Ladies Trip

Friday January 13th - Sunday January 15th


Friday 13th - My mother's flight was delayed so it gave us a few minutes of breathing room after racing all day and after finishing out joyful doctor's appointment. Jaylene and Lisa arrived close to
5 p.m. and there was just enough time to pick up my Mom, let her change and then race once again to our dinner reservations. Local best friends, Bree and Joe joined us all for dinner at a very close friend's restaurant, La Villa, in Little Italy. This great boutique cafe like restaurant that makes everything from scratch, it is so outstanding, we had a beautiful dinner on the patio, enjoying San Diego's great weather even in January. Then as a surprise we took all of our friends to a Comedy Improv show, very similar to "Whose Line Is It Anyways," oh it was so fun, we laughed so hard. In fact the whole audience could hear my mom laugh; we all had an amazing time!

Saturday 14th - So we split the day in half, since Steve's favorite thing to do is golf and has not been in forever, it only seemed fitting for this special occasion. All the boys went
golfing and as us girls went and had
mimosas and got manicures/pedicures at the nail salon I have been going to for the last ten years. Kathleen is my nail artist's name and she has been so
excited through this entire pregnancy, calling Munchkin her "Dragon Baby" since he or she will be born 3/4 dragon according to the Vietnamese calendar and that only happens every 12 years and is suppose to create a very special, powerful child. So cool! We have a great morning and then met the boys back at the house before the shower started at the Clubhouse of our complex at 1 that afternoon!
The shower wrapped up around 6 p.m. and everyone was wiped out, we just curled up on the couch, ate left overs and watched our favorite movie of all time "Ace Ventura" as everyone slowly fell asleep! What a GREAT DAY!

Sunday 15th - We all got up nice and early to go Whale Watching! Steve and I have lived here over ten years and have never done this, always wanted to so we were thrilled to take our friends out on the journey as well! It was cooler than we had hoped for! Late, running on the boat last, using my prego belly as the excuse, ha ha, we got a spot right at the front of the boat. Since my mom, Jaylene and Lisa all live in the middle of the desert, seeing the wide open ocean, seals, dolphins and whales in their nature habitat was such a TREAT!
We were all glowing!












The dolphins did steal the show though, even though meant for the whales, the dolphins were so cool! They chased the boat, at one point there were ten of them jumping next to the boat and alongside for miles, so cool! We saw at least one whale and just the overall scenery was amazing!

Afterwards we went to C Level, the day time part of the restaurant that I worked at the three years prior to getting pregnant, the restaurant if a part of our extended family. It was great to see our good friend (manager) Allison for an amazing lunch on the water looking at San Diego's skyline. Then we traveled to one of the little quant neighborhoods of San Diego to go to Extraordinary Desserts to devour sinful desserts. The frown appeared as we then had to drive mom to the airport! With just a few hours left, Lisa and Jaylene wanted to visit their first IKEA :) It was too cute! We just hopped for hours and then as Lisa did homework (good girl) Jaylene and I made my favorite childhood cookies (sour cream cookies) and then PF Changs for a great dinner!


I couldn't have asked for a better weekend!!! The saddest moment was having to say good bye to them... I wish we could have weekends like this more often!

32 WEEKS

Friday Janaury 13th - 32 Weeks

Every night I have been busy with to do lists until midnight, rest what? Pregnant, no, moving and shaking like pre-baby!  Steve finsihed his testing for the week and jumped in to keep me calm as we raced the clock to have everything done by the 13th. It was a good goal to have and now looking back, I feel better knowing it is all done! 

Because due to our busy schedules, Steve and I are used to doing everything down to the last minute. This upcoming party weekend was no different!!! We wanted the nursery to be completed by the San Diego Shower since we have so many out of town guests joining us for the weekend but we were literally hanging the last picture frame, and vacuuming the house before we ran out of the house to barely arrive on time to our next doctor's appointment. This visit with our Mid-Wife was short and sweet! All was looking great, and Munchkin's strong heartbeat brought us to tears once again! I just feel so blessed this whole journey with such an easy pregnancy and such a living, excited husband/future father! Now off to run and pick up my mother from airport and best friends from high school arriving any minute from (Jaylene and Lisa) St.George, Utah and Page, Arizona for this special weekend! Can't wait, we are so lucky to have such great friends and family!!!

