Happy New Year!

We hope everyone had a fun and memorable Christmas and New Years! We had a great time with Josh while he was off. Even more importantly, Nate must have thought it was "winter vacation" himself and slept in each day Josh was home! What a treat for us all to get some extra sleep. It was so weird (but nice!) to not even start opening stockings or gifts on Christmas until 8am. Christmas was even more fun this year since Nate was actually interested in unwrapping his gifts. He got a lot of fun toys (including two laptops-now mommy can type on her computer while Nate uses his, yay!)

We didn't do much New Years Eve-in fact we didn't even stay up until midnight even, we were pooped. We had some appetizers and played games, just chilled at home. Josh and I got some nice restaurant gift cards for Christmas, so maybe next year we'll use one and have a little date night on New Years.

For a pregnancy update : I'm now twenty two weeks along. Just started with heartburn :P I'm already doing better than my pregnancy with Nate by still working out at the gym-I didn't work out with Nate past my first trimester. In fact, I just signed up for a 5k race at our zoo and a 10 mile total mountain climb in February. I'm more motivated this time around to stay in shape in hopes of not gaining quite as much weight and being able to lose the weight,hopefully, a bit faster afterwards. For Christmas I got a Nike+ Sportband which records the distance, pace, time and calories burned during runs. I love it! Though I move a lot slower and it takes longer for me to go further, I'm still running, and having the sportband that records all my info motivates me to do it. I also have my account set up to download my running info to Facebook, so that motivates me too. Hmmm...I should also say that I'm trying to work out also because my little boy loves his bagels and cream cheese, as well as pizza :) I have each of those a few times a week. Not the healthiest, so I need to do something from gaining eighty pounds!

Some exciting news: around New Years Eve, I started to feel baby movement! I mostly notice it when I'm sitting/laying down. Little kicker. We have also decided on a name for our little guy : Aaron Michael. Josh and I had a list of names we liked, but couldn't decide on one so we had our families help decide. Josh did paint his room over the break and I just put up some wall decals.


Until we get the new carpet we'd like, there's not much else we can do to his room. I'm excited to get it all set up. I bought a jogging stroller about a week ago, I can't wait to use it with the little man. Nate isn't much into sitting in strollers anymore so I wasn't even going to try using it with him. I'm hoping to use it in another stroller class or at least outside running.


I love all the storage/compartments, deep cup holders, area for music and the snap on/off toy for when Aaron gets older. Can't wait to take it out.

Back another time with some Winter Break pictures!

Christmas 2010

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More Holiday Fun!

Despite Josh being a little sick and Sedona being gloomy and rainy, we had a good weekend away! A few pictures...





One of our favorite light displays at Red Rock Fantasy-M & M's!


Disney gang

It drizzled all day in Sedona, but we were happy that the weather cooperated for us to go see Christmas lights that evening-a main reason of our trip! Conveniently a few of the light displays weren't working so we got free admission, and because of the rain there was hardly anyone there with us! I also have to mention how proud I am of my little boy-on the two hour drive to/from Sedona, he didn't play with a single toy or watch a single movie! I couldn't believe it. He entertained himself and looked out the window.

It was still rainy the next morning so we just started for home. We hit some outlet stores on the way home and shopped for Nate's little brother-he's all set with newborn,short sleeved clothes! I'm excited to hold a tiny little baby again :) Lots of fun shopping. Nate also loved looking at the huge Christmas tree, the largest real one in Arizona!


I had a great birthday on Tuesday, just getting to spend time with both my boys (Josh is now off for the rest of the year!) We've been busy wrapping,baking,cleaning...all that good holiday stuff. We also took Nate for one last visit to the man in red at Bass Pro Shop-long wait but they have the prettiest background!



Finally, today on Christmas Eve we have time to take a breath! The boys are currently hiking and then we'll be getting ready for church and over to Josh's parents to celebrate Christmas with his family. Tomorrow we'll open gifts together then go over to open gifts and eat with my family. We're trying to plan some fun activities to do with Nate while daddy has the quality time off. One of the things we'd like to do is paint Nate's little brother's room while Josh has some time. We've decided on a theme for his room-airplanes! We just bought adorable crib bedding, a lamp, valance, wall decals, etc for his room. We'd like to put in new carpet first so we're waiting to start setting everything.

Time to get some lunch and get ready-Merry Christmas!

Busy Elves

I'd like to start this post off by asking...what happened to December?! I shake my head every morning when we change our blocks, counting down the days until Christmas. A week away already. We've been so busy since my last post.

