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!!!!

29 WEEKS!!!

  Earlier this week someone was asking me how far a long I was and I quickly replied I am 27 weeks. It sounded good and I knew I still had over two months to go. The next couple days I was confused at how far along I actually was in this pregnancy. And, sure enough I was wrong. I am actually 29 weeks. I even had to check on my count-down on my phone to see if I was right or not. I guess you could say this pregnancy is going by so much faster. I am sure it has something to do with the fact that I am chasing around a toddler all day long. I am really excited about having another baby, but there are times when it is a little unbelievable and I wonder how I am going to handle being a mother of two and wife to one. That all carries a lot of responsibility. I know that God will not give me more than I can handle and most days I get so excited to grow our family. I look forward to Jack having a little companion to play with every day. I get excited to hold another little baby and cuddle all the time. Jack does not let me do that any more. He is much to busy to be held by anyone for very long. I just long to be a good mom to both and to be able to love them equally. I also long to keep my husband a priority and make sure he knows that he will always come first.
 So, here I am at 29 weeks. I am spending extra time with Jack and soaking up the times we have with just the two of us. I am reorganizing my house to make room for another baby. Also, I am looking forward to meeting this new little one. I am excited to know if it is going to be a boy or girl. I am excited to know what the baby will look like, and what kind of personality it will have. Jack is so much like Charlie so I wonder if this baby will be like me or if we will have two that are just like their Dad. It is actually a lot of fun to see Charlie in Jack. I know it is a blessing for Charlie as well. We both love being parents and growing our family as always been something we have looked forward to. We feel so blessed.
  SOrry there are no pictures. Once again, I am a little busy with Jack. However, I did post some Disneyland pictures that had pictures of me at 25 weeks and I am sure I will take pictures within the next week, so I can show you some more.
 

June Part 2

The last part of our southern California trip was fulfilled by spending a day at Disneyland. My family has always loved to go to Disneyland and we went at any chance we got. It was so great to meet Charlie and find out that he had actually worked at Disneyland after high school. We share a mutual love for this amazing place. I have always dreamed of taking my children here and I have to say that even though Jack was only 16 months old, we had the time of our lives and he was perfect. He may not remember what happened years down the road, but we know he had a great time. We could not have asked for a better day.

We decided to only conquer one park in or day. We knew that would be plenty. We arrived as soon as the gates opened and because there were so many people trying to make it in to California Adventure for the new Cars Land, the morning was a breeze.

We had to take a quick family picture when we first walked down MainStreet. I guess waiting to get a baby too look just wasn't in the agenda for the day. There were probably 25 of us at Disneyland throughout the day, but we all did different things and met up at different times. We spent most of the day with my mom, dad and brother. They wanted to experience Jack's first trip to Disneyland with him.

Since the crowds were pretty small when we first arrived Charlie and Alan decided that they wanted to try and hit a few of the big rides before they got to crowded. I was prefectly content with that. Being 6 months pregnant I had to be careful of the rides I went on, so I got to spend a lot of time with Jack. While they went on Space Mountain, Jack and I explored the moving ball. He had so much fun playing in the water.

Then we took him on the Buzz LIghtyear ride. It was his first ride, he loved looking at everything and was mesmorized by all the lights and things to look at.

After exploring a little we headed to Fantasy Land and met up with Hannah and Elijah. We knew there would be several rides that we wanted to take Jack on...starting with Peter Pan. As you can see, the camera was the least of his focus for the day. There was just too much to look at.

Of course we had to try the sword. And let me tell you, he pulled really hard on that sword. If there was a way, he was determined to figure it out.

Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed the fairytale boat with their grandson. They were in heaven just being apart of such a fun day with Jack.

Hannah and Elijah enjoyed sharing the adventure with Jack. While we were waiting in line for the train the three of them were laughing so hard. It is a little game that Hannah and Jack play with each other. They feed off each others laughter and can get going pretty good. It is very entertaining to watch.

Some of the family on "It's a Small World"

Jack took a nice long nap while we got lunch. It also gave Charlie the chance to go on a few more adult rides. Then we split away from the group and headed for Toon Town. We were hoping to have a lot of fun things for Jack to do, but it was smaller than we remembered. However, he loved Mickey's House. So many of the other children just ran through the house so they could go see Mickey, but not our son. He wasnted to explore everything. Everytime we went into a new room he would head back to the previous room to check something else out. It was so fun to watch him thoroughly enjoy himself.

We finally made it to Mickey and he loved it. He was a tad hesitant at first, but it did not take long for him to warm up. He did not want to leave when the time came. The funny thing is that a few years ago when I was pregnant with Jack, Charlie and I went to Disneyland for our anniversary. During that trip we bought a baby Mickey and it has been in Jack's crib since he was born. He never gave it the time of day until we got back and now it is his favorite animal. I love it.

We also went to see Goofy.

Not everyone was interested in seeing the Parade, but for our family it was a must. We thought Jack would enjoy looking at everything. I think that was an understatement. He had the time of his life. We never thought it could be so much fun. I have to say this was not only the highlight of Disneyland, but the highlight of our entire trip. It was truly amazing.
  We headed to the parade and found a great spot for us and my mom, dad, grandma and brother. Then Charlie headed to get us ice cream. Was a great thing to do. Eat ice cream and watch the parade. Jack clapped the entire time. He was clapping with the music.

 We took him out of the stroller and not only was he clapping, but now he was dancing. Every character that went by waved at him and gave him the biggest smiles. He ate it up and waved and flirted right back.

 What a great memory. I don't think I will ever forget that day. After the parade we took Jack on a few more rides. Dumbo was a must. Uncle Alan loved riding with Jack.

