Christmas Present

We had a wonderful Christmas. I will shortly write with all our adventures. However, we are back to real life and getting back into a regular routine. We do have some new toys to add to our daily life, one being a zoo-zoo pet. Eliza loves this little animal which will move and turn on its own. She knows how to turn it on and does so frequently. Tonight she took to turning it on then sitting in front of it so it would run into her. It was a lot of fun to watch her be so excited. Here is a glimpse for you.

Known Fact

Did you know that the fastest and most efficient form of advertising is by word of mouth? It's true. At least I heard that at one point in time and I think it's true, therefore, it is. 

Regardless, I just saw this on another friend’s blog and thought it looked really good. Who isn't always trying to figure out how to spend less on groceries? This book is definitely going on my to-read list. If you are interested in maybe being one of the first 250 people to win a copy click on the link below.  

Peek-A-Boo!

What Does a Car Say?

Some may wonder why I post so many videos. Here are three reasons why. 1) My mom loves it when I post videos so she can see how Eliza is growing. 2) It is a good way to record what is going on in our lives. So it is kind of like a journal entry. And 3) sometimes she is just too cute to capture with a picture so I have more videos than I do pictures.

And so, here is another video from today.

This came about when I heard some funny noises in the bathroom. I don't normally have the door open to the bathroom, simply because there are too many things that Eliza can get into that I don't want her to. So when I heard funny noises I became a little concerned. I peeked in and I found her driving the only car she has all over every surface while making "car" noises. I have no idea where she got this from, but it was so cute, I couldn't pass it up.

Shoots and Ladders

Eliza loves the park! We are so blessed to have a park just behind our apartment. It is a great place to meet new people and for Eliza to socialize with other kids. I was very pleased the other day when she shared her ball with an older girl and they started to play pass back and forth. It was so sweet to watch the two girls playing together.
One thing she absolutely loves is the slide. She is still not confident to go down on her bottom since she hit her head trying that one too many times. But that doesn't stop her from going down anyway.

Peanut, Peanut Butter and Jelly!

Today Eliza wanted peanut butter, and she knew just how to get it.

Helping Eliza

She has turned into such a big girl over the past couple of weeks. Very rarely does she actually ask for help. She LOVES to try to get into her car seat all by her self, even though it now takes over 5 minutes. It's so cute though, and it gives her a chance to grow. She loves to help push the grocery cart. Every time I go to the store I get at least 2 comments on what a good helper she is.

This morning she helped:
Ryan shave
me make pancakes
set the table (her dishes)
take the milk to the table
clear her dishes
take the milk to the fridge...then back to the table where I ended up taking it to the fridge.
said "bubbles" which in essence means she wants to help with the dishes.



She is a good helper and I am excited to see what new and fun things she will want to help with.

More proof

When we went to Eliza's 15 month check up the doctor mentioned how she would start to move furniture around and rearrange it to get to what she wanted. At that point in time she could move small, children's furniture, but nothing more. I didn't realize how soon it would be that she could move our kitchen chairs.

She has also become completely OBSESSED with bubbles, whether they are bubbles from the bath, kitchen sink, boiling water or bubbles that you blow. She loves them. She has lately to taken to saying bubbles when she is upset in order to calm herself down. It is rather funny.

Because she loves bubbles so much I find that it is very easy to entertain her while I do dishes. I just plop her up on a chair beside me and she plays while I wash. However today, she decided to do the dishes by herself. She moved the chair all the way across the room to the sink, crawled up to the sink and proceeded to "do the dishes." She ended up breaking a bowl and cut two of her fingers. Not badly, thank goodness.

She also had a cut thumb from finding mommy's razor in the bath tub this morning. I'm beginning to wonder if I will be able to survive being a parent of a toddler. I know she will, I just might go insane in the process.

Toddlers Climb EVERYTHING!!

Here is proof that Eliza is officially a toddler.

I was reorganizing some boxes of baby clothes and school stuff when Eliza discovered, to her immense enjoyment, that she could crawl up on the boxes and they became perfect seats. I decided to be a nice mom and build her some stairs that were safe to climb up. She LOVED it! When I finally put all the boxes away, she started crying. Poor girl. I'm sure she'll find something new to crawl onto tomorrow.

Our Growing Girls!!!

That's right...girls! It looks like Eliza will be a big sister to a little sister! We are very excited for this precious new princess to join our family. Everything looks great in the ultrasound and the doctor says our girl is growing and developing really well.

On another note, Eliza is learning new things to do and new words to say everyday. It is really fun how interactive she has become. Here is her latest and greatest.




She learned this just by me singing the song a couple of times. I am always impressed by how fast she catches on to new things.

