Bebe 2 Ultrasound Pictures

Ultrasound 1 at 13 Weeks 2 Days

On her tummy, bent legs - 13 Weeks

On her tummy, straight legs 

On her back - she moved a lot :)

Lifted her head

Ultrasound 2 at 24 Weeks 

Her face and tummy 

Her arm 

Her little heart

Her leg

She turned on the other side - her head and body again

Face detail - her lips 

Her hand

Your Day to Remember

My dear Jane, what a beautiful birthday you had! Here's your day in detail, for you and us to remember.
After a pretty rough night, where you woke up screaming and really scared me, you and I got to sleep in and woke up close to 12 noon! Since Daddy was at work, the house was very quiet and, since we were both tired, we just kept on sleeping. It felt pretty good :) Well, after we got up we had to go pick up your cake and a few more things for your birthday party. When we walked upstairs you were so surprised by the decorations that Mommy and Daddy put up the night before! You kept on smiling and looking excitedly everywhere around the living room. You were so much fun to watch. It made me happy to see you so excited.

Table decor

Decorations

Watching the decorations

So, to continue, we went to the store for a couple of hours and when we got back Mommy put everything away while you kept crawling into the fridge and dishwasher. :) Since after we finished the last preparations we only had a few minutes until people were going to start showing up, I gave you a quick bath, I took a quick shower and then we got dressed. Just then, Lia, Eni, bunica Palade and the kids (Aren, Lizzy, Bianca and Nadia) showed up. You were taken by surprise by the noise and started crying but very soon you got excited to see everyone. Not long after your Dad came home from work and helped me set the table. For food we had pasta salad, your Dad's specialty, chicken strips, chips and french fries and for drinks we had different kinds of soda. Everyone liked the food and the soda. Not long after we started eating, Eve showed up. We all had a great time together. The kids watched Cars 2 and us, grown-ups talked and enjoyed each other's company.

Yummy food

After dinner we lit the number 1 candle on your Baby Pooh and Tigger cake and sang Happy Birthday and Multi Ani Traiasca. It was fun especially afterwards, when you had a cake just for yourself. You got pretty messy with cream but had a great time. After Daddy gave you a bath to clean you up, we opened all the cool gifts that you received from your grandparents, all our friends and of course from me and Daddy. You got a lot of cute clothes, books and a couple of toys and Mommy got you a little Precious Moments porcelain statue for you to collect.

Everyone singing Happy birthday and Multi any traiasca

Family picture

You enjoyed your special cake

Opening presents

Later, when everyone was getting ready to leave, Carl, Karina and Liam came by to congratulate you. You had fun playing with Liam and opening the gift from them.

Playing with Liam

Karina and Eni talking about pregnancy

All in all, this day was a bit tiring but so beautiful. You are one year older and such a joy to be around. We love you so much and hope that you'll have much happiness in your life.

All the girls at the party

Our Sweet Pea, Jane is one!!!!!

Jane's Beautiful Birthday Cake

Yeah, that's right Jane! You're one year old today and such a joy to us. I can't believe that last year, today I first held you in my arms and nursed you and looked into your pretty face with tears in my eyes. Jane, you are the best thing that ever happened to me. You make me happy every day. Every time we see your bright, beautiful smile we forget about all our problems. Did you know that there are a lot of people out there who stop us to just tell us how beautiful you are and how cute your smile is? It's true and it always makes us happy and proud. You are a wonderful little girl.

You love to crawl around and to walk while holding our hand. You love to talk to us and play with us. You love to be held close and fall asleep next to mommy. You love stuffed animals. A few weeks ago, when we went to Disneyland you got so excited when we found the stuffed animals in the baby section. You also liked the carousels. It was so much fun to see you so happy and excited. Another thing you love is music. You dance and smile real big when almost any kind of music starts playing.

Oh, and guess what you do when people say "bye, bye" or "pa, pa" to you? You wave back!!! You also clap your hands when you hear someone clap or when Mommy says "bravo" and when Mommy asks you "cum face pisica?" you meow in a really cute way. You still only say Mom and Dad or a combination thereof but just recently you started saying "ahdough. Don't know what that means but it sounds like you say "alo" especially since you say the word when mommy says "alo". Anyway, you are way cute and smart and can't wait for you to start walking and talking!

