Warning!!!! Do not attempt....

Do not attempt to watch Kitchen nightmares while pregnant and sick. Will lead to extreme gagging followed by a revisit of your already eaten lunch.

Speaking of lunch.. I went to Buffalo Wings and Rings today for the first time ( By Henry's). I found out there chicken tenders are only $.99 each so off I went and fell in love with there chicken tenders with the medium lemon pepper sauce. mmmmmm. DELICIOUS! It takes a lot for me to say that these days too. So how about lunch there next Thursday? Anyone In???

Ducks, Birds, Babies Oh My!!

Brooke has a great love for Babies and Ducks! We took her to a park in Palm Desert and indulged her with an abundance of those two favorites!

She pushed her baby "Shisha" around for an hour or so. Yes she named her doll that. We have no idea what it means or where it came from.

She got to feed ducks, birds, and geese galore!

It was a great and beautiful day!!

Reunion

Being the youngest in my family, (the youngest sibling, cousin everything) and living far away from the majority of my family I rarely get to visit with them. However this past weekend I was able to see my Aunt who I haven't seen in 6 years! It was so nice to spend the day with her and chat. She is so much fun and our personalities just clicked together. It was such a blessing to get to see her for the day! My Grandpa was also in town and we had a great time gabbing and watching baseball. Love and miss you already!

Dressing Up and Doors

Brooke is really starting to love to dress up in Jason or my clothes. She finds whatever she can from the laundry and says "heelp." So I put it on her and she wears it until her heart is content. She also loves to drink out of a big girl cup, and she is really into opening and closing doors too.

Here she is wearing Jason's shirt.

Jason's tie.

Open. Shut. Open. Shut. Repeat, repeat, repeat!

It's Official!

I finally went to my first ultrasound to find out how far along I am. I was praying I was a least 10 weeks, but I was told I was only 8 weeks and 4 days. My due date is May 7th. It was so nice to see the baby and to hear the heart beat. Jason and Brooke were with me so it was nice to meet our little baby all together for the first time.

I am feeling awful lately. I don't want any food and just feel nauseous all the time. I have to force myself to eat just about anything. I am tired all the time, and just want to sleep. I am just praying I can get through this first trimester! Brooke has been so great lately and will play while I lay on the floor next to her. My house cleaning and cooking skills have completely diminished, but I am willing to overlook that for a couple more weeks until I feel better.

Here is a first look at our little baby. I call this the marshmallow stage.

I found this and knew I had to post it on the blog. Way too funny!

The Dilemma

Every morning I wake up feeling petty nauseous. There is only one thing that sounds good to me. Hansen's Cherry Vanilla Creme Soda ( I am normally not a soda drinker because I just don't like it or want it, but so far this pregnancy has changed my want for it). So up to the refrigerator I go, and then I stand there with this dilemma in my head. I want the Hansen's more than anything, however I know it provides absolutely no nutritional needs for me or the baby but oh it looks so good. Then what's right next to the Hansen's begging for attention? My nasty V8 juice. The V8 doesn't sound very good but it is what my body craves. So there I stand usually for a few minutes until I decide which one to drink. The V8 has won most of the time but as you can see, today was a delicious different story!

Brooke's 18 months old!

When I look at Brooke I can't believe how much of a little girl she is instead of my little baby! Every month goes by so quick and it seems like she was just born a few months ago. After I get over the shock of how smart and big my little girl is I am just amazed at her cute little personality and sweet spirit! This month she has lots of "ATF's" a phase a very good friend of mine came up with meaning "all time firsts." Here are a few -

She had twins! She loves her babies and even started to say "love you" to them!

She got her very first backpack to take to church and any appt. I have to keep her busy. It's "Melmo" of course!

I put her hair in rollers for the first time. She also does a great job of picking up trash and putting it in the trash can. (Or what she thinks is trash i.e...my shoes and makeup!)

She got her hair cut for the first time. (I am not counting my shaving her head as a hair cut. It was more of butchering it!) Thanks Ashley she looks great!

She took her first bath with a friend. It just so happened to be the boy she is betrothed to. This picture will be priceless at there wedding:)

Went to the water park for the first time. She even went down her own waterside by herself.

Her favorite part of the water park was using this tube as a walker in the shallow pool. So cute!

Such a fun little girl! She is so smart and will say anything. She knows the difference between boy and girl, hot and cold. She feeds her babies all the time. She is starting to be scared in situations with others. She does not like to be without Jason or myself, and she is having a hard time with nursery and is starting to be more hesitant toward kids her age. She use to be so friendly so this is a big adjustment for us. She tells us she is going to have a baby sister not brother and she kisses my tummy and knows where mommies baby is already. We love her so much and think she is toooo cute!

