John, Ann, and Annabel Gonda

February Fun

2012-02-09T14:06:00.000-08:00

We have had a fun and busy February thus far. John has started working on the backyard and it is coming along so quickly. Can't wait to see how it turns out. John has a much better vision and imagination when it comes to trying to picture the unseen. Annabel and I have adjusted to life as buddies. I am loving being home so much and actually feeling like a full time Mom and Wife. Life is good around here, that is all I need to say.

The weather has been back and forth, we are finally getting some precipitation off and on. The temps have been pretty cool with an occasional day in the high 50s or low 60s, which is so nice when that sun is shining. So, we get out on the warmer days and enjoy the sunshine, while we play with friends or at the Discovery Museum, or "mall park" on the cooler days. Annabel has been busily having a blast.

This weekend John and I celebrate, not only our 6 year anniversary from our first date, but also our 6th anniversary from our engagement. I'm sure not many people can say they can celebrate both in just one weekend. We always like to do something fun to celebrate, since it is also so close to Valentines. No plans yet, but I'm sure we will come up with something as spontaneously as we do everything else in life. Hooray for 6 years, I can't believe it has been that long. The best 6 years of my life. I feel like the most blessed gal alive.

Pregnancy continues to go well. I can feel the baby more and more every day. It is amazing to witness how quickly they grow and how strong they become just in a matter of days. Next week we have our level 2 ultrasound, but still plan on not finding out the gender. This will probably be the hardest time to say no thank you because we know that someone else will know the gender. We are far more excited for the surprise it will be on babies birthday. I seem to be having a very similar pregnancy as I did with Annabel. The lightheadedness and nearly passing out at times has started again. I forgot how scary this part is. It doesn't usually cause a problem all day and I won't go into detail, but I just always worry about how my occasional extremely low blood pressure affects the baby. Nausea has settled way down in the last 4-5 days. Occasionally I'll feel really nauseated, but it seems to be becoming rarer and rarer, which is really nice. Needless to say, I love this part of being pregnant, starting to show and feeling the baby is the best. It makes everything seem so real to me and John.

The back view of our house.

Making a retaining wall, under the watch of a little supervisor.

The retaining wall on the right makes a 12 foot semi circle for a trampoline.

Annabel and I made her a little valentine bag for goodies out of some foam paper and ribbon.

Playing at the park.

Annabel with some of her friends. Play dates are so much fun.

And the famous bump at 16 weeks. Sorry not the best pic.

Our budding artist at the Discovery Museum.

Belated Holiday Greetings.

2012-01-02T19:53:00.000-08:00

First off, we want to apologize for not getting our Christmas cards out this past year. It is the first we have missed since we were married. We usually do a little Christmas letter, so I think I will just do it on the blog.

Instead of recapping month by month, I'll share a little about each of us this past year.

Annabel, our prized little angel. She has grown so much and is SO smart. She likes to talk and tell Mommy and Daddy what to do. She is very polite and I think uses the words "thank you" more than we do. Although she has used the potty many times, she still isn't too concerned about going in her diaper and I'm not really concerned about pushing the issue right now either. She knows her letters and numbers 1-10. She is starting to sing songs with us, which is so cute, but cuter when she tries to do them all by herself. Annabel loves nursery, and is pretty good about sharing. She definitely is the boss of her Daddy, and he is glad to do most every thing she wants for her. This was such a fun Christmas with her. She only really understood that it was Jesus Birthday, but did not really get the Santa Clause thing. She loves to open gifts, and just loved everything she got. I could write a book about this little girl, so I'll just stop here.

John, the best husband and Daddy anyone could ask for. The year started out a little rough for him with a very slow business. I went back to work nearly part-time and John became a part-time stay at home Dad. Although he enjoyed being with Annabel so much, he enjoys the feeling of being able to support his family more. In August he decided it was time to move to a home that was cheaper and made my staying home full time again and him being the family income possible again. The Lord definitely supported this decision. The next several months went smoothly with buying a new beautiful home and then John's business picking up and being busier than he could remember. John loves to spend time with his family, and spent much time in the yard of our old house, making it amazing, just for us to move. He is such a hard worker, and we love him for all that he does and all that he is.

Ann, is busy getting through each day. Creating life is definitely not easy. After a miscarriage, 5 failed IUI attempts, and a failed IVF cycle, we were so blessed to finally conceive with our frozen embryos. Isn't modern science amazing. I was working nearly part-time until about October/November, when we moved. Now I am home again with Annabel, and loving being able to be home and teach our little girl and witness every bit of her day. Although I haven't been the best house wife with cooking or deep cleaning, I know that it is just temporary, and luckily so does John, so he never, ever complains. Did I mention how much I love my husband. We are so excited to be expecting this July. We aren't planning on finding out the sex and we both feel either would be a wonderful addition to our family. I know people always ask, but we are always just grateful to be pregnant and hope for a healthy baby after 9 months.

This past year has had many ups and downs, but luckily we tend to be pretty optimistic in general when going through all this terrible infertility stuff. We have done some fun things like make a surprise visit to see Mammy in Atlanta, and see family in Dallas. In September we took our first family vacation just the 3 of us to San Diego and had a wonderful time, we can't wait to return or go on another family trip just the 3 of us. The past few months have been a crazy whirlwind, but we went through it together and got through it together, happy to be where we are today.

We hope you all have a wonderful New Year. We look forward to hearing of your adventures and also sharing with you ours.

Much love!

Slowly but surely

2011-11-21T12:47:00.000-08:00

So, we are slowly unpacking and organizing the new house, and it is becoming more comfortable. We're still doing some painting, and unpacking all of our miscellaneous boxes. I can't believe we have filled this house up as much as we have, with it being 1,000 sqft bigger than the old one. Go figure, guess we lived pretty tightly in the other house. Sorry some of the pics are a bit dark.

Upstairs family room/toy room

Downstairs living room and dining room.

The pictures make everything seem so much smaller than it really is. We are loving this house, and are taking our time with getting all the details done. John has been working a lot lately, but as long as we have a bed to sleep in and a few rooms done, it doesn't really matter to us.

She's 2

2011-10-18T21:44:00.000-07:00

This past Friday Annabel turned 2, and we celebrated with a birthday safari on Saturday. We had a great time preparing for this big day. Annabel loved the theme, attention, and opening presents. Thankyou to all our family and friends for making this such a memorable event. About 30 people total came to celebrate with us.

Just to update family and friends about Annabel, I will give some details of how this little one has grown. I'm not sure how tall she is, maybe 32 inches or so, and she still only weighs about 21-22 pounds, but boy does this girl eat. We don't worry much about her weight, just good genes, I guess. She talks quite a bit, frequently in 4-5 word sentences. She can sing the alphabet and count to 10 by herself, although she loves trying to count to 20, a few numbers left out of course. She can identify most letters of the alphabet as well. She loves to be read to and look at books, especially if there are animals involved. She knows all the animals at the zoo, she learned much from our San Diego zoo experiences. She can also make all the sounds that go with the animals. Annabel loves to jump, jump, jump. Luckily she tends to be quite cautious and doesn't do anything crazy, joys of having a girl. Annabel is very loving and mild manored most of the time. No longer do we have to tell Annabel what to do, she tells us what to do and how to do it, and she likes to get her way. Too bad we know better.

We love this little girl so very much. She is truely the light in our lives, our world revolves around her. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful spirit in our home. I still love putting her to bed every night. I hum primary songs to her as she goes to sleep, it is such a peaceful time for both of us.

Here are some pics of the party. By the way, I made the safari cake. It was so fun, I can't wait to make another theme cake!!!!

I love this picture. Annabel loves babies, and she is asking the baby 'what is wrong' here.

My birthday is just a few days after Annabel's. It is kind of like having a birthday a few days from Christmas, so John wanted to make it special for me. He took a day off work and we drove to Sacramento to go to Ikea and buy stuff for our new house. Then he took us out to my favorite restaurant, The Cheesecake Factory. It was a blast, nothing better than spending my birthday with my family. I have such a wonderful hubby.

Ignore the horrible lazy eyelid, that happens when I'm tired.

Annabel's Grandma and Grandpa Gonda joined us from Texas to celebrate too. So much fun for all of us. We'll miss you guys...

Out of order, but so cute, they were playing so well together.

I feel I am so very blessed with all that I have been given. I have a wonderful husband who was recently willing to give up just about all of our large material posessions so that we could downsize our mortgage and allow for me to be a stay at home mom again. It is amazing the feeling we have had by being willing to take such drastic steps. We are so BLESSED. We love having our beautiful Annabel. There is not a day or night that goes by that we don't voice how grateful we are to have such a wonderful person in our lives. She is truely a miracle in every sense of the word and we recognize that every day. We also are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends, and thank those who take the time to give us support and love frequently. We appreciate you all.

New House

2011-09-29T11:04:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of the new house. We have actually been enjoying being in the old Hunter Lake house, although moving twice is no fun. We are so close to everything, including the new discovery museum in downtown. The new house will also be closer to downtown than our old house, so that will be a nice change. We are just waiting and waiting for the seller (the government-HUD) to get on the ball, so that we can close. The hope is to close on my birthday, mid October.

For the sake of FAMILY

2011-09-11T21:06:00.000-07:00

What a whirl wind of a summer. I can't believe it has come to a close already. It is now getting colder with temps in the low 80's. Winter will be upon us before we know it.

I really don't even know where to start with this blog. As most know we did our IVF in July/August, which sadly failed, but we are excited to be so fortunate to have many frozen embryo's that are all of excellent quality.

The next bit of news would be that we are moving. Yes, moving from the house we said we would never move from. Moving from the house we put so much work into and had grown to love. Here is the reason why:

Without getting into to much personal history, I will quickly explain. Basically I hate working and want to be a stay at home mom again; the economy has taken a huge toll on John's business this past year; and finally, we realized we did not want the cost of our current house to be the reason we stopped trying to have children or put it off for long periods of time. Our joy is through each other, this eternal family, and how much greater the joy as we add to it.

I wish I could explain this struggle we have been dealt. Granted we all have our trials, sometimes I wish mine did not affect my life long dreams of having a large family, and enjoying the blessings of knowing that it is possible. I can't even describe what it is like to get to the last straw as far as science helping us to bare our own children, and it doesn't work. I can't put into words the heart brake, and I know that only those who have been through the same have even a glimpse of that feeling. When we realized a house payment was making this whole experience that much more horrible, we decided it was time to change.

So, we are preparing to sell our home, we sold our condo and our jet ski to help us have a good solid down payment on a new home, and we currently are in escrow for a new house (hopefully closing by the end of the month). We also got some major help from John's wonderful Dad who was so willing to help us out by cosigning. Thank You! This is such a bitter sweet time. We are excited to move forward and rid of a major stress in our lives, but it is still so hard coming home every day and seeing all that we put into this house to make it ours, and have to give it up just to start over again. We will definitely miss this area and living on a cul-de-sac. But luckily we finally caught the site of a house being just that, a house, something of only material worth. Even when we think we have it all figured out, life throws us more curve balls, and makes living all that much more interesting.

On another note, we just returned from our long awaited week long trip to San Diego. This was the first trip we took as a family without inviting anyone else. Just the three of us is a lot of fun. We have enjoyed past vacations, but this one had an extra relaxation and fun factor to it. We stayed at one of our condos in Mission Valley. The weather was unusually hot for San Diego, but with some Slurpee and good attitudes we didn't let that damper our spirits. Annabel loved every thing we did from touring a huge aircraft carrier to the Zoos and Sea World. This trip came at such a stressful time in our lives, but it was the best possible thing that could have happened. We definitely came home with renewed spirits and optimism. We also got to visit Nana and Grandpa, and they loved having the chance to see Annabel again. We wish we could visit more often.

Here are some pics of our vacation. I will post pics of the new house when I actually get over there to take pictures.

Wants to be just like Daddy.

So excited to be able to see water from a port hole.

Loving "G-nana"

Safari zoo

Sea World Funnel Cake, YUM.

Cooling off.

Annabel's very first ride.

