Coming Soon

Pictures of our precious lady coming soon.

We're too busy staring at her. And cooing over her. And checking on her. And playing with her hair. And kissing her.

We're in love. She's a doll.

Hello July, hello baby!

Dearest Sweet Pea,

This is the month we've been waiting for. Hurry little darling, hurry.

Much love,

Your Family

P.S Please don't even think about trying for an August birthday. xoxoxo

take me back

I love Arizona. I really do. But when temperatures are pushing 117 degrees, breaking all sorts of records, and it's only June, I kinda get crabby. Way more pictures to come from our awesome beach trip, but I couldn't help look at these, close my eyes real tight, and let my imagination take me back there.

And then the sweat dripped down over my pregnant belly and I was reminded instantly right where I was. Ugh!

Final Countdown

Swollen ankles: check

Leg cramps: check

Varicose veins: check

Backache: check

Sleepless nights: check

Continued cravings: check

Continued late night snacks: check

Continued weight gain: check, check and check

Weekly appointments: check

Frequent bathroom breaks: check

115 degree weather: Unfortunately, check

Daily dips in the pool: Thankfully, check

Hospital pre-registration: check

Nursery complete: check

Two big brothers who play in the nursery all day long: check

lil' sis

I may be partial, but I am pretty sure she is already feeling lucky to have these little goof balls as her big brothers.

I'm kinda lucky myself.

Fish-y

After two weeks of swim and only one day of hysterics, we officially have ourselves a fish. A "lion"fish to be exact. Go figure. A heated pool and temperatures near 100, you can't go wrong. Thank you Miss Pam!

Side note: Sorry for the picture overload. The camera has been tucked away way too long and I couldn't contain myself.

Dreamer

My sweet Dax has always had a wonderful imagination. He loves to read and drift off into the wonderful world of make believe. My friend said to me once that she can just picture a Dax-ish cartoon theme song running through his head as he plays. He is so much fun to watch run around and see his mind run wild. It makes it so much fun to play with him. He often has me pinned as a wild animal, a superhero in disguise, a submarine man exploring the ocean he has created, and a taste tester of all his magnificent cakes, to name just a few. My favorite though is to hear the latest of his many dreams when he gets bigger. Usually, bigger means the ripe old age of thirteen. Let me tell you, this boy has some major things to accomplish by age thirteen, but that's a whole different post.

The other day he was laying in the grass staring up at the clouds dreaming away. He propped himself up on one elbow and looks right at me and says, "Mom, I know something that will make you happy." I was curious. I asked him what it was. He said, "When I grow up I want to be a surfer and a Missionary."

I couldn't be prouder of my little guy. He was right; that did make me happy. I want him to keep dreaming, imagining and making goals for himself and do the things he loves. I want him to be anything he wants to be and to work hard to be the very best at it. I know this idea of "what you want to be when you grow up" will change many, many, many times over the course of his life, but I had to tell him that he was one of those things already, and I hope that never changes.

I love this boy.

Baby Cakes

Over here we're getting ready for our baby girl. We're all pretty smitten with her already. We've painted the room, we've taken polls on her eye color (Wyatt thinks red), we've decided where she will sit at the dinner table (a major concern of Dax's), we're car hunting (seriously...dreadful), we're (as in me) are shopping for anything pink, we're (as in Austin) just keeps rolling his eyes at anything I purchase in pink, and we're excited as can be to have "three boys and two girls" in the family.

Except we're NOT okay in one area. She is nameless. Utterly, completely, nowhere close, to having a name. I tend to lean a little more towards traditional names. On the other hand, Austin doesn't want a name where he knows anyone with it. You wouldn't think, but that causes quite a discrepency. We have no list. We each have one we like. And right now Austin's front runner is Torrance.

I beg you, give me some suggestions to help me convince him to name her anything but Torrance.

Ready or Not

We Arizonians have welcomed the month of April with a high of 98 degrees. Seriously?! We're four days into the month! We've already dug out the bathing suits, sunscreen, Toy Story 3 slip n' slide and water balloons. But let's be real, they weren't packed away that far...this is Arizona after all and the start to a long, long summer.

You see, because the start of April means the start of my third trimester. It's only been four days of the retched heat and I've already considered wearing mumu's.

That's totally acceptable for a woman under the age of eighty, right?

hmmmm.

What should a mother do when her three year old's favorite phrase is booyah.

Booyah. Really?

Awesome.

Superheros

Batman and Robin. The boys' heroes. And mine. You'll see why. They completely self-created their costumes. They perfectly acted the parts. They absolutely had me dying laughing. And I'm totally showing their future wives one day. At least I know I am well protected at home by my favorite Superheros!!

Ballpark

I can not remember a Saturday from my childhood not being at the ball park. No, really. Every. Saturday. For years. And years. And years. Even when I was too young to be playing, I can remember being woke out of bed and carried to the car to get to my sister's early games on time. I started t-ball young and by the time I turned 9 and we started to play "travel ball", every weekend from then on out was spent at the ball park until I was 19 years old. Four hour practices, two a-days, 5 games in a row, washing uniforms late at night to be worn the next day, packing lunches to last the day, it all came with Saturday's at the ball park. I enjoyed it then, but looking back, I miss it more than I would have imagined.

Luckily I married someone who spent his youth the exact same way. But, to be clear he was a soccer player and spent his Saturday's at the "field" rather than the "ballpark". When we first got married we would find ourselves relaxing at the park, any park, on Saturday's just in hopes of catching a game; any one's game. We just loved to watch and it was what we knew. Then when our nieces and nephews started to get old enough to play in organized sports on Saturday's we would catch ourselves traveling 25 miles to see a game. We would race up and down the sidelines and yell behind the backstop like all the other crazy parents.

Finally, Dax has reached the age where he gets to play sports on Saturday's. Hooray! Austin coaches and Wyatt and I sit in my hot pink beach chair being his biggest cheerleaders! I try not to get to intense and yell too loudly from the sidelines, but it's hard. I definitely recognize a piece of my dad in my blood now that I am the parent. Dax played soccer last season and now we are starting t-ball. It's my favorite part of spring. Forget that AZ can't decide if we need A/C or the heater, flip flop or Ugg's, sunscreen or umbrella's, we are enjoying what spring here has to offer. Baseball and Spring Training!

We live by the Angel's Spring Training facility, so we headed out to the season opener a few weeks ago with my entire family and of course...wore our Dodger Blue! We collected some autographs, got a ball, sat in the grass, had a picnic and cheered. It is what Saturday's are all about in my book. And the most important part of that equation? Being with my family. And I have the best one.