August 2009

Yeah...here goes my monthlyish update...August kinda flew by with finishing Ariana's room, fun activities with friends, fairs, and birthday's. It was pretty hot around here so most of the time you could find us in the pool but if we weren't there we were doing this:


FariyTale Town with Abby Donnalley





Love how happy they both look!


My Birthday at the Zoo


Ariana gets her first Tatoo


She really liked my Birthday cake!


Celebrating the bday with great friends, yummy food, and chillaxing in our pool all day


A visit to a local kids art studio in Sacramento. Very cool place.


Just my silly girl


A visit to the California State Fair where Ariana found the petting zoo to be super entertaining!

Before and After....

Ok...ok...I said I would be better about blogging and here we are a month later. So maybe I am not much of a blogger...or maybe I have just been busy lately, not really sure but maybe this will be more of a monthly update kind of thing! Well.. what have we been up to lately...adding a room to our house! We started construction (or I should say our contractor started construction in the beginning of July and we finished up in the beginning of August.) They added a half wall to enclose the room, a closet, and a door and then there was a room! A couple of extra things we had them do too where build custom shelving, a built in toy box that is also a bench seat under her window, closet organizer, and a ceiling fan. This all started a domino effect of projects in our house but all things that needed to be done. (Or so says the pregnant lady that is completely in nesting mode right now.) More on that later...

The last couple of weeks we have been moving Ariana's things into her new big girl room and now I think we are finally finished! My mom (Nana) is just making a bench cushion seat for under the window and some fun pillows for the room and then we will be completely done! It started off as our loft and we had it converted to a bedroom. Soooooooo much easier than moving or having to have Sean give up his home office. Since that is his only office it was kinda a no brainer to do this. We are very happy with it and already have made some great memories in there! It also made me realize that "holy crap" we really are having another baby... as I emptied out the nursery and got things back to "newborn" stage it has really kind of starting sinking in. Well that and the growing belly that has kinda been slowing me down lately.

BEFORE:






AFTER:


She loves her new room and sleeps in her big girl bed for naps and bedtime now!



Doesn't look like the same room does it?





Yeah, I know the bed rails really don't go with the room but you gotta have them! She has already fallen out once but rebounded pretty good!



She loves loves loves sitting at her table and coloring and playing with stickers. She instructs daddy and I where to sit each time. Good thing those chairs are a little bigger in order to hold us!



Her reading corner...which she does a lot of too... she also instructs us "More Book Mommy, More Book Daddy"



More storage under the bed... very nice since our loft is where we kept a lot of toys. I was going for ultimate storage in this room and wow did we get it. If you look hard enough you can see part of the new closet...I forgot to get a good pic of that. But she has a BIG closet now and it is already full! Have you ever seen a 1 1/2 year old with so many shoes!?





She has a built in toy box that is also her bench seat. She loves to sit there and read and look out the window! So much fun!

Our week in Redondo Beach

Last week Ariana and I headed to Southern California to spend a week with 3 out of 5 of my college roomates! Samira lives in Redondo Beach so it was a perfect location (5 minute walk to the beach!) Yeah, she lives in a very cool area and has an awesome house that accomadated all of us and the kiddos! It was such a wonderful week to spend time with my friends and to let the kids play together now that they are a little older. We kept joking all week how we could really get used to having 4 wives around the house because we were so darn efficient with 4 kids running around. The house was always picked up, kids fed and bathed, we got a chance to actually chat and catch up on our lives, and it was a constant 5 day playdate! I miss my college friends terribly and wish we all lived closer. They are such a special group of ladies and I feel so special to have stayed so close with them all these years!!! Sean even flew down on Friday afternoon to spend the weekend with us which was great! He used to live there so he got to visit some old stomping grounds and visit as well. Now if I could get the my whole family to move there we would be there in a heartbeat. I love beach life!















Link to all photos from our trip!

Redondo Beach Summer 2009

Missouri Trip Summer 2009

We headed to Missouri to Sean's home town at the end of June and stayed through the 4th of July. This was a special trip because it was partly a surprise to his parents. Sean's mom and dad (Grandma and Grandad) celebrated their 40th Wedding Anniversary this year AND they both retired! It was a reason to celebrate! So we planned a surprise party along with Sean's sister (Auntie Dani) at their home. Sean's parents had no idea we flew in early for this AND my parent's decided to come too! The look on their faces when Sean and Ariana answered the door was priceless. It was such a special trip and the memories made were so great! It was an action packed 10 days that started with the party. We then took my parents around the Missouri countryside for some wine tasting, a visit to the Daniel Boone house, Purina Farms, swimming, BBQing, playing, and then headed to Bennett Springs for 4 days of 4th of July celebrating that included fishing, fishing and more fishing. Ariana got to fish for the first time (Daddy and Grandad were so proud) and she actually caught a fish! We had a blast and were sooo tired coming home. Then we realized that would be our last trip there with only one kid. WOW...next time we will have two little ones! Crazy thought! Here are a few pics from the weekend and I will include a link if you want to see ALL 200+ photos!














