My Life - Happy New Year!

2014 has been pretty amazing. Just to name a few of the incredible things that happened this year:

• We enjoyed a long weekend in Santa Barbara to celebrate our babymoon and our anniversary
• Our little girl was born!
• Lots of family came to visit to see our baby girl
• We went to Ohio to celebrate Christmas with family

Each year of my life seems to get better and better. But getting old is weird! I'm going to be turning 30 here in less than 6 months. I can't believe it! I still often feel too young to be married yet alone have a child :)

I'm beyond excited for the next year and the years beyond. Watching Ryley grow up is going to be pretty amazing, just the past 6 months has been amazing. Here are some of Ryley's accomplishments in 2014:

• She slept through the night for the first time at 6 weeks from 10 pm - 7 am
• She rolled over for the first time at a play date at 3.5 months
• She began sitting up at 5.5 months 
• She took swim lessons and LOVED it
• We took our first flight to Ohio for the holidays

It's been a blast being a mom. This next year is going to bring with it some pretty amazing things. We are going to start gym class soon, sign language and get to celebrate Ryley's 1st birthday! We have lots of vacations planned as well; we are going to Arizona in June, Seattle in August, and Ohio again for Thanksgiving. 

2015 is the year of health for Matt and I. We've been learning more and more about clean eating. We aren't going crazy and changing everything right now but we are learning to make better choices. I've been getting into my barre classes so working out has finally become FUN!

What are you looking forward to in 2015?

Friend Life - Friendsgiving

Matt and I LOVE hosting events at our place. Usually we go over board and make way too much food. We've been working to get better at that in the past few years so this year for Friendsgiving we did Potluck style! Sadly I forgot to take a picture :(

There was so much great food. Matt and I did a little competition to see who would make the best turkey. I did a traditional one - no brining but with herb butter and shallots. Matt used our infared fryer and beer can turkey. In the end we really couldn't decide who's was better, so we are both awesome :)

We love getting together and enjoying good food and drink with friends. I wish we could actually fit more at our house :) We tend to have a few parties a year but the best ones always stem around some sort of dinner party.

On actual Thanksgiving Matt and I enjoyed taking Ryley to Turkey Trot. We did it last year and thought we'd make it a tradition. Our plan is actually to do it every year, wherever we live. Next year we may be spending Thanksgiving in Ohio so we'll have to see if there is a Turkey Trot near there.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!!

Baby Life - 4 Months

I love the 4 month age, Ryley is SO fun. She smiles a lot, except when I'm taking pictures, giggles, "talks" and plays games. It's awesome! She's becoming so much aware of the world around her and enjoys being outside to investigate the world.

There is a thing called "4 month sleep regression" which I guess is the downside of this age. Ryley hasn't gone super crazy in this regression but has done a bit. She used to sleep totally through the night but recently has started waking once or twice a night. Sometimes just crying out for a couple minutes and other times wanting to feed. And my "mommy ears" have really turned on because I hear her crying even before I ever hear her on the monitor (guess I don't need that guy anymore).

Adorable!

I still feel lucky though because I'm in a Facebook group and people are talking about the troubles they are going through. There is this thing called Wonder Weeks and I guess around 4 months is called Leap 4. It's a great developmental stage - and you can see it. It's awesome. The way she looks around, taking in everything, it is truly amazing to watch. All that "learning" she is doing during the day is what affects her sleep. She started rolling over so that has definitely affected her falling asleep; when she rolls over she starts crying and hasn't learned to roll back over to her back. But she LOVES sleeping on her belly once she's actually asleep.

The past two nights we are back to sleeping full nights and I'm SO thankful! Even if she isn't making me get up to comfort her I still struggle getting back to sleep. You'd think since I don't even get out of bed it wouldn't affect me much in the morning but I can feel a huge difference when I get the full 8 hours uninterrupted. It's truly wonderful. We are almost done with this "regression" so hopefully her sleeping habits continue. Next up - teething...we'll see how that one goes!

Thanks!

Sorority Life - Initiation

The thing that makes each sorority different from the next is our ritual. It's the secrets that bind us together. Sadly in this day and age you can find lots of things online about the ritual of various sororities; it makes me sad that people put this information out there.

Anyways....the chapter I'm advising has Initiation this weekend. This is when our new members, we call them Alphas, become sisters, we call them Deltas. (As a note: when you graduate you become a Pi, so Alpha Delta Pi). It's a few days of just sisterhood. It's a time to go deeper in your relationships with your sisters and bring our new members into the sisterhood. It's all very exciting!

My initiation was May 2005...wow I can't believe it was almost 10 years ago! I'll be honest, I don't remember a ton about my own initiation. As a new member you aren't sure what the course of events are going to be and it goes by quickly. But as a Delta it is so awesome being a part of bringing the new members into our sisterhood. I always loved bringing my little Diamond Sisters through initiation. Bringing more women into our sisterhood and sharing everything that I love about my sorority was an exciting thing for me.

