Our Little Sweetheart at 10 and 13 weeks!

This first shot is of Baby Valentine at 10 weeks along! We call him or her "Baby Valentine" or "Little Sweetheart" because the due date is February 22, 2011... one short week after Valentine's Day! We could call the baby "Baby Justin" since it also happens to be my brother Justin's birthday... but "Justin" doesn't seem very gender neutral! ;) Oh, and for anyone who doesn't already know, we won't be finding out the gender of the baby! We're shootin' for a surprise... I haven't decided if this idea is fun or just plain stupid... I'm kind of a planner in case you didn't know... so I'm not too great with suprises... with the exception of my surprise "Christmas in August" birthday party last year! That officially ROCKED!

Okay, back to our Sweetheart! He or she was measuring right on target at 10 weeks and was still managing to make me EVER SO sleepy from the moment I found out I was pregnant!

This next picture is of our Little Sweetheart at 13 weeks... less alien, more human! Very cool to see! As my belly grows... and it has been a growin' since day one... I'll get some belly shots up for good memory! In the meantime, I'm enjoying the return of my energy in this second trimester!


The kids are growing increasingly more aware of babies and taking care of them! They "feed" the baby through my belly button and make endless promises to change diapers and sing or read to baby and give him/her a bath! It is beyond heartwarming to see their excitement grow with ours... and the many kisses to my belly... and prayers for the "baby in Mommy's tummy" are absolutely priceless! :)


I'm currently 17 weeks along, with my next appointment on September 30th! The kids are already looking forward to it! The last time we went to the ultrasound, the kids couldn't stop talking about how the baby was "swimming around like a tuna fish!" ... and he or she really was cutting a rug in there... best of all, I can feel it now! :)

Our Summer Stay-Cation... via Slide Shows!

(You may need to adjust the volume on each individual video by using the speaker icon... and the quality is better than it initially appears!)

Mike and I decided that it would be best if he only took a few days vacation this year and store up those remaining days for a rainy day... or month!

We decided to start with a trip to the Cabrillo Beach Aquarium since we had already done the Long Beach Aquarium. For a small museum we were most certainly pleased! We stopped for some fun at Redondo Beach on the way back home and made an entire day out of it! We all had a really enjoyable time!

This first slide show is about 7 minutes long I think, but if you can hang in towards the middle/end to see some of the photos of us dressing up like sea creatures, it would be totally worth it! :)

This next slide show is of our trip to the California Science Center. We knew it would be a great place to visit, but we were surprised to learn that they had an abundant amount of ocean life exhibits, which was great since that was kind of our theme... the kids studied ocean life all Summer and these first two trips definitely helped things "sink in"! :)

Next came our trip to Mt. Baldy to visit the fishing farm for the kids! Of course we kicked things off with a picnic in the woods, although we were too busy munching to capture photos! Now, we'd taken the kids fishing before, but with no luck and much frustration (more for Mike & I than the kids!)! SO, we decided to go the "easy route" and take them for a guaranteed catch! Little did we know, fish aren't always easy to catch at these farms, as you'll see in the first couple of slides! Took us about an hour to catch our first fish with a second following shortly thereafter! Blake caught his first and was very involved in the process that followed the catch! Addison caught hers next and turned out to be a true girl! :) She didn't want anything to do with her fish, unless it involved a taco! The kids LOVE their fish tacos! It was a ton of fun... and in the end, we were glad it took awhile to catch our prizes... otherwise it wouldn't have felt as authentic! The kids were thrilled either way!

The last 10 or so slides on this show are from a quick trip to Cal Poly... a regular visiting place for our family! Nonetheless, it was exciting!

This final slide show was from our visit to the Peterson's Automotive Museum! What a treat it was for us and the kids! The boys went crazy over everything, while Addison was drawn to anything pink! There were a couple real cute pink cars for her there... and she was beyond excited about it! Blake was in some kind of dream come true because he was super antsy and full of adrenaline... and questions/comments! ;) Fun for the whole fam!

This was the best stay-cation a girl could ask for! Thanks Mikey! The kids and I appreciate your hard work and labor to not only provide for our family, but for always making time for the important things... especially, time with our family!

Blake's Summer Soccer Fun!

Here are some videos and a few pictures from Blake's very first attempt at sports! He was quite excited and did an excellent job listening to his coach and interacting with his friends/teammates! Coach Nikki couldn't say enough wonderful things about Blake's disposition and focus... you know, just enough to make any Mommy proud! :) Addison was not old enough to play, but she will be next Summer... they'll be on the same team if she doesn't choose to do dance class instead! :)

Oh, the videos below are from Blake's 2nd class of the Summer, so he was still pretty fresh, but they're my favorite nontheless! All of the videos are pretty short... and I had to throw a quick clip in of Addie during Blake's practice too!

And just to tease you, one of these videos (I'm pretty sure anyways) contains a fun toddler fight... the boys were pretty rough on the team... lucky for Blake, he was the youngest kid on the team, but also the biggest! That's our boy! :)

(You may need to turn up the volume on each video using the speaker icon on the actual video)

Blake was sick with a cold on his last day of practice, which may be evident by his facial expression, but he came to collect his award, give coach a special goody, and do one final team cheer... just enough fun to spread the germs, but hey, everyone insisted he partake... now that's a TEAM!

Let the "Summer 2010 in Review" Begin!

Now that summer has officially ended, it's time to catch-up on all of our happenings! I'm starting with Blake & Addison's first set of swim lessons! While they weren't always the happiest of campers to attend the classes, they learned a great deal... mostly along the lines of safety, and for that we are grateful! Both kids now know how to grab the side of a pool and use it to get to safety, and they know how to flip over to their backs and float after being thrown into the pool! Can't say these were pleasant tasks to learn, but it's a great start! Oh, and they can both successfully go under water without swallowing too much of it... or inhaling it through their noses! Not to mention, we had a great time as a family every evening at these classes!

It will still be a LONG time before these guys are flying solo in the water, but we're glad we got a great start on a few of the safety skills that are more important than "swimming" anyways! :)