Link to all photos from our Missouri Trip:

Missouri Trip Summer 2009

Spring/Summer Pictures

Ok...this is my attempt to get caught up and back on track with blogging! Slideshow seemed to be the answer. We have had such a busy Spring and Summer and it has been a lot of fun but between traveling a ton and not having the easiest start to this pregnancy has left me very very behind. Enjoy the pics and I hope to be more regular with my posts from here on forward!

Flowers from My Cat and Husband

These beautiful flowers are from my wonderful husband and my cat. We have two cats but they are only from one in particular (Joey). I won't get into the whole story about why my cat sent me flowers but let's just say it may have have just saved him from being put up for adoption. :) Sean has been out of town for 7 days and without complaining or venting about my week I will just say my husband is awesome and truly appreciates all that I do at home. And I love the flowers! It made my week!

Baby# 2 coming December 2009

We are delighted to share the news that we will be welcoming our second child to the family in December 2009. We feel truly blessed once again and are elated to be able to give Ariana a sibling. The little munchkin is scheduled to arrive around 12/15/09 just in time for his or her's first Christmas. We are looking forward to keeping the his or her part a surprise to all of us until his or her's birthday, as it is truly one of the greatest surprises in life! We did it with Ariana and it was so so exciting! Good thing our nursery is neutral colors so we don't have to do a thing!!!

I am way way way behind on blogging....

This is a picture of her and her Dora back pack that she got from her cousin Lizzie at Auntie Dawn's birthday celebration. Sean and I weren't there because we had to take an unexpected trip back to St. Louis for a close family friend's funeral. We decided to leave Ariana with my parents since it was going to be a fast and sad trip. Although the break from mommyhood was nice I missed her terribly. That was the longest and furthest away I had been from her ever and it was HARDER than I thought. She was fine of course with her 5 cousins and Nana, Grandpa, Auntie's and Uncle's fighting over her.

I don't even know where to start it has been that long.... it is not that we haven't been doing anything interesting it is that we have been really busy and this is the last thing that I think to do!!! Our little one is growing up too fast and I need to download some new pics so I can post them on here. She is talking so much now. She says well over 20 words now and has a new one for us almost every day. Some that come to mind are: We-um (that is Liam her cousin who she absolutely adores), baby, ba-ba, wa-wa, moon, shoe, Dora, Go-Go (for Diego), Joe Joe (our cat), mommy, daddy, nana, grandpa, more, co-co (for cookie), no (that is a popular one these days), toe, nose, book, etc...etc... She is 16 months old already and just looking more and more like a little toddler( and her daddy!). We have been swimming almost everyday in our pool and she loves the water which is nice. It makes for a wonderful afternoon nap time which mommy loves very much! I will catch up soon I promise... ok, maybe I shouldn't promise but I will soon... We are gearing up for being gone most of the month of July. We have trip planned back to St. Louis for the 4th of July and then we are heading to Southern California to stay with one of my college roommates and her two boys for a week! Can't wait for lots and lots of beach time!!!

Ariana's 15th Month Photos

Hello! So sorry for the lack of posts lately. April has been a VERY busy month for us. I promise to add photos this week of all of our April happenings! Just to hold you over until then...here is a link to our photographers blog for a sneak peek of Ariana's 15th month photo shoot she had last week! Joelle, of Captured by Joelle, is an amazing photographer!!! We did this shoot in Old Sacramento where there are so many wonderful old buildings that served as a great backdrop.

http://joellesphotojournal.blogspot.com/

PS. These were supposed to be her 1 year photos but I got a little behind...opps!

The Girl that never stops....

My little angel is always on the go.... I mean she will not stop to sit on your lap and if she does it is for about 2 seconds and then she is off again. She is constant motion unless she is sleeping. Until... we discovered "Dora the Explorer". She LOVES Dora and now goes around the house saying "Dora, Dora, Dora." When I tell her "No more Dora", she repeats as she walks around the house, "No Dora, No Dora" with the saddest expression on her face. But it is the only thing that makes her stop moving!!! Here she is watching her "Dora" the other night so peaceful and cuddly. This was definitely a "rare" moment in our household. (Her sitting still and being so quiet!)

