4 becomes 5...

Yup! In case you haven't heard through the grapevine, we are adding to our family by one. If there is a good reason for my lack of blogging it is the fact that we are expecting our third child.  Not a very good excuse so the other one is Pintrest.  Which if you have no idea what that is, good, I won't introduce you to the time sucker and addicting nature of that site!

This baby will be joining our family sometime around April 4th 2012. That puts me at 19 weeks today, YEAH-- almost half way there. I hope the second half goes as fast as the first. You may be wondering if we've found out already???








Well we did and we are blessed to be welcoming another BOY!  Three bros. Three amingos, three times the fun... Here we go!

It's been SEVEN years...

Since Chris and I said "I DO!" What is going on? So much has happen in 7 years but the biggest change is these two cute little boys.  I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family!  I can't wait to see where we are in 7 more!

MAUI 2011

Peace and quite, total freedom, eating to my heart's content, massages, pedicures, leisurely walks, adventure hikes, swimming, laying out, reading a book, uninterrupted conversations with my husband and friends and sleeping in past 7:00 = one week in Maui-without kids!    

I am finally getting around to posting our Maui trip we did at the end of April! We had such a good time. We didn't know what to do with ourselves with all the freedom and quite!  We went with our good friends Ryan and Julie Hoke.  It was hard leaving the little ones, but once we were there we were fine (I say 'We" but it was really all my anxiety)!  I just posted a few of the "many" photos but I am noticing that in most of them I was wearing a hat.  I am getting old! 

We saw  more waterfalls than we could count, so I will only share a few.  This one Chris and Ryan actually jumped off!

Our favorite snorkel spot!

On Kaanapali Beach at sunrise

Another cool waterfall we took a short walk to get a photo of

Julie and I enjoying our famous Hawaiian Shaved Ice

Famous Black Sand beach.. we went to Red Sand beach too but couldn't take photos there-apparently it was a nudist beach-oops!

This lava arch was so amazing

The famous seven sacred pools

Even a friendly game of Bocci Ball at the resort. We had our own official score keeper!

Had to get the Hawaiian hibiscus

If you ever visit Maui- go to the Gazebo House Restaurant and get there early for these delicious mac nut pancakes. We loved them so much we went again on our last day before we left for the airport! YUM

I had the best snorkeling of my life-the water was so clear and I got to see 2 sea turtles!

Bittersweet!!!!

Sorry I have been MIA lately, I don't know where the time goes.  Chris and I have been planning a much needed vacation for us and the day is finally here. We leave tomorrow for MAUI!!! I am so excited and yet so anxious! I have never left the boys for more than 3 nights and never left WES.  So this will be very sad.  I guess I'm really only nervous because it is so far away and can't come back at the drop of a hat.  I also feel so bad because Wes is just getting over some little flu bug and only wants me to hold him all day.  To top it off I noticed his gums were really swollen in the back and just saw two little daggers popping through, along with his two bottom side/front teeth(?). That makes four teeth coming in. Sorry mom! He has been sleeping like a champ despite the flu and teething so I'm crossing my fingers. Zach on the other hand is not sleeping so well. Does anyone else go through this? Two or three and sometime four times a night a cute, sweet little face in my face says, "Mommy will you tuck me back in bed please?" We do not allow sleeping in our bed because he is such a rough sleeper and it just makes for an awful night, but waking up two times is not fun either.  He is quite dramatic when he is tired and is known to cry very loudly, so I don't want him to wake up Wes, so I give in and get up and go tuck him back in bed. It is harmless but so tiring. I'm hoping a week at grandma's might fix it.  Do you have any suggestions?

Needless to say, Chris and I are so looking forward to a week of blissful, uninterrupted sleep. AAAAH!

 

Man am I going to miss these boys!

(aka Jake and Cubby-from "Jake and the Neverland Pirates",)

Zach is obsessed with me referring to him and Wes only as such. This is them playing in their pirate ship Bucky!

Ey Matey!

My new toy!

I absolutely love my new toy that "Santa" got me this year! All my nagging paid off...what, what! I got a new camera! We went with the new Canon Rebel T2i with a 15-135mm zoom lens. And I couldn't be happier! I love the excellent pictures it takes and the HD video is so much fun to have on hand while taking pictures.  So needless to say, we definitely need to get some new external hard drives for all the photos and video I've been taking.  But here are just a few that  I love!

    (This was a recent photo shoot at the beach-in February! I love southern California)

 This is such a Zach face!

 I told him to give Wes a kiss...

 then Wes went in for one...

 and Zach took that as, "Let's tackle little bro!" Don't you love the knee in the back?!

                                                           Such a sweetie pie!

Zach is 3!

                                             (The new "big" boy bike we got Zach for his birthday. Yikes!)

My little buddy turned 3 on January 25th! What is going on?  I can't believe he is that old already, it makes me so sad.  I wish I could bottle up this age and keep him like this forever, he is so sweet.
 Some fun facts about Zach:
-He loves to count. He has been counting for a long time now, but he never gets tired of counting how many there are of ANYTHING! He can count from 1-20 and 20-30 with some help.
-He loves to sing. Favorite songs: I am a child of God, "Give" said the little stream, and Twinkle twinkle little star.
-He is so social. He will literally talk to anyone, kinda scary for a mom, but also very cute to watch him interact with people. I love to see their reaction to this completely not-shy little boy! Example: the other day we were at Wal-Mart and this interesting looking lady (it is wal-mart for goodness sakes) was behind us in line and Zach said, "Hi! Are you a funny lady?" Slightly embarrassed I said, "no she didn't say anything funny." But I knew he meant,"Hey lady,why do you look so funny?" I'm not sure where he gets his extremely outgoing personality, Chris and I were both pretty timid as kids.
- This kid is picky. He really only eats quesadillas, grilled cheese, mac n cheese, chicken nuggets, guacamole, frosted mini "meats"cereal, oatmeal, yogurt, refried beans, pancakes, waffles, french toast, and some snacky stuff that I hate to give him. I have to "sneak"in vegetable purees in the breakfast foods so that he gets something. But please tell me someone else is in my shoes.
-He has never-ever sat down and watched a movie until he turned 3 and now he is addicted to the movie UP! Great leverage right now!
-He is a great brother and loves to do his baby-talk to Wes when he first sees him in the morning.

