My Little Christmas Baby

I used to think that I never wanted to have a little one who was born during the Christmas Season. Boy was I wrong. It makes my life crazier than I could have ever imagined but it is seriously one of the best things I could have ever asked for. I was going to share my feelings about it and what makes me love it so, but I decided not to. I'm going to keep them private...just between me and my boy.

 I love my little Christmas baby! 

Facebook

Facebook is a double edged sword. It is a great, great tool that allows us to connect to one another and share many moments in our lives regardless of distance. I have been able to reconnect with long lost friends as well as gain some new ones through the power of FB. Personally, it has made our move to Sacramento so much easier because I still feel "involved" with so many loved ones in Santa Rosa. However, I am growing so sick and tired of the rest of this dang social forum. I despise the politics that permeate every corner, I loathe the TMI that is posted on a daily basis, and I can NOT stand the obligation involved on the giving and receiving ends.

All that aside, I really draw the line at unwholesome images being thrown in my face. If you have the FB app on your mobile phone then you may have noticed that the layout varies significantly from the desktop version. One of those differences is that they include "suggested pages" right in your timeline/ news feed. Those "suggested pages" originally included simple companies or charities however in the last week have transitioned to pages promoting pornography and violence. I have searched for ways to hide these suggestions and have had no luck. But, what makes me EXTREMELY INFURIATED is that I have reported every single one of these pages to FB as inappropriate and explicit and FB has rejected every. single. one.

I will not allow this smut to be in my home and I *REALLY* won't invite it in myself. That said, I am beginning my transition from Facebook. I know that sounds silly. Why do I need a transition? The sad truth is that I have forgotten how to keep in touch with people without Facebook and I need to relearn it. I need to retrain myself. For now I have deleted the Facebook app from my phone. It has already had some very positive effects and its only been 24 hours.

While I would love to sit here and say that I am kicking Facebook out of my life for good, I cannot...yet. But I'm getting there and I pray I get better!

Nap Time & Sundays

As I sit writing this, my sweet boy is upstairs snoozing away. It is a beautiful Sunday afternoon and Little Man and I have left church early so that he could get some rest. I feel very conflicted about Sundays, nap times, and routines.

Having taken care of other peoples children for years, I have seen first hand just how much a consistent schedule affects a child. That being said, I am adamant (probably to a fault) about keeping our family on a schedule. This week has been insanely successful and L has taken daily naps lasting longer than two hours-- two weeks ago we were singing a different song. Maybe it's a growth spurt but I'm holding out hope that this is just an awesome new habit he's picked up.

Either way, I digress. I found myself sitting in the chapel this morning thinking about what to do for my child whose morning nap time had come and passed. Church starts at 9am, he naps at 9:30. Do I take him home so that he can nap? Do I try to get him to fall asleep at church, most likely in the hall, and definitely not for a decent length of time (all the while not receiving any spiritual enrichment but still "being there")? Do I just forge ahead, keep him awake, and pray that he makes up for it with a solid nap when we get home? I feel like it is my responsibility, and obligation, to respect him and his needs-- napping being one of them. My thoughts then went on to what will happen when we have our next child and how we can't just work around their nap schedule in the same fashion that we do now.

For now all I can do is hope that our Heavenly Father will know that I really am trying to do what I think is best. Deep down inside I think he does, but I also feels like he knows that we know that there may be a better option out there.

With that, I ask you: what do (did) you do with your little one who has nap time at the same time as church?

2012 In Review (Brace yourself, it's a biggie!)

It's been quite a while since I've posted so lets catch up. 2012 was a crazy, amazing year. It was filled with innumerable giggles and smiles, some tears here and there, and some awesome life changing experiences. Come, lets reminisce.

January: Dan and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary! It was unbelievable to us how quickly the year flew by and how time continues to whiz by us without offering a chance to catch up. Dan was in charge of planning our celebration for the year (he's got odd years, I have the even ones) and it was a blast. We had dinner at our favorite spot: the TACO TRUCK! He made sure it was romantical by bringing along a table cloth, flowers, candles, bubbly, and glasses for said bubbly. It was a pretty fun night and especially fitting since that truck watched our relationship evolve from a friendship to an eternal marriage. A few brave people approached us and asked us what was going on and were so excited when I boasted about what my hubby had done. The owner brought us dessert on the house (perhaps I should say "on the wheels" since it's a TRUCK) and asked to take a picture with us. He was pretty tickled by the whole thing.