Happy Labor Day!

We had a great Labor Day and hope you all did too. Make sure you look close at the picture:)

Mini Vacation and 4th Anniversary Celebration!

This past weekend we took a much needed mini vacation to Palm Springs. It was for our 4th anniversary celebration! We had such a great time and it was so fun to go and be tourists where we use to live. Here are some of the fun things we did -

We started it all out by going to a great Mexican restaurant called las Casuelas with the whole family to celebrate Jason's Birthday. It was all so yummy and the company was great!

After eating Grandpa took Brookie out on the patio for some dancing!

Then we walked around downtown Palm Springs and got yogurt. We just had to stop and take a photo with Lucy though. I really do love Lucy!

Then we tied lots of fun hats on with Aunt Vicki in this silly hat store.

The only one she wanted to wear was this hat. It says I love daddy on it. She really is a daddy's girl!

The next morning we took Brooke to her first buffet, where she would only eat bananas and olives. Hey. I'm just glad she ate anything. Now a days, I'm happy if she eats candy!

We spoiled Brookie and let her eat Cheetos's on the hotel room bed, while watching cartoon's. She was quite content to do so!

Later that night Jason and I went to our favorite steak place. Kobe's Japanese Steak House. It was sooooo delicious, and so fun to go out with my hubby on a date!

After we ate we decided to do a little reminiscing, so we hiked up the hill where Jason took me on our first real date, and where he later proposed to me. It is basically where I fell in love with him after hours of talking up on the hill.

Here we are in the middle of the climb.

Jason decided to do a little role playing while up there.

And I joined in.

Of course we did a lot of kissing up there too!!

It was a lot of fun and it was a great way to remember all the years we have been together, and all the fun we have had!

Oh Jim you make me laugh!!!

For Jason's Birthday I surprised him (or at least tried to) by getting him tickets to his favorite comedian Jim Gaffigan. We went to Pechanga Casino down in Temecula and had awesome seats. It was such a fun night, and if you haven't seen Jim you need to watch his stuff on You tube. He is the best!! Here is one one of our favorite bits from the night that we saw him.

Happy Birthday Jason!!!

Today is my sweet husband's 26th birthday! Happy Birthday Jason!

I don't even know where to begin writing this post because I am so overcome with emotions when I think of the man that you are, and the blessing that you are in my life. I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for being such an amazing husband, boyfriend, friend, and father! Every year it seems as though I think "well he just can't get any better." But you always exceed my expectations of the person that you are. You just seem to keep getting better and better with time even though you were perfect to start out with! How do you do that?? You always brighten my day, and you make me happier than anyone else in the world! You are loving, thoughtful, selfless, spiritual, handsome, kind, compassionate, silly, fun, funny, hilarious, and even funnier (the list could go on forever)! You are my best friend and you always make Brooke and I so happy. Watching you become a father and seeing how sweet and gentle you are with Brooke has made me love and appreciate you even more. She is one lucky baby to have a dad as great as you. I will be forever grateful that the Lord brought you to me. I am also so grateful for your mom, for bringing you into this world 26 years ago! You are one of the greatest gifts I have received in this life and I am so thankful that I get to share this journey with you. I love you so much and I pray that this new birthday year is filled with many blessings and good times! Happy Birthday Sweetie! I can't wait for our date tonight!!XOXOXO

I've been seriously slacking...

After my last blog entry and re-commitment to start being better about posting I have totally let the ball drop again. It's not that I have been overly busy lately I have just been putting it off every day a little more, and all of a sudden a month went by! So in a new commitment to start documenting our life again, I am indeed ready to post again. 

In my lack of motivation I totally missed Brooke's 16 month post so since she is almost 17 months I will just let this one count for both! 

First off let me just start by saying that I have the cutest baby ever! Now that we got that out of the way, let me just say that I have the smartest baby ever! No seriously!! :)

Brooke has really started to show us all that she knows lately. She can say just about any word. She can count to 6 (with a little help). She is very obedient and listens and does what we ask her too (most of the time).  She can identify just about every body part. She can tell you if you are a boy or girl (although she sometimes gets confused and calls daddy a "Gurl"). She lets us know if she has gone poo poo and needs to be changed. She loves to read books and can identify and do the sounds of most animals in them. Some of the animals have no name though and are just a sound such as "moo' she never will say cow. She is starting to understand and identify shapes and can tell you if it's a circle, oval, or star. She folds her arms for prayers (something that we have been working on for a really long time!) She is communicating much better now and for the most part can tell us or help us to understand what she wants. She is at such a fun age right now and she is such a sweet baby. All I can do everyday is thank my Heavenly Father for allowing me to have such a sweet blessing in my life. 

