New Cars . . . It's Apparently What We Do

A month before Ben was born we had to buy a new car because I was in an accident with Bryan's truck. Now here we are less than a month before this baby is due and we are again, buying a new car. . . apparently it's what we do haha!

Actually the truth is that Ben was getting too big to be in his car seat in the back row (he legs and feet were squished against the seat in front of him) and Bryan's legs/knees were pressed against the dash in the front seat and we just really felt that this car was getting too small for our family which made it unsafe for us. So we have spent the past couple months looking for a new car and after Bryan's great car buying/negotiating skills we found a new car that fit our budget. Although we were looking for a newer-used car, we ended up buying this one for cheaper than the used ones we were looking at. We now have plenty of room and a third row.
So here is our new car- it's a 2011 Chevy Tahoe and we just love it!

Fun on Bikes

Ben is really getting the hang of riding his bike and impresses me with his balance and control. I think it might be time to get a big boy bike soon and I am pretty sure he will be ready to skip the training wheels. It makes me nervous the way he coasts downhill so fast, but he loves it!
Not bad for a little guy that just turned 2.5 years old!



I love how he answers me in this clip about only mommy kissing him . . . melts my heart!

A Shower of Blessings

Today was such an amazing day being surrounded by my family and friends during the best baby shower ever! The weather was amazing, the setting beautiful, and the people wonderful! Thank you to everybody that came and made today so special. Thank you to Holly and my lil sis Staci for all the hard work that you put into today to make it so perfect- you guys did an amazing job! I am so thankful to be surrounded by so many people that love me and my family and I feel overwhelmingly blessed by all the things we got for the baby today!

The Amazing Setting












Amazing Gifts






The Amazing People

40 Days and Counting!

40 days is a significant number of days in the Bible . . .

* It rained for 40 days and 40 nights while Noah and his family were in the ark (Gen 7:12 KJV) (Gen 8:6 KJV)

* Moses was on the mountain with God for 40 days (Exo 34:28-29 KJV)

* The Israelites spent 40 years in the wilderness, one year for each day they explored the Promised Land (Exo 16:35 KJV)(Num 14:33-34 NIV)

* Goliath came for forty days before being killed by David (1 Sam 17:16 NLT)

* Jonah warned the City of Nineveh they had 40 days until God would overthrow the city. The people repented in those 40 days and God spared the city (Jonah 3:4 and 10 KJV)

* Jesus fasted for 40 days in the wilderness (Mat 4:1-2 KJV)

* Jesus was seen in the earth 40 days after His crucifixion (Acts 1:3 NIV)

. . . and now here I sit with 40 days until this baby comes. I am pretty sure that I will not be killing any giants, sitting on top of a mountain, fasting (for sure not that one, haha) or sitting in a boat while it rains over the next 40 days but I will be sitting here in awe and with anticipation to meet this little miracle that the Lord has placed in our lives (aka: my belly). I sit back and think about all the great stories in the Bible and can't help but think that this baby is just as important to him as all those great stories and events, that He loves this baby and already knows everything about him, and that He created this baby with a special plan and purpose.

I remember after having Ben and trying IVF again and it not working, how upset and sad I was thinking that my last chance for another baby had come and gone and that I would always have this hole in my heart for another child. I remember being upset and not wanting the reminder around me all the time and so I decided to sell all Ben's baby stuff thinking I would never need it again. Little did I know then what a great and amazing plan the Lord had coming up for me. I remember calling my friend Kelly at 6am (sorry for waking you up Kelly) in disbelief after taking a PG test that morning as a joke and seeing that we were in fact PG and just knowing it was all by God's grace. I remember thinking then how far aways 266 days seemed and now here I am at just 40 days left!

I am so in awe of God's plan and this blessing he placed in our lives and I cannot wait to meet our little peanut! So here we go . . . 40 days and counting :)







Ben sticking his tummy out like Mommy's

Big Boy Chair

For christmas, my mother-in-law got Ben a big boy chair for his room because he loves to sit in there and read. Well the chair finally came the other day and it is so awesome! Ben loves to sit in it and read, hide behind it, play in it and show it to anybody that comes over. It matches his room perfectly and we just love it- thank you Mary!

Family Day

Today we had our 33 week OB appt. Ben has been really excited about it all day, talking about wanting to see "Owen", waving to him, and wanting to watch "Owen" dance. So at 3pm we headed to Thousand Oaks for our appt- at 4:45pm the doctor finally came in and we got to see "Owen" via ultrasound!

He is growing quite well, looking great, and was moving non stop (like always). He is right on track for his growth except for his head- which is measuring 3 weeks ahead . . . AWESOME!!! (Bryan is trying to tell me not to worry, it's only 3 weeks ahead but I told him when is the one delivering the head, he can share his opinion- otherwise, zip it! LOL)

*click on the picture to make it bigger


After our appt we headed to The Lakes in Thousand Oaks for dinner and to play in the park there. Ben had a great time playing with daddy on the slide, the sea horse and seeing the huge horses.










He also, as you can tell, REALLY enjoyed his ice cream sundae (which he got for eating all his dinner and being good at the OB appt)

Photographer in Training

Not only is Ben really into having his picture taken lately, but he is also really into taking people's pictures. So today I let him try his hand at taking pictures and these are seriously the ones he took- pretty impressive for a 2 year old :)

Pictures that Ben took of Mommy






Pictures that Mommy took of Ben

Our "Day Off"

With all the happenings of last night and Ben and I still trying to get better from being sick I decided that today we were going to stay home, stay warm, kick back in our slippers and just hang out together. It is rare that we get to do this because usually there is grocery shopping to do, errands to run, teaching college or middle school, etc so to do so was super fun :)

Here are some of the things we did on our "day off" :)

We made sugar cookies and decorated them






We played lots of puzzles- Ben always impresses me with his ability to put together a puzzle. He loves them and can always figure out which pieces go where










Since last night, the pregnancy nesting bug has hit me in full force so today we pulled out the newborn stuff from when Ben was little, washed all the clothes/blankets/sheets/baby toys and organized the room. Ben was really excited about this and wanted to play with all his baby stuff, try on all his baby shoes and then wanted to help get it all ready for "Owen". It was really cute!