Unfortunately, as soon as I wrote our last post, the boys came down with different sicknesses. The nurse practioner we each saw different days probably has a nice, new TV in her room with the money she got from visiting with us :) Nate got pinkeye, Josh got tonsillitis and everyone got colds. After spending almost a week just hanging at home, I'm happy to report that we're doing a lot better other than some nighttime and morning cough attacks. I've said it a hundred times-I love this season, but I hate it at the same time! Thankfully the sicknesses didn't get in the way of the majority of our fun activities planned. We've been crazy busy this week!

We've started to bake cookies and had a cookie exchange with our friends this week. Last night we took Nate to a Polar Express event in town-it was so cute with a bunch of craft tables, Santa was there to read the story and then meet with the kids, they served cookies and hot cocoa...Nate seemed to enjoy it.


Making a gingerbread ornament-which he happily put on the tree at home!


Meeting his new favorite person

This morning we had our next attempt at a gingerbread house. It was more fun for both of us-the gingerbread house was already put together so it was a matter of spreading frosting on and Nate took his time putting all kinds of candy on it. I didn't have to make sure the walls would stand up :)


The finished house!

We've also had some holiday get together's and tomorrow we're heading to Sedona for an early birthday celebration.

The biggest news I haven't mentioned yet is that we found out the sex of our baby this week also-a BOY! I was bummed before when I had an earlier ultrasound and the technician thought the same thing (before our official, 20 week one this week) but now I've let go of having a girl and I'm looking forward to having another boy. Nate will have a buddy/playmate and we have the vast majority of furniture,clothes and other boy baby stuff we'll need (so from a financial standpoint we're thrilled!) The baby made it pretty obvious that he, well, was a he. His legs were spread pretty far apart :) We brought Nate to watch the ultrasound, Josh pointed out what everything was to him. Nate doesn't seem to get the idea about mommy having another baby yet. I haven't felt any movement so far (though he was wildly moving around on the ultrasound) but I should in the next few weeks. I'm getting anxious for that!

O Christmas Tree...

We just got and decorated our Christmas tree this weekend. Mmmm, the fresh smell of pine! I got a few tree candles when I was in Oklahoma too. With all of those my house ought to be smelling like a nice forest!

Thanksgiving was grand. We enjoyed the parade, had good food, played games with my family. Black Friday shopping went pretty well too. We spent Friday afternoon with Josh's family. Again-good food and we made a fire and played games with the kids outside.

We're decorated and about halfway done with Christmas shopping. My goal is to finish the shopping this week and get started on cookies! Very important. I'm excited that I'll have an anxious helper in the kitchen with me, we'll be busy!

This past weekend we had another great time at our favorite brunchery's "Tea with Santa" event. We saw St Nick, Mrs. Claus and a few elves. Nate was more into it this year-it's fun to hear him say "Santa Claus" and he didn't mind going on his lap (already our 2nd time this year so far!)

Sugar cookie with apple cider


Laughing away from the elf


Silly picture with Mrs. Claus

Next Saturday is my 12k's of Christmas run (eight miles total). I'll be thrilled if I can run at least some of it :) Definately planning for a more fun, relaxed run vs trying to hit a running time goal. Now that I'm starting to fill out in the back and front, I don't nearly run as fast as I used to ;) Though even then I wasn't very fast. Josh and Nate are planning to come-there should be tons of things for them to do while I run. Bounce houses, Santa, dogs and cats to see...plus with it taking place at a park there should be a playground too. On Sunday we're going with our church to see the latest Narnia movie-with Nate. This will be his second theater movie. I'll just have to be sure to have my popcorn and gummy bears handy!

I almost forgot to post a picture of our first gingerbread house of the season-


The frosting was a little bit runny and things were falling apart. I'm looking forward to trying again!

One more picture-I forgot to talk about going to Zoolights. Nate loves seeing Christmas lights this year so he really enjoyed seeing the zoo lit up at night. His Pap-Pap that went along with us was nice enough to buy him a cool light up sword that he adores :)


Time to make sure my boys aren't getting into trouble!

Kickoff Season

I can't believe Thanksgiving is just about a week away. Where has the month gone? I can't say I'm disappointed, though. What a busy month! We've done a few fun activities with the club so far this month-including a tour and pizza making at California Pizza Kitchen and getting to frost our own donuts at Dunkin Donuts!



I just got home from visiting great friends in Oklahoma. The wait was well worth it! Weather wise it was a nice difference-high's in the 50's opposed to the 70's and
80's. It truly felt like fall/winter time there! Plus, I got to see the change of color with the trees! I never knew they were anything but maybe green and brown...


Because of some rain we didn't go out much but that was fine with me. It was nice to chill out and just catch up, watch a few movies. My good friend Sami and I even got out to see a movie. One of the highlights of my trip-on the last night-was dinner at a bar and grill. Who would have thought that fried pickles would have affected me so much?! They were DELICIOUS! I think I'm going to have to see if there's a place here who sells them! I'm a little embarrassed since I practically ate the whole appetizer.Well, no one can give me grief for eating a ton now, right?! :) I'm taking full advantage of eating lots. I was glad to get home to my boys (who were perfectly fine in my absence) but I miss my friends lots. Wish I could have both!