We Love to See the Temple

World Famous San Diego Zoo

Hugs for "G-Pa"

Touching the star fish in Sea World

The Children's Zoo at the San Diego Zoo

Happy Summer!!

2011-06-21T21:37:00.000-07:00

Oh, wow, summer is finally here, and just in time. Today is officially the first day of summer. Ours started late, but it has come on strong the last couple of days. I think we began to doubt 90 degrees would ever be reality. It is amazing to see so much snow in the mountains still, and it is almost July. It really is a great blessing and a curse for Reno. Great to have the snow pack for summer, but major fuel for fire when things get a little drier.

So, it has been quite a busy couple of months. Our lives have literally changed and we've had a lot of planning and decision making to do. Now that it is pretty much settled, things feel a little more relaxed. We found out in the beginning of May that to get pregnant, most likely from here on out, we will need to do in-vitro. It really was such a shock, and we had a great sense of loss. The loss of the ability to conceive without a petri dish. Anyway, it has been quite a humbling experience, emotionally, spiritually, and financially. We are doing well now and are actually very excited to get the ball rolling. Hopefully in a few months we will have good news to share.

Other than working as much as possible to help with the above scenario, we haven't done much the last couple of months. We did spend a few days in Dallas for Nick's graduation, which was relaxing, and a great reminder of why we love Reno, and why I don't want to complain about 60 degrees, I like it much more than 100 degrees; unless I'm playing in the water of course. We were glad to be there to support Nick, I can't believe he has graduated. I can still picture him the first time I met him, when he was 13 years old. We wish him luck in his future endeavors, and can't wait to see where life takes him.

Now we are just waiting to take the jet ski to the lake, first scheduled trip, next weekend, hmm, 4th of July weekend, hadn't thought about that. Oh well, we are excited to go and take advantage of the short summers we do have.

Annabel is doing very well. She is growing so much in so many ways. She has at least one new word a day it seems. She will try to mimic any word we say. I am finally starting to realize how big she is. She seems so long to me when I see her in her bed. She still is quite light weight wise, but we definitely have no control over that. This girl eats so well. Tonight, Grandma's meatloaf with ketchup, bread, cantaloupe, strawberries. I don't know where all the food goes, but she does away with it somehow. Annabel's hair is really growing and getting thicker, it is so curly too. She tends to be a little adrenalin junkie, which is great prep for the day we take her to Disneyland, we always talk about that day, in the future some time.

Life is good. We are trying to be healthier, work out, eat more healthful and organic foods, and walk instead of drive when possible. It is amazing to think of all the little ways we neglect our bodies. Our garden is currently growing although a little slower than last year. The potatoes are growing like weeds, but the squash and tomatoes, that did REALLY well last year, are growing pretty slowly. Time will tell. We have also planted egg plant, pumpkin, corn, bell peppers, blackberry bush (no yield for a while though), and blueberry bushes ( no yield either). The yard is really shaping up. It is amazing how much you can do without spending much money. The expensive projects are obviously on hold for a while.

So, here are some picks from the last couple of months.

Before summer hit obviously.

Love this pic

Easter dress from Mammy!

Fort Worth Zoo with fam.

enjoying warmer weather in Reno

Time with Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Nick in Dallas

Father's Day volley ball game with my fam. Great to see Mom and Dad diving for balls. John was so excited to play a REAL game....

Cousins and Auntie Stacy

Easter Blessings

2011-04-19T13:39:00.000-07:00

I am finally updating this blog with pictures of the fun we've had. This past weekend we did our first annual Easter egg hunt. I don't think it could have turned out any better than it did. We are so excited to do it again every year. Annabel loved having everyone at her house too. The week before we bought a huge swing set off craigs list, that John reconfigured and made to fit our yard in the coolest way, it is so perfect. I love being married to this man. Not only is he the most loving person to myself and Annabel, but he is so very handy. Seems handy men are hard to come by in this generation of technology. He worked so hard to have it ready for the easter egg hunt, and it was a hit for all the kids.

We have really started to work in the yard now that the weather is shaping up a little better. We didn't do much yard work last year, so we are ready to put some effort in this summer. Seeds are planted for the veggie garden, we have 10 trees on there way from our donation to the arbor day foundation, and we bought some thornless blackberry bushes. So excited for this spring season. Annabel is old enough this year to totally love being in the yard and exploring/playing on her own. What a dream come true for John and I, we just hope that Annabel won't always have to enjoy it alone.

Aside from enjoying my new blog, I am enjoying being outside when the weather is decent. I find myself outside walking or playing with Annabel for a majority of the day when it is good weather. I have really been enjoying my gym membership too. It has free day care, and Annabel loves it as well. I feel so good and healthy now. It is amazing, what exercise can do for a woman's state of being. I feel so good that I even feel much closer to the spirit and my Heavenly Father. Means I have been a little more emotional lately too, but just because I feel so close to the spirit.

Well, here are some pics. A big thank you to everyone who made Annabel's easter egg hunt and bar-b-q so special.

My little helper. Making cookies wouldn't be fun without eating a few chocolate chips.

Annabel's new room/bed. She loves it!

Easter Egg Hunt and bar-b-q

Our awesome swing set.

My man doing what he does best.

Second Blog

2011-04-09T00:15:00.000-07:00

Hey all, for those who are interested in our struggle with infertility or if you know someone who may be struggling. I started a new blog that may be of no interest to many of you, but just in case... It is really to hopefully help others who may be going through similar struggles in their lives. An insight on my greatest trial. A lot of the verbiage used may only make sense to those who have been through infertility treatment, just so you know. Anyway, here is the new blog :

trialsandfertility.blogspot.com

We have tried both routes of keeping our trials private and being open about them. My experience has shown that we have helped many be being open, and we could not do this month after month or even year after year without all your support and prayers. So, I guess now we really aren't being private about it...

And That's Life

2011-02-15T13:43:00.000-08:00

Life has definitely thrown a few curve balls at us the last few months. Miscarriage after miscarriage, fertility treatments that have consumed all of our savings, John's business the slowest it has ever been, and our decision for me to start working part time once again.

I get kind of discouraged at times like this, but then as I think of the adventure of life on this earth, I feel comfort. Things could be much worse. We still have our home, each other, the most beautiful little girl, food on the table, and most importantly, the gospel. FAITH, that is all I have to say.

As for trying for more children, we don't dare give up, and we are most grateful for John's Grandpa being so willing to help us on this path, we truly could not do it with out his financial support. We have never asked for money from anyone, but we couldn't see any other way without wasting precious time. There is nothing more we want right now than to have more children before our chance and time runs out, darn to getting older... This has been such a trial for us. We appreciate everyones thoughts and prayers.

In the midst of all these happenings, we had a trip to Oregon that we had booked nearly one year ago. Luckily, staying at our time share costs nothing other than groceries; gas is covered by a 75 dollar gift card every time we stay at the condos. We had a very relaxing time indoors watching the ocean, playing games, watching t.v., and swimming in the pools. It was chilly weather, and we had some horrible colds to get over though. I'll share some pics.

As for our little Annabel. She is growing so much, especially in height. She is starting to talk more, and uses sign language like a pro. She says a ton of animal sounds and knows many of her body parts. She is so loving, and we love watching her and talking to her each and every day. She has six teeth in now and several molars all coming in at once. Now she can eat apples, she loves apples, but they are hard to eat without the right teeth.

She loved the crown, so cute to see her put it on upside down all the time.

Grandpa Pete, love to visit his home, it is so cozy.

Annabel was helping her Great Grandpa clean his office.

Love being a family, this was our anniversary day from our first date; 5 years.

Loved the sand, and didn't try to eat it, hooray.

Annabel is so cute when she wants me to put things in her hair, but she always takes it out after a short while.

Chasing the seaguls and yelling "get it, get it"

Eating freshly caught crab by John and Anson. It tasted great, even Avery loved it.

Annabel's bud. Austin is the best big brother. Amy and Anson are so lucky to have him.

Awe, view from our balcony. There were 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, it was awesome.

Annabel enjoyed eating at the table from a normal chair. What a big girl.

Another New Year

2011-01-02T16:14:00.000-08:00

We are so excited to start a new year. It was fun to recap on 2010, and realize just how much we did and experienced. We have definitely been blessed in many ways. We are looking forward to another year of life's lessons and joys.

Christmas morning, this is Annabel's favorite.

Very serious and determined driver. We loved having this experience with a little one, something we dreamed of for a long time.
All set up Christmas Eve.
Chrstmas Eve Program at the Gonda's
Loved this outfit.
Annabel and her cousins. She had so much fun, no one was trying to make her do stuff she didn't want to or could on her own, and they actually played WITH her.
Finishing up dinner. This was the best Christmas dinner I can ever remember. John made the most amazing Spare Ribs. Great job Babe.

We've had quite the winter already, and it has just begun.

cutting wood for our wood stove. We are learning that tending a fire in a wood stove is an art and not easy. We'll get it right eventually. I just hope our house won't permanently smell like fire.

Classic

Grateful for friends and family

2010-11-16T19:32:00.000-08:00

I'm so grateful for friends who send me words of comfort like this, "The third thing we can do is understand the principle of compensation. The Lord compensates the faithful for every loss. That which is taken away from those who love the Lord will be added unto them in His own way. While it may not come at the time we desire, the faithful will know that every tear today will eventually be returned a hundredfold with tears of rejoicing and gratitude." ("Come What May, and Love It", Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin).

I'm grateful for the little person in our lives who's footsteps I listen to all day long. I'm so very grateful for my husband who is there every step of the way, and always has the right words to say when I need comfort most. I'm grateful for my family and all there love and prayers for us.

After a particularly rough month, and in the season of Thanksgiving, I wanted to share the things I feel most grateful for right now. I feel so very blessed to be surrounded by so much love and to live such a joyful life with my very best friend and our little girl. I'd be ungrateful if I spent my time dwelling on the difficult trials we are faced with, because the blessings are 10 fold.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving with their families and/or friends.

I knew she was tired...

I think this is a problem

we will have for a while.

She's tall enough, but

not wide enough to keep

many of her pants up.

She loves wearing hats.

Turning One

2010-10-26T10:37:00.000-07:00

It has been way too long. I had actually contemplated whether I should keep blogging, as it is getting harder to find time. After talking with Robbie yesterday, he mentioned how Melanie is always looking to see pictures and updates on the family. It reminded me that there are many out there that may be doing the same. So this blog is all about Annabel and her turning one.

Annabel turned one on October 14. It is interesting to think back exactly one year, and recall that day as if it were yesterday. It has been a great year! We have had so much fun with Annabel, every day is an adventure and a delight with her around. It was also interesting to look back and think about how all the relationships with family and/or friends have changed in one way or another since Annabel arrived. There is no doubt every thing we went through to get Annabel here was worth it; all 3 years of ups and downs.

Annabel has changed so much over the past couple of months. She started walking full time at about 11 months, and it is so sweet to see this tiny little girl walk all around, and climb up things that are half her height. She is busy, busy, busy. She is still very observant, and serious when watching something of interest or new. It is amazing how much she understands when we talk to her. New words are Daddy (so sweet), blanket, doggy, and what dat.

At her one year check up we found out Annabel is no longer in the 5-10th percentile; she is no longer even on the charts. She weighs a wee 16 lbs and 14 oz. But for height she is at least 40th percentile at 28 and 3/4 inches.

As far as life goes in our household. Everything is moving forward day to day. John has been working on a couple projects which I will show pics of. We took out our gas fireplace, he built an entertainment center in it's place and then we got a very very expensive wood stove and put it in our great room. It works great, and John refers to it as an investment. We didn't expect to be paying so much for this project, UGHH. All in all it looks great and heats the whole house. No more heater for this winter. Other news... It is definitely fall in Reno now. Highs in the 50s and cold at night. We have had record rain for the month of October and we have almost met our average rain fall for the year with two of our wettest months still to come.

I love this outfit.

Our gift to Annabel. It is perfect because of her deep love for balls all sizes and colors.

Annabel loves her toy from Nana, once again balls are involved, and she likes to pull it around.

