Alyss - Months 4 and 5

Well, got pretty busy and didn't find the time to write in here but here's a little update on sweet Alyss. At her 4 months appointment she weighted 13 lb and was 24.5 in long. She was in the 50th percentile in all her measurements and the doc was pretty happy with how she looked. He suggested that I start feeding her cereal and fruits and veggie purées and even to let her drink from a sippy cup. I gave her cereal when she turned 5 months but haven't tried anything else yet. She still drinks breast milk and is happy with it. We'll continue with it as long as I can provide it. I think it's the best food an infant can have. At the doctors she also got her shots (two again, one in each leg) and a $80 check for being in the shots study. She's already earning her keep. Hahaha! After the shots she got a bit fussy and her right leg hurt a bit and even got a red hard bump that didn't go away for a month. In August will have the last round of shots in the study and after that just the regular shot schedule.
At 5 months Alyss is such a good and happy baby. She cries when is left alone (I think she might be getting separation anxiety) and when she is tired or hungry but otherwise she just plays, talks (she says "ba ba" and "ma ma", she gargles and blows and says the sounds 'p' and 'f') and smiles a lot all the time. She rolls over on both sides, holds her bottle and puts her binky in her mouth and is very curious and alert. I LOVE it when she looks at me straight in the eye and grabs either my face or my neck or even my arm if I'm feeding her. She likes to play with everything Jane plays with and loves to put everything in her mouth. She sleeps well but cries a few times every night to ask for a bottle. She drinks at least 10 oz per night and another 15 oz during the day. She's gotten pretty chubby and even cuter than she was before. Up until July 11th bunica took care of Alyss a lot and even had her sleep in the same bed with her a few times but since bunica left we've been sleeping her on the mattress that Jane used to sleep on and gave Jane the twin bed that bunica used to sleep on. Jane loves her new bed and Alyss loves hers. We all sleep in the master bedroom like a big happy family. :)
Jane's gotten more used to having Alyss around even though she still gets jealous and upset when I hold Alyss or tend to her. That's being a toddler for you. She's happy and tickles or plays with Alyss one minute and scratches her or pokes her in the eye the next. She does help me change Alyss' diaper or feed her and sometimes out of the blue she just comes and kisses Alyss on the head. I love watching them interact and play with each other. You can already tell that Alyss adores Jane. She looks at her a lot all the time, smiles and even laughs and squeals when Jane talks to her. She wants to play with everything that Jane touches. This annoys Jane sometimes, especially when she doesn't wanna be touched, but they manage to get along with some help from me. I hope they'll be good friends.
At the beginning of July we went to California and visited Disneyland and it was the first time for Alyss to go on a big trip, to meet great-grandma and great-grandpa Barlow and great-grandma Johansen, to go to the beach and in the ocean and to go to Disneyland. She enjoyed it all and was very good and only cried when she was really tired. She was also really good during the car ride there and back.
Great grandmas Barlow and Johansen and grandma and grandpa Jo when they came by to visit were very happy to meet Alyss this summer and loved to hold her and take care of her. They all marveled at how good of a baby she is.
Forgot to mention that Alyss won the Springville baby photo contest for "best eyes" in the 0 to 6 months category and a $10 Walmart gift card. She sure has beautiful, sparkly eyes.
We love you so much little Alyss and are so happy to have you in our family.

My first 4th

Huntington Beach - First time at the beach

Holding my bottle

Bunica and Alyss

Our Fun California Trip

After about two and a half years we were able to finally go to California and visit everyone there. We had a nice time staying at grandma and grandpa Barlow, visiting grandma Jo and aunt Kari, going to the beach and to Disneyland, Los Angeles and Knots Berry Farm. This was the first major trip for Jane and the first time she ever traveled to California. Here are some pictures of our adventures!

At the Jolly Bee Filipino restaurant in Las Vegas
A tradition for us to eat there 

Minnie Jane

Jane got really excited when she saw the stuffed animals

Disney family - at Disneyland 

Jane and Uncle Terry's nice dogs
They smelled and my pregnant nose couldn't stand it

Jane and great-grandma Jo

Jane and great-grandpa Barlow

Big one!!! Jane was soaking wet after that :) 

On the beach

Crawling in the wet sand

We are family

Foggy pier

Huntington Beach 

Jane on one of the carousells

Jane loved the caroussels

Jane was exhausted after we spent an entire day at
California Adventure and Disneyland

Snoopy and Jane

Yummy Tiramisu cake from Knots Betty Farm

See how tall I am?

