Christmas #1

We were in Utah for the actual Christmas day (or Pre-Christmas, if you read our last post), so things were low key and relaxed, except for running around cleaning and packing later in the day.  Bobby and I woke up before the baby (that NEVER happens!) and opened our stockings.  I gave Bobby a ton of candy, and he loaded my stocking down with chocolate and 9 Bert's Bees chapsticks (that's right, 9!!).  Almost as if on a timer, Gia woke up once we had finished our stockings, so we got her and brought her out by the tree.  We had to get ready for church (Bobby was giving the message that morning), so we left our presents until the afternoon.  Bobby did a wonderful job preaching, and I kept Gia with me for part of the service since it was Christmas morning.  

After the service was over, we got home and immediately fixed our paper plates of Chinese food (yum!) and Sparkling cider.  We watched an episode of Gilmore Girls (my sweet husband tolerated it and made the time special for me) and then opened our gifts while Gianna was napping.  Gia woke up, and we got down to business unwrapping her things!  She got a gift from me, Bobby, Great Grandpa M, Aunt Fran and Uncle Paul, and Nana.  She got some neat things, but was way more interested in the wrapping paper!  

We spent the rest of the day eating, watching Christmas movies and packing/cleaning.  It was a sweet time of just the three of us, although we missed our families.  I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, or Merry First Christmas if you're like us!  Here are some pictures to commemorate the day.  I only put some on here; the rest will be on Facebook.

Our Christmas scene.

The big doggie I got Gia.

Our stockings

Bobby got the Kindle!

Gia got her daddy a "World's Greatest Dad" frame for his desk.

Bobby got me a pretty scarf.

Gianna opening her gifts from Great Grandpa Montanarella.

Our family Christmas photo.  Gia's looking away, and Nola's eyes are half closed, but it took us 10 minutes to get this good of a picture, so it will do!

 

Happy Pre-Christmas!

This year we are unable to be with our families for Christmas, so, as my Dad says, we are having our "Pre-Christmas" this weekend.  We were both disappointed about this fact, but we are doing some fun things and making the best of it.  For example, Bobby is out right now picking us up a lot of Chinese food that we will eat for the next 2 days (just like the Gilmore girls!).  And tomorrow we will make hot cocoa in our hot cocoa maker, open presents after church, Skype with our families and watch a lot of Christmas movies.

Bobby has been so sweet, wrapping my presents with bows!, putting fun labels on them (to Elf from Bumble), placing them in different rooms so that they were there when I turned around, making a "Bobby's Christmas songs" list on iTunes and playing it, and just being generally in the Christmas spirit.  I used to call him the Grinch because he wasn't into baking with me or decorating the house, but last night I upgraded him to the Grinch at the end of the movie.  Lindsay Lou Who must have worked her charm.  I love you, babe.

We got Gia some neat things, but those details will be in a different post after Christmas.  I took some pictures of her though, just for fun and because I think she's so darn cute.  Thanks to Nola she smiled for the camera.  I hope you enjoy them!

Sleep is hard to come by

I wanted to post this a couple of days ago, because that's when the sleep fiasco was, but I was too tired!  So, here is is, a few days late.

We had 3 nights (well, me mostly) of very interupted sleep thanks to our little princess.  She would wake up wanting to eat at least once a night (as normal), but then didn't want to go back to sleep.  So, I stayed up with her for a couple of hours until she finally conked out.  Then she would wake up a couple hours later, crying, but for no apparent reason.  We were thinking that she might be teething, but I think, now looking back on it, that she had gas.  But, thank goodness, after I had three days of being grumpy and crying for no reason, she finally is on a great schedule, and Mama is happy.  And when Mama's happy, everyone's happy :o)

So, after nursing the baby and then taking a shower, this is what I found:

And then, on the floor below Gia, I found this:

My sweet family all snoozing together... except me, because I had to grab a shower when I could.  I hadn't had one in three days at that point.  

