Boxes

Azucena has a love of boxes. And not just playing in them--she loves sitting in them. She has a lot of fun when I actually take the time to unpack another box (they're your typical big box size and can easily fit our toddler) but she's also been crazy enough to cram herself into shoeboxes. This morning, I discovered she had found a mid-sized box (from where, I don't know) and decided that the tight fit wasn't good enough, she had to have your puppy friend in there, too!

Meeting Santa (Dec 1)

Our ward hosted a Christmas party on Saturday, December 1st, and they had a special guest--Santa! Azucena had just learned who he was the week before (she calls him "TAY-tan, ho ho ho") and was so excited to see him. She kept trying to run over to him while he was with the other children. But then, of course, once it was her turn, well, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

          

 

(I'm holding her in the first picture because I didn't want her screaming and crying. She's on Santa's lap in the second one because Clark wanted a picture of her sitting on him. Classic!)

Our adventure monkey

Azucena is definitely a little adventurer. If she sees a ledge or a low shelf or a cubby space, she tries to fit herself into it. This weekend, Clark finally got the crib set up for Adelaide's (eventual) arrival and Azucena noticed the little space there was to squeeze underneath it. The only problem was that she couldn't get back out on her own. :D

                

 

Studio Shot

What I learned from taking portrait studio pictures:

• I very much prefer taking pictures outside or in my own home
• I'm not a huge fan of the "professional" photographers in a studio
• It doesn't matter if you have a scheduled appointment, everyone else's will run late and you'll get to sit there for 45 minutes before you even get into the studio
• The photographers will only be interested in selling you packages and specials and deals at the end (that part of our visit took 35 minutes)

But, hey, I have a family picture to put in my home that I'll only have to replace in the next month or so, and the sitting fee was waived, and I got cheap Christmas cards out of it. :D

Midnight Adventures

This is what my daughter does at midnight when she can't sleep. Yeesh!

Video

I got a video of Azucena answering questions. I think one of my favorite parts of watching my daughter grow up is seeing in what ways she's like me and what ways she's like Clark. Right now, if we quit asking her questions too early (like, we stop asking after four or five) she gets our attention and says, "whaaaaaaaat?!" to prompt us to ask her more. And she won't stop until we do. Hee hee! :D

Toilet Paper

I'm sure you think the title to this post is a little weird, but for those of you that remember that I now have a mobile toddler, you'll completely understand. I'll let the video speak for itself, with the exception of this: it cut off my, "Azucena, what did you do?"

Hate Notes

After receiving this note on my car (and I wanted to include a picture of the note so you could see exactly how things were worded; that there was, in fact, no signature; and so you could read the emphasis for yourself), I am going to include all of my rough drafts for a reply here.

Dear Anonymous,
I'm sorry that your son/daughter doesn't love you enough to give you their own assigned spot when you visit like we do for ours.
Regretfully,
Natalia

Dear Anonymous,
I'd love to discuss the reasons I use a spot in my own parking lot over some hot chocolate or dinner. Sadly, you left no name or contact information. I choose to eat Doritos casserole tonight in honor of your note and hereby revoke my invitation so there is more for me.
Sincerely,
Natalia

Dear Anonymous family member,
If you would take the time to notice, there are four visitor spots in our entire parking lot, which accommodates 44 apartments. I noticed you didn't leave notes wrapped in Ziplock bags on anyone else's car. Thanks for singling me out.
Gratefully,
Nataia

Dear writer of anonymous notes,
It's spelled "Wymount" and "frustrated," and you capitalized your V in "visit." And those are just the things that are incorrectly written, not everything that is incorrect.
Grammatically yours,
Natalia

Dear person who I'm starting to feel sorry for,
Your note backfired. My husband and I have discussed the issue and we are never, EVER moving my car again.
Sucks to be you,
Natalia

Dear lady,
I will make some assumptions to return the favor you made for me. First, I'm assuming that you're actually a parent of someone here in Wymount. That would put you in the middle-aged range. This also almost assuredly means that all of your children are past car seat age. I park in spots close to my home because I have a ten month old daughter who cannot yet walk and has to be transported in a car seat. This means I am always carrying AT LEAST 30 lbs worth of cargo (this is not an exaggeration; I weighed both). When I go grocery shopping or do laundry, it is both inconvenient and difficult to park in an unlabeled spot (which you are also welcome to use) that is almost two-tenths of a mile away. And I don't mean inconvenient in an I-don't-want-to-carry-something-further way, I mean it in an I-have-to-carry-my-child-with-me-at-all-times way.
Use your own extra walking time to learn how to whistle,
Natalia

Dear anonymously jerky,
I don't like parking in my assigned parking spot. My spot is located next to two foreign families who have both told me that they don't drive or park well (and while I love them and they're sweet, good people, they're also being totally honest about this). Every time I travel, I travel with a ten month old in a car seat, which means I have to insert and remove a car seat every time I use my car. This is made very difficult if the car next to me is parked closer than two feet away from the door. The visitor spot in question is on the end of a row, which means that, if I back in, I have all the space in the world to put my child into the car safely and remove her from it. I'm sure that you, a concerned family member, would understand this.
Spacially,
Natalia