Though it always involves a week of hecticness, I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving. Nate and I always enjoy any extra time Josh gets off of work, but the other nice part this year will be getting to enjoy the holiday a little bit more to ourselves. We love seeing family, but we're glad that this year has started a tradition of celebrating different holidays around the actual holiday. We are hosting my family on Thanksgiving afternoon but won't be seeing Josh's side until the day after. I think this will be the first year where we won't need to be rushing around, waking up at 5am to start our turkey and get to sit and actually enjoy the whole parade on TV. It's more enjoyable when we aren't hopping from house to house. Also per tradition, we go to Zoolights (our zoo is decorated at night with lights everywhere) the beginning of Thanksgiving week. This year Nate has been more interested in lights than he's ever been, so it should be a lot of fun.

This Friday is finally our "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" broadway show where Nate and I got tickets months ago. I plan to keep him busy all day so he's ready to sit and be entertained for a while that evening :) It should be a lot of fun. I saw the play in NY years ago and can't wait to see it again. I think it will be a lot more fun now that I get to experience it with my own child. I love that!

Thankful for November!

As I've said before in previous posts, I'm thankful that November has arrived! Life would be perfect if it wasn't 90 degrees out,however. Some stores have started to play Christmas music-a little hard to swallow when the sun is blazing and we're walking around in tank tops and sandals. If it would drop 15 degrees or so, then it might feel like Thanksgiving is a few weeks away :)

We've kept busy over the last two weeks or so with pumpkin patches and farm activities. We got a little bit of a break from hot weather so it was enjoyable. We ended up having a good Halloween-though it was doubtful at first. Nate woke up and immediately we noticed he wasn't himself. He felt warm and was lethargic-just wanted us to hold him and watch cartoons. The things that would usually make him jump with joy didn't-he'd sit there like a sack of potatoes. Thinking we weren't going out that night, guilty mommy braved Halloween crowds to try and round up items to make a gift bag instead. Luckily, after two naps and medicine, Nate was back to himself-just in time for trick or treating to start. He wasn't sure at first, but once he noticed what the "knock on the door/candy pattern" was, he got into it :) I couldn't get him to say "trick or treat", but he politely took 1-2 pieces of candy from the bowls and put them in his bag. I think he enjoyed seeing the decorations and lights. We were out only for about an hour. We've got our candy stash purged and hidden away. Looking forward to Nate being more interested in the holiday next year!

I'm now 13 weeks along in the pregnancy-the verge of the second trimester. We had a little scare last week at my appt when a few people couldn't find the heartbeat. I sat and waited for the ultrasound to be available (longest.wait.ever!) The tech was able to find it, however, and the baby is looking good and healthy. In fact, after getting to see the baby's legs and middle section, the tech is making early bets that we're having another BOY! I suppose there's still a margin for error but I believe she could be right. I always had the gut feeling that I was meant to be a mother of boys for whatever reason. Truly happy that the baby is healthy, but feeling guilty that I'm a little bummed about not having a girl. I feel bad for feeling that way. I go back the end of this month and I'm hoping we don't have another scare. It was good to see the baby's development though.

Getting pretty stoked now about seeing my good friend and her family in Oklahoma next week (especially for a weather break!) My boys ought to have some good quality time together.

More another time!

Fall and Halloween 2010

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Let There Be Light

Another day, another interesting toddler stage! Since the weekend started Nate prefers to have a light on during his nap and at bedtime. We just waited until he was asleep for a little bit and then turned it off (of course the hard part is to remember to do it at night if we've already gone to bed!) I don't know how he can fall asleep with the light on, but maybe it's something new that's comforting to him. Josh changed the wattage so it's not blaring bright at least.

I'm happy we're down to the last two weeks of October. This week in particular we're suppose to get awesome cooler weather-high 70's a few days. I can't wait to see if we'll be able to hit parks and maybe a fall event hopefully before the storms roll in that we're suppose to get. I just started to buy Nate's winter clothes. Now it feels like hayride, pumpkin patch kind of weather! I think we'll be hitting a few of those.

I'm looking forward to November as I'll get to visit a close friend in Oklahoma for a few days. Josh will take off and be home with Nate for a long weekend while I get a break :) I can't wait. I was also suppose to go to Vegas with Josh the first week of November for business, but wouldn't you know the time I try to plan to actually go on a business trip with him that it got cancelled :P November I'll also be starting my second trimester of pregnancy so I'm super excited about that (as long as the nausea goes away). Its been getting better over the last week though. I'm hopefully looking forward to not being so tired and having a bit more energy.

