Trimester 1 Pics

I have a great friend who is a photographer named Anna Joy. She recently took my first trimester pics and we just had so much fun taking these. I have only seen a couple but I love them and can't wait to see more. When I get the rest, I will post more until then here are a couple sneak peeks :)

Tuckered Out

It was a long day! I am not sure if it was longer for me or Ben but I think both of us are beyond tired tonight. Today was my first day back to work at both jobs on the same day. I had teacher in service/classroom work all day and then my first night back teaching college till 8pm. I am pretty sure that was not what the Dr meant by taking it easy but maybe I will get time to take it easy this weekend :) Hey- a mom can dream right????

Finally though after a long hard day we were home safe and in bed. When I first went to check on Ben and he was asleep on his pillow. A little while later I went to check on him and this is what I found- he was almost falling off the bed- poor guy! So I put him back on his pillow, tucked him in, kissed his sweet little cheek, thanked the Lord that he chose me to be Ben's mom, and now I am ready for bed myself! Good nite all!

Baby #2 Update: A VERY Special Thank You

I was woken up at about 2:30 am Sunday morning with sharp pains shooting down my the right side of my baby belly and some spotting. So I tried finding new positions to sleep in to make the pain go away but that didn't help. After awhile it was really bothering me so I tried drinking lots of water, taking a tums, eating something, etc but nothing was working. Eventually I found a comfortable spot and fell back asleep but about 30 minutes later I would wake up from the pain all over again. This continued on until about 6:30am when Ben woke up. Around 8am I thought I better call the dr to make sure things were ok because I have be at school all day tomorrow and then I have my first night teaching college classes. He thinks that it has to do with the stretching of the uterus and the fact that I have placenta previa so he said to come in get some pain meds. I told him I didn't want the pain meds (because they are not great for the baby) so he told me to stay off my feet and drink tons of water. Well I was not really sure how that was going to work with a 2 year to take care of but then the phone rang. . . it was my mom!

A HUGE thank you for my mom and sister who let Ben and I come over all day today and took care of both of us (and my dad, who hurt his back). My mom and sister played with Ben in the pool, painted with him, fed him, changed him, read to him, and played with him all day while I laid on the couch with my feet up. I am beyond blessed to have family that would give up their restful Sunday to take care of me and my (energy filled) little guy all day. Words can not thank you guys enough! I love you soooo much!!!!

Prayers that I feel better tomorrow please: that the pain subsides and the spotting stops. I have a really big week with both schools starting and I just really want to make sure that this baby stays put and is safe and healthy- all while taking care of a 2 year old! :)

Play Date with Aunt Staci

Today Aunt Staci came over for a play date with Ben while I went and got my haircut :) They played trucks and then he showed Aunt Staci how to fix a bike :) Ben really loves his Aunt Staci and they had a great time playing together. Thanks Staci for giving me a mommy break :)

Playing trucks






Steps To Fixing A Bike:










Ben loves his Aunt Staci


It doesn't get much cuter than this :)

Video Updates

Lately when Ben wakes up from a nap I go in to get him and this is what happens. It just cracks me up that he tells me he is "not ready"


We recently got Ben the book (on CD, for the car) 10 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. Today he thought he would a monkey :)


Ben just learned how to pedal. He is really excited and tells me "big boy mama"

Catching Up on the Past Week

Last weekend we went out to seafood with my mother-in-law for her birthday and Uncle Kevin showed Ben how to pick up crab and crack crab legs. Ben was pretty proud of himself :)





Wednesday night our sweet friend Kaelee came over to play with Ben for a few hours so I could get some work done for school. She was the biggest help and Ben just had the greatest time playing with her. They played outside, fixed things with tools, went on a walk and played with his bike. Thank you Kaelee- you are great Ben with and we just love ya!





Ben not wanting to go inside and take a bath

Things To Make You Smile

Here are 2 cute little videos to make you smile!