Nope we didn't help. Annabel does this all the time, and Tama just lies there.

I love winter p.j.'s

She is definitely not one of those who is scared of the cake.

You can't see it very well, but she smeared frosting all over her belly.

Loves to help with dishes.

The new wood stove. With a cute model.

Now isn't that amazing. John made this all by himself.

Wrapping it up

2010-08-24T12:17:00.000-07:00

I feel like summer is quickly coming to a close, even though it will be near 100 degrees tomorrow, it will be in the 70s this weekend, and the nights are already too chilly to leave all the windows open. We have had some great seasons this year, but summer seemed quite short. I'm hoping to quickly get through this post as Annabel is sleeping so well right now. Life has been very busy and exciting around here. Annabel is changing so much. She started moving about a month or so ago, not crawling, but her own made up maneuver. It's like a sit crawl, anyway, it has become quite an effective way to get around. About two weeks after that she started to walk. 9 1/2 months, WOW. It is definitely a slower process when they are so young. She is so cautious, but when she really wants something she can walk quite far, but she still prefers holding one of our hands or pieces of furniture. Annabel has also started saying a few words, ball, Mama, Ama (for Tama), uh (for up), and I'm sure she is trying many others, her words sound very similar to what we think she is trying to say. We have also recently started the teething process, not fun, poor girl. About a week before her teeth actually pop through, she gets a fever of 102-103 for 2 days, nice warning... So she now has her lower two, came at the same time, and her upper two are about to come through, looks like at the same time also. Other than a little more fussiness, she deals with it much better than I expected.

John, Annabel, and I have had such a great summer. We have really enjoyed our new jet ski, and water skiing and tubing behind it. We've been able to visit with a lot of family and stay very busy. Last week we took a trip to my cousin's house in Newcastle, CA. They have the most beautiful home, property, and pool. It was a beautiful get away and great company. I can't wait to spend more time with them in the future.

What more can I say... We have been so blessed this past year. We can't get enough of our little girl, and are so excited to continue building our family. No money or other material object could ever bring such happiness as our own little family and the little spirits we bring to this earth.

John's Birthday party with family. There were so many babies.

Annabel's mode of getting around.

Standing up on Tama's legs. He is so good and patient with her.

Family photo day.

John's fam.

Back to John's B-Day. Four babies, Annabel was the oldest and smallest. They were all so cute.

These are pics from my cousin's place. It was so amazing and relaxing there. Here my cousin, Joan, is picking wild blackberries along the river. These vines are huge, and grow high up into the trees. It was so much fun to get dressed for picking amongst the thorns.

This the the hill John terraced off, rock walls were still in progress, it looked great.

Annabel loved visiting the hens every day, she would get the biggest smile when I would say Boch boch. Here she is talking to them. She likes to use her arms and hands when she talks.

This picture doesn't do justice to how beautiful there property is. Beyond the lawn is a river.

This is the pool we enjoyed every day.

Annabel loved this hammock chair.

Love this picture. Joan and Annabel looking over the property.

There wasn't a minute of boredom, we had great company and much to explore and enjoy.

What a month!!

2010-07-13T10:48:00.000-07:00

I hardly know where to start. We have had such a fun month, San Diego, boyscout camp, jet skiing, water skiing, tubing, Virginia City with Gigi, Phillips reunion for Nana's 90th birthday...

I guess I'll go in order and start with the week of our 4th anniversary. John once again went to scout camp that week (June 21st), and instead of being home missing him for a week, my mom and I took a trip to San Diego. We had a great relaxing vacation, but we still missed John, I'm just glad Annabel remembered him when we all got home. Nana Miller was able to spend time with Annabel, which she clearly enjoyed. Annabel also got to see her great Auntie and Uncle again. I have really enjoyed seeing so much of my family this year. While in San Diego we took Annabel to the zoo. I thought she would love looking at the animals, but she was more interested in the human animal. She would just quickly look at the Animals, and then just people watch the whole time, it was pretty funny. The San Diego zoo is great, and we got to see the baby gorilla showing off for the crowd, he was so cute.

We've been using the jet ski a lot, it is a blast. It is powerful enough to pull a tube or skier, which makes it so much fun. We've been two times with the Gonda cousins, and had a great time. Last week we tried going for an evening, not knowing what to expect. After I got off work we headed to Boca. The weather was 83 degrees, the lake was flat and there was only a couple other boats. It was a lot of fun. We did a lot of skiing, and John and Anson were even able to slalom ski.

Last Saturday we had a Phillips reunion in honor of Nana's 90th birthday. It was a great day with many stories shared. I love how relaxing it is when we get together. We had the reunion at my cousins' Jason and Joan's house, it was so beautiful. I felt like I was in Heaven. Annabel loved the pool, a little too much, I will have to keep a close eye on her and get her swimming lessons before long. My family doesn't get together much like that, but every time we do it is like we see each other often. Nana does a good job keeping us all updated on what others are doing in the family. Of course my camera battery was dead for the reunion, so I don't have pics.

Now for our little Annabel. She is doing so many new things. 3 weeks ago she started clapping and saying aaaaa (yea). It's so cute of course. She has recently started moving around more, without actually crawling of course. She does a crawl/scoot maneuver. She gets around, but it isn't the quickest in movement, so that is nice. She will be walking before long, as she has taken to walking with the little walker finally. Before it was a bit too fast for her. I love watching her, and she gets better at it every time she tries. She's also walking around on furniture, and will move from one piece of furniture to another. Now that she can move pretty well, she is pestering Tama a lot. Tama loves every minute of it though. Annabel will be 9 months old tomorrow. She has grown so much, yet is still so small, tipping the scales at a whole 14 lbs 4 oz. and about 27 inches long. She's so much fun, and still an amazing eater!

The San Diego Temple was being refurbished, and had scaffolding around it like I've never seen.

8 MONTHS!!!

2010-06-15T19:48:00.000-07:00

It has been quite a month. It seems as though so much has happened and we have been very busy with family, friends, and our yard. May 12, John's Grandfather, Grandpa Gonda, passed away. It was sudden and unexpected, so quite the shock. I don't know that I can even begin to write everything about what occurred that day, or what has occurred since, I'm not really sure I should share everything. I can say that one of the most painful things I have done in my life is call my dear husband to tell him the man he viewed as a father had passed away. Because I work at Saint Mary's ER, and that is where he was taken after his heart attack, I was first to be contacted after Grandma's okay. I was scheduled to work just an hour later.

As John became a part of my life 4 1/2 years ago, so did his Grandparents, whom he respected and admired deeply. They are important to him and he loves them deeply, and being his wife, so I too, grew to love them. I could go on and on, but details are too personal and spiritual to share on the computer. Grandpa will be missed, and we hope to see his legacy live on in his children, grand children, and great grand children, as we all strive to make a difference in others lives the way he did.

In late May/early June, many cousins either moved back to Reno, or have come back for part or most of the summer. John and I have been so excited, and have enjoyed much time with visiting every one. It is such a blessing to live near family, especially family who are so loving and inviting toward us. We're really excited about this summer, and feeling like we have friends again.

Next week is mine and John's 4th anniversary. Since once again John will be at Scout camp, I decided it best to go on a little vacation myself instead of stay home and sulk while he is gone. So my mom, myself, and Annabel are off to San Diego next Monday to Friday. I'm excited to see my Nana again, and spend time with mom.

So, on top of all the craziness lately, our little Annabel is now eight months old. Tonight I was taking advantage of her sleeping on my shoulder. One, it is rare that she cuddles like that, and two, I rarely put her to bed when she is already asleep. Anyway, I was rubbing her back and looking at the room we created for her. I thought about all we went through to get this little spirit here and remembered back to the time she was as small as the picture on her wall. Tears rolled down my face. I know I won't remember every single moment as well as I really want to, our memories just aren't that great, but I know that I will forever enjoy each and every moment of each day with her. As long as I can say I did that, then I will be satisfied.

Annabel is growing so much in her physical abilities/ motor skills. She loves to stand, and is constantly practicing or trying to stand on her own on every thing. She continues to love walking holding on to our hands. She feeds herself whatever we are willing to clean up after she is through. She thinks cheerios are a main food staple. And I know it doesn't appear so, but this girl eats nonstop. Yahoo for mommy's metabolism. We are starting to be able to feed her what we are eating at the dinner table, which is so much fun, and she loves the variety. Currently for about the last 3-4 days she has been sticking her tongue out constantly. Must be a new discovery. It's so cute and funny. She understands the words, 'up', 'milk' (and the sign for it), 'Dada', 'Tama', 'Mama', and she knows her own name (has for a while). What else can I say, its obvious we are proud and so in love with every thing about her. We hope you all enjoy the pictures and are having a wonderful summer.

Our attempt at making her hair curly

LOVE to walk to the Temple

One of my favorite pics, Annabel is totally turning into a "daddy's girl"

Common position we find her in, notice she continues to play with the keyboard, like nothing is going on.

No matter how big a sheet we put this girl on she always finds the sand or dirt, yes she had a mouth full of dirt when I looked up.

Our tomato garden. We're happy to say, they are doing GREAT.

Her new old toy. From when Austin was a babe.

It turns into a walker. She's so tiny, I can't believe walking will be just around the corner.

Ooh, cheerios!

Hanging out with Dad

I believe this was the first day with her tongue fascination. It's so funny and cute.

Maui and Mother's Day

2010-05-11T15:24:00.000-07:00

We're back. We left snow and returned to snow. When will winter end in Reno? Now that we have enjoyed beautiful warm weather and lots of fun in the water, we can't wait for summer.

We had a great vacation in Maui. It is definitely a much different island than Kauai. The resort was beautiful and we had two bedrooms and 2 baths, which was fabulous for all of us. It was a bit of an adjustment with Annabel this time. She did wonderful, better than we could have ever imagined. Our adjustment was a little slower though as we were learning how to do things we love that can also accommodate a child. We are definitely learning and loving every step. The weather was beautiful, but it would get quite windy in the afternoon, which was a great time for us to go to the condo have lunch, swim in the pool, and explore the island. Water was great and beautiful as usual. Snorkeling was awesome, and we saw a multitude of bright fish and sea turtles. We're excited to return again, but I think we'll go back to Kauai next time.

As for Mother's Day, well not much to report on, I was on a plane for 5 hours my first mother's day and lost 3 hours of daytime. I guess going to Hawaii was a wonderful Mother's day gift. As for my thoughts on being a mom; there is nothing better on this earth than to have a little spirit sent to our home and turn our worlds upside down. I can't even express the joy we have felt with Annabel and watching her learn and grow. The first year goes quickly and is filled with utter amazement and gratitude. I love the road I'm on and learning all that I am, and am glad we are surrounded by people who don't try to coach our parenting style or decisions. We are now our own family, making our way in a troubled world while having positive attitudes.

As for my own Mom, what could I put into words to explain my gratitude for all she has done or taught me. She has been such an inspiration to me, especially since I have become a stay at home mother myself. I have so many memories of my life with family, and feel so blessed to have such a great bond with my siblings and parents. Thanks Mom for all you do for me and my family.

And Mom-in-law, I have enjoyed the small bits of time we have spent together over the last four years. I appreciate all of your love for me and our family. Thank you for the wonderful husband whom I will forever cherish and love.

Happy Mother's Day to all those wonderful women in my life!

Now an update on Annabel. She will be 7 months in 3 days. Wow! She continues to make us smile and laugh. Recently she decided to take a long sabbatical in talking. We haven't really heard her babble for a couple weeks now. She listens and observes every thing so intently, I sometimes wonder if she is going to be mute until one day she just blurts out sentences to us. We'll see, she is probably just focusing on another skill for now. She sits up like a pro, but still hates being on her tummy and rolls over as soon as she is put on her tummy, so no crawling in sight. She may just skip crawling altogether. She loves to stand holding on to things and will walk holding onto our hands. Annabel continues to LOVE food, and is more interested in what we are eating than eating baby food. She's really starting to get the hang of finger foods and feeding herself. She puts those gums to work, as there are no teeth in sight yet. Her hair is growing in so fast, and is still a dirty or strawberry blond. Blue eyes still, getting lighter every month.

