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Showing posts with label baby brother. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baby brother. Show all posts

Friday, October 30, 2015

Happy Birthday...

Trenton Michael




Born: Tuesday, October 27, 2015

At: 11:00am

Weight: 7lbs 15oz

Length: 22.5 inches

Status: Our adorable little man is finally here, eight days after his due date! Mama was in pre-labor for five LONG days before his arrival. He is a precious boy with adorable little dimples and loved immensely by his parents and two adoring sisters. He spent three days in the NICU after birth due to breathing issues, but is doing well now and came home today, October 30th, 2015. We are all so in love, our family is complete.

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

October Costume Capers

October costume capers at the Halloween store

Itchy & Scratchy mask fun, yep they're BIG Simpsons fans!


One of our favorite things about pre-Halloween season is our visits to Halloween stores for what's been affectionately dubbed as "October costume capers". While the girls search for their official costumes they make sure to try on all the other fun masks, hats, and silly wares before finalizing their decisions. This has become an annual family tradition and I notice that with each passing year our October Halloween costume trips grow in frequency. The girls crack me up with their silliness and while they are building up their bravery around all the scary Halloween animatronic invaders, I have to admit to being amused by their tiptoeing around the "press here" pads on the floors and slyly finding ways to occupy themselves in the costume rows to avoid watching these creepy displays. Bottom line - they are both Halloween lovers in the making and in a few years they will likely be tormenting/scaring their little brother during Halloween store visits. Poor guy.

After a very fun search, they finally settled on their costumes. Elise is going to be a vampire this year, her first scary costume choice ever, which deserves celebration! Alina is going with two costumes this year to fit her dual personalities, as sweet and pretty princess Cinderella by day (for her preschool parade) and as a cute yet deadly little vampire by night (for actual trick-or-treat). Hopefully baby boy will arrive before Halloween to join in on the fun!



More costume fun with friends plus brave Alina

Masquerade masks never get old

Elise the tiger, and introducing Demonic Alien Baby, 
Evil Clown Baby's new partner in crime

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Happy October Birthday Mama!

Beautiful birthday flowers from dad & the girls

Happy Birthday Mama!

The best birthday view; cake and our sweet girls


Mama enjoyed a very fun birthday this year doing all her favorite October activities surrounded by the best people she knows; the fam! Being 38 weeks pregnant with baby boy somewhat limited the amount of walking I was able to do, but we still managed to fulfill my birthday request of visiting a pumpkin patch and decorating for Halloween. October is my favorite time of year, although the weather is still very warm here in the Sacramento Valley and we were sweating at the pumpkin patch. Despite the heat, we all had a fantastic time and took lots of photos (stay tuned for another post to come). Dad and the girls spoiled mama with beautiful flowers, a special birthday cake and helped deck out the house for Halloween. After the house was Halloween ready, the girls enjoyed creating a haunted gingerbread house and lighting candles to get into the spooky October spirit. We sat and told stories by candlelight and discussed how excited we all are for baby brother to arrive. We sure hope he gets here before Halloween, so we can dress him up and he can enjoy his very first holiday!



Early Halloween fun creating a haunted gingerbread house

Basking in candlelight after decorating for Halloween

LOVE these October flowers

Sunday, September 27, 2015

Maternity Photo Session - Baby Boy's First Photos

Maternity photoshoot - Baby boy is due in October!

These two are going to make the best big sisters


Baby brother's big debut is just over a month away, and we are all so excited for his arrival in mid October. I was happy to get a chance to do my first maternity photoshoot, as I never did any when I was pregnant with the girls. I was so tiny with the girls, and even though we took some photos I really wish that I did a maternity session like this. I'm grateful to have a wonderful and talented best friend, Christy, who took these beautiful photos. We will cherish these memories for years to come and I especially love seeing the genuine smiles and excitement on the girls faces. They are on pins and needles waiting for the arrival of their sweet little brother and my belly has received plenty of love and kisses over these past several months. He moves like crazy now and loves when his big sisters talk to him and give hugs (well actually, that's a maybe...he usually kicks when they smother my stomach). We are so eager to meet this little man and see his sweet personality unfold. The countdown to October 19th is on!



Obligatory belly shot, he's a squirmy fella

The little man's first photo

Alina showering baby brother with love

Monday, July 27, 2015

Elise & Alina's New Room

Elise & Alina's new shared big girl room!


The girls are officially roommates now! This is the result of months of debating on what to do to make our tight four bedroom home work to accommodate baby brother on the way and still maintain our office work space. They both expressed excitement over the prospect of a bunk bed although initially they weren't exactly keen on sharing spaces and toys (mostly Elise, who's been used to having her own room for the past 6 years). We're happy with the end result, mainly because we found a nice quality bunk bed that works well for the space and being a twin/full combo they can grow with it over the next few years. I had to get plenty of photo documentation as this may be the cleanest we see their room EVER again...hah! We are now working on turning Alina's old room into baby brother's nursery. More photos to come once his nursery is finished. Stay tuned...



Their lovely cherry hutch and floral chic bedroom decor

More shared spaces and the view from Elise's top bunk

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Little Red Cheongsam and our Yin and Yang

Alina in her little red cheongsam dress


I bought this adorable little red cheongsam dress years ago with the intention of Elise wearing it at some point. Unfortunately for me, at three-years-old Elise had a strong aversion to the color red, anything covering her neck or mom telling her what to wear. She flat out refused to put it on. I tried again with Alina and finally had success! She not only wore it, but posed for me and grinned the entire time. I've always found it amusing how kids can have such strong opinions at young ages. Elise was fighting me on clothing choices since before she could talk. Alina will usually wear anything I pick out without much fuss. 