The Stroller of All Strollers

Every one of our friends has more than one stroller, with Steve and I trying to maximize efficiency with space in mind so we wanted desperately to find a stroller that did everything we wanted in one...  As soon as I realized how strollers ranged from $150 up to $1,000 I knew I wanted to do a lot of research to make sure whatever we bought would be the BEST decision in the end!  Now I can honestly say I could write a book on strollers...

This is the best of all in one strollers, in my opinion of course,  

~ First Year's Wave ~

It may not be a travel system (comes with car seat) but I found those to have good things about the stroller but not the car seat or vise versa so I couldn't find one within our price range that was impressive.  But the Wave has the bassinet look as you can see, I love this vintage stroller look and great for newborns to be able to lay and sleep comfortably.  The once the child can sit up on its own then the bassinet with buckles and straps it turns into the actual seat (so cool because then you don't have a separate piece you have to store till the next child).  It also has another attachment so whatever car seat we get it will snap right into the stroller, making it a travel system.  My favorite part though is it rotates 360 degrees and even while in motion, so if the baby is fussy I can spin the stroller to face me, or I can spin it to face outward!  So Cool and So in love with it, that I can't wait to stroll around our beautiful complex getting exercise and spending time with Munchkin!  One of my favorite baby purchases for sure!   

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Many of you recieved our Happy New Year's card, but just in case we didn't send enough...  We were trying to be creative since we have so many pictures of me so far in this pregnancy and have tried to capture everything, how do we once again say how blessed we are?  Well with Nala of course! 

We found this dog shirt online and she let us put it on her way too easily, almost like she has worn clothes before, yet she hasn't!  I think Steve was embarrassed to cruise around our complex with Nala sporting the t-shirt, although we both couldn't stop giggling! 

Nala has been found more times than not sleeping by herself in the dark in Munchkin's room, even when we are home!  We think she already can't wait to be a big sister!!! 2011 was pretty AMAZING to us and so far we are off to a great 2012! 

Better and Better - Life is Grand!

Steve and I both have to keep pinching ourselves that our life has fully turned out GRAND!  We are so blessed with amazing friends, family and just the love we have for one another is tough to find, but then on top of all that...life is just good to us! 

Back in October I attended a conference, as a member I am heavily involved each year but this year in particular was on multiple planning committees and within my first trimester (when most are feeling fatigued) I was working 60 hours weeks at a minimum trying to get ready for the conference.  At the awards night, in front of my entire staff, completely surprised I was awarded the Vice President's Award for the California Association on Post-Secondary Education and Disability (CAPED).  This is such a huge honor and I am still speechless over the thoughtful recognition.  A very proud moment in my life, but then if it couldn't be any better, my supervisor shared the news with our Vice Chancellor within San Diego Community College District and the published an article about me in the District's magazine.  All I could think was "Munchkin is famous," as I was obviously showing in the picture at five months pregnant.  So honored and can't wait to tell Munchkin someday how he or she didn't even slow me down!  http://www.sdccd.edu/public/events/we/Online/2011/WE-Dec2011_LO.pdf Page 11

Then Steve and I are glowing as we are finishing the final touches on all of Munchkin's furniture when Steve checks his email to find out that the new job he "really" wanted was his!!!  He has been working as a Crew Chief for Pacific Ambulance for three years now, promoted multiple times and doing great, he still desired a change.  With his paramedic clinical and internship section around the corner he knew he would need to go part time and wanted to gain experience in other areas.  The job at UCSD was perfect, per diem, great pay, flexible schedule, working as an ER Technician.  It was super competitive though and he had to be diligent with his follow up to even get an interview.  Afraid that he wanted the job almost too much, he was thrilled to learn he was one of four hired.  Steve will now have an $8 an hour raise, a flexible schedule for school and for Munchkin and now emergency room experience.  It would be impossible for a wife to any prouder of what he has accomplished in a short period of time of following his dreams!  We are so BLESSED! 

Our Favorite Pieces

Steve and I each have different pieces that are our absolutely favorite parts of the nursery ~

Steve loves the Cookie Monster Fire Truck of course...

Growing up I had the Grover Saturday Night Fever Record (1978) and thought how cool it would be if I found a record for the year Steve was born (1980) and sure enough on EBay there was a record with Ernie dressed as a Fire Fighter! 

The bathroom has the Rubber Duckie/Ernie theme so I also found on EBay a little Ernie Fire Fighter and Fire Fighter Rubber Duckies to be placed on the bathroom counter!