Ben's musical skills- haha


Ben's version (as mixed up as it might be) of Happy Birthday

Fun in the Sun

As summer is quickly coming to an end we are trying to pack in all the days at the beach we should have had all summer, so today we headed to the beach again with our friends. The weather was just perfect and so was the company! Ben and I had a great time

Ben's: aka- Mr. Fix It

If you need something fixed feel free to bring it over and Ben will have it working again in no time. Heck, even if it's not broken- bring it over and Ben will work on it for you. If you ask me, he is a pretty cute handyman! :)

Kicking Back

Quick news on baby #2:
Last night I felt our little gummy bear kick for the first time. I can not believe how awesome that feeling is. I forgot how much I love this feeling- what a special bond for mama and baby!

Super Fun Saturday

When I got my first teaching job my mom took me out to get some "teacher clothes". Every year since then, my mom and I have gone out before school starts to get a couple new fun things for work. So this morning my mom, Ben and I headed to the TO mall to do our annual black to school shopping trip. Never did I imagine myself buying maternity clothes for my back to school attire- what a great surprise and blessing!

After we did some quick shopping we headed back to my parents and took Ben swimming. He got lots of pool toys for his birthday so he was really excited to get to play with them. The water and the weather were perfect and he had a blast playing with grandma Donna!











After swimming and naps we headed to dinner with Grandma Mary, Great grandma Emiko, and Uncle Kevin to celebrate Grandma Mary's birthday. Ben is really into birthdays and kept saying "surprise" and he even sang Happy Birthday to grandma Mary :) Happy Birthday Grandma Mary, we love you!

Ben the Photographer

Ben decided to take some pictures of himself all by himself. Taking pictures of yourself is hard so I think these are pretty good for a 2 year old. They got me laughing hopefully you like them too :)

A Fun Filled Friday

This is my last Friday before school starts again so I wanted to make sure that Ben and I had a really great day and boy did we ever!

We woke up this morning and Ben was asking for hot chocolate but it was far too hot out for hot chocolate so I made him cold chocolate (aka: chocolate milk). Now I know that is not traditionally what moms give their kids for breakfast but today was fun Friday and I totally didn't care and he loved it! We also had waffles for breakfast (Ben's fav) and then packed up and headed out the door.

First we went to the library to return our books and get new ones. Ben is probably the only 2 year old I know that loves to grab a pile of books when we get to the library, finds a cozy place to sit and will sit there looking at his books quietly till I come get him. I'm so thankful I have a little bookworm on my hands. What really cracks me up is how lately he tries to "read" by pointing to words and saying gibberish or random words- LOL! Ben has also been doing the reading program at the library this summer: reading books, tracking his time, and getting prizes. He is really into it and runs to the prize desk with his time sheet when we get ready to check our books out. This week he had finished all the allotted time and got a free book of his choice, a gift card to presto pasta, and a stamper. He was super excited!


After the library we headed to the water park in Ventura, just the two of us, and had the best time! We swam and splashed, put out faces under water, blew bubbles and practiced walking along the wall with our hands. Then Ben jumped into me and swam back to the wall over and over again and practiced his kicking. I still can not believe how much he loves the water and how comfortable he is in it. Even a couple mom and a lifeguard commented on great he was in the water- way to go Ben! Finally we got hungry, so got out and had some lunch while we warmed up. After our tummies were full, Ben decided he wanted to play in the water park area so we hung out there for a little bit before heading home for naps. What an afternoon!




After naps, we went to my parents house for dinner. Ben did a great job helping grandma Donna put the cut up veggies in the pan. My mom also made beef strogenoff and to my surprise Ben actually liked it. (I thought the texture might be weird for him).


What a fun filled day! I can not believe summer is almost over :( I had a great day with my little guy. He is getting more and more grown up each day. I must admit though, my favorite part of the whole day was this: we were walking out of the water park and getting ready to come home and Ben leaned in and said "more pool thanks mama" and kissed me! He melts my heart!!!!!