December Thoughts

December snuck up on us. Holy wow, I honestly can't believe how fast this year went by. Who doesn't LOVE the month of December?! It's the most wonderful time of the year, right? Steve and I were married two years ago this December and... hello!?... Christmas!! Although there is soooo much to celebrate during this time of year, this December feels a little bit different to me. This December, I was supposed to have our second baby. As I see some of my friend's bellies grow and see the joy and elation on their faces, I can't help but be excited for them! Though, a part of me longs to be showing off my belly and preparing to bring another member into our family. There's so much to celebrate this month, yet so much to reflect on. I find myself thinking about the entire experience and wishing it never happened. I know in my heart that it was supposed to happen. It was the Lord's will. I may not fully understand it, but I know in time it will get easier. I'm grateful for the knowledge I have that my Savior can succor me. I know that when I need Him, He's there to bear me up. I had these "when statements" in mind that I thought would help me heal, but they don't seem to help :( "I'll be happy when..." You know what I mean. They're just a con. Haha! I'll be happy when December's over? Nope. I'm happy now :) I'm happy that I have my Olivia and my Esteban. They make me happier than anything else in this world!! Yay for December and Christmas and babies and family and friends and LIFE! Who's with me?!

December 23rd will come and I may not be as positive, so feel free to send me good thoughts and cyber love :) Haha!! Love you all!! Seriously. Thanks for indulging me.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year... almost :)

Christmas is almost here and I am on the hunt to find the perfect holiday cards to send to our family and friends. Last year, I had just had a baby two months prior to Christmas, so I was a little preoccupied with other things and didn't send any(...shhhh... don't tell). This year will be our first Christmas sending out our family Christmas card and I am ECSTATIC!!! I feel like such a grown-up :) Haha!!

While searching, I heard about a great deal from Shutterfly where bloggers can get 50 free holiday cards!! I jumped at the opportunity to get such a great deal, of course! My husband would kill me if I passed on it :) Shutterfly has such quality products and a variety of options to chose from. Follow this link here to see their selection of Holiday cards. You won't be disappointed :)
This is one of my favorite designs. LOVE it!!

The other great thing about Shutterfly is that they also have calendars and personalized photo wall art that would make excellent gifts for anyone: family, friend, teacher, etc. I've been looking over their choices and they're pretty tempting :) Steve and I get a calendar every December to fill out for the coming year, so now it's time to decide on which one to get and which pictures I want to use!
Look how cute this calendar design is!! Perfect!

I'm glad that the website is easy to figure out and a breeze to use. I get frustrated easily with disorganized websites :) Hehe.... yay for the simple pleasures in life, free holiday cards and simple website layouts that make for easy maneuvering!

Olivia's Tricks :)

These two videos are from about 3 weeks ago. I was trying to get all her tricks on video. Here are a few of them :) She signs "more" a lot better than she does in the video now. She also has a few more things she's started doing within the last week or so. I'll have to post those later. Enjoy...

This video shows my "attempts" to get Olivia to show her tricks :) I posted it because she's hilarious! This is why I love my job so much!!! She is perfect. You also get to hear me try to speak the little Polish that I actual know. Quite humorous :) Enjoy!

Halloween is Almost Here :)

This post is primarily for mi madre :) I think she'd be proud of the mini Trick or Treat tote I made for Olivia. I made the bag myself and cut out the Y and hand-stitched it. To some of you, this may seem like nothing, but I haven't sewn much in my life. My mom taught me when I was a beehive, but other than Olivia's crib bedding(that I had a TON of help with btw), I haven't sewn since I was a junior in high school. Hello!? That was something like 9 years ago. I also made her little pom poms to wear on her wrists :) She's going to look like a little doll all dress up in her BYU cheer uniform. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my little peanut and I know she'll just ham it up!

Hey, Momma?! Aren't you glad I'm using my amazing sewing machine? I love it :) Oh, and Mom, you can see this message HERE on my actual blog :) P.S. LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

The not-so-perfect-but-totally-incredible Trick-or-Treating Tote :)

Just missing the cheerleader, a pair of white sneaks, a BIG hair bow and some SPIRIT FINGERS, baby!!! Eeeekkkk!! Yay for HaLlOwEeNiE!!!!