Promptings from the Holy Ghost

2010-04-20T19:00:00.000-07:00

So, I just had to post about this chart that was handed out in Relief society on Sunday. It is titled "Recognizing promptings of the Holy Ghost". I guess it was found In Ensign April, 1986 in an article by John H Groberg called "Investing for Eternity". I'm not able to participate in RS much because I'm always in and out with a tired babe who really needs a nap. So when I got home I was reading through the handouts and loved this one. It lists how you can tell if you have the Spirit with you or not. It made me realize some things I could really work on. Anyway, if anyone is interested, check it out. It's a great article too!!

http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=6cebef960417b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

In other news, Annabel is 13 pounds. Woohoo. She is growing so much.

Six Months

2010-04-15T14:18:00.001-07:00

Annabel is 6 months. I'm not going to say that I can't believe it, because I can. Not that the road to six months was difficult by any means, we were just careful to enjoy each moment without dwelling in the past or looking to the future. We love this little one so much and marvel at the things she learns and does each and every day. I feel like I now have every thing I ever wanted and realize just how tough of a trial it was to get to here and now with Annabel. We have been abundantly blessed and are so grateful for our Heavenly Father and His Son. We had and still do put so much trust in His hands, knowing He knows best.

Recently we went to visit Nana Phillips in Paradise, California. I can't believe we waited so long to see her and other family. Most of my relatives we had not seen since we got married or shortly after. I miss my family, and we have really enjoyed sharing our lives with them. Nana is going to be 90 years old this July. She lives by herself and can get kinda lonely, so she was very excited to have us stay. I'm making a public goal to visit my relatives more often. We've been blessed with being able to see quite a bit of John's family since we were married, so now we just have to incorporate even more brief trips into our lives.

So, we can't seem to quite shake winter and get into spring. We get a little tease of spring for several days, then right back into winter and snow for a while. Now we are having spring (high 60s) and next week, winter AGAIN. We have taken advantage of the nice days though. Annabel loves being out and seeing all the new things. John built 3 veggie planter boxes, that look great. We will be working some more on those this weekend. We started our seeds for veggies a few weeks ago, and the plants are huge already. So our dining room is temporarily a green house. We won't be able to plant outside for at least another month, until the snow melts off Peavine Mountain.

In a little over 2 weeks we will be flying to Hawaii. We are so excited for another nice vacation. Needless to say, we have felt a bit spoiled lately. We're just looking forward to lots of relaxation, hiking, and swimming at water falls. Annabel is also excited, she just doesn't know it yet...
Well, here are some pics, the fun part...

Enjoying the outdoors
and John's planter boxes.

Her many faces on her 6 month day

Just love this little girl and her smiles.

Yep, brown hair, hazel eyes with, a blonde and blue eyed baby. Pretty crazy...

Let the fun times begin

2010-03-24T15:33:00.000-07:00

We've returned from our very first family vacation since Annabel was born. We weren't sure what to expect, and were really pleased with how well Annabel did away from home, and how much fun we had. We drove to San Diego on Saturday early morning and returned last night at midnight. We timed both long drive trips just right. It's about 8-9 hours driving without stops. We're excited for future travels, and are glad we have nothing to fear. Annabel would take her naps where ever we put her, car seat, stroller, bed, couch. It was a great family bonding experience. Annabel really enjoyed seeing Dad so much. It's amazing how much she changes and grows right before our eyes. She sits up now, but is still a little unsteady and does occasional face plants, but she doesn't mind. She reaches for and grabs what ever she can get. She loves to eat food. She is very serious and always studies what she sees. Her smiles and bright blue eyes bring a smile to every face that sets eye on her; she is beautiful.

Here are some pics from our trip.

Cabrillo point, San Diego

Tide Pools

Sporting the new shades

Annabel and her Great Nana. First time meeting. We're so glad we made the trip for Nana to meet Annabel. It was a wonderful experience seeing the two of them. We love you Nana and Grandpa. We didn't know really what color hair Annabel had until we saw Nana's. It is the exact same color, a strawberry blond. She has Nana's blue eyes also.

This is our travel share in Anaheim. It was huge, and awesome. Can't wait to go again.

We love that they are all condos, we save a lot of money by bringing our own food.

My sis and Austin met us in Anaheim

Auntie Amy

Loves water!

I'll take some more of that whipped cream Daddy

First pool experience

5 months

2010-03-16T10:58:00.000-07:00

Wow Annabel is 5 months!! We are still enjoying every minute we have with her. She is sitting up for short periods of time, and eating solids, she loves them now. We couldn't be more happy or proud.

This weekend will be our first big road trip with Annabel, as we drive to San Diego to visit Nana and then to Disneyland with my sis and Austin. We're really excited. After this trip we have Hawaii to look forward to in a month and a half. Annabel will have traveled quite a bit by the time she is one.

Not too much new going on here. We had a beautiful spring day yesterday and today, and it will keep up all week. Naturally we got excited to start on our yard projects. So we picked up the excavator and John got to work moving dirt. This spring we are making planter boxes for veggies, and digging holes for some fruit trees. The tax return couldn't have come at a better time. We're always excited for this time of year and watching our yard grow and change.

John's business has been doing really well this year which is such a blessing and allows me to spend more time at home. I have been working, but only 6 hour shifts and a couple a month. I love being home with Annabel.

This is Annabel's friend, Devin. Devin is 2 1/2 months younger and they are the same size. So cute!

Annabel loves to stand.

This one is for you Meagan. It's so fun to watch someone 6 months pregnant playing Wii fit. Doesn't she look fabulous!

Annabel was so tired, and it is a rare site to see her being cuddly.

This is the cutest little dress, next time I'll take a pic with Annabel standing so you all can see the whole dress.

There are so few pics of Annabel and me, so I was excited to see this one.

So much to be grateful for

2010-03-01T10:50:00.000-08:00

The past few weeks have been filled with lots of thought and conversation between John and me. All I can say about it all, is that I am so grateful for the man, husband, and father John is. We have had such a great marriage filled with love, respect, and determination to build our own family; values, traditions, independence, etc.. So when I went to my husband recently with what felt like a broken heart, he opened my eyes with a reminder of why we were reserved for each other, I need him in my life, and hopefully he feels the same about me. He's one amazing person, and we live one amazing life, and he reminded me of who and what really matters most.

Annabel is still growing so fast. Recently we noticed quite a bit of new hair growth. It's so exciting trying to figure out which hair color will go along with those blue eyes. She now roles over from her tummy to back on purpose, she's been doing it for a couple months, but it never seemed to be on purpose. She is also trying hard to sit up. She is really working on those stomach muscles. We couldn't ask for much more, she is such an easy babe and we just love every minute with her. We are doing our very best to be the parents she needs in this life, knowing she was sent to US for a reason. Good thing our Heavenly Father doesn't expect us to be perfect, as long as we do our best...

We are prepping for a trip to So. cal this month, to visit my Grandma and to go to Disneyland. It's something we can't pass up when we get in free with my sister. John is really excited to hang out with Austin, our nephew, and act like a six year old himself. They are too funny together, and Austin adores John. I love my family they are so great and we've come to really enjoy vacationing with them. We'll be staying in one of our travel share condos, which is 0.5 miles from Disney. We love our travel share, and we are glad we made that iffy purchase three years ago. It is a great way for us to have fun and vacation without having to save up money every time, it is already paid for and the accommodations are great, always condos with full kitchens and separate bedrooms.

After that trip we will look forward to Hawaii May 2. We're going with my sis and her husband. Which makes for great company, and awesome photos of course. We are so excited!!!

Everything New

2010-02-15T12:01:00.001-08:00

Just wanted to post some new events with Annabel.

It's official, she is a thumb sucker. We noticed about 2 weeks ago that she would occasionally have her thumb in her mouth. Not surprising since she's been working on it from day one. Last week, she was sitting in the bumbo, and just started going to town on her thumb, and ever since she has been spitting the paci out and sucking on her thumb. No need for anyone to give advice, I'm not afraid to have a thumb sucker. It soothes her, and I would never take that away. It's actually really cute right now. When I check on her in her crib before I go to bed she will sometimes have that thumb in her mouth, it's darling.

It is nearly 60 degrees right now, and absolutely beautiful, so we took advantage of the day this morning and went for a walk. We are excited to have the warmer weather, it has already been a long winter with very cold temps and lots of snow. I know it isn't over yet, but it is nice to get Annabel out for now.

I love this hat, and I'm so bummed I didn't use it before, when her head was smaller. It was a bit too small, so Annabel didn't last long in it.

We recently put Annabel in the jumper for the first time. She was not tall enough to touch the ground on the lowest settings, so we had to put something under her feet, and a blanket behind her to help out. She's so tiny. She loves it now though. She hasn't figured out how to jump herself, but she stands up tall so she can play with the toys. The video won't upload, so I'll have to share it later.

Growing SO Fast

2010-02-08T10:29:00.000-08:00

On Valentines day Annabel will be four months. Where has the time gone. We have enjoyed every minute of every day and night we have spent with her. On occasion we talk about how we can't believe she is here after several years of waiting, and now we see her grow and change right before our eyes. We are so grateful that we have been chosen to be her parents...

So tomorrow marks our fourth Anniversary from our first date, and two days after that marks the 4th Anniversary of our engagement. It doesn't seem as though four years has already passed. Each year has been filled with so many adventures. We went from two people just starting our careers, to owning a business and becoming quite skilled in what we do. We bought a home that we plan to spend the rest of our lives in. We've traveled, A LOT. We have had many new and exciting experiences, and we also said goodbye to people very dear to us. Life is such an adventure, and every day holds something new. So much to learn, so much to do. I'm so grateful I have the man I do, to go through life together with. We are grateful each and every day to our Heavenly Father for every thing we have been blessed with. How can we ever express fully our gratitude.

In other news, we will be flying to Hawaii in less than three months. We are so excited. My sister, Amy and her hubby will accompany us to Maui. They came with us to Kauai as well, so it will be nice to know how to make traveling together a little smoother this time. We will all have a blast, no question about that. This will probably be the last trip to Hawaii for several years now. We plan on doing more travel by car and experiencing the beauty and fun of surrounding states and Canada.

Well, I will post some new pics of Annabel. She now has lost nearly all her newborn hair except her great mullet. Her new hair is growing in and it is so shiny and appears to be blond so far. She also has very blue eyes, and the doc states they will probably remain blue. Crazy, she won't look like me much. She has started using her hands a lot to hold toys or what ever crosses her path. Of course everything goes straight to the mouth. She will roll over from her tummy to her back, but I think she only does so because she gets so mad. She really shows no interest in rolling from her back to her tummy... SMART girl. She knows where she'll end up if she does. She loves to stand up and gets the most confident and proud look as she holds our fingers with her hands and looks around at every thing on a different level. She will sit up for several seconds on her own, but those muscles aren't quite strong enough yet. She is really turning into a talker. When she is tired she has moments of whining/crying interrupted with cooing and talking until she falls asleep, it is so funny and cute. We love that she is so aware who her parents are, and when others hold her it takes a bit of studying them before she opens up, but she rarely cries. Okay so here are some pics...

I love this pic. She is so sweet. There is nothing more precious and beautiful than a sleeping baby, especially when it is Annabel!! She is holding a little plush elephant that was given to her by some family friends.

We moved Annabel to her own room in her crib about 3 or 4 weeks ago. Here we are letting her get the hang of it. It really wasn't a hard adjustment, I'm not sure she even noticed, and we all started sleeping better at night. Good thing we made the change early. She loves the mobile, and talks to it when she wakes up in the morning. It definitely does not help her fall asleep though, she just talks and talks to it.

Three Months!!!

2010-01-15T11:56:00.000-08:00

Annabel is 3 months old, I can't believe how much she has grown. She is now about 10 1/2 pounds. That may sound small still, but keep in mind that is 5 pounds since she was born, and she is much bigger to us. I've already forgotten just how small she was when she was born, and pictures just don't do justice.

