Christmas: Take One

Christmas eve we went to dinner with Todd's family and went to the movies and saw We Bought a Zoo. And later went back to my Parents house where my sister's and Brother's were staying for Christmas. Shea and her husband Dustin and my brother Garrett and his wife came out from Utah to be with us Californian's! It was awesome because Christmas day we got to talk to my younger brother that is on a mission in Uganda, Kampala Mission South Africa Mission! Too Cool!! Anyways he is doing so well and loving it of course. He sounds so good! We miss him a lot, but I know he is going to be such a good missionary and help other's out there that are truly looking for the Gospel. I admire him and his courage to get out there and do the Lords work and have the experience of a life time!

Santy Clause

Aila meet Santa yesturday AND she turned 4 months old! She didn't even cry -hehe. Im sure next year she won't be so calm and relaxed. Im sure she will scream and cry for me...reaching out like I'm leaving her for good. I think it's a bit torcher and at the same time a little funny when children scream and cry when they meet Santa. My sister and I took our little ones to go see Santa at the Pro Bass Shop(Disneyland for men). They were doing them for free! It was so awesome, but took us forever to finally get to the front of the line. You could only imagine how crazy it was. I was sort of surprised that I even agreed to go. It's a little insane and sort of silly how people get all Crazed about having their child meet a FAKE santa...a STRANGER man in a costume! Haha...BUT we all do it. Anyways I can't believe Aila is 4 months old, the time goes by so fast. Everyday she is doing something new. Her new thing is being more voice stress and at the beginning stages of laughing...well ok she only giggled for me once so far, but it's only a matter of time :) Yays!

Utah

We decided to cruise on up to Utah for a mini vay-cay. 

Todd mainly worked and helped his aunt with projects around her house. They did a great job putting in tile and wood floors. I just hung out and got to visit with my brother Garrett, Jenna, my sister Shealeen and Dustin. It was pretty cold and finally it snowed. But by the time we got outside the snow was gone, Plus having a small baby isn't the best thing to do. It was a good trip, but we are so happy to be Home Sweet Home!

Aila is just the cutest and so fun to dress up. She's still pretty tiny and can still somewhat fit into newborn/0-3 month clothes haha, so variety is slim for now, but we went to a family reunion christmas bash on Todd's side of the family and Aila was so festive :)

Flying Bye

Well once again the Holiday's are FLYING BY, but we still have Christmas. Which is personally one of my favorite holidays of course. We took our Christmas Pictures last weekend at yorba linda park which has really neat spots to shoot! Anyways So we got some cute shots of us and I did a photo shoot for our good friends The Glenn's as well. They came out really cute! I snagged a cute photo idea off of Pinterest for Christmas that I wanted to try and I think it came out pretty cute and festive! Our Baby girl is growing so fast and she is getting so big. We love her so much, she is just too much fun! She is 3 months and 2 weeks old and is just our adorable dainty love bug! She smiles so much and I know any day now she is just going to start laughing a little bit and we cannot wait for that to happen.

THANKSGIVING

It was a really good day and the food was even better. We went to grandpa Jack and grandma Phyllis house this year with the Walker side. It was Aila's first Thanksgiving and she was pretty good the whole day as usual, but of course right when it came time to sit and enjoy the food she started to fuss ha go figure! But we had a good day just hanging out, relaxing and taking family pictures since it was all of us together it was the perfect time!

The whole gang

Aila's first Ornament

Last week I went and spent some time at Hobby Lobby and bought Aila her very own and first Christmas  Initial Ornament. One day we will have a home and get a bigger tree, but for now our two feet tree fits just nicely in our lil place.

Pinterest Project #2

Another easy Project AND it kind of came out ok haha! I got the circle from the Dollar Tree, twirled it with yarn and added some fake poinsettia's and extra vintage buttons for the middle. It was a good practice wreath...haha!

Our Growing Babe

Aila is almost 3 months. 

Crazy how the time is just literally flying by!

Update:


She loves to smile..A LOT! And she has the cutest smile.

She has always been very alert! She loves to be out and about and up front so she can see whats going on. 

She found her hands and just stares at them..trying to figure them out, its really the cutest thing.

She LOVES to  sit up on her own and she can with a tiny bit of help. Were going to have trouble with this one...

Pinterest Project #1

So Im starting small because having a 12 week old baby can get a little time consuming. But I am going to start a  Pinterest  Project and blog about it. It won't be all the time, but every so often I think it will be fun and interesting to pick something, wither it be a recipe or a craft and make it happen. There are so many creative, fun and yummy things I am dying to make, This may just motivate me to do so! 

Like I said i'm starting out small and so tonight I made 

Homemade "Starbucks" my favorite Hot Chocolate! 

