Gavin's Baby Shower

To celebrate Gavin's upcoming (and hopefully very soon!) arrival, my mom hosted a baby shower for me at her house.

It was such a fun morning! The decorations were super cute, lots of fantastic women came, we had yummy breakfast food,

and played a couple of fun games.

I was also incredibly spoiled by some great gifts that are going to be perfect for our little bundle of boy! And I had lots of help opening gifts from a few pairs of little hands...

Macy, Savannah, and Lauren had just as much fun playing together as we older girls had, and of course stole the show and often the camera's focus. They also proved how much fun you can have with nothing other than a big blue bow!

And here's some side profile belly shots. Yes, I am getting gigantically big (and I'm even bigger now!) and yes, I am all baby!

I think the only thing I might, and I stress might, miss about being pregnant is my nice little shelf. It's great for resting my arms or for snacks on the couch while watching TV!

Elmo LIVE!

Months ago, Travis had bought tickets to see Elmo LIVE! in Stockton, and by the time the day of the show came, we had almost forgotten about it. Though her new obsession right now is Disney Princesses and not so much Elmo anymore, she still wants to watch Sesame Street almost every day and was absolutely mesmerized by the show. Travis and I were actually pretty entertained too. It was a cute musical about Elmo's sunflower, "Sunny," and how, while trying to find him a good home in Big Bird's garden, Abby Cadaby accidentally said the wrong spell and made half of the characters as tiny as all the bugs and butterflies living there in the garden.

All of the main characters were part of the story and sang and danced their way through the hour-long show.

Savannah loved getting to eat cotton candy (and I loved getting to share it with her),

and she was really, really into the show. We could only take pictures of her, or even talk to her for that matter, during intermission because while they were actually on stage she wouldn't talk, look at us, or even let us clap or talk to her or each other. All the other kids were super loud and wiggly, but she sat silent and perfectly still in her seat focused on the stage the whole time.

Afterwards, we took a picture with "Sunny" and Travis bought her the soundtrack which we, or should I say I, still have to listen to in the car almost everyday.

It's worth it though to make this adorable girl so happy!

3-D Ultrasound

In early June, when I was 31 weeks along, we decided to get a 3-D ultrasound. We had done one with Savannah and had thought that it was the coolest thing, and we were even more amazed this time around. It is so crazy how much the technology has improved in less than 3 years! With Savannah, we definitely could see her HUGE cheeks (you know your kid has chubby cheeks when multiple doctors and nurses, who see tons of these pics all day long are making comments about how big they are!) but the pictures we got of her were nowhere near as clear and defined as these. It really makes the fact that there is actually a baby in there seem so much more real!

It also blows my mind how squished they really are - these are his feet right up next to his face! In the 4-D DVD you can watch him trying really hard to get his toes into his mouth!

A cute little ear that I just can't wait to kiss!

He was moving around like crazy and he finally got his little finger into his mouth and was sucking on it while stabbing himself in the eye with this other finger.

We kept trying to figure out whose nose he has - from some angles it looks like mine and from others it looks like Travis'. He doesn't have the cheeks Savannah had though, in fact he doesn't really look like she did as a newborn at all!

He was wide awake with his eyes open the whole time and kept making funny little faces.

Here he's opening and closing his mouth, desperately trying to suck on anything he could - his feet, his fingers, the umbilical cord... If this is any indication, we'll definitely be using lots of binkys just like his sister, who, by the way, is still hopelessly attached to hers, though she can only have it now when she's sleeping. I'm worried that we may catch her trying to sneak a suck or two on his during the day!

Right now I am desperately uncomfortable, and looking at these pictures makes me even more anxious to hold him in my arms instead of just feel him beating me up from the inside out! Come on out, Gavin! We all want to meet you!

Hello! I'm Back!

Yes, it's been over two months since I've blogged, but did you happen to notice the nice little ticker up there at the top under the header? I haven't taken a break from posting because I have a newborn (trust me, as of today we're still waiting on that...) but because I've been finishing his room and trying to get all of my other projects done before I have to care for a toddler and a newborn every day on only a couple hours of sleep. And now I'm trying to check this off my "To Do" list - catching up on all the pics I've been meaning to post so I'm all ready to start posting adorable baby shots. So the next few posts, unless I miraculously go into labor really soon, are going to be a fly-by, chronological look at our lives over the past couple months starting with...


"Camping" at Ice House Reservoir


For Memorial Day weekend, Travis made plans with his family to go camping and didn't really discuss it with me beforehand. While I grew up going camping all the time and the two of us have gone together several times, we've yet to camp with Savannah and more importantly, camping is not really fun when you're 8 months pregnant. (I know this first-hand -- we went to our church family camp for three days when I was almost 8 months preggo with Savannah.) So, we compromised. We still went up, but instead of sleeping in a tent, we rented a room at the Ice House Reservoir Motel. The expensive tiny room had a funny smell and literally only had a bed, desk, chair, end table, and bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling, but it also had a heater, a flush toilet and a shower. It seemed like a setting out of a horror movie, but it was better than sleeping (or not sleeping) on an air mattress when you already feel like a beached whale!