Things I've learned from Gia

Things I've learned from Gia:

1.  I can function amazingly well on the least sleep I've ever gotten in my life (including college).

2.  If God loves me the way I love Gia, then I am ashamed of the moments when I ever doubted Him.

3.  My husband is more sacrificial than I could have imagined.

4.  Patience.  I kept waiting and waiting for her to laugh, and she finally did, and it was awesome!  Now I am waiting and waiting for that first tooth.  Bobby keeps thinking that anytime she is cranky, she must be cutting a tooth, so he is patiently waiting to be right one of these days.

5.  How to cook with one hand.

6.  I've learned that I have to be on CONSTANT alert, because it only takes a second for Nola to knock her over or for her to poop all over herself.

7.  I really LOVE to shop!  I never had a love for it before, but I get really excited about buying Gia's clothes.

8.  Always have an empty plastic bottle around.  Both my dog and my kid love chewing on them.

 

There is more, I'm sure, but that's what I can think of for now.  I am so thankful for this little gift and all she is going to teach me in the future.

Christmas Time with The Bumble!

My house has been decorated for a couple weeks, but not clean until yesterday.  So, I finally took some pictures of our Christmas decorations and thought I'd share them.  This first one is of my bumble husband putting the star on the tree... and he doesn't need a ladder! 

"Lookie what he can do!"

Our finished tree

Our nativity scene and three wise men gifts

Some more decorations, including the Christmas countdown calendar!

Our stockings

Our diningroom table

My attempt at creativity, using what we had in the house

Cookies for Santa

Our finished product

And finally, because I can't resist... Gia wearing a very appropriate Christmas outfit

 

Trying out some photography...

So, I have this friend named Charity who takes really awesome pictures of her baby, and it inspired me to try to figure out how she did it.  I have a Nikon D40X, and there are so many different settings that I have never looked at (I just use the automatic setting).  So Bobby and I sat down for a long time trying to figure out how to get the best indoor and outdoor pictures.  After a couple of hours of looking at youtube videos and reading up on the Nikon, I was pretty pleased with the settings we found for outside pictures.  Here are the results:

But when it came to indoor pictures, I'm a little disappointed.  Our house is rather dark, and I just can't figure out how to get a warm-colored, non-blurry photo inside.  We tried to take a few of Gia, and here are our results.

If anyone has any tips, let me know!  

Happy 1/2 birthday, Gianna Grace!

I'm a little late on this post.  I was going to put something up right around the 31st, but then we had that big wind storm, and then Gia had a fever for over 24 hours after her 6 month shots, so I haven't had time to take pictures or post.  Anyway, I'm finally writing, and here are her 6 month doctor results:

Height:  25 3/4 inches...... 45%

Weight:  13 lbs 13.5 oz.... 15%

Head:    65% (I can't remember the cm)

So, I have a long, tiny, large headed baby :o)  She is her daddy's daughter!  Except that Bobby was extremely fat as a baby, so in that area she takes after me.  Just for a reference, she weighs only a little more than I did at her age, but is 1 3/4 inches longer than I was!  I wasn't 25 inches until 9 months.  I guess she will definitely be taller than me (Bobby would say "that's not hard to do").

Some milestones she hit between 5-6 months were:

Saying "baba" and "mama"  (I won the bet that she would say "mama" before "dada"... it doesn't matter that she doesn't know what it means.  Bobby owes me ice cream :o) )

Sitting up on her own

Laughing

Putting her feet in her mouth

Taking the bottle really well

Rolling over both ways

Eating solid foods (squash and applesauce)

Finally growing into her 3-6 month clothes!

Grabbing things, holding them, throwing them, watching them fall.

I'm sure there's more, but that's what I can think of right now.  She is finally back to sleeping 8 hours at night, but it's a struggle to get her tired before 10:30pm.  Right now, as I type this at 10:30pm, Bobby is attempting to get her to sleep.  It's not really working.  Other than that, she is a happy, joyful, social baby who loves to smile at strangers, laugh at Daddy and snuggle with Mommy.  This is definitely my favorite stage so far.  I love seeing her interact and play with her toys, smile at Nola (our dog), reach for me to hold her, and get tickeld at other small children.  She is such a smiley, friendly baby, and I hope this personality sticks with her into her childhood.  Happy 1/2 birthday, Gianna Grace!

