Peeking In On You

On Sunday we took a family outing to get a 3D/4D ultrasound done of baby girl. Brian has been itching to get one done since we did one last time with A. I think he secretly wanted to confirm (again) that it really is a girl in there hehe. Yes it's still a girl, by the way!

Anyway, baby girl was taking a nap or just being shy because at first all we got was her profile. If she did turn toward us it was with her hand in front of her face or in her mouth and we couldn't get a good look. I turned and poked at her, I drank cold water, I walked around in order to get her to move. Oh and move she did but with her hand in front of her face the whole time. Apparently she really didn't want her picture taken. Ummm do I really have another diva on my hands?! After 15 -20 minutes the ultrasound tech was about to call it a day and just have us come back another time, she even said, "guess you'll just have to come back another day and we can try again." Wouldn't you know the second she said that, baby girl decided to move her hand away and look at the camera?! I swear she is laughing at us in this picture

Here she is about to move her arm back in front of her face. She gave us a small window of opportunity to capture as many pictures as we could then she was back to snuggling with her cord and the wall of my uterus. Good times.

Anayah was so funny. She was NOT thrilled about a stranger touching my belly and kept telling the ultrasound tech she couldn't touch baby sishter. She was even less thrilled when she used the wand on my belly. A kept telling her "no scratching baby sishter." It was so sweet and funny at the same time.

It's so crazy to me how much these pictures look just like A's pictures! I can't wait to meet you sweet girl and kiss those cheeks! We love you and are excited for your arrival!!

Family Pictures

I posted a few weeks ago on the photography blog about Jessica doing our family photos this year as part of a photo swap and I promised to show you our pictures once I got them back and ordered Christmas cards. Well finally I get to share them here! You may have already seen them on facebook but it's ok, you can look at them again :)

We had a really fun time even though this momma was stressed that A's pants were dirty after about 5 minutes...oh well, thank goodness for Photoshop! Jess did a fabulous job keeping up with a toddler who doesn't keep still while managing to capture her actually smiling at the camera instead of ignoring it like she does to me most days.

I love the spirit of these pictures, the playfulness and character in each and every one. Thank you Jess for taking the time to create memories that I will always cherish. I love them all and can't wait to have you shoot us again! Here are the favorites from the day that aren't on our Christmas cards or being given as gifts HAHA!!

Love them.

Christmas Cookie Club

Having blog issues is not fun...especially when you have pregnancy brain and you are constantly forgetting stuff, then having to go back and remember the things you wanted to blog about while you were unable to. Ugh. Anyway, before I forget I wanted to tell you about our first annual Christmas Cookie Club (from two weeks ago!).

That is the book that served as inspiration for such an event. My neighbor introduced me to the book when she asked me if I wanted to join her club. I thought it was such a great idea that I decided I also wanted to start one with my friends. Well if you've actually read this book you'll know that their cookie club is slightly different than a traditional cookie exchange. There is an entire list of rules that the members must follow, yes I said members. It's quite an exclusive club with only 12 people allowed. The biggest difference however is the fact that each member of the club bakes 12 dozen cookies and brings each dozen wrapped like a gift to give to the other ladies. Yes, you read that right. 12 dozen. So yes, that means since I joined two cookie clubs, I was baking 24 dozen cookies!

Here are all our cookies wrapped in their beautiful packages. I can't tell you what goes on at cookie club...that's for members only :) but it was a fun night and I'm excited for this new tradition that we started.

You'll notice that there aren't 12 of us in attendance. One of the rules of cookie club is if you can't attend you either send your cookies in your place or you forfeit your spot. One sent her cookies and sadly a few had to be cut. Bummer for them. Thank you ladies for baking your butts off and being a part of a new tradition. Love you all!

Technical Difficulties

Well we're experiencing a few minor hiccups on the bloggity blog and I'm not able to post any pictures right now. Please bear with us as we figure it out. We have so much fun stuff to share with you all!! Hopefully we'll be up and running soon!

New Nursery Ideas

I've been browsing Pinterest in search of ideas for baby girl #2's nursery and I keep coming back to the same picture. I think it's a sign that I should just go with it. I'd show it to you but I like keeping it a secret...just in case I change my mind. Which is bound to happen. I wonder, though, if I could pull it off before she gets here? We'll see. I'm also re-doing A's bedroom, converting the office to the nursery, and converting the guest room to the office. Did I mention I'm trying to do it all on a $500 budget?! Did I also mention I'm almost into my 3rd trimester? Yep, time is flying by!! Here's a pic of me at the end of 26 weeks, and a few stats:

 

At 26 weeks,

- My weight gain is about 25lbs (yikes!!) BUT I can still wear my non-maternity clothes. It's so odd
- I can definitely feel baby girl moving and kicking a TON more these days
- Food is not really appealing (obviously I'm eating hence the 25lbs) and nothing sounds good. Ever.
- I'm very impatient these days. Sorry B!
- Sleep is hit or miss...some days are better than others.
- Anayah now refers to my belly as "baby sishter"

Everything else is going well and I'll be in the home stretch in no time at all! February will be here before we know it. 

