party girl

oh my goodness i have had putting a new post up on my list for a week now-yeah! i am finally getting to it. the holidays seem a lot more busy and a little hard with a new baby. i have never felt so behind as i do this year. i guess whatever i can't accomplish tonight and tomorrow isn't getting done-oh well! on to what i wanted to post about: parties!

first we had chris's work party, it was at the westin downtown in the gaslamp district, it was way nice and a lot of fun. i loved that they had swinerton's logo projected on building. we ate, danced and just really enjoyed ourselves. paisley was the youngest party guest (second youngest was probably chris!) and was an absolute angel. she was awake for the cocktail/hors d'oeuvre hour to meet everyone and then fell asleep during dinner(which was super tasty!) and slept peacefully through all the loud dancing. i loved watching 30 and 40 somethings dance to hits like the electric slide, cha-cha stomp, ymca, and other classics-pure awesomeness. they had dessert bars, hot chocolate/cappuccino station and my personal favorite a donut station where they made fresh mini donuts of your choice-yum!

the next night we had our ward party. paisley wore a super cute pinafore that my good friends from florida mailed to us-she looked so cute! again paisley stayed awake long enough for everyone to see her and then slept like an angel-isn't she great!?! she is practically perfect and we love her.

next was my favorite party so far this season-the ugly sweater party. paisley skipped out on this one, but i loved it. my friend heather was a fantastical host, we played holiday trivia, exchanged white elephant holiday gifts-i scored a candle with some goodies, decorated sweater shaped sugar cookies and ate entirely way too many sweets.

there was so much ugly, it was so fun and mostly funny. i had the hardest time finding an ugly sweater, i looked at 5 different thrift shops and all i could find is a sweatshirt-when in doubt, add sequins! (and a poinsettia hair clip!) i was so impressed with some of the ladies sweaters-too funny. i was so happy to be invited, it was really nice to do something with girlfriends, i still don't really do too much with girlfriends and i really miss that.

also, i loved seeing heather's home. it is awesome, i so hope to have a house as cute as hers someday. she totally has the style that i try/want to have and i loved seeing all the cute things that she does. you can see part of her whimsical tree in the picture below-so cute!

here are the top 2 ladies, carmen and wendy. wendy ended up winning, her awesome mom put a zipper in her sweatshirt and then glued random ornaments and a bird on it-it was greatness.

all the gals. me, heather and janelle.

little houdini

wow blogger is being really annoying right now. i can't get these two pictures to move, so i will do them first instead of last. last week chris's younger brothers had their end of the season water polo banquet. back in oregon, we had them at the school and it wasn't dinner it was school brownies and drinks. for this banquet we needed a gate code, to get to the house, where the big white tent on the tennis court was for our catered dinner for waterpolo. welcome to southern california. paisley looked the part in her pale pink sweater outfit. she fit right in.

and here is the part about out little magician. for every nap and especially at night time, we bundle paisley. she likes to be swaddled and won't sleep well if she isn't. first we use the pink kiddopodomus(gotta love the company name) and velcro it, then we burrito wrap another blanket on top as shown here. she is quite the little bundle once we are done and sleep super cozy.

lately she will wake up a little while later or even in the morning and i will find her happily like this:(ok sometimes she isn't so happy)

the pink bundle will look like a tube dress around her. she is good. real good. but don't you worry chris is good too. really good, so paisley is still getting sleep we are just getting better at our swaddle techniques. (yes there are techniques, if you need them ask me or chris he is even better)

in other news we got our first tree this year, we didn't have one last year because we were gone for the 2 weeks surrounding Christmas and it seemed like a waste. we got a little small one because of space, but i think it is super cute and just love it. paisley helped us decorate, she is so festive.

decorating this year i realized 2 things: one, that i have hardly any decorations and two, that i like only half or so of what i have. i am in need of some serious re-vamping in the decorations department. it is hard for me not to compare myself with the awesome women in my ward at church. they have super cute decorations and Christmas cards, always looking fabulous and they just seem to have everything together. i have to remember that i am 25, maybe with a few more years i can be a bit more like them. for now i just try to keep my head above water.