Birthday Weekend in Tahoe!!

This past weekend, we ditched the bambina(sadly) and headed up to Lake Tahoe. It was our first time away from Olivia, so we took advantage of every single second :) We drove up on Saturday afternoon, checked into our place, went to the Hard Rock Cafe in the Harrah's casino, ordered tons of food and watched the Giants game at the bar with a TON of Giants fans. I have to admit(don't hate me, Dad) that I might be a... gulp... Giants fan. Gasp! Barry Bonds is no longer an official Giant, therefore, I feel ok about this new "LIKE." Needless to say, we were ecstatic when they won!!

After the amazing win, we checked out some of the clubs and decided on two... The Opal and Blu at the Montblue hotel and casino. Steven and I have never gone dancing together, so we were SOOOO looking forward to it!! We left our place a little after midnight and danced until after 3am. We both LOVE dancing, so we--I'll quote Steven on this one-- "did it up!" We are planning on making this a regular thing for us we loved it so much.

Sunday was another wonderful day despite the 50mph winds and cold, rainy weather. We walked around an outdoor shopping mall downtown under the protection on the awnings. We found Olivia a darling souvenir while we were there. Sunday night we ate a late dinner and headed back to our condo and watched Pretty Woman together.

We woke up on Monday morning to a light blanket of snow outside. By the time we left though, the snow was just on the peaks of the mountain. The sun was finally out and we were leaving :( We were sad to leave, but so happy to get home to our baby!

Lake Tahoe is beautiful and we are planning on heading there more often. We LOVE it there. Can't wait to take Olivia back with us!!!

This picture is blurry, but it was the best of the few we tried to take in our condo. Heading out to the clubs. Lol! That just sounds funny! Our collection of bracelets and stamps. Not too many, but a nice start :) The view from our condo :) It was sunny! Haha! You can see the lake!! The drive back....beautiful views! This is me...stretching...getting excited..... being super awkward. Take your pick. Haha! LOVE this sign!!! And the rocks in the background.

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STEVEN'S BIRTHDAY PARTAY!!

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Steven turned 26 on the 25th. I love celebrating birthdays, but most especially celebrating those of the people I love. And there is no one I love more than my honey bunny, stinker bum, pupa, baby, Esteban :) He is beyond wonderful....98.99% of the time. Sometimes I can't help but brag about him, but most often I feel like our life, marriage, and love is too special to share with others so publicly and impersonally.

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Today is a day where I feel justified in publicly praising my husband for all that he does not only for me, but for our present and future family. With his parents, he owns and runs a successful, growing property management company in the Bay Area. He puts his heart, soul, sweat, and tears into building this company and we are certainly starting to reap the benefits. We will continue to see the rewards of his sacrifices in the years to come. I know this because whatever my husband does, he does well. He is successful with whatever he sets his mind to.

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Although I pretend like I am smarter than Steven, I know that he is brilliant. He amazes me with all that he knows. He is a BYU business school graduate if you didn't know. Yes, that would be me bragging about my genius husband :) Speaking of genius, one thing that attracted me to Steven when we first started dating was his grammar. Haha! As lame as that might sound, I am such a stickler when it comes to homophones, spelling, punctuation, etc. In the past, it has turned me off so bad that I've broken up with guys because of it. Steve has never once made me cringe. We emailed and texted quite a bit in the beginning of our relationship and I was immediately hooked the moment I read his witty, grammatically correct inquiries and, of course, replied with equally witty and grammatically correct responses only to hook him right back :) Naturally, it worked ;)