In addition to all this new learning, Brooke is also turing into a little girl. 

She loves shoes and has started to walk in mommies shoes. She is actually quite a pro at this!

She loves to walk around in mommies "purls" and shoes. She also loves to carry around her baby doll while doing this.

I didn't want to paint her toes until she was old enough to enjoy it. My niece came and stayed with us for a week, and while I was painting her toes Brooke seemed so interested in it that I decided we could give it a try. She did great holding still, and loves the color on her toes.  All three of us did the same color!!

Here she is doing her favorite thing. She loves to read and point out all the animals, balloons, etc..

What can I say other than I love her to pieces and think she is so awesome! I just wish she wouldn't grow up so quick all the time:(!!

Lake Tahoe

We just came back from our vacation to Lake Tahoe. We had such a great time and it was so  beautiful there. It was a little cold, so we didn't go in the Lake except for our baby toes, but we kept ourselves busy anyways! Our good friends Eric and Lana Felton came with us, and it was so fun to have them there. 

Brooke on the drive up. She got sick the day before we left with a cold and she was running about 102 fever, but she was still smiling anyways. I also woke us up at 2 am so she would sleep on the way. However my plan backfired and she stayed up way too much!

Here we are in Tahoe on the Heavenly Gondola. It freaked me out if you can't tell from my face! I am not afraid of heights but I am afraid of technology and the guy who is paid a low salary to check the equipment that is hanging me in the air!

The ride took quite a while. You can see the trail that it follows up the mountain. It goes all the way up then you keep going past what you can see.

Here we are at the top of the Gondola ride. It was so worth the ride up. Here are the guys together.

Here we are. Lana stayed with Brooke for me. It was nice to have a daytime date! Thanks Lana!!

Once we were up the mountain they had hiking trails so we did one. This sign cracked me up because it says "To California." We could have hiked all the way back to home:).

This was as much snow as we got to play with. We made a few snowballs that were really "ice balls" and threw them at trees.

For Father's Day I surprised Jason and told him we were going to go zip lining in Tahoe. Once we went up the gondola and were way up the mountain we still had to take the chair lift to the Zip Line. This was a freaky experience too!

And that's why!! Not so fun to look down and think you would plummet to your death and hit all that stuff down there.

Here is the top of the Zip Line. It was both of our first times doing it and I have to say I was a little scared once I saw how high up we were. It is the highest and longest zip line in North America. You  are dropped at an elevation of 9,580 feet and you ride about 3,500 feet down going about 55 mph. It was so fun!!!

Here is Jason coming in from his ride.

And here I am. We came from the very top of the peak behind us.

The Felton's found this beautiful little Lake called Fallen Leaf Lake. It was so beautiful and perfect. I think we all liked it better than Lake Tahoe. Here is Brookie having a great old time with the big bugs.

So beautiful!!

This is at Emerald Bay. We didn't want to make the 1.5 mile hike down with Brooke so we just looked from one of the overlook points. Look at the look my baby is giving me. She was having one of those days too!

We found a delicious ice cream shop. Here Brookie is enjoying her sweet treat.

Brooke has a love for shoes already. Here she was appreciating her Daddy's shoes.

Brooke has learned to trow fits. I think she likes to trow them too! Here is a good one that I caught her doing. Oh little girls....drama...drama...

We went for a nice 10 mile bike ride. It was beautiful and so fun (and thankfully flat). Brooke enjoyed it too. She slept a lot a enjoyed being in her buggy.

Oh the life of LUXURY!

On the bike ride there was a little aquarium with fish. Brooke loves fish and was excited to point to them and tell us "fish, fish!

There was a BBQ cook off that we went to. It was pretty good. There ribs still weren't as good as Lucille's. The sandwich and lemonade were delicious!!

I love this pic of the Felton's enjoying there Lemonade. They look famous in it.

We drove around Lake Tahoe and found an awesome little spot to look around at.

Brooke walking with Auntie Lana. What cute girls!

It really is amazingly beautiful there.

The girls.

The guys.

I love this pic of Jason. What a fine looking man I have!!

They had a tree with a seat cut into it. I thought I could come and meditate there everyday.

Uncle Eric did this the whole vacation. Brooke loves her books and Eric likes to make Brooke very happy = reading to her the whole time. It was nice to have a break form having to read them all day. Thanks Eric!

At the end of our trip. Brooke is always such a good helper!!

We had a great time, and it was so nice to rest and relax and be with my family for a whole week!! I am already looking forward to next years vacation!