Annabel is definitely starting to sport her personality. For the most part she is very laid back, and knows her mom and dad very well. She smiles a ton now, and her new found love is her hands.

We had a great Christmas this year. I got Wii Fit Plus, which is so fun. I'm not sure that it is the best workout, but if it's fun it doesn't matter. We spent Christmas in Reno, then flew to Dallas for New Years. Annabel did well with the plane, but napping while in Dallas was horrible, and she was a bit crabby. It was a good experience and one we probably wouldn't try again with such a young baby.

John just PASSED the contractors license test for plumbing, I found out while typing this. We are so excited for him.

Congrats Babe/Daddy!!!
We love you

John and I started the New Year with sharing how grateful we are for our little family, our home, and the great situation we are in. We want for nothing, and feel abundantly blessed. We love being able to take walks in the cool fresh air and view the beauty around us. There are times that we both just stare at Annabel in great amazement, she is such an angel. Life is GREAT

So, next month we celebrate 4 years from our first date. It's hard to believe it has been that long. I think this is the most excited I've ever been about that day and Valentines day.

The next exciting thing after Valentines is another trip to Hawaii the first week of May. We are so excited to travel as a family, and just have a relaxing time. We are going to Maui this time, and we invited John's sister, Katie and her husband, Ethan. Hopefully they will be able to join us.

Well here are some more pics of our growing girl. Notice she has lost most of the hair on top of her head. She also has a bald spot on the back, and a great mullet.

Time with Grandpa and Grandma Gonda. We love you guys!

Annabel's head looks so tiny when she wears baggy or big outfits. Love the overalls.

Thanks to Great Uncle Craig and Aunt Lark, Annabel has a favorite toy, the bee in front of her.

We love this smile

Oh yeah, daddy passed his test!

Great Grandma and Grandpa Gonda getting a taste of the full family.

Annabel's first time seeing snow white. This was our Christmas dinner, all the girls dressed up like princesses.

Tama in all his glory. The kitchen, his favorite place.

2 months

2009-12-19T10:24:00.000-08:00

Annabel is 2 months. Time is flying by. It has been so much fun watching her grow and develop. In the last month she has gained nearly 2 pounds, she is 9 pounds, and she grew 2 inches. Newborn clothes are finally too small. I'll trade the cute tiny clothes for her cute smiles any day.

Last week we had quite the winter weather. John woke up one morning at 7 AM and found the temperature to be minus 10 degrees. Yikes! So the rest of the week was pretty chilly, and the snow kept falling. We got a total of nearly 2 feet of snow from all 3 storms. And yes we went sledding down our hill. Sorry no pics of actual sledding because it was too cold for the camera. We were also able to use our snowmobile since they don't plow many streets around here. John missed much of the snow while he was in Kentucky for his brother's wedding. Hopefully we'll enjoy a nice winter with lots of snow, so we have another chance to enjoy it.

Here are some more pics:

I love seeing how strong she is. She loves tummy time because her hands are right near her face, and she loves to suck on them.

Annabel is wearing a snowsuit for a one year old, so she looks tiny in it. It was fun to let her experience some of the weather, although it was only for a couple minutes.

This is the side of the hill we sled on. This was after the last of the three storms, there was so much heavy heavy snow. Great for sledding, to bad I was sledding by myself while Annabel slept. John was still in Kentucky.

Tama surprised everyone with how much he loved the snow. He doesn't have a very thick coat, but he loved it so much, and would stay out for hours.

I like how you can really see her eyes are blue. It would be crazy if she ends up with blue eyes, neither John nor I have blue.
Here's a pic from our house of the beautiful mountains. I love how blue the skies are after snow storms.

5 Weeks

2009-11-18T13:00:00.001-08:00

Annabel is 5 weeks already. I can't believe how fast time goes by. I'm just so grateful I have been able to spend all day and night with her since she was born. Annabel now weighs 7 lbs 4 oz and is 20 inches long, finally the size of the average newborn. We love her to pieces. She is starting to give us little smiles when she is awake, and is very alert and attentive. The doctor said she had the strength of a 2 month old at 4 weeks, and that I better start doing my aerobics so that I can keep up with her in the near future.

In other news, John has been so busy since Annabel was born, which is great except we never get to see him, or spend much time together. Our condo will be open for a renter in a couple weeks, so if anyone needs a place to live, let us know. Other than that, not much to report on. Life has been great, as well as the great Reno weather.

Well, pictures are the funnest part about blogs, so enjoy the many pics below.

Annabel definitely does not like her arms swaddled, never has. Here are her many arm positions. We could take a different picture every day of her arms suspended in the air while sleeping. Not sure how she does it for so long; I know my arms would get tired...

Morning co-sleep. Nearly every morning around 7 am, we put Annabel in our bed. The best is weekends when Daddy is home too.

The great thing about having a baby who is so strong; more time with the bumbo. She only likes to sit for about 5 minutes though. She looks so tiny compared to the bumbo.

Last, but certainly not least, Annabel playing with Tama near by. Tama wants her to play with him so bad. We really have to watch him around her because he tries to play by putting his paw on people, and he's way to big to do that with Annabel. He's had an okay transition. He's found lots of things to chew up in the yard, that he never bothered before, but other than that, he has been doing really well.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for the next round soon to come...

Grateful to be a Mom

2009-11-02T11:14:00.000-08:00

Life as a Mom has been one of the greatest things I have ever experienced. I may be weird, but throughout pregnancy and now that Annabel is here, I have enjoyed most every moment, including all the things that others usually complain about. Pregnancy: not easy, but so rewarding. The many weeks I spent with morning sickness, were only a reminder of the great miracle taking place, and as long as I felt awful, I knew things were going well. I can't say much for the end of pregnancy because I never got very big, and Annabel came three weeks early. It was a breeze, with occasional minor discomforts. I'm excited to experience pregnancy again. As for being a Mom; waking in the middle of the night to feed our precious little girl is surreal. It is hard to initially wake up, but once I do, I stare at Annabel's little face in awe and amazement, I love her feeding times. I love every minute of time since she was born. I enjoy watching John with her,and seeing how much he loves his little girl. I don't want to miss a moment or ever show a lack of gratitude for such a great blessing, regardless of the challenges. Life is GOOD and oh so PRECIOUS!!!!

First family photo

Bath time with Daddy, so content

Annabel's Great Great Uncle Mike

Annabel Ethel is here

2009-10-20T14:42:00.000-07:00

Our beautiful little girl finally made it into our arms on October 14 th at 6:02 pm. I was exactly 37 weeks when my water broke at one A.M.. Without going into detail, it was the scariest day and happiest day of my life. Annabel ended up being born by c-section after a rocky labor that she didn't tolerate well at all. We are just relieved she is here and is as healthy as can be. We are all home now enjoying life as a family. Enjoy all the wonderful pictures. We may be a little biased, but we think she is the cutest newborn ever...

The beginnings of active labor. It was a great experience for the first few hours... Induction makes for a pretty tough labor.

This was after everything started to go sour. I had so many tubes and wires coming out of me, so they could keep a close eye on the baby. I think by this point I had had several liters of IV fluid in me, trying to keep my blood pressure up.

This was another pic from the beginning of active labor.

Pre c-section. We were relieved to get our little one out and excited to finally meet her. It was a rough ride to this point.

Annabel with her VERY PROUD Daddy.

Annabel Ethel Gonda 5lbs 8 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long

Annabel only made two little whimpers when she came out, so here they are trying to ensure me she is doing well.

So exhausted!

Her first outfit, preemie size

Tiny foot

Heading home!!

Oh so sweet.

Little angel, so peaceful.

Some prep time for baby

2009-10-08T15:56:00.000-07:00

Many of you may think that since I'm on bed rest, I should be keeping this blog up to date, but frankly, being on bed rest means there isn't a whole lot to talk about. So, I thought I would just post some of what my husband and mom have been doing around our house to prepare for baby, who will be here within the next two weeks. I am now 36 weeks, and have been on bed rest since 32 weeks because the baby is small, and my fluid was low. It was all completely unexpected and all I could think about was all the stuff we still needed to do to get ready, we had done nothing up to that point. If you want to see a belly shot, just look at the last post, it is just about the same. Although the baby is slowly growing still, it is hard to tell by looking at me.

One of the joys of having a handy man for a husband, is that I can design my own closet. Here is his handy work. Below this pick he is painting the closet prior to building the organizer. It looks great, I love it!

Here's my mom cleaning up and decorating my front porch. I've never put much time into our front porch because there are so many spiders. It looks really great and seasonal right now.

A couple weeks ago I had my baby shower. Obviously I didn't lounge on the couch during it and was exhausted for the next couple days. It was great having everyone visit and share in our joy and great anticipation though.

My sis and me after the baby shower. Oh sooo tired! That couch has been my hangout for the last 4 weeks.

Here's where John hung out during the shower. I love this new color, I'm so excited about our little nursery.

Finally an update!

2009-08-31T10:08:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it has been a while. Our summer has consisted of very little travel or relaxation and a lot of house and yard work. And for what? One day, the Gonda family reunion bar-b-q. It was quite a proud moment for John, but we are BURNT OUT on yard work until next year. All and all everything looks great and we love sitting on the patio looking at all the hard work; mostly John's hard work, I was in charge of flowers and plants.

So now that we have made it through August, lots of guests, our miserable colds, and the hugest pile of laundry we've ever seen, we do a whole lot of thinking about our baby girl. For the first time we have allowed an opportunity for it to really sink in and we are so excited. I'm now 7 months or 31 weeks. We're hoping the next couple months go by as quickly as the summer has. We are more than ready to welcome the change and challenge of having a child in our home.

Here is the 7 month photo, that belly grows a bit every week. It is quite amazing to witness.

I think this photo was at about 5 months, not sure though.

Update on Tama, he is nearly one year old now. We have continued to try and socialize him frequently with other dogs/animals as well as children young and older. He has been doing so well, but doesn't realize his size or strength and will sometimes stumble over children if he doesn't pay attention. He has not gotten aggressive or shown concerning signs with any kids or babies though. We are anxious to see his reaction to a new crying baby. I have a feeling he won't want to sleep in our room after the baby arrives. He enjoys long quiet nights of sleep.

As for the rest of life in our home. I only have one more week of work, yeah, before I go per diem, meaning I work a minimum of 2 days every 4 week period. I look forward to not working another 12 hour shift while pregnant. I don't know about elsewhere in the hospital, but in the ER we are on our feet pretty much the whole day. I look forward also to having our house to ourselves the next few weeks, so I can rest and get all the little things done that I keep putting off, like hanging frames/photos, and scrap booking. John and I are also trying to line up a weekend away to relax before baby comes. We'll see what time brings.

Here are a few photos from August adventures.

Mel, Robbie, Mahana, and Tahitoa came to stay a few days as they passed through on there way from Switzerland to Tahiti. Mahana may not have remembered us, but it was like she picked up from where she left off with her 'Uncle Johnny'. Hopefully they will always have a special bond. It was wonderful having them in our home again. We miss them. Wish you lived in Reno!!!

This is one of the few pics from the family reunion, guess we were all too pooped to really care about taking more. It was a lot of nonstop adventures and being on the go. John and I are more used to the laid back, relaxed vacation, we were pooped and got really sick after. Not fun when pregnant. We loved our last adventure floating down the Truckee river though. Thanks Katie and Ethan for hanging out with us that day. That is the kind of stuff we love to do and live for. We can't wait for Hawaii adventures next May!!!

Happy Third Anniversary

2009-06-22T20:02:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, John and I will have been married for three years. John's at scout camp this week, so we'll have to commence with celebration on his return. We've never been a part for so long without any contact with each other. I already can't wait for him to come back home.

We have been abundantly blessed the last three years, and especially so this past year.

Some highlights of year number three...

Getting settled into our new home and ward.

John's parents came to visit over the summer.

We had house guests for 4 months, our good friends, the Liao's.

We became owners of a plumbing business.

A new nephew was born, Landon John Hanson.