Last weekend I had my last running 5k race. It was tough. At mile two I actually stopped at the water station to be sure I drank all the water and walked about half a mile. It was neat to see my boys close to the finish-Josh had Nate up on his shoulders and they ran the rest of the way with me up to the finish line (Nate loved bouncing on Josh-he laughed the whole way!)I just signed up for one more race-the 12k's of Christmas in December. I don't really plan to run much if at all (I'll be around 6 months pregnant then). Because the race benefits animal shelters they're allowing dogs to come so I plan to bring Lily. My favorite part about the race is that it's Christmas themed-at every mile carolers are singing and playing music, there's prizes for being the most in the Christmas spirit and after the race there is a holiday boutique to shop. It sounded like a fun race.

As usual, I'm tiring out. Night!

Table Set Up

I had to just post a quick note on something cute and interesting that Nate is doing this week. One night Josh and I each wanted a different sauce for something at dinner. Since that meal, everytime Nate knows we're going to eat (lunch and dinner, even if Josh isn't here) he takes out a different sauce for each person. Father Bear apparently likes BBQ sauce, Mother Bear likes ranch and Baby Bear likes ketchup. Nate will take them each out and put them in our "designated places" and undo the tops for us. Every meal this week. We just let him put them there, even if we don't indulge...he gets offended if we put them back at the beginning of the meal, so they sit until we're done.

So glad Friday is here. I feel relatively good on Monday and am toast by Friday as far as motivation and energy goes. Have a good weekend!

First Trimester Blues

I'm almost done with my first trimester-currently I'm nine weeks along and I'm happy I'm at least that far. Unfortunately the next four couldn't pass soon enough. When I was pregnant with Nathan, I felt practically normal throughout the first trimester. I wasn't too tired and wasn't sick unless I worked out too hard. This time around is a different story. I'm tired on top of being tired (an exhausted parent from an active toddler topped with being pregnant) and I have spontaneous nausea. It happens at any time, not triggered by anything, and can last from a moment to a few hours. I could make this grand, lovely dinner and then not feel like eating it when it's done cooking. Chinese food is on my banned list-the thought of it makes me almost ill. My beloved Starbucks-even that I'm having a little bit of trouble getting down :( I'm a bit bummed and hoping when November gets here that I feel better.

In the meantime, if Nate doesn't nap I try to get him watching something so I can at least lay down for a bit. I feel almost like a newborn-I practically go to bed when Nate does at night and need a nap during the day. I love weekends when Josh can help me out in that area.

Another first trimester blue is lacking motivation. Generally, to do anything! But for sure working out. I signed up to do a 5K run in two weeks to try and motivate me to work out at least-though I hope to run it (slowly!) It's already becoming a little difficult to run in particular because of having to go to the bathroom (already! and the baby is four inches long!) I don't know how much longer I'll be able to run before having to stop for the bathroom becomes too frustrating. So far I've found the elliptical and the bike to be better. Anything is better than nothing though! Interestingly enough, I miss the running...I've been doing significantly less since my half marathon.

Nate still doesn't quite get the idea that mommy is going to have a baby. I suppose he might get a better idea once my stomach starts to pop out more! That's the other thing-I think that's happening sooner too. At least certain times of the day I've got a little bump going on :) I'm excited for him to have a sibling, I think he's going to be a great big brother and helper to me.

Just a little mommy venting-all those hormones everywhere-but hopefully I'm going through the worst of the symptoms and November will come soon. Off to some reading before I pass out!

Mother's Day 2011....

We're looking forward to Nate having a little sister or brother in seven more months! I'm ready for the first trimester to be over (exhaustion and bouts of nausea are kicking in) otherwise all is well. So happy to finally share the news!

Favorites

I got this cool idea from a good friend who did this on her blog for her son. I thought it would be a neat idea to recall what Nate's favorite things are at the moment!

Favorite TV Show: he doesn't really get into PBS or any other stations, so nothing at the moment

Favorite DVD: it has been Baby Einstein for a very long time,and still is. However, I found a Little Einsteins video and wondered if he might get interested in something similar (just more his age now!) That has become a new favorite show and is filling up my queue on Netflix currently :)

Favorite Food: macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets and pizza

Favorite Treat: GUMMY BEARS! Thank goodness for gummy vitamins because he eats them right up.

Favorite Fruit: at the moment, grapes are popular.Nate goes in phases!

Favorite Activity: anything that involves being on the move! He loves bounce house places, we go to museums, inside play areas,etc. When it cools off we'll be off to parks a ton!

Favorite Saying(s): Oh no,gummy bears, apple juice and he copies anything you say!

Favorite Toy: his tricycle, telephone and racetrack

We'll be updating every few months! More soon...