Happy Birthday, Ella!

Too excited to get her picture taken

Yesterday, Ella turned three years old! This year was so fun, because she's old enough to get excited about it. Starting about three days before, she kept going around saying how excited she was for her birthday. And on her birthday, she was basically giddy the whole day. It was so cute.

This year, we did a princess theme. This girl loves princesses and all things girly (thankfully, she loves other things too). But, recently, she has developed a love for the movie Ponyo. It's really cute. She has watched this movie so many times(on the nights Craig does his pizza delivery job), and went on for about two months. It's been a few weeks since she's watched it. She knows the movie so well, she quotes it and eve acts it out. So cute! Anyway, I had a hard time deciding which theme to go with. Princess or Ponyo? I asked what she wanted and she chose princess. It turned out perfectly because I later realized I couldn't make a Ponyo cake.

This year, I actually didn't put things off until the day before. Go me! I got started planning the cake about a week before. I found a cake I wanted to copy, and even had enough time to borrow cakes decorating stuff from my mom. All I have are rectangular cake pans, but this cake is round. And I decided to make and use fondant instead of frosting. I'm no cake decorator, but I am pleased with how the cake turned out. And more importantly, Ella loved it!

Please excuse the crooked border on top

We spent a lot of the day getting ready for her party that evening, but Ella was able to get in some swim time that she asked for. She also asked to eat her cake all day. Silly girl.

The time finally came for her party and she got even more excited! My parents were only ones that could come, but we still had a good time. It was so cute seeing Ella react to her presents. She unwrapped each present slowly, and when she saw what they were, she gave a little gasp like it was the best gift ever!










We have been talking up about her being a big girl since she is turning three. It has been working well. In fact, she was finally able to give up her pacifier by herself yesterday. She hasn't been using it since she was almost two except during naptime and bedtime. By the way, whoever said that if you cut a hole in the pacifier it will make the kid not like it anymore, and therefore not use it, was wrong. Ella chewed three holes in hers and still coveted it. But, then again, Ella didn't suck on hers. Just either held it in her mouth or her hand.

Because Ella is now a big girl, Craig and I decided to plan a big surprise for her that we knew she would love. We just didn't know she would love it as much as she did! She got a big girl bed. She's been in a toddler bed, but we decided to get her in a twin. Plus, we inherited a bed that Craig used, and passed through his family (I think only a nephew used it, but not sure). We spiffed it up by spraying a fresh coat of paint on it, and it almost looks brand new. I found a really cute bedding set on sale at Target and wrapped it up for Ella to open. After she did that, we took a trip to the garage, and when she saw that bed,her expression was just priceless. She put her hands on her cheeks and gasped with joy! Then she proceeded to get on it and jump. I sure wish I was able to get her reaction, but I think it's something that will be engrained in my head the rest of my life.






Ella is such a wonderful little "big" girl. She is very stubborn, but that can be good as she grows up in this scary world. Despite her stubbornness, she is such a joy. Always happy, and she really doesn't have many tantrums. And she is a very good and loving big sister. She love Caleb so much. She plays with him, shares with him, and loves to hug and kiss him. They still fight, and she's been experimenting with pushing,(which we are working on) but those times are atually rare. We love her so much and it's sad, but so exciting that she's growing up and becoming her own person.

Fun in the Sun

Well, I guess it's more of fun in partial sun on the back porch. But anyway, today Ella and Caleb had their first swim of the season. It's taken us a while to get them a little pool, but today we finally did it. It was just a cheap $8.00 pool, but the kids don't know the difference. Ella was so excited, she held on to it throughout the store while we finished our shopping trip.

We got home too late for them to play in it before lunch and their naps, so we waited until after nap time to get it out and let them play in it. Ella woke up and immediately asked to go in the pool. So I put Caleb in a swim diaper and Ella in her swimming suit (by the way, it is so much nicer to not have to put a swim diaper on Ella too), and we headed out back to set up the pool.

Caleb wasn't too keen on being in the pool, but he had lots of fun splashing and playing form the outside. It's funny, because he loves baths, but he hates swimming! It must be the water temperature.

And of course, Ella had a blast. She played for over an hour until we needed to come in to start dinner. She was not happy. But she went along with it when I asked her to help me dump the water out. And played her favorite song on my phone while we did it. The best part was that there wasn't any crying involved! Then she demanded a cookie, which she got after dinner. Silly girl!

Here are some pictures of the fun.

New Look

I haven't written here recently. Life has just gotten in the way and my creative juices have dried up (not that I really had any in the first place). For the past while, I became very bored with the title of the blog. I mean, it was just our first names. No creativity there! And it was really long. So, I decided that I was going to change it. I tried this about a year ago without success, but I wasn't going to let that happen again. So, Newman News it is. It's kind of fun with both words beginning with 'new', so I decided to keep it. Even if it sounds a little cheesy. Heck, I could get even cheesier with 'New Newman News', but I think that's beyond cheesy!

As I was contemplating on what to change the title to, I decided to change the background. That's when I discovered that you can use different fonts! I have seen them around, but I guess I figured is was some special program or something. You don't know how excited I got when I saw that!

Anyway, enough of the step by step process on hoe I changed things around. Hopefully this change will get me to start posting regularly again (not that anybody even reads this). I usually don't deal with change very well, but sometimes a complete change is what a person needs to get out of a rut!

He's One!

This year just flew by so fast. I have no idea where it went! On Sunday, March 13th, our baby boy turned one year old. I'm excited that he is growing up because his silly little personality is blossoming and he is learning new things as each day goes by. But at the same time, I am sad that he is growing up so quickly.

Our precious boy went from this,

To this,

to this,

to this handsome fellow.