Our Knotts Adventure

So someone informed me that Knott's Berry Farm has Military Tribute days starting in November and all veterans/military personnel and a guest get in free! (They can also get reduced priced tickets for up to 6 other people) I was super excited because I've really been wanting to take A to Disneyland but let's be real, we can't afford it. I suppose Knott's is the next best thing, and free is even better! The only bummer was Brian usually works on Saturdays and lately been working OT on two of his three days off so finding a time to go would be tricky. As luck would have it he informed me he had an extra day off he had to take before the end of the year or he would lose it so we took advantage and decided to head to Knott's. My mom (who is also a veteran...retired Navy) and dad came with us and brought my nephew too! The weather was cool and overcast all day but thankfully no rain. I think the forecast kept a lot of people away because the park wasn't as crowded as I was expecting it to be. We spent most of our time in Camp Snoopy but we did tour the park and B managed to get on a few rides by himself. It's kind of a bummer not being able to ride ANYthing...even the kiddie rides were forbidden! Oh well. We all had a great time and I look forward to going back again!

Brian was a trooper for taking her on all the rides! I'm sure he had fun too though :)

Friday Favorite

From our impromptu painting session last week:

Please don't mind her mis-matched outfit! No one said painting clothes were glamorous :)

Happy Friday!

Marisa's Mini Makeover...Belated Edition

Haha, so I realized while posting the Soto Family session on my photography blog that I never finished this post about the makeover we did in Marisa's family room. I posted a sneak peek here...in January...(oops) but I never posted the full reveal. In an effort to save time because I'm just too lazy busy right now, I'll post the before and after pictures here and share with you the full story she shared on her blog HERE.

 BEFORE:

AFTER:

Seriously go check it out. It's quite a before and after and we she did a TON of work and I must say I'm so proud to be a part of that awesome project!! Now if only I could find the energy and creativity to start working on the new nursery! Haha.

Friday Favorite

I know the Friday Favorite is usually very short and includes just one (maybe two) pictures but I HAD to share these with you because they honestly crack me up every time I look at them! So I had an indoor shoot scheduled last week and I ended up borrowing a bunch of gear from a friend since I don't normally shoot indoors or in a studio. Anyway, I was setting it all up and practicing with it and of course A wanted to "help" so I made her model for me. I laugh because some of them remind me of cheesy kindergarten pictures that we used to take in school. Totally fake and generic looking. Of course my child found a way to make it entertaining though! Enjoy :)

 Haha, total school picture pose! Even baby got involved

 Quick background change...This one is my absolute favorite one!!

 This was right before she decided to lunge at me to see her pictures.

Good times! This kid honestly makes me laugh several times daily. Hope these pictures brought a smile to your face.
Happy Friday!!

Halloween 2012 :: Illumination

So this is A's third Halloween. I'm sure you remember her previous costumes

2010

 2011

Hehe, wasn't she just the cutest?! Anyway, in previous years we've spent Halloween with her buddy Jack, trick-or-treating with his family in their neighborhood. Well this year we decided to switch things up a bit. Miss A is at that age where things are starting to scare her and I really didn't feel like taking her out at night to possibly be exposed to scary costumes/decorations/people and have her freak out. Ummm, nightmares? No thank you. So we decided to attend our church's Halloween alternative called "Illumination." Costumes were allowed as long as they weren't scary. Of course I waited until the last minute to figure out what she was going to be and in the end decided I really didn't want to buy something she would wear once. Sooo what to do, what to do? Raid her closet of course! She must have something in there we can use. This is what we came up with:

2012

having fun at the carnival...the games were too big for her, but she kept herself entertained

after the party, she and Dopey calling her friends to tell them all about it...too bad Dopey is bigger than her!

Aww, she's so cute!! And growing up too fast!! Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!

Our Recent "Avenchur"

Last week we made our annual trip to AZ for B's World Series Tournament. You can read more about last year's trip here. Well this was our first trip with me being preggo and an active toddler who doesn't like being in her carseat for longer than 30 min. Let's just say I really wasn't looking forward to the drive!! We didn't have to be there until Wednesday afternoon and I didn't really feel like leaving super late Tuesday night after B got home from work so we decided we'd leave early Wednesday morning and hope that A didn't get too antsy. In hopes of keeping her excited, I told her we were going on an adventure. "Avenchur?" was her reply. Yes, honey, an adventure. We talked about the hotel (and the pool) and daddy's baseball games, we talked about being in the car for a long time and all the fun things she could do when we get there. It seemed to go over well and we headed out early for our 5+ hour drive.

 Having fun at our second stop...going to catch the penguin.

I think we ended up making 3 or 4 stops along the way, not necessarily all for her, but stops nonetheless, which wasn't too bad. She had a meltdown toward the end of the trip but that's because it was past lunch time and close to nap time. I wanted her to nap at the hotel rather than in the car. Yeah, right mommy. There's too much too explore in a new hotel room!! Some highlights from the trip:

baseball of course

playing in the dirt/grass at daddy's games

chillin' in the hotel

coloring with daddy between games

more baseball

ummm, napping?! or eating twizzlers I suppose


Overall, the trip was a success. Even though B's team didn't make playoffs this year (hey they can't win EVERY year!) we had a good time. We headed home late Saturday night so A could sleep during the drive and we could have a day at home to recover. When we got home I asked A if she had fun on her adventure. She replied with "yes mommy, time for 'nother avenchur?" Sure thing, kiddo. You've got a really big adventure heading your way soon! :)