For your birthday, mommy and daddy prepared a cute birthday party. I'm sure you'll like all the gifts you get, the decorations and the Tigger and Pooh cake. Mommy will take lots of pictures for you and us to remember this precious event in your life.

We love you Jane! I will always be thankful for having such a good, beautiful and smart baby girl. I want you to know that we'll always be here for you and you'll always find a friend in us. Happy birthday Janeytsa!!!!

Mommy, Daddy and Baby
We're a happy family!

Bebe 2 is a GIRL!!!

Not much has happened since I last wrote. Pretty much me having a great time with Jane and David working hard for us. I had a couple of visits with a midwife in Park City and she told me that bebe is doing well and advised me on better nutrition and hydration. We then had an ultrasound that was a complete 10 minute fiasco and left me in tears and wondering why some people practice medicine. Then, last week we met with Dr. Taylor, a great family doctor at the Heber hospital and he was very encouraging and told me that everything seems just fine and that we could have a complete, head-to-toe ultrasound of the baby. My stats at the last visit, at 23 weeks were: blood pressure: 110/80, good urine, 168lbs and 25cm belly and bebe's heartbeat: 140bpm. He also said that if he gets to perform the C-section he'll make sure that he'll remove as much of the scar tissue as possible and try to give me a nicer looking scar :)
On Nov 1st we had a very nice and detailed ultrasound and the tech seemed happy with what she saw. She gave us a few pics and told us everything she was doing. All organs seemed to be okay, heartbeat 143bpm, two legs and two arms and a cute, active and healthy baby GIRL. We are so excited to give Jane a baby sister and really hope that they'll be best friends. She is very active and I feel her more every day, and night :) Our due date is still February 20th. She measures about 23 weeks at 24, which I'm okay with and gives me a little hope that she'll be smaller than Jane at birth and might allow me to even deliver vaginally. I'm still thinking about it and I'd love not to have to go through major surgery again. We'll do what's necessary, of course but I'm sure I'd recover faster from a vaginal birth and I'd be able to enjoy the postpartum days and weeks even more. Whatever the case, we're VERY happy and excited for our baby girls and can't wait to meet bebita 2 and to have our two girls together in our arms. We love you baby girls A LOT :)!!!

Bebe 2 - Cute Little Face

Trick-or-Treat!

Today was the first time ever that both Jane and Dahlee went trick-or-Treating! It was a lot of fun. I decided to go to the outlets in Park City. I dressed Jane in her cute pumpkin costume she got from Grandma and Grandpa Jo and I put on a shirt I got for the occasion and the cute ears headband and out we went. It was such a nice and sunny day which made the whole experience even better. We went from store to store trick-or-treating and got lots of candy! :) Funny story: when I entered the first store it was really quiet and no one seemed to give us any candy so we just left. In the next store there were a couple of kids with their parents, and the kids yelled loudly "trick-or-treat"! So that was the way to the candy! You gotta say the right words. So, we did and had a blast! On the way back home we saw other kids trick-or-treating in their neighborhoods and also a few nicely decorated houses. I can't wait to have house and decorate it for every holiday! :) I love decorating and celebrating holidays. Last year, I received trick-or-treaters for the first time and this year I went out and had fun with it myself. I love having kids. It gives me an excuse to do more fun things, which in return creates fun memories for the years to come. Trick-or-treat!!!

At the Tanger Outlets in Park City, UT 

Tangeroo and jane

Mommy and Jane

Beautiful day

Jane, our little pumpkin

Jane likes candy :)