Ashlei and I hanging out on our bench! No other sorority has a landmark on campus :)

At my school on Blue and White Day we had a small ceremony at the Philomathian bench on our campus. The Philomathian Society was at ASU long ago and gave this bench to Alpha Delta Pi. We were installed on October 14th, 1950 and the second oldest chapter at ASU. It's amazing to see how long we've been on campus. I feel old but I love seeing the pictures and hearing the stories of how my chapter is doing. I also love being an advisor to this other chapter. It all brings me back to the many initiations I was a part of. Sharing our secrets with our new members to continue the legacy of our sisterhood.

Pi Love!

Park Life - Fun Friday

We had a great morning! Ryley woke up with smiles as usual. My favorite part of the day is waking that little girl up. Her smiles make me so happy :)

After getting her up she enjoyed some time in her bouncy seat playing with her monkeys while I got  a much needed shower. Showers are harder to come by these days ha.

Then we enjoyed a great morning with our Las Madres mommas. We went to the most serene park in the middle of the cutest Los Gatos neighborhood, it was Bachman Park.



Bachman Park in Los Gatos

We were at the park from about 11-12:30. It was relatively quiet with a few kids playing on the playground. The park is pretty small with large grass area and a small play area. Ryley is still young so we aren't to the stage of playing on the structures yet.

Pros:

• The setting is very nice and quiet. Perfect for relaxing
• Small park so you can see everywhere
• Those who were there were very friendly
• Great location to grab lunch from downtown Los Gatos restaurant and enjoy it outside

Cons:

• Not much parking if it were to get busy, there was plenty when I was there but not sure how a weekend might be
• Small play area

I want to take my husband back here. I can't put my finger on it exactly but I just felt calm at that park. My husband loves being outside so I figure it's a good option for us to hang out. Grab lunch from somewhere in downtown and enjoy this amazing fall weather we are having.

Thanks!

Baby Life - Happiness

My grandma Virginia and aunt Laura came into town last week and we had so much fun, more on that in another post! Anyways while they were here they came to swim class with Ryley and I. Laura video taped us while we practiced Ryley going under water. Later I watched the video and I realized that I haven't seen myself that happy in...well in a very very long time.

Being a mom is actually a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be. I was always so nervous that I was going to miss work and resent my little one for having to leave work (even though it was my decision). I love waking up every morning and getting to spend the day with her. I love taking her out and showing her new things; watching her discover the world around her.

I've really enjoyed all the things I've gotten to do with Ryley. She's only 4 months so it's only going to get more awesome from here! Right now we just do swim class (and play date stuff) but I'd love to do gym classes, music classes, and sign language in the future. We also plan on continuing the swim classes, it is a lot of fun.

 

I asked Matt if I seemed happier and he even said yes. He said I just seem more at peace and not so  "go, go, go" all the time so I'm living in the moment. My life is different and I'm enjoying it in a totally new way. I still have to keep myself busy, as I've mentioned in a couple other posts I'm still super involved, but it's just different. It's a slower life but it brings me so much joy. Being a momma is pretty damn amazing!

Thanks :)

Sorority Life - Diamond Sisters

This is my first post in a serious about sorority life. When I was in school, I LOVED being in a sorority. I was just looking back through pictures and it made me smile to think about all of the fun adventures. I realized I didn't take enough pictures; I wish I had more to look back on.

Since I loved it so much in college I decided to stay involved as an alumnae. When I moved to San Jose I became an advisor 2 weeks after moving here! I am the Recruitment and Marketing advisor for our Santa Clara chapter and I love every second of it.

This week it is Big/Little Diamond Sister reveal and chapter retreat. It makes me think back to my experiences. I loved being a big diamond sister and still keep in touch with most of my little diamond sisters, even if it's just a Facebook message every so often. Here is a picture of a couple of my littles:

Elissa, Cameron, Chelsea, Caitlin and I
 

This isn't all my littles but just the only picture I could find. Elissa became part of our "crew" when her big graduated so I took her under my wing you could say. I wish I could find the picture I took at formal my last year where it had all my littles, grand littles, and great grand littles. It's amazing the bond that can happen by being a big or little diamond sister to someone.

At the beginning, becoming a big diamond sister is kind of awkward. You may not know the person and aren't sure what you're supposed to be doing. What if you don't have anything in common? But in the end that isn't what a big/little diamond relationship is about. It's about being there. It's about taking them out to fun things and meet people. It's about introducing them to the most amazing sorority ever!

You don't have to be best friends with your little. That's not what the relationship is meant for. Sure it's great if that happens but what is more important is just being there for her. Sending a quick text wishing her luck on an exam or just to have a great day. Helping her get ready for a fun evening or a social event. Providing a shoulder to lean on and someone to laugh with. Someone to help them get through that crazy time called college.

Even now 6 years after graduating I still keep in touch with these ladies; some more than others. The joy of Facebook is that I can see how they are all doing and what sorts of amazing things they are doing with their lives.

At my baby shower in AZ Chelsea came and my great grand little even sent me a card. These women truly impacted my time in the sorority and college; I hope I was able to do the same for them!

Thanks!