Gracie Loves Her Daddy

We've started up what's going to be the routine around here. Danilo's gone back to work while I get to be Mom and Gracie gets to be sweet baby girl. And that's exactly what she is, almost all day long. When she's not sleeping, she's making sweet faces and sweet noises as she stares around the room with her big blue beautiful eyes. Around 6:00 everything changes. She becomes a grumpy ornery (yet still adorable) bear for the rest of the night. 6:00 is exactly when Dad gets off work and heads home to his little family. We make the rounds changing and feeding her and when that doesn't work, Danilo pulls every trick out of his hat he can think of. I've felt so bad about being the one who gets to enjoy her sweetness all day long when Danilo's worked all day, and that's why I gave thanks for my husband last night before going to bed. After he'd tried everything to soothe her and nothing had worked longer than five minutes, during our family prayer he thanked Heavenly Father for the blessing of Grace, for the joy she's brought into our lives and into our home. He asked for a good nights sleep so that we could wake up and enjoy being together again tomorrow. And he was sincere. I am so grateful to him for being a good dad when it's easy...and when it's not so easy. The picture above is one of his favorite things to do on a Saturday or Sunday morning, and I love it.

11 Days Old!

WE LOVE OUR GRACIE GIRL SO MUCH!!!!!


















I sent this message to my mom in the middle of our first sleepless night with Gracie. I was an extremely colicky baby (I might have created that word) and have never fully appreciated what that meant until now. However, we've only had what we could really term two sleepless nights since we brought her home. It may be too early to be sure, but she seems to be developing a pretty regular routine of sleeping through the night with just a feeding or two in the middle. I feel like I am so not getting what I deserve!!














Yesterday we were visiting my mom and Gracie started to cry while her diaper was being changed. I laid down on the floor a few inches from her face and told her she was okay. She stopped crying and grasped my finger and looked at me like she knew I was her momma. Moments like this that Danilo and I have with her everyday teach us that the adjustments we're making in our schedule and routine and the anxiety we feel when we sometimes don't know how to get rid of a tummy ache she's got are entirely and eternally worth it!

Gracie's Entrance

I was scheduled to be induced on Tuesday, July 14 and we were getting very excited. Saturday was Danilo's birthday and we also had a reunion with all my Grandma Parke's brothers and sisters that brought a lot of people in from out of town. We took advantage of having all of my mom's brothers and sisters here by taking a family picture. It's kind of hysterical that this picture was taken two days before Gracie was planned to be born, but everyone that had to go back home was leaving town that night. Wait. It gets better.



After family pictures with the Parkes, we went up to visit my Grandma and Grandpa Achter at their home with my family. My grandpa dished up some ice cream which you can see my sisters and I enjoying on the back deck. My mom suggested it would be neat if my husband, dad, and grandpa could give me a priesthood blessing for the upcoming labor and delivery. It was a sweet experience. Afterwards we talked about Gracie and what a precious blessing she was going to be in our lives. In the meantime, Danilo was having fun trying out a massage on the space between my heels and my ankles. Some friends in our ward had been talking to us that day about how they were convinced a massage like that induced labor.

Ten minutes later for reasons I won't describe in detail, I grabbed my sisters and told Danilo we were going to go find my mom to see what it was like when your water breaks. He follwed closely behind. We met Mom in the front yard with Grandma where we made the decision to rush to the hospital.

Danilo and I had gone up to my grandparents with my family in their car. We dropped off my sisters who grabbed our car to run back to our house and grab my "bag" while we continued on to the hospital with my Mom and Dad and Andrew. It felt like a really fun movie.

There is probably a 30 minute difference between the picture of my sisters and I eating ice cream and Danilo and me checking into the hospital emergency room (where we entered still coordinated for a family picture). Was it the foot massage?


Nine hours later, we welcomed the sweetest blessing of our lives into the world. The rest of this post is for you to take a peek at our little Gracie girl.





This week is truly one where I can say my heart is full to overflowing. From the nurses and doctors in the hospital who cared for us during our stay to my angel Mom whose bringing me into this world I can now more fully appreciate, to Dad and Hailey and Chelsea and Andrew and Mami and Ovy and Cynthia and Nicole, to Grandmas and Grandpas and aunts and uncles and cousins and sweet friends, I have more love in my heart than I know what to do with. I give thanks to my Heavenly Father for the blessing of my precious daughter and for the increased love I have for my wonderful husband who is revealing himself more and more each day to be such a wonderful dad!!

mod podge

In my recent adult life, I have been in meetings for Young Women or Primary or school or various get-togethers where women are talking about craft ideas and say, "We could mod podge it." And I nod my head and agree while inside I'm thinking, "YOU could mod podge it. I don't have that type of craft experience!" To me it sounded like an advanced skill that I was not qualified to tackle. I didn't even really know what the end result looked like. But my aunt Neyka has been giving me ideas for Gracie's room and suggested that I mod podge some picture frames with scrapbook paper that matched her bedding. Feeling amibitious yesterday, I did a google search to see just what that would entail. After a trip to Michael's and Wal-Mart and a couple of hours with scissors and paper and mod podge, I discovered what mod podge is NOT: scary, hairy, or hard. I also discovered what it is: white, sticky, and inspiring! I had so much fun! I even ventured past picture frames. In fact, as I was in bed not sleeping last night (which is apparently the way things roll in the eighth month of pregnancy), I was imagining all the places I could apply my new skill. I imagined our bedroom door all mod podged in some pretty something that would complement the room. I won't do it, though. I'm thinking I should turn the next post over to Danilo before this becomes a crafty, recipe, housekeeping blog. Please keep coming back, I'll keep trying to keep it interesting.