We visited Mammy in Georgia and experienced a bit of downtown Atlanta.

We visited Utah, probably a couple times.

We discovered PARADISE, Kauai. First time to Hawaiian Islands for both of us.

We hosted the family Christmas get together and had a blast. We can't wait to make it a tradition.

We went sledding in our own backyard. If you've seen our yard, you know how fun that would be.

We brought Tama into our family. He is such a great puppy and brings much joy to our lives. We are now lovers of Great Danes.

He may be bigger, but he still has the same energy and plays like a pup.

We tackled our biggest yard project yet, still in the works.

Last, but certainly not least... We are finally anxiously awaiting the birth of our baby girl. We've waited a long time for her and we feel blessed to have had three years to prepare our own lives and relationship for her and future siblings.

I love you Babe. Here's to an ETERNITY together. What more could we ask for.

Time Flies!!

2009-06-18T19:05:00.000-07:00

I'm 20 weeks! For those who don't know, we're having a GIRL. We were initially told at 14 weeks the baby was a boy and then found out a month later, it was really a girl. Anyway they come, we'll gladly take them into our home and love them. I had a very strong feeling we were going to have a girl from the beginning, and so did John, so it was a surprise to first hear it was a boy. Our intuition was right after all.

The journey has been a great one so far, although not always easy. The morning sickness has definitely subsided, but yet has decided to leave me completely alone. I'm starting to finally show a little, and I love it. We've been feeling the little one move and kick for about 4 weeks now, and she keeps getting stronger and stronger.

Life is great! There are no complaints coming from this home. Our yard progress has been slow due to unusually wet Reno weather for the last couple weeks or so, but now every thing is growing in strong, and the mountains are green.

Two weeks ago we enjoyed a trip to Southern Cal to go to Disneyland with my sisters family, and had a great time. I don't think we'll be going again until we have a couple older kids now though. Sorry, I don't have pics because I forgot my camera. Maybe my sis will post them on her blog some day..??

We recently had our cousins Ryan and Shantel and their daughter Madi over. She is the first little person who wasn't afraid of Tama, who towered over her. He followed her every where, it was so cute, and great for us to see just how gentle of a giant he is. He weighs about 100 pounds now and is 26 inches at the shoulder. He still has a lot of growing to do, and he is already bigger than any dog I've seen around. Here are some pics of Tama following Madi around.

It's About Time

2009-04-28T09:24:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I know it has been a while, at least I have more than one good excuse.

Excuse number one:

OUR YARD, what fun would it be if I didn't have more progress pictures of our beautiful yard.

John testing sprinklers pre-grass, Tama watching curiously.
Tama fell in love immediately, he lay on the lawn as soon as a couple strips were laid down.
What's a post without a good pose from the hubby.
Even though the grass is wet, Tama can't get enough of it.
Notice our two retaining walls here. Each one of those blocks weighs 50 lbs.
Our yard is coming into shape quickly, the lawn really put that needed touch on it.

Excuse number two:

MORNING SICKNESS, I'm sure if you know a Gonda you've already heard. We are expecting finally, after 2 1/2 years of miscarriages and doctors. Needless to say the all day morning sickness has taken over my desires to do much of anything; it is starting to improve though. I'm 13 weeks, so just started my second trimester, and we get more and more excited with each passing day.

There you go, can't think of any other excuses though.

Just some pics from Easter, we had a great time coloring eggs together for the first time since we got married.

Here's our quickly growing pup. He weighs nearly 100 lbs now, and his back is about as high as our kitchen table.

Tama and Yard Progress

2009-02-05T11:29:00.001-08:00

We can't believe how quickly Tama is growing. Now that he has adjusted to all of the changes, he is showing us a lot of PUPPY. He loves to go outside and romp and play in the backyard. We are also working on walking on the leash, which gets better every day we use it. He is a lot of fun! And sooooo cute!

John now has to fight for his favorite chair, it is also Tama's favorite. He tries so hard to sleep in this chair, but can never quite get comfortable enough. Recently he learned how to tip the chair back so that he can lie on the back part of it.

With the beautiful Reno weather, we have been able to do a lot of work on the yard. Once John gets started he gets all kinds of ideas. The task seems much less daunting now that we have seen the power of having a tractor. I'll show some comparison pictures from when we moved in to just recently.

We took that big ole tree out, and the yard suddenly grew much larger. It was way too close to the house.

The bushes on the hill may look nice and green, but they have thorns up to two inches long and grow like weeds, so we took them all out.

Notice the big tree is missing and the pile of brush and thorny bushes.

There will be lots of grass and some more trees (babies) come this spring, and retaining walls. It's great to see the progress.

Here's a sunset and our wonderful snowy Christmas. We did some serious sledding on that hill.

Meet Tama

2009-01-22T16:42:00.000-08:00

We'd like you all to meet the newest member of our family, Tama. He is a pure bread great dane, and only 19 weeks old, even though he looks like the size of some full grown dogs. His dad is 36 inches tall at the shoulders, and it looks like Tama may be that size or bigger by the time he is two. So far he has shown us the gentle and loving nature great danes are known for. He's still getting used to all the changes, and he follows us around where ever we go. He doesn't want us out of his sight. This is an exciting time although I'm sure it won't be an easy change, we've been spoiled with not being responsible for anyone or anything else for a long time. So here he is...

I made this bed for Tama, it is a bit big right now, but he'll grow into it.

Paradise Found!!!

2008-12-11T13:09:00.000-08:00

I know many have been anxiously awaiting news and pictures about our trip to Kauai. How can I explain paradise in a few short sentences? We had a blast! Everyday was beautiful, only one day of rain. Temp in the 79-81 degree range, with lows of 70 degrees. What a perfect time of year to go. We had a great time swimming in several waterfall pools, hiking, boogy boarding (a lot), snorkeling, shopping, site seeing (everything we did involved this), and of course lots of food and fresh coconut juice. John was in heaven as he dreamed of his days in Samoa: Roosters waking us up at 5 AM every morning, good sweet coconut juice, Kahlua pig, and tropical plant covered mountains.

This was the first time using our "time share", it's not actually a timeshare, it is a point system where you buy as many or few points as you want and with the points reserve your vacation. Points are renewed every year, and are good for life, like owning a piece of real estate, our kids will even inherit it when we die. We also get major discounts on some hotels, and can pay 30-60 dollars a night for any left over inventory at any of the resorts. All resorts have condos, not hotels. There are fully equipped kitchen, complete with individually packaged spice rack. We can book a studio up to a three bedroom. To say the least we were quite impressed. Kauai is one of the companies older resorts, but we were pleasantly surprised to find that the condos had been completely remodeled and looked BRAND NEW. All of the condos had a view of the ocean, a patio, and can use the pool, hot tub, and barbecues. We have free use of washer and dryer facilities, clean towels as often as we want, dish soap and sponge, dishwasher, microwave, you name it, it was all provided.

So for those of you who looked down on our purchase (we weren't sure it was a good purchase prior to this experience either), or thought we weren't being the brightest about our investment; now you can put your minds at ease. And if you would like more info about the company, or you would like to enjoy some of the benefits of the "time share", let us know, we can book for family and friends as well (left over inventory that is).

So, enjoy the pictures, and remember that what you see on the computer is about a tenth of how beautiful the island and experience was in person. We now love Kauai!!

Tunnel's Beach (closed except for experts due to high surf)

Our resort on Kapaa shore
Church with mountains in background
More scenery in the south John playing in the wavesHow can anyone not love this guy? If only I could find some shorts to match.

Driving in Waimea canyon Napali coast from above
Kipu falls

Hiking Napali Coast
Most dangerous beach on the island

Hanakapiai Falls

This was our favorite beach at Hanalei Bay, these mountains surrounded us

We have about 250 more pics, plus my sisters and her husbands pictures. Feel free to visit and check them out.

Galli Reunion in Atlanta

2008-10-21T16:05:00.000-07:00

Last Friday for my Birthday we flew out to Atlanta Georgia for a little family reunion. The Reunion was in remembrance of John's Great Grandma (GiGi) on her 100th Birthday. We had a great time visiting with family and seeing our newest nephew, Landon. I was able to get to know John's extended family a little better. We shared lots of laughs and tons of junk food. We were even working on talking Uncle Reed and his family into moving back to their home town, Reno. That would be a blast!

Yesterday John and I spent some time in downtown Atlanta. Everyone had returned home by Monday and the others were back to work and school. We were able to enjoy the Atlanta aquarium which was quite a place, we were very impressed with the size of the aquarium. After the aquarium we had a few hours to just walk around and be tourists. We had lunch then went to Olympic Park. The grass, the weather, and the temperature were perfect for a long nap on the lawn. It was just a beautiful, fun, and relaxing trip.

A fun family game of...Paintball. Just for the record, Stacey won; yes, one of the females

Funny looking fish???

The Rubicon!

2008-10-21T15:01:00.000-07:00

It has been a while, and we have been busy the past few weeks. We started our adventurous October two weekends ago as we trekked up to the Rubicon in California to try out the famous jeeping trail. Lucky for us we had planned ahead on what happened to be the coldest weekend so far since last March. It snowed the first day, and got down to a chilly 15 degrees the first night we camped out; Burr! I am happy to say that we survived (obviously), although many became quite worried when we did not return after our expected one night, two day trip. We left early Friday morning, and by late Saturday we all realized we would not be sleeping in our warm homes that night either. There was a group of five jeeps, we were the only ones without children and most were very young children. To make a long story short, we didn't anticipate problems with one of the jeeps, and we didn't realize that even though it may only be 14 miles of trail, going 1/2 a mile per hour doesn't get you far in a day.

I'm happy to say John's jeep did great, we had no problems, and it made it through and over everything we wanted to. We are quite pleased with this jeep.

Our adventure started with quite a bit of excitement and energy, maybe a little too much energy. One family rolled their jeep off a large granite rock, but it luckily rolled completely landed on its wheels and no one was injured. The second day of driving started out cold and late in the morning. We had to wait for one vehicle to be fixed several times along the way. It felt as though we only traveled about a mile or two that second day. The third day, John and I knew we would be completed with this trail with or without everyone, we were ready to go home. We had our greatest challenge climbing Cadillac hill, but of course the jeep made it. We never stopped for long knowing we needed to keep the group moving if we wanted to sleep somewhere warm that night. John and I completed the trail and decided to take off to Tahoe City for some much needed gasoline. We didn't quite make it there. About 6 miles short of Tahoe City the jeep was out of gas and we were stuck waiting for the other jeeps to pass by. Finally after 2 hours of waiting we were on our way again. Needless to say I was so ready to go home and be grateful for all that I have. We'll definitely do things differently next time, but this was another great adventure in our lives. Here are some fun photos of our trip.

Family Update

2008-09-12T10:16:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it has been nearly one month since we bought the business, and since I have updated this blog. Everything worked out perfect. The business has really picked up the last two weeks, and things are getting exciting. I'm blessed to have such a hard working husband, who actually enjoys what he does. It's great to have control over all the company's finances and income. A little weird that I will be the one printing John and Jonny's pay checks, but so far we are loving being business owners.

As for other news, we have another family living with us right now. Our best friends Melanie, Robbie, and their daughter Mahana. They had planned on moving back to Tahiti, when at the last minute realized they would need to stay one more semester. We weren't sure how everything would work out with all of us living in the same house, but so far it has been great. I love having a friend around to keep me entertained on my days off. We've had a shopping day, been on walks, made food and baked together. It is great. It has also been fun having little Mahana around, we just celebrated her first birthday.

This was the night Mel and Robbie moved in. We had "awful awful" burgers and fries. The burgers are huge, and there are plenty of fries. Mel was the only one who finished everything, here she is with her last fry. Notice my meal in the foreground, and I was stuffed.

Celebrating Mahana's first birthday. She was sung to in English, Swiss German, French, and Samoan. It's a wonder she doesn't like to talk yet. She has a lot of language choices to process.

Ahh yes, it didn't take long to get this far with the cake.
John and I got Mahana her first baby doll (cabbage patch kid). She wasn't too sure about the doll at first, but her little friend Lilly was kind enough to show mahana how to feed the baby. So cute!

