Greeting from the Cazin Family

Merry Christmas to all of you!!!! Yes, once again I have decided that our Christmas letter would come in the form of a blog. The nice thing is that I can include several pictures and be able to share more information. Our life lately has been absolutely crazy, but super blessed. This has been a year of just seeing God provide in incredible ways. We have come through so much and grown closer and stronger through it all. I am incredibly thankful for my amazing husband and our wonderful family.

January: We hunkered down in January and spent the winter enjoying Jack. He grew so much and started to explore so much more. The last day of January (actually the due date I had with Jack) we found out that I was pregnant. We were both so excited and ready to expand our little family.

February came and we celebrated Jack's first birthday. I could not belive how fast the year had gone. It was great to be able to celebrate our little boy. We had many family and friends over for the celebration. There are a lot of preschool children at church who just love Jack. It was fun to have them come celebrate with us. Charlie made the birthday so fun with great games for all the children. I made Jack a frog cake and he really enjoyed digging into his cake.

In March we finally got snow. We went up to my parents house for the day to play in the snow. We made a snowman and took Jack sledding. March was also the month that Jack decided to start walking. We were having dinner one Friday night before I went to have a girl night with some friends. As soon as I got where I was going I got a call from Charlie to find out that Jack started walking. I had just missed, but I was so glad that Charlie got to see him take his first step.

We also celebrated Easter with our family. This is always a special holiday for me. I really want Jack to understand what Easter is all about. We spent the morning at church celebrating the ressurection of Jesus and then we spent the afternoon with our family.

April: My sister was expecting her first child in mid-april so I planned a trip our to see her in Texas. Jack and I traveled to Texas with my parents for 10 days. Charlie had to work so he stayed home. We also could only afford for me to travel. Kristen found a place for me to stay and everything worked out perfectly. I really enjoyed spending time with my sister and seeing her new little girl. It was very difficult to be away from Charlie for so long and he said he will never let me leave for that long again.

May was kind of a slower month. We celebrated my birthday and mother's day. Other than that we just relaxed as much as we could because we knew the summer was going to be crazy.

June was a super busy month. We spent sometime together. We celebrated Father's day together. We took Charlie to a baseball game. Then at the end of June my family had a reunion in Southern California. We planned a great vacation packed completely full. We stayed with CHarlie's aunt and uncle in Yorba Linda. From there we had the family reunion on Saturday and got to see a lot of my cousins. Then on Sunday we all went to an Angels and Dodgers game. Charlie was very excited to take Jack and the Angels won so it was even better. On MOnday we spent the day at Disneyland. It was everything I had ever hoped for. Jack was so excited about every thing he saw. The best was the parade. He was so involved and loved waving at everyone.

In July Charlie took me to see Reba McIntire in concert. We had amazing seats. We left Jack with my parents overnight and we just had a great time with each other. It was exactly what we needed and it was a time of refreshing before the baby came. I am so thankful to my husband for blessing me in such amazing ways.

In August Lisa and Katie came to visit. We took them to the county fair. It was a fun day.

September we started to prepare for the arrival of Chloe and we celebrated Charlie's birthday.

October: Then on October 10, 2012 Chloe came into the world. Now our family was a family of four. It was the most amazing blessing. We were so excited to bring another baby into this world and Jack loves having a sister to love on. He is so good with her and I am so glad to have a little girl.

November: We celebrated Halloween and the next day my sister traveled out here from Tennessee with her daughter to spend 2 weeks with us. It was so much fun to spend time with her. Since it was not a holiday we really had a lot of time to just relax and enjoy each other. We did a few fun things, but we also just spent days letting the kids play, watching movies, baking and living life together. I was still on maternity leave so I had a lot of free time. I absolutely love spending time with her. It is time like these that make me miss her living so close. We spent one of the days at Apple Hill.

 

Then a few days after Kristen left my brother came to visit. Alan brought home is fiance for thanksgiving and it was so much fun to get to know Erin. We really enjoyed our time together. On thanksgiving I was able to get some really good pictures of the kids. That does not happen very often and I will cherish these pictures.

The day after Thanksgiving it is a tradition in our family to go get our Christmas tree. Alan really wanted to take Erin so we went with them. It was a fun day and Jack had an amazing time in the tree farm.

December: The week after Thankgiving we picked  up Charlie's mom from the airport and she spent a week with us. We had so much fun spending time with you and then we were able to celebrate Christmas with her. That was a blessing. She also got to babysit Jack the two days that I worked.

