This photo was taken before all my swelling and post partum recovery had really set in, so now I feel a bit blah, but trying to remember it's temporary...
Alex is head over heels in love with this girl and it makes me so, so happy. He is the best daddy and it just warms my heart when they cuddle :)

Here she is in the NICU, I think about 2 days old. Her hair is so light and she's got a good amount of it, it really cracks me up- not what I expected! She's hilarious with her facial expressions.

Alex is starting to experiment with the photos, it's been fun, but this is just the beginning of the crazy photo shoots. Not that I'm complaining- you can never have too many baby photos, right?
Anyway, we're grateful to have a healthy baby girl and she is the biggest blessing in our lives. Thank you for all the well wishes, phone calls, advice, willingness to help, etc. We are truly blessed and still can't believe such an angel has joined our little famliy.