 We also had to take him on the carousel. I love my boys!!!!

What a great family day. It could not have been any better. I was so thankful to begin creating memories with my own family.

Wow, what a June, but would you believe it. Our month was not over. On Tuesday we headed home after a wonderful weekend in So Cal. I pretty much unpacked, cleaned up a little and by Friday we were out camping for the weekend. When Charlie first moved up the Grass Valley, he came to work at a home for troubled youth. Each year they have a family camp. For years Charlie has wanted to take me and this year was the first chance we had to take our family. It was so much fun. The "Ranch" is only 15 minutes from our house, so it was an easy trip. Also, they cook, so we only had to have our sleeping bags and a tent. We had fun playing in the water, visiting with friends, and going to campfires. Jack enjoyed his weekend. HOwever, by the time we got home Sunday night was were pretty worn out from all our fun. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment.

June Part 1

Wow! June was such a busy month. Yes, I would love to do many different posts, but I think it might be more fun to just share it all. Let alone, much easier. I am finding that I have less and less time to do things. Jack is keeping me so busy and during the short time he is asleep each day I try to get things done around the house, but more often than not I just want to sleep. I think I am going to be pretty tired the last three months of this pregnancy. We will see how well I do in the heat of the summer. I can't believe I am already to my third trimester and I am really excited to expand our family. It is going to be such a great adventure.

This past month I guess began with Memorial Day Weekend. Charlie had four days off so we had a chance to do a few family activities. We had a free ticket to go minature golfing, so we decided to take Jack. We were not sure how Jack would do, but we thought we would just take our time and let him enjoy himself. The gold course was actually pretty empty, which allowed us to take our time. During the first hole we showed Jack how to use the club and hit the ball. From that point on, Jack did a great job. He loved throwing the ball in the hole and hitting the ball.



 On any house Jack and Charlie walked up to the ramp and dropped the ball in. It was so much fun! He did great until about the 9th hole. At that point he just sat down in the middle of the hole. We gave him some water and a cracker and his energy was renewed.

 After finishing up at the golf course we took him into the arcade. He really enjoyed the cars...that is until we turned it on. The movement kind of scared him.


The first few weeks of June we took Jack to a wedding, where he loved being able to dance. We took him to a graduation ceremony, had picnics, went to the park and watched Jack grow up. He is quite the little boy. He is just about 17 months old and very very busy. He explores, climbs and eats so much. He is also very brave. We have had a few tumbles because nothing scares him. Jack has the best facial expressions and talks to us with a very animated voice. He is always using his hands when he is telling us a story. We absolutely love spending as much time as possible with him.

For Father's Day this year we chose to celebrate on Saturday. I was able to get tickets to the Rivercats came. We went with my parents and a few of the college students from our church. It was exteremely hot and a late night game, but we took Jack anyway. I wanted to be able to celebrate Charlie as a family. He such an amazing Dad and deserves to be celebrated in many ways.

 We had a great time as a family and it was nice to have so many other people there for Jack to play with.

 Jack got tired, but instead of falling apart he decided to entertain the crowd. He learned how to do the wave and wanted everyone to join in with him. For about 10 minutes he would through his arms up in the air and cheer. It was so cute. We really enjoyed watching our son win over the crowd.

Sunday morning I was able to make breakfast for my boys adn we gave Charlie his Father's Day gift. I decided to get Charlie and Jack matching Angels shirts because we were headed to an Angels game the next weekend.

The third week of June was spent at Sports camp at our church. Jack enjoyed playing with the other kids, but he was rpetty worn out by the end of the week. By Friday we actually left town to head to Southern California for the weekend. I guess we really crammed it all in, but sometimes that is just how things work. Friday night we picked up Charlie from work and drove down to Orange County. My mom's family had planned a family reunion. I was excited to take Charlie and Jack to meet more of my family. We were blessed to be able to stay with Charlie's aunt and uncle. It was nice to be able to spend time with both of our families.
Because we only had a few days of vacation, we had a whirlwind of a weekend, but Jack was a trooper. I was actually pretty impressed that he made it through everything without having a serious melt down.

Saturday was the reunion. We all met at my great-aunt's church. It was a fun afternoon of visiting, eating, playing games and letting the kids play outside. Jack had a great time playing with all the kids. Near the end of the day he discoverd the playground full of sand and he was completely content. I really enjoyed being able to see my family. Some of them I have not seen since high school and a few even longer than that. I did not take any pictures, but I know there are a few floating around somewhere.

Sunday a handfull of us planned to see an Angels vs. Dodgers game. The game was at the Angels stadium. There were only a few of us that were actually angel fans, but we all had a great time cheering on the teams. It was actually a really good game. Charlie was glad that the Angels won in the end. He had been looking forward to taking Jack to this game for so long. One of his favorite memories with his dad was when his dad took him to an Angels game. What a great experience for Charlie as well as Jack.

 The Angels fan (minus Dad and myself).

 Jack with Uncle Alan...

 Oh, look at that hot dog. I guess you can't go to a baseball game without having a hot dog.

 Elijah was so excited to be at a Dodgers game. He wore his entire T-ball uniform, even down to the cleats.

 Jack enjoyed sitting with Hannah the most. He really enjoyed laughing with her and entertaining her. They can really make each other laugh. It was really fun to watch. He cheered along with everyone, no matter what the team.

 Intently watching the game.

 Our family in front of the field. We had such a great time together.

Well I think this post is long enough for now. I guess I will have to divide the month of June into two different posts. I really love my family and look forward to many more memories. Stay tune and I will share with you Jack's first visit to Disneyland.