We spent Friday afternoon out by the lake and Travis parents, aunt, sister and her boyfriend arrived around dinner with their truck, fifth-wheel trailer, small boat, and jet ski. It was quite a set-up with almost all the luxuries of home!

Savannah had a blast - thankfully I brought her many changes of clothes ...

The weather was perfect - sunny and warm for the lake during the day and cooler for the campfire at night.

Here's our little beach babe...

Travis was excited to do some fishing,

and was even more excited that he actually caught something!

Amazingly, Savannah's favorite part of the trip was going out on the jet ski with daddy. I was a little freaked out by it, especially when they started picking up speed - I was convinced that she was terrified but was just frozen with fear (and the wind in her face!) and couldn't make a sound.

We could all tell though by the HUGE smile on her face as they pulled back into shore that she was having the greatest time!

All she could talk about afterwards was how they went fast and went bounce, bounce, bounce [over the waves]. And she still talks about it every time we see a jet ski being towed down the road.

We had a great time and will definitely go again (when Gavin gets older...I don't think I can handle and toddler and a baby in the dirt!)

I think Savannah only took one nap in three days; she was so dead tired that she actually fell asleep in her car seat (which hasn't happened for well over a year) about 5 minutes after leaving there at about 5:30 in the evening. And she went right back to sleep in her bed when we got home!

Pint-Sized Pilot

While I was away in Tahoe at our church Women’s Retreat a few weeks ago, Travis, Savannah, and another friend alone with his son for the weekend went to McClellan Air Force Base’s Open Cockpit event. Apparently they guys (and baby Evan!) had a good time and Savannah had fun getting to sit and “fly” all the planes and helicopters.

I think interest in the Air Force would increase if these pics were part of their ad campaign, don’t you! :)

Little Ballerina

Partially in an effort to embrace and encourage Savannah’s love of dancing (well, technically, her love of spinning to music for an incredibly long amount of time before finally getting dizzy and falling over), and partially to re-live my years of dance classes through her, I enrolled Savannah this month in a Parks and Recs Tiny Tots ballet class. Let me tell you how much she loves it! I don’t think many days have gone by when she hasn’t talked about ballet or tried to practice what she’s learned. A lot of the class is hand motions and movement to fun kid songs, but the teacher is also really good about including some basic ballet skills and terms. Savannah loves to practice jumping out and then together and pointing her toes, and is super proud that she can get her feet into “first position” all by herself.

Here are some highlights and then a slide show at the end. By the way, how cute is she in her little leotard and ballet shoes (thanks Carly and Macy for letting us borrow them!)

Flying with their “butterfly legs.”

“Tickling” the sky.

Using a hula-hoop to learn to chasse'.

The favorite jumping out and then together.

Trying to point her toes.

I think we’re going to keep her in the class at least until the baby comes, or as long as she is having so much fun, so I’m sure more pics and maybe some video will follow in the future!

I'm Bigger Now!

Well, it’s official. She’s been making the claim for a long time, but Savannah is now definitely a big girl, or, according to her, she’s “bigger.” Last Saturday she made the move from baby crib to big girl bed!

While she was with Grandma and Grandpa, Travis and one of his students spend half the day moving furniture and boxes out of our third bedroom-turned-everything-room and into a storage space we had rented. We also moved a bunch of boxes out of a storage we were sharing with a friend and along with them came the bed we had been saving just for her. By the end of the exhausting day, we had a 6x12 storage unit pretty well filled, a new big girl room for Savannah, and the beginnings of a nursery for Gavin.

I knew she was excited about getting a big girl bed, but I wasn’t sure how she’d take all the changes when she really saw them. I mean, just moving her toys to a different part of the living room was pretty darn traumatic! I really think I was more worried about this transition than I am about bringing home a new baby…

I could not have asked though for a better reaction; she walked in and was just amazed and then immediately started jumping on the bed. Great. She never said a word about the missing crib and glider or the rearranged furniture, she just kept walking back and forth and around in circles looking at everything, even things that had been in there since the day she was born. It’s honestly like a completely new room to her.



The one downside was that it was almost bedtime and she was pretty hyped up about the whole thing. She went down though that night in her big girl bed without any problems. It took her quite a while to settle down and fall asleep, but she didn’t get up out of bed one time or wake up at all during the night, and even slept until I had to wake her up for church at 7:30 the next morning.

(She may be covered by the sheet in this picture I took before she went to bed, but that didn’t last long. Within a half hour she was crying because she wanted me to spread out her purple blankie like usual and wanted to be covered with her pink blankie and not the sheet. That did the trick, and now every time she sleeps I get her bed ready like this:

Since then, she wakes up every day excited to be in her big girl bed, runs upstairs often just to “look at it,” and even spends more time playing in there by herself than she used to. It’s been over a week and a half since the transition and she still hasn’t gotten out of bed at night, a nap time, or even in the morning after she’s awake. Apparently my stern “once I turn the light off and close the door you’re not allowed to get out of bed” rule has really been taken to heart – every morning or naptime that I don’t have to wake her up she either calls or cries for me to get her or she just sits on her bed and plays with her stuffed animals until I come in. I’m waiting for the day when she figures out that she can get out of bed and play probably without me knowing, but so far she’s stuck to her rules and routine. Let’s hope it lasts!

And a little tour of the rest of her big girl room…