San Diego Zoo

A few weekends ago we planned a trip to the San Diego Zoo with some friends from BYU/fellow coworkers at John Deere. They live and work in San Diego so we are quite close. It was a great time to be with them. I think Jessica and I enjoyed talking to each other more than we did seeing the different animals while John, Ryan and Eliza were more fascinated with the animals than with talking. It was perfect for everyone.

Pointing to the Elephants

Pointing to the monkeys.

Playing on some stairs.

Our family

Eliza was fascinated with the Koalas. We spent a good half an hour watching them.

It was a long day, but a lot of fun! Thanks Johansens for letting us come visit!

Yummy Food

I have a dear friend who is a fantastic cook. I wish I could venture out with different foods like her and still have it taste excellent. Anyway, she frequently blogs about the yummy, yummy food she makes. It reminds me of the days when I too was newlywed and made a meal for Ryan every night for the first three months. Sometimes I wish I still did that, but alas, life if different.

I do cook, however infrequently it might be. I also, however, rarely take pictures like my friend and my older sister. As I was going through pictures from the last few months I found some of food that I did make. Ta-da. Proof.

These burgers turned out to be incredibly huge but Oh!, so delicious. Homemade burgers are always much better than those from a burger joint. Our trick, grilled onions as well as chili powder on top of the burger as it cooks. It add just the right about of flavor.

I have another dear friend from South Korea, and before I moved to California, she taught me how to make Chapchae. It turned out amazing. Eliza even couldn't get enough of it. My friend would be so proud of me, I ate my entire meal with chop sticks. That's right, no fork or western utensil. It was hard and took a long time, but that meant more time to enjoy.

While living in LA, Ryan and I have decided to try to eat lots of ethnic foods that we would not have the chance to eat elsewhere. We rarely go out to eat, but on the special occasion that we do, we try new foods. One such place was Veronica's Kitchen, a Nigerian place.

This was so much fun to go to. We were the only white people in the entire restaurant. It was awesome. Ryan ordered us some fu-fu (foo-foo) with some chicken soup. Fu-fu is a mass of what looks like and has the consistency of play dough. It is made from crushed melon seeds. You break off of piece of the ball and form it into a spoon. You then dish up some soup with it and eat the whole thing. It sounds weird, but is really quite good. Beware, it is very spicy and not for weak tongues. We even got mild and it was almost too much for me.

Me demonstrating how to eat fu-fu.

I can fix it, you can help.

Eliza's must have loved that saying from our recent "Cousin Camp" excursion with the Smith family. She put it into practice when our dishwasher went on the fritz.



It was a simple fix, but Eliza wanted to be involved the entire time :)

Birthday Girl!!

Eliza's ONE!!!! Here it is a month after she turns one and I finally decide to write a few words about my sweet, sweet girl.

First I have to say one fun fact about Eliza's short life so far. In the twelve months she has been alive she has been in twelve different States. How many people can say that. Here they are in case you want to know. Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, California, and Texas. Kind of fun.

To let you know how life has been since Eliza turned one, I figured I might as well document the cake smash for everyone's pleasure.

This is Eliza's cake of butterflies.

First taste of her cake.

When she was all done with her cake she promptly pushed it away.

Opening her presents.
I love her face as she peers in the bag.

Here are a few things Eliza loves.

water, bananas, oranges, grapes, dirt, dirt, and more DIRT, playing "horsie" on her parents' knees, tissues, friends, cousins, Grandma, music, dancing, playing peek-a-boo, bath time, the beach, running/walking everywhere, macaroni, drinking water, marshmallows, blowing kisses, "kissing" cheeks (she thinks that pointing is kissing), balls, flowers, her blankie, and reading books.

We sure love you big girl!!

Eliza's New Trick

While visiting my adopted parents, who happen to be Jessie's biological parents, we were downstairs while Eliza was playing with her grandma. As we came up, what should appear, but Eliza helping her Grandma do the dishes.


You know us Klemetson's, always service with a smile :)

Eliza's First Bikeride!

One of the best investments that we have ever made, a bike seat for Eliza. It fits between the parent's seat and the handle bars. That way Eliza is up with us and the center of balance is undisturbed.

Though she doesn't look too happy in this picture, she loved it. We took her on a ride on the beach path and she was cooing and laughing the entire time. We also invented a new game. While riding side by side, I would reach my hand out to her and she would respond by reaching and grabbing it. Then we would bike down the beach while holding hands. Amazing how the simplest things in life are the most fun!