And it was seriously so good! Tastes just like Starbucks

Not much of a Challenge, but fun and Oh So Yummy!

Ingredients-

1/4 cup water

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 1/2 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Garnish-Whipped cream

Instructions-

• Combine the water, cocoa and sugar in a 16-ounce microwavable safe pitcher, such as a 2-cup glass measuring cup. Zap the mixture on high for 30 seconds. Stir well to create chocolate syrup.

• Add the milk to the chocolate syrup and microwave the mixture for 1 1/2 minutes. Add the vanilla extract. Pour into Mug and serve with Whipped cream.

Halloween Blues

Well this year's Halloween was just a bad time for us which is so sad cause it was Aila's first Halloween and ya well...ya. Todd got sick and still is sick, but coping with it, Aila kind of has the snuffles and I had/have milk fever. Poor us haha! It has been a rough couple of days, but were all feeling a lot better and are so THANKFUL for our health, and Prayer! O.K so we missed Halloween, I honestly didn't really have anything wowie wow wow for Aila to wear anyways...so whateves next year we can really go all out. Now we look forward to Thanksgiving. I am so happy that we had Aila just in time for the holidays...shes really starting to be fun and blooming into her personality. She's a smiley girl, but stubborn and knows what she wants...and GETS IT! She sleeps with me, she has since I popped her out into this world. I know it's not good, but whatever...it makes nursing easier and shes so cuddly. But now she is getting quite demanding and knows what she wants. She's 11 weeks now and I am sometimes worried and thinking did I create a little monster? Haha...a very cute monster :) 

Here she is...getting so big 11 weeks 

♥

Aila's Blessing

Aila Leeann Walker was blessed on October 23, 2011 at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was such a beautiful day and we were so fortunate to have so much family with us for Little Aila. Afterwards we had brunch and just visit with each other at my sister's house. It was a good day and we Thank everyone who came! Thank you!

Aila update: She had her 2 month check up yesterday with the doctors and to get her shots...dum dumm dummm! She now weighs 8lbs 13oz 21.5in! Such a big girl and healthy as can be! She was such a trooper getting her shots, Daddy held her while I looked away(haha). I was told it's harder for the momma's, so I just looked from across the room. No I didn't cry haha, Aila was a tough girl...cryed for a few seconds and than went to her natural self...smiles and all :) 

LOVE her!!

Toms Farm

Saturday we were quite bored and have been pretty much Laying around all day, having a new baby will do that to you on a regular basis...so we decided to get out for the evening and do something. We got ready and took Aila to Toms Farm: Glen Ivy to walk around and see the Pumpkin Patch. Of course I had to get some pictures of our Little Snuggler!

ℂousins

The other day I helped my sister out and watched my nephews for a few hours while she did a photo shoot. We spent the time eating breakfast and watching Thomas the train over and over again. While they were over I got the chance to get a few photo's of Cash and Ryder with their cousin Aila. I borrowed my sister's wide angle lens..which I love, but it's not the sharpest lens....Yet it was decent and I love how it takes wide shots! I'm so used to my 50mm that you have to maneuver yourself a lot so I enjoy a good zoom lens time to time. 

 

Someone is 7 weeks old

By someone I obviously mean my precious, perfect and ADORABLE baby girl! Aila is 7 weeks old now and honestly it feels like it has been longer that she has been here with us.  And I will say the time has really passed by very quickly, she is getting SO big already! She's starting to change more and more. At time I see a lot of me still, but than I see a lot of Todd as well. She has a good mixture right now, but we will see cause she's going to change more and more through the next couple months. She is just the highlight of my morning, afternoon and night for sure! With Todd being so busy with working and the academy I get a lot of Aila and me time. She's my little buddy that loves to cuddle and sleep on my chest. Aila's head is now big enough to wear headbands-UH OH watch out!

          I  L o v e  being Aila's mommy!

Week with Gammy

This past week my Dad was out of town and Todd has the Academy till pretty late at night so I stayed at my parents house for a few days. It gave Todd a few days to get some real sleep with no baby girl screaming for Num Num or Diaper change haha. I love hanging out with my mom and I just love visiting home and spending quality time with her. It's so true what they say(Although I never really minded hanging out with my mom)But your mom and sisters really do become your best friends and through the years become closer and closer to each other! So me and Aila spent the whole week pretty much with Gammy and we had a good time. My Mom is obsessed with Aila(well could you blame her, Aila is just the cutest) We call my mom the baby hogger. I don't mind at all...I Love my daughter, but its nice to pass her around occasionally :) We did some fun stuff with Gammy, we ate at Olive Garden twice..their having the pasta all you can eat special which is sooo good!! I could eat there every day. We went to the mall and panera bread. OK their one of my fav places too, their turkey bravo is the best sandwich, I order it every time! 