After all these years I still had two vintage sesame street pillow cases, by a search online I thought of creating a throw pillow, and a hamper.  I can't sew myself so I reached out to a friend and both turned out AMAZING, some of my favorite parts of the room now!  

Other than that, how you can not love the Bert and Ernie that are so obviously Old School!!! 

Steve loves the handpainted dresser knobs I found on EBay, they are each different and the packet of 8 was only $15, such a cute touch! 

The last touches to Munchkin's room will be the maternity and newborn pictures we are getting done.  The frames on the wall will be filled with pictures of Munchkin and then a collage over the bookshelf will combine our wedding, maternity and newborn pictures with a centerpiece quote of "Your First Breath, Took Ours Away." 

We can't wait to rock in the recliner and soak it all in... Can't wait to meet our little Munchkin! 

AFTER

~ Munchkin's Room ~

Steve and I went back and forth as to what design we wanted to use for Munchkin's nursery but once we really had to decide it was impossible to not pick "Vintage Sesame Street" when Steve saw my face as I unpacked my original 1978 Big Bird Lamp Post Lamp.  With my maiden name being "Cook" I had a nickname of "Cookie Monster" and collected Sesame Street as a child all the way into my college years.  I saved EVERYTHING!  Steve and I also knew that we wanted a room that was obviously gender neutral and more modern in style like the rest of the house and not so over the top childlike...

We had so much fun picking out the patterns, designs, furniture, finding the best deal, compromising and then ultimately watching it all come together! 

The bedding we found on a site where we could custom make it, so cool!  All the sesame street goodies were hand washed by my mother and given to me after a drive all the way from Page (have not seen the toys and stuffed animals since I was 18).  

So many people played a part in making the nursery happen: My mom paid for the paint, Joe lent us the painting materials, Bree helped us decorate, Cuz B touched up the paint, and Soren helped put together the furniture! 

So many nights laying in bed dreaming of this very room!!!

BEFORE

We currently live in a good size two bedroom, but we used to be in three/four bedroom so there was a lot of work involved to make sure we had room for all the goodies that come along with a baby!

 

So with that, the guest room turned into the Munchkin's room...and Steve's Man Cave turned into the office!  

Time to Decorate for Christmas

The last three years we have had all of our decorations buried in a garage so this year was a treat to be able to decorate the house for every holiday and Christmas was not any different.  I couldn't wait, in fact made sure to pick the first night Steve was off to go get our tree.  Now because our place is smaller, it worked out great for the decorations because it was so cute and saturated with snowmen....but the challenging part was finding a creative place for the tree, not to mention having it smaller than ever before...all in all though, it worked out great!  I was stoked on my centerpiece because I found sticks to make the tree hold the ornaments that matched the wall paper gifts and the Christmas plates...  It has only been in the last few years that I have really tapped into the decorating side of me!  

Although, Steve hates storing the decorations, and counts the boxes of what goes back in the closet to make sure I didn't buy too much new stuff but at the end of the day I know he loves the house decorated as much as I do...except he was not thrilled to learn that the wrapping paper I picked to wrap the huge picture frames was in red glitter.  We were vacuuming glitter up for weeks but good to know for next year!  Ha ha

My mother got us a Baby's First Christmas ornament for next year but for this year we had to do something (since every year we pick out two new ornaments for the tree, one that is a cool snowman one and the other to represent what is going on our in lives that year so we got a Father and Mother Snowman picture frame and put Munchkin's ultrasound picture in it!  So Cute!

                                                                        

Munchkin is Moving In!!!

I was off for two weeks for Christmas and for the first time in years I would be off from all jobs! 

My plans involved lunch with a few friends, a friends birthday party, decorating for Christmas, but most importantly get ready for Munchkin to move in...

I have always wanted to be so organized, knowing that every hidden closet stash is somewhat organized but it wasn't until this break that I would finally have the time and the nesting desire to make it a reality.  I spent everyday for at least 8 hours a day just cleaning out closets, throwing stuff away, finding new places to store memories and soon enough there was open space throughout our humble home for all of Munchkin's stuff!  I focused on having an empty guest closet, space in the kitchen, bathroom and even a section in the laundry room for Munchkin!  The whole process had it highs and lows but when it was all done the feeling of being more organized than I have ever been; words cannot express.  I saw papers from graduate school, bills of the last ten years, anything lost was found and much more!   Steve was frightened quite a few nights knowing that our house would never look like the picture above if it wasn't for Munchkin coming soon but was so excited to see the boxes of trash building up in the garage!  Honestly the only thing I was missing was a label maker!