There is so much more to our wonderful little guy but I don't have room to write it all. We love you ZACH! Thank you for enriching our lives each day!

"Zach's funny!"-2

This was a funny conversation I had with Zach this afternoon. Let me first preface. Zach has gotten into a habit of watching a show after he wakes up. He is pretty demanding and cranky and it is the only thing that wakes him up, but I have been trying to break him of that with other options.  So this is how it went...

me: "Zach, let's do an art project!"

zach: "Let's watch a 'little' show!" ( "little" was said with his hands close together letting me know just a little one mom)

me: "Art is way more fun than tv"

zach: "Let's have the TV be an art project!"

 This kid is to clever for me!

Art won! When I told him we could dip balls in paint and roll them around in a shoe box he was sold.  This is a fun project I remember doing as a kid with marbles. No marbles at our house but plastic golf balls worked great!

Happy Birthday WES!

When I say I can't believe, I mean I can't believe my little Wes is one year old (tomorrow)!  I feel like it was just yesterday I was trying to juggle having TWO boys, now I'm trying to juggle having a walking toddler and a soon-to-be three year old! Yikes! This little guy is so special to us! Here are some fun facts about Wes these days:
*He loves to be anywhere Zach is.
*Loves to mimic/imitate anything he sees. It was so cute; on Sunday I was getting sustained in a new calling at church and when everyone raises their hand he did it too! I heard a few-AWWs it was cute!
* Tells me he is "all done" and wants "more" using sign language.
* He loves to hide when I come in to get him from his crib. I walk in and see him standing there and he immediately turns around and hides his face in his blanket!
* He does the cutest little pouty face that just melts my heart.
* He is walking now-oh no!
* He loves to feed himself. I have to give him a fork or spoon too and try to distract him to get my spoon in.
*He is a little cuddler! I love it!

Here is our little guy over the year-this makes me cry!

                                                                  Newborn

 

One Week

                                                                  one month

                                                                  two months

                                                                   three months

                                                                         four months

                                                               five months

                                                            six months

                                                              seven months

                                                                eight months

                                                                   nine months

                                                                    ten months

                                                                 eleven months

                                                                   12 months

We love you Wes! Thanks for a wonderful first year. We can't wait to watch you grow-just not so fast okay!

Happy New Year!

I can't believe another year has come and gone! Bye-bye 2010!  I am a major procrastinator this year and didn't get a Christmas card out or a New Years card so I'm doing a post (better than nothin'-right?)  Anyway, I like the idea that my sister Megan and friend Heather had-just state your favorite things about 2010.


1.) First and by far the best part of last year- our little WES was born! What a way to start the new year! He is such a sweet little boy and we feel so blessed to be his parents. I will dedicate a HUGE post to that little cutie because tomorrow is his birthday and he deserves one-poor kid hasn't gotten any blog time lately! We love you Wes!

2.) Fun Family Trips: Mammoth, the River, Fallon, Northern California, beach camping, San Diego Zoo.

3.) Zach got potty trained this summer! As a first time mom, this was a huge fear of mine, but it wasn't bad at all, so much better than changing diapers!

4.)Our Knott's passes were so much fun; although, I don't think I could go on those trucks one more time! This year my mom got us all Disneyland passes for Christmas :) so it will be fun to do something different!

5.) Our weekly trips to the park with my sister! I'm so lucky we live close to each other. Zach loves to play with his little LUKEY!

6.) Being so blessed-health wise! My dad was diagnosed with colon cancer this year and thankfully is doing so much better, they caught it early enough that he didn't need any Chemo/radiation! What a blessing!

7.) Getting back into sewing! I have really enjoyed all the fun little projects that keep me sane while Chris is doing his annual Christmas light business. Which brings me to # 8.

8.) I'm glad 2010 is over because it means I get my husband back.  Chris works crazy hours with his friend Sean for the holidays putting up Christmas lights. I can't complain too much because he did get me my new camera for Christmas.

9.)Fun projects with Zach! I love that he is getting older and able to get excited about doing things with me.  We love doing art, baking and making cool things out of cardboard (e.g. his new kitchen- I'll have to take a picture of it before it gets destroyed).

10.)Watching our boys become best friends. Although Wes and Zach are two years apart I can already tell they are best buds.  It will be fun to watch over their relationship blossom over the years!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Early in November I decided I wanted to make an advent calendar for Zach and Wes to enjoy each Christmas.  Zach is finally into Christmas this year and I thought it would be fun for him to count down to Christmas.  One of my favorite craft blogs homemade by jill, was doing an advent sew along so I joined in on the fun. I chose to do one like this one found on inchmark. It was simpler and much more my level.  I am by no means a talented crafter, but it is a lot of fun to see the end result.  I made it just in the nick of time and had that calendar up and ready on December 1st. Here is a little bit of my project along the way!

 Every morning Zach loves to pull the next one out and put it on the tree. He is constantly saying, "It's almost Christmas time mommy!" Although, it took me a while to make I'm glad I did, and hope it gets years of use!