Sunday was General Conference so we had a fiesta for dinner. My mom made pretty much everything, I would have helped, but it was a little difficult with a baby. She made my dads yummy tacos and chips with salsa, It was so good! 

We just had a great week and weekend!

Logo

OK so having a baby does in fact set you back a little with life, But I soon will find time to start doing my Photography again. I've been playing with some logos...I think I like the way this looks. 

What do you think!? :o)

Daddy's Little Girl

When I married Todd I knew he was going to be the best Husband and Father. He is the most unselfish person I know. He will go out of his way for anyone and especially his family. Aila is one lucky girl to have such a great Daddy!  

Farewell Elder Erik McGregor

Erik's farewell went really good, it was such a relaxing sunday just enjoying the company of family all around to say goodbye and see Erik's farewell talk before he is gone to Uganda Africa for 2 years! 

We are going to miss him awhile he is away, but we know where he is and what he is doing. Serving the Lord. Erik got to at least meet Aila and see her before he leaves :) Were going to miss you Airegar! Love you! xoxo!

Baby Origin on Etsy

A New project I've been working on called Baby Origin on Etsy. 

For my shower I made a Baby Origin for Aila and it turned out really cute and such a creative piece to add to the nursery. So I decided to offer it on Etsy to order.

Looks really cute finished and framed!

The simple CTR motto

I thought i'd never say this, but with the way things have been going and are headed that I cannot wait to get out of California! WHAT!? California has always been my home, I was once so proud to be a Californian! Not anymore sadly. The way things have been going it is impossible to stay here, not only financially, but morally. Our government/governors have really made there bed here and well now they can lie in the fifth they have created. It's not all about Democratics, Republicans, Conservatives, Liberals...etc. How about doing what is RIGHT! Doing the right thing for the people, doing the right thing for our country. It's come down to just that. Our president, governor and the government are not doing what is Right. Its really that simple don't you think. How can people stand strong for what is not right? It only does Bad...as you can see things are falling apart. Stop choosing sides and vote for what is right!

2 1/2 weeks

Little Sweets

Aila is doing really good. We are enjoying her more and more everyday. So far being a mommy has been everything i'd expected and more! Sleep is pretty much over rated and you don't get much "you" time anymore, but thats the way it goes. When you see your little one looking into your eyes you want to be no more than a second away from them at all times! Aila is such a hardy feisty girl. She may be a dink, but she's a tough one :)

I LOve to watch Todd with her. He's so happy and proud daddy. He's a natural with her, most guys freak out about babies around and how to hold them. They learn to take care with time but not Todd..He was great and so natural about it right from the start. He kicked into Daddy mode real quick and takes such good care of us. 

We are one happy little family!

Lil "Pee" nut

There is something about Aila right now that just makes me laugh and get a bit frustrated. It seems that every time I go to change her diaper she starts to Pee...and all over! I laugh because its cute and it just comes out of nowhere! REALLY she couldn't have gone a second before I take off her diaper!? Haha! Silly girl! And the frustrating part is me having to clean everything she pee's all over! Time and time again! These are the cute things I will jot down for memories, so when she's older we can laugh about it :) Till than I'll be learning to change her diaper just a little bit faster!

She's absolutely "Perfect"

Well we think so anyways! Aila is 11 days old today and already I see little changes in the way she acts and looks. She is without a doubt a clone of her mama. The other night we were looking at baby pictures of me and yup, she looks exactly like me it's so funny! I'm sure with time and growth sperts that she will start changing, but for now she's my Wittle Cloney :)

Yesterday I was a little bored when Aila was taking her nap so I whipped out my camera and just took a couple photo's of her sleeping and the cute faces that she makes. She smiles a lot and I caught some of her smiling. She is just so perfect and adorable! So in LOVE!!

She's here and we are in LOVE!

Aila Leeann Walker was Born August 20th @6:45 a.m. Weighed 5lb 9oz and 18.2 Inches long! She is just "Perfect". She was Born 2 weeks early on a saturday morning, perfect timing if you ask me because I was so worried and stressed out to hear that I had a mild case of Pre-Clamsia. A very serious thing that I do not quite understand fully, but that I had high blood pressure and protein in my urine which is not good at all! SO needless to say I was pretty Scared/Happy/Anxious/Freaked out/Worried and feeling like I wasn't prepared when I got the call from my doctor saying that They were going to induce me a.s.a.p on friday Aug 19th. My labor took about a little over 16 hours and I pushed little subborn Aila for 4 Hours!! Honestly the pushing part took the cake, Up till than I could handle it. But of course once Little Aila finally made her way into this world it was all worth it. Being a mommy is awesome, I love it! Todd and I are so happy to have Aila in our life! We still can't believe she's really here! :)

Cookie Experiment

Today I decided out of nowhere to make Chocolate Chip Cookies from scratch because their easy and I was craving something sweet. The only problem is I was missing 2 rather important ingredients that goes with making cookies...Baking soda and Vanilla extract.