This brings me to the bigger picture and how I see my girls personalities as completely yin and yang. Honestly speaking, they are opposites in most ways, but through all their differences they bring a sense of harmony and balance to our lives in revealing such different personality dynamics and rewards. It's amazing how much perspective they've brought into our lives and while we can spend hours attesting to all their differences, ultimately I wouldn't imagine or want them to be any other way. This really gets me wondering what baby boy's personality will be like. I already have my yin and yang girls, so how will he fit in the mix? I wonder, will he be more like one or the other? As he grows, it will be very interesting to find out and watch his personality reveal itself. As for now I have my yin and yang to keep me on my toes.


Pretty floral embroidery and cute curls

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Happy Father's Day 2015

Father's Day miniature golf fun


Happy Father's Day to a wonderful husband and dad of three now (eek!). Elise recently took a golf summer camp and begged to go to Golfland for Father's Day. It was as hot as can be out and the girls did really well in the beginning before melting down toward the end. Poor dad, he always keeps his positive spirit and optimistic outlook even when the rest of us girls are losing it around him. Thank goodness he will have a little boy soon to offset some of the girl craziness in the house. In the end, we all made it through and we've since decided if we ever go during summertime again, it will be in the evening. Happy Father's Day to a very special dad. We love you!



The girls found some shade by the castle

Sunday, May 31, 2015

The Four Month Baby Bump

The 20 week baby boy bump


Stats:  I've made it to 20 weeks, uncomfortably, but hooray. I took the Maternit21 test at 10 weeks and we learned that we're having a baby boy back in early April (around 13 weeks). It's somewhat crazy to be able to find out this early now AND with 99% accuracy. We did a baby gender reveal, which we hadn't done in the past with the girls, and the surprise reveal was quite a special moment to celebrate along with family. Baby boy is due to arrive October 19, 2015. He will be six years younger than Elise and four years younger than Alina. The age differences mean I will have a couple of great little helpers when he arrives.

How I feel this time around: Nauseous. I will admit that morning sickness with our little guy has been less than the extremes I had with the girls, but I've still suffered through it and there have been plenty of mornings where I've just felt plain awful. Even though I am 20 weeks, I am still throwing up here and there. I'm hoping to be over most of it soon because I don't have the luxury of much free time  while working and taking care of two kids. Also, I am carrying pretty high with him, so most my clothes are already fitting uncomfortably. Time to go shopping.

Food cravings: Steak. It's the only actual craving I've had this entire time and I started having it around 8-9 weeks, so well before we learned it was a boy. I suspected it may have been a boy based off this odd craving, because with the girls all I craved was lemons and fruit. I typically eat red meat maybe once a month at most, but the craving of steak cooked in butter and garlic has been pretty strong. I even like the smell of it cooking.

Weight gain: Let's not even go there...HAH! Ok, so I feel about twice the size with baby boy as I did with the girls. I am just blaming this on the fact that I haven't been able to work out and that he's my third baby. My belly definitely popped out much early than it did with the girls. My appetite has been more extreme and I've had less morning sickness than I did with the girls. I probably need to cut myself some slack here, he's a growing boy and I will continue to fuel "his"/my appetite.

Special moments - I haven't felt a ton of movement just yet, but if I lie back on the sofa we can now see my belly button dip out and back in depending on how much he is moving inside. It's cool to watch, just knowing that he's becoming very active in there. We are still celebrating the fact that will get the opportunity to experience having a little boy. I have enjoyed every moment raising our two girls and all kids are different personalities regardless of gender, but on the same note it will be fun to partake in the active rough and tumble aspect that I hear so much about. I also have had so many moms tell me of the pure love and sweetness that they share with their boys and I am looking forward to claiming this little guy as my mama's boy!

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Mama-Mobile Alert!

Mama's got a brand new ride


Well, it's official, we've swapped the good ole hot rod for a new Toyota Highlander SUV with third row seating. The girls love the new SUV as they have more arm and leg space and are no longer within smacking distance of each other. They also enjoy the super sized sun/moon roof for cloud and star gazing on long car rides. Now we will have room for baby brother to fit in our ride! I am going to miss the old Charger though, it's been a great car for us over the past nine years. I think the girls are going to miss it too, since they have already voiced concern that the new SUV is not fast enough (go figure).



Goodbye SRT8 Charger; nothing but great memories

Friday, May 15, 2015

Happy Mother's Day X 3!

It's a BOY!!!


We have some exciting news to share, we are expecting a new baby due to arrive in October. We had a fun little reveal party with our family recently and are very excited to announce that: It's a BOY! The girls are thrilled to welcome their new little brother later this year, and I can't express how much joy we feel to be blessed with this sweet little baby; our son. 

Celebrating Mother's Day as a mom, not only to our two beautiful and sweet girls, but also to this new special little life has me feeling very honored and grateful. The journey to get here has not been the easiest, but I am thankful every single day that we made it. I also have to admit that I was so surprised to see blue on top of that cake. Being a mom to two girls has made me practically color blind to anything but pink (haha). Dad is also very happy to have a new boy on the way to help balance out all the female energy in the house. The girls, I know, will make great big sisters and mini-moms in training. They are already wanting to help decorate his room, pick out baby clothes and debate over who gets to hold him first. I look forward to seeing how the household dynamic shifts when he arrives. I know the girls will be very interested in taking care of him and always be there to protect him. We are very eager to meet you little man, and experience all the joys that you will bring to our family!



Beautiful flowers