February: This was a very fun month. We went away for the night to celebrate our anniversary. North of Santa Rosa is an historic hot springs resort, Vichy Springs. Apparently Jack London used to spend a lot of time here. The place was super cute and extremely relaxing. The mineral baths were QUITE the experience...it was like we were floating in a bottle of soda! After our night at Vichy Springs we took the scenic route home and drove down Highway 1, stopping to check out some weaner pods of Harbor Seals.

 We had stopped for a potty break and a random person

 saw us standing like this and took a picture of us!

Why might we be so happy? Oh! We just had lunch at a scrumptious 

BBQ place, Bones Roadhouse in Gualala. 

March: Dan had an interview with Touro University, Nevada in the beginning of March. We were able to travel to Las Vegas together for the interview. We spent three days there...one for the interview, one for business (investigating housing should we end up going to school there in Las Vegas), and one more for pleasure. While in Las Vegas, we were able to attend the LV Temple and visit Hoover Dam. The trip in and of itself was a great blessing for our family. The school was great and Dan loved the experience...little did we know that Heavenly Father had a different plan for us.

Outside the temple. This temple was one of our favorites. 

Hoover Dam

Hoover Dam

A bridge above the Hoover Dam. Looks pretty cool if you ask me! 

Inside Hoover Dam

Hoover Dam!

Hoover Dam's innards.

Dan getting ready for his interview. What a snazzy lookin' husband I have! 

I stole this moment without Dan knowing. He was walking in for his interview. I was, and AM, so proud of his achievements.

April: By far one of the best months of the year. On April 13 (Friday the 13th!) we found out that we were pregnant! Our pregnancy was confirmed a week later at the dr's office and thus began 5 weeks of a million and a half appointments to make sure my body was fit for pregnancy given the extenuating circumstances of my whole "one lunged-ness". I saw my OB/GYN a half dozen times, my oncologist, and a pulmonologist a couple times. Additionally, I had a myriad of tests run including an echocardiogram (SUPER COOL!) and a pulmonary function test. Everything came back stellar which helped lay the foundation for a happy and healthy pregnancy. 

        
Dan and I were so excited when we found out that we were expecting. This was something we had waited for for a long time and so to see it happen was truly amazing!

May: Dan graduated from Sonoma State University. We also announced our pregnancy! :) Later in the month we were blessed with the opportunity to visit my family in Cuba. It was such a bittersweet experience. I was so thankful for the chance to introduce my family to my husband (and vice versa) but was so sad at the realization that this would be my last chance to see so many people that I loved for a very long time. As nutty as those crazy cubans are, they are absolutely amazing and I am so grateful to know them.

June: We recovered from Cuba. Yes, it took a whole month.

July: July 19 was our ultrasound to find out if we were packin' a she or he. The night before our appointment we decided to have the results sealed up and revealed at our baby shower. Talk about a tease!

Proof that our little goob has had fingers in his mouth since the beginning!

August: My car got graffitied while I was in work. I'm a pretty lucky gal.

September: Baby shower! We were so blessed to be surrounded by amazing family and friends as we found out, with them, the gender of our baby. The baker received our sealed results and colored a layer of frosting within the cake in correspondence with the baby's gender. As we cut into the cake we were both filled with SOOO much excitement and gratitude! It's a boy!! And then to be showered with so many generous gifts humbled us both SO much. Thank you to all!

October: Dan's cousin, Rachel, got married in Monterey. We were lucky enough to make it a little weekend getaway. We stayed in town and putzied around for most of the weekend but took a quick trip to Pfeiffer Beach-- it has PURPLE SAND!

The beach was beautiful but SOOOO windy. The sand would whip around so strongly, it really stung our skin a lot. However, once we hit the purple sand, it was SO worth it! (Unfortunately those pictures are on another camera and have yet to be uploaded onto the computer.) 

For Halloween Dan dressed up as Quail-Man and I was Patti Mayonaise. Unfortunately we don't have any pictures. Let's be honest though, while Dan made an *AWESOME* Quail-Man, I did not do Patti justice. My blonde wig went horribly with my complexion and I was 8 months pregnant, lol.

November: We stayed in for Thanksgiving. With the arrival of our little one approached ever so quickly, my energy wained and we thought it best to stay close to home. Not to mention, I had to be to work bright and early the morning after so driving to family would make for a very long day. Instead, my mom came and stayed with us. She helped with some things around the house and we baked allllllllllllllllll daaaaaaaaaaaay on Thursday. I think we all enjoyed our holiday very much.