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Like I said, our relationship began over a series of calls, texts, e-mails, wall posts, gchats, and eventually some pretty unforgettably awesome dates. I will forever be indebted to Dylan Patterson for recommending me for the job at Icon Security in January of 2008, to Nate Benson for hiring me, to Matt Sterzer/Jake Taylor/Val Gregory for promoting me to Executive Assistant, to Steven Clegg, Sr. for speaking at the retreat I needed to book his flight for, which eventually lead to a thank you trip booked for him and his gorgeous son by yours truly to see BYU get killed by UCLA in March of '08, which then lead to some pretty serious flirting between the sexiest man alive and me. Thanks to some hula hoops, the Flash, Chili's Chocolate Molten Lava Cake, many a late night "talks", a really awful trip to Vegas for Steven's high school friend's wedding that made the term "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" take on a whole new meaning, amazing bike rides, a very loooong phone conversation with my future mother-in-law, a road trip from Utah to Chicago, a scheming future sister-in-law, a very expensive flight from Chicago to Utah, rose petals, tea light candles, sentimental love notes, our song playing on an ipod, a gorgeous ring, and the man of my dreams walking down the hallway to dance with me and get down on his knee to ask me to be his wife for eternity. Fate was working hard to get the two of us together and thank goodness we listened :)

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Steven, you are my everything. Thank you for being an amazing man, friend, luvah(lol), husband and father. I would say brother and son, but I don't know how they feel about you. Just kidding :) Thank you for giving me all the love you possess. I am honestly the luckiest woman in the world to have you for my husband forever. Literally.... for-ev-er!! Hells ya, baby!!!!

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!

Olivia's 1st Second Holiday is Coming Up :)

What's that you say?! Halloween is almost here!?!?!

HOLLA!!!!!!

This girl.... cracks.... me... up!!

Month TWELVE :)

Olivia

Month TWELVE :)

September and Your Birthday!!! You're already ONE!!!!

You have always been such a joy, Olivia. You bring sunshine into the lives of all those who have the blessing of knowing you. From before you were born, we knew that you'd be a special, strong, wonderful little girl! You have far exceeded all expectations I ever had of who you might be. I can't imagine that Heavenly Father has entrusted me with someone as special as YOU! Thank you for being my daughter. I can't wait to see what the future has in store for you, peanut!!!

Here are some things that you've accomplished by your 1st birthday:

• You can walk forwards and backwards
• You run :)
• You (sometimes) say, "No no" "Hi!" "Num num" "Dada" "Mama"
• You can sign "please" and "more"
• You can clap when asked to clap and when you're really excited!
• You can dance like it's your job!!!
• You can blow kisses
• You can wave hello and goodbye
• You fold your arms when we ask you to :) This is by far your cutest "trick" :)
• You hide and play peak-a-boo
• You climb all over the place! I caught you on top of our kitchen table the other day. Bad, Livi!! Haha!
• You can kick a ball. Daddy taught you this!
• You point to people you recognize when we show you pictures :)
• You give high fives
• When mommy takes pictures of you, you like to come look at them on the camera screen :)
• You make this high pitched squeal when you get excited!!
• You recognize Jesus and you will wave to the painting we have of Him on our wall at home.
• You can open Mommy's wallet.... already. We're in trouble :)
• When you want something you'll point to it and then sign "please" really fast and repeat it a few times. It's adorable!
• You hold the phone to your ear and pretend to talk :)

Loves:

• You love running to Daddy when he gets home :)
• You love spending time with your extended family!
• You love cheese :)
• You love all sweets.... except your birthday cupcake! Sad.
• You love the smoothies Mommy makes you
• You love going to the park and playing on the swings
• You love to dance and listen to music
• You love the tub and the singing octopus bubble making toy thingy you have in there with you!
• You love cuddling with Mommy and Daddy in bed :)
• You love reading stories before bed
• You just LOVE reading no matter what time it is :)
• You enjoy riding in the car....most of the time.
• You love eating Abundance
• You love Mommy and Daddy your grandparents and your aunts, uncles and cousins!

Month ELEVEN :)

Olivia

Month ELEVEN :)

August

August was a FUN month! We took a trip with our Clegg family to Monterrey, Solvang, Big Bear and Anaheim. It was a road trip of sorts :) You were able to ride with your cousin, Noah, in the car a couple of times and you two loved it! You started walking this month. You took a few steps at 9 1/2 months, but you really started moving around at 10 months! I was so proud of you, peanut!