The Christmas season

When I was younger and lived in a house, one of the things I looked forward to the most, was putting up the Christmas lights. Every year I would come up with either new colors of lights or a new way to strand them around the house.

This year, being Sierra's first Christmas, we took her to one of the neighborhood streets to show her Christmas lights. Decorations sure have come along way. Not only are there still lights, but now there are moving reindeer's and giant animals or characters blown up with air. Sierra had a great time, and I even think she is starting to understand. After every house she would say "Ohhhhhh". That is her newest sound along with "Hi" that she says to everyone she passes.

Needless to say, we had a good time looking at lights, and I also think she is getting the hand of what it is going to take next year when she is my assistant in decorating the house.

Picture with Santa.....

I was hoping for the typical picture with Santa, where Sierra would be crying or making a funny face, and I could summit the picture to the Ellen show for her bit on (Bad Santa Photos). Instead, Sierra was pretty fond of Jolly Old Saint Nick. Once on put her on his lap, she hesitated a bit, but pulled through like a champ.

Here is Sierra's first photo with Santa.

December already

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We shared the holiday with our family in Palm Springs. This was Sierras first Thanksgiving and first time the family time share. It was a much needed couple days for John and I, since the last month has been a little crazy.

Johns dad passed away on November 8th after battling cancer. We have been up and down with emotions, but truly believe Bill is in a better place.

Sierra is growing and growing. She will be 8 months on the 10th and is almost walking. She tricks us with standing and balancing on her own, but then decides to plop on her buns.

She has her two front teeth and babbles up a storm. Her first word was DaDa, not that anyone is counting. Everyday gets better and better, and I am really looking forward to Sierra's first Christmas and all the festivities that come along with this joyous holiday.

I hope you all are doing well and finish out 2009 with mush love and happiness.

Sierra on her first swing..........

Here are a few photos of Sierra swinging for her first time at Del Mar. I have been waiting to put Sierra in a swing, and when we walked by an open one at the beach, I thought there is no time better then the present. She loved it>>>>

Sierra's first Halloween...........

Sierra had a wonderful Halloween. We went trick or treating with cousin Brady and both kids filled their buckets with candy, which went to work with daddy the very next day.

Pumpkin patch, here we come......

Today, cousin Corey and I took Sierra to her first pumpkin patch. Our plans were to go in the petting zoo, ride the hay rides and then search for the perfect pumpkin. Well, we went to the best pumpkin patch, looked at a few zoo animals and picked the perfect pumpkin. I guess we skipped a few events, but I am sure Sierra wont know until next year.

We had a wonderful time and here are a few photos from the patch.

Sierra on the move.......

The crib is down and the gates are up...........

Watch out world, Sierra Annadel is on the move! Yes, Sierra is now crawling and standing as well as getting into things all over the house. 6 months and 2 weeks and cant imagine what is coming next.
We are so excited for her. She already has so much of an imagination, and can only wonder what the crawling will do to her. I will post pictures soon of our little mover, but I wanted to blog the great news now, because things change everyday and I have to shout it out.

6 months already...........

The time is flying by and our little Sierra is growing by leaps and bounds. She had her 6 month checkup on Tues. She is in the 85 percentile by height and 75 percentile by weight. The doctor said she is growing taller' faster then she is putting on weight. We were pretty surprised that her weight was the same as a month ago, only because we started solids a week ago, and she loves them ( especially carrots and peas). So her appetite is nice and healthy.

We also survived the 6 months shots, and I say "we" because I swore I would never take her by myself for shots, but circumstances allowed me this time to be alone, but we made it through.

We have been pretty busy otherwise with different odds and ins. Sierra has been a trooper in helping dad and I get through some rough weeks. Johns dad has been very sick and is now living in a 24 hour care facility, so Sierra and I have been visiting grandpa almost everyday. She lightens up the care facility and grandpa loves to see her.

We also moved Pure Motion, the personal training studio that I own, to a new building. This has been a great adventure, and Sierra has been a big help supervising the move.

