little sketches of us…

This is a Romanian tradition where the 1 year old baby, Merayla in this case, chooses from a tray objects that represent her future career.
On our tray we had:

1. Band aids – doctor
2. A picture – photographer
3. Money – she’ll be rich
4. An apple – teacher
5. A tennis ball – sports
6. Measuring tape – construction
7. Rubrix cube – mathematician
8. Fireworks – rocket scientist
9. Toothbrush – dentist
10. A book – writer
11. Hair curlers – hair stylist
12. A cookie cutter – chef
13. A bracelet – artist
14. A baby bottle – mother
15. A cell phone – will love gadgets
16. A tassel – will graduate from college
17. A horse – farmer
18. A flute – musician
19. A bolt- engineer

She choose the tennis ball, the bracelet, the bolt, the cell phone, the tassel, and the bottle. Therefore, she will love sports, the arts, become an engineer, love gadgets, graduate, and be a wonderful mother someday.

Here is the video

Video: Merayla 1 year 128

When the baby is one year old we also cut a curl from the baby’s hair and keep it safe until the baby is old. This is also a Romanian tradition that we decided to keep in our new American family. Usually the babies cry during the cutting of the curl, but Merayla was super brave and did not cry a bit.

Video: Taiam motul

She has done great in her first year. She has accomplished much and grown tremendously. We like her a lot.
Here are some pictures of her starting to walk and from her 1 year birthday. Janet, aunt Elaine and Christy came to visit. They were great and helpful with the preparations. The birthday party was great and the cake unrivaled. This bavaroise cake is my favorite (Cristi) and Heidi was very successful in recreating it. She is a great wife and mother.

Here is a recent picture of us at home during Christmas vacation. Cris’s parents were visiting, and we drove over to Dallas to see the South Fork Ranch where the show Dallas was filmed in the 1980s. Of course, we couldn’t help dressing just a little bit like hicks, and Consuela wanted to try on Merayla’s new dress over her outfit. Thus, here we are. Thanks for the fun vacation, George si Consuela.

Everything really is bigger in Texas. Or, at least, the amount of space in an apartment relative to the cubicles of Wymount. When we first arrived there was so much empty room that we weren’t sure what to do with it. Since then, I’ve had fun decorating. Cristian even gave me a kids’ bathroom set for Christmas so I have to show it off. Here is the tour:

Dining room and kitchen: I LOVE the windows!

Living room decorated for Christmas, and Cristian at his favorite location:

 

Merayla has her own room now:

 

The Christmas-present-kids-fishy-bathroom, complete with a little girl going through the cupboards:

Front entry and one of my personal favorites: a real washer and dryer!

 

Our bedroom and bathroom. A little less exciting because I can’t position myself well enough to capture the walk-in closet that’s off the bathroom. I wonder if my clothes are going to mold since the closet is literally inside the bathroom. Hmm…

We’ve moved our blog! And decided to update it sometimes…Welcome.

We have made the big move (1400 miles) to Texas! Cristian graduated from BYU in August 2007 and is now enjoying teaching Spanish at Southwest High. Here is graduation day with Aunt Elaine, Char, Dad, Mom, Merayla, Heidi, Cristian, and Kev.

This is Merayla’s seven-month birthday in our new apartment in Fort Worth. (Notice the snowboards are used only as decor now.) Next is Merayla’s eight-month birthday at the Eppich’s in Alpine. We were able to fly to Utah for Conference since Cristian was translating and got to spend a little time with my family.

This is our first trip to the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. We are standing at the entrance to the area that features Texas native plants and where we first saw a really scary spider.

Merayla is crawling faster than I can keep up with her. And getting cuter by the day. She is our little angel.

Merayla is having fun in the park. This is the first time that Merayla showed Daddy how much she likes to swing.

This is the first time that the Babette has realized that she could lean forward into a crawl. She is not quite crawling… but soon she will be. Dadu and Mamu are very happy with this achievement. We watched her eagerly and cheered her on. Here is a video of her wonderful skills. This event is a gift because it happened a few days before Heidi’s birthday.

So… exciting news. We are going to have a cute baby girl in about 4 months! We don’t yet know her name, but we know for sure that she will be super cute and fun. We welcome her in our new family. We got to see her today in the ultrasound. She even posed with one arm behind her head.

Here is the video to prove it.