Dear secret sister of time,
Wow, we must have the exact same schedule of needing to be in Wymount if it's only ever my car in that spot. I can assure you that I only park my car in that slot about 40 - 50% of the time. And, oddly enough, my car is not "always" there. In fact, I was going to use it today but didn't (see note #5) but that is also not the first time I would have used it this week. I was gone for two hours on Tuesday and an hour on Monday. In fact, my car wasn't there for most of last week; I was only able to park in the visitor spot close to my apartment just before the weekend.
Better luck next time,
Natalia

Dear non-resident,
When I signed up to live at Wymount, I specifically asked the management where I was supposed to park my car because my family is lucky enough to own two. They told me to use the visitor spots.
Take that,
Natalia

Too independent for her own good

The little stink found one of her almost empty bottles of baby food and tried to feed herself. I got the complete mess on my phone, but before she did that, I was sitting next to my regular camera and got these shots:

Random moment . . .

My Peruvian mother just purchased a Chinese skillet at IKEA (Sweedish furniture store) here in the USA.

Small world.

BYU is an odd sort of place

In case you've been under a rock while living in Happy Valley (or you don't know anyone that follows BYU Basketball) here are some things you've missed this week:

Video

The magic word.

Another video.

And a BYU news article.

And the cherry on top: at last night's Divine Comedy showing, the opening prayer (nearly*) ended with "and we thank Thee for Jimmer."

::sigh:: Only at BYU. Some people are funny. :)


*and by nearly, I mean they ended the prayer appropriately, this is just the last thing that was said before closing.

Baby Cake

For those of you who have never been to Cake Wrecks, I kindly push you through your computer monitor to head over there (I'l even make it easy! Just click Cake Wrecks!)

And now that you understand edible humor, for anyone that even thinks of giving me this cake, I'm not sure if your House gets ten points or if I'll burst into tears . . .



I've posted an ultrasound picture. I'm pregnant, not fat. ;)

What's good for you could kill you . . .

This post is more for me than anyone else. I just want to be able to look back and remember some random, funny things about this pregnancy.

Like the fact that everyone keeps recommending crackers/dry cereal and ginger ale to help with the nausea.

And if I eat crackers and dry cereal my body automatically gets rid of it.

And ginger ale tastes like hot dog water. (Good thing I paid $2 for the 2 Liter, eh?)

Also, both toothpaste and Clark's mouthwash make me throw up (and, no, I will not go into how horrible my dental hygiene is right now).

You know, those kinds of funny things. :)

Barbara's Reception

Barbara (from my freshman year) held her Utah reception on Saturday night and I was lucky enough to go. This was completely due to Barbara taking a few hours that afternoon to contact some of her friends who were in the Provo/Orem area to give me a ride up. She's wonderful and selfless like that. :D

I loved this idea: Barbara had cloth squares out on the table for her guests to sign and she'll be making a quilt to remember her wedding.

This is one of her cakes--which was a bundt cake, made by a company called "Nothing Bundt Cake" (which is fabulously clever, I think).

Barbara's sister is a sweetheart (she's the one in purple) and Ariel showed up not to long after me. :)

And, last but not least, how awkward is it that Jessica and I wore the same outfit?

Shopping!

Considering I have only ten weeks before I get married, I have to take care of a lot of details in the next couple of weeks and, since my roommates (and ex-roommates) are awesome people, they insisted I start working on finding a dress. We went by Alysse's Bridal Shop on Wednesday and here are two of my favorite pictures (just overall, not because of the actual dresses I'm wearing).

It's a small world

This morning, at the temple, my roommate pointed another young woman out to me. "That's Mark's sister." (Mark being a grad student I met last night.) I looked up and lo and behold, it's the girl my cousin has been dating for 5+ years.

We giggled for a while as we remembered how interconnected everyone's lives are. :)

Sick Day

It'll be interesting to see how the rest of the workday goes, since everyone in my office is sick, Although it is pretty funny to listen to the sounds and hear lots of sniffling among the typing . . .

Riiiiicola

I'm still super impressed with how easily jingles can be remembered, even years later. Seriously, it's like crack, in TV commercial form. :)

"Cub hobe"

Yeah, you know what that means, don't you?

I bet everyone calling in to work today is LOVING me because I'm able to enunciate and speak clearly and loudly even.

::giggles like a maniac::

::coughing fit ensues::

Pride cometh before the fall . . .

Last Friday, the toilet at work stopped up. I'd never tried to unclog one before, so I actually had to google instructions on how to do it correctly (since everything I was trying was failing). Finally, after watching a vid and reading an article (yeah, isn't that weird?) I was able to get the toilet to cooperate and empty itself. I found this one of the high points of my Friday, so I proudly shared with my roommates and sister.

Of course, today, after the repairman came for the fact that it was leaking every time it was flushed (a problem that's persisted for about two weeks) and gave it a 'once over,' the toilet stopped flushing properly again. Boo-fail. (I did 'fix' it again just now. But I'm going to be humble and hope that that keeps it fixed.)

Here's hoping.