My due date was actually March 11, 2010, but Caleb decided he was way to comfy in my tummy, so he decided to stay put as long as he could. So, we (my doctor included) decided to 'evict' him. On the morning of Saturday, March 13, 2010, at 7:30 in the morning, we checked into Mercy Gilbert Hospital to start the induction. I think I probably would have gone into labor by myself that day because they used only two of three rounds of gels to get my labor started. For me, labor is really, really painful. I have back contractions and it's so intense that I feel like I'm going to die. And that's at only 3 or so cm dilated. I had to wait until I got to 4. And it takes forever because my body won't relax because of the pain.

So, after walking around the L&D halls for a few hours and going into the waiting room to visit my parents and Ella (she couldn't come to me because of the restrictions from H1N1 last year, and she was sick), I finally reached 4cm. Yay! Time for an epidural. But first I had to have some blood test before they would give it to me, and wouldn't you know it, but the hospital lab was swamped. I had to wait over two hours for them to come take my blood. And another 1-2 hours (around 7:30pm) to finally get the epidural. By this time, I had progressed to 7cm.

My nurse was wonderful and so helpful. She tried her best to hurry them up. Unfortunately, her shift ended just after I got the epidural. She tried to stay as late as she could, but had to leave. On her way out, she joked that knowing her luck, I would have the baby while she's in the parking lot.

The new nurse came in and the first she did was check me. I was at 10cm already! Time to push! At 8:05pm, Caleb Craig Newman was born. He weighed 7lbs 10oz. And Tammy (my nurse that left) was probably still in the parking lot. And, I almost had him without an epidural. I was only able to enjoy being pain free for about 30 minutes!

Our poor little guy had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, but the doctor was able to get it unwrapped before he was fully born, so it thankfully caused no problems. And his hands and feet were purple for a little while, but he was very healthy.

We are so blessed to have Caleb in our family. We all love him so very much. He is such a happy little boy, and such a joy to just sit back and watch him (until he gets into something!). And I love how he and Ella are best buds. They are only 21 months apart, and are so close to each other. They play together and are sometimes even cohorts in crime!


Happy Birthday, Caleb!

I would also like to wish my mom a happy birthday. Today is her birthday.

Our House

In December, we found out that the homeowners of our house were foreclosing on it. They actually were trying to do a loan modification, but you know how those go these days. They usually do not work out. Especially if your mortgage company is Bank of America. Anyway, we were really disappointed because we had only lived in the house for eight months, and were planning on staying for at least two years.

The house hunt really tested my faith. And I mean really. At one point, I even had an mental breakdown. It was good for me, though, because it opened my mind. I realized that something would work out and that Heavenly Father would not let us become homeless. I just had to have faith. It was really hard trying to keep the faith. We had at least two really good opportunities go through. And one of them being less than a month before the house would be foreclosed.

We didn't want to go through a property management company because we didn't have the money for deposits, and we wouldn't get the deposits from our then current house back in time. But, after the last house opportunity fell through, we decided we would have to just do it. We called our real estate agent, who we just love, (her name is Dawnell Gebhardt if anyone needs an agent) and that night, she sent us several listings to pick through and go look at the next day.

The very first house on the list just stood out to us. It looked perfect for us. And the price was perfect. The only downside was that it wasn't in our ward (it;s actually in my sister's ward), but at this point, it was the least of our worries. We saw all the houses the next day and put in an application for that first house that night. We didn't want to risk losing it.

This house was saved just for us. It was a great house for a great price. There was lots of activity on it (people coming to see it), but no one had put in an application for it. Very odd for out here. And, there's no risk of it being foreclosed on because an investor bought it to rent it out. Another reason I know this house was set aside for us was that there were several things that could have possibly made it fall through. But, in the end, everything worked out perfectly, and we moved in this past weekend. And it feels so good. This is such a great blessing for us.

Here are some pictures (from the listing). I will have to take more pictures after we get settled.

Sports

Thanks to my wonderful husband, I have discovered a new sport. I think I might like this sport the best, and I really wish I knew how to play it! I'm actually thinking of having Craig teaching me how to play. It's one I thought of in high school as being nerdy (look who's talking) and silly. Right up there with golf and soccer. Oh, and hockey, too.

I have fallen for the game of tennis! If you understand the rules and and actually know what's going on, it's really fun to watch! Right now, the Australian Open is going on. We have watched it every day and even gave up watching our favorite show Castle (okay, we recorded it and watched it last night).

Anyway, the following two people are my favorite tennis players. They are really good and fun to watch!

The girl is Caroline Wozniacki and she is from Denmark. I like to say we are kin because my family comes from Denmark. However, I recently found out her parents actually from Poland. Her last name is obviously not Danish.

The guy is Roger Federer and is from Switzerland. The only word that truly describe him is awesomeness. Look him up. He's won a lot of stuff.

Umm...Yeah

So this is what happened as I was writing yesterday's post.



If you can't tell, that is Desitin all over them. Those two little stinkers decided to take their love for each other and become cohorts in crime. They sneaked into Caleb's room (which they have never done before and will not again because I put one of those child-proof door knob thingys on his door) and Ella decided to get into the Desitin. I am amazed how much she was able to get out of the tube, because I was going to throw it out after the next use! Besides themselves, she was also able to smear it on his dresser, hamper, and crib.

I am so thankful the tube was almost empty! If it wasn't, I think I would have crawled back into bed. It was one of those pull-out-your-hair days.

I can laugh about it now, and I'm pretty sure it's one of those things that just about every kids does (like cutting their own hair) I was actually waiting for the day when she would get into the Desitin, just like I'm waiting for the day when she tries to cut her hair *cringe*. I will be doing my best to prevent that one, though!

Disclaimer: Please excuse Ella's appearance. I had not fixed her hair yet, and she was making those faces because she hates the flash of the camera. I didn't use it, but she still made the faces.