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

Why I Became a US Citizen

The newest citizen of the United States
28 September 2011
Salt Lake City, Utah

On September 28, 2011 I because a US citizen. The oath ceremony took place in Salt Lake City at the Rose Wagner Theater. It was a beautiful Wednesday morning. David, Jane and I arrived in Salt Lake a few minutes before 9:15am, my appointed time to report for the oath ceremony. We got separated and I was instructed to seat with the other new citizens on the lower level of the theater, while the friends and family would seat at the balcony. The ceremony started at 10:00am and there were 191 of us. It was fun and emotional to sing the US national anthem and recite the Pledge of allegiance for the first time. After a musical number by a former Mormon Tabernacle Choir couple and a nice patriotic talk given by a Daughters of the American Revolution member who advised us to write down why we wanted to become US citizens, we were told to stand up, hold our right arm up and repeat the oath of allegiance. The oath was pretty long but easy to follow and understand. After, the presiding judge talked to us about his own experience becoming a US citizen and he even interviewed a few people from the audience. It was interesting to hear the different stories; one person's wife was still back in another country, another came to get an education, another wanted freedom, another looked for safety, while one woman described with tears in her eyes how she spent her childhood in refugee camps and wanted her family to be united. Next, the words of Barak Obama welcoming us to this country of opportunities and freedom and the song 'God bless America' brought tears to my eyes.
I am now a citizen of the United States! But why did I want to come here? Why did I decide to become a citizen? To answer these questions, I would have to go back to the time I was about 13 years old, back in Romania. It was about then when I decided that I would move to America when I grew up. The thought always gave me a feeling of happiness and anticipation. I didn't know what America was like, I'd never met anyone from there but I knew that it was the place where I wanted to live my life. Like, a woman at the oath ceremony said, I wanted to be an American when I grew up. :) I knew that here I'd be happy. I didn't think it was going to be easy and I had no idea how I was even going to get here, but I wanted it with all my heart. I started studying English on my own, even during the summer vacation. I liked learning anything about America and I even wrote stories about the day I would leave Romania. I still remember drawing a picture of the New York skyline from memory, with the twin towers in it. I was pretty much obsessed. All I wanted was to grow up and leave. I wanted a different way of life and a job that would provide me with enough money to help my family in Romania. So, at that time, my main reason, other than purely loving America, was to take care of my family and be able to afford different things that they needed. As time went by I realized that I needed to study and learn quite a bit if I wanted to have a good, dependable job. So, after I graduated from high school I went to a two year college of massage therapy. It wasn't what I loved but it was the best and only option. It was during this time that I met the missionaries of the LDS church, from America. They helped me learn more and even study more English. After about two years I was accepted to attend school at Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah, where I started in January 2003. I was finally in America, going to an American university and experiencing what I'd only been dreaming for the past ten years. Utah was different than the East coast, where I always envisioned myself living, but it was nice and not too cold in the winter. While going to BYU my reasons to coming to America changed a bit. In a way I became a little more selfish. I knew that this was where I wanted to be and I still wanted all the other things for my family but now I wanted to make a life here. I wanted to do well in school and succeed. I wanted more for myself and I knew that I had the opportunity to get it. Just like the judge at the ceremony said, you'll never get anything here without work but you'll always have opportunities to do anything you want in life. I definitely agreed to that and I still think that is definitely the way of life here. Nothing without hard work but always being able to find opportunities to achieve anything in life. While at BYU I met my future husband, David and after dating for 10 months we got married in Manti, Utah. My dream life was starting to take shape. I could have a family and be happy and I found the man that loved me and that I loved. So, America turned out to give me even more than I expected. I never thought that I would actually marry someone here. Like I said, my reasons and dreams were a bit selfish involving pretty much me doing all these wonderful things for others and being the one who saved the day. Well, school took longer than I thought, life kept rolling by and three years after we got married we became pregnant with our first daughter, Jane. I knew now that my life might be a bit different than what I envisioned but I was very happy. And with the birth of Jane my reason for coming to America and becoming a citizen changed once again. The main reason why I want to live here and be an American is now to provide our children the opportunities that they might not have had if they were born somewhere else. I know that one can receive good education and many other wonderful things in many other parts of the world but I know for a fact that in America my babies will be able to pursue whatever dream they might have and just this knowledge gives me hope and love for this country. I know America is not perfect but it is still the land of opportunity. I don't know if my reasons will change again. As of right now,  I'm pretty sure that  they will stay about the same at least for a while. I still want the best for my family back home and I'll keep working at achieving that goal but living here gave me a new perspective and way of seeing and doing things. A perspective I like. A way of life a I like. I have a wonderful family and how many people can say that they have two wonderful countries to call home? I'm thankful and happy to be a citizen of the United States and I hope to be worthy of my new status and to have many opportunities to do great things in my new home country.