December: This is were the BEST of it all happened. My due date was December 19. It came...and it went. We had an appt with our OB/GYN the morning of and I was hardly dilated at all. We set an appointment for induction on December 29 and prayed that it wouldn't take that long. The next morning contractions started so we thought maybe our prayers had been answered! But then they stopped. And started. And stopped. And started. For 9 days. Yeah, I said that right: NINE DAYS!! The doc said I was experiencing prodromal labor. While most of my contractions were mostly mild, they were relentless. They would sit at 10 minutes apart for a while and then BAM! they came every two minutes. It gets old real quick. To make matters worse, I had back labor from the get-go. I never felt anything in my abdomen  even in the delivery room (the monitors kept registering that my contractions were itty-bitty until it couldn't register them at all-- and this was right before I was ready to push).  All of the pain was centralized in my lower back and was INCREDIBLY uncomfortable. Anyway, we reported to the hospital like good little parents-to-be on Dec 29  ready to induce. To our surprise I was dilated to 5 and 80% effaced! The nurses tried to send me home to "wait it out" but I resisted, and its a good thing. I had tested positive for Strep B which meant that I would need two rounds of antibiotics before delivering and each round takes 4 hours. Little Man was born 9 hours later. Had I gone home I would not of had both rounds.

Our nurses were absolutely AMAZING and the midwife was FANTASTIC! They did such a great job of helping us feel comfortable and at ease. We were truly blessed.

After a long night of progressing labor (didn't need the induction after all, thank goodness!) and after 30 minutes of pushing, our sweet boy was welcomed into this world the following morning. That day, that moment, is forever engrained on our minds and hearts. We are so grateful for the joy and love that he has brought to our family!

Oh yeah, we also got to see The Lion King Musical for our anniversary. It was pretty amazing!

2013

January: January was filled with learning the ropes as a new mom and dad. We now spent more time awake than asleep and it has been baptism by fire. Levi has been a pretty great sleeper from the beginning. While he obviously wasn't sleeping through the night, he would sleep in 4 hour blocks and that helped a lot!

Our handsome little guy began smiling around 3 weeks and has never stopped! He is such a strong little one and had great head control from the very beginning. Additionally, he has super strong legs and has loved standing up any chance he can get. 

February: For once we had a rather low key month! I enjoyed my time home with Levi and soaked up every moment!

March: Levi was blessed on March 3. Family and friends joined us at church where Dan, through priesthood authority, gave him a special blessing to start his life with. We were so humbled to have so much support and our boy is so lucky to have so many who love him! 

March 24th we had the opportunity to join Dan's parents, Chuck & Kathi, at church. Elder Jeffery R. Holland visited their stake that day and we were so excited when we found out that he would be there as he is one of our most favorite apostles. He has such a gift of speaking in a manner that is straightforward and full of conviction. Having the chance to be in the same room as an Apostle of the Lord is always a humbling experience! 

Levi also visited the Oakland Temple for the first time. 

I insisted that he pose for pictures but he wasn't much of a fan. 

April: I returned to work. The night before my first day back I cried myself to sleep. Surprisingly though I survived my return incredibly well. It helps so much though when you work with amazing, fabulous, and SUPER supportive friends! Even more helpful was knowing that my little squirt was receiving amazing care! Our friend Kasey watched Levi during the hours that Dan and I overlapped. She was fabulous and we could not have asked for anyone better. I wholeheartedly believe that the success of my return to work was, in large part, thanks to her. You can accomplish amazing things when you know your loves are taken great care of. She's heard it a million times and I could say it a million more times and it STILL wouldn't sufficiently express how grateful I am to her for the help she gave us! 

April is also when our lives got flipped upside down (but in a great way!) After much thought and prayer our family's "5 year plan" shifted significantly. Daniel decided that perhaps Med School wasn't the best choice for our family after all and looked into becoming a teacher. While looking at various programs we found out that CSU Sacramento had extended their application deadline for Fall 2013. Once he started the application process everything fell into place almost too perfectly. It was so clear that this was what our family needed to do. Thus began our move to Sacramento! 

May: Dan and I worked hard to pack up our small apartment and find a new home in Sacramento. We did a lot of driving back and forth between house hunting and school misc. Our last day of work was May 23 and we moved the next day. It was definitely a hard, hard thing to say goodbye to so many that we had grown to love over the years. 