28 WEEKS

My sweet Christmas Hat came from my sweet Grandma, who still to this day always treats me like a princess!!!

Munchkin officially feels like he or she has doubled in size!!!  Steve can now feel the baby every single day and on the rare occasion that we get to wake up together he can feel the baby quite a bit as he or she is very active in the early morning.  The baby now moves in patterns, they say the baby sleeps in twenty to thirty minute increments and it does feel like that is true!  The size of a large papaya feels more like a cantaloupe but either way so cool to have the constant reminder that Munchkin is with me always!  One night just sitting on the couch reading for work I felt the strongest kicks thus far and then out of the corner of my eye saw movement.  It took me a moment to realize that Munchkin was moving so much I could finally see it, not just feel it!  Steve and I couldn't stop giggling as we watched my stomach move all over the place... Our midwife says everything is going very well, all tests came back with flying colors but the best part as always is getting to hear Munchkin's heartbeat!!!   

Tucson Baby Shower

One of my best friends, we met in college at U of A (Terri) graciously offered to host us a baby shower in Tucson.  The main reason behind the shower out in Arizona was that two of my close friends are pregnant now with their second (one due in January and the other in February) along with a few others who would have a hard time making the trip to San Diego!  So even though with Steve's schedule we had to do the 6 hour (7 hours if you are pregnant) drive on Saturday and turn around and do the drive back on Sunday, it was worth every minute of it!

Since I never get to see Steve, being in a car for 14 hours out of the 2 days, was quality time!  I do not have a lot of pictures from the beautiful shower but it was so special and unique!  Kimmi (childhood best friend from Page) helped Terri host the event and it was so fun!  We got to play dress up with the adult co-ed cocktail baby shower theme, see Terri's new gorgeous home and play with her two year old son, Trent.  The shower started at 6 p.m. and I was greeted with one surprise after another... A Pumpkin Prego-a-tini, a creative tree drawn by her mother in law to be used as the guest book (Munchkin's family tree), banana cream cupcakes, and a poker tournament.  Each guest was asked to bring a package of diapers as a "buy in" to the Texas Hold Em poker tournament, which was a huge hit to say the least.  We actually had to stop the tournament to open gifts because it was going so well that it was not even close to being over when the shower end time was fast approaching! 

Munchkin made out like a bandit :) plenty of diapers to get started, everything from bottles to toys, to bath towels.  The star of the show was the baby's quilt and diaper planter my mother gave me.  My mother brought my baby's quilt, which she made when she was pregnant with me and then my great grandmother was given a diaper planter when my grandmother was born, she passed it on to my mother and now my mom was passing it onto me.  Amazing, the only people not crying as she told the story were the guys in the room! 

The poker tournament resumed and did not end until midnight, each person took turns leading but Steve was the winner in the end!  Those who could not make it, you were missed!!!  Kristen & Jason, Sarah & Eric, Julie & Kyle, Kimmi & Colin, Mamacita & Daddy #2, Mom & Dad, Grandma & Aunt Vickie, THANK YOU MUCH FOR COMING and for all of Munchkin's gifts!!!  Terri & Scott, thank you so much for hosting such an awesome night!!!

GOOD TIMES!  

Good Times ~ Good Friends

Our good friends, Chris & Shay invited us over for dinner and wow were we treated like royalty!  We started with catching up over an outstanding cheese plate and moved into a salad made of arugula with goat cheese and pomegranates.  Delish!  Then amazing wine with a ridiculous dinner made up of grilled lamb, potatoes au gratin from scratch and asparagus with homemade garlic bread!!!  Heaven, you can probably tell I am pregnant just by my dinner descriptions!  The night was a great break for Steve but the cutest part was that it was so late when the night finally wrapped up but we spent another 30 - 45 minutes just trying to get Munchkin to move because Chris and Shay desperately wanted to feel the baby kick.  Finally they both felt it at the same time and their faces were priceless!!!  It is common to find that some of your friends will be more excited than others about the baby on the way, so it is so refreshing to know that Chris & Shay are counting down the days to be an aunt and uncle to this little one!