Memorial Day Weekend

Shortly after moving to California I called my mom to tell her that she just needed to come down because I had no idea what I was doing and needed her...desperately. I was feeling nervous about the decorating aspect of moving into a new apartment. You see, up until now I have lived in either a place with cinder-block walls and where I hung pictures was predetermined, or in an apartment where I was not allowed to hang anything. So naturally I was feeling overwhelmed looking at all of my pictures wondering which to hang up and where they go.

My mom agreed to come down and arranged to drive down the same time my younger brother was already coming down for his Disneyland trip with is sweet wife, Michelle.


Eliza LOVED having her grandparents play with her day-in and day-out. Papa Smith was very good about walking her around anywhere she wanted to go. They took lots of walks together, both around the house and to the park.

Here is a sweet video of Grandma Smith and Eliza playing.

It was fun to have my parents unwind and relax with Justin and Michelle. I envy my brother sometimes, the way he can get my mom to laugh by doing things that she would roll her eyes at anybody else doing.

Wait a second...Did I just say that it was fun to have my parents unwind a relax??? That can't be right. That is simply not in my mother's nature while visiting any of her children. Dad, yes...Mom, no!
During the 3 days of visiting we successfully accomplished:
A trip to IKEA for lamps
Cleaning my fridge
Buying paint at Sherwin Williams
Stripping my end table
Staining my end table
Sanding the table and stool
Painting a table and stool
Building a garden box
Painting Eliza's mirror
Painting some shelves for Eliza's room
Convincing Jessie to paint Eliza's dressers
Hanging pictures
Fixing lots of yummy food

Several Naps (at least on Dad's part)
A play for Cousin's Camp

Mom was hooked on her books on tape.
Thanks Joel and Justin for setting that up for her.

Despite all of this work we were still able to enjoy a very windy trip to the beach as well as visit the Korean Friendship Bell.

Eliza and Grandma at the beach trying to stay warm.

Human Totem Pole

Dad next to the Friendship bell and the striker that should have been a fish.

Such a cute, cute couple. I'm glad they were able to come stay with us.

My crazy "little" brother.

My crazy husband.

Ryan and I were even able to go on a date up to Malibu for the sunset while my parent babysat.


It was a great weekend that flew by too quickly. I wish they could have all stayed a week or two longer. I have a wonderful family who is willing to come and spend time with me, if only for moral support.

Eliza Learns to Hug and Walk! (Well almost :)

This post is mainly for my mother, who seems to like getting updates on her granddaughter almost as much as we like giving them. I think it is also fun to save this for posterity. I look forward to the day when I can tell Eliza's future boyfriend that he is replaceable because, after all, Eliza hugged a sock monkey long before he came along.

Attached below are videos of Eliza showing of her new found skills of hugging on command and walking while only holding one of Mommy's hands. (She's not confident enough to attempt any steps without holding on to something.)



And the walking:

Month of May; Mostly

Since moving to California, a lot has happened. Ryan has done a fantastic job of writing fun new things, while I have been not so good. I will try to be as brief as possible by using mostly pictures and movies rather than words.

Mothers Day:

Ryan made me the traditional omelet, with sausage and bacon inside, for breakfast. It was AMAZING!!! The Elder's Quorum provided all sorts of goodies for the sisters in our ward for after church. Relief Society was supposed to get out 15 minutes before the end of church so we could enjoy our snacks. While in reality, we got out late and the Primary children were immensely enjoying the treats while waiting for their mothers. So funny!



One of Eliza's new favorite games is to clear off the bookshelves. She sees me clearing off the desk, table, and counters, so she figures she will help.


Eliza outgrew her baby carrier and now has a big girl car seat. Amazon Mom is AMAZING! Thanks to Jennette for the suggestion of which car seat to get.

Ryan's brother Woody and his wife, Jill, came to stay with us for a weekend. Though they weren't here for long we did head up to the Hollywood sign and even got to go to The Queen Mary, one of the most luxurious cruise-liners in her day. Thanks for coming out-laws!




Our city Torrance had an Armed Forces Celebration for a weekend. Eliza got her face painted, a balloon, a dog tag, sat in an Apache helicopter, saw a live hawk and owl, and had a blast looking at all the fun people everywhere.




Since moving here Eliza has:

Been in 10 different States
Lived in 3 different States
Learned to crawl
Learned to pull her self up
Learned to walk along furniture and walls
Has to be holding something in her hand
Learned how to crawl up stairs
Loves playing at the park
Loves swinging
Hates the beach, mostly the waves. She likes the sand. She's fine if she can't see the water.
Gotten 1 (almost 2) tooth/teeth
Has enough hair to do pig-tales
Can give high fives
Can give Mommy and her stuffed monkey hugs
Loves to Skype
Loves chasing kids and being chased.
And is still the sweetest baby girl I could every ask for.