 

Harry Potter and the Bible

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxySk24J_bs?wmode=transparent]

via youtube.com

I know that the Harry Potter books bring up some controversy amongst Christians (and even hatred or anger), but I love the books and feel strongly that they are not demonic... they are not demonic anymore than Cinderella or Snow White with their fairy godmothers and evil witches. As Bobby has put it, the magic in Harry Potter is not spiritual, it's a matter of physics. Magic is more of a physical thing that these people can do, rather than something they conjure up by praying to spirits or worshipping the devil.

JK Rowling may not have written the book specifically as a Christian allegory, but these books contain so many references to the Christian life, and to Jesus Himself. As Jerram Barrs says in this video, the very ending of the whole series is an image of what Christ did for us.

I'm not writing this to make anyone angry or to start any kind of argument, I just loved this video and wanted to blog about it. Jerram Barrs is a Christian and a professor of Christian Studies and Contemporary Culture at Covenant Theological Seminary. If your conviction is to not read any kind of book with witches or wizards, then stick to your conviction and don't read Harry Potter. But, I think that if a person doesn't read the books simply because a large population of the Christian community says they are bad, then that person is missing out on one of the greatest book series written, ever.

If you're interested in knowing more about the Christian themes in Harry Potter, there is a book called "Looking for God in Harry Potter" by John Granger. It gives a really neat perspective on the books. Also, be aware that this video does have a SPOILER alert, just incase you haven't seen the last movie/read the last book.

Missions are vital

Today in church we watched a video about the Lottie Moon Christmas offering (for those of you who aren't Southern Baptist, this is an offering that helps to support our overseas missionaries).  Lottie Moon literally gave up her life to share the gospel with China, and she has inspired this offering so that we can share Jesus with people in other countries.  The video displayed pastors, missionaries and lay-people speaking to us about how important --- no, VITAL --- missions are, and how we need to doing it overseas.  There are a lot of reasons that people go on mission trips themselves : too much money, jobs, kids, fears, time.  But as one person on the video said, there really is no sacrifice when you think of what Jesus has given for us.  We should be sacrificing of our time and money, putting aside our fears and our jobs, to go on missions.

Now, I realize that not everyone can acutally GO on a mission trip.  For example, I can't go really anywhere right now because Gianna is still nursing (but I'm planning to once she's weaned).  Some people have health problems or are the sole provider for their families and can't take time away from work.  But we should be EXCITED about missions!  We should rejoice when we hear of other people going to Slavokia, India or Peru.  We should give of our money to provide for those able to go, and we should sacrifice our time in prayer for the missionaries God has physically called overseas.

I hope this video makes your stomach get in knots from excitement like it did mine.  If you are a Christian and the thought of missions doesn't make you excited or moved, ask yourself why.  It is a commandment from Christ to go out and share the good news of His grace, but it's also the amazing privilege of every believer!  It's exciting!  Watch this video and see if God doesn't move in your heart.

http://www.imb.org/main/give/page.asp?StoryID=5595&LanguageID=1709

 

His Heart His Hands His Voice

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJwbf_AekeI?wmode=transparent]

via youtube.com

Today in church we watched a video about the Lottie Moon Christmas offering (for those of you who aren't Southern Baptist, this is an offering that helps to support our overseas missionaries). Lottie Moon literally gave up her life to share the gospel with China, and she has inspired this offering so that we can share Jesus with people in other countries. The video displayed pastors, missionaries and lay-people speaking to us about how important --- no, VITAL --- missions are, and how we need to be doing it overseas. There are a lot of reasons that people don't go on mission trips themselves : too much money, jobs, kids, fears, time. But as one person on the video said, there really is no sacrifice when you think of what Jesus has given for us. We should be sacrificing of our time and money, putting aside our fears and our jobs, to go on missions.