Having others live with us has really opened our eyes to how empty our house is when it is just the two of us. If only we had control over that matter, some day we'll hopefully fill it up. With 5 of us living here now, it still feels as though we could easily have more people live here. Good news, if we plan on having more than 3 kids. We also know that our refrigerator can hold a lot of food. We knew it was big, but didn't know exactly it's capabilities. Anyway, getting off course here, I just wanted to let everyone know John and I have some exciting things in the works that we will inform everyone of when it is all a little more solid.

I guess I can't post without telling about an exciting experience John and I had a few weeks ago. John begged for me to come home early from the beach one day so that I could go off-roading with him and a few other people who also had jeeps. I figured since it was 3 pm by the time we started, it would be a fun relaxing trip... Boy was I wrong. Picture the length of a football field, and then picture such large obstacles on that field that would make driving across it take about three hours. Well if you can't picture it I'll share some photos. The trail doesn't really look like a trail, but more like a dry RIVER bed, you know with huge boulders every where, yeah... Pretty scary at times, especially the pics where you see a rope off to one side of the jeep, or someone literally holding the jeep on one side, that is to keep it from tipping over. I'm not in the jeep for most of the pics, because all the wives were directing their husbands through the boulders. I did pretty well, being it was my first experience with something like that.

Anyway, I'll let the pictures speak for us.

We watched the jeep teeter a bit on this rock waiting for it to tip, luckily it didn't and the guys helped for the rest of the way over the boulder.
This pic doesn't really do justice. The road was at a slant of what seemed like about 45 degrees. The guys had to do this with all the vehicles along this section.

IT'S OFFICIAL

2008-08-15T18:10:00.000-07:00

The New Owners

We, as in the Jonny Schenk and John Gonda families, are officially owners of a business. Papers have been signed, money transferred, new accounts started, etc. We are so excited and will be celebrating as families by going out to eat (on the company). John and I feel so blessed. This has been a long time coming and will hopefully alleviate a lot of the stresses him and Jonny have faced the past several months. John worked so hard to gain a good solid clientele as we struggled financially our first 6 months of marriage and John's first year managing the business. He built it pretty much from the ground up. We are definitely counting our blessings.

NEWS!!! for Family and Friends

2008-08-13T14:37:00.000-07:00

We are finally going to be owners of John's company!! John has managed Root-O-Matic for 2 1/2 years now, and today we learned that him and his partner, Joni Schenk, will be owners of the company very soon. We are so excited, this was probably the best case scenario. We had tried this approach before without success because of one of the original owners not wanting to split the companies ('Plumbing and More' and 'Root O Matic'). Too bad for him, we had offered a lot more money back then. Oh well, the Lord definitely watches out for us.

Other news... For those family and friends who have been keeping up with our trying to get pregnant, we have made a prayerful decision to 'take a break'. I hadn't realized how many people had known about our recent efforts. Things have gotten stressful and disappointing when we should be excited and optimistic. John and I decided we needed to enjoy some time not trying for a while. We appreciate every ones thoughts and prayers. Please don't feel sorry for us, we are very happy and feel good about our decision. No need to question when we'll try again, I think we'll be keeping things a little more private next round to help alleviate some of the stress. We love you all.

On a brighter note. Here are some pics from when John's fam was here. Thanks for the pictures Ma. John teaching his bro, Nick, all about plumbing

John's B-day pie with a FLAMING... something

Ahh, yes, Rocketman. We LOOOOVE Disney movies!!

July Continued...

2008-08-07T13:03:00.000-07:00

Okay, late July. John's parents arrived July 22nd. We, of course, took another much needed trip up to Lake Tahoe, Sand Harbor, between two of my work days. I was trying to be super woman, this was the week that I work 3 days (Wed, Fri, Sat). I cleaned everything in the house excited for there arrival and entertained as much as possible. Needless to say, by the end of my work day (a twelve hour shift) on Friday, I was exhausted, and I had one more day of work. So, hope I wasn't too grumpy. 12 hour shifts suck.

Oh yeah... My hubby is officially a quarter century old. John hung out with his parents on his birthday, Saturday the 26th while I worked. They went to a cousin's wedding. I got off work at 3:30 pm and he expected to spend the rest of the evening with his lovely wife. Well, his parents really wanted to spend his birthday with him and they had made him think they were going to a class reunion that night. We were going to surprise John. John and I were driving to the restaurant where his family would be when he decided he wanted to go to a different restaurant (typical). I tried talking him out of it and went as far as letting him park at the other restaurant before I broke down and told him. I literally broke down, and felt like I ruined his birthday. He couldn't understand why I didn't want to try something new (not like me at all), so it was making him really mad. Well anyway, he was bummed we didn't have our night out alone since he had spent all day with family already. Sorry ma and pa, his lack of enthusiasm shown through, what a bum. Guess I'll never try the surprise thing again. I always wondered why he would tell me he hated surprises. Live and Learn.

I had the most fortunate experience to go to the Reno stake girls camp July 29th. I had volunteered to be camp nurse long before we moved to the Reno North stake. I could not imagine a more fun girls camp. the girls were soooo happy and I was really useless handing out a couple Advil, band aids, mole skin, and aloe Vera. I guess when everyone is having a great time, they don't feel the need to be pampered by the nurse. Not that I'm all that great with sympathy anyway. To say the least Reno North stake has there work cut out to make as great a camp. I would be interested in seeing the difference between the two. I know when I went many years ago, I was homesick and not having as much fun as these girls were. We LAUGHED very hard, and very often.

I returned home to my hubby and his Dad very early Friday morning. John and I were finally able to spend some time alone together on Saturday evening. It's amazing how caught up people get with busy summers. We are truly spoiled by each others time and love. It was nice to be able to talk and laugh and be us again. So, what did we do to celebrate... We went off roading of course. For the first time in the twenty years I've lived in Reno I got to see the top of Peavine. Wow, the views are wonderful and there are all these beautiful canyons filled with aspens up there. From Peavine we made our way to Dog Valley, not without taking several wrong roads. One of our wrong turns took us to this big rock, and John did his guy thing while I took pictures.

After a while John decided to put the blame in my hands, and I became the navigator. Much to John's enjoyment I accidentally chose a road (it was a very well traveled road) that ended up being a motorcycle trail. Just a little short cut, or so I called it. Well the turns were a bit sharp, clearance very close, and yes we almost tipped the jeep at one point. This time it was on John's side, so he had a little taste of what it is like to be me when he tries crazy stuff. Doesn't seem as scary when you are on the high end, but staring at the dirt about 2 feet away from your head is scary... We made it safe and sound. I only had to remind John I loved him once. So we ended our adventure putting a blanket out on a hill away from everyone and eating a yummy picnic meal. HOW ROMANTIC. Don't you just love it. We are pretty mushy.

This past Monday we went to Sand Harbor one last time with ma and pa before their journey home. And now we are back to life as we knew it.

Here is ma, pa, Aunt Kathy, and cousin Sarah at Tahoe

Busy Month

2008-08-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I guess one month without any blog update is long enough. Interestingly enough we have been incredibly busy, but I feel like since nothing has changed in our lives then there's nothing to blog about. I was wrong though, maybe I was just more lazy than anything else. Here you go Amy, you are the little princess and always get your way.

Going back to early July....

We started out by going to Klammath Falls to visit Grandpa Pete with Great Uncle Mike for 4th of July. We had a relaxing time. The most interesting feat was getting Uncle Mike who is almost 90 years old and Grandpa who is in his 80s to go off roading in Grandpa's jeep. They are both amazing troopers. I'm sure it was an interesting site, the four of us in the jeep on off road trails....and....lost... a good part of the time. All in all we had a great time.

Next...I have to think back...

Amy was in town for about two weeks as Austin wrapped up his summer with his biological dad. We found out Austin's dad is expecting another child. For all of you who know my sister's situation, we are dearly hoping this event will change things for the better in the near future. Okay, so Amy and I hung out, went to Lake Tahoe of course. One day Austin and I made good use of all of Uncle Johnny's wood and made ourselves a fort in our backyard, then had a water gun war.

July 19, John, Amy, and I went to Frenchman's to meet with my brother and play. It's been a while since all of us siblings have "played" together. We brought a couple of kayaks, and had fun with those for a while. Then the real fun began on Aaron and Stacy's boat. We did some wake boarding and tubing which was fun. For those who think Tubing is the safer of the two, think again. All I know is John said you better be able to hold on longer then Amy; My first attempt I did well and learned why you keep your mouth shut while I chomped on my lip made it bleed and immediately made sure I hadn't bit through it. My second attempt at tubing I remember seeing a very large wave, I ended up almost doing a hand stand my body had flown off the tube while I was still holding on for dear life. That's all I remember from that. I guess there was a second wave and I decided I'd had enough. Needless to say, I did succeed in holding on longer than Amy.

I guess my husband would disagree with what was more dangerous. To learn more check out Amy's blog (amymgessel.blogspot.com). There are some great photo's of John.

Okay, so I'll split this post up, maybe that will keep more people from becoming bored.

All About John

2008-07-06T17:07:00.001-07:00

So, my sister "tagged" me, asking all kinds of questions about John mostly. I'm new to this all, but sounds like fun. I guess I get to tag someone else now. How about Melanie...

Here it goes....

What is his name? John Andrew Gonda, named after his Grandpa

How long have we been married? 2 years and 14 days

How long did we date? Hmmm, about 3 days before we were "unofficially engaged" we were officially engaged after dating one month.

How old is he? He will be 25 years old this month. Yes, he is younger.

Who eats more? Depends, but usually him.

Who said "I love you" first? He did, after several days of dating.

Who is taller? He is by about 1/2 an inch

Who sings better? I'd like to think I do, but I have no clue. I love his singing voice though.

Who is smarter? He is in gospel and spiritual matters. I am as far as studies and book smarts. I didn't go to college for 7 1/2 years for nothing

Whose temper is worse? I would guess mine, although we both are fairly mild tempered. Neither of us want to inherit our fathers' tempers.... We love you Dad and Pa.

Who pays the bills? John does, I tried once, but it is confusing when someone else has already started a system. I just make sure nothing gets missed.

Who does the laundry? I do. I don't remember if John has ever done a load of our clothes since we got married.

Who cooks dinner? I do half the time, and we both do it together about 1/4 of the time and John cooks the other 1/4 of the time. We're both spoiled.

Who drives when together? John usually. He'll ask me to when he is tired, but he quickly changes his mind after about 10 minutes. He can't stand not being in control when in a vehicle.

Who is more sensitive? Hmmm, yes, that would definitely be me, although I usually blame it on hormones. John now views that as a valid excuse.

Who is more stubborn? Wow, I don't think that one could be determined. We are both very stubborn, but John may be a little worse than me.

Who is the first to admit when wrong? Depends on who's wrong, right? We usually own up to our own wrongs, and we don't like to stay upset with each other so that only lasts about 5 minutes.

Who's parents do you see more often? Mine, they live about 3 miles away.

Who has more friends? I'm pretty sure John does, but as far as close acquaintances go we are equal, because they are usually couples.

Who has more siblings? John does, 2 bros, 1 sis. I have one bro, one sis

Who wears the pants in the family? We make all decisions together. We're pretty equal...

Who eats more sweets? I do as far as frequency goes, but quantity goes to John.

Guilty pleasures? Watching cable t.v.. No we do not have cable. John can't keep his finger off the channel arrows long enough for anyone to enjoy it, so we do without. John also says, "going shopping" I think he is referring to manly shopping like at Home Depot for stuff for our house. Of course there may be something I don't know about...

Who mows the lawn? John does. I wouldn't even know where to start.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? John does. What does that determine?

Who kissed who first? Well it is an ongoing debate, I guess I should just admit. Actually what happened is I told him I wouldn't kiss on the first date, but later that night I gave him PERMISSION to. That's really how it happened.

Who asked who out first? That is a long complicated story that we love to share, but I don't feel like typing the whole story out. Let's say John did.