Welcome Summertime!

This was my day-to-day life a month ago. Cute kids. One thing we all had in common: we needed a summer (you can see it in some faces more so than others).

And now it's here! It's interesting coming to terms with the fact that my break doesn't last just three months. I've actually had a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that the only determining factor in what I will do each day is whatever I decide to do...I'm sure a certain baby girl due to arrive in one month will help.

So I have tried to make myself useful everyday. I give myself one project each day. It usually ends up being a closet to clean. I don't know about other school teachers, but if I was going to do my best as a teacher, our house had to take a little bit of a backseat. I tried to keep the living room, kitchen presentable, but anything behind a closed door was pretty scary.

I was going to take a before and after picture of each project, but I didn't know how many of you would still claim me. I'm kind of regretting not getting before shots, because I think sometimes we love ourselves a little more when we see other people have messy closets too (any men reading, please apply that thought to your own circumstance).

There's a little rhyme and reason to the order of the pantry now. Before, cereal went on top and everything else was free game.




The hallway linen closet... I open it about three or four times a day just because it feels good to see it like this. Ahhh.



The closet under the stairs. I'm not afraid to open this door anymore either. The stuff in there are things we actually use and need!

And my favorite... Gracie's room. For the

last year and a half, this room has served as the place where we put everything that didn't have a place anywhere else in the house...and we RARELY opened the door. I am so happy to report that as of today, 90% of the stuff in Gracie's room is Gracie's stuff--not my high school yearbooks, not her dad's taekwondo gear. We've got a few more things to do before she gets here, but the decluttering is just about through.

So the reason I have had the time to post 48 pictures tonight is because Danilo called the same time he does every night to tell me he's at the Front Runner station and five minutes from home, but instead to tell me that he was just leaving the hospital to catch Trax...a two-hour commute home. So that meant I was eating dinner by myself. I had tostadas planned for tonight, and while they're a favorite around here, they seemed to turn out extra yummy tonight, so I wanted to share. They're kind of pretty once they're all made up, but I'd already eaten a whole one and only had room for a half once I decided to take a picture.

On one tostada, spread:

One layer of rice (I cooked the rice with a little bit of chicken boullion)

A few avocado slices

One layer of ground beef (I seasoned it with two cloves of garlic and some dried onion)

Chopped tomato

Squeeze a lime segment over the top

Top with cheese.



Here is what a tostada looks like in and out of the package.

If you made it to the end of this post, thanks, you're really nice. I will try to be a little more brief next time.

I Do Have In-Laws...And I love them!

I have wanted to post things we've done with my in-laws so that their faces are familiar ones on our blog...it's just been a matter of remembering to bring a camera when we do things together. We went to dinner on Thursday night after Nicole's graduation and I'm thrilled we've finally got some pictures for posting! Danilo has two sisters, Cynthia and Nicole, which means Grace is going to have four aunts and an uncle. My mother-in-law lived in Chile until she brought her family here 15 years ago. My father-in-law grew up in Texas close to the Mexican border where he picked up quite a bit of Spanish. They met shortly after Danilo's family arrived in Utah and he brought a wonderful completion to their family as a loving and supportive husband and father. Five or six years ago, my father-in-law was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. While the disease has taken much from him, the decline has become less drastic with surgery, therapy, and medication. I enjoy watching videos with the family of before the Parkinson's because it gives me a peek at the man inside who can't always communicate with us like he'd like to. I have learned much about patience and humility from watching and coming to know him better.

One thing I appreciate so much about my in-laws is how cherished they make me feel. We've been married for almost three years now, and they continue to make me feel like they are so happy that Danilo found me. It's a blessing.

Anxiety Release

Tonight's the last Sunday night in a VERY long string of Sunday nights that I will have to get up to go teach school in the morning. For some reason I am feeling a whole lot of anxiety. Part of it is due to the way my little darlings have been acting over the past month knowing summer freedom is inching closer and closer. I guess I'm terrified that it's all going to burst this week and none of the tricks in my bag of tried and true teacher techniques are going to work. I hope I've got enough lessons and activities planned to fill in the gaps between all the end of year activities that will be taking place. And then there's this strong longing I've got to make sure that this year counted for something important in the lives of my students. I had a very challenging class this year and so much of the time I worried about how their behavior or their progress or lack of it was reflecting on my success or progress as a teacher. I guess the thought that's haunting me tonight is that I'm realizing, IT'S NOT ALL ABOUT ME! If I could've realized that awhile ago, I think it would've been liberating. I just hope I didn't waste energy worrying about myself as a professional instead of putting it towards encouraging and helping my students. All in all, I'm pretty sure these kids know I love them. I daily pray about the goings on in my classroom and feel like I have been blessed in ways I wouldn't have if I hadn't asked for Heavenly Father's help. I truly have done the best I know how. So let's get a move on and send this year out the door!