the rest of the busy week

so here is the rest of our thanksgiving weekend, even if it is a bit late. friday i was able to hang out with my dear friend desiree who came to visit from salt lake. it is so fun to see her and have her meet paisley. i wish we could have spent more time together, it is always a good time with roosk. she helped with paisley's bath and we even sang a duet of "i am a child of God" for her bedtime song-so fun. paisley is looking so big in the pictures-ahh!! it is going too fast already!

saturday was paisley's first day at the beach. first we met up with desiree and andrea at la jolla. we walked and watched some random surf competition. (or the crazy people walking the beach in front of the surf competiton-like a lady in a purple string bikini and running shoes with socks) chris sat and read with paisley and our purses-what a guy! we got some lunch and said our goodbyes, it was great to see roosk and hopefully we will see more of andrea once the craziness of the holidays is gone-it is so awesome that she lives in sd!

then we drove to del mar and met up with the jensen bunch, chris threw on his wet suit and caught some waves while paisley and i socialized. all though paisley didn't ever touch the sand or the water i think deep down she loved the beach, which is perfect because chris and i love the beach too! paisley loved getting some quality time with grandpa jensen, she doesn't get to hang out with him as much as she would like, he is great. we watched the sun set, it was beautiful. we are so blessed, especially to live in such a pretty part of the world.

paisley has been smiling more and more now-she is SO CUTE! desiree got a pretty decent shot of one so of course i have to post it. also, i think paisley looks like my brother in this picture, which is weird because my brother and i are both adopted. she is so precious and just so much fun. love her.

blessed paisley

here are a few pictures from paisley's blessing.

kudos to my mom for her awesome sewing skills on paisley's gown.

sleeping update

since i blogged with my sleep questions i have tried several things and wanted to update you all on how little miss paisley is doing. first, i tried babywise-it was really hard for me to wake her up, but i did it keeping to the schedule. she then slept less in the night then she ever had before. after about a week of this i threw in the bag. what i did like about babywise is that paisley pretty much goes to sleep on her own-we have a bedtime and nap time routine that works really well for her-yeah for no crying! then i read healthy sleep habits, happy child-i really liked this book and learned some valuable information that helped with getting paisley to sleep with no crying-i put her down earlier then i did before, she is up for about 1 hour increments. even when she looks wide awake and is playing(so hard to put her down) she will be dead asleep with in just a minute or so-it is crazy. lastly i am reading the no cry sleep solution-the problem is fixed, but i already got the book so i figured i would give it a try. here is what i have learned the most: my baby doesn't fit into one program. also, the cry it our plan does not work for me. paisley is now 10 weeks old and since i have stopped messing with her schedule she has slept 7-8 hours a night, and then goes right back down after the feeding for another 1-2 hour nap, which isn't perfect but a huge improvement! (i am getting a 7 1/2 hour chunk usually followed by another hour to hour and half! it is awesome) so paisley taught me a lesson-she doesn't need any help, if i can just stay out of her way she will probably be close to perfect! even though none of the books worked for me, i am glad that i read them because i have learned and use some of the techniques from each of them. so thanks to all of you for your stories and encouragement and help, i really really appreciated them! here's hoping that the sleep keeps on coming!

busy week

with so many friends and family visiting us we had a lot going on this week. first we went to the wedding reception of melanie monroe-it was fantastical! it was the wedding reception that i always wanted-big white tent, floating candles in the pool, dancing, it was so fun and paisley loved getting dolled up for the night.(oh wait paisley is always dolled up, it was me who loved getting ready) we had a good time while chris and his family ran the valet parking for the event.

then paisley made a discovery:herself! and she thinks she is pretty rad, here is one of the cutest videos ever:

paisley's first thanksgiving went really well, she slept through the entire dinner(yeah i could eat!) and then was just a doll to all who were visiting. i really loved the ice cream cone cornucopia that were part of our place settings-so creative!

i will have to finish the rest of our fun week later, the little miss needs her momma:)