Baby Shower #3

My 3rd baby shower was put on by the Boggs side of Thomas' family. It is a fun tradition to have showers for the Boggs family members. We all get together, have fun, and eat lots of different kinds of yummy salads. It is always a good time and my shower was no exception. Jennifer Ward hosted it at her beautiful home and had very fancy, girly decor. Thomas' mom and sister, Mica, did the games. My favorites were "guess how many diapers" (I got all the diapers!) and "guess the baby food" (cause Melody and I figured out how to cheat and won. :) Cheating...a Duran family trait we have somehow inherited...). Good times.

Road Trip

A few weekends ago, Bella and I drove down to my sister Cindi's house in San Dimas. It's about a 4 hour trip but we stopped in Tulare to go to the outlets. I shopped for a bit longer than I had planned, but then fed the baby, changed her diaper and we were off. I got about a block before she started screaming. I pulled over and calmed her down and after about 30 minutes we were off, again. She fell asleep and kept sleeping for a long time. I had to go to the bathroom SO bad but didn't want to stop for fear of waking the baby. I was also realizing my chance of NOT hitting L.A.-Friday-Evening-Rush-Hour-Traffic wasn't looking good. I finally stopped in Castaic- which is on the grapevine. Made it to the potty and back to the car...and then she woke up. She started crying again about a half hour down the road. Pulled over, calmed her down. Got on to the 210 and sailed! I was stoked! But then I hit Pasadena. Aaaah Pasadena. There's a part of the 210 in Pasadena where it splits off and you have to exit and go through a tunnel to stay on it. She started SCREAMING just as I pulled over to the right lane to do the whole split off thing. My poor baby! It broke my heart. We were just completely stopped in traffic. It took me about 15 minutes to get to the next exit. Pulled over, once again, and fed her. Kept going, still in traffic, baby starts crying again. The poor thing must have been completly bored and DONE being in her car seat. Held a binky in her mouth, didn't want it. Made a bottle for her, while in traffic mind you, didn't want it. Stuck my finger in her mouth, bingo. She fell asleep. Took me over an hour to do the 15 mile drive from Pasadena to San Dimas. NINE hours after leaving Fresno, we made it to the Watkins. This is now known as the trip Bella learned to cry. She figured out how to do that poor pathetic cry when mom and dad aren't paying attention to her. Great.

I had an awesome time at the Watkins. The Mills were also visiting for their Spring Break and so Bella met a bunch of her Berry cousins for the first time. At any given time Bella was being held and surrounded by adoring spectators waiting in line to be the next to hold her. She is so loved!


We went out to dinner that night to an AWESOME Thai food place there in San Dimas. SO good. The next day, Bella had her first day at the beach. It was a really warm day but there was this blustery wind which made it pretty chilly. Bella spent half the time wrapped up in a blanket...

and the other half in the car. It was a fun trip though, we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, and I even got a nap on the warm sand. One of my absolute favorite things to do.


On Sunday I, of course, went to the Jon Heder/Napoleon Dynamite fireside with my nieces.





Other than that, we went out to eat a few more times, and just hung out. It was awesome to have about 5 willing babysitters at any given time.



The trip home was great...Bella slept almost the entire time. I stopped to feed her (and myself) once. Awesome weekend. Good times.

Baby Shower #2

My work threw me another awesome baby shower. It was much more than the cake and small gift I expected. The other Kindergarten teachers threw it for me. Everyone was bummed because that morning ended up being a foggy day schedule and so almost all of the grades got out at 3:00 instead of 2:00...and the shower was 2-3:30. :) They had great food, cute decorations, and very generous gifts. It was another great shower!

Baby Shower #1

This post is LONG overdue. Like 4 months overdue. Catharine Meeks, Heidi Shiner, and Melody Duran threw me the most awesome baby shower ever! Everything was too cute from the invitations-to the decorations-to the food. Everything was so beautiful and they did SUCH a great job. I can't thank them enough for all the time, energy, and work they put into this special day for me. You guys are awesome!

Blessing Day

Bella was blessed this last Sunday. It was such a special day that we were looking forward to for a long time. Thomas gave a beautiful blessing, although she cried the. entire. time. This girl is very determined and just does not like to do things she doesn't want to do. Including laying down. We had lots of friends and family there to help us celebrate. We even had my sister Cindi and 7 out of 8 kids, who came from San Dimas and my Uncle Stan and Aunt Ann who came from Tehachapi! After the blessing we had a big group picture in front of our house.


This is everyone excluding family members: the Boggs, the Scotts, and Cynthia and Alisa Rayas and my friend Veronica Mendoza who all had to leave after Sacrament meeting. The wards came over after the group picture

and so did Mica.


and Anna and Javier took all our group pictures for us!

Bella had a beautiful blessing dress that my Mom and Dad got in Vietnam when they went on their mission there 3 years ago.



We had a delicious "light" lunch: Cindi's yummy homemade rolls (real ones...from scratch!) with 3 different types of crock pot meat, rice pilaf, lots of different types of salads, strawberries with white fluffy fruit dip, and lemonade with frozen lemon slices. And for dessert we had brownies, cookies, ice cream and hot fudge. Thank you to everyone who contributed to our meal! Especially Cindi, Elizabeth, and Jennifer for providing some big ticket items. It was an awesome day.
















Bella was EXHAUSTED from her big day and decided to sleep from about 3pm to about 8 the next morning with only a couple breaks for a few minutes at a time to eat. What the...? This is the girl who rarely sleeps for more than an hour at a time during the day!

P.S. Anyone get a picture of just Bella in her dress???

Jon Heder

So Im down at my sister's house in San Dimas. They had a church youth fireside tonight with Jon Heder speaking! I tagged along with my nieces and nephews. :) He spoke for about 20 minutes on being "in" the world but not "of" the world and then had a question/answer session. It was actually really interesting. Afterward my neices and I met him and got a picture with him. I feel a little star struck! Lol.

Happy Easter

Bella woke up to find the Easter bunny had been here! :)

A closer look at the goods. She even got some Cadbury Eggs to share with Mom and Dad! Mmmmmmm...


Pictures with Mom and Dad before church.

All ready to go to church! I have decided it is IMPOSSIBLE to get to church on time with a baby. 9 am...are you kidding? Maybe next year. We are not making a very good impression in our new ward. Thomas likes to sit in the front even if we are late.



A few more pictures. My mom got her this cute sweater at a boutique in England. I love it! It is handmade and SO cute.




We got to take a family picture at the Durans, before our Easter dinner. Bella was intrigued by the bushes to the behind/to the side of us. We finally got some pretty good ones.




Hope everyone had a great Easter and was able to take a little time out to remember the Savior and all that he did for us. We are so grateful for the atonement so that we will be able to live with him again.