Now, I realize that not everyone can acutally GO on a mission trip. For example, I can't go really anywhere right now because Gianna is still nursing (but I'm planning to once she's weaned). Some people have health problems or are the sole provider for their families and can't take time away from work. But we should be EXCITED about missions! We should rejoice when we hear of other people going to Slovakia, India or Peru. We should give of our money to provide for those able to go, and we should sacrifice our time in prayer for the missionaries God has physically called overseas.

I hope this video makes your stomach get in knots from excitement like it did mine. If you are a Christian and the thought of missions doesn't make you excited or moved, ask yourself why. It is a commandment from Christ to go out and share the good news of His grace, but it's also the amazing privilege of every believer! It's exciting! Watch this video and see if God doesn't move in your heart.

Came home to a Christmas surprise!

We are finally back home after being homeless for 2 days.  Thank you to the Boddens and Oldhams for letting us stay in your homes while this madness got fixed.  I am glad that, although Gianna kept us up for hours into the night, neither of you heard her cry.  I think that little girl is relieved to be back in her crib!  And Nola is relieved to have us back for good!

When we came home yesterday to put the tree in the house, I found a package from my parents in the door.  My dad had told me it was coming and to not open it until we could all Skype.  So, this morning, after a quick breakfast at Einstein's Bagel shop, we Skyped while opening our package.  I was so surprised by what I found!  They had wrapped up about 10 gifts for us, including Sparkling Cider (my favorite!), a movie "Evelyn," Christmas PJs for Gia, a Christmas dish towel, a tin filled with Kit-Kats, three Christmas CDs, tinsel for our tree, chocolates, a candle, and a Christmas picture of my parents.  My favorite part, though, was the fake Christmas letter my dad wrote about our "amazing accomplishments" from this year... you know, those letters that people send out to brag about how wonderful their children are and the amazing family vacations they took.  By the way, I like getting and reading those letters, but it's just a joke between my family.

 

 

I miss my family all the time, but it's especially hard at Christmas.  My parents and I love to make cookies, decorate, listen to our favorite Christmas music, watch Home Alone, plan our our Christmas Eve menu, and tease each other about how we didn't get anything for the other person.  I am thankful for Skype and cell phones, but it's still not the same.  I am just pretending that Christmas is not the 25th this year, and that it will be Christmas day when we are with our families.  However, Bobby is being so sweet by listening to the music with me, putting up the tree, and teasing me about my gifts.  It is special this year having Gianna for Christmas, although she will be way more interested in the wrapping paper than anything else!  Still, what a joy to have this little baby this year at Christmas!  Last year, Gia, you weren't even showing in my belly, and now you light up the room with your smile.  How blessed I am!

 

 

Crazy Wind Storm!!

So, two nights ago we had a huge wind storm here in Utah.  I woke up (actually, Gianna woke me up) to howling winds and a car alarm going off.  I was thankful that we were safe and toasty in our house, although I was not thankful for having to be awake to feed the baby... her schedule has been off since getting back from South Carolina.

Then, around 9am, I heard this loud popping, cracking noise coming from outside.  I thought the shingles were coming off the roof or something!  I kept checking the front yard for damage, and then the back yard to see if the giant trash cans had been hitting the house.  Nothing seemed wrong.  So then, I went to let Nola in, only to find her cowering by the back door whinning.  I looked up and saw the power lines behind our house zapping the trees like a giant bug zapper!  I let Nola in, and then the power went out.

 I called the power company, who said that they would give me an automated call to tell me when our power was estimated to come back on.  2 1/2 hours later, I hadn't heard anything from them, so I called back.  Turns out I didn't get a call because they had no idea when they would get around to turning our power back on!  They had 28,000 customers wtihout power, and we are apparently at the bottom of the list.  

So, here we are, the next day, sitting at Starbucks because we have no power and no heat.  Poor Nola was by herself again last night (thank you Valerie and Larry for letting us stay over!).  We are hoping to be back in our house tonight, but it doesn't look good.  At least I hadn't had time to go grocery shopping yet, so we won't lose any food in the fridge :o)