Here are the two newest babies of the family. Elizabeth was born one month after Chloe. It will be fun for the girls to grow up together. They are so close in age we are having a lot of fun.

For Christmas I love to make gingerbread houses, so I wanted Jack to enjoy this tradition. I have to say that he had a great time. It was fun to watch him enjoy this project.

Christmas Eve!!!!! Merry Christmas!!!!!! I hope you all had a great Christmas. This has been a great year for us. We are so blessed and could not asked for anything more amazing. We love you all!!!!

The Birth Story

I have finally gotten around to blogging. It is so difficult to believe that Chloe is almost two months old. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. I know that a lot of it has to due with the fact that it is the holiday season and that always seems so fast. I finally have a rainy day at home and both children are asleep. I have not had a day like this in a very long time.

Chloe was due on October 6th. Two days earlier I was having several contractions and was very uncomfortable. Charlie come home from work early to go with me to my doctor's appointment in case they thought I was going into labor. Well, after our appointment I have to say I was pretty disappointed because the contractions I had had all day did not make any difference on my progress. Since it was not my due date, I thought it was not really a big deal. We scheduled my next appointment the following Tuesday and at that appointment we would talk about what we wanted to do.

From the very beginning of this pregnancy I had decided that I did not want to be induced. I was induced with Jack and my labor was extrememly intense. I had heard that that can happen when you are induced. Well, about a week before I was due I found out that my dad was leaving on a business trip coming up and there was a chance that he would miss the birth. I really did not want that to happen. As my Tuesday appointment we decided to induce the next morning.

Tuesday night we had dinner with my parents and then Charlie and I left Jack to spend the night and we went home to enjoy the evening together. We relaxed and just spent some time together. It was a great way to prepare for the birth of another child.

Wednesday we woke up and before leaving for the hospital we had an amazing time of prayer and just asking for God's protection over the day. I was really nervous about the entire process. By the time we left for the hospital God had given me a great amount of peace. It was a very special time with my amazing husband.

At 9am the doctor induced me. It was an even smaller dose than they had done with Jack. It took about 2 hours for my contractions to start, but they were really mild. It seemed as though the induction had not worked. By 4pm I had not really progressed at all. I was really discouraged. The doctor was trying to decided whether or not to increase the medication or just send me home. We thought we would wait another hour and see what happened. By 5 my contractions started getting much more intense. At 5 I was still at 4. THey doctor left to prepare for me to get more medication. Then all the sudden labor hit. Between 5:30 and 6:30 I went from a 4 to an 8. It was the most painful hour. By 7 I was able to get a walking epidural and then I was pushing by 8:30 and Chloe was born at 9:07pm. It was pretty crazy starting at 5, but the overall experience was so much better than with Jack. I felt that this time I got to experience what labor should really be like, without being induced. Also, my walking epidural was more mild so I was competely coherent during labor and I did not having any side effects. I think that this time was a much better experience and I was not in as much pain the days following her delivery.

We spent two full days in the hospital so they could monitor Chloe and we were home by Friday evening. Charlie took two weeks off and we adjusted pretty well. It took the entire two weeks for Jack to get use to Chloe and when Charlie went back to work Jack had to readjust, but he is doing wonderful now. He absolutley loves his little sister and I am love having a little girl. It is fun to be a family of four.

We have been fairly busy, so I think there are times that we still are in disbelief that we have an infant in our home. It has been great to have so much family come and visit us. My sister was here with her daughter for the first two weeks of November. THen my brother and his fiance came for Thanksgiving. This week Charlie's mom is out visiting. Maybe after Christmas things will slow down. We will see. It has been so much fun.

I will have to do a few more posts to keep everyone updated on our life as a family of four.

Welcome Chloe Ann!!

We are proud to announced the arrival of Chloe Ann Cazin!!!

Our beautiful little girl arrived Wednesday, October 10, 2012 at 9:07pm. She weighted 7lbs. 7oz and was 20 inches long.

 What a proud Daddy and a great birth coach. I could not go through this without Charlie by my side every step of the way. I am so blessed to have him as a husband and our children are blessed to have him for a dad. He is such a blessing and I could not ask for a more perfect fit for my life. God knew exactly what I needed and I am incredibly thankful.

 After a long day of labor we finally get to hold our little girl. She is so precious.

 Now we are a family of four. What a different that makes. Also, I think that now that we have a girl the dynamics of our family will change drastically. Jack got to come visit the next morning and he is a very proud big brother. He loves his little sister and is super affectionate toward her.  Yes, he has had his moments of clinging, but overall he is adjusting really well.