Who proposed? John under his grandparents apple tree....

What is his best feature? His Spirit. He amazes me every day. He's the most spiritual, hardworking, and dedicated man I have ever known. Well he has a great physique too, our kids will definitely have butts, just not sure whether they will have long or short legs.

What is his best quality? He has endless "best" qualities. He is patient, loving, driven, smart, he would do anything to make sure I am happy, and that we have a great marriage. He did let me work just part time after all...

Happy 2nd Anniversary!

2008-06-22T20:17:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is a big day. We will celebrate our 2nd anniversary. It's amazing to look back and think of all the things we've been through together, and our love just keeps growing. We've had some pretty rough roads dealing with the unforeseen that most of our family and friends know about, but we have yet to encounter a rough road dealing strictly with our relationship. We definitely have so much to be grateful for, there is no room to complain about anything. Thank you to all our family and friends for enjoying many happy and some sad moments with us. We will forever love you all. Here are some of the things we have experienced in our first two years of marriage...

1. 3 trips to the ER (quite embarrassing when I happen to work there) one for me and 2 for John.

2. Two weddings of siblings, Amy and Katie.

3. A complete remodel of "Mammy's" house on Hunter Lake (took the whole two years plus some time before we were married)

4. We bought our first home

5. We hit the six figure income thanks to Johns booming business

6. We are now aunt and uncle to 3 nieces and one nephew, two nieces were born while we were married.

7. We have attended the Temple many, many times, it is our favorite place to be.

8. We have been to the Bahamas, Dallas (three times), Louisville (three times), San Diego, Oregon (several times), Utah (several times)... guess we need to get out more.

9. We have bought 3 different vehicles (sold one of them).

10. Bought our first flat screen T.V.

11. We've comforted eachother through 3 miscarriages.

12. We have thanked our Heavenly Father every day for all that we have been given.

The best day and the best decision of our lives

To start off our weekend celebration we went for a ride in "The Jeep" to Hunter Lake. This is a trail that took us about 10 minutes to get to. The sights were beautiful. Many different wild flowers were in bloom and the grass and aspens were a brilliant green. We had a great time. John only scared me once when he almost tipped the jeep over in about a 3 foot route, but we got out of it safe and sound... MEN. Sometimes I don't get why that kind of stuff is so fun for them. Anyway I will share some pictures from our trip. Tomorrow for our actual anniversary our great uncle Mike is going to take us out to a steak house. We really enjoy spending time with him and we are always excited to share our joy with others.

This is the love of my life, I love you!!!

Trip to Dallas and Father's Day

2008-06-16T14:34:00.000-07:00

So, Amy has been bugging me to post some more exciting stuff...We started the month of June out with a much needed vacation to Dallas, TX. John's parents moved to Plano, just north of Dallas, almost a year ago. I think I was the only one excited about their move, being that I went to school near Dallas, and still have friends living there. We did a lot of swimming in the backyard pool, ate a lot of delicious healthy and not so healthy food, and we played lots of board games. We also made a trip to the Dallas Aquarium and to a parade of homes. Overall we had a blast. John's sister, Katie and her husband, Ethan, were there also. It was nice spending some time with them for the first time since they got married in August. Katie is pregnant, and due in September, so it was fun seeing her growing tummy. Here is a picture of 'ma and pa' with us in Plano.

Last week I worked in our yard for a short while. It is quite the daunting task. 1/2 an acre sure is a lot of land, and ours sure needs a lot of....weeding (I guess that is what it is). We have so much work ahead of us, but we figure we have many years to work at making it perfect. This was the second time I really worked in the yard. I was cleaning weeds and other debris around some plants and flowers that were blooming and noticed that once upon a time someone must have planted wildflower seeds, because we have a bunch of wild flowers growing on our hill. So I got some picks of the few glorious things in our yard. I'll also post the not so glorious of our yard, so everyone will know what I mean...

Yesterday we celebrated Father's Day with my family in Earthquake central. We made it back safe though. No earthquakes, that we could feel. We had a nice relaxing time with my bro and his family (his wife Stacy and two daughters, Sydney and Allison), and the Liao family. Here are some fun family photos. Happy Father's Day Dad!

First Guests

2008-05-20T17:21:00.000-07:00

We are now finally all moved in. We've actually been here for a week and a half now and we love it. These are our first guests and best friends, Robbie, Melanie, and Mahana Liao. We love the Liao's, they brought a lot of joy into our new home the second night we were here.

This is Mahana laughing hysterically as she plays with John. She is such a fun girl.

Our next guests stayed with us for six nights, my sister and her two kids. Austin loves all the dirt on the hill. He played in the sprinklers every time they were on. And of course he had to go for a ride in the mountains with Uncle Johnny. Austin is growing so much, and is a lot of fun. It's amazing to watch his personality continue to develop. He definitely loves his Uncle Johnny, and thinks he is so "cool".

Here is Miss Avery Ann taking a little mid morning snooze on our bed. My sister visits every month so Austin can spend time with his biological dad. It is so great to see them just enough to really notice how much the kids have grown. Avery is becoming more and more fun, with lots of smiles. I think she gets confused when my sis and I are together, because we look a like. That's alright, that just means she is just as friendly with me as she is with her mom.

So it doesn't seem that life could get much better right now. Every day we still acknowledge how blessed we are to be in such a great situation. We have a wonderful extended family, our careers are strong, we love each other more and more each day, and now we are seeing things unfold before us that were once dreams. And yes, we still have hope each month that we will be able to expand our happy family. Until then we continue to be grateful and grow in love for one another and everyone around us.

A Week of Moving

2008-05-05T14:54:00.000-07:00

greatroom from the entrance
secondary bath
one of the bedrooms

This is the $80 table The great room
The kitchen
Master bedroom
living room

So the new house is coming along great. We have moved some of our larger furniture and also have bought some furniture. On Saturday we went to RC Willey to get a new tv. Of course we can't go to RC Willey without checking out the clearance section. Low and behold we found a beautiful dining room table, normally sold for 700 dollars for 80 dollars, yes 80 dollars. We didn't have to think twice about the few little scratches, WHAT A DEAL. It doesn't have chairs, but we can get those later.

Thanks to our little "secret cash fund" and the great "stimulus package", we bought our first flat screen LCD tv. It is one of the "sony bravia's", the picture is amazing. Of course John had to get the Play Station 3 off Craig's list to play blue ray movies. We are set, and officially out of fun money, but we now have all of our necessities and big purchase WANTS.

We should be moved in by Saturday this week at the latest. We are so excited. My parents are still living with us as they clean and fix up their damaged house. So we'll have them move with us to the new house, it is much more spacious, and we need to get the Hunter Lake house ( the one we live in now) ready for renters. There is so much to do. I can't wait to have a little break from all this house stuff. I just want to relax and work in our new huge yard...

The pics above show some of what we have done thus far. We painted the great room, living/dining room, and master bedroom. There is also a pic of our secondary bathroom and one of the bedrooms that, hopefully someday, will be a nursery.

Earthquake Update

2008-04-26T17:19:00.000-07:00

Interestingly enough, we had a much larger earthquake last night around 11:45 pm. There were two quakes one right after the other, the first a 3.5 or so the second a 4.7. My parents live were the earthquakes originate from, there house shifted off the foundation on one corner of the house. Every window and door has stress cracks at the corners that in some areas run into the ceiling. Our new house made it through without a single crack or problem. The neighbors said that many dishes and other kitchenware came out of cabinets and broke, some water heaters cracked or shifted away from the wall, but that seemed to be the worst.

So we are all okay, including my parents, who are a little shook up but grateful they bought earthquake insurance a couple weeks ago. We felt the quake at the Hunter Lake house, it woke us both up, and since there were two back to back, it seemed to last quite a while. No damage done here either.

We have a house full of family tonight. My parents, sister, and her two kids (who are visiting from Seattle), want to make sure there will be no more big quakes before staying in their house. We may have guests for a while, which may encourage us to move to the new house even quicker.

Earthquake Central

2008-04-25T15:56:00.000-07:00

As many know already, we have been rattled with earthquakes for two months, but they have really picked up the last 24 hours. While working on our new house yesterday we had two earthquakes at 4.1 and 4.2 magnitude and more than 75 earthquakes since measuring in the threes and lower. It is pretty interesting. Our new home sits about a mile or mile and a half away from the origination of the earthquakes, so we feel even the smaller ones up there. At Hunter Lake we only feel them when they measure about a three or greater. To say the least it has been a little unnerving around here. Every time I hear a little rumble I get ready to brace. The experts say the "big one" could hit at any time, no one can predict if and when though.

The house is coming along great, the more we work on it the more we want to move. We will be moving all of our living room furniture over this weekend. John thinks that will make us hurry with moving the rest because we won't have a tv or a couch to sit on.

My sister, Amy, is in town with Austin and Avery. Austin was quite scared when the first of the larger earthquakes hit yesterday. Amy said he started screaming for her after some stuff fell off bookshelves at my parents house. Poor little guy. We love to visit with them though.

This picture isn't from this visit, but it is too precious not to share. Austin loves to hang out with his uncle Johnny. Last month he went for a jeep ride with John which Austin thought was the best. They also like to play "monsters" together. Hopefully we'll be able to share such moments with our own children some day, but for now we enjoy our nieces and nephew.

2008-04-17T09:45:00.000-07:00

Boy are we busy! We closed on our house last week and have been painting like crazy before we move any furniture in. We are so excited about our new house, and I will post some more pictures after the painting is done.

While painting on Tuesday we felt three earthquakes within about five minutes. They were all small, but very noticeable. Guess now that we will be living in earthquake central, we'll be considering earthquake homeowners insurance. That same morning, we woke up to a bit of a snow flurry. Reno is the best, you never know what will happen next...

We were able to go to conference at the beginning of the month. We got to attend two sessions, which was great. We met up with John's parents and brother as well as a couple aunts and uncles while we were there. Hanging out with the Gondas and Gallis is always quite interesting and entertaining, this trip wasn't bland at all. We enjoy the rowdiness and craziness, but it is nice to return to our own little private lives in the end. Over all we had a great time and enjoyed the nice little break after a month filled with working.

New House

2008-03-18T14:06:00.001-07:00

So our most recent excitement is centered around the house we just bought. We close April 10. It was a foreclosed home for a great price, and comes with 1/2 acre, 4 bedroom, 2 baths in the northwest area. We are so excited about our new home.

Happily ever after

2008-03-18T12:49:00.000-07:00

I kept telling everyone I would start "blogging" as soon as we had kids, but since that doesn't seem to be happening in a timely manner, and we have much to share with family and friends, here I am. This will be good for someone with too much time on her hands and not enough to do throughout the day. My schedule consists of four days of work every two weeks. So out of 14 days in two weeks, two days are reserved for Sabbath, one Saturday reserved for my hubby (I work every other Saturday), and four days of work; I end up with 7 days of freedom to do what ever I want, or pick up extra days at work. unfortunately I usually run out of ideas after about two days, and wait around for John to come home from work, so he can entertain me.

John and I got married on June 23rd 2006 in the Reno, Nevada Temple after a short engagement. We dated a total of 3 days before deciding to get married, and were engaged for a whole four and a half months. I was the one who always thought a couple needed to date at least a year before deciding to get married. Interesting how things changed when I finally met the right guy.

Soon after we were engaged I quickly learned that everyone in Reno knows at least one Gonda, and yes we are all related, but John is never the Gonda someone knows. He grew up in various parts of the country moving as a kid about every 3 years. He moved to Reno prior to his mission and lived with Grandma and Grandpa Gonda, then went to Samoa for his mission returning again two years later to Reno. John currently manages a plumbing company and will soon be partners with two other guys in ownership of the company.

I pretty much grew up in Reno, but not many people know my small family. I graduated from nursing school in Arlington, Texas, which I loved, then returned to work in Reno. I am a nurse at Saint Mary's in the emergency department, and hope to someday become a full time stay at home mom.

Recent events:

Disneyland at the beginning of February. Yes, we are like a couple of kids. We LOVE this place!!