John and I are doing good. We had a few rough weeks, but our family is fantastic and we cant thank them enough for their support and love.

Here are some random pictures of Sierra.

Life at the Whiteside house.....

The Whiteside household is trucking along. So much going on, but then it feels like nothing is going on. We are staying busy with our little Sierra. She has come up with some new tricks which entertain us all the time. She is now scooting herself back wards. The other day she made it all the way between the rocker and the ottoman ( Its time to start thinking about a gate to block the stairs).

She has been sitting up for some time now, and has advanced to all fours with a few rocks back and forth, but has not masters the hands and knees moving together.

Not much else to report, so I will post some pictures of fun times around the house.

Good Friends and Good Times......

August was a busy month but filled with good friends and great times. I love when Sierra gets to meet, not only friends her own size, but also friends that I grew up with.

One of my best friends from junior high has a little girl 6 weeks older then Sierra and the past week, the two little ones got to meet as will as Jenny and I got to cathch up.

We also took a trip to my home town of Simi Valley where my girlfriends Cindy, Brooke and Brandy and I had a day of visiting and getting to know Brandy's newest addition, Abbey Ray.

I love the fact that I still keep in touch with the girls I grew up with, and I cant wait for all the little girls to have friendships like there moms.

Sierra's Baptism

We had Sierra baptised on July 31st. It was a wonderful event shared with the family and Sierra's god parents, Jim and Corey Willis. Here are a few photos.

Thank you to my dad for being Sierra's sponsor into the Catholic church.

more pics

Pictures from our vacation

Sierra's first vacation >>>>

One of John and I's favorite places to visit, is the northwest. We have been to Washington, Canada, Northern Ca and now Oregon. There is something about the trees, the fresh air and most importantly the mountain bike trails and breweries. If Sierra doesn't grow up to be a professional mountain bike rider, there is a good chance she will own a brewery.
We started out flying to Portland Oregon, were neither John or I had spent some time, and stayed right in the heart of downtown. If I can brag, Sierra was the baby on the plane that you want to sit next to. She slept both legs, through the take off as well as the landing.
When we landing in Portland, we went right to Hood River to see the Full Sail brewery, and of course taste their beer. On our way back to the city we stopped off to hike the tallest waterfall in Oregon. Sierra loved that daddy carried her the whole way up, as for me, I barely made it (boy do I need to workout more).
We continued our vacation by seeing every brewery between Portland and Seattle. We walked through the rose garden, visited some friends in Beaverton, saw the Roloff Farm and then headed out to Olympia WA, where our good friend Josh was getting married.
We spent two nights in Olympia which was full of good friends and great sight seeing.
We ended our trip with a spur of the moment trip to Seattle for the night where we visited our favorite coffee house, and spent the last day with our good friends Jamie and Mary who are expecting a little girl in January. We are so excited that Sierra is going to have another friend to grow up with.
All in all, the vacation was great. This was the start of many vacations to come with Sierra, and she proved she is a great traveler.

I will post pics soon

More fun photos with Sierra

Sierra betting on her favorite horse to win. Long day.....

Almost big enough for the high chair.

Long time no post................

There has been a lot going on in the Whiteside house hold, with Sierra and without. We celebrated my dads 60th birthday party, which turned out to be a blast. Our relatives came in from the east coast, so I will share a few photos of Sierra with my aunts and uncles.

My good friend Chris and her husband Harry and their 7month old son Gavin came to visit from Ohio, as well as Tina, Mac and their all most 2 year old Waylen from NorCal. We had a wonderful evening with them at the stone brewery. Lots of talking and lots of drinking.

It has been pretty hot her in San Diego, so the other day John and I took Sierra over to the pool to cool off. I am looking forward to taking her more often to swim.

This past weekend my dad, mom and I took Sierra to her first horse race at Del mar. Sierra did not understand the horses just yet, but she did enjoy the outdoors.

As for Sierra, she is weighing in at 14 lbs, talking up a storm, blowing bubbles and rolling side to side. She is our superstar.