Playdate with the Farinha's and the Martin's

We got the chance to get together with little Jace last week because his mommy was on Spring Break. He is the adorable boy in the middle of those girls with the cute curly black hair! He is too cute for words!!!! You just want to eat his little cheeks! Sloan and Frankiejane came over too and we had a fun day catching up and playing. We can't wait for Jace's mommy, Talia, to be off for the summer so we can hang out a lot more!!!

Seriously, that hair and face are so cute!

Honoring a Family

Yesterday I had the honor of attending the Pullen Familly Memorial Service in Lodi, CA. For those of you that haven't heard about this horrific tragedy, it was the three families that took a private plane on their way to a ski vacation in Montana. The plane crashed and there were no survivors. The reason I went is because one of the ladies on that plane, Vanessa Pullen, was my sister's Pediatrician for all three of her boys since the day they were all born. My sister, Kathy, was absolutely devastated by the news and felt very much that she needed to pay her respects to this wonderful lady and her amazing family. I went with Kathy so she didn't have to go alone, I had a feeling it was going to be a very emotional day. That is an understatment. This particular memorial service was for Micheal, Vanessa and their two children, Sydney and Christopher Pullen. I sat through the entire 3 1/2 hour service just thinking: How could this happen? How could their entire family be gone? How can all these beautiful children be gone? How are their families going to deal with this? Where do you begin? There are just no words to describe the grief this family will deal with for the rest of their lives.

The service was the most beautiful tribute to four lives that I have ever seen in my life. My sister and I both agreed that this particular family was extremely special and lived life to the fullest. Every picture of them was on some kind of adventure, building something, entertaining friends, just living life to the absolute fullest.

I walked away yesterday with different view on life. I could hardly wait to get back to Ariana and hug and kiss her a million times over. I was truly honored to be there yesterday to help celebrate their lives, even though I didn't know them personally, I left knowing they were a beautiful family, each and everyone of them.

"Dance like nobody's watching, Laugh like no one is listening, Love like you can't be hurt, Live life like it's heaven on earth" (I am not sure who wrote this quote but I just love it.)

Ariana takes her first Pilates Class

Ok...well maybe not a full class...but I took her into the studio to meet some of my old Pilates clients tonight. They have been asking to meet her for a while and we have been sooo very bad at making it into the PM classes! So here she is lying on the trap table with one of our very awesome clients, Lynne, doing her ball work to stretch out in the beginning of class. Auntie Kathy was there of course to teach her and I was trying to snap a photo with my camera phone!
Her and I actually do our mat Pilates every night. She likes to lie next to me and stick her legs up in the air and try and mimic what I am doing. It is pretty darn cute!

Oh I miss going to the studio much!!! I LOVE PILATES! Probably the best thing I have ever done! Everyone keeps asking me when I will get back to teaching.... I promise I will someday... I am a Pilates junkie!

Last minute trip to Squaw

We decided in less that 24 hours to take a quick trip up to Squaw for a few days. Sean was taking the day off to meet a good friend up in Tahoe to ski and they were having a great Spring Special to get people up there to ski and stay at the resort...so... twist our arm...it wasn't a hard decision. This is where Sean's perks of working from "home" come in handy. He travels pretty much Monday-Thursday every week and works from home on Friday's, so Friday he got to work with the view of the Sierra's in the background. Not a bad office view. My friend Shana and her two girls even met us up there while the boys skied. It was so fun to have them there and we couldn't have asked for better weather. It was so relaxing (yes, even with a 1 year old running around... or maybe I have just got used to it...or maybe I have a different kind of relaxing these days, anyways... it was fun!)

The girls ready to ride the shuttle over to the village for lunch

Frankiejane and Ariana at the pub for lunch

Daddy and Ari on our sledding adventure that lasted all of 10 minutes. She did not like touching the snow at all. She didn't mind the sledding part but the walking, touching, falling in the snow part was not her thing! Daddy wasn't too happy about that.

Hanging out of the patio listening to music. It was so warm we didn't have to wear jackets unless it was night time.

Enjoying the music

After dinner walk around the resort

Looking at the waterfalls

Tubby Time

Lake Tahoe in the background. It was the only day we ventured away from the resort and it started to snow and was windy and cold!