 The second night I stayed in the hospital by myself with Chloe. We thought it would be best for Charlie to take Jack home and have some time with just the two of them. Friday Charlie and Jack came to the hospital to have lunch with me and we had sometime with just our little family. It was a precious time.

 Being home has been an adjustment, but I know we will eventually figure out our schedule and it will all start to work out. I am so thankful that Charlie has two weeks off. It is great to have him home to help around the house and just have sometime to bond as a family. Granted it is a little different this time around because we are trying to keep Jack's schedule as normal as possible.

 We have this exact same picture with Charlie and Jack. It is kind of amazing to see how much Jack and Chloe look a like. At least right now. Chloe is a little more petite and has a few more of my features, but they have a lot of the same facial expressions and mannerism.

 This morning I got to spend time with my little ones while Charlie got some extra sleep. It was so much fun. Jack wants to be right where she is all the time. I think that having the two them so close is going to be so much fun. Yes, I am sure it will have many challenges, but I look forward to all the fun we are going to have.

Here is a close up of our little girl and hopefully this week I will have a chance to blog about the birth story for those who are interested. Now I am going to try to catch a little sleep before Chloe wakes up to eat. Hope you enjoy the pictures!!

Happy Birthday Charlie!!

So, my obssessive cumpulsive behavior would not allow me to blog about Chloe's birth without first mentioning Charlie's birthday. I know it is may not matter to some of you, but I am super proud of the cake I made him and I wanted to share it with the world.

During the month of September I took a cake class. For Christmas last year Charlie registered me for this class and I have not been available until now. I really enjoyed the class. I still get to take one more session because I was unable to attend the last class due to Chloe's arrival. Anyway, it has been fun to learn different techniques and then actually apply them to things I am doing for my family.

For Charlie's birthday we invited several friends to come play in door soccer and then we headed to my parents house for a little BBQ and cake. I made him an Arizona Cardinals cake and I was so excited about the way it turned out.  I loved feeling like I really knew what I was doing this time around.

D-Day

It is so hard to believe that any day now we could be holding our little baby. This pregnancy has gone by so fast, but with how hot the summe has been and how uncomfortable I am getting, I am really looking forward to actually having this baby. I am excited to grow our family, know what we are having and to introduce this baby to Jack. I am looking forward to some time off of work and for Charlie to be home for a few weeks. We are going to have some great family bonding time. It will be difficult, but super exciting to have a new born in the house again. Just a few more days, or weeks. I guess we will see.
 We will spend the next week and a half just relaxing, trying to rest, and waiting. We have everything ready. I am also trying to spend as much time with Jack as possible. So, keep posted and we will let you know when this little bundle arrives.

Summer

We have had a wonderful summer. After a crazy month of June, it was nice to have a little break for the rest of the summer. I decided to share several pictures to give a glimpse into what we have been doing. LIfe has been wonderful and we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our second child. We are doing our best to talk with Jack about the baby. I know he does not fully understand what this means, but he really enjoys saying hi to the baby and kissing my stomach. It is so cute. He has been swinging his stuffed animals in the baby swing. Today he even kissed one of them. It was so sweet. So, what have we been up to. Well, we celebrated the 4th of July with my family and many friends from church. My parents had a BBQ and swim party at their house. We really had a wonderful time with everyone. We did not make it to the fireworks this year because Jack needed to go to bed and we were pretty exhausted.

Jack had a busy day keeping up with the other kids. He is quite the social butterfly. He actually interacts really well with children who are older. However, whenever he is with someone his age, he just does not know what to do. It is pretty funny. We are convinced that he thinks he is a couple years older.

What is Ashton eating? Man that looks good!!!!

Jack enjoyed a couple strawberries and then thoroughly enjoyed a mini cupcake. I made a flag design with different sizes of cupcakes. It was really so much fun. I shared one with Jack. The frosting was very red, but he loved every bite.

The first week of July was Fine Arts Camp at our church. This is one of my favorite weeks because we get to do a lot of fun things. I was in charge of the Food Art again. We did several fun projects involving pancakes, fruit loops, marshmallow robots and cupcakes. The kids loved playing with their food. Jack spent time with the preschoolers and found his passion. Each day he was able to drum on trash can lids. We know have a drummer on our hands.

