Latest Trick

Cali has a new little trick....she went peepee in the potty!!! She's been sitting on the potty for a while now, and loves it. Usually with her clothes on or just before bath/naptime. She came up to me two days ago, with a dry diaper, asked to go potty and actually went!! Marcus was there to witness, and we even got a couple pics, but I only have a second to share so I'll have to add pics tomorrow. She's only 21 months old!!!!! Austin wasn't potty trained until he was almost 3 years old and she's not even 2...she's crazy!!

Just thought I'd share. ;)

Happy Birthday Austin!!

I feel like I JUST posted about Austin's 4th Birthday (obviously a year ago) but time has just flown by and today my baby/big boy is 5 years old!!! He was up bright and early (before 7am) and ready to party. His first question was "when are my friends coming over to sing happy birthday to me?" When I told him that his friends weren't coming over till possibly Saturday, he said that he can't be 5 until his friends sang him the happy birthday song. Crazy kid!

He's such an awesome little guy that I just want to post a couple pics and tell you about how much fun we've had in the last 5 years together...

This was my big guy just moments after joining us. He had the longest limbs and body, I couldn't believe my eyes. He arrived at 8:15pm on January 19th, 2004 at 8lbs 15oz and 22" long!

He's always been a happy little man. This is right around his first birthday, eating as usual.

Marcus graduated college about a month before Austin turned 2. It was such an awesome time...right before Christmas which relieved a lot of stress for the holidays, or something like that. ;) (They look nothing alike, do they!)

A lot happens around this kid's birthday. Christmas is less than a month before which tends to be when a lot of family events. The year of his 3rd birthday we went with my whole family to Disneyland. We had a blast and Austin got his face painted like a tiger!!

This was about the only picture I could find that was taken on the actual day of his birth. We have taken pictures on his birthdays previous, but I just don't know what the heck I've done with them...ugh. This was last year (hence the #4 on the cupcake) and we were able to spend it with Marcus' family. It was a really fun day because Austin got to play with his cousins ALL day!

Y'all Ready for This?

...I just hope we are. We're expecting baby #3 this summer!! Hooray!! I'm just around 9 weeks right now and feeling fine. I have my big doctor's appointment next friday with all the blood work and ultrasound and good stuff like that. But that's not all, there's a fun little story about how I shared the news....and broke the news to Marcus.

I had missed the arrival of my special day in November, but that's nothing new in the "cycle" of my life. I decided to give it a couple days before even getting curious about it's late arrival, but kept it on the dl just in case it showed up unexpectedly as I got my hopes up for pregnancy. After about 4 days I just couldn't stand it any more and got me a little stick to pee on. After Marcus went to work that next morning I decided to give it a shot. Sure enough, Pregnant!!! At that moment I decided that it was close enough to Christmas that I was going to keep it from Marcus and make it a big surprise. We had talked about the possibility of surprising my family with the news on Christmas (but of course he would have had to know before hand) so I ran with that idea and decided to make it for him as well. I probably couldn't have pulled it off if it weren't for a brilliant idea I'd heard from my friend Melanie who was doing something similar to her husband for Christmas...she even faked a period!! That's it...I had to fake a period. No small feat, mind you, but I actually pulled it off.

That afternoon, being only 4 days late, I told Marcus that "aunt flow" made her arrival fashionably late. He comforted me and I acted as sad as possible at the thought of not being pregnant...teehee. It was a light "flow" and only lasted about 4 days (I wasn't about to have a regular flow and a full week cycle if I didn't have to). I just emptied an applicator and flushed the evidence, no biggie. But the hard part was actually not telling anyone!! My girlfriends had known that we were trying and hoping for another baby, but if I told them, and swore them to secrecy, it would leak somehow...husbands aren't as good at keeping secrets if wives share the news. So I called the only person that I knew could keep my secret and that Marcus wouldn't have any way of getting to...Stephanie, my friend in Oregon. She even helped concoct the surprise for Christmas. She didn't tell a soul....not even her husband or any of her 6 kids! That's a true friend. ;)

So, Christmas finally came, but I still hadn't decided on how to surprise him. Luckily, we did Christmas in the afternoon. I got a Christmas bag, some tissue paper, a "Congratulations on your new baby" card I snagged from the store and kept hidden (even while shopping with my sisters!), and a diaper just for effect. We do a gift exchange in our family (with 7 siblings you have to) so after the grandkids all opened their gifts, and us siblings did our exchange, I handed Marcus his special bag and commanded the room to watch. Yes, I have that kind of power. :) He was baffled, of course, but unwrapped the odd gift. As he made it to the little card I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head. My younger brother had a "front row" seat because he was reading over his shoulder and I just kept hearing, "no way! that's awesome...no way!" Marcus didn't believe me at first, but settled into the idea with a few tears and many hugs.

My family was really surprised and my dad was even a little choked up. It was really great to be able to surprise Marcus with such a special gift and to have my whole family be there and be part of that special time. I just wished I would have asked one of my sisters to capture the moment without spoiling the surprise. At least my older brother had a camera out and caught a little of it on video.

P.S. The reason for not sharing until now...we had to wait and make sure we told our WHOLE family before I went and posted it on my blog.

Christmas Recap

Yeah, yeah, yeah....I know it's been almost a month since I've posted anything, but let me explain. We left for California on December 23rd and flew home on friday, January 2nd. We got in super late that night, but Saturday morning I had to get up and out the door by 6:30am to drive three hours to Austin, TX for a volleyball tournament. I was gone until late Sunday evening. My last week has been mostly catch-up from being gone, still having practices for my team, and dealing with sick kids (mostly worn out from traveling). So there, my list of excuses. ;)

Here I am, ready to tell you all about it!! Our Christmas was really nice. My little family celebrated Christmas at home the day before we flew to California. Santa came a few days early because Austin wrote him a letter and let him know that we wouldn't be here on Christmas day and that he needed to bring the presents early...what a smarty pants!

Cali amidst the mess of Christmas.

Marcus was focused on his own gifts...my third child. ;)
Austin treasuring his "Omnitrix"...that's all he really asked for so Santa did GREAT!

Cali loves Dora. Can you tell? Then we were off to California. Not only was it special to be there for Christmas time, but for those of you that don't know, my Dad was in a bicycle accident and I was really feeling helpless from so far away. I was thankful to be able to be there, the same day he came home from the hospital, and be such a big help. My step-mom had her hands full just helping him do basic things, so I did some cooking and a lot of cleaning. All my siblings were in town, so there was a lot of help around. He's doing well, for having a halo bolted into his head and after having back surgery. He'd ended up breaking his neck and his back in 3 places. Poor guy. He's doing so well now that he's pretty much independent...all but driving.

It was great to get to hang out with all my siblings and to have all their kids around for mine to play with. We got to talk to my brother in Africa on Christmas morning which was really awesome! He sounds so great and he's approaching his 6 month mark of his mission. Being in Africa has done wonders for his figure...he's lost about 30 lbs so far and has to get all new clothes sent to him. Just think how much more he'll lose in the next 18 months! I need that diet. ;)

I was definitely ready to come home though. But having to go straight to a tournament three hours away wasn't my idea of a homecoming. I wanted to sleep in Saturday morning and spend the day unpacking and resting. I did get to unpack, just to have to pack back up and leave at the buttcrack of dawn!!! ugh...

But now we're finally getting things back on track. I need a vacation from my vacation! Apparently the kids do too...they're both sick, mostly just worn down I'm sure. This too shall pass and things will be back to normal in no time. I'm glad to be back home and to able to catch up on so many of my friends' blogs. I missed you all and it's good to be back!