We moved into a great little townhouse close to Dan's school. I have been blessed with the opportunity to stay home with my boy and be a full time mommy! My heart couldn't be happier! 

June: Dan started at CSUS on June 3 and Levi and I started settling in at home. Dan's sister, Michelle, and her 3 boys, came to visit the family that same week. We got to visit them for the weekend in Dublin and celebrate birthdays while we were there. A week later we ventured out to South Lake Tahoe for a family camping trip. Unfortunately the weather caused the trip to be shortened and we returned home after one night. The temperature dropped so incredibly low at night that all 5 babies there woke up screaming at some point during the night. However, during our short visit we hiked down to explore Vikingsholm. It was a great little adventure! 

A couple of weeks later, Michelle's family came to Sacramento to stay with us for a few days. We all went swimming and to the zoo. We loved having them here! 

Levi also had his first trip to the spray park. He had a TOTAL blast!! 

July: We had a great Independence Day celebration with friends, Danielle & Victor! We love fireworks! Levi slept through a great show. 

July brought lots of milestones for our little bugger. July 13, after spending lots of time around his big cousins, Levi figured out the "caterpillar" crawl and the rest was history! A week later he cut his first tooth. Just a couple days after that he had the full on "CRAWL" down. I was so proud of the little guy! A lot of kiddos can take a while to develop their crawling skills before eventually figuring out the "hands and knees crawl" and he figured it out so quickly. His cousins definitely helped with that (he wanted to keep up with them) as did the kitty cat. The poor girl gets chased around the house nonstop now! Thankfully she loves the boy puts up with a lot of bologna from him. As dumb and frustrating and as she can be, we definitely hit the jackpot.) Soon after he mastered crawling, he cut his second tooth. 


August: We are finally up to date. It has taken me months to get this done...literally. haha. I knew I had a lot to catch up on and unfortunately I had some blogging malfunctions along the way, losing a lot of work. To give you an idea of how long this has been in the works, I started it while living in Santa Rosa and have finally finished...now that we are in Sacramento. If you lasted all the way to the end, I hope you enjoyed the review of our lives. My goal from here forward is to post at least weekly, even if its just a few pictures. 

Chowder Day 2012

In a much welcomed twist in life, I was blessed with the opportunity to have Saturdays off during February. This couldn't have come at a better time because it allowed me to do some really great things that I would have otherwise missed out on. What are these things you ask? Well for starters, Bodega Bay's Annual Chowder Day!

It all started rather innocently. I was sitting in the break room at work casually looking through the Press Democrat (Sonoma County's local newspaper) when all of the sudden the word CHOWDER jumped off the page. I read the short article talking about the upcoming annual event held in beautiful Bodega Bay, realized I had the day off and immediately sent a text to Dan letting him know that he was to not make any plans for February 11th. If you know Dan then you know that he absolutely L-O-V-E-S clam chowder. It seemed pretty obvious that to be able to taste and judge 15 different recipes of this fave dish would be right up his alley.

I tried to keep the details of what we were doing to myself so that he could put the pieces together himself but I was so stinking excited that I spilled all the dirty details two days before. May I just say that his reaction was better than I could have ever imagined and will forever be a favorite memory for me. I wish I had a recorded it! Needless to say he was absolutely stoked about this pending venture. Almost immediately he started looking up information about when, where, and who would be at Chowder Day. This posed a small problem only because we were in bed and now he was wide awake. Silly me.

February 11th came and he was wide awake and ready to go before schedule. In fact, he wanted to leave extra early so that he could ensure they wouldn't sell out of tickets. The whole trip there all I heard was "drive faster, drive faster!" I hardly parked before Dan jumped out of the car and got in line. Thankfully there were plenty of tickets still available. With our spoons and ballots in hand we embarked on Chowder Day 2012. We came. We saw. We conquered. Then we went home.

Dan and I at the beginning of the day...still naive and hungry. That's about to change soon! 

Each place gives you 2 oz to sample their creation. It doesn't seem like a lot but its actually 3-4 spoonfuls. And remember, there are 15 stops. That's a whole lotta chowder!

Our completed ballots. Daniel was very thorough and methodical. He took notes on his phone then referenced them after tasting to complete his ballot. 

My mom was in town that weekend so she got to taste with us! 

It was a great day and a very fun event. We have zero plans of having chowder any time soon but it was so worth it!