La Brea museum - Jane sitting in a Mammoth footprint

La Brea Tar Pitts - LA

Eating at Rainforest Cafe - Downtown Disney

Jane and great-grandma Barlow

4th of July

So, life is been interesting since we graduated. I'm working for a company called Western Standard, doing Romanian<>English translation and David still works at BYU because they let him work on campus. It's pretty complicated but it worked out for him and we're not complaining. Not too long ago we found out that David got accepted into the Ethnochoreology Graduate Program at the University of Limerick, Ireland and we've been getting ready to go there at the end of August. Keep your fingers crossed that we'll be able to go. Why I say that? Well, it's been quite an adventure trying to get student loans. Not only is it hard to obtain loans if one goes to school in the States but it's even harder if one wants to study abroad. So, right now we're in the process of applying to Stafford Loans and other loans to help pay for out plane tickets and at least the first month's rent. I will be looking for a job once we get there but for now we have to rely on loans.

What else happened since the end of April... Well, we graduated and walked on the 24th of April, went to California at the end of May for Aunt Sheri's funeral, celebrated my birthday in California, worked a lot, got some dental work done and my wisdom teeth out (which cost almost $2,000 - yeah, that's where my salary went!) and had fun at the Highland Games at Thanksgiving Point and celebrating 4th of July in Provo watching the Stadium of Fire and in Midway having hamburgers and corn on the cob. So... a pretty busy summer so far. I only got to go to the pool twice this summer and I really want to go, but I went to the gym more and actually lost 10 lbs. since February. I'm pretty proud of this particular accomplishment. A couple other things we did were spending time with our friends Carl and Karina, going to baby Adam's blessing in Payson (Eni and Aric's baby boy), celebrating Romanian and Catholic Easter with Romanian friends and having a cool Romanian barbecue in the Rock Canyon Park in Provo. Oh, one other thing I'm happy about is my green bell pepper plants that I've been taking care since they were little babies and who are now all grown and are producing very tasty green peppers. :)

I'll give you a little more details on some of the stuff that we did. I told you that we went to aunt Sheri's funeral. Aunt Sheri is David's aunt and his mom's sister. She was very young and has three kids. She was engaged to be married and died in a car crash in California. Charity, David's sister was in the car when it happened but she was very lucky to only break her arm and get some scratches and bruises. Of course that is not lucky but it's better than dying... So, we went to the funeral and it was really sad but it was good to meet and see family that we only get to see once every couple of years.

The Barbecue with the Romanian and friends was really cool though. We had a wonderful time with Cristina and Brandon, Amy and Jeanene, Viorica, familia Geambasu, Maria-Taylor and bebe Luca, Eni-Aric-baby Adam and Aren, Eni's parents si Gaby creata. Fratele Geambasu cooked mici and sora Viorica brought branza si rosii, while Eni and het family brought some very tasty chicken drumsticks and cake. It was real fun especially watching the boys playing Bocci and enjoying each others company.

This is our summer so far. I'll try to post more in the future, once we get to Ireland. I'll also post a few pictures of the events I talked about above. Love and hugs to everyone!

2007 - A year of joy!

December 2007

Dear family and friends,

2007 is been a full year for us. We’ve been going to school full time at BYU and we also worked on campus while also being on a folk dance team. Here is a short review of our year. We hope that you’ll enjoy hearing from us.

In March David and Daliana decided to unite their lives and got married in Manti, Utah. They were happy to see so many family and friends who came to celebrate with them and they would like to thank everyone who sent presents for being so nice and thoughtful.

Daliana is a senior in College. She just decided to change her major to Humanities with a French language emphasis. Besides her major, Dali is working on a World Dance minor and a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) minor. As a result, she still has a few more semesters to go until she graduates. Dali still works at the Open Access Computer Lab on campus and starting January she became a Shift Supervisor. She enjoys her job very much.

David is a senior in college as well, majoring in Exercise Science and planning to go to Medical School afterwards. He is working on a World Dance minor as well. David works as a Lab Attendant in the MAC/PC Humanities Computer Lab and as a web programmer in the Humanities Department. In May 2007 David went on a one-month folk dance tour to all the Elementary Schools in the Utah Valley. He enjoyed his experience very much and is excited to be doing it again next year. He thinks that this time it will be an even better experience because he will get to do it with Daliana.

Together, Dali and David went on a trip to California where they had a wonderful time with their grandparents and other family members, and before that they went to the Arches National Park and other National Parks in Southern Utah.

As you can see, we had a great year. We hope that you and your family had a prosperous year as well.

Marry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love,

David and Daliana Johansen

Long time no posts.....

It's been more than two months since I last wrote something. Time to repent and talk a little about our wonderful California vacation. We stayed in Garden Grove at David's grandparents and we had a great time. We went in LA a couple time and saw the Griffith Observatory, the Hollywood sign, the Grumman's Chinese theater and the boulevard of stars. Another time we went to Disneyland and had a blast remembering what being a child was like. I liked feeling like a child again in the land of happiness. I got myself a Tinker Bell green shirt and David got himself a nice big cup (tradition). Of course that the beach was on our list of things to do, together with some Romanian and Filipino food shopping that we did at the little stores in Garden Grove.