I had the butter, Egg, Sugar, flour and mini chocolate chips already, but of course when do i ever make anything from scratch that I would already have baking soda and vanilla extract. That didn't stop me though...I was determined to make cookies and somehow work around it haha.

So here is how I made my Chocolate mini chip cookies today!

1/2 cup Butter

1/4 cup Sugar

1 Egg

1 1/2 cup Flour

Powered sugar

1/2 cup Chocolate cake mix

Put them into a mini cupcake pan and baked for 15 mins on 350 temp.

Here is how they turned out...A little stiff, but not bad tasting! Haha!

I do know they could have been A LOT better if I have had the motivation to run to the store, but half the fun is experimenting with what ya got!

36 1/2 weeks

The countdown is here and soon Aila will be cuddled in our arms!

I cannot believe the time is coming to a close of not...

-Having a big-0-belly

-Not being able to sleep on my stomach/back

-Peeing every 10-15 mins

-Not being able to bend down often to pick up something without grunting or feeling that your smothering your babies poor head

-Not worrying/stressing as much about eating the right kind of foods

-Not having to worry that NOTHING fits

-Having no ENERGY

Things i'll miss Im sure about pregnancy:

- My big-0-belly

-An excuse to go shopping cause NOTHING fits ;)

-Feeling her move inside me

-Sleeping in and taking naps a lot

-Having an excuse for a lot of things because of being pregnant(haha)

It's been fun, but soon me and the belly must depart and I am looking very much to that moment!

We cannot wait for Aila to get here!

She's about to "POP"

••Our Baby Shower for Aila was this past saturday and it was a blast! I must admit, I did a lot of planning and arranging my own Shower but thats just how I am. I like things a certain way sometimes and so most times its just more successful to do it yourself! PLUS I love getting creative and making things.

••My Shower was really cute, The theme was -{She's about to "POP"}- I actually got the idea of course online, but they really didn't get all to clever with the idea, so I took it to a whole new level haha. If anyone needs an idea for a baby shower...this is such a cute/fun/creative idea! Everything had to do with the word POP! SO we had Popcorn, CakePops, TootsiePops & Pop drops, Chocolate Popsicles, Pop'ems donuts, Lemon cake Popper's, Popcorn shrimp, Jalapeno Popper's, Salad with Poppyseed dressing, Pop chips, Soda Pop, and more. SO fun and we really had a fun time doing it. My mom and sister Winter were a huge help of course, I couldn't have done it without them!

••We got so much stuff for our Aila, she is going to be one stylish babe thats for sure! She has clothes coming out of our ears! We recently just set up her little area in our room and we cannot wait to meet her. Thanks to everyone who came to my shower, tons of fun! Todd & I both appreciate all the goodies and Love! xo

Last week of work

Well the time is nearly here for me to say farewell to good ol Nordstrom, who I have been with for a good 5 1/2 years. It's been bitter sweet towards the end and if I wasn't so tired, Restless and Pregnant I would be of course still working haha. But since I am going to have our precious Aila, work just wouldn't fit in our schedule for awhile. This week is going to be a good week! Friday is my last day at work and Saturday is my Baby Shower, which by the way is going to be SUPERRR cute I must admit! I'm way excited about it and all the goodies we got planned for our guests! I love getting creative and crafty! I'll get lots of photo's of the shower of course :)

Pregnancy recap: 1 month and 18 days

Depending on Aila and when she really wants to decide to pop her cute face into this world, we have 1 month and 18 days to go till my due date. Chances are she won't arrive on that day, but the time is getting closer and closer to meeting our baby girl! As a woman who has yet to learn the paths of motherhood I can however express how wonderful it is to feel this precious jewel growing in my belly and waking me up in the early hours of the morn! She is for sure without a doubt going to be an early birdy! I can be a morning person, but I just choose not to be...Sleep is much more valued haha. I won't have much say once she's here so I have been stocking up on my Zzzz's! I am beyond excited for my baby shower coming up in about 2 weeks. I'll have an update on how that went and details! It's going to be so cute!

Maternity Shoot

Last week my awesome Photographer sister Winter took some Maternity Pictures of me and my Belly at 30 weeks! We went to downtown Redlands to a park area where it was really pretty and green. This park had some really neat areas to shoot and we had a lot of fun with it! I love how they came out! She took em and I edited them, cause she's busy with other projects and plus I love to edit so it worked out♥

(Here are a few)