At the end of July Charlie and I went away for the weekend. It was my 30th birthday present a few months late, but we had an amazing time. We left Jack with my mom and dad. He did a great job and we did not worry about him at all because he has spent so much time with them.
      Charlie and I left town about 11am Saturday morning. We headed to Roseville to have lunch and get a few things for the weekend. Then after the stop we drove the rest of the way to Murphy's California. We stopped in Angels Camp and walked around downtown a little bit. We explored antique shops and bought chocolate. Ten minutes later we were in Murphys and walked around a super cute little town. We enjoyed an early dinner and really enjoyed the time we had together. It was so nice to be on our own schedule and eat whenever we wanted and spend as much time together as possible.
         The concert started at 7:30pm so we headed over to the amphitheatre and made ourselves comfortable. The seats Charlie got were amazing. He did not even expect to be as close as we were. We were 8 rows back and had a great time. Reba McIntire was amazing. I could see every detail. She sang so many songs and they were all amazing. I even made eye-contact with her. I had a fabulous time. It took me about 20 minutes to stop being in shock. Charlie made this weekend absolutely perfect. I will never forget this weekend. A once in a lifetime experience.
           After the concert we drove back to Downtown Sacramento to the hotel that we had stayed at on our 1 year anniversary. Since we had a little bit of a drive and we were pretty hungry we stopped in for a few snacks. We stayed up super late and enjoyed our time together. It was so fun to feel like we were newlyweds again.

Sunday morning we woke up slow, enjoyed breakfast at the hotel and then headed our for a fun day. We tried to go to Old Town Sacramento. We only lasted a little while because it was super hot, but we had so much. Every aspect of our weekend was perfect and it was a great time to get away  before the arrival of our second baby. Thank you my love for making my birthday so special.

The rest of our summer has been spent in the water. It has been an incredibly hot summer. We spent time playing in our pool at home and swimming at my parents house. Jack and I have enjoyed our long days of nothing to do. We play inside and out, watch movies, play drums, listen to music, read books and just laugh together. I would not trade these days for anything. I am so thankful to have so much time with my son. It is great to soak up these times before we add another in the mix. He is such a joy and growing up so fast. Our little boy is now 18 months old and has such a personality. He makes us laugh all the time. Yes, we have our difficult times because he has a mind of his own, but overall he brings so much joy to our lives.

Jack is all boy. He loves climbing, eating, wrestling, dirt and everything else that being a boy entails. I get so excited to watch him grow up. I don't want to rush it, but I love thinking about what things will catch his attention and how he will thrive.

The first two weeks of August we spent watching The Olympics. I am a huge fan. I enjoy throughing a party during the opening ceremonies. We had British food and played games. For two weeks we pretty much watched everything that was available. Luckily my parents have TiVo so we recorded everything and would then spend days at a time just watching so many different events. It was so fun to spend this time with Charlie and to share something I love to much with Jack. His favorite event was actually the horse jumping. He was fascinated by the horses.

The last big even for the summer was the Nevada County Fair. We took Jack last year, but it was uneventful since he was only 6 months old. This summer was so much fun. We actually spent the day with my cousins. Lisa and Katie were in town on their way home so we planned a day to go to the fair. So the 12 of us went...Lisa, Katie, our family, Adam and Leslie and my grandma. We had a great time visiting the animals, riding rides, and eating great food. Charlie and I always love the fair food.

Jack loved the goats...he made sure that he went to every single goat and said hi. He was trying to talk like them, but it was more like a grunt. It was super cute. I think they were his favorite. The pigs caught his attention, but we got distracted. The sheep were too load and the cows too big.

When we got to the horses he was a little apprehensive. I really wanted him to like the horses and he started to warm up...

He got pretty close and wanted to look at this particular horse up close....


Then the horse sneezed in Jack's face.....

Now he is a little apprehensive...actually scared. When the horse sneezed in his face Jack screamed louder than I have ever heard him scream. It was a terrifying moment. I don't blame him. That would have scared me.

Charlie took Jack on just  few rides. He was not so sure at first, but the next few got better.

Katie had to much fun playing with Jack and Hannah. She is our "little" cousin now playing with all our children. SO much fun to watch.

Jack also learned how to blow bubbles in the kids area. I am not sure how much of the soap he ingested.

Well that is our summer and I guess in some ways we are still amidst our summer. Luckily it has cooled off, but we are still enjoying our longs days at home. Yes, Jack is sweeping. He loves to help me clean. Sometimes it makes it more difficult, but it is fun to have him help. I love my cute little boy. I hope you all have been enjoying your summer and if your anything like our family, we are really looking foward to Fall...rain, wind and coolness.  AND of course a BABY!!!!