Gretta's 2nd Year Pictures

Here are some pictures of Gretta we had taken in Boise. Of course I think she is the cutest kid ever, but I am her mom. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Here is our Christmas card if you didn't get a copy in the mail.
Enjoy!
Christmas 2007


2007 has been a year filled with wonderful memories, some of which we’d like to share with you at this sacred time of year. We’ll start with ladies first.
Gretta has grown lightning fast in many different ways over the last 12 months. She celebrate her 2nd birthday and she’s already brought immense joy to our family. Over the last year she has learned to walk, run, use the “potty”, put on her coat, and help mommy around the house. She also has become the first member of the lifetime Elmo Fan Club. Gretta also enjoys going to play dates with her friends, going to the park, seeing her buddy Mickey at Disneyland, and trips in airplanes to Idaho.
Gretchen has been busy balancing her roles as wife, mother, nurse practitioner, and advisor to the young women at church. She continues to do a splendid job of maintaining a home where love is felt, raising a beautiful daughter who appreciates all the beauties of the Earth.
Eric is as stingy as ever and working as a banker only adds to this fatal problem. He has been busy working for BofA as an underwriter in their Commercial Bank. When he’s not lending money he has found the time to take the GMAT test for MBA School (he was very happy with his 700 score!), renewed his love of surfing, and served in the youth organization at church. In a matter of weeks, Eric’s responsibilities at church increased exponentially. He went from teaching the 8 year olds to being scoutmaster over the 11 year olds to now being in charge of all the boys ages 12-18. He guesses this is recompense for all the grief he put his youth leaders through growing up.
2007 has been filled to the brim with everything we could have asked for.
Now don’t go getting any ideas about dropping off our Christmas card list; we promise to have new material by next Christmas 2008. And if you can’t wait until then, check back with us sometime around the end of April, forecasts are that we should have some pretty good news to share around that time.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Rock Star In Training

For Christmas Gretta received a little piano from us. I thought it would be a hit, but not quite as big of hit as it has been. She loves to play the piano. She also has a drum set with some other instruments. So she likes to play the piano and then assign others to play the other instruments. She makes sure that everyone is playing and participating. If not she will remind you what you are suppose to do. It is really fun to play in Gretta's band. She is quite the entertainer.

Christmas 2007

I finally got around to posting some of our Christmas pictures. We had a great time in LA with Eric's family.
We have definitely moved into a different phase of Christmas now that Gretta is old enough to open presents and get so excited. I think after each present she opened she said, "Oh...Ooh" and then wanted to take it out and play with it right then. She thought it was the best day ever! She also has really enjoyed the Christmas tree. Every time we left the apartment she would say, "Good bye Tree" and would get excited each time we returned to see it again. We took it down the day after Christmas and she still tells me she misses it. Oh well. She is going to have to wait until next year.
We hope you all had a Merry Christmas too!

Gretta's 2nd Birthday

We celebrated Gretta's Birthday on Friday with some of her friends. She had a great time! She was so excited to go to her party. She had a cute new outfit that Nana Carolyn bought her that said, "Birthday Girl".
Gretta had a great time playing with her friends, Grandma Linda, opening presents and eating cupcakes! It was a big success. Now we just have to work on getting her to say that she is two instead of three. Oh well.

Trip to Boise

Gretta and I took her last free trip to Boise last week to celebrate her second birthday early. We had a great time. Nana and Pops really spoiled us rotten. I almost couldn't get the suit case shut for trip home due to all the surprises and presents.
Gretta enjoyed helping Nana frost her own cake, going shopping, having her picture taken, playing with her friend Baily, having Grandma and Grandpa read her stories, snowmen, her new light up shoes, and 2nd Birthday party she shared with her Great Grandpa. She however, didn't enjoy her visit from Santa.
Also just as an FYI. Gretta kept taking off her shoes. I thought she didn't like wearing shoes, but my mom suggested that we get her feet measured. Well... her shoes were a whole size to small. So with the mystery solved Gretta has a new pair of shoes she doesn't want to take off.

It's a Girl!

It's a Girl!!!
Some of you know that I am expecting our second child in April. Well we went for the 20 week ultrasound and it's a girl!!! We are very excited and Gretta is excited to have a little sister.

Ward Christmas Party

We had a great time at the Ward Christmas Party this year. The big success was Gretta getting close enough to Santa to at least take her picture with him. Last year she ran crying out of the room, so this is progress.
Enjoy the pictures!

Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful trip to Boise to see my family. Gretta LOVES going to Boise. I had been telling her all week that on Wednesday we would go to Boise. The first things she said when she woke up Wednesday morning was, "Airplane, Nana & Papa". She was a little sad to find out that she had to wait until after her nap to go to the airport, but she enjoyed helping pack the suit case.
We went Christmas tree hunting in the forest on Saturday. It is a long standing family tradition. This year there wasn't much snow. In fact I think it is the least amount I ever remember. It made the hunt a little easier, but not quite as much fun. Gretta loved the snow and trying to make snowmen. It was nice to be out in the cold an have it feel a little like Thanksgiving and Christmas. The weather in LA is nice, but I miss the seasons.
We sure had a great time.

Halloween

Gretta loved Halloween. She learned at least three new words the week of Halloween...Halloween, Party and her favorite Candy. I actually think she knew the word for candy before she just didn't have so many opportunities to say it before. The day after Halloween all she wanted to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner was candy. I knew that had to stop, so I got rid of the rest of the candy. Luckily she has a short memory about how much candy she got, so she doesn't realize she didn't even get to eat half of it.
It is fun to see her finally get into the holidays. This Christmas will be her third, but I think she might actually figure out what is going on this year.

Nursing Reunion and trip to Boise

The first picture is of my girlfriends from nursing school. I was invited to be on a panel discussion about trans cultural nursing at the BYU-I College of Nursing 50th Anniversary, so I made the trek back to Rexburg. Let me tell you that from LA Rexburg isn't the easiest place to get to. I think I saw most of the state of Idaho driving across it from Boise. However, once we got there I remembered how much I enjoyed my time at Ricks. The campus is really growing, but the Spirit of Ricks still seems present.
The other pictures are of Gretta's time with my parents and Grandparents. She really loves going to Idaho!!!

Disneyland with the Cousins

We spend a great day with my cousins from Northern California at Disneyland. Gretta loves being about other kids and she had a great time with everyone. If you ever come to Disneyland let us know. We would love to meet you there.

Park City Utah

We went to Park City over General Conference weekend with my family. When ever we go to Utah in the fall we seem to bring snow with us. Last year in September we were in the worst storm I had ever been in in Utah and this year it snowed on us too. Gretta had a great time making snow ball with Papa Jack on Saturday.
We had a fun time all together. Gretta especially enjoyed all of the attention and spending so much time with family.

Look-alike Meter

I am not sure about this??? Anyone who has seen Gretta is convinced that she looks more like Eric. Let us know what you think.

Mother's Helper

With fall like weather I was in the mood to make some homemade chocolate chip cookies. Gretta was excited to help with this project when she heard the work "COOKIE". She actually was really good while I put all the ingredients in the mixer. She just kept playing with the mixing cups and eating the few chocolate chips I gave her. I wish I had taken a picture of the finished project. They were really good:)

Adley's 2nd Birthday Party

These pictures are a little old. Adley's birthday party was almost a month ago, but I was having a hard time uploading my pictures for a while and they are so cute I had to post them.

Gretta LOVES Adley!!! Everyday when ever we were close to Adley's house she would ask to play with him, and I think a few weeks she only went to nursery because he was there.

The sad news is that Adley moved to North Carolina shortly after his birthday party. Gretta asked to play with him everyday for a week before she finally isn't coming back. I am hoping it doesn't scar her for life. Luckily she still has friends who live close.
We definitely miss the Calhoun family and wish them success in North Carolina.

First day of School!

Gretta and I joined two Parent Education classes that are run by Pasadena City College this fall. She has really enjoyed going to both of them. Both sites for almost all of the toys a toddler could ask for. They have trikes, cars, sand boxes, books, kitchen stuff, dolls, puzzles, cars/trucks, puppets, dress up stuff, and messy crafts. Gretta is also social and loves playing with other kids.

The Happiest Place on Earth!

Here are some pictures of Gretta on our last trip to Disneyland. She sure looks like a babe in her hat and sunglasses. She had a fun time on all of the rides except Pirates of the Caribbean. Next time we go we won't take her on any dark rides and I am sure she will have a better time.

Sample Sale

I forgot that not everyone reading my blog would know what the Sample sale is. Well it is one of the best kept secreats of LA.


The deal is that on the last Friday of the Month some of the shops in LA's Fashion district open their doors to the public and sell off their samples. The two that I have been to are the California Mart and the New Mart on 9th and Los Angles.
These stores are the places buyers go to pick out the next seasons goods for stores like Nordstroms, Bloomies and boutique children's stores. They also sell women and men's stuff, but I like the kids department the best because Gretta always looks cute in what ever you buy her and the sizes are pretty true to life. In the women's section sometimes you have to dig through boxes and them most of the sizes are sample sizes 4 & 6 which I can't wear anyway.

Check out the link and if you are ever in town during the last Friday of the Month I would love to go with you to finds some good deals.
http://lafashion.veplan.net/show.aspx?mi=2428

New Church Dress

Gretta is all of a sudden becoming shy of the camera, so we couldn't get a picture of her in her new dress looking at us. One of my favorite things about living in LA is the sample sale. I picked up this dress and two other ones at the sample sale last month for great deals. Gretta loved all of her new fancy dresses.

Cousin Emily's Visit!

My Cousin Emily came to visit for a week. We sure had a great time with her.We did a lot of fun LA things including:

1. Going to the Grove to see the American Doll Store. Gretta was sad we had to leave the bitty baby stroller at the store. 2. Beverly Hills and Sprinkles Cupcakes (The cupcakes are great and Emily enjoyed waiting in line with someone "famous". She isn't sure who it was but she was sure she was famous. 3. Kidspace (This was Emily's favorite activity and I think that it was Gretta's favorite too. She loves the river and all of the water activities). 4. Disneyland 5. Swimming 6. Buying matching outfits at the mall and having Gretta and Emily's pictures taken. 7. Going to see Hannah Montana's house. (This is the house she use to live in in La Canada.)

It was a busy week. Gretta